Arsenal and Eze soar, Liverpool and Salah sink (again), and Manchester United are BACK: Men in Blazers 10/27/25

26:40Had a hand across the tower and then kicked through him. Initially given as a free kick, but then upon review, the foul was seen to be on the line. Penalty given. Igor Thiago kissed the ball with passion before placing it down. I think there was a hint of tongue in there. Sent Mamash Mili the wrong way. Lashed home. Delirium. Sublime finish from Mo Salah in the 89th minute to give Liverpool a flicker of hope. just his first goal from open play since the first day of the season. But its astonishing clarity only served to reinforce just how blurred everything is at Liverpool right now. Liverpool, amazing statistic, only lost four of their first 43 games under Arna Slott.

27:18Suddenly, they've had their fourth loss just this season. In a row, those Ibiza trips really gave mad hangovers, Raul. This is where we are. Supposed super team, utterly bereft of chemistry or progress. That's what's remarkable. There's very little evidence of gelling, no intensity. Slott said we were second to every ball, no shape at all. Opponents seem to know suddenly scoring is always a possibility. Spending time in Liverpool this week, a lot of people scratching their heads at why the season they thought they were going to have last season, the season of transition, the season off, is actually happening this season as defending champion.

27:57And we have to raise this again, Ru, as you kind of compute and pull this together. I mean, I'm not using this as an excuse because it is utterly real, but hard to fathom because none of the players understandably will talk about it. We have zero insight into the extent that the death of their teammate, the shared grieving in their workplace, the locker room is emotionally undermining the focus. We've all lost people we love. I mean, we know that just getting out of bed sometimes after a death is you're living a zombie life. But, Ro, when you watch this, I mean, you've talked about Mo Salah in particular, that he just almost seems like just so bewildered, the skills so broken.

28:38How do you explain your team to yourself? Yeah, I think there's been a couple of things with Salah in particular. Obviously, that image that I think will prove the defining one of Liverpool's season on the first day of Salah in tears in front of the cop. But also there was a moment on social media, which is a weird place for there to be a meaningful moment, where I think Salah picked out a tweet that implicitly criticised Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez and he took exception to it publicly saying that it was disrespecting the team that had won the title. And I do wonder whether, it strikes me that Salah is very much not himself.

29:15It looks to me from the outside and there's an element of cod psychology about it. This is today in cod psychology, this podcast. You wonder whether, whether yeah he's he is suffering in a way that either he feels he can cope with or is not recognizing much of that will be the loss of jota but also the loss of jota within the context of all this change that's happened around him the sense that that the club is is moving on to a different system that it sees a different future and questioning where he fits into that i think most is going through a lot in a lot of ways maybe more than some of the other players you can't separate the death of Jota from what Liverpool are going through but that said I think you can also analyse it in a pure kind of footballing sense always keeping the kind of broader human context in mind and in a footballing sense all of those things that you've just said are true and the big thing that is I think most troubling is the fact that it's not really clear that Arnes Lott knows how to fix it So that is the big question.

30:15Upcoming game for your boys. Crystal Palace in the Carabao, Red Hot Aston Villa, Real Madrid, and then Manchester City. So let me ask you this. You're talking about Arna Slott. The pressure, the glare, the tabloid buzzsaw is sucking Arna Slott into it for the first time. He talks about post-game, how this was, quote, up there as perhaps the most disappointed he's been in his time as Liverpool manager. He acknowledged that opponents seem to have found out a way to play against his boys. Are his tactics the problem? Or are the players just not delivering on what he's telling them? Or as so often on this show, can two things be true?

30:52I think it has to be both to an extent. The players are performing within themselves. It's very hard to pick out, apart from Dominic Sobberslai, any Liverpool player who is playing well or has played well this season. I think there's an issue of the recruitment. Unusually for Liverpool, it looks like they've brought players without a clear sense of how they fit together. And then, yeah, you have to... Ultimately, it's the tactics of Slott's responsibility. that's what he has paid the money for. Those tactics aren't changing in a way that's effective to counteract what the opponents are doing. Liverpool don't look like creating enough chances to offset the weakness at the back.

31:24And when you spend all of that money on players like Florian Vert, Alexander Izak, Hugo Eketike, that's not great because if Liverpool were winning games 4-3, then you could just about understand, OK, they've traded off the defensive balance for a bit more potency and attack, but they're not. they look for vast stretches of games totally out of ideas and that is something Slott's going to have to solve my sense is that Liverpool pride themselves on how well run they are and how rational and how sensible and how data driven so I don't think Slott's under any pressure internally but there does come a point where a club of that size if it keeps losing games has to think about the manager and I come back, Rog, most days to what Sobbersla said to you last year that when they look at slot on the sideline, it's such a telling quote that they see a man who's in control and has a plan and knows the plan's going to work.

32:18The Liverpool players can't be looking at Arnaz slot like that at the moment, and that's a problem. You said to me when I came in, ultimately we look like a team that have won five and lost four, and the problem is the order in which we've done it. Yeah, I do think this sounds a little bit fan-brained, but I think it's... I think it's... What's weird about Liverpool's season, Liverpool have the right amount of points for their performances. It's just very odd and quite unusual that they won five all at once and then lost four all at once. If it had been win-loss, win-loss, win-loss, it would feel different, but the outcome would be the same.

32:54It makes it look like a collapse, and it feels like a collapse because they've lost four games in a row in the Premier League. We gave them the title. Yeah, they won the lead after five games. They've both won the title and are the team that are in fear of relegation. It's an amazing duality of Liverpool's season. I think one thing that I would pick out, Rog, if Arnaz Lott was so desperate that he came to me and asked for advice, which he shouldn't do because I don't know the answer, I'm no tactician, but I think Liverpool should stop conceding in the first five minutes of games. Not just because that is generally quite a bad thing to do in football, but because of the way they're playing, because of where their weaknesses are and what they want the game to look like.

33:31If the opposition score early, then of course they can sit back and hit you on the break. if they're behind then they can't they have to take more initiative they have to come out and play a little bit Rory, you're almost crying out for your boys to do the low block themselves I think there's an element of Liverpool low blocking coming I think it would make sense to me to an extent to try and switch the initiative onto the opposition to say you want us to have the ball we don't want it that does make sense but more intuitively more akin to Liverpool is a little bit of the kind of early days of Jürgen Klopp heavy metal and say we're going to put you through the washing machine for 10 minutes.

34:08We'll see how you cope with it. And then if you have, we'll go back to our kind of more controlled Arneslot style. Because if they're falling behind, the way the game state works, it's against Liverpool straight away. And the style makes that a real issue for them. A lot of Liverpool talk, but the big point from this game is huge, huge admiration and love to Brentford. This was an enormous win. not their first enormous win of the season, but this team, for many, was meant to be relegation for the rookie manager, Keith Andrews, deemed to be, before a kick with the ball, way out of his depth, best strikers, sold again.

34:47But here, they just keep on keeping on. They beat Aston Villa, they beat Manchester United. Here, they quite artfully, quite intentionally deconstructed the defending champions, scored off long throws, scored off a lightning counter, scored with a penalty. it was humanly magnificent to witness. Brentford know what they are. They're just the same as Brighton, the same as Bournemouth, the three Bs that make the Premier League what it is. Brentford have a system, they have a style, they stick to it, they understand it and crucially it kind of works in most scenarios. There's a limitation on how far up the table they can go, there's a finance and the quality of player and all that stuff.

35:23But Brentford are not an easy team to play. Brentford will take major victories against big teams every season and they can survive the loss of a couple of strikers. They can survive the loss of a manager because they know what their identity is and they have their succession planning in place. They are like Brighton, like Bournemouth. They're really admirable. Identity ultimately is the motif of this season. Identity and the letter B. I do actually think we should change the team's name to Beverton and everything will be okay. And talking about emerging identity, Aston Villa 1, Manchester City 0.

35:58El City, remember, came into this weekend in second place, four points behind Arsenal. There is no doubt that Pep Guardiola, on a nine-game unbeaten run, would have been haunting Arteta's dreams a little bit. The Catalan steps that he hears in his night. Their opponent here in Aston Villa team, who had the quite brilliant Dutch Duffers, go-ahead Eagles come from behind to beat them. Best-named team in Europe, 2-1 in the Europa League. an upset that snapped their five-game winning streak. This team who'd last weekend seen off Spurs scored one of the goals of the season in the process, but they were straight back into Premier League form here.

36:36Just the 19th minute off a short corner, ball played to the top of the box when Matty Cash took a touch around Bernardo Silva and fired back across his body. 1-0 to the Villa. I was actually watching this game in the Everton media room. The Sky feed instantly cut away to Scottish set-piece coach Austin McPhee, a gentleman who played college soccer at UNC Wilmington, proved that even in this world of long throw-ins and tush-push corners, there's room and always space for the short corner rule. There is, but it's another set-piece goal, Rog. Whether it's short or long, it's another set-piece goal.

37:09That's how you store goals in the Premier League. This is set-piece Britain. This is set-piece Britain. Yeah, Brexit Britain, long forgotten. We are living in the land of set-pieces. You used to have a monarchy. You used to have an empire. You used to have Downton Abbey. Now you've got kind of like set pieces. They're replacing the Union Jack with the corner flag. It's all coming, Roger. It's set piece Britain. It's the future. Set piece and chocolate oranges, but no lead is safer. That apex predator, Erling Haaland, has around 15 goals this season. You knew he'd get his chances. And just three minutes after Aston Villa scored, Bernard Silva slipped him in, though he was only to be denied by Emi Martinez.

37:50Aston Villa credit and resolute throughout. Paul Torres cleared off the line from Savino in the 60th minute. Incredible moment. One minute left in regulation. City did look like they'd broken through. Omar Mamos fired one across the face of the goal. Erling Haaland willing to sacrifice it all. Finished. Clattered into the post with his legs. I think the word is akimbo. I looked at it again in the Everton media room. Guy was in agony. and one of the Everton journalists just goes, Dixie Dean, the great Everton striker of the early 20th century, said he scored 60 goals in a season and he only had one testicle.

38:30God's love. Erling Haaland is the sort of player who will look for marginal gains wherever he can find them. And if he thinks he can channel the spirit of Dixie Dean by doing that to himself, then maybe it was on purpose. He's only got one ball. he's only anyway add insult to injury goal ruled off for offside and when full time blew this was just the second game this season this is astonishing where Erling Haaland has not scored a goal Villa held on to win it 1-0 third straight season they've sunk Manchester City they're almost Liverpool in reverse there was that six game streak in which they were not victorious to start the season now collected four straight league wins in a row they are tight at the back they can create stunning goals of wonder in moments, which is really the modern football way.

39:18We're all talking about Bournemouth and Sunderland, as we will, but almost because they slept on that first part of the season. Is this Villa team still somewhat under the radar? Should we be taking them more seriously? Yeah, a little bit. I mean, I'm old enough to remember when Villa were in crisis and they were being held back by PSR. That seems to have stopped. It's amazing what winning football matches will do. Apparently the rules aren't a problem anymore. I think we've forgotten a little bit how good Villa were the season before last and how successful they were, how narrowly they missed out on the Champions League last year.

39:48Villa are a team to be taken seriously and that start was a little bit kind of self-inflicted, I think. They seemed to talk themselves into a sense of crisis that there was a frustration around not being able to kind of fulfil their ambitions and it seemed to seep into the team. But now they look like an Unai Emery side again. As you say, they're well organised. They've got an array of attacking options. They're starting to bed down to settle in together. There was a bit of churn in the summer, which I think buys them a little bit of time. They'd lost Marcus Rashford and Marcus Asensio, who were two of their big figures in the second half of last season.

40:17They will come good and they will put up a decent fight for a Champions League place, I think. Going to Villa Park is never easy and City really don't like it. Highlight of the game, I think, for Villa fans, singing you just crap Morgan Rodgers to Phil Foden. City now tied on points with United. Horror of horrors. They will play Bournemouth next weekend in a clash incredibly between fifth and second. And it's City that are the team in the fifth. roll on that game. It will be magical to witness. Talking about teams on the up against all the odds, Manchester United. Plucky my nose. Brighton too.

40:56Manchester United on a roll. Slayers of mighty Sunderland and Liverpool looking to make it three big boy Premier League wins on the run facing the pluck of Brighton and Hove Albion. Incredibly won on each of their last three visits to Old Trafford, which says everything about the current malaise in Manchester. They won six of the last seven league clashes between the clubs. Brighton began with that confidence, asserted themselves and their idea of football. United forayed forward, the quality seeming more individual than collective. Cunha looked the most dangerous player on the field and it was he that opened the scoring 24th minute, counter-pressing.

41:32Seshko back in the starting line-up combined with Bruno in his 300th game. Some artful skill too from Casemiro to set up Cunha just outside the box, which is where he likes it the most. Roar opened up his body to lash low with venom. Ten minutes later, it would be two. Brighton coughed up the ball, playing out the bat. Luke Shaw counter-pressing, set up Casemiro. Speculative shot, wasn't going on target until it cannoned off the back of Yassina Yari. Left for Bruggen stranded, rolling into the net. Roar, I am old enough to remember when Ruben Amarim's job was under scrutiny. Now even the lucky breaks are going Manchester United.

42:09Yeah, something's changed, I think. a switch seems to have flicked at Manchester United. Whether it's that the players have got a bit more used to the system, I think that's definitely helped. It's amazing what confidence and momentum can do. That win against Sunderland seemed kind of, not meaningless, but kind of insignificant at the times. You kind of thought, well, it's a newly promoted team, unspectacular performance. But it just seems to have brought United chance to breathe. We've said before that Amarim has chance to coach when other teams are playing in Europe, and that is a big advantage.

42:40we saw that against Liverpool they looked organised and disciplined and like they had a game plan it's obvious it's the same game plan everyone uses against Liverpool but it worked and against Brighton they seemed a little bit more like their old selves their very old selves but the other difference that maybe hasn't been commented on enough I think is Cunha Cunha has a real kind of swagger about him and a team in United's position needs someone like that someone who's prepared to say don't worry I'll do this Yeah, I mean, here's a totem of this incredible stat. Man United have scored six goals from an XG of 2.54 in their last two games, having previously been Europe's most underperforming XG team.

43:23That is really the corrected tissue. And it does seem to connect to Cunha coming back into the side. United looked joyful. United looked confident. United looked utterly potent. They were starting to witness until they didn't because Brighton had been punished really for their own lack of clinicality. United seemed to have put the game away just past the hour. Another goal in transition. Another goal finished clinically from mid-range. Shesko rolling to Mbumo, who fired through Dunk's legs, I think it was. 3-0. Just at the moment, I was marvelling at the calm, clinicality, the quality. I was like, who is this team?

44:00But then God bless Brighton. I mean, they are tenacious. Fought their way back. A fine, well-backed free kick. A late Costoulas header, which made things suddenly incredibly nervy. This is the Manchester United I know and love. But then Mbumo, who Amarim later called a working machine, like it's some kind of Rube Goldberg machine. Calmed the nerves. Fine finish after a quite magical Bruno dummy. If you've not seen it, run, don't walk to see it. Netted with virtually the last kick of the ball. Third successive victory now for Manchester United calmed the nerves, the angst. It was a win in which United laboured late.

44:35But what was amazing at the final whistle, the sense of self-awareness, the crown which they held as their own for so long has been tarnished and dented. That's gone. There was just a joy, raw, a cohesive joy, a sense of a football that can be quite potent. and Amirim's vision, which we've laughed at, scoffed at, he seemed on the brink, seems to be taking root. The body language, really, at the final whistle, the smiles, the joy. It really was the emotional high point of the weekend. But so much comes down to momentum, doesn't it? That United seemed totally bereft less than a month ago. And then they get three wins, and they feel like a team that's kind of believing in its coach, a manager who believes in his ideas, all these things that look like weaknesses, like less than four weeks ago are now their strengths.

45:26They've got a bit of joie de vivre about them. They've got a bit of belief about them. And Rog, they're moving up the table really quickly. They're above Liverpool. They're level on points with Manchester City. There's reason to be optimistic around Manchester United now and that's not been true for an awfully long time. Can United get those five straight wins? They're away at Nottingham Forest. They're home to Spurs. Could it be haircut time for the United strand? It's possible. But then, Sean Dyche. Wow. It's definitely a haircut for the United States. It's more Spurs at home that fills the darkness for me after what I've just experienced this afternoon.

46:05But let's look at the team in second place. My beloved Golden War Cherries, Bournemouth 2. Sean Dyche's Nottingham Forest, Neil Clash of Styles, Andoni Ireola, a manager who's an enormous self-professed Haruki Murakami fan. This man is a book lover, facing up to, if I was asked, which is the one Premier League manager who's probably never cracked open a book, Sean Deitch, feeling a little bit dey. You don't like that, do you? I think Sean Deitch has read Bravo 2-0 by Andy McNabb. You do? Yeah. Multiple times. He's also probably, I bet you he reads a lot of Dan Brown books. I feel a bit, I feel that Sean Deitch gets a little bit of a raw deal, generally.

46:45Like Voltaire. Maybe he doesn't read Voltaire. but I Sean Dyche at Nottingham Forest makes a lot of sense to me in the situation that Forest are I can see why they wanted someone who lived nearby the no that's not fair the I can see why Forest thought it's actually quite humble of Maranakis to appoint Sean Dyche because it's a it's an acknowledgement that they're in a battle to avoid relegation it's not an appointment that says this is all going swimmingly it's an appointment that says I've messed up a bit here does it really I think so or is it an appointment that genuinely I mean we have no idea we have no idea like when our manager's chosen you speak to a well-run and identity team Brighton the SEO Paul Barber came on our show I mean he's full of like strategic truths the thing that stuck with me and asked the parish about this about when I got him to tell he's coming on our show in uh for the next running the game about how they found Oliver Glastner uh Paul Barber's motif is the day you start looking for your next manager is the day you appoint your last one.

47:47I would just say the Nuno to Ange Postacoglu to Sean Deitch kind of three managers in a season that we're nine games into it does not speak really of like coherent rational strategy that you're talking about. It doesn't feel like they're poor barbering their way through these managers. Oh, they're 100 % not barbering anything. It's more like whose phone number have I got? Who's nearby? Yeah, Sean Deitch I know he said when he was appointed I think was it that was phrased clear tactical plan. Was that the one that was used three times in the AI announcement by Naughty and Forrest? He said himself, he's like, well, it did come together very quickly.

48:24I don't think there's any coherent thinking at Forrest, but I think the fact that they went for someone like Deitch suggests that Forrest recognise that they've created a problem for themselves that they have to solve. I hate for their fans. I really do. One minute you are walking on sunshine, the next you are, boom, down in the muck with the Evertons of this world. But Sean Dykes came into this one feeling a bit dangerous after his first game in charge, of which he did something Angipos the Coglu never did in his eight-game little cameo. He delivered victory in a big-boy game midweek in Europe.

48:57This very much back down to earth in a bump. In a Premier League in which the coaching has never, ever, this is not even arguable, been better. And Irola, I think this is also a truce. Pound for pound, currently the best coaching mind in the Premier League. Bournemouth scored directly from a corner through Marcus Tavernier. Angers' Achilles heels carry on through Sean Deitch. This is incredibly, almost the anti-Arsenal. This is the 12th set piece goal that Nottingham Forest have conceded from this season. I would not want to be a Forest player on the training ground this week, that's all I'll say.

49:32Backbreaker, a lash for 19-year-old sensation Eli Junior Kruppi, fresh off his double against Crystal Palace. Gent now has four goals and is it six league appearances for Bournemouth? Making the top flight look so easy after being scouted from Bournemouth sister club, Lorient. Further testament to the Gent who is also on our show a lot, and I really admire him, Bill Foley. Just one of the great characters of American sports, a man who just turns his mind to everything and thinks he'll excel at it with almost a fearless madness roar. You spoke to him this week, Bill Foley, Las Vegas Golden Knights owner, Bournemouth owner.

50:09what do you glean about the method in this madness? Because there is both, and I love it. He's really hard not to like, Rog. He's perfect for a journalist. I was speaking to him for The Observer. And Bill Foley has the wonderful habit that everyone should develop of speaking exclusively in anecdotes, which makes my job really easy. I was very happy about that. So he had me at, let me tell you a story. He's a raconteur. He's a raconteur, and he's great company, very charming, very smart, knows what he doesn't know. knows what he does know. And what was really interesting to me... That there is the dividing line in terms of American owners pouring into football.

50:49There's those who know what they know and what they don't know, and there's those who just feel omnipotent. And the ones that succeed the most... FSG also had an incredible learning curve. It's interesting with Foley. And I think this is probably true of FSG as well. Foley seems to be really in the weeds of it. He's involved. Crazy. and talked about who their fifth choice future left back is he can name that person immediately unfortunately it's not mikalenka but go on i don't know about you but i got the impression that he sees it like as an intellectual challenge i think that's what he likes about it like it's this world that he doesn't know and he's learning about it and that's an that's an amazing like trait to have for a man who i think is in his late 70s early 80s he you know he's he's towards the autumn of his career rog that's the nicest way of putting it late spring late spring and he's He's still so keen to learn.

51:37The other thing, speaking to people who work for him, not just at Bournemouth but at Auckland FC, which is his team in New Zealand, is he's got a great eye for people. He's willing to get to delegate. He'll roll his sleeves up and get involved if he has to. But once he finds people he likes, people like Tiago Scoro, who's the sporting director at Bournemouth, who he seems to really trust. An incredible gent. He will empower them. He'll let them flourish. and I think that's something that a lot of owners struggle with as well. He doesn't seem to want to be surrounded by yes-men, which I think is really important, and again, something that maybe other people don't do quite so well.

52:13And it's interesting that he's settled on this multi-club model, which is controversial, and I will admit I'm not necessarily that comfortable with as a purist, as a romantic, but his view is that that is how you have to compete if you're a team like Bournemouth. You have to have that network of talent spotters, of places to part your players, of farm teams, so that when you're buying players, you're not paying someone else, you're just paying yourself. So they get groupie from Lorient, and the money stays in the group. That's ideal. That helps everybody raise up. The groupie in the groupie. Keep the groupie in the groupie.

52:50I think he knows not just the detail of the players they're signing and stuff, but he's looked at the broader strategy of football in general. He said to me that he'd looked at kind of a lot of approaches from a lot of ownership groups and kind of decided that he could be better than all of them. And there's some real confidence there. Yes, I'd say. But he's living up to it. And that's the craziest part of it. That's the craziest part of it. And the crazy thing is he came into the NHL and said, with Las Vegas, Golden War cherries, whatever they're called. Golden Knights. Yeah, thank God. I get my cherries and my knights totally confused.

53:24I don't know when my cherries end and my knights begin. I'm sure he doesn't either. And he said, yeah, we're going to win the Stanley Cup within six years. And then they did. And I asked him, when I first interviewed him, I was like, what data had you seen that made you read? And he's like, oh, it wasn't data. The journalists were just pissing me off. I got my Irish up in me, which I just love that phrase. But then he goes and does it anyway. That's the incredible thing. And he did it in New Zealand as well. There's Auckland FC in their debut season in the A-lead, which is in a whole different country.

53:51It's not even in New Zealand. It's in Australia. They won that. So I asked him why Bournemouth have been so slow. They should have won something by now. They're letting him down. And who does he own in Scotland? Hibernian. He owns Hibernian. But again, that I think is testament to his smarts because it makes perfect sense to me, and Scottish listeners won't enjoy this, but if you're an English club, it makes perfect sense to buy a team in Scotland. It really does because it's a similar culture-ish, similar weather-ish and in terms of kind of bringing players into the country it helps with your kind of work permit stuff they're cheap great stadiums, competitive lead, similar styles all that stuff it's a real kind of obvious synergy and yet until Foley did it no one had thought of it and now Tony Bloom's done it with Hearts as well across the city I thought the guy in succession had Hearts Logan Roy Did he sell it to Tony Bloom?

54:49They bought hearts by mistake because he was Hibbs, that's right, yeah, yeah. I do wonder whether this rush to buy Scottish teams, particularly the Edinburgh teams, has been inspired by wanting to be like Loden Roy. That's it. Ultimately, that's the secret to great football success, but it doesn't matter. Bournemouth fans are in heaven. They got to sing at Tuchon Deitch. You're getting sacked in the car park. We'll get back to that in a second. For his party role, he remains quite stoic. I love what he said after this game. It's nine games into the season. and 18 points is a very good amount. It's not enough.

55:22It's not as many as we can. What are Bournemouth this season, Ro? Are they pace setters in the mile for a record run where they're just going to drop away? Or in this season where all the big teams, bar Arsenal, seem deeply flawed, imperfect, is this a brave new world built of Care Bears, of Candy, of Cherry Dreams? It reminds me a little bit of last season, Rog, where, as I say, you had one team, in that case Liverpool, in this case Arsenal, who kind of kept themselves separate from the fray. And because everyone else was kind of relatively evenly matched, everyone takes points off each other.

55:58The points totals kind of remain suppressed. And teams like Bournemouth, like Brighton, like Newcastle, like Villa have a chance to keep up with the kind of established giants who you expect to see in the top six. The romantic in me wants Bournemouth to stay there for as long as possible. and I remember saying I think maybe last year I didn't see any reason why Brighton couldn't get into the Champions League and I feel the same about Bournemouth, it strikes me as possible that a team like Bournemouth not necessarily Bournemouth, will get into the Champions League but just a little sort of cold dose of realism generally they fall away, the advantage they have is they're not in Europe so it's one game a week, that should play in their favour but what we've seen of Iriola's team so far is they do tend to show a little bit of sign of fatigue around Christmas.

56:46The romantic in you. May it be as prophetic as the Irish in Bill Foley. For Forrest, Sean Dyke does a dose of reality about the enormous job that is to come. They remain in 18th place with Manchester United up next. Worry not, Dwight McNeil to Forrest in January is a certainty and good old shite will save ye. Talking about the teams who are surprising us with joy and wonder and just a collective fist in which they smite all comers. This result, Chelsea 1, Sunderland 2. A game which began with misdirection. Chelsea four straight wins all competitions, seared down the flanks four minutes in. Alejandro Garnaccio netted his first goal for the club through the goalkeeper's legs, unleashed the same, sitting on the advertising hoarding signature selly.

57:38That was almost a reminder of his doom at Manchester United. but that was just foreshadowing because Chelsea looked set to soar. It felt like they were going to go two points behind Arsenal at the top of the season. But Sunderland, this Sunderland, are so admirably tenacious. They surge with collective confidence. Their energy on display in midfield, transition flooded forward with wonder. Chelsea just miss Cole Palmer more than ever in this game. His ingenuity, his ideas. 33-year-old gem Granit Xhaka and his 20-year-old sidekick Noah Siddiqui smothered the big name. Reputations of Enzo Fernandes and Moises Caicedo.

58:19Chelsea just instantly after screwing turned into slop, carelessness, often undisciplined in possession. Sunderland brought all the intensity. Their mentality was fearless. They got back into it. Wilson Isidore finished off some long throw cores, terror slop. fourth goal of the season for him. From that point on, Chelsea just ceded initiative, possession, control, and Sunderland made them pay. 93rd minute. Such joy for a fan base that deserves it. A 50-yard long ball counter-attack. Really a symbol in one move of the surprise our whole campaign has been. Brian Brobby, one of my favourite named footballers of all time, held the ball up strongly almost forever until young Moroccan Shemsdine Taibbi strolled and finished, almost like a smooth criminal.

59:06First goal for Sunderland and fitting triumph, really a signature triumph for Reggie Labrie, who made aggressive substitutions rather than just being happy, as most coaches would be with a point at Stamford Bridge. He said post-game, and I love this, that his goal is just to get to 40 points and avoid relegation. But we are watching. 17 points earned. The best start to a season by a promoted side since Hull in 2008. in the top four. It's searingly magnificent and none of us saw this coming. No, even with the amount of money they spent in the summer, even with the ambition they showed with their signings, I think it always felt like Sunderland would be delighted to be nine games in and 12th.

59:50You kind of thought that would be the absolute limit of their, like their Overton window of possibility was 12th. And what they've done has been incredible. They look really comfortable, Rog. They look like they are in no way like overawed by the Premier League. Normally what happens is the team that comes up through the playoffs has to recruit so much that it takes them ages to gel. It never quite clicks and they go straight back down. That's happened certainly in the last two years, much more frequently than previously. Sunderland bought really, really smartly. They obviously had a strategy for it.

1:00:23They were prepared to commit money to it and they're reaping the rewards. Looking at them, I don't think they'll survive in the Champions League places, but there is no reason why they couldn't be looking at a top half finish. It's this season of utter madness, and you know, they play next, Everton. I do hope they're making a season of Sunderland Till I Die. To be candid, Slow Horses, this new season, they've kind of tonally gone a little bit different. They've gone for comedy, and it doesn't quite cohere. A Sunderland Till I Die of joy and happiness and just ebullient, glorious football. Why would you watch that?

1:00:57No one needs that, Rog. All we want to live through is vicariously through other people's misery. Give it the people what they want. Talking about misery for Chelsea, booed off at full time. Good news. Lads kept all 11 players on the field for 90 minutes. Baby steps. But this was the second time Chelsea have wilted after a Champions League week. Even more concertingly, I think it's eight points that they've given away from winning positions with Spurs, Barcelona and Arsenal still to come. And Maresca always seems to be, even when he's winning games, seems to be just one game away from being back on the brink.

1:01:34In other matches, Newcastle 2, full and 1. Relief for Eddie Howe, 90th minute winner for Bruno Guimores. Luke Hitch had cancelled out Jacob Murphy's first half strike. Bruno first missed a fine chance for a winner, then somehow deep into the 90th minute when every leg around him was tiring, still had the engine to drive himself forward and pick up some slop of a rebound and scurry the ball home. Bluntsdale, Fulham have stealthily lost four straight games. But Roar, just a magnificent week north of the wall, which is really where the North East is in my imagination. First time in Premier League history, both Newcastle United and Sunderland scored after the 90th minute winners on the same day.

1:02:18It's like a throwback to the days of yore when that tough coal region up there was just a footballing powerhouse. There's a romance to it. There is. It's one of the traditional heartlands of the game in England. and it felt like that was a kind of part of English football's history rather than its present. It is brilliant to see them both doing well. I doubt they're happy for each other. And that makes me love it all the more. Wolves 2, Burnley 3. Wolves produced a, can we say spirited, but yet again, a doomed performance. Burnley went 2-0 up with ease, made the mistake of texting JJ Watt to celebrate.

1:02:57Of course, then Wolves stormed right back into it with goals from Jorgen Strand, Larsson and Marshall Minuzzi. Never text too early. That's my life lesson from that. Bottom side had a precious point in their grasp, but then Lyle Foster's last gasp winner broke Wolves' hearts and led to really sad, heartbreaking scenes at the final whistle. Manager Vito Pereira tried to console angry Wolves fans who sang at their own manager. You're getting sacked in the morning. It was a really, really broken, sad scene, but it made me realise, well, modern football, essentially now just broken down to the different adaptations, the different strains of you getting sacked in the morning chant, depending on who's singing it, how they're singing it.

1:03:39It's like Inuits have 83 words for snow and the Irish have 99 different words for rain roar. This is all it boils down to now. Football is just a game of corners and people alleging that other people are losing their jobs imminently. That's all it is. Or their own manager. Depends who's singing it, how you're singing it. That is why we watch. But there is always someone sending it. Yeah, otherwise. At all times. Yeah, otherwise legally, I think it's genuinely you cannot blow the final whistle back to Friday night. Talking about getting sacked in the morning. Leeds 2, West Ham 1. Leeds claim their first Premier League win at home since the opening day of the season.

1:04:18Piling on the pressure for West Ham, who in truth lasted longer in this game than we thought. They wore 177 seconds. Brendan Aronson God bless you Brendan reacting first to some scrap in the box as he had the whole goal to aim at and decided for reasons unknown to edge it by driving it right through the keeper more West Ham Shambolic defending off a corner I think the ninth goal that West Ham have conceded in nine games from a corner a league record well done lads see the season's not a total bust poor Nuno winless in four games as West Ham manager He's amazing. Dude seems to take one job and soars and then one job in which he just, you know what, I'm going to flame out quickly in this one.

1:05:03This is a bit like watching Nuno Spurs 2, Electric Boogaloo, Roar. Four points through eight games. West Ham's worst ever start to a Premier League season. Worst start in 52 years. Plenty of people who just find it really tough to work in London. Maybe he doesn't like the house prices. The commuting. The commuting. It's too busy. He prefers a smaller city, a softer pace of life. He likes a parochial life. I'm talking about parochial life. Everton nil, Tottenham Hotspur 3, a game. I mean, I talked about it a bit at the top. I flew in. I spent a lot of time around Everton. The last four days we began our journey, our odyssey across Britain by spending the day with Jordan Pickford, which was really absolutely ecstatic to be at Everton, to feel that buzz, to feel that joy.

1:05:55St. Jack Grealish, Iliad Dye, two football players capable of ballad-worthy moments playing with us raw. This is the kind of excitement that we have not seen in a while. But I think the lesson I took from this today is never buzz too early because Spurs entered with the best away record in the Premier League. Yes, they were booed off after floundering last week at home to Aston Villa. But this game was really a Thomas Frank, stripped to its essence masterclass. Spurs lay deep. They knew that Everton lacked fullbacks. Everton lacked a potent striker, could be safely invited into the final third.

1:06:32At times, Everton set up camp in and around the Tottenham box, yet Tottenham seemed like the more likely team to score in those moments, which was truly frightening. They were defensively robust. They were masterfully marauded in moments. They knew they could score on set pieces. Essentially, they knew they could prey on Everton mistakes to undo us, and it went to plan. It was painful, but it was also admirable. It was a bloody nightmare. J-Dubs and I made a film today about my first trip to the Hill Dickinson experience and to watch my team get kicked in the down below by a Spurs who did not have...

1:07:07Spurs were not that good. That's what everyone at Everton was saying in the Hill Dickinson. They're not that good. They didn't have to be that good to utterly thrash us. It's strange, isn't it, that modern football does seem, or the Premier League this season, the worst thing that you can have for any team, pretty much, not just Everton, is the ball. It's very odd. Like, we've completely disincentivised having the ball. I mean, this reminded me of the old Mourinho peak moment where, you know, he talked with honesty. He said, when you have possession, you have the ball. And when you have the ball, you can make mistakes.

1:07:41And ultimately, football is decided by the team that is ready to leap on the other team's mistakes. To be not proactive, to not be the protagonist is utterly to be glorious. That is currently kind of where we are. But what's the natural conclusion of that? Is it just two teams refusing to take possession of it? Is it kicking the ball out deliberately from another team's throw in? Just genuinely give away a penalty, but just never give away a corner, I think, is where football is stripped to its essence. Spurs, God bless you, despite the home incontinence, which is the only thing I can call it, in third place.

1:08:17Again, that another symbol of the surreal tremors of this season. And I was left feeling, you asked me earlier, did it feel like home? Honestly, ultimately, Hill Dickinson felt like, if you're ever upgraded at the hotel and you walk in in that moment with your key card and you're just like, oh my God, this is amazing. But you always know you're not at home. You're in a hotel room. that feeling never leaves your rule that's what it felt like we were just like in an unbelief still Everton because the pain was there the suffering was there the fume the blue fume was there but my god we're in one of the most beautiful hotel rooms I've ever been in that's interesting is it yeah it makes you want it makes you wonder how much like how easy it is to translate the feeling of home to a new building and whether we maybe should be just a little bit more careful about where we put our football clubs, because that feeling of home is quite important.

1:09:08It's overrated. Yay, hotel rooms. Can I just tell you, it was an agony. There was a deep sadness. We had to film the end of the, you know, to try and give some uplift to pull this film together, make it cohere. And I didn't say this because it was painful, but something happened to me this weekend that I closed with that put it all into context. We were going to wrecks them. We went away with wrecks them, with the wrecks them away fans, which was magnificent. and we'd went to Middlesbrough, a town I've never been to before. And we had to meet the Wrexham away buses super early. We were going an Uber at five o 'clock in the morning to make sure we got to the departure point.

1:09:45We were going through the blackness of night just across the Welsh border. Going through a crossroads, we had the green light and a tiny, tiny little can of an Uber. Me, producer J-dubs, a couple of cameramen, the driver. And as we went across the crossroads, a huge red truck just steamed in through a red light. We pivoted, jackknifed. The red truck brakes on, kind of slightly jackknifed. There was a second where we looked out almost in slow motion. The truck ended. To say inches would be a slight exaggeration, but not by much from slamming into our side where we were sat. It was a moment of total blackness.

1:10:29Honestly, we looked at each other. us, the drivers, not saying they were drunk drivers, but it looked like they'd had a few. And then we just, both of us zoomed on. We had a bus to catch. God knows where the hell they were going and I hope they got there. I didn't think about it again, that moment, because it was a crazy day, crazy time on the bus, crazy trip to Middlesbrough, just a joy. The Wrexham fans, unbelievable. The Middlesbrough fans, unbelievable. But then I got home, finished, got back to my hotel room, a real hotel room, not the Hill Dickinson. I sat down, I called my wife. It just hit me then how close to dying we all were in that moment.

1:11:05What a way to go, by the way. What a way to go in an Uber on the way to catch a very drunk bus on the way to Middlesbrough. But it kind of puts getting smacked by Spurs 3-0. I hope I get to experience getting smacked by Spurs 3-0 many, many times. Lots of that, not the Crossroads thing ever again. Yeah, that perspective is probably quite important, I think, yeah. Yeah, God bless. I wouldn't wish that upon anybody. But it puts all of this ridiculousness into context. And let's end with a letter from Trent Sugar. What a name, definitely American, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Roar, do the honours, baby. Yeah, Trent Sugar is a world-class name, Rog.

1:11:44No one's denying that. You don't have Trent Sugars in England. There is no one called Trent Sugar in this country. There's a River Trent, which is where, wasn't it? It's the Middlesbrough on the River Trent. It's not on the River Trent. Nottingham's on the River Trent. What river is Middlesbrough? The Tees. There you go. I actually looked that up yesterday, but in my post-trauma, I've eliminated it. Now you're going to use that as an excuse for everything. Roar, back to Trent Sugar. The Wharf is the best river in Britain. What towns on the Wharf, Roar? There's no towns on the Wharf, Rog. That's why it's so good.

1:12:13It's a countryside river. Is it really? The best type of river. I live on the Wharf. You do? I live within a two-minute walk of the Wharf. If there's not a football stadium backing onto our aforementioned river, is it really? It's a world-class river. It's got no towns on it. It's just what makes it great. Rog and Rory, your podcast is perhaps my favourite part of the week. Almost better than listening to the football itself. I agree with that, actually, at the moment. Watching and listening to football is massively overrated. I don't know how that works. Here is the question. Erlin Harland lives to tear defences apart.

1:12:43His life is apparently a search for human perfection and marginal gains, with every second devoted to self-improvement. I'm fascinated to see him take time out of his life to launch his YouTube channel and a second career as an influencer on the side. First, because it kind of goes against his total dedication to football. And second, because he doesn't appear to be the extrovert kind of put yourself out there football personality. What do you make of it? And is it the future of football? All players just becoming their own commercial platforms. Come to Tulsa, I'd love to. Trent. What river is Tulsa?

1:13:13The answer to where we're coming up depends on the answer to that question. While we work on that. Do you know the quote from Phil Brown about rivers? Phil Brown, the former Hall manager, gave the greatest quote in football history. A lot of people think it's like football bloody hell when Ferdison said that or the one about grass from Brian Clough. But the actual greatest quote in football history is Phil Brown, the former Hall manager, saying that he has always drawn great strength from rivers. Is that amazing? Yeah. Is that not second place to Brendan Rodgers when asked who his great influence in football was?

1:13:48And he said, I've always influenced myself. I saw Brendan today. You did? He doesn't change. No, and he's still influencing himself in great days and in darkness. But raw, Brendan Rodgers, in terms of football memory, will be up here. Erling Haaland, definitely a footnote. But it is an incredible question. If you've not seen the video which Trent Sugar has written about Run, Don't Walk to YouTube, where Erling has racked up, I think, over 3.7 million views and 485 ,000 subscribers. And is it three days since he launched? His channel with a video entitled Day in the Life of a Pro Footballer, in which he talks us to his diet.

1:14:28Jen has maple syrup daily in his coffee and he loves fatty steaks. His health regimen stands in front of a red light to get vitamin D. Also has an enormous giant teddy bear in the corner of his kitchen because, you know, everyone needs cuddles. It is quite the watch and quite the decision for a dryly funny character. but he seems like an introverted extrovert to me. What did you make of it? Yeah, I've spent time with Harland as well. He's not necessarily the automatic choice for a YouTuber, a YouTube channel person. This is Erling, influencer, subscribe. Smash that like button. Like I did my testicles on the post today at Aston Villa.

1:15:11I mean, to answer the question, they are all already their own commercial platforms. That horse bolted a long time ago. it makes sense that Harland has kind of looked at YouTube and thought, this is a way that I can kind of take my voice, get my personality out to more people. You have to remember, I guess, that they're all young men. They see what influencers are doing, they see what YouTubers are doing, and they kind of want a part of that, partly for, I guess, for kind of financial reward maybe, but more because it's what that generation does. That's how they speak to themselves and speak to each other.

1:15:45So I can see why he's done it. I guess the bitter question is, do we think that in a year's time, he's sat there choosing his thumbnails? I think probably not. I think that is quite fascinating. I mean, look, number one, I would say in terms of the deviation from the monastic focus that Erling Haaland has for scoring goals, Trent, I would not worry whatsoever. One of the secrets, the dirty secrets of being a footballer is that It's an incredibly boring life when it's stripped down. Footballers have an immense amount of time on their hands. You know, devil makes, what is it, work for idle footballer hands to do whatever it is.

1:16:23I think the same, making YouTubes is incredibly hard. One is easy. Two is fine. It's the 11th or 12th. If the fun is still there, you know, if you still have that energy, that's going to be a fascinating grind. It feels like, just judging on the first one, City don't really want him filming on their ground. So finding the storylines is going to be really interesting to see how he builds on the narrative. If he's got the same stamina as a YouTuber, it's bloody hard being a YouTuber. A man has got stamina for scoring goals. I mean, it'd be very interesting to see if he has the same in front of the camera.

1:16:59I think it's a brilliant move for Haaland. He's got a team behind him. They're very ambitious. They want to work out how this man who is scoring goals, We talked about it week on week at an unprecedented level, but his commercial profile, you know, his aura. Generally, he doesn't get the love that we think about Mbappe, that we think about, you know, even Dembele. He has dreams. He has dreams of winning the Ballon d 'Or. You almost need that off the field presence. You can't just score just an absolute record breaking number of goals to win the awards anymore. You need to project yourself out into the culture.

1:17:37And it is fascinating watching him almost cut out the middle person, deliver the messages. And his messages are unique. He is an idiosyncratic character. Deliver them straight from the heart roar and present himself. This brand is a detailed, deeply obsessive, dedicated to the craft personality while dispensing. One of the things that was amazing, he dispenses life lessons. Self-sufficiency at a young age is good. I mean, these things that he tells us, I found it really fascinating. Sacrifice, dedication. And then the final thing, we've talked about this one before. It's bloody hard to project your image at Manchester City.

1:18:14More than any club, Pep is the brand. So this YouTube strategy almost breaks him out of that and can travel wherever he goes, whatever club he goes to next. I love it. I do admire Harlan Roor. I'm trying to work out what he's going to do with future episodes. we can't wait for him to go to Norway and build beaver dams with his dad yeah well he likes the outdoor life does Erling Haaland he's Norwegian there will be fishing I suspect at some point and yeah I think that makes absolute sense that he needs to build a kind of like a brand awareness for himself because he is obviously incredibly famous and we know him kind of intimately as a footballer but we know very little about him and I think that's been deliberate to a large extent he is a curious person to spend time with Erling Haaland but he doesn't have the commercial profile that maybe his ability warrants.

1:19:04That I suspect is something that he's aware of and in terms of kind of that personal acclaim that players do want, you don't get that at City because all of it goes to Guardiola. City themselves seem to find that really baffling. They don't understand why their players very often don't win individual awards and you think, well, it's because the coach gets all the credit. You can't have both. It's not possible. I know, it's like both his tactics and where he's placing the pocket in avant-garde places on his cargo pants, there's no air for another football to read commercially. I think the test of the YouTube channel will be how long it kind of engages Haaland's attention.

1:19:39But you're absolutely right, Rog, to say that the alternative is Xbox, like messing about at home. Footballers work for a couple of hours a day. They'll have a little nap, and I suspect Haaland will do extra gym work. But ultimately, he's not got a particularly kind of... The golf balls don't hit themselves. schedule of professional commitments beyond playing football and training for football so that he has time to do it. And it's probably quite a good creative outlet for him. I can't wait for the Erling Haaland, Ken Burns version on the history of the Donner Kebab pizza, which I know is his favourite.

1:20:14I just say to more Erling Haaland in our lives, I think he is a force for good. Trent, send us your postal. We'll send you a coveted Men in Blazers patch. Keep sending your letters to meninblazers at gmail.com. any of your questions, your insights, whatever you want to ask beautiful Rory. That is it for today. We are headed back to New York City. I, for one, am glad that I'm still in one piece. Rory, we're going to go and tie one on in Liverpool tonight, but huge, huge thanks for coming down from Scotland to be with us in our loving arms in person. We don't take it for granted, you crowned Prince of Harrogate.

1:20:49I'm considering relocating my prince. Prinship? principality to somewhere north of the, actually north of the Wall Rog, somewhere, a beautiful sort of wind swept Why has the Duke of York kind of tarnished the brand? Just being, yeah, the Duke of York's not made it it's not been a great time for anyone anywhere near York, our Duke has fallen Oh my god We'll say that for our other podcast today in royal shame This is Rog sending you huge love, let's not take a second of watching football together for granted, and courage For more information, visit www.fema.gov