Schrodinger’s Ball

#42: Chelsea The Last Mile: Villa win; Joao Pedro magnificent; PSG Preview (feat. @CFCJohnnyB)

We welcome Johnny back on the pod to discuss the major talking points related to Chelsea:
Joao Pedro's amazing form
Villa win
Red cards
Burnley and Leeds draw
Palmer injury woes or something else
Maresca's sacking
Liam Rosenior's huge momentum shift
FA Cup; PSG UCL Preview
Host: Chinmay
Guest: Johnny 
 

#41: GW 28: Arsenal controversial win; Liverpool thrash West Ham

We discuss the GW 28 fixtures;
Chelsea lose to Arsenal's Set-piece routines. Some other topics of discussion include Reece James being such a contrast to his teammates in handling big-game pressure. The shambolic red-card record, Palmer's lack of form and why Chelsea could lose out on Champions League spots in 2026-27.
We also discuss Liverpool thrashing West Ham with amazing second ball retrieval in set-plays; a factor that made the side the domineering force in 2024-25 season. We praise Ekitike and Szoboszalai for being the players leading the charge. We also discuss the fact that West Ham is generating chances, but their record on defending is poor to survive relegation when compared to Nottingham Forest and Leeds. 
We discuss Manchester United's win against Palace leading to the team now being 3rd in the table. We praise the immense mentality shown by the team to not give up and get a win against tough sides like Crystal Palace and Everton.
Hosts: Chinmay, Sanket and Raj

# 40: GW 27 Review; Chelsea drop points again; Liverpool and United get squeeky bum wins

We record this episode to discuss a good-old Premier League week.
Though the week was highlighted by Arsenal stomping over Spurs again in the NLD, we had changes in the race for Champions League, with Liverpool equaling Chelsea's point total with a win against Forest at City Ground with a winner scored by Mcallister in extra time.
Chelsea meanwhile dropped a point to Burnley after they had the numerical advantage following a rash red card for Wes Fofana. Overall we discuss why the performance looked so dull by Chelsea against the 19th team at Stamford Bridge. We also preview the Arsenal game on the weekend.
Manchester United make it 10 games in a row where Sesko scores another goal off the bench. Other notable performers include Casimiro, Yoro and Lammens. 
Hosts: Chinmay, Raj and Sanket

# 39: GW 26 Review; FA Cup weekend; Liverpool thrash Brighton; Neto 3trick;

We meet on the evening when Chelsea and Liverpool are both through to the 5th round of the FA Cup.
We also discuss the PL results from midweek where Chelsea and Manchester United broke their winning streaks against Leeds and West Ham United. We admonish Chelsea's poor defence when they let a 2-0 lead at 70' wither away and praise Sesko for the point earned by an improvised finish. We also discuss Liverpool beating Sunderland at the Stadium of Light emphatically, as a result of very good finish by Virgil Van Djik.
We also discuss Chelsea comfortably beating Hull City and Liverpool beating Brighton in FA Cup, with Pedro Neto getting his 1st senior hattrick and Szoboszalai stepping up big time as his suspension got cut down to 1 game following his red card against Manchester City
Some other topics discussed include Arsenal dropping points to Brentford; Spurs sacking Frank; Forest sacking Sean Dyche.
Guests: Raj and Chinmay

#38: GW 25 Review: Manchester City beat Liverpool at Anfield; Palmer Hattrick

We record a weekly episode discussing the Liverpool and Chelsea games at Anfield and Molineux where Liverpool lost the game with a few controversial ref calls despite a peach of a knuckleball penalty yet again at Anfield by Szoboszalai. We discuss why the red card is so detrimental to Liverpool's Top 4 and FA Cup ambitions.
For the Chelsea game, we finally saw the yearly Palmer 1st half hattrick as he becomes the first player in Premier League to have 3 of them. We also discuss the poor 2nd half and Chinmay shares his worries about Delap and Garnacho and why Santos and Caicedo are so important in games Chelsea seems bad
Guests: Chinmay, Sanket and Raj

# 37: United Special #2: Carrick goes 4 games unbeaten (@feat. akshat18arora)

This was a long due episode after the insane turnaround in Manchester United's form! We invite Akshat Arora, a known guest for our United listeners. Akshat is Mancunian who lives and breathes everything Manchester United having met Amorim, Wilcox and other key figures in United's staff. We discuss a tranche of topics from how well has Amorim's sacking transpired, Bruno showing his 2019-20 levels, Casemiro turning haters to fans, Mbuemo and Cunha showing why they were bought and Kobbie rightly earning his place in the starting 11. Akshat and Sanket share their views on why Carrick can't be a long term appointment especially if the options post 2026 summer include Tuchel, Nagelsmann and Enrique. Finally we also discuss some trivia questions to get some zinger takes from Akshat.
Guests: Akshat Arora (ig: akshat18arora)
Hosts: Raj and Sanket
 

#36: PL GW 24 Review; Chelsea fail to turn the EFL Semis around; United vs Spurs preview

We discuss the crazy scenes at Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge as Chelsea and Manchester United both manage to turn the game in the last minutes. We discuss how brilliantly Bruno created the chance at the end.
We also discuss how Rosenior seems to always get his subs right as Chelsea completed a full comeback from being 0-2 down at HT. We discuss how Fofana, Cucurella and JP all got their goal contribution from the bench.
Finally we discuss how Liverpool get a rarely emphatic win at Anfield as they thrashed Newcastle with a Ekitike brace and an amazing performance by the likes of Macallister, Szoboszalai and Wirtz. They also capped it up with a Ibu Konate goal which was celebrated emotionally. 
We also remunarate on why Chelsea and Arsenal have a big gap between the teams in terms of squad quality and game model. 
Guests: Chinmay, Raj and Sanket

#35: GW 23: Chelsea win and Liverpool lose in PL; Arsenal lose at Emirates; Final day of the Champions League

We discuss this episode at the precipice of the end of a hard-fought UCL group stage from a Liverpool and Chelsea perspective.
We had a crazy PL GW 23 weekend seeing Liverpool losing to B'mouth and Chelsea thrashing a depleted Crystal Palace squad. The highlight was of course Carrick's 3rd game in charge seeing United beat Arsenal at the Emirates. We also discuss the Champions League campaigns for Liverpool and Chelsea where we had Liverpool showing a completely different version in Europe when compared to their domestic form. Chelsea too have managed to clinch some key victories in their campaign beating Barcelona and Napoli on their way. 
There were a lot of stats and records being broken this weekend. Chelsea being the youngest team to qualify for UCL QF in last 10 years. VVD being the first defender to assist 3 goals, Napoli losing their first game in 20 at home in Europe and of course the highlight which saw the Special one's Benfica clinch the last playoffs spot with a goal by Trubin.
Hosts: Raj and Chinmay

#34: GW 22-23: Manchester turns red; Chelsea get a lucky win; Liverpool draws against Burnley

We are getting back to regular weekly episodes;GW 22 kicked off to a surprising thrashing of Man City on their visit to Old Trafford. We discuss the ruthless counter-attacks; dropping Matheus Cunha and the controversial referring calls to disallow Mount's goal and not handing a red card to Dalot. Liverpool unfortunately did concede a single goal after a consistent barrage of attacks against Burnley which only resulted in a goal by Wirtz and an unfortunate penalty miss by Szoboszalai. The draw raises concerns over Liverpool's playing style, OOP intensity and defense. 
Chelsea won a bogeyman fixture which has resulted in the underdog Brentford often thrashing them at home. Brentford came with the same energy and created 3-4 clear chances but unfortunately the Chelsea net remained untouched due to the heroics of Sanchez and important OOP contributions by Caicedo, Palmer, Enzo and JP. We also discuss the Garnacho brace and Rosenior trying to coach Robert Sanchez into playing a sweeper keeper and if it will lead to some horror moments like the chances conceded against Arsenal.
We provide some thoughts on FPL; Bruno is becoming too much of a pick-me at this point and maybe Harry Wilson has had his Christmas spurt of goal contributions finally coming to an end. We also discuss if JP is a good inclusion in an FPL squad. And why Dorgu is a great asset. 
 
Hosts: Raj, Sanket and Chinmay

#33: Midseason Review 2: (feat. Defective FC, Ritin Gandhi)

In the second part of the Midseason Review, we discuss the state of affairs at Manchester United.
We discuss the Amorim sacking (whether justified or not?), lack of midfielder option, lack of creative WBs, Bruno being played in the 6/8 role. We also discuss if Manchester United should hire a coach or a manager.We discuss transfer opportunities:Baleba vs Anderson vs WhartonSesko vs Watkins vs GyokeresGallagher and Neves short term options
Guests: Ritin and Yash
Hosts: Chinmay and Sanket