The Athletic FC.

The only way to score is, of course, to play with a handbreak-off.

Hello, I'm Ian Stone. This is Hand-Break-Off, the Arsenal podcast brought to you by The Athletic.

We're going to be talking about Arsenal's 1-0 win away at Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League Court Final last night. And look at head to Bournemouth at the weekend to do that. I'm joined by Art de Roche. And for the first time on this show, Namdi, Oniagwarak. Morning. Morning. Morning. Morning. Welcome to the show, Namdi. Thanks for joining us. Pleased to be here. Pleased to be here. Good. You're actually in adjoining rooms with art, I believe. You're talking to me on separate screens, but you're just separated by wall. You're spoiling the fantasies, falling the illusion here. I don't think anyone's got any fantasies about hammering off. Speak for yourself.

Well, now, now my head is wasting it all sorts of ways.

Did we see the team building pen thing going on?

Did we watch that?

Oh, class, what was that?

What the hell was going on?

Well, this is the thing.

It's just, I think, in that first 15 minutes before the actual training

session starts, they need to do something to get, I wouldn't even say get warm, just get the

fun going, I guess. So beforehand, they've had like little drills with like tennis balls.

They've had music on as well during that bit because that's the bit that can be filmed by media. So I feel like a lot of people were trying to overanalyze what was going on there. It was probably just, yeah, as you say, team building and maybe a bit of hand-eye coordination with the pens as well, who knows? Hand-eye coordination for football. Yeah, okay. You need to be coordinated. No,

that is true. Nandy, as I met you, I can never find a pin when I need one, to be honest with you. It's absolute nightmare. Do you have any further thoughts as to what that was about? Have you ever done anything like that? Any little team building? Do you do that any athletic? Yeah, you get, I mean, wherever you go really you get like the the weird awkward icebreaker questions everyone

stand up in a circle and say something about yourself and you never really know what to say. So, to honest, I'd rather take that than holding pens and balancing balls doing us. Should we do one for Namdi now, seeing as this. Oh, goodness, me. Oh, that's a good idea. Yeah, Namdi, tell us the most embarrassing moment in your life. Don't, don't, don't, don't. It's okay. Yeah, anyway, it's sitting there work, didn't it? It's seen it work. Sport, we need more pens. Maybe try pencils next time. Just mix it up a little bit. You know, sport in Lisbon, Nill, Arsenal 1. Oh, they've got a great home record. They've won 17 the roader. Unbeaten for good knows how long. And we went and did a job on them. I mean, we needed our goalkeeper. But what an outstanding performance? I'm not sure I'd say it's standing. Well, no, right. Sorry, outstanding result. Shall we? Yes, you're right. Definitely. Okay, Shall I take that back? No, you don't have to. We did a job. We did a job. But what an outstanding result. You're right. I think when you're looking at not just how other teams have performed a way of sporting, but Arsenal in the Europa League, they should have won a few years ago, but came away

with a draw. So going into the second leg with an advantage is a massive deal. So yeah,

outstanding end to the game, but I mean, I was texting Namdi during and it was a painful

watch at times. Were you in pain, guys? Namdi, were you in pain? Because I must admit, I sat there and I thought, look, David Ray is playing great. It's obviously great to have our first choice goalkeeper back. And he played really, really well. And I didn't, I mean, I was thinking back to watching Brighton in the league about a month ago, which was one of the most painful 90 minutes I've ever had in my entire life. This didn't feel quite like that, did it? Yeah, it was a bit split for me because, yeah, thinking of it with my journalistic hat on and thinking, knowing that I was making my debut on the show today and thinking, well, I hope I have something to talk about. Yeah. But in regards to, yeah, the first leg of a tough championship league quarterfinal time, I could understand the performance. It was controlled and, yeah, I guess you could say a bit passive at times. A lot of been said about our style of football this year, but I just think, yeah, you go to a stadium like that against a team in the form that they were in off the back of the two results that we've had,

I understood the performance and I could just about bear it.

Well, it's great that you can just about bear a one-nill away winning the quarter-final of the Champions League.

How very giving of you.

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