Was this Lamine Yamal's best-ever Barcelona performance? | Weekend Review

Ryan Bailey (0:20)

Welcome to the Total Soccer Show Weekend Review!

Arsenal won again, and they look anything but shaky after grinding out a win with a goal from Madawaki. And Brighton knew that a big win against Palace was on the cards when they scored their second goal after seven minutes from 50 yards. And Ipswich's trip to Man City looked good, but ended up ill-fated. But what of those two teams? Who'll be the first to be relegated? Meanwhile, in Spain, another big Barcelona win unfurled, they remain the most fun team to watch in the world. My name's Ryan Bailey, joining me today... Oh, it's not Taylor Rockwell, it's Joe Lowry.

Joseph Lowery (0:57)

Hello, Joe, how are you? Hey, I'm great. I am thrilled to be here for a Monday Rhyming Introduction. It is one of the best ways I think any person on the planet could start their week. Ryan, what a thrill, what an absolute treat for me to be here.

Ryan Bailey (1:09)

Oh, wow. That's the appropriate level of excitement for a Weekend Review, I'd say, Joe.

Joseph Lowery (1:14)

Yes, it is. No more, no less.

Ryan Bailey (1:16)

Very good to have you here. Graham Ruthern also in the crew. Hello, Graham, how are you?

SPEAKER_3 (1:20)

I'm good, Ryan Bailey. I think you might have birthed a new nickname in your introduction today. Shakey Madawakey. I think that one is going to stick.

What was the one you birthed a couple of weeks ago that the Discord like? What was it? Ups and Meccano? That was good. Was that you that came up with that? Because I think belatedly, I'm going to applaud Ups and Meccano, that's good. But Shakey Madawakey is also good.

Joseph Lowery (1:40)

Graham, could you say birthed one more time, just to really get us revved up? Perfect.

Ryan Bailey (1:44)

Birthed.

Joseph Lowery (1:45)

I think we're there.

Ryan Bailey (1:46)

Oh, wow. Okay, we've done it. Very good. Couple of minutes in. The trouble with Shakey Madawakey is he's not shaky. He's quite assured, is he not?

SPEAKER_3 (1:55)

See, I think of it as like the shaky leg when you're dribbling, like that kind of shaky.

Ryan Bailey (2:00)

Shaky but positive.

SPEAKER_3 (2:01)

Yeah, like deception, deceptively shaky.

Ryan Bailey (2:04)

Okay. I'm seeing it as like a 1980s disco move, do the shaky Madawakey, that kind of thing.

Yeah. That works. That works too. Very good.

No Taylor Rockwell for this episode. He's got some poorly youngsters he's tending for today. We are going to attempt to fill the void, the three of us, for this Weekend Review. Plenty of games to come up and talk about. Before we get there, patreon.com/totalsoccershow is the very best way to support this here in Denver. You get bonus episodes, including Weekend Review Extra. There's a lot of Premier League to talk about. We're going to do a lot of it on that feed and all the other goodness that we get to on our bonus feed as well. Plus, hey, we've got a Discord. You get access to it. We just mentioned it. Sometimes amazing nicknames are dropped in there. Sometimes they're not. Go in there and find out. patreon.com/totalsoccershow. Thank you to everybody who supports us there. All right. So, Graham, typically we kick off these Weekend Reviews with a Premier League game. Let's switch it up. Let's go Spanish, shall we, for our first game here. Can anybody stop Barcelona is our thesis question for block A here. They got the 5-2 win at Real Betis. Just the nine wins from nine for Barcelona. Just the 39 goals in the league for Barcelona at the moment. We had some pretty quality moments this one too. Lamine Yamal, light infuser this game with a pretty good opener. Then, Rodri, Gabuizou, Zerrick Garcia, and Dani Olmo getting involved with a nice finish as well. Valentin Gomez and Ezeabdi replying for Betis.

Actually, I'll let you go first, Graham, because there's something I wanted to talk about in this game, but I'll get there later. But it's about a Pushkas-nominated goal that didn't happen. Please go on.

SPEAKER_3 (3:45)

I think I know which one you're talking about.

Ryan Bailey (3:47)

Yeah, you do.

SPEAKER_3 (3:48)

The goal that was spiritually allowed and not disallowed. I'm going to consider that it actually counted in this game. Finish 5-3 to Barcelona. Yeah, the numbers that Barcelona are putting up at the moment are just ridiculous. What they're doing in general right now is just ridiculous. As you say, Ryan, 11 wins to start the season in all competitions, which is something they have never done before. Think about how good Barcelona have been over the course of their history. They have never done what they are currently doing right now. 39 goals in nine league games, and nine in two Champions League games. We already knew that this Barcelona team was on their day, the most fun team to watch in world football. But somehow, they have taken that to even higher levels this season, and it has just been absolutely incredible to watch. It's just completely unprecedented. I don't know if I can ever recall a team at this level of the game that has just been an absolute guarantee of goals in the way that Barcelona are right now. It feels like them scoring four goals is a single goal for an ordinary team. It's just a given that they're going to score four or five goals in a game. Maybe the MSN Barcelona from a decade ago was up there in terms of just fun factor. I always think of that team as actually my favorite Barcelona team. Maybe that's sacrilege over Pep's team. But it's just absolutely insane what Barcelona are doing at the moment. I knew this game would pop not just because every Barcelona game pops at the moment, but also because Betis have been in really good form as well. At the moment, they're like a mini Barcelona. You look at their record and not only how many goals they're scoring, but how many they're conceding, not just to Barcelona, everyone concedes goals to Barcelona. But yeah, before this game, they were behind Barca by just two points over the previous six games in the Liga. They've won two out of two in the Champions League as well. So this is a good Betis team at the moment. Up until the red card, they really pushed Barcelona as close as pretty much any team has done this season, which is maybe to say they didn't push them that closely as the scoreline shows in the end.