oh-lease

In this episode of Football for Dummies by Dummies, Jason and Geoff ride the high of Chelsea’s emphatic win over Barcelona and try to make sense of what it means. They break down Marisca’s game plan—no traditional striker, pacey wide players, exploiting Barça’s high line, and accepting a handful of offside calls as the cost of doing business. They talk through the key moments: early disallowed goals, the red card that tilted the match, and a statement performance that somehow still felt one bad bounce away from chaos.

The conversation zooms out into bigger questions: Is this Barcelona side still truly “elite”? Where does Chelsea now sit in the global pecking order? Geoff puts Barça around a top-five team outside England, top-ten overall, while both admit Chelsea can now beat or lose to anyone. They gush over the visible joy and togetherness in the squad—Enzo at the emotional center, Reece James and the academy boys living the club—and how different that feels from recent seasons.

They close by peeking ahead to Arsenal–Bayern and Chelsea–Arsenal: Harry Kane’s case as the best player on the pitch, how Champions League results might shape the Ballon d’Or, and what kind of exhausting, bruising match they want Arsenal to endure before coming to Stamford Bridge.