What a difference a week makes

Handbrake Off: The Athletic FC's Arsenal show

The Athletic

Arsenal Fc, Sports, Football, Soccer, Arsenal News, Arsenal

4.6 • 731 Ratings

🗓️ 2 February 2026

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Amy Lawrence and Art de Roché join Ian Stone to discuss Arsenal’s emphatic 4-0 win away to Leeds on Saturday.

The panel reflect on a great weekend for the Gunners, the team’s response to a difficult week, Arteta’s decision to start Havertz over Odegaard, Zubimendi’s ability in the air and Madueke’s encouraging display as the forward line found their shooting boots after the recent scrutiny.

Plus, we hear from Adrian Clarke on Arsenal’s 3-2 victory over Corinthians to win the inaugural Champions Cup and look ahead to the men’s next match hosting Chelsea in the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg on Tuesday night.

Producer: Robby Williams

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Athletic FC.
0:07.1	The only way to score is, of course, to play with a handbreak-off.
0:14.6	Hello, I'm Ian Stone, and this is Handbreak-off, the Arsenal podcast, brought to you by The Athletic.
0:19.8	We're going to be chatting about Arsenal's 4-0 win away to Leeds United on Saturday. And also possibly, because I should say
0:28.1	it's 637 on Sunday evening, we've just watched them lot up the road get, I was going to say
0:34.2	improbable, but that doesn't really cover their possibility. They've got a two-two draw against Main City, and we're currently six points clear at them and seven clear of Villa. I'm joined by Amy Lawrence and Art de Roche. Good evening. Good evening. And a very fine evening to you all. And a very fine evening. Football, of course, is ridiculous, but I don't think anyone at half time city would tune it up could have been about six
0:57.6	it was stroned about Gary and everyone actually said on the commentary at one point
1:01.1	he said it's like it's like watching soccer raid
1:03.0	which was pretty funny actually and I understood what he's saying
1:08.2	but anyway the mood is amongst Gooners will be slightly improved from this time last Sunday, I imagine.
1:14.4	Partly, of course, because our set-piece prowess.
1:17.3	Not just set-piece, of course, but we have scored more goals than any team that's ever played the game, I believe, in one calendar year.
1:26.3	I'm not, you know, I'm saying that, but I think that might be true. But there have been yet more rumblings about a change to the rules about corners to stop Arsenal scoring so many set pieces. I mean, any good ideas for what teams should do? When I say good, I mean, not helpful at all is what I mean. What do you think? I'm not sure of this good, but maybe you could give them the playbook to revise, like an exam beforehand.
1:47.7	And then tell them, okay, asked them going to do this corner.
1:51.5	Can you defend it and see if they can?
1:53.8	See if that's the way to go.
1:55.3	Because to be fair, they actually tried to change a rule.
1:57.6	No, they did change rule when Ben White used to mess around with the goalkeepers.
2:01.9	That change hasn't seemed to help teams. So, yeah, I don't think there's a lot they can do to
2:07.5	really make an impact. The interesting thing is the rules are basically trying to change the rules
2:13.0	to talk about specific players. The next thing is going to be the Gabrielle-Magales rule to stop him doing something.
2:20.3	Amy, you have some thoughts because everyone, by the way, I mean, I saw Shea Given on
	...

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