As Manchester City advance, should Eddie Howe be under pressure? Football Weekly Extra

0:00This is The Guardian.

0:30Emberley in March, if City are one of the two best teams right now. City will have to be good this Sunday if they come up against the Liverpool side, who played the last hour against Newcastle at the weekend. Arsenal have the chance to go nine points clear the day before at home to Sunderland, while just about still in it, Aston Villa go to Bournemouth. Big games at the bottom, Burnley-West Ham in the battle to be the least miserable team in Claret, while just above them, Leeds play Forest. And there's Man United going for four in a row at home to who knows what to expect Spurs. We'll discuss Ronaldo going on strike, answer your questions, and that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

1:03on the panel today barry glendennig welcome hi max good to see you very much have your finger uh on the pulse by watching traitors was it two three weeks after it ended oh i'm i'm not even on the current series so okay and annoyingly one of the winners came on talk sport and i said can i not find out what happens during this interview and it became immediately apparent that you had to find out what would happen because the guy got to the final whatever anyway it's mindless and i enjoy it dan bardell welcome morning not got my finger on the pulse because i have only ever watched the first series of the tracers and nothing since well i'm voting for yourself then dan and welcome sam darling hello max i have no traitors based contribution to make this early in the morning fine fine that seems perfectly acceptable people don't come here for that carl says question did we really need to make you guys do two carabao podcasts this week i blame joel sack producer joel yeah to the etihad manchester city three newcastle one uh sam you were there you're a newcastle fan did you have a nice time did i have a nice time i went to a lovely brewery and tap room beforehand as all the modern football fan does and i had a really nice pizza um i think what i have to caveat with is i didn't really expect to have a nice time i went with my eyes open I must confess I wasn't going to go Newcastle United have been away from home an awful lot recently and I have a very forgiving wife who allows me to go to all these games so after the first leg I went back and thought okay right well I'm in Paris the week before and I'm at Anfield on the Saturday night I'm out all these evenings I have to go away from work and I said to her well look it's okay I'm going to stay in do another bath and bedtime I don't need to go to that semi-final second leg and she said you what I said well I'll stay at home it's just you are not staying at home because if you get an early goal and somehow you're back in it you will be unbearable on this sofa so you have to go you can you can leave as early as you like and I must confess I did leave early quite early actually I did the whole I don't know how I feel about it I think I even now I'm feeling like I have to justify it to myself but I left at halftime the game was done and i could come out of a load of excuses but again it's all justifications but the old sunk cost fallacy right i had to do the drive home nothing was changing and i chose to have an hour on the sofa with my wife um look we didn't even have we got what we get seven minutes before sorry what were you doing thank you barry i think watching television we were watching patience a lovely channel for i like that detective series um thanks for that barry yeah we didn't even get a good run did we we got about six and a half minutes um before a damper and tackle just sort of bounced onto omar mamouche and it was pretty pathetic first half with newcastle were there was all this talk of fight and hope and try and get back into it and it was just like all those weaknesses we've seen across the course of the season the gaps in midfield the flat midfield free uh it was pretty hopeless and no it wasn't fun but it was the second half um from friends who stayed it was it was one of those gallows humors away ends where you just sing and sing and sing and actually be lucky enough not to have one of those for a while but it was a pretty limp attempt at uh defending our carabelle cup title yeah and it's such a contrast between how brilliant you were against Arsenal in the semis last season isn't it I mean I don't know how much you look at that and think god a lot has changed in this year yeah masses has changed it's it's not been a a good season for Newcastle there's lots of mitigation for that and I think people still the Alexander Rezac thing it's just a completely different team and a completely different way of playing and they spent a lot of money and most of those signings aren't yet working out but that's with the caveat you know a couple of years ago they had a summer where they signed tonali hall and livermento who didn't i mean tonali for different reasons but hall and livermento couldn't get into the side and now they're two newcastle's best players so you you can't write them off um newcastle this season they're a bit they're a bit like coffee cake right they okay sit on the shelf they always look appealing like you think oh i like coffee I like cake so I'm going to have that again because it's going to taste really delicious and there's lots of icing on it and most of the time when you bite into a slice of coffee cake you're pretty disappointed right it's always drier than it looks like it and you kind of regret and you look at the carrot cake and the chocolate cake and think I wish I had had that and yet next time you probably go for the coffee cake again and occasionally you get a really good coffee cake right so we had right you know second half against PSG first half against Chelsea 40 minutes at Anfield and those good bits of coffee cake keep you going back for more ultimately bad coffee cake and that's Newcastle United this season whereas last year they were entirely carrot cake I mean that probably is all you need to know about Newcastle United right now I'm trying to think of tortured analogies that we've had on the pod how much I enjoyed this one would you go along with that Barry?

6:25do you see Newcastle as very much the coffee cake of the Premier League? I'm not a huge fan of cake, so I don't have a view in that regard. And neither football would listen and say, so it fits perfectly, in fact. I mean, the funny thing about this game is Newcastle were absolutely torn apart in the first half. The third goal City scored, where Rinders ran from deep, galloped past Fenn Botman, ran almost to the edge of the Newcastle box without anyone getting near him. It was just comical, this gaping hole in the middle of the pitch. But they did have quite a few very presentable chances that they failed to take.

7:04I think I counted six. And even if they'd scored half of them, they might have made a contest of this tie in the second leg. But they didn't take any. Sorry, they took one of them. And it was kind of a bit too late at this stage. I suppose it's the only consolation Newcastle fans can take from the evening is that Anthony Lange scored a really good goal. and it's the first thing I can remember him doing since signing for Newcastle. He's been very disappointing, so he might kick on on the back of that. So they were torn apart. I mean, I guess City took their foot off the gas in the second half because the tie was done and dusted, and they tend to take their foot off the gas in the second half of games anyway, even if they're not done and dusted.

7:53That's been a weakness of theirs. yeah but by leaving us at uh half time sam did miss uh quite a few of his team's misses yeah no no i mean if the first thing you can remember anti-olanga during this season is scoring that goal the second thing you can remember him doing is missing that basically open goal about two minutes later isn't it um and i suppose dan look city away is a hard game city is a tough team over two legs anyhow said it's the the hardest team to play in europe over two legs i don't know if that it's true but I think we have the final that we expected to have it'll be a good battle Manchester City against Arsenal obviously Manchester City are well versed at being in cup finals under Pep whereas it's been a long time since Arsenal have actually got to a got to a cup final you felt like they might be the might be the favourites in a cup final even going back to when Wenger was there they probably weren't the favourites in a few of the cup finals that they got to so it is the one we expected probably the one that the neutrals wanted as well just on just on Newcastle I mean I don't like coffee cake anyway, but I do like Newcastle.

8:56And every time they're on, I think I'm going to watch that. I enjoy watching them. But they have been a strange, strange watch this season. I felt team selections are always quite muddled, almost like sometimes he's changing for change's sake. I think obviously they've got to be an element of rotation due to the Champions League. But they just seem so far off what they were last season and the season before the other season. I've explained that terribly. The season when they finished in the top four and got Champions League the first time round. Something just doesn't feel quite right. And I watched them and we talk about the evolvement of Manchester City this season and Pep's kind of moved with it and had to change certain things to get Manchester City kind of up to the modern way of playing.

9:37Newcastle have got that energy, but still when I watch them, I can't help but feel they've always had that, but they've become a bit predictable and they haven't changed through the seasons. The fact that they still play without a number 10, and I just think there's a genuine lack of creativity in that side. And we've seen in the Carabao Cup over the last two nights, the two teams that are trading, I think, have set up quite defensively and Rossini probably took stick. Howe probably won't take stick, but actually I think maybe the way Rossini is set up is better than the way Howe set up because you've set up defensively and the game just got completely away from you from the get-go, really.

10:12We've talked about this before, Sam, that Howe doesn't really get stick from the guys on the patch. do you think do you think that makes any difference to whether he's under pressure from the owners or not now all the noise all the fans there's all the noise on social media which you have to sort of ignore and there are some there's a piece out today that says he's definitely not under any any pressure which i think if that is genuinely true from the ownership like that is a fault of theirs because any premier league manager with and again the the ceo came out he did an interview on the radio yesterday where he came out and said yeah by 2030 we're going to be Newcastle United going to be competing for all the the top trophies in the globe and you're thinking well it's early 2026 now and there's a realistic chance of finishing below teams like and you always say no disrespect when you're about to say something disrespectful but you aren't it's a big leap from being finishing below the teams like Brentford and Everton and Fulham who probably don't have owners coming out saying we're going to be one of the top sides in the world and to being there in four years time I think they've got a big decision to make in the summer as I said there's loads of mitigation I don't want to go over it again but it feels like the project needs a massive refresh and it how talked about it being stale himself last year and it is very predictable teams know how to play against Newcastle United they play this flat midfield free Man City I think Pep Reinders came out and said in his post-match like I couldn't believe how much space there was in the midfield and Villa found that a couple of years ago but they've got a decision to make it it sounds like the decision is they're going to stick with Eddie Howe which that's okay but things need to change they're gonna I think they're gonna have to sell a couple of big players and refresh it and it feels like it needs some oomph and there are people myself included who are starting to question whether Eddie Howe is the right person to do that but something has to change and that doesn't change doesn't necessarily mean changing the manager.

12:13Yeah I mean Eddie Howe is very much Pep's bunny isn't he in 21 matches against Pep with Bournemouth and Newcastle he's lost 17 of them only won two and Newcastle's record at the Etihad is atrocious so probably We weren't expecting much last night. I mean, if you look at the fixtures Newcastle have coming up, Brentford at home at the weekend, and then the four away games in a row, Spurs, Villa, Carabag, Man City, and then Carabag at home. If that run of games doesn't go well for them, I think how has to be under pressure. I heard the CEO's interview, David Hopkinson, on Talk Sport yesterday, and he seemed quite a charming, well-spoken man, but he talked a lot, said very little.

13:03They haven't decided what to do with St. James' Park. They haven't moved forward with renovating the training ground. They don't seem to be doing much with regard to generating these extra revenue streams they really need to generate if they're to compete with the elite teams in the Premier League. So it wasn't a bad listen, but if I was a Newcastle fan listening to him talk, I would have been seriously underwhelmed by what he had to say. I mean, when you say that the players, they've got to sell a couple of big players, I mean, who's left to sell? Because like Gimara, that stat that I think we were all really surprised about, that Newcastle just don't win if he's not there, means that he's so essential.

13:50And of course, if you're missing him and Joel Linton in your midfield, it is different, right? And, and Voltemar, who started so brilliantly and is really fun and scored a couple of like, really like oddly brilliant goals and was a sort of really exciting watch. It just hasn't quite clicked. Alanga hasn't clicked and that can happen with recruitment. So I don't know who you, Sam, I don't know who you're offloading for lots of money. The Tenale to Arsenal links, it feels like that seed has been planted. I think the two assets, Bruno Guimaraes, I'm not sure he's a£100 million midfielder objectively to the extent anyone could be worth£100 million.

14:25But to Newcastle United, he's definitely worth that much money. There's also this sense, and you never quite know, but he's got this connection and has almost settled and felt, maybe I can't go to one of the really, really big elite teams. So actually, I'm going to make myself an absolute hero here. And he does just bring something different to Newcastle. I think Tonali and Anthony Gordon are the ones that, I mean, they're probably not actively looking to sell them. I think their values aren't quite what they were at one point in the time when Gordon's head was turned by Liverpool during the Euros.

14:57He just had an absolutely fantastic season. There's a big element of the fan base that are sort of fed up of watching Gordon fail to deliver at the level that he seems to hold out that he's at. And Tonali, actually, he's a wonderful runner. He hasn't had a good game of football for quite a while. But again, all their confidence is down. You can completely see the squad is drained. So I think Villa did it really well, right? They sold big players at the right time. And actually, Douglas Luiz has ended up back there. So I think there's not many saleable assets they've got. Tonali and Gordon are probably not worth as much as people might hope they are.

15:37but it feels like they have to to reinvest and Dan pointed about not having a number 10 like Voltemada Voltemada is really a number 10 not a number 9 but Newcastle haven't evolved around the players they've ended up bringing in so it's just a bit messy at the moment Ted says we'd love to know the panel's thoughts on if a two-legged semi-final in the Carabao is truly necessary and actually Dan you know like there is too much football and what we don't want is FA Cup replays going for example because that seems like a bad thing but losing these this is a two-legged thing. I can't see any issue with it whatsoever.

16:11So I don't think you can complain about the FA Cup and then come out and say we should get rid of two legs in the League Cup. Isn't that essentially the same thing? I know the FA Cup holds more tradition. Well, no, it's not about tradition. It's about the money that that generates for small clubs. Whereas once you get to the semi-final of the Carabao Cup, it's not really, okay, money's money, but it's not going to change the future of Newcastle or Man City if this second leg happens. Do you see what I mean? Would you go to a neutral ground or would you just play? One team plays at home, one team plays at home.

16:41That's a good question. Oh, I like a neutral. I like a Villa Park semi-final. Yeah, I do. It was no good to me anyway. I wasn't going to those games, but I like to Villa Park semi-final as well. Okay, so you're happy to keep it? Yeah, I think don't mess with it. It's probably fair, isn't it, for each team to get to play at home in the Carabao Cup, I would say. But that might be an unpopular opinion. I don't know if it came across on TV, but there were an awful lot of empty seats at the Etihad last night. And that's not a criticism of Manchester City fans directly. It's just this saturation of football when I think they reduced the ticket prices and the top tiers were probably half empty.

17:18and it looked like in bits that were empty, there were sort of blocks of people. So it's almost like they'd gone to schools or groups and given them or sold them cheap blocks of tickets. And you usually think, I know they're 2-0 up, but that's a supposedly major cup semi-final second leg. And I think people are just struggling with the pure amount of football that there is to go and watch and pay for these days. Barry, that's what we should have done to fill the top tier of the Troxie, isn't it? Give it to school kids. Boston school kids. Exactly. Mark Gay can't play in the final, but Antoine Semenya can.

17:48And competition rules dictate he had to have joined them prior to the closure of the winter transfer window or the first leg of the semifinal, whichever is sooner. So Semenyo signed four days before the first leg. Gay arrived after the first leg. So Semenyo can play and Gay can't. Do you have strong opinions on this slightly odd law? I don't, but Pep Guardiola does. He's baffled by the fact that Marque can't play in the final. he said he's going to get the club secretary to write to Carabao or the FA or whoever is in charge and but doesn't expect to Alan Carabao Alan Carabao yeah um doesn't expect it to do any good I mean if they're the rules they're the rules his argument is that look we pay Mark Gay's salary he's our player he should be allowed play and I kind of get what he's saying but rules is rules aren't if it was, you know, it's kind of similar to that silly rule in England that says lone players can't play against their parent club.

18:53So we have a situation now at the weekend where the only player Burnley signed during the window can't play in the first game. That's Burnley game that he's available for because he's not available for it because it's James Ward-Prowse and they're playing West Ham. Anyway, also, Sam, you watched the other semi-final. you wanted to talk about the experience of watching the Arsenal game with disabled Arsenal fans yeah the piece coming out I'd gone first time a while back and we did some filming this time but had the pleasure of watching it with a chap called Thomas Clements who's got a cerebral palsy and we went into the the disability lounge again and we followed him into the ground and it's just it's credit to what clubs are doing in terms of trying to make football more accessible for all the things that we take for granted um and just just had such a good time with him um he hasn't let his disability hold him back he's a PE teacher down in Bromley goes to every Arsenal game home and away um and to see I mean it was it's perfect like right when you're doing a film the narrative of a 97th minute goal um capturing that yeah celebration um and and just it was a privilege to be in there with him to see how popular he is in the ground and also to see how they celebrated it like it was like the contrast between the half empty etihad and the emirates which was absolutely rocking and that goal it was a wonderful celebration a perfect end um really um for as i said for the film um but just like wonderful to see how much it meant to him and to all those Arsenal fans.

20:31All right. We'll look out for that piece when it comes out. Have we talked to you about the Wolves' kit man? Have we talked to you about the piece and the day? Because we talked about it before you were going to see the Wolves' kit man. It was a fun day. You know me, Max. I love football writing, but not about football. So I thought, right, where can I go now? I know I'm going to go in. I'm going to see what the kit man or the kit team does. So I spent a day down preparing with them. And to be honest, preparing involves a lot of printing shirts these days. um and you know i gave him a few memory tests i was like right number 27 who's that like he was very good this american guy come over from the mls i think the most fascinating bit was that like even even for kit teams the premier league is still the biggest league in the world he's like i wanted to come over and and test myself in the like the really tough in the trenches of the premier league in america apparently you turn up and the sponsors you know it's all the same boots i think the whole league's got a boot sponsor and you turn up and towels and things are already there waiting for you like not over here in england um so it was great to see that sort of the kit room was also a bit of a sanctuary you know players first team academy popped in and just had quiet words it was almost a way of um kind of getting stuff off their chests and then yeah we were there i mean with wolves that is a lot of the big queue wouldn't it yes by appointment only on the door um but yeah sean roe is and his team uh fantastic day and they won a game of football as well um as it was they'd beaten west ham and convincingly beaten west ham and so nuno was sort of skulking around in the uh the mix zone afterwards like it wasn't a good vibe from them but yeah really nice to go behind the scenes great of wolves to to trust and journalists in to do that because i know people don't like particularly journalists poking around on a match day um but it was just just fun the kind of fun thing to see the stuff that you don't the weird rituals that different players have.

22:25I think like Sam Johnson, the goalkeeper, they lay out the kit and every time he just picks up, he checks his pair of socks are there, but always wants a new pair of socks anyway, even though there's already a pair of socks there for him. So just a little bit around the edges, which I really like. So that was fun. Yeah. Yeah, that's fascinating. All right. Well, we'll end part one there and part two, we'll start our Premier League preview.

22:55welcome to part two of the guardian football weekly so the premier league top of it looks like this arsenal have 53 from 24 man city 47 from 24 aston villa 46 from 24 arsenal play sunderland 3 p.m on saturday villa go to bournemouth at the same time and then liverpool city uh is the super sunday game at 4 30 and look i mean that's the game of the weekend on paper down and if Liverpool play like they did against Newcastle then they have a really good chance of beating City and by that time City could be nine points behind. Yeah other than City demolishing Newcastle they have felt quite patchy in recent weeks they're obviously trying to have to kind of build a new defence on the fly at the moment due to having to make signings and having a huge amount of injuries in their defensive back lines so they do feel quite open and Ibeca TK is anywhere near the form he was in last week against Newcastle, you do feel like he might be able to exploit that Manchester City back line.

23:51It's probably not the Manchester City-Liverpool game of years gone by that we've all really, really looked forward to, but it's a big, big game. And Liverpool need to win that race to kind of get the Champions League spots. It's getting quite interesting now with the emergence of Manchester United in the last few weeks as well. Chelsea winning a few games as well under Rossini. So it's looking like that might be a bigger battle than actually the title race by the end of the season. Yeah, I think you're right. I mean, interesting to see what City do with Haaland, right? Presumably he comes in for this game, Barry, but in the games that he hasn't played, they have looked quite fluid.

24:24Yeah, well, they looked very fluid before he came on last night. He hasn't been playing particularly well. Pep says, puts it down to fatigue. But I would expect him to start this game, but you never know with Pep. This could be one of these games he overthinks. I often get annoyed when you ask me how I think a particular game will go who will win but I actually do think Liverpool will win this Florian Wurz is really hitting his straps now isn't he and making the Wurz sceptics and there were many early in the season look a little bit foolish and he and Ekotike have a wonderful or there seems to be an excellent partnership developing there.

25:16But you asked me about City, I've wandered off on a tangent. No, that's fine. Even though he's leading the Golden Boot and will probably win it, I think by his own extremely high standards, Erling Halland is not having a good season. There just seems to be quite a few games he's been almost, it's almost as if he might as well not have been on the pitch. He could be brilliant in this one if he plays. we will find out we will just to clarify you get annoyed if i asked you what's going to happen but if i don't ask you what's going to happen you tell me what's going to happen so i see the the key here is that i don't ask you what's going to happen you may volunteer the information well no it's just often i i just don't know but i do think we will win this game fair enough uh the 3 p.m is then arsenal sundland bournemouth villa why don't we do villa first dan i mean we've said it when you haven't been here but but you must be and i think i said this if i was a villa fan i would just be staring at the league table adding on six points going we lost at home to everton and at home to brentwood with 10 men and if you had six more points you would be right in there and you must be it must be so frustrating after you know brilliant games where you like beat arsenal at home and to lose those two must be so frustrating yeah i haven't really been looking at it like that so thank you to to alerting me to that misery i'll make sure that i do that after after the podcast I'm still just and don't forget to add on the 15 points you didn't get at the start of the season well yeah probably more look at I mean the fact that all these things considered yeah the fact that all things considered we are a point off Manchester City in third given you know the fact that Manchester City spent a fortune in January as well I just look at the league table still in absolute amazement that we are where we are I think if you take away the transfer window I think the transfer window being open, disastrous for Villa because when the transfer window was open at the start of the season, we didn't win a game.

27:09And when it's been open in January, we've dropped some silly points at home to Everton and Brentford. I think if you take away the transfer window, we probably are top of the league, but you don't get any trophies for being top of the league outside of the transfer windows. I think we're well set. This Bournemouth game, they need to bounce back, but then when they lost to Everton, they did then go and win at Newcastle, sorry Sam, the week after, which was probably an unexpected result because Villa have an awful, horrible record at St. James' Park. So they need to bounce back. But I think they've done a decent job in January in trying to reshape the squad a little bit given the injuries that they've picked up in the month of January.

27:45January just hasn't been a nice month for Villa. So hopefully February will be a little bit more kind. But it feels like it's not a great time to play at Bournemouth because it feels like they've kind of come back into form over the last few weeks. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. They're the form team having been however many it was without a win until our good friend Dr Tottenham turned up. Dan, what's happening with Harvey Elliott? I was sort of surprised and pleased to see him on the pitch because I think like a lot of people, I thought it was a brilliant signing. Like I really did at the start of the season think this is an absolutely brilliant signing.

28:16Yeah, at the end of the summer window, that was the signing that I was looking at and thinking, well, that's made that a good window. It's been a tough watch, a tough listen throughout the whole of the transfer window, but that saved it. That's a really good signing. the fact is Villa's summer window actually wasn't very good the best two signings have been Lindelof on a free and the backup goalkeeper Marco Bizot for 2 million and Sancho's been up and down as you'd expect but the Harvey Elliott situation it's untenable really now I'm shocked that we've got through January without something concrete happening with it Villa and Liverpool have had discussions depending on which local journalist you believe and they can't really come to an agreement but they're going to have to do something because they can do it outside of the transfer window change, change the stipulation because it's no good for Villa in the current situation.

29:03I don't think Villa come out of it smelling of roses. I think it's not right for Harvey Elliott that his career is completely stagnating, which there must have been certain assurances given to him when he arrived at Villa. There's no way he'd have thought that he'd have played this little. So, sorry, what do you mean by change the stipulation as in either... So Villa have to make it a permanent signing if he plays 10 games or something like that. And Villa aren't going to do that. Right, so you think Liverpool should drop that or there should be some sort of agreement? What should happen? Well, I think Liverpool have to pay a couple of million quid to end the loan deal early and they don't want to do that.

29:40Yeah, Villa. So Harvey Elliott is basically at a club who doesn't want him and he's owned by a club who don't want him. I think if the 10 games was to be dropped or put to 20, Harvey Elliott would be involved. Emery has said, and I think Harvey Elliott knows this and there's been conversations Emery said that they've had conversations. I don't think he necessarily fits I don't think the club can spend 30 or 35 million pounds on Harvey Elliott to make this permanent but I think if the 10 games was to be dropped Villa would definitely use him which at this point I think would probably benefit Liverpool as well because they've just got a player that's completely stagnating right now again it was great to see him come on the pitch at the weekend against Brentford he's too good a footballer to be in this situation and he may as well have just been sat on the bench for Liverpool for the season and stayed where he was because he would have got more football if he'd stayed at Liverpool, ironically.

30:34So something needs to give somewhere at the moment. Barry's right. Villa didn't want to pay the loan cancellation fee. Liverpool are saying that they've kind of booked that 30 to 35 million and they've looked at it as a player that they've traded and a player that's not going to be there anymore and they didn't want to take him back and make him part of their squad. So you just feel sorry for the player. there's something awry somewhere because the sporting director Monchi left as soon as the transfer window shut and as I say Villa's summer business was not great 35 million on Evan Gasson who's now on loan at Crystal Palace and I'm going to be honest he was one of the worst footballers I've ever seen play at Villa Park and then Harvey Elliott who was due to go for 30-35 million again they weren't playing because they don't want to spend that 35 million so you can't afford to make those mistakes in the transfer market in Villa's position albeit we've made those mistakes and we're still brilliantly placed in the league table.

31:25Yeah. He was player of the tournament for the under 21 euros in the summer. He's only 22. And yeah, I don't know why anyone would care if, you know, it's another rules then rules. Like, would any fan care if he was allowed to sign for another Premier League team? Like, that rule seems odd to me. Like, if he suddenly went and played for Brighton, would people be up in arms? You're such a renegade, Max. You just hate rules. In any kind of rule today, you've not liked it. we're trying to live in a society here, Max. Listen, I can't help being a maverick in every sense of the word. You know me. Just a non-conformist in every sense of the word.

32:03An anarchist. Yeah. Rules are for little people. That's Arsenal-Sunderland. How do you see this going? Who do you think will win? Tell me the exact score. I think Arsenal will win 3-4-1. I am hopeful, but Sunderland have won once in their last 28 league games against Arsenal. I appreciate some of those games might be played in the 19th century. They have never won a Premier League game away at Arsenal. And Arsenal are, a nice little stat I picked up here from the BBC, Arsenal are unbeaten in their last 43 matches at home against promoted sides. 1.38, drew 5. Out of curiosity, I had a look yesterday to see what the odds were on Sunderland winning this game, 14-1.

32:55And I think I'm slightly insulted by that, but I can see why they're such outsiders. So basically you're saying if Arsenal and Sunderland played 15 times, Sunderland would only win one of those games. The draw is about 4-1, 9-2. look Sunderland gave Arsenal a really good game at the stadium of light should have beaten them I think it was a 2-all draw I don't think Arsenal will be taking this game lightly I think their fans will be a bit nervous about how good Sunderland are because they would have looked at this as three points you know foregone conclusion at the start of the season so I think Arsenal win but I'd say they might have to work hard to win Is Xhaka injured?

33:39So Versailles he is still injured I think yes he's missed the last two games and I think he's out for a while longer yeah that's a pity it'd be good to see him back at the Emirates wouldn't it anyway that'll do for part 2 part 3 we'll go down to the bottom of the table

34:03welcome to part 3 of the Guardian Football Weekly so Sam at the bottom these two big games Burnley-West Ham Leeds-Forest it's a bit of a shame it's not more bunched up than it is Burnley have 15 points West Ham 20 and then Forrest and Leeds both have 26 sort of feel with with Burnley West Ham like Burnley have to win this game if they want to have any chance right yeah we've been saying this for a while about Burnley I think was it on Monday's pod that Barney was talking about Kevin at Fulham and saying how almost every team in the Premier League now has a player who is actually properly quality and might have been competing for a title in the 1990s and I agree almost every team with the exception of Burnley and I they're just not quite there in terms of being at Premier League level I saw them twice I saw them against Newcastle against Man United and they had moments in the game but there was both times every time they got in those promising areas they just had that lack of quality and Ward Prowse obviously has been brought in for set piece quality but as barry said he can't play um yeah they they do have to win it right it closes the gap it's the old six point up but i think that old test of right if this team goes down who are you gonna buy uh and there's barely anyone in that burnley squad maybe marcus edwards who's probably that little number 10 but again hasn't quite there i mean they're just not they've given it a good go and it was it was it on monday they put that social media clip out i don't know if you saw it of scott parker and their media manager is taken from their documentary doing a kind of pre uh press conference briefing and this little bit was it was almost like a bit like the office and it's like well you're gonna get asked about transfers like what you're gonna say uh not not really much going on there so not much i can say just thinking who signed that off on deadline day when all the fans are crying out you need to sign a striker and your club social media has put has chosen that as the clip to use yeah not much going on transfer so um we i think although to be fair their their their james ward prowess reveal video was absolutely i think it was a pulp fiction rip-off where um samuel jackson opens the suitcase and it's just james was prowess in there going all right and it was it was very good so you know maybe they were focusing on that and not quite so much on releasing bits of the documentary how do you see Leeds Forest Dan and I suppose both of them thinking we're probably okay but like West Ham have shown a bit of life recently yeah I think I think Leeds deserve a huge amount of credit I know it feels like they've lost a few games recently I haven't got the stats in front of me but they were on a great run and it came at a time when Farker was under real pressure and not only did they navigate those kind of first few games that they turned it into something bigger that really steered them away from trouble I've enjoyed watching Leeds this season and I think they've got some good players.

36:55I expect them to win at home against Forest, I would say. So, yeah, I've done a Barry there. I've done a reverse Barry there, sorry, where you've asked me what's going to happen and I've given you the team that's going to win. What you've done is what all panellists but Barry do is just answer the question they're asked rather than complaining about it. It's like it's a novel way to treat podcasts. But, you know, I'm happy that everyone else does that. I disagree with you, Max, that these two teams will both think they're okay. I think this is a massive game. They're both on 26 points. If either of them can win it, it's a huge result for them.

37:33I think Leeds fans are quite frustrated by their lack of activity in the transfer market. They went for Jorgen Strand-Larsen, and then when it became apparent he was going to be too pricey. They didn't target anyone else. and they need, if Dominic Calvert-Lewin gets injured, they could be in big trouble. And Dominic Calvert-Lewin is quite injury prone. He seems to be unscathed so far this season, but the sight of Dominic Calvert-Lewin limping disconsolately towards the tunnel mid-game is not a rare one. So if anything was to happen to him, I think they could be a real bother. Wolves home to Chelsea while we're talking about teams at the bottom but they are on eight points so yeah it is bleak for them Manchester United Spurs Manchester United the opportunity to make it four wins in a row as everyone looks towards that man with all his hair and you know do we want him do we want them to get five in a row Sam so that's no longer a thing or is it still kind of quite charming do we ever want Manchester United to win games of football full stop I mean we a lot of us are children of the 90s and yes I would actually quite like to see them win four in a row it's nice to see what Michael Carrick is doing there it's felt like they're they've had a squad of players that are better than the way they'd been performing previously and Carrick's gone in and changed something whether it's these are there's a whole Man United values whether he's texting or whatsapping Sir Alex Ferguson for every decision I don't know but I quite like seeing someone like Michael Carrick do well so yeah I hope they win I think they will win I hope that their supporters stay right until the end like I was laughing last weekend because I've been to Old Trafford a few times and having no stake in it do tend to leave early and I've never seen a ground busier outside on 85 minutes than Old Trafford and I was trying to work out like if you left on if you left at two nil last weekend at least you have the reassurance that the results stayed the same even though you left and missed massive bits of it it's the one when that fulham equalizer went in who went oh yeah nah not for me this and walked out at that point and then heard the winner go in um i would say never leave a game early but i told you what i did last night so no absolutely well i would never leave a game early but at cambridge it's slightly different there is no you're not beating the rush there is no rush even if the stadium is full it's not a rush to leave it's quite leisurely i remember when sunderland were really in the doldrums and a couple of fans were being interviewed outside the stadium alive and they quite openly admitted that the only reason they still turned up was so that they could show their dissatisfaction by leaving air i remember being uh uh in the i think i've told this story before but the away end the man united away end at cluj for soccer and we started following cluj for some we followed genk one year and we were just finding a word that sounded quite funny and we went to cluj and it wasn't someone leaving early because they were upset with the results it was just this guy was so drunk and his wife was following him and she said sort of just constantly could we at least make it to half time in one of these european games as they walked out of the ground like all this money and this is the thing you're going for but you know sometimes that isn't the thing um i i can't remember who mentioned it but this this race for the the champions league spots if we presume dan that you know villa keep going and it's villa city and arsel the top three that you have at the moment liverpool chelsea and manchester united competing for these final two spots that is really interesting Yeah, and there's no Europa League to fall back on for teams this year to get a spot through the Europa League.

41:33I can't remember what happens. If Villa were to win the Europa League, it doesn't go to sixth in the Premier League, does it? If Villa were to win the Europa League. Yeah, it does. Well, it did last year, didn't it? Yeah, there were six this year. There are six this year. There'd still be six, but I don't know. There wouldn't be six because I think Villa would win the Europa League and finish in the top five, but then it wouldn't go to sixth place in the league. That's what I was trying to explain, but I think I explained it badly. so there's no teams that are in this race really other than Villa if they were to have a disaster in the league if they win the Europa League they've kind of got that safety net now so that makes it a really exciting battle between I'm not going to discount Villa because it will make me seem cocky and arrogant and then that might look bad for me come the end of the season but there's other three teams fighting against each other Champions League is massively important for Manchester United to not be in Europe is huge and to be in the Champions League would be I think they wouldn't have expected that maybe at the start of the season so to get back into the Premier competition for them is massive.