Simon, do you agree? Is it kind of keeping the hype off of him and letting him develop naturally as well?

Yeah, I mean, I think the problem with Marley in the benefit and the way he's got is there is so much attention on Max that he kind of goes under the radar.

But I think what he's doing is...

I wouldn't say it's more impressive, but it's equally so.

I mean, playing centre-back in a team of Arsenal's size at 17 years old is absolutely crazy, really.

Given, you know, if you're playing up the top end of the pitch, like Max is, you know, playing out wide as number 10, you can make mistakes, you know, the punishment probably won't be severe, whereas if Marley makes a mistake, you know, it could be a goal, go through.

And I think the stat was, I think he made 65 of his 65 passes, like literally didn't give the ball away.

Is this the perfect opponent to kind of cement a statement in this Premier League season so far?

Simon, I think it's quite clear now that he has that number one shot over Jokeres, surely?

Yeah, I think that's been made abundantly clear.

It'll be interesting what happens in Naples on Wednesday night.

I was trying to think with that early sub Havertz coming off, was that Arteta wanting to give Jokeres some minutes before? Or was that Arteta thinking, I want to start Havertz again in what is Arsenal's first Champions League game? But I just think with Havertz...

what he brings to the overall team and a lot of people will point to his goal record and even when you think back to the game at Villa on Monday I know he was offside for that chance where he was through and he sort of spurned it but the overall contribution he makes to that attack and Ed talked about that quadruple as we're now calling it, of sort of white Saka Odegaard.

I think Havertz's freedom that he brings him and his movement, even for his goal, he's popping up on the right-hand channel, he's cutting in, just makes the attack so much better.

And him and Odegaard have that great understanding.

Not exactly easing him into it, but how do you think that he did?

What, what did you make of his time there?

Yes, I spoke to Liam Kelly, who was, was the captain for, for Gyökeres' time there.

He's now there as the under-21s coach.

And s- some sort of familiar things from when you speak to people about Gyökeres came up from him.

And the one of those was that him being sort of surprised at how far Viktor has got.

I think for, for Coventry, you know, he described him as an absolute monster and, and a, and a brilliant player for them.

But did he foresee Viktor going on and being the leading striker for Arsenal and helping them win the title? Probably not.

Why, why do you think that, that this is, this is happening? Why do you think he doesn't want this?

What's your understanding of how these negotiations have gone on and, and I guess where they are now?

Yes.

I mean, my, my colleague Jack and I did, um...

We did a report last week sometime.

I think it was around kind of the talks, and it was our understanding then that they were more club-to-club face, which, you know, people then were discounting those reports.

And it has been a difficult story to report on, because it feels like there's been d- [laughs] different people reporting different things, which is the way when you speak to different people involved in the deals.

But I think the way it's gone about seems to be that Arsenal and intermediaries, which happens a lot with transfers, you know.

Mm

Oh.

I, I know, I think- People will have sort of reservations around how Maresca's gonna fit in there, but I s- I still look at the players they have, and possibly could do more business.

We don't know.

I mean, they've obviously got Andersen coming in, but, you know, you've still got Erling Haaland, you've still got a very good squad and I think, you know, it's not loads change there.

Maresca, people point to his faults, but he did do relatively well at Chelsea before things exploded and, and combusted there.

Um, so I, I feel like they will be Arsenal's main rivals.

Partly because I look at Liverpool and I'm just not sure about Ariola, how his team and his tactics will transition to a side playing twice a week.

Your thoughts on Ethan Nwaneri, because the noise just won't go away, and I know that his younger brother apparently was on the w- verge of sort of leaving, now has sort of, uh, secured his long-term future with the club, but is he a player you like? Uh, what are you hearing? Um, and do you think he might end up sort of leaving this window?