Welcome to the new and improved Real Deal Podcast. On today's episode Siddharth Ramsundar is joined by Statsbomb founder (now HUDL Statsbomb) Ali Elfakharany to preview the Arsenal - Real Madrid tie & catchup about the state of European football. Catching up after a long time, we end up casually discussing all the Champions League contenders like PSG, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan and Barcelona, the relative strength of different leagues, the evolution of the game, Mikel Arteta as a coach, and a bunch of other miscellaneous technical stuff.

Expect more structure in future episodes, but here's a casual long special to mark our return!