Arsenal Pull Away, Tottenham Hotspur Relegation Fears, & FA Cup Fifth Round: Big Weekend Preview 03/06/26

13:53Rory Smith:Does he not sound like he's right out of the Arsenal Academy? He could easily be out of the Arsenal Academy. I mean, no, I think that name has percolated down to me from the television.

14:02Rog Bennett:Most known for modernising classic recipes from old family cookbooks, taught to bake by his mother. God, I wish I could bake. Next one up, one of my favourite names of all time. It's Regan Booty. British Bake Off or Footballer? That's a footballer. Did you know that or are you guessing? I think, oh, I don't know. I think I know that. Yeah, he plays for the wood. He's an incredible fifth tier footballer. for the mighty, mighty Boreham Wood of National League fame. God bless you, Regan Booty. I think it actually started off in your neck of the woods. Huddersfield Town, baby. Next one up. God, this sounds ecstatic.

14:40Rog Bennett:It makes me hungry for the World Cup. Sandro Farmhouse.

14:44Rory Smith:I am pretty sure if there was a footballer called Sandro Farmhouse, I would have heard of them. So I'm going to say that's Bake Off.

14:48Rog Bennett:Yes. Everyone's shouting at their pod radio. Either shut up, Rog, this is an awful game. Or they're saying Series 13, Sandro Farmhouse. knows how to try more ball decorations, visually appealing cakes, big, big, big fitness background. Sandro Formhaus honestly sounds like an MLS player that Inter Miami would sign. Giuseppe Del Anno. Giuseppe Del Anno.

15:10Rory Smith:Is that both? Because there must have been a footballer called that at some point, but I think that's a Bake Off contestant.

15:16Rog Bennett:Did win the World Cup of Italy in the 30s. Yes, but Series 12 engineering background, technical accuracy. Final one. Oh, this one's an easy one. Max Dickhoff. Son of Paul. Yes, son of Paul. Footballer. Yes, I was going to say, Son of Paul, Baker of Footballer. He is indeed from footballing royalty. Trammy Rovers on loan from Mansfield Town. He'll be watching the boys score first against the arse this weekend, Roar. I'll just say, you did quite well. You'd get the coveted Hollywood handshake. Quick one. My book came out this week. It's been an incredible joy to see it out in the world, to see it in your hands, all the photos you guys are sending of you on the beach or at work or whatever, reading the book.

16:02Rog Bennett:I'm so bloody grateful to everyone that supported it. Link in the show notes to get your copy right now. With my love, we had an incredible celebration in Manhattan on Monday night. I told myself not to cry. I did tear up just a little bit. I got to be candid. that it's such a mad thing to write a book. It's really an ordeal where you're kind of lost inside your head for years. And the relief I felt to be surrounded by family, friends, the MIB team, a lot of GFOPs there was incredibly nourishing. This community is so bloody nourishing. I just say let's keep putting joy out into the world together.

16:42Rog Bennett:And talking about joy into the community, Newcastle United, against Manchester City Saturday 3pm Eastern time on ESPN+. Other nations empower their Champions League contenders by giving them convenient weekend kick-off times. England makes Newcastle and City rumble 8pm Saturday before the two host Barcelona Tuesday night and poor Man City have to travel to Real Madrid on Wednesday night. What a bloody grind. Raw, this was the week in which we saw City wobble and blink in the league. The draw with Nottingham Forest. That despite the British media's best attempts to try and conjure the image of them being relentless title hunters.

17:26Rog Bennett:They are what they are. They're like a vulnerable squad in transition. I will say, if you've not seen it, go to our Instagram. The clearance off the line at the death by Nottingham Forest Murillo was amazing. and if Arsenal do end up winning the league by two points or Forest stay up by one, just remember, this is living proof that football is a game of the finest margins. But Raw, City are what we rationally thought they are, right? Just a weird melange of new talent trying to bed in and Pep trying to see if he has the energy to find his next big idea.

17:57Rory Smith:What's that line from Mindo, stop trying to make Fetch a thing? I think that's the kind of vibe that there's been around City for quite a long time. They did, I mean, to be fair, they did win, what, five games in a row, which in the modern Premier League is an astonishing run of success. No one does that. I've got to admit, when Forest equalised for the second time, I did think of you, Rog. I did think, Rog has been saying for several weeks, are we not overdoing this a bit? And you're right. The City have been probably better than maybe we thought they might be, given what happened last season.

18:26Rory Smith:They are on the road to recovering what they were, but they're nowhere near a finished article. They've not been especially consistent. They've not been especially convincing, even in winning those games in a row. it sounds like bitterness coming from me but I don't think anyone watched them necessarily at Anfield and thought that team deserves to win that game they took their chances and you get credit for that but they weren't building up ahead of steam in the way that Guardiola's teams did five or six years ago there's a reason that obviously people want there to be a title race you want a little bit of pressure, of jeopardy but they never look like convincing challenges to Arsenal and for those of us who said in public more than once that Arsenal will probably walk it, then this isn't a bad development.

19:09Rory Smith:But it does mean that City maybe will look at the FA Cup now, as well as the Champions League and the Carabao Cup, and think there's still plenty of chances to win trophies here, even if the Premier League now does look like they've maybe that game maybe sealed it or will come to be seen as the point that it was sealed.

19:25Rog Bennett:Oof, you know, I'm not quite there yet to be candid, but I do know that Pep's side have got five massive games in four competitions of their own before the international break, starting with this match at Newcastle in the FA Cup. We've got West Ham in the Premier League, then away and home with perennial Champions League, knockout, nemesis, Real Madrid. After the second game, they only have the small matter of Arsenal in the Carabao final March 22nd. This run of games roar is really the crucible of destiny for Manchester City. I'll borrow a Jeff Bezos line because I'm sure he coined it. It's all or nothing.

20:01Rory Smith:Definitely, that's Bezos original. Nobody else could have come up with that. Yeah, nobody. You need to be a billionaire to come up with that sort of wisdom. Yeah, it's huge, I think, the next few weeks for City because, as you say, they've got a Champions League tie against Real Madrid that, to be honest, they should win because Real have been very up and down under Alvaro Arbeloa. They don't look like they maybe live up to their reputation, to be perfectly honest, at this moment. They'll expect to go through in the FA Cup, although Newcastle, they've played Newcastle so often that becomes especially complicated.

20:32Rory Smith:You've got managers trying to surprise each other. But you've surely... They've seen each other naked so many times now.

20:40Rog Bennett:Oh, Roy, you've just conjured an image of Eddie Howe's Newcastle assistant, Jason Tindall, just leaning back and having a post-coital cigarette. But keep going. He'd be smiling. He'd be smiling.

20:53Rory Smith:Obviously, it's St James' Park. Newcastle will be looking at this season and thinking, well, the FA Cup maybe can save it too. So this is a really difficult time for City. But over the next three weeks, we are going to see what kind of season this is going to be. Is it full transition for Manchester City? Or is it one that has been a little bit up and down, but ends on this huge, triumphant note?

21:12Rog Bennett:Yep, Newcastle in on the jerky way or back! Because they just beat Manchester United. Haircuts off again, lads. Is that still a thing? With 10 men and Asula won the goal, I think they're going to win this rule. I think it's going to be a tough night to be a full bottle of beer on Tyneside.

21:30Rory Smith:I have the same suspicion, Roger. I honestly think Newcastle are quite well positioned as a cup team at the moment. They've been worse in the lead than we would have expected. And there is a kind of growing sense that maybe Newcastle and Eddie Howe have reached the end of their road. And there might be a bit of a parting of the ways in the summer. But they're physical, they're intense. They've got a really clear style of play. they're good ingredients to beat teams in knockout football, especially at home. So I think Newcastle will take it.

21:57Rog Bennett:We're going to get to see Jason Tindall, arms behind his head. Oh, Marvelites. Stop thinking about that, America. We're going to get to more FA Cup in a moment, but we need to touch upon a sensitive subject which means this podcast will carry an MA rating on Common Sense Media. Got to talk about Tottenham Hotspur. Roar. I wrote about this in my newsletter this morning. This was the game in which I started to really fear for you Spurs fans watching the team go down 3-1 at home to Crystal Palace. Now 11 games without a victory in the Premier League for the first time in human civilisation slash history.

22:35Rog Bennett:Every game seemed to throw up a more and more ridiculous stat than the last. This one from Duncan Alexander. Premier League wins at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium since January 2025. Oliver Glasner too Thomas Frank too Angi Posta Coglu too look I love Spurs I've always found empathy I believe they are the Everton of the South you know they're a second club in a fiercely felt local rivalry I will say one Arsenal supporting friend of mine was texting me all night long things like us winning the league and Spurs going down it's been my dream since I was sentient I mean where's that even come from I got another one.

23:16Rog Bennett:We're going to need a new word. Schadenfreude just does not capture it. It's just unbelievable. We'll talk about that at a better time. What a fair roar is Igor Tudor seems almost like Arsenal fans are allowed to do the Spurs job interview. He is lost. The players have no fight. And most crucially, like from an Everton POV, the fans have suffered to such an extent. And in the worst times of Everton, which are very recent, the fans did ultimately save the club. They got behind the club. They were the ones who lifted everybody in our recent dark relegation kind of edges. Spurs fans seem to have given up on their very, very, very toxic reality.

23:58Rory Smith:I think there's an element of PTSD, isn't there? I think that it's almost so bad that I'm not sure. It must feel like it's not real. It must feel like it's impossible that it could be this bad. You know, they won the Europa League last season. They are in the last 16 of the Champions League. And yet, I was the same as you, Rog. I kind of looked at that Palace game and thought, OK, that's a home game and it's the Palace side that no longer really have anything to play for, that are very, very much up and down. If you win that, not only kind of keep that distance on the bottom four, but you leapfrog leads as well.

24:32Rory Smith:And suddenly there's a little bit of, there's a gap, there's daylight between you and relegation. Everything settles down, win a couple more games, finish the season safely. the way that they lost it that's the first time I've really thought okay this genuinely could happen it is possible that Spurs get relegated which is a ridiculous sentence and if I'm honest I'm a little bit worried that I think we need to be quite humane about this that if Spurs were to go down in the year that Arsenal won the title that would be so bleak for Spurs fans that I think the rest of football probably needs to get round them and make sure they're okay We've got to record a charity single for them, right?

25:11Rory Smith:We need a charity single. But I did a piece on, and this sounds very kind of saccharine and schmaltzy, but I did a piece a couple of weeks ago on the Sheffield Derby, Rog, where Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United, it was a really fierce rivalry. And I interviewed lots of musicians who support Sheffield Wednesday. Most of the musicians in Sheffield, which has a really, really lively music scene, support Wednesday. Pulp, the Arctic Monkeys, Richard Hawley, Heaven 17, the human lead, they are all Wednesdayites. Did you interview Heaven's 17? I did not. Glenn Gregory, I did not interview. But I spoke to Richard Hawley.

25:42Rory Smith:I spoke to someone from Pulp. And we were talking about it. And someone I spoke to said that it's a small city, Sheffield. And he said that even his friends who support Sheffield United had said to him that seeing Wednesday get relegated in the derby, which is what happened, United relegated them, after a season when they've had all these problems with their ownership, still facing a risk that they might not exist at some point in the future, even his blade supporting friends had said that's a bit much and I feel the same about Arsenal and Tottenham if Spurs go down in the year Arsenal win the lead I think we should suspend the kind of desire to kick people while they're down that marks so much of football tribalism and say that is a bit much

26:25Rog Bennett:I don't know a single Arsenal fan that is willing to say you know what there's a line we're over it let me pull out a helping hand to my Tottenham it is the one rivalry that I just do not think it works like that. But fans, you tell me. Also, the way you've just framed it, they won in Europe. They won the children watching. Here's the moral. Looking at Crystal Palace 2, never win things. It's a trap.

26:54Rog Bennett:Roar, I know you don't want to talk about Liverpool, but I do because today we have Wolves Liverpool 2, Electric Boogaloo, 3pm Eastern on ESPN Plus. After Tuesday night's quite ecstatic 94th minute winner, Wolves back to life like Han Solo. Cue great escape dreams, slightly deranged, and the most severe of Liverpool post-mortems. Start with Wolves very quickly. The wins against Aston Villa and Liverpool, euphoric, so powerful to witness. The little bit that's still human of me, love them. This is it, this club is relegated. I mean, the championship duels beckon, but they're still laughing. They're still celebrating.

27:35Rog Bennett:Watching Robert Plant, that is a man that, believe me, has seen everything. Watching him just sit there with a tear rolling down his face raw in a disastrous season. The fact that they're still experiencing joy and togetherness. It's the best of football.

27:49Rory Smith:Yeah, so I go back and forth on this, Roger. I think it's absolutely fascinating. In one sense, yeah, it is. It shows that even after this darkest season, a season of nightmares for Wolves, that it's still produced enough that the fans will actually remember it quite fondly. Not just beating Villa and beating Liverpool, but the kind of gallows humour, the sense of kind of togetherness they've got out of knowing they have been relegated from about October is amazing. It shows that you can find, there's a real valuable life lesson in there that even when times are darkest, you can find joy. But the other thing that I think is much funnier, Rog, is that most Wolves fans accepted a long time ago they were going down.

28:27Rory Smith:But now they've kind of had three relatively improbable results together and there will be an awful lot of Wolves fans who've looked at their fixture list from here on in, looked at their points total, how West Ham, Forest and Spurs are playing and thought we could stay up and what's hilarious is that even a team that had accepted being relegated to the extent that it no longer caused them any pain, football has found a way to contrive the circumstances so they still get really hurt and on the last day of the season there'll be some kid crying at Molineux as they're going down. I think that is genuinely hilarious.

28:58Rog Bennett:I love the way you're describing it. First of all, Wool's motto is, out of darkness cometh light. And we've seen that this past couple of weeks. The way you make Wool sound like one of those stories you read about how we buried mum and just after the ceremony, there was a knock from under the earth in the coffin and she wasn't dead and she's alive again. She's dead. For little, Virgil van Dijk talked afterwards. I don't know why I'm laughing. This is awful. We were slow. We were predictable. Sloppy in possession of wrong, indecision making. I mean, that is a lot for him to say, and it's pointed.

29:31Rog Bennett:I mean, it's almost like a subtweet. I mean, this is Liverpool. Slow-footed, paceless, lacking control. Really, I think for the fans, POV, the inexcusable thing is they're shorn of excitement. Slott's team scored just 11 times in the first half all season. They leaked late, late goals, become almost like a footballing version of an NBA team. You all need to tune in for the last couple of the seconds of the game today. How is this game going to go, Roar? Going into the Wolves again with a little bit of doubt.

30:01Rory Smith:Yeah, well Rob Edwards, the Wolves manager, said after that game in the lead that we've probably made them angry. Quite angry. Yeah. And I get his logic and that's how football traditionally works, but I mean Rob Edwards will have watched plenty of Liverpool. He will know they don't get angry. What Van Dijk said is absolutely true, but it's been true of almost every performance this season. And I think, to be honest, the reason that so many fans have turned on slot in a way that I find I'm quite uncomfortable with and ignores the context of Jota, ignores the fact that they won the lead last season, is because they're not really...

30:33Rory Smith:It's not just that they're losing games, it's they're losing games so limply. They're such a flaccid football team. And so this one, I think Wolves will win. I think Wolves will probably win 2-0 because Liverpool offer no cutting edge, they offer no threat. Even when they scored five against West Ham last week, the performance was largely dreadful. They've been okay in patches in certain games.

30:52Rog Bennett:That's so funny. 5-0 they won. And they were terrible. They weren't.

30:58Rory Smith:They were. They were terrible. They were three set pieces. They were terrible. But they were awful.

31:02Rog Bennett:We said it at the time. And again, it's like Man City. It's like if you don't watch the games, you just follow the storylines. It's not even the depth of the story. They're in a tough, tough spot.

31:13Rory Smith:So I think from a Liverpool point of view, to be perfectly honest, what I would like to see is tonight is 90 minutes for Rion Dramour and a performance with a bit of excitement. And maybe, yeah, take the handbrake off, as the phrase used to go. If they go down, I'd rather they go down 4-3 and actually look like they can attack than sort of succumb to a, produce another boring 0-0 first half. Yeah. And then... You don't ask for much. Unflaccid. Unflaccid, lads. Try to be less flaccid. That is the issue that Slott's got. And it's the thing that between now and the end of the season, he's going to have to sort out, regardless of where they finish if they keep on playing like this until the end of the season and there is no sign of improvement no sign of excitement and he keeps his job he will start the season with the vast majority of the fan base against him and that is not nice it's not good it's not admirable but I think it's unavoidable Probably a new club sponsor

32:08Rog Bennett:Blue Chew I think it'll be 2-1 to the unconvincing Reds Roar it's time for you to do your thing in One More Thing

32:15Rory Smith:So my One More Thing is not the sexiest of the FA Cup games it's Leeds Norwich the Daniel Farker derby the fire beast derby the memorial

32:23Rog Bennett:yeah yeah the

32:26Rory Smith:the which I think is well set up for Leeds it's not been a great week for Leeds the way the results fell but it's a long long time since Leeds won a trophy won a you know a knockout trophy one of the big trophies obviously they're championship champions a couple of times but I think this would take them obviously to the quarter finals if they got to a semi-final if Leeds United got to Wembley I think it would be one of those moments that illustrate just how big a club it is. The number of fans that they would take to Wembley, the occasion that would be at Wembley. And to be honest, I would love to see Leeds win the FA Cup this season.

32:59Rory Smith:I think that would be absolutely magnificent, just as it was when Palace won it last season or Newcastle won the Carabao. These are the sorts of clubs for whom this tournament offers the chance to make incredible memories. So given how hopeless Liverpool are, I will be urging Leeds to qualify on Sunday, to get through to the quarterfinal. I'll be hoping they get quite a kind draw and then see if they can make it all the way.

33:20Rog Bennett:Oh, seconded in every regard. This is a 12.30 kickoff. But anyway, Leeds owners, just a suggestion. I actually know the Leeds owners. I should speak to them directly rather than saying it publicly. I think they should build a dome for Allen Road rule so that when it's not a proper night game, they can just close the roof and turn the lights off, play in the dark.

33:41Rory Smith:It's funny that they had this great night record and then lost to Man City and immediately lost to Sunderland at night and now it's finished. I know, it's over. A dome at Ellen Road is a good idea because the weather is ordinarily terrible as well.

33:53Rog Bennett:More just like, okay, we're going to play this one completely in the dark. Close the roof! By the way, one more thing for me. What a story. World darlings trademark. Wrexham hosts Chelsea Saturday, 12.45pm Eastern. On ESPN Plus, I can't wait for this. What a moment in this Wrexham journey. First FA Cup fifth round game in 29 years against Chelsea also. who will almost be like a symbol of the greatest dreams to come for so many Wrexham fans in that stadium. This game reminds me of a conversation that I had with one of the Chelsea owners after his team played a pre-season game against Wrexham in 2023.

34:32Rog Bennett:He was shocked that 40 % of the sold-out crowd were wearing Wrexham shirts at that game. And I remember saying to him, I said, the truth is, man, Wrexham have only been doing this for like three or four years. you should project it forward 10 years and see what the ratio of fans to fans is. I did love Wrexham captain Dominic I am saying this week that the game is just quoted an amazing distraction for the team's real goal which is promotion because of that rule. I do believe when Garnaccio scores to make it 3-1 it will probably soften the bloke.

35:06Rory Smith:Yeah, I think ultimately, first and foremost it's an amazing occasion. It's the sort of fixture that all of Britain will tune into and as we've said before that the Wrexham story plays differently here than it does in the States, I think. Because of the way the FA Cup TV rights work, they tend to attract massive live audiences. So it is a huge chance for Wrexham to kind of show that they belong, to show the kind of scale of the club now, to show kind of where they've come from, where they're going to. But ultimately, I think Chelsea will go into the game thinking they can win. And the gap between sixth-ish in the Championship and sixth-ish in the Premier League is enormous.

35:39Rory Smith:So I suspect Chelsea get through, but I also suspect Retson would have

35:43Rog Bennett:a real fright I do think the biggest surprise of the fifth round is going to be that Chelsea actually finished the game with 11 men on the field that is it for today Raw you are the king here spoiler alert are our score predictions for the entire weekend ahead tell us what you think in the comments we're never knowingly wrong Raw by the way does it matter to you how Liverpool do in the FA Cup

36:05Rory Smith:really yeah it does given the way the season's done if they were in the title race or if they were in any way competent enough to win the Champions League, it'd be different. But neither of those things are true. So to me, as a fan, you want to win the stuff that you can win. So if Liverpool went and won the FA Cup, I'd be delighted. I sadly think that their FA Cup adventure will end in about six hours, right?

36:26Rog Bennett:I'm on to you. You're doing amazing. I tell you, Everton, are going to lose every week. You don't really believe it. Your heart, your soul, your son and you. You'll be at Wembley dancing against the Leeds fans in the Tefragas Square Fountains. Believe me, I can almost taste it. I want to give huge thanks to Bank of America, official Bank of US Soccer and the FIFA World Cup 2026 for supporting the Men in Blazers media network. Discover what's possible in sports and in life. What would you like the power to do? We'll be back on Monday. I'm off to Boston for the Sloan Sports Data Conference. If you're there tomorrow, come and see me.

37:01Rog Bennett:Phil, I'm so excited for this. An interview with Matthew Benham, the incredible owner of Brentford, about how his obsession for analytics has turned that club into a mini micro power. One last thing before we go. My book, We Are the World Cup, Personal History of the World's Greatest Sporting Event. As I said, it's out now. The link to buy one is in our show notes. Please get the business done. We did a sold out show in Houston this week with the great JJ Watt. This is him talking about the book. We're going to share this moment with you right now. It meant a lot to me. Big, big love. Enjoy football.

37:35Rog Bennett:Let's talk about it on Monday together. Roar, thank you and courage. Just a quick passage from one of my favorite books. I've read this book many, many times throughout my life. I grew up on this book, actually. It's how I came to love the World Cup because we are the World Cup. I raised my beer and toasted my son with the silent wish that as fans, we should find a way to savor each and every minute of football and life and never waste a single opportunity for memory making together. I think that's beautiful. I think it's real. And I appreciate you. for bringing that class.