Hello and welcome to another R-Splug R-Scast right here on R-Splug.com. How are you?

I've just come upstairs. I'm sitting here in my office. I've just watched Arsenal versus Cologne. Cologne versus Arsenal, I should say.

In the Europa League. I'm sitting here now.

I've got a glass of wine and usually when you play a European game that plays a big part in your podcast because the matches are what everything is about.

That's why we're here. The football. We talk about it. We preview it. We review it. We relive it.

And I'm sitting here going, I don't want to. I want to talk about that game. Not because I'm particularly annoyed or anything. It was just shite. It was bad. Bad, bad, bad. We played poorly. I mean, they're a terrible team. Let's be honest about it. Let's not beat around the bush here. Let's not say that, you know, we were beaten on the night by a better team who had some dynamic attacking players with lots of verven spunk. But that's not the case.

That's not what we did. We lost to a team who are who are terrible who didn't play particularly well. I mean, this is their record from the start of the season. Okay, they won their first game. Then they lost. They lost. They lost. They lost. They lost. They lost. They lost. They lost again. Then they drew a game. Then they had four defeats in a row. They drew another game. Then they won. Hallelujah. They lost again. Then they won. They beat Batte Barra.

They lost for a cell five, two in the Europa League a few weeks back. Then they lost their next two games. And, you know, really there rubbish. But we outrubbished them on the night. It was not a good performance. Not a good display. There were some like individuals who didn't do too badly.

I mean, defensively, we didn't have an awful lot to do without murder. Sacker was quite good. What else? Ainsley, Matlin, Niles had some good moments down the left.

You know, needs to work on his final ball. But that was kind of it. You know, Jack Wilshire, Olivier Giroux, Muhammad El Nanny, Francis Coccalon. These guys who, as our

some vanger said before the game are determined to show what they're about so they can force themselves into his thinking for the first team. For the

premier league, none of them did that. None of them did that. None of them even came close to doing that. All the talk, for example, of Jack Wilshire being brought back into the team is like, oh, well, he hasn't really done anything to suggest that he would make things any better. And I get the counter argument of that, which could be the if you put Jack in a team with better players around him, he might find it easier. But, you know, we're not playing particularly good teams here.

Wilshire and Giroux, you know, these are experienced international players who you would expect to maybe give a bit more and maybe produce a bit more to make up for some of the slack. So, you know, it was really not a good, not a good performance. But we'll have to talk a little bit about the game with someone who was there. We might keep it fairly brief though, because really nobody's got much time to, to relive that a little bit later on. I will be chatting to Daniel Story from football 365 about

teacup stuff, the media, the journalist writers, reactions, fans, tribalism, the modern media landscape, it's an interesting chastle. We've got that to look forward to a bit later on.

As well as I'll give you the winners of the Yens Laman competition last week. I gave you a chance to win one of five copies of Yens Laman's autobiography. The madness is on the pitch. There was no madness on the pitch tonight. I can tell you apart from no, there was no madness. No, no madness whatsoever.

No madness whatsoever. That would have been quite good if there'd been some madness. I mean, I did enjoy Francis Coccaline kicking the ball out of play directly just dribbling the ball out. That was, that was good. I also enjoyed him nearly scoring. Wow. What was going on there? He had one shot which went just wide and then he hit the post and you think, what the fuck is happening in the world?

Are all the planets aligned? Is this the night that Francis Coccaline finally gets his first goal for Arsenal?

No, no, it's not. It's not that night. We know it's not that night. But look to talk a little bit more about the game. Sorry, sorry. But this is why we're here. I'm joined from Cologne by a man who was there witnessing that incredible spectacle. Archie Rintot. Archie is the heartbeat.

Paul Dania. To be fair, the atmosphere at the end was memorable. I wouldn't say that the game was particularly in any reach of it. I was looking around the press box. I just saw a lot of eyes rolling throughout the game because I don't think they could believe quite how bad Cologne were.

They've seen that they're obviously bottom of the Bundesliga, but I don't think that that's a game that will live long in the memory of Cologne fans to be honest as a game. But I think the results certainly well.

Yeah, I mean, it gives them a chance, doesn't it in the final round to qualify the other game finished in the draw. So in all in all, a really good night for Cologne. Like you said, I don't think they're going to they're going to relive that 90 minutes off.

But certainly the result will be a positive thing for them.

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