Spurs see red (twice) while Newcastle and Chelsea serve up a treat – Football Weekly

0:00This is The Guardian.

0:30enough to offset that own goal last week for Nick Voltemada. Brackets, probably not. Then to Spurs, who lose at home again. Nine men and Liverpool still tried to give them something. Javi Simmonds with a silly red, but surprised about Romero. He's just not that kind of player. Dominic Calvert-Lewin can't stop scoring and Wolves are very sad. Elsewhere, AFCON begins and Wilfred Nancy gets a win. We'll do all that, answer your questions, and that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

0:56clean on the panel today barry glenn denning welcome hi max hello dan bardell hi max and welcome seb hutchinson hi max so let's start atst james's park probably the the most fun game of the weekend there are a few to choose from newcastle to chelsea to two for volta mara brilliant free kick for reese james that brilliant first touch from joe pedro before he went on and scored some controversial refereeing decisions which will take part of this pod I imagine Barry we were discussing yesterday do two Nick Voltemada goals I mean he needed something after the Derby catastrophe but do they exorcise the demons of last week I don't think so I think the commentator or maybe the co-coms mentioned redemption for Voltemada after his first and I'm thinking nah he's got to do more than that to redeem himself from scoring the only goal against his own team in a time-rear derby.

1:50And he did do more. He scored a second. But crucially, he missed a third, a sitter, which would have, you'd imagine, put the game beyond Chelsea. It was 2-0 at the time. He had another chance, not as easy, that he'd also missed. So I think he has gone some way towards redeeming himself. I don't think the two misses are quite enough to cancel out the two goals. but he could have put this game beyond Chelsea and didn't. So he has gone some way towards redeeming himself. That goal will haunt him forever on a personal level and for all his time on Tyneside. One imagines he probably meets quite a few Maccams in his day-to-day activities, whether it's going to do his big shop or walking around Tyneside Tyneside or going visiting local tourist hotspots and amenities or whatnot.

2:47And he will constantly be reminded of that. But he seems like the kind of guy who will take it on the chin and in time be able to laugh at the good of it. I think this game overall draw seems fair. Newcastle will see it as two points dropped, another two points dropped because they should have had the game more or less won by halftime and they didn't quite do enough to win it by halftime. You mentioned the referees were Ian decisions. I presume we'll get to them at some point. Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, I was just thinking, is a big shop bigger if you're big? But it was a completely stupid idea.

3:25The big shop for Vultimata is a really big shop, isn't it? Well, I'd imagine it might be trickier for him because it would take longer because he's so tall. Little old Geordie women will be asking him to pick things off the high shelf. for him. But also he'd have to ask little old Geordie women to bend down to get the things at the bottom. So obviously you're right, it'd take forever. I don't know what you think Dan. I think Barry might be... That hat-trick chance, because his second finish was so good. I think the third chance isn't a sitter. I think he probably should score, but I don't think it's that straightforward.

4:00I don't know what you think. Probably along the same lines as you. I think he set himself a high bar with that second finish, because it is a lovely cushioned finish into the back of the net, and then the form he's on at that point in the game, you expect him to put away that big chance. And really the game swung on that, didn't it? It was a monumental opportunity. And if Newcastle go 3-0 up, I don't think Chelsea go and do what they did in the second half. But Newcastle left the door ajar and Chelsea responded really, really well. It was an excellent game. I really, really enjoyed it. It was maybe a bit of reason to buy it from me, but nothing else is leaping out at me.

4:35My favourite game I've watched so far this season. At the end of the game, it was just end-to-end and you really thought that someone was going to nick it and someone was going to win it, evidently. Nobody did and it ended 2-2. But I just thought it was a fantastic, fast-tempo game that I really enjoyed. And Anthony Gordon, I know he went off, how he's not picked up the man of the match in that game because he was like a rabid dog, particularly in the first half, just chasing after everything. He was a man-possessed. Well, maybe he could have been a bit stronger when Trevor Chalabar just shielded the ball out of play for that.

5:09How is that not a penalty? Honestly, so, I mean, let's get to it. Eddie House is anywhere on the pitch. It's a free kick. I say anywhere else on earth that is a free kick. The Premier League match centre are next. The referees called no penalty to Newcastle was checked and confirmed by VAR with the contact from Chalibur on Gordon deemed to be side to side in a shielding action and the ball within playing distance. I mean, Seb, you wouldn't want Trevor Chalibur to shield like a flock of baby ducklings across the road, would you? like it it's so blatant is it too maybe you would foul maybe you would want him to if he's blocking the car so that's true if he yeah if he's blocking the car but it's too is it too obvious a foul like it's so obvious from a var point of view from the referee's point of view when i first saw it and i was actually at stockley park when it happened and it's funny when these contentious moments happen because the building swells because everybody in the building knows that the refs are in the building so there's these noises these groans and and but obviously you're not allowed to go into that room and and interfere obviously you should have done seppie i think that i think that warranted it surely there should be a button for one of the ex-pros once a week to press the button and go you've never played the game and just run in and change the decision well i was actually watching the game with don hutcherson and he was he saw when we first saw it we did that oh at first but then the referee we thought oh maybe you know and then you see the replay and the idea that he's shielding the ball is is quite it's quite unbelievable i think i i'm trying to put myself in the position of the var on why because i'm trying to do this so hard why are they not telling the referee to refer and look at their screen for that decision and the only thing i can think there must be when they look at the laws of the game and he does this fit into this bracket of shielding the ball because we see players do this all the time shepherd the ball towards you know out for a goal kick so where is where's the line that ain't shepherding that ain't shepherding he didn't have the ball actually gordon had the ball that's a good point barry yeah sorry i don't i don't think we've dug deep enough into why seb was at stockley park watching this game with don hutcherson oh gosh conspiracy theories why was i there Is this regular Saturday behaviour for you?

7:32I mean, there's a really boring answer to this, isn't there? Yes. Which is where Premier League productions are. Ah, right. Okay. Yeah. It's not just... You don't just get a day out like a viewing gallery at court where you can watch, I don't know... Watch the Watchmen. Sam Barrett making VAR decisions or whoever it was. They're only letting the people with the surname Hutchinson as well. No, it's true. It's Hutchinson only. Yeah, VAR watch along. No, let me just correct everybody here. I'm Hutchinson, and he's Hutchinson. Yeah. He doesn't have a middle end. And, yeah, you see, this is why I get referred to as Hutchinson sometimes.

8:07And he said, he actually, I think he told me the story that even the kit man, I think it was when he was at Everton, they printed it as Hutchinson, and he just went with it for the season. Yeah, why not? I need somebody to call that out if that's true. But what I would say is sometimes if your name is spelt right, you just say, oh, I'll just go with it as long as I'm scoring the goals. I just wanted to say, when Dan said it was game of the season, I mean, we've just had the week with Man United-Bournemouth. I think it's brave. I don't look at that as being good football. I looked at this one as being good football.

8:39I look at the Bournemouth one, chaotic football. This was more pure. There's no World Cup finals. You make a good point. That was silly and this was breathless. This was exhausting, wasn't it? It really was. The game finished and you retired on your sofa. Lawrence says, Just checking if Barry's put his name down for football editor Marcus Christensen's corner office after the latter's firing for excluding Rhys James from the top 100 best footballers in the world. It wasn't all Marcus's fault, of course. A lot of us had a vote. It's a brilliant free kick from Rhys James. He also makes that brilliant tackle at the end, which some people thought was a foul.

9:12but he i wonder barry if he if he's underrated because he's he sort of does these he can do spectacular things but not in a very spectacular way if that makes sense well i mean that was an undeniably spectacular free kick how could he have made it more did you mean i don't know he doesn't celebrate enough or he doesn't does he thrill you like as a footballer like he's clearly brilliant but are you thrilled no no i'm not and i don't know why so it's a good question i suppose because i think maybe it's something to do with the fact that he he's seems to be injured an awful lot so he flits in and on and off my radar when he is playing you just expect him to be good i think i raised an eyebrow recently he's gone oh this is interesting when he he gave a brilliant performance playing in the heart of chelsea's midfield which i don't think i'd seen him do that i think was it yeah was it i can't remember that's how impressive it was look if it happened before the last trench of games it's gone out of my head my memory banks are only so big you're full up get some more disc get some more disc space pay a bit more for the cloud barrier i need to plug in my hard or external hard drive and flick through it yeah it is a good question i mean he is an undeniably excellent footballer i don't know why i think i'm just maybe i'm just used to him he's always good he never seems to have a dip in form so he's either playing and playing really well or he's injured there's no kind of middle ground yeah i don't know i'd have to think about it yeah i suppose maybe it's a legacy of being a right back to begin with and Now he's sort of a bit more all action.

11:01And so you sort of categorize someone as a right back. I don't know. There's a brilliant free kick. I wonder, Dan, I think that touch from Jao Pedro is so brilliant. Like if he dragged it out of the sky with his instep, everyone, you know, it's slow motion memes. But because it's sort of on the head, perhaps visually it doesn't look as good. But to control a long kick from a goalkeeper and basically put a defender on his ass while he's doing it is incredible. Yeah, Robert Sanchez will get the assist for that. but I would say that João Pedro has got the assist and the goal by the way that he's put himself through on goal with that touch.

11:36It's a majestic piece of play. He's not exactly been thriving in front of goal. You wouldn't expect him to be full of confidence. Chelsea have been a bit bitty themselves recently as well but the way he's put himself through is absolutely brilliant. It's an unbelievable touch and a great bit of skill. And then, Seb, we had Harvey Barnes. I was waiting for the net to burst when he smacked that volley and then he's through and Rhys James pulls him back, but didn't pull him back enough for it to be a free kick. Yeah, you mentioned about Vultima does miss, but I actually think when the game was at 2-2, Newcastle had a fair few chances to win that.

12:11I think Alanga, who seems to be short of that confidence to try and go past a player or to force the issue, and I feel like the Newcastle fans are getting on his back a bit about this. I think they've noticed this in his game. And then Harvey Barnes, yeah, he had a couple of opportunities to win the game, And I suppose that feeds back into what Dan's saying about that match was that towards the end, it did feel that any side could have won it, really. But Newcastle will come away from that burning a bit more than Chelsea because they needed, I think they need a win and they've been bitten so hard this season at home against other big sides that they felt maybe this, was this the one where we're going to beat one of these teams and then kick on?

12:50But it wasn't the case and it probably sums up both teams' season at the moment. Newcastle have dropped 13 points from winning positions now. They're really struggling to get the season going. I think if we were singling out Rhys James for praise, we should probably also praise Lewis Miley, who played it right back for Newcastle in this game and was brilliant. And he's still just a child, basically. The Rhys James debate, I think what it is, is he just does most facets of the game quite well. And it's a bit like the Philip Lahm, you know, Joshua Kimmich type player where they just, what's their weakness?

13:25They don't really have one, but then what's their strength? You can't say. That's probably why. That's why they can play in multiple positions. They're just that kind of player, aren't they? You don't pay to see Josh Kimmich, but maybe you do, actually, literally. You don't figure it in. I don't literally. No, of course not. Spurs 1-Liverpool 2. Aidan says, what's ruining your life more, watching Spurs or watching England play cricket? Moonlight hangover. Romero and Simmonds a little bit too keen to get Christmas off through suspension and Neil says are Spurs trolling their own players with those ads on the pitch side hoarding saying it's classic Tottenham you were commentating on this one Seb I mean this was really for a neutral I imagine quite a lot of fun odd and at the end of it Tottenham lose another game and Liverpool don't look very good at all but still win yeah it's a game that kept coming up with little surprising moments but unsurprising in the grand scheme of these two clubs at the moment and it's just we always talk about sad manager cutaways i feel really sad when i see thomas frank on the sides after something's gone wrong because you feel like he's the sort of person who gets into his mindset i will not be brought down by anything in the game but he must be watching these things i mean taking the spurs job was a mistake if that's what he wanted well yeah we don't yeah we don't get into that but of course the romero for me Romero's the story of the game because it's so many different points in the match I don't feel he ever plays the game with a general sense of how is the game going what's the game state what would be best for my team early on in the game he swore at the ref a couple of times and I did point out that wearing that captain's armband gives you some license with the referee to communicate with them but I thought not this much license and I've at all times the The referee's probably thinking, just give me one reason to get you off this pitch.

15:15One more reason, just one more. And he did give it in the second half. A chaotic game in many respects. I think what Alexander Isak, I mean, to be on the bench, then come on, then be injured potentially for a while in such a short space of time to happen so quickly. Again, that feels like that sums up his time at Liverpool so far. Xavi Simons, you think, right, he's on to something now. he's into form and then that challenge and obviously you're going to go into these things in detail but overall just Romero for me was the story of the match and I feel that I would make jokes about it but there has to be a serious question asked what is the purpose of having that attitude on the pitch I think maybe if everybody else in the team buys into that then maybe you can get away with it because you're you get a yellow and then another player gets a yellow and you mix it up but the rest of the Spurs team just doesn't feel like they're they're in that mode with him and then benton cook it gives it a go every now and again but i just don't think that anybody else buys into it so why isn't anybody saying to just just calm down just yeah it's okay i think you're right i mean i think if everyone else buys into it you might have no players on the pitch it felt like a game where you're like this guy is definitely gonna get sent off and look i called him a donut the other day and i in a sort of loving way like he clearly brings something to that team he brings something to argentina right that they they they love him i don't think spurs have lots of natural leaders so like i'd love him to go to atleti because then I wouldn't have to be stressed when I was watching him, but also that's his spiritual home.

16:39But I think Tottenham don't have any leaders to lose him, even though he is a bit odd as a leader. I don't know what you think, Dan. I thought both teams were not great, but Spurs were slightly better than Liverpool until Javi Simmonds went through Van Dijk. Yes, it's a bizarre challenge, the state of the game as well, because he was referenced on Match of the Day. I think Joe Hart said it, that it's his international teammate. He's not deliberately going out to do something to Van Dijk. But it's a strange movement and a strange motion. towards him and look it's a red card. It was an odd game.

17:11I watched Match of the Day back last night and the first highlight from the game was the sending off half an hour in. There was nothing before that but when you're watching it live I didn't feel like it was a poor game up until that point but bizarrely there was nothing to pull out of note before then to put in the highlights package. I thought Spurs did quite well with 10 minutes but if I was Thomas Frank he's a positive guy anyways and you could find maybe some encouragement from the way Spurs played and the way that they pulled together. But at the end, it's just a complete lack of discipline all around.

17:43Benton Kerr's made an awful challenge in that game as well. Even Richarlison, when he scores, he's looking for a straightener with anyone he can find when he's put the ball in the back of the net. He was a bit Romero-like when he scored that goal. Spurs conceivably could have lost even more players in that game. They're just an odd team. I feel sorry I feel a bit sorry for Thomas Frank because I think maybe at the start of the season when they started okay people thought they'd just be okay be top six have a decent cut run maybe and be a little bit more stable but it is looking more and more like the kind of pasta coglu era isn't it which points to me that there's just wider problems at the club than the manager yeah I in a way Barry I think that red card the Simmons head red card might help Frank because the team fought for him even if they took it a bit too far it looked like the fans were a bit like hey look we really gave it a go it was kind of valiant defeat which is better than sort of pathetic defeat isn't it the first thing i'd say with regard to what dan said about simmons not setting out to injure his uh international teammate and captain is that the netherlands dressing room is famously fractious so there's every chance he was setting out to do him a mischief i think frank gets a pass for this one and in a way like you say max the simmons red card may have helped him because the reason no highlights were plucked out of this is because the simmons red card was the first thing of interest that happened in the game after what 34 or five minutes because both teams were being incredibly cautious they're both taking eons over goal kicks and you know that thing where the goalkeeper split the two centre-halves and they're fanny around for ages trying to emmy martinez is a master of it actually trying to draw in opposition players but the opposition players weren't biting so that's why there were very few first half highlights and i think spurs fans they want results for sure but they also want to see good football and what they were being served up until simmons and to a point after Simmonds got sent off was not good football.

19:53But at least when they were playing with 10 men, they've an excuse not to play particularly good football. But I really enjoyed this. Liverpool's difficulty in closing out games is quite interesting. Last season's Liverpool, they go 2-0 up. They do not lose. They either win 2-0 or they win by more. This season's Liverpool, I mean, I think they were on the ropes there towards the end. Yeah, I wonder, sir, just on the decisions, I, as a Tottenham fan, felt completely aggrieved about all of them, but also thought perhaps all of them were correct. Apart from maybe the Ekotike goal, like he does have two hands on Romero.

20:31And Thomas Frank said, look, Romero gets booked for dissent because he's annoyed that he's been pushed and it's not given. And I think that might be a free kick. I don't know what you think. Yeah, we see these things so often, don't we? I wonder, again, this goes down to the line of, with the VAR looks at this, how much, because they've basically given themselves this high bar situation. Howard Webb said it at the start of the season. The high Trevor Chalabar. The high Trevor Chalabar, brilliant. Oh, I was thinking Denver bar, I don't know why. Yeah, and because they've set that, they have to feel, is there any debate about this?

21:07If there's debate, then we'll stick with the on-field decision. that's the tone that they were set for the season so this maybe falls into that I guess because there'll be some people saying Romero should be stronger he should get up earlier Ekotiki's got the leap on him that's the thing I see both sides and I don't I don't see it as much as a big point to talk about as the chalibre one I have to say and in the game it's a strange one I don't think that's something you pick out either because as Barry said once the game's there for Liverpool to win in any case and the fact that was the goal that took it to win it yeah we could talk about that you you might not talk about that but i i don't know i don't i don't think it's the standout moment of the whole game in terms of controversy yeah just one more thing just just one more bit dan before we move on which is quite a lot of liverpool fans i presume liverpool fans got in touch to say look that vendor van der ven challenge on isak is dangerous and because there's a goal quite often if a player takes a shot then what happens afterwards isn't counted I've watched it a lot of times and I don't know if that is because of the injury that you look at the challenge again because he's on the ground and his leg does get caught under his leg and I think it's unfortunate but maybe I'm slightly biased I don't know what you think If Romero's done it you might be sat here today saying it's a dangerous tackle I don't think Romero's on the ground if he's doing it I think he's hip height Yeah Yeah, I think it's an unfortunate accident, isn't it?

22:38And look, it's going to cause a long-term injury for Isak. It's great for him to get the goal, but then his whole season is just upended and ruined as the ball hits the back of the net. I think it's just an unfortunate circumstance the way Isak's struck the ball, the way they've collided. I don't think, again, there's any malice in it for me. And Isak's injury, well, I don't know whether this has ever happened before or not, But Isaac came on for Conor Bradley. So then when Isaac went off, Jeremy Frimpong came on for him. And then Frimpong lost his head when he didn't quite get elbowed deliberately by Richarlison.

23:17So he was replaced by Federico Chiesa. So you basically sub replaces, sub replaces, sub. Which I don't know if that has ever happened before in a game of football. Interesting you bring that up, Barry. and certainly without any pause in the edit to find out this information. December 2024, if memory serves me correctly, if you'll remember the game between Shrewsbury and Northampton, Akin Odemeo was replaced by Liam McCarron in the 58th minute. Odemeo, just very disappointed to be hooked that early. McCarron got injured, was replaced by Jack Baldwin in the 82nd minute. Baldwin got injured and was replaced by Jordan Willis in the 90th minute.

23:55So I remember that. I don't remember the score, I'm afraid. but there you go it has happened before and that'll do for part one part two we'll begin at Villa Park

24:11welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly so Villa 2 Manchester United 1 some very good bants from the Aston Villa official account saying that United fan could have had two haircuts uh yeah 10 straight wins Dan uh how was it yeah I was gonna say brilliant The game wasn't fantastic from a Villa perspective. It wasn't the best showing that we've put on across that 10-game winning run. But quite importantly, at the moment, this Villa team seems to be able to win in a variety of ways. They seem to just score great goal after great goal as well. That first goal from Morgan Rodgers is an unbelievable strike.

24:48Can we just keep getting results? Seven in a row in the Premier League now, which I think is probably more impressive than the 10 overall, given some of them were in the Europa League. Seven games in a row to win in the Premier League is a difficult thing to do. Obviously, you're a fountain of knowledge this morning, Max. I don't know whether you know how many teams have won seven games in a row off the top of your head. But in the Premier League terms, it's a difficult thing to do when you look at the fixtures that Villa have had as well in that time. Just flying at the moment and keeping the pace with Manchester City and Arsenal, which ultimately, I think, isn't what Villa fans are bothered about.

25:22But having that little gap now between third and fourth is unbelievable. at this stage of the season. Next two games are Chelsea away and Arsenal away. Knowing that whatever happens in those two games will still be third going into 2026 is just an incredible achievement from a brilliant squad and an unbelievable manager. The turnaround from the start of the season when we couldn't hit a barn door is unbelievable. And that's the thing. You've just been hitting the barn door. Again, more brilliant goals. I don't know what the XG on either of them is. The first one, as you say, it reminds me a bit of, I think, Harry Kane in a North London derby.

25:54Scored one of those goals where he was out wide then he cut and you're like you know it's one of those he's got no right to score from there and one of those where you know the player just goes i'm gonna do this all myself and he's such a brilliant player rogers and obviously i don't watch enough of real madrid to know who is a better footballer right now that doesn't mean who's the better footballer who's the generational talent but right now rogers is playing so brilliant yeah and look tuchel was picking him when he wasn't playing brilliantly he had a difficult start to the season it was a bit over-egged what happened at Villa Park but there was a game in Europe I think it was at Villa Park where he just couldn't pass to a Villa player he just couldn't do it and eventually in like the 80th minute he completed a pass and there was ironic cheers but he's recovered really really well from that he's got a brilliant mentality Morgan Rodgers he's only been playing Premier League football for for just under two years so it's not like he's been playing Premier League football all his life he was a bit around the houses in the in the first stage of his career spending time at various clubs on loan.

26:52But he's found a home and he's found a manager that has just eked out the best of him. Unai Emery has picked the best role for him in terms of, I think a lot of maybe managers may have used him as a stereotypical wide player. He usually plays as a number 10 for Villa. He's playing from the left yesterday, but essentially he's still a number 10 in Villa's system. This might be a bit hyperbolic, but the way he's lashing the ball in from range at the moment, He reminds me of when Gareth Bale was having that kind of phase where he was just scoring worldie after worldie every week. If he wasn't scoring, he was getting assists.

27:28They've got a similar frame, haven't they? They play the game in a similar way, albeit Morgan Rodgers is right-footed and Bale was left-footed, of course. But he is just a top-level player at the moment and one of the most dangerous attacking players in the Premier League, if not the most dangerous. Yeah, I think I tallied it up at about 14 shots from outside the box from both teams. and Manchester United actually had more than Villa long-range efforts. It struck me as a game where for Aston Villa, they're on this amazing run and therefore when they face a side like Manchester United when they've had a bad record against them, there's that tension, isn't there?

28:04We're a better team than this team, but can we get over? And I think it wasn't so free-flowing and it wasn't such a satisfying win in that way that it was the week before. I'm sure Dan will attest to that. it was probably a bit more tense it's like just blow the whistle let's get this game done and move on to the next one and that is probably the mentality of a team who are playing well and maybe think maybe could we could we be involved in this title race here because they are at the moment obviously because the points say so but to stay in it you have to have a lot of those tight wins those games where you know you're better than the other team you don't perform and you get through actually Manchester United have fallen to the point we keep saying where they are where any nice moment in the game they get praised for and there's that belief that oh well actually attacking quite well here they look quite good well of course they should look good because they spend a lot of money in attacking areas and they've got players who are some of the best premier league players last season so that should be where they are and then to lose bruno fernandez who never gets injured and the way he went off was the most protracted time it takes for an injured player to leave the field it's almost i i refuse to believe that i may be missing matches and i'm also the man on the pitch who's there to drive this side through.

29:19Even when Roger scored, they'd have to cut to close-ups of players. And they cut to him, he's almost like, I just wanted to get to half-time so I can rest this leg, you know? And he's gone and scored that goal. So thanks to Matty Cash as well. And I actually caught, weird thing about this, I watched the first 20 minutes and then I went to watch Panto at the local theatre with the family. And when I came back... What was on? It was Rapunzel. um okay so yeah my daughter was giving me a running commentary through it so so that didn't happen in the disney film i said well there was a story before that and anyway and i came back and watched the second half as in i recorded it because i'm such a pro i went to watch second half without knowing the score so funnily enough i did see something flash up from barry and i wondered oh is this going to be a dig at dan about the result or is this going to be a a confirmation that they've done well so i avoided everything until i watched the second half and I didn't want to shout to Cash, you know, he's behind you when Kunio slipped into school.

30:19But I refused. That was a funny little error in the game. But yeah, I just wanted to give you a little insight into my professionalism there that I recorded it. I like the fact that you're annoyed that your daughter is commentating on the panto. When, you know, a lot of people are mainly annoyed that you're commentating on the football, I guess. Bruno Fernandes, that injury thing is fascinating. I didn't realise this. He's missed two games to injury and one to illness since he got to United, Barry. And like he's, we've talked about how key he is to this side. So it will be really interesting to see how they get on without him.

30:51Yeah. And the thing is, his reluctance to come off may have exacerbated the injury. So it might, he might be out for longer than he should be because of his reluctance. Interestingly, like when he pulled up, just the whole game stopped. Like the ball didn't go out of play. He just kind of put his arms out. Oh, my hammer is gone. and everyone just stopped as if, well, that can't be right. His hammy doesn't go. And then John McGinn just sort of poked the ball out over the touchline when he could have gone on an attack or something. Yeah, it'd be a big loss to United. I mean, I think I kind of, in Seb's camp in terms of Manchester United have to do very little of note now to be praised incredibly condescendingly.

31:40that's the level they're at at the moment. I didn't think they were all that good yesterday. Amirim said they were the better team. Wayne Rooney was praising them to the high heavens on Match of the Day last night. I mean, what he said wasn't without merit, but it just seems like they're being praised for doing the basics now. I mean, apart from Roy Keane, it was just like, they're terrible off the ball, they ain't punished and they should get punished. But maybe that, for Roy Keane, is his praise, in a sense, isn't it? Right, lots of games to get through. Not a huge amount of time. Leeds 4, Palace 1.

32:16Johnny says, how do you think Leeds will fare in next year's Champions League? It is great, Dan, to see Leeds doing so well. And it's great to see Dominic Calvert-Lewin scoring goals. Yeah, he's 6-5. He's scored now, Dominic Calvert-Lewin. A real renaissance. Maybe a signing that made sense. But Leeds fans, when he came in, were possibly a little bit underwhelmed. His recent record wasn't brilliant. But when he's at it, we've seen it in spells for Everton, he's a really dangerous player and a hard player to defend against. I think Daniel Farker deserves a huge amount of credit because I think they lost to Villa and it was basically you've got to do something in the next two games and the next two games were Chelsea at home and Liverpool at home.