Arsenal host Chelsea, Man City head to Leeds + Atalanta make epic comeback

0:00The Athletic FC.

0:29Liam Twomey: Chelsea. There's West Ham at Anfield. There's also Spurs at the pool because they play Fulham. We'll be discussing all of that in today's Totally Football Show.

0:43Liam Twomey: Thursday, 26th of February. It's a brand new Totally with us. Duncan Alexander's back again today. Hello, Duncan. Hi, James. Lovely to see you, Charlie. Eccleshire as well. Lovely to see you too. Good. And also returning, Liam Toomey. Hi, Liam. Lovely to be back, James. That's great news. What you've missed so far, listener, is some important news about apples. I enjoy having an apple just before a podcast or indeed any kind of social function. I find they increase my alertness.

1:16James Richardson: Well, it's interesting you say that because Tony Adams, he was manager of Wiccan in the 2000s, once dropped a player because he saw him eating an apple about an hour before kickoff. Really? And said, why would a professional footballer put himself through that? Because, I mean, yes, yes. Yeah, obvious. Obvious response was maybe said to him, but yeah. So I've always feared the apple before a performance. Right.

1:40Liam Twomey: And you're not alone in that, Duncan. This is what you just, the revelation you just brought to the conversation.

1:46James Richardson: Yeah, Mrs. Alexander has a genuine phobia of apple cores. Apple cores. Yeah, but she likes apples. So as she progresses through an apple, the fear only grows.

1:55Liam Twomey: How far does she get? before the phobia takes over.

1:58James Richardson: Not as far as you did with your apple. It tends to be more of a cursory go-around.

2:03Liam Twomey: And stay with us on this, listener, because not as far as the man to my right, Charlie Eccleshay, goes, because Charlie...

2:10Charlie Eccleshare: I would eat a core. Like a horse. I mean, if there wasn't a bin close by... You would eat the rest of these. I mean, it's not going to do you any harm. It doesn't taste of much.

2:20James Richardson: I've met a handful of people throughout my life that eat the whole thing. I didn't know you were one of them. Yeah.

2:26Charlie Eccleshare: Like I say, if I had the choice, if a bin's readily available, I wouldn't. But if it isn't, it doesn't bother me.

2:31Duncan Alexander: So is it purely a case of efficiency or convenience?

2:34Charlie Eccleshare: It's a micro-efficiency.

2:35James Richardson: Surely if a bin's available, you can throw an ampicore into a hedge. That's an acceptable thing. There you go.

2:40Charlie Eccleshare: Depends where I was. Like if I'm in this studio right now and there's no hedge or bin readily available, I'm eating. That makes a question, doesn't it?

2:47Liam Twomey: What exactly? Sorry.

2:48Duncan Alexander: Does it qualify as a life hack? I mean, they're kind of biodegradable waste anyway.

2:52Liam Twomey: I think it's more of a freakish peccadillo. apples anyway there you go

2:59Duncan Alexander: are you a fan of apples then yeah got nothing against them I mean my four year old daughter eats a lot of them and tends to be quite energetic all the time more evidence further support to my theory

3:13Liam Twomey: good Champions League happened on Wednesday night again Wednesday's results what a game in the early kick off Atlanta taking on the 2024 finalist Borussia Dortmund, Atlanta were 2-0 down from the first leg. They raced to a 3-0 lead, then conceded one, but still managed to qualify for the last 16 with a penalty on the last kick of the game. Wow. Prendi la mia birra, said Juventus, having seen that. They, of course, were 5-2 down from their first leg away in Istanbul against Galatasaray. But this Wednesday, the old lady also managed to go 3-0 up, despite going down to 10 men, and rather unfairly, I felt, at 1-0.

3:57Liam Twomey: Incredibly, they forced an extra time, where Galatasaray scored twice, and now Ive go anyway. But nice try. It was a little bit that kind of a night, because we also saw Benfica give Real Madrid a scare. They were 1-0 down from their first leg. They took the lead. Real, though, came back eventually and won it 2-1 with a final goal from Vinicius Junior, appropriately enough, perhaps. And in the Paris Saint-Germain-Monaco game, which was 3-2 a week ago in Monaco, Monaco scored in Paris to level the tie, but then they got a man sent off. PSG scored twice, and despite a late equaliser, it is the European champions who survive and make it to the last 16, where they will face either Chelsea or Barcelona.

4:36Liam Twomey: The draw for that will be Friday at 11 in Neon. It will feature an Italian club, a French club, a Turkish club, a Portuguese club, for the first time ever a Norwegian club, two German clubs, three Spanish clubs and six English clubs. Six English clubs. Can't believe it. That's a lot, isn't it? What percentage of 16 is six, Duncan? Quite hefty. What are your shiny machines? 39%. Is it? Coefficient title wrapped up.

5:08Duncan Alexander: Looks that way, huh?

5:09Liam Twomey: Big time. How's the race for the second spot? Because the top two places in the coefficient race get an extra slot.

5:16James Richardson: I didn't even ask that, but I can tell you. so at the moment it's very very close between Germany Spain and Italy Italy still and Portugal are up there but Italy losing two more last night or this week rather is not going to help them so yeah you'd think it's a battle now between Germany and Spain for the second one let's talk about the

5:36Liam Twomey: Italian side that did manage to go through Atalanta and they're stirring 4-1 win over Dorman. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC Podcast Network.

6:00Liam Twomey: Wow, top bins, the man said, and everybody celebrates in Bergamo. That was the remarkable final moment of the game, which was a penalty for Atalanta. All Atalanta's penalty takers had gone off and so Samadzic had to step up and produced a quite remarkable kick to seal their place in the last 16.

6:20Charlie Eccleshare: Yeah, I thought he'd missed it. I mean, in that split second when he first hits it because he gets really underneath it. It looks like he's going to sky it. It looked like he bantered it.

6:27Duncan Alexander: Something to get the pitching wedge out in that situation.

6:30Charlie Eccleshare: It's an incredible nerve to go for that penalty in that moment.

6:33Liam Twomey: Yeah, that penalty to go through. If he hadn't converted it, we'd gone to extra time. But yeah. Duncan you watched this game an Italian side making it into the last 16

6:42James Richardson: yeah I can't believe it well done yeah no the game it was brilliant it was just one of those matches that yeah was end to end I don't think either team covered themselves in glory with their defending Rishi Skamaka put Atalanta up quite early it kind of reminded me a little bit of the Liverpool Barcelona game where you knew you had to get off to a good start and we've seen that a lot this week where maybe teams have or they haven't but Atalanta definitely did huge game for fans of turn-of-the-decade Premier League London-based players. Well, indeed, didn't Zappacosta have a great game? Zappacosta had a great game, put them 2-0 up, which obviously leveled us high just on the stroke of half-time.

7:19James Richardson: With a deflection. Yeah, it was one of those games where lots of deflections were going on.

7:24Liam Twomey: So the deflection for the Zappacosta goal was from Ben Sabayani, and the Scamacca opening goal was kind of teed up by Dortmund's Ben Sabayani. So guess who conceded that final penalty? And got sent off. And got sent off.

7:38James Richardson: No, he's not going to look back on this game with much fondness. It was one of those red cards where he was unlucky to get sent off, but it was 2 ,000 % a red card. Like, the ball was sort of slightly behind him and he tried to sort of swivel and kung fu kick it away. Fair enough. He's a defender. But he actually...

7:57Liam Twomey: He connected with Nikola Kerstovich quite visibly, the pictures afterwards of the scars on Kerstovich's head.

8:03Charlie Eccleshare: Yeah, that didn't help his cause when the blood was gushing. Yeah, I mean, you'd imagine Kershwitz was very much like,

8:08James Richardson: I really hope blood's coming out. I really...

8:10Charlie Eccleshare: Yeah, the first ever recorded instance of a player sort of doing that look-for-blood thing, and there was actually blood there.

8:15Duncan Alexander: I mean, it would have been amazing if, to aid the comeback, they'd managed to sneak a blood bag onto the pitch for just such a moment. This isn't Rebel Union, Liam, come on.

8:23Liam Twomey: There was a famous incident where Napoli played at Bergamo against Atalanta, and Alamau, the Brazilian player, sneaked a coin on, which he nicked himself with and managed to get a... Yeah, yeah.

8:37Duncan Alexander: Remarkable commitment to the fit. Yeah, absolutely.

8:39James Richardson: So much to do in a real history of coins in football games because obviously lots of players... Jamie Carriger chucking one back. Yeah, well, also lots of players had the game where they had a coin and every time you ran past a teammate, you hand it over. Yeah. And whoever's left with the coin at half-time or full-time has to vote. Well, Leeds, we were hearing about in our totally extra strategy. Liverpool did it in the 90s as well. It was very much a Spice Boys era trick. Right. Just concentrate on the game, lads.

9:01Charlie Eccleshare: I should say it was a second booking wasn't it that he was given, he wasn't given a straight red for it

9:05James Richardson: Yeah, the referee was very and it was on review Yeah and the referee gave a corner very demonstratively when the incident happened but then was forced due to video to say yeah actually and blood video and blood, the classic combo Inter have been so disappointing

9:22Liam Twomey: the other black and blue team from northern Italy the previous night in their game against Bodo Glimp so it was really refreshing to see Atalanta come out and attack the game with so much pace and confidence and Elan, if you will.

9:36Duncan Alexander: That kind of leans into their identity, doesn't it? They are this kind of very vibrant, slightly unconventional attacking team. And yeah, putting them in a position where they haven't got anything left to lose is actually quite dangerous for you. And their prize? Well, they'll play one of the top two seeds.

9:53James Richardson: They'll play Arsenal or Bayern, won't they? They'll enjoy that, probably.

9:59Liam Twomey: Well, never say never. Duncan, in the Champions League. Shout out, though, to Karim Adeyemi's goal for 3-1, which brought the tie back into question. Very beautifully done, that. Very beautifully done. But out he goes, along with the rest of Dortmund, who, according to the German press, Dortmunded up. That's what I've understood from those headlines. There you go. That was Atalanta going through. As mentioned, Juve attempted a similar kind of comeback, or potentially even bigger one because they were 5-2 down from the first leg, a disastrous first leg in Istanbul a week ago. And they very nearly, they very nearly, Charlie, despite the slings and arrows of an outrageous red card for Lloyd Kelly.

10:42Charlie Eccleshare: They very nearly did it, yeah. I mean, Galatasaray gave a sort of masterclass on how not to manage a three-goal lead. They were terrible, really, really bad for the 90 minutes and even for portions of extra time. And especially if they had a three goal lead and a man extra from soon after half time. So way more than half the game taking into account the extra time. Yeah, I mean, Juve approached it in the right way as well. And they had so many chances to win this game or win the tie. I mean, they had a XG of more than five. Galatasaray ended up with about two. So it was like a seven XG game, which is extraordinarily high, even taking into account the fact that it had extra time.

11:25Charlie Eccleshare: It did actually have five goals in it. And it did have five goals, yeah, but just not enough goals for Juventus. But they could easily have won the tie.

11:33Liam Twomey: So they went a goal up and it was 1-0 to Juve at halftime when Lloyd Kelly got his red card.

11:40Charlie Eccleshare: Yeah, as a penalty they got in the first half.

11:42Liam Twomey: So the referee gave a yellow card, which would have sent him on anyway. And then he was called over to the sideline monitor and it was subsequently upgraded to a red, which will have an impact on next season in Europe for Lloyd Kelly, wherever he might be.

11:56Charlie Eccleshare: So he basically goes up for a header and then as he comes down, it looks as what the referee or the VAR have interpreted it as. It's as though he's actively stamped or raked.

12:09James Richardson: What's the VAR operator, Rude Van Nistrooyt, is my question. Because it did look a bit like the Martin Keown thing at Old Trafford, didn't it?

12:15Charlie Eccleshare: Jumping on him. And Kelly's furious. I mean, he's furious just to get the second yellow. So he's incandescent when he gets the straight red and he's sort of kicking things as he storms off the pitch. I mean, so what I was going to say is in an age of VAR where you have to, football basically was governed previously by you sort of know things when you see them and, you know, more vibes. Whereas now you have to, with VAR, you have to have kind of strict laws and you have to apply them. And so a ref or a VAR in that instance will feel as though that looks like violent conduct. they've perceived it to be violent conduct and so they issue the red card the crazy thing i found

12:55Duncan Alexander: about that situation is i watch i watch a lot of nba another sport with extensive video review and there are situations there where obviously you have players jumping up all the time and it's actually the responsibility of the player on the ground to make sure they're not in that player's landing space yeah so that would be a which makes the other way and the football equivalent would be a yellow card for the the player on the ground but it feels like var we've got to a point where if there's a freeze frame of your studs landing on a calf, it doesn't matter what's happened before or how you've got there.

13:27Liam Twomey: There is a movement from Kelly's leg towards Yilmaz's shin, essentially.

13:34Charlie Eccleshare: Yeah, it does look clumsy. I have to say, I really, really dislike VAR for a number of reasons. This wasn't one where I was absolutely up in arms about. I know some people were. I kind of think it doesn't look great. it's just really hard to know and to be honest normally players do get away with these because there is plausible deniability even if it is intentional I've seen loads of incidents where I'm actually like I think that is violent but a player can claim well I didn't know that his head or his chest was there as I took this quite aggressive looking stamp

14:04James Richardson: John Duran was sent off for Villa at Newcastle Boxing Day last season because he sort of basically ran over Fabian Schur and I think that one was like yeah I think he knows what he's doing but like you say they are generally ambiguous

14:15Liam Twomey: The extraordinary thing was that much as they'd done in a game against Borussia Dortmund, I think earlier on in this Champions League campaign, Juve, despite going down to 10, and in fact a more recent example, in the Derribi d 'Italia where they'd also had a player very unjustly sent off, Juve looked almost better. It's almost like the fewer players they have on the field, the better they do.

14:32Charlie Eccleshare: Is it three of the last four games now? I think, yeah, three Reds in four.

14:37Liam Twomey: They added two more goals through Gatti and then Weston McKinney, who was probably their most important player on the night.

14:45Charlie Eccleshare: But in amongst that, they had three, at least, really, really good chances. Chirin went through and tried to dink the keeper and got it wrong. And it did feel, because Galatasaray were rocking at this point, but it felt like even though they hadn't made the extra man advantage count up until that point, with an extra half hour, it did feel like surely they would. So it felt kind of now or never for Juve, which made for a really exciting last 10 or so minutes of normal time as they did go for a fourth goal. There was a brilliant save from the Galatasaray keeper

15:18Liam Twomey: just before the end of the 90. And a huge chance for Zagrova.

15:24Charlie Eccleshare: Well, that was an extra time. Yeah, that was six minutes in. Yeah, that was huge. I mean, that was, I think, what tipped the XG towards five. Incredible. And he does the right thing. He basically tries to wrong foot the keeper, go back across him and kind of pass it into the corner. And you think, like, once you see that that's where he's hit it, it's perfect, but he puts it just wide. Q sort of his teammates collapsing in disbelief. And then Ossiemen, just before half-time of extra time, takes a chance, a little fortuitously, goes through the goalkeeper's legs. I'm not sure that's what he's trying to do.

15:59Charlie Eccleshare: I think he's trying to sort of bend it into the far corner. And then, you know...

16:04Liam Twomey: Yilmaz later.

16:05Charlie Eccleshare: And then Yilmaz, yeah, adds another one. Yeah.

16:08Duncan Alexander: I thought that was quite a flex from Yilmaz, I was basically telling Ossiman to get out of the way. I will poke this one. Yeah, there were two of them.

16:16Charlie Eccleshare: Yeah, it's the classic kind of queuing up.

16:17Liam Twomey: Why did Ossiman not celebrate his goal? Good point. Nobody knows, or at least I imagine he does. But it was very singular. He's not played for Juve before. He did. There was sustained interest in Ossiman from Juve last summer. And his current, well, the current Juve manager, Luciano Spalletti, is the man with whom he had such success in Naples.

16:39Duncan Alexander: Maybe he doesn't want to close any doors.

16:41Liam Twomey: Well, I think he doesn't, because even in the pre-game press conference, he was asked about Juve's interest, and the fact he was playing them, and he said, yeah, he would love to have come. He said 90 % of football players, which is kind of an interesting way of putting it, would love to come to Juventus, and he certainly wouldn't rule it out in the future. So not celebrating against your future club. I think that was the way I viewed it.

17:02James Richardson: I think it might be football's first ever come-and-get-me muted celebration, which is a good mash-up of different things.

17:08Charlie Eccleshare: It certainly is. Anyway. But yeah, huge entertaining game. I mean, it really was. Yeah, it was crazy.

17:14Liam Twomey: Juve restore a bit of pride. Galatasaray make it to the last 16, where they will face either Spurs or Liverpool. Liverpool, who they've already beaten, actually, in Istanbul earlier this season. Galatasaray-Spurs, that would be a fascinating tie. We'll find out on Friday.

17:32James Richardson: If you enjoy space, watch that game. Yeah, I mean, that really would be.

17:36Charlie Eccleshare: I mean, yeah, the way Spurs are in the season and Galatasaray, I'm so curious to see how they are next time, if they get that kind of a lead or any sort of lead. Galatasaray. Yeah, Galatasaray, because they really, they did look a bit petrified.

17:48Duncan Alexander: It also feels like Spurs maybe have a couple of players who could be at Galatasaray in three or four years.

17:52Charlie Eccleshare: I mean, Davinson Sanchez is already there. Yeah.

17:55Duncan Alexander: Christian Romero could be a Galatasaray captain in the future. Interesting one, yeah. Very interesting.

18:01Liam Twomey: We'll see if the urns are favourable on Friday. Liam, how entertaining was your game, which was the Real Madrid-Benfica affair?

18:12Duncan Alexander: Yeah, it was an interesting one, wasn't it? Plenty of subtext going in. We weren't quite sure where Jose Mourinho was watching the game.

18:22Liam Twomey: That felt like it was a big deal to a lot of people.

18:25Duncan Alexander: There's always a fascination with where Jose Mourinho is when he's not on the touchline throughout his career. Suggestion was...

18:31Liam Twomey: Like a spider in the bathroom.

18:33Duncan Alexander: Yeah, exactly. When you can't see it anymore. It's the thought of where he might be. It's more scarier than where he is. Suggestions he might have been on the team bus with an iPad. That's what I hear.

18:45James Richardson: Like a kid. You stay there.

18:49Liam Twomey: Really, Duncan, that's a window on your parenting. I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't hire a coach for a child.

18:56Duncan Alexander: Prestiani obviously not there either after the appeal was denied by UEFA. So the spotlight was very much on Vinicius. and he delivered in the second half, but not before Benfica gave Real Madrid quite a scare. It was a pretty nervy game for them.

19:14Liam Twomey: Right, the crowd were pretty unhappy. With what, the defending from Real Madrid?

19:18Duncan Alexander: The number of chances Benfica were having? Yeah, and also the propensity that they had to cough the ball up to Benfica, I think, in dangerous areas. There seems to be a feeling with Real Madrid that certainly in the post-Cruz-Modric era, Their kind of midfield security is just completely gone. And they can still get the ball forward. And obviously they have so much quality that they can always score. But if they don't make it that far, then things can get pretty dicey pretty quickly. And Benfica's move for the opening goal was really nice from back to front. Pavlidis got in down the right. Nice ball across.

19:55Duncan Alexander: I thought it was an unbelievable save from Courtois to deny Asensio an own goal.

20:00Liam Twomey: Right. So it bounces off Courtois or he manages to deflect it, but it then bounces off the which Real Madrid player?

20:07Duncan Alexander: So it was Asensio basically directed it towards his own goal. And with his trailing leg, Courtois makes this unbelievable save. His limbs just seem to cover so much space. But the ball falls straight to Rafa Silva, who pokes it in kind of the second attempt.

20:25Charlie Eccleshare: He could have scored again, couldn't he? He had a couple of misses in the second half.

20:28Duncan Alexander: Yeah, he hit the bar.

20:30Charlie Eccleshare: And flicked one just wide.

20:32Duncan Alexander: Yeah, he flicked one just wide. Rios forced another fantastic save from Courtois in the second half. So Benfica were in this throughout. But in the meantime, Real Madrid managed to kind of steady the ship with Chiuameni getting his first Champions League goal. It was a nice little move. He laid the ball off.

20:50Liam Twomey: It was almost immediately after Benfica had taken the lead.

20:52Duncan Alexander: Yeah, and he laid the ball off to the right. it was Arda Goulair and Fede Valverde who then cut the ball back to him. It was a really, really nice finish into the bottom corner and he ran over to the corner and was telling the crowd, calm down, calm down, it's all under control. And then Real Madrid proceeded to show that it was not all under control for the next hour or so.

21:12Charlie Eccleshare: I think that point about the Real Madrid midfield is a really important one because Real Madrid were sometimes quite a hard team to understand, like, how is this team so good? But the answer, if there was an easy answer, was that midfield. I mean, that midfield was unbelievable. and Luka Modric's ability to bend games to his will and just take control. I remember some of those, that City comeback, he just took over and he would do that. He did that in the World Cup semi-final 2018 against England for Croatia as well. And yeah, that is the biggest single difference, I think, watching them now and last season a bit too was just they don't have that same presence, that ability to dominate midfields like they used to.

21:48Liam Twomey: Well, they do make it through to the last 16. They've actually done that in every season since the round of 16 began in 2003-04. What was there before? I guess it was the second league stage. But 23 seasons since then, Real Madrid every time have made it to the last 16. No other club has made that. Who will they face there? Either Sporting, another Portuguese side, or Manchester City.

22:12Duncan Alexander: Well, Real Madrid seem pretty convinced that it's going to be Manchester City. Right. The Alvaro Abelho said, we'll see what the hot balls have for us.

22:21James Richardson: Did he say that?

22:22Liam Twomey: He did, yeah.

22:22James Richardson: I'm not having Real Madrid complaining about that.

22:24Liam Twomey: Come on. They've faced City nine times in the last five seasons, including, of course, this campaign already in the league phase. They battered them last season, didn't they? City did. Real Madrid battered City. Real Madrid battered City last season.

22:38Charlie Eccleshare: And they beat them comfortably.

22:39Liam Twomey: City beat them this season.

22:41James Richardson: Pretty comfortably. It tends to be quite a comfortable win for one or the other.

22:43Charlie Eccleshare: Right. Except for that amazing late show in, whenever it was, 2022. Yeah.

22:49James Richardson: What was the game at the Etihad where City totally dominated them?

22:54Charlie Eccleshare: Oh, that was the following season. They beat them 4-0. And Real Madrid had like... Didn't get out of their own heart. Yeah, yeah. That was extraordinary.

23:00Liam Twomey: We'll see. Maybe it'll be sporting out of the hat. We'll see. The other game on Wednesday night was Paris Saint-Germain-Monaco, which finished 2-2. Just like the first leg, Duncan. Monaco took the lead, but then saw their plans disrupted by a red card.

23:17James Richardson: Yeah, Koulibaly was sent off. and then within less than a minute, PSG had scored Marquinhos from a little pullback and then Crouch Scalier scored six minutes later. But then it was really strange. It was a very odd game. PSG do not look like PSG of January to May last year. They look like the PSG from September to December of 2024. But Monaco, yes, down to 10 men, but they continue playing five at the back, which seems strange. They barely had an attack. And then when they did, in injury time, they immediately pulled a goal back through Teze. And then basically had two minutes of injury time left to take the title extra time.

23:58James Richardson: And decided to try and waste time. They're trying to bring on substitutes. It was just the strangest way of working at injury time I've ever seen.

24:08Charlie Eccleshare: But then they did have a chance from a set piece right at the death, didn't they? With the Vout Fass,

24:15James Richardson: the Leicester icon. who, you know, just pops up.

24:20Liam Twomey: Right, he'd had a troubled first leg.

24:22James Richardson: Yeah. But very nearly. Very nearly, you know. Obviously a man who scored two end goals in a single Premier League game, but at the right end of the pitch, basically wasted a really good chance. A headache kind of almost came off his shoulder, but that would have taken it to extra time. And I guess like in the Juventus game, you'd still have fancied PSG with the man advantage. But yeah, I think for anyone who is sort of worrying about PSG later in the tournament, I wouldn't be.

24:47Liam Twomey: Unless they become the PSG of late in last season again.

24:51James Richardson: Yeah, but by this stage in the playoffs, they'd already sort of metamorphosised, hadn't they?

24:55Duncan Alexander: We were talking a bit about Madrid's midfield security. I feel like PSG are really missing Fabian Ruiz, just for the balance. That midfield trio was so well balanced, and he knitted things together from back to front so nicely. The one player I thought, when I was looking at this game, who still looks like he's playing, at least in the Champions League to the level he was last season, Desiree Dwey, he just is mesmerising on the ball. His balance and his speed and two-footedness are just incredible. He looks like he could win a Ballon d 'Or, I think, in the next few years if he can find a bit more consistency.

25:34James Richardson: Yeah, he created the first goal, wriggled along the touchline and pulled it back. But yeah, it's just, they're a strange term. I think you talk about players they're missing. Don and Rimmer as well, I think.

25:44Liam Twomey: But they're missing the actual Ballon d 'Or in Ousmane Dembele, of course.

25:47James Richardson: True, but I just think you just feel like they're going to come up against Donnarumma this season and regret as his telescopic arms do some magical things.

25:56Charlie Eccleshare: But it does get forgotten as well, as great as PSG were, they did also have quite a few games in that run where they conceded a lot of chances and Donnarumma made a ton of saves. I mean, they were rocking at Villa, at Anfield, over the two legs against Arsenal.

26:09James Richardson: Yeah, the home... People erroneously say Arsenal take a lot of long throws, which they don't. But in the second leg at PSG... It worked really well initially. It really did the first 20 minutes, yeah. But people forget in cup competitions, that's how you win them, isn't it? Your cup campaigns are a series of fortunate results.

26:27Charlie Eccleshare: True, though sometimes teams absolutely cruise their way to finals or look absolutely dominant, like they did in the final. I mean, in the final, they absolutely smashed them.

26:36James Richardson: But I think that's kind of made people forget they're sort of, you know, knocking out the Premier League runs in the final.

26:41Liam Twomey: Yeah, and they took that form into the Club World Cup until they met Chelsea. And they could be facing Chelsea in the last 16, Liam. It's either Chelsea or Barcelona. Who would Chelsea rather have? Because they'll either have PSG or Newcastle.

26:54Duncan Alexander: Yeah, I think there's an argument they might rather have PSG.

26:58Liam Twomey: Really?

26:58Duncan Alexander: Even though PSG are obviously the far more talented team.

27:02Liam Twomey: Yeah, it's a more romantic European tie. Yes. I would posit.

27:05Duncan Alexander: I mean, I would prefer PSG because it would mean going to Paris for an away trip.

27:10Liam Twomey: But you're saying that technically, in terms of the arduousness of the opposition,

27:15Duncan Alexander: that PSG might represent an easier option. Well, there's clearly maybe a bit of a psychological edge there from the Club World Cup final. Not just the fact that Chelsea beat them, but the manner in which they beat them. It was a real kind of tactical, but also a physical intense beatdown, I think. And Chelsea don't do that to many teams. they're not a very physical team and in particular they have had problems with Newcastle their physicality their intensity and whenever they've gone up to St James's Park it's been a very difficult experience for them so I think actually there's something about the way Chelsea are constructed and the way they play which is a bit more suited to taking on a more European

27:57James Richardson: style of side like PSG okay we'll find out on Friday morning just brief what train is quicker London's Paris or London's Newcastle? Well, there's a question. Yeah, it's just, yeah. Are the distances similar or is it actually closer to Paris? There wouldn't be much in it. There's a bit of sea. There is.

28:14Duncan Alexander: Without going into the quality of the journey as well. Yeah, and the little jingle.

28:19James Richardson: You don't get do, do, do on the way to Newcastle. Unless you've got it on your phone and just play it for a loop, which I've never done clearly. I mean, there's the haunting prospect for Chelsea or Newcastle that they get to the final and don't play a European team. because they could play each other in the last 16. They could play Liverpool or Spurs in the quarterfinal, and then one of Man City and or Arsenal in the semi in the final.

28:41Liam Twomey: I guess statistically, when you've got six teams in the last 16,

28:45James Richardson: s*** is going to happen. Pure Carabao, absolutely pure Carabao.

28:47Charlie Eccleshare: I totally see Liam's logic. I do remember a similar thing last season, when Arsenal were going into the semi, and they were either going to play PSG or Aston Villa. And I think a lot were saying, I'd rather play PSG, because for similar reasons, Aston Villa are an English team, and there's a bit of edge and whatever. Then within about five minutes, PSG were 1-0 up. Arsenal hadn't touched the ball. And I think a lot of thinking, sort of rather be up against Luka Dina maybe right now. But yeah, interesting draw either way.

29:13Liam Twomey: Okay. Draw is on Friday at 11 o 'clock. Also on Friday, the Premier League Match Day 28 begins. Let's have a chat about that next.

29:27Charlie Eccleshare: This is the Totally Football Show, Part of the Athletic FC podcast network. The Athletic is the only place you can read articles by Daniel Taylor, Amy Lawrence, Phil Hay, James Pearce, Olly Kay and the very best football writers around.

29:40Liam Twomey: If you're enjoying the stylings of Duncan and Charlie together and you have literally nothing better to do on the 27th of March. 23rd, 23rd of March. On the 23rd of March, then well. We could just get together on the 27th of March. most nights I'm sure anyway on that night the 23rd you'll be at the Leicester Square Theatre along with a small number of close friends and like minded individuals who've chosen to attend Totally Football Show live, you know the deal you probably also know that if you go to leicestersquaretheatre.com you could also snaffle one of the few remaining seats I had previously seen a seating plan and was under the impression that there were literally four seats left but apparently it's a dozen so I just can't read basically a dozen seats

30:34James Richardson: Baker's dozen

30:36Liam Twomey: Matchday 28 of the Premier League so as it stands after 27 rounds for everyone except Arsenal and Wolves for everyone except Arsenal and Wolves Arsenal are top of the table with a five point lead over City but having played an extra game City have a game in hand plus a visit of Arsenal to the Etihad had to come in April. Anyway, this weekend City will once again be playing first. They're at Leeds, Saturday, T-Town, while Arsenal will have to wait until Sunday at 4.30, when in the Super Sunday slot, they will take on Chelsea. Woof. Chelsea, of course, are in the thick of the top five battle. They're one of three sides effectively chasing two top five places behind Arsenal, City and Villa.

31:21Liam Twomey: Currently, it's Man United that has the edge. They're three points clear of Chelsea and Liverpool, while Chelsea this weekend head to the Emirates. United are at home to Crystal Palace 2 o 'clock Sunday while Liverpool get a visit from West Ham Saturday afternoon West Ham who themselves are battling for their Premier League survival they are two points behind Forrest Forrest this weekend are playing at Brighton West Ham are also only four points behind Spurs who will be Sunday 2 o 'clock at Fulham which looks like being a fascinating match-up also this weekend the game which kicks things off on Friday night, Wolves Villa, regional interest there.

32:01Liam Twomey: Bournemouth-Sunderland, quite an away trip that one. That's Saturday lunchtime. And Newcastle-Everton and Burnley, who are eight points from safety, taking on Brentford Saturday afternoon. Excellent. Arsenal-Chelsea, I imagine, is where we're going to begin. Liam, are you going along to that?

32:19Duncan Alexander: I am, yeah, looking forward to it.

32:21Liam Twomey: Now, these two teams have met recently, haven't they, in the Carabao Cup?

32:24Duncan Alexander: Yeah, and that turned into a bit of a funny game because Chelsea went into it with Cole Palmer and Esteval, both too limited to start the game. And Liam Rosinia ended up going with this very cautious game plan, despite trailing from the first leg of that Carabao Cup semi-final. And Chelsea really left it until the last 15 to 20 minutes to have a proper go.

32:50Liam Twomey: Right.

32:51Duncan Alexander: And of course that backfired on them as they pushed forward and Kai Havertz ended up scoring. But I expect a very different game this time around. Don't read too much into that Carabao car.

33:01Liam Twomey: Can we read something into the fact that the Gunners have won the last four home meetings against Chelsea in all competitions, keeping clean sheets in three of them? In fact, the last Chelsea player to actually score a goal at the Emirates was?

33:12Charlie Eccleshare: Noni Madweke.

33:13Liam Twomey: Noni Madweke. Where's he now?

33:16Charlie Eccleshare: That's good knowledge. yeah well a consolation goal in a 3-1 defeat look at that

33:22Liam Twomey: and that's done without a laptop as well

33:24Charlie Eccleshare: very much is still haven't cracked still no laptop

33:27Duncan Alexander: I mean Chelsea have played Arsenal pretty well at Stamford Bridge in recent times and of course battled them pretty much to a standstill even with 10 men earlier this season and I think that was one of the performances that Chelsea took most heart from but Arsenal have definitely had the measure of them by and large at the Emirates

33:47Liam Twomey: Arsenal, who looked good last weekend, Chelsea for the second successive game, dropping points.

33:52Duncan Alexander: Setting fire to points.

33:53Liam Twomey: Setting fire to points against Burnley. Is the gloss coming off the new man's tenure?

34:01Duncan Alexander: Well, there were boos at full time against Burnley. I think the nature of the equaliser really catalyzed that. There hasn't been anything personally towards Rosinia, I think, and the crowd have actually chanted his name a couple of times after wins. So it's more about the general atmosphere of the season and the sense of where things might be going.

34:19Liam Twomey: But however the crowd feel, is there a sense that some of the issues that were there with Maresca are now re-emerging?

34:26Duncan Alexander: Yeah, they're still having trouble with low blocks and not putting teams away and also managing from the front in games. Lost Leeds against Leeds and Burnley took it to 19 points dropped from winning positions in the Premier League this season. 17 of those at Stamford Bridge Given the teams that they traditionally struggle against

34:48Liam Twomey: I was reading this week that the Optus supercomputer reckons that they have the toughest run-in of all the in the remaining what, 12 games is it?

34:58Duncan Alexander: They have to play the other five of the top six clubs

35:01Liam Twomey: But in their case, even though those are difficult games is that actually the kind of game that's going to favour them in their race for top five?

35:07Duncan Alexander: Well it could be, I mean I wrote to this affecting the Athletic this week in that they tend to... So yeah, check it out. They tend to fare a bit better against teams that come at them and play a bit higher up the pitch and give them a bit more space to attack in behind. The flip side of that, of course, is that those teams are better and will press you and any mistakes that you make, and Chelsea typically do make mistakes over the course of 90 minutes, are even more likely to be punished. So it isn't 100 % true that Chelsea are better against the better team. because they've averaged 1.4 points per game against the top 10, 1.8 against the bottom 10.

35:47Duncan Alexander: I mean, the bottom 10 are still the bottom 10 for a reason. Right. But they certainly have had some of their better performances this season, I think you would say, against some of the better teams in the league.

35:56Charlie Eccleshare: And some good results, haven't they? I mean, they beat Liverpool, drew Chelsea, drew City away.

36:00Duncan Alexander: They took apart Barcelona in the Champions League as well. Yeah, right. So, I mean, they've had some very good games. There is a sense that they do raise their level for these big occasions, but they've got an awful lot of them to try and win in the next few weeks. Right.

36:13Charlie Eccleshare: I mean, they really made the league game at Stamford Bridge earlier in the season a scrap. And obviously, Kaiseido took that too far and got himself sent off. But as Liam says, it was a really difficult afternoon for Arsenal even playing the game with an extra man for more than half a day.

36:27Liam Twomey: How do you think Arsenal are going to set up for this one? Are we going to see Saka up the middle? Are we going to see Kai Havertz, former Chelsea player, returning Nani Maduweki?

36:35Charlie Eccleshare: I think the expectation was that Havertz would have a chance have been back in the squad for this game. There's no way he'll go straight back in the starting line-up because they're aware they're having to manage him very carefully coming back from a serious injury. I think they'll have to start with how they beat Spurs. I mean, I don't think you can drop Eze after scoring two and playing so well. Jokre's will start up front again. So I think Saka, I mean, he went off. There's nothing been said about that. So I don't know if that was an injury or just a knock. You'd think he'd start again on the right rather than the centre.

37:07Charlie Eccleshare: teams very good against Tottenham. So I think they'll be unchanged if they can be. You know, they've had a week off, but that doesn't mean they're immune from injuries. They've had a number on the training ground. Sometimes even in the warm-up, we've seen. Well, yeah, exactly. Very dangerous times. So I think they'll go the same approach. It will be interesting because I do think Spurs is quite a sort of singular fixture for them. I mean, I said this... For Arsenal, yeah. I mean, I said this last week that I thought North London Derby going into the game might be good for them, just takes them out of that kind of suffocating title race pressure because it's something very different.

37:42Charlie Eccleshare: Chelsea is an interesting one because it's a little bit in that category too. Obviously, there's a big rivalry between these two teams. But also Spurs were very bad in that game. And particularly, like, Dragusin, I think it was Jokeres' best performance for Arsenal. And I think that's partly because he was up against this sort of ideal opponent, a guy who's going to try and get tight to him, but isn't especially good and can get rolled. so I think that played into Jokeres' hands really well. I don't think he'll have that kind of time of it against Chelsea's centre-backs, though they are without Fofana, aren't they?

38:17Charlie Eccleshare: They don't call them Dr. Chelsea.

38:19Duncan Alexander: I do expect Chelsea to show quite a bit more attacking ambition in this game, but as Charlie points out, Wesley Fofana is really important for them. If they want to defend high up the pitch, he's probably their single most important centre-back with his speed, so that will be a bit of a problem. because he's suspended from... It's difficult. I think Rosini has gone different ways and he hasn't actually had to play many games without Fafana. So he could go with Badia Shiel, although his performance has been quite variable. Trevor Chalabal will definitely play. John Terry's angling for a role. As long as he's involved, that's all he asks.

38:56Liam Twomey: Arsenal could be kicking that game off only two points ahead of Manchester City if Manchester City win their trip to Ellen Road Saturday tea time. This was the pairing, Manchester City and Leeds, that back in November saw Leeds begin to turn their season around. They were 2-0 down at the Etihad. 18th in the table, Daniel Farker facing certainly a lot of stories that potentially the end of his time with Leeds United, but he decided to switch to two strikers up top and they haven't looked back since. I'm thinking then that if he actually starts the game that way, He's at three points for a lock.

39:34James Richardson: What do you reckon, Duncan? I think that's very possible. I think people are kind of seeing Manchester City through a prism of the last five, six years. And they're going to now just go on this mega run of wins that are going to hunt Arsenal down. They've won five in a row. Yeah, but that's all competitions. But I think they've still got flaws. And they're the sort of flaws that Leeds definitely could take advantage of. So I think we should be celebrating a title race that's like something from the 1990s. where neither team going for the title are going to win every match. They are both going to drop points.

40:07James Richardson: There's going to be ups and downs. It's really exciting for the neutral. So many things in the Premier League this season people have asked for. We want all the teams to be close together. Well, here you are. We want a title race to be sort of nip and tuck. And that's where we are. We want someone to challenge Derby County for the most. We don't want that. And luckily Wolves are going to finish with 17 points. So all good. So everything I've ever wanted from a Premier League season is transpiring. Good Lord. And also Leeds have got a particularly good record in under the lights, which is a slightly vague concept because I think people mean evening games.

40:42Liam Twomey: Yeah, this is 5.30 in late February. You'd want the lights on for that.

40:47James Richardson: The lights will be on. But obviously they're not counting three o 'clock games in December, which are under the lights due to the... Is this just something about the circadian rhythms of the Leeds squad? Yeah, they're like gremlins.

41:00Liam Twomey: They also performed very, very well when at Ellen Road. They've only lost one of their last seven there. That was to Arsenal, 4-0.

41:08James Richardson: Be interesting to see what sort of reception Elling Harland gets from the Leeds fans. Leeds born and bred. Leeds born and bred. Did the Leeds salute when he scored against Galatasaray in the Champions League. Right. Which led to a lot of Leeds fans saying things like, he'll definitely finish his career with us. Which you couldn't rule out, to be honest. Harland seems to be the sort of player that likes football and likes everything about football enough. that he would probably go, I'll give Leeds a season.

41:31Duncan Alexander: He's under contract till 2034, I think. So, yeah, quite a while away.

41:36Liam Twomey: There were suggestions that his people might be in negotiations with a big European side this week, actually. But I guess there are always those kind of click-baity suggestions.

41:45Charlie Eccleshare: Anyway. Just fittingly, because it's against Manchester City, I feel like in the same way Arsenal have kept being like, just one win away, but they've then drawn and kept City close enough to them. I feel like Leeds, often it's been like, oh, if they could win here, they can build a gap. But they do draw a lot of getting, so they are still in that battle, despite deceptively maybe seeming further away than they actually are. Right. Because they lose so few games.

42:09Liam Twomey: What's the gap? Six points, is it, the margin?

42:11James Richardson: They are six points above West Ham. Right, there you go. Two points above Spurs, four above Forest. Very complete. The attractive beam is pulling them in. Or not. Or not.

42:22Liam Twomey: Or not. Anyway, sponsors have been waiting long enough. We'll take a quick break and then get on to what United and Liverpool might get up to.

42:37James Richardson: You're listening to The Totally Football Show with James Richardson. Now we do four times a week. Keep up to date with us on Insta and enjoy us in glorious Technicolor on YouTube at The Totally Show.

42:47Liam Twomey: All right, that top five race, as we've heard, Man United on Monday night with that late goal against Everton taking a three-point edge over Chelsea and Liverpool in the race for top five spots. This weekend, Chelsea, as you've heard, heading to the Emirates. Man United are at home to Palace. Liverpool are at home to West Ham. Palace? What's this? They've won four of their last six visits to Old Trafford in the Premier League, including the last two. It's no Macclesfield, is it?

43:13Duncan Alexander: Feels like this is not quite the favourable context for Palace that they've had in recent years with fan base in active mutiny against the coach.

43:22Liam Twomey: Although they will be away from home, which may be an advantage. They are also in action this evening, as we record Thursday, taking on Zrinski from Mostar in the Europa Conference League, 1-1 from the first leg. Yeah, we'll see what happens with that at Sunday 2 o 'clock. Saturday afternoon is when Liverpool are home to West Ham. So are Liverpool going to do West Ham's relegation rivals a solid here? West Ham have, by the way, only won once at Anfield in the last 63 years.

43:56Charlie Eccleshare: That was that Dimitri Payet season, I think, where West Ham started the season by beating Arsenal away, Liverpool away and possibly City away in their first three away games.

44:04Liam Twomey: Slavin Bilic was the coach. Brendan Rodgers was in charge of Liverpool. Yeah, exactly. That would track. It was 2015, the dog days of Rodgers. Right. So do you see Liverpool continuing that? or the Hammers who are, let's remind us, there's only two points from safety and Noddingham Forest. Could they produce another victory like Nuno did with his Forest team last season?

44:25James Richardson: I'm going to say yes. Okay. I mean, they generated an extraordinary amount of XG against Bournemouth last weekend. Didn't take it. But this just feels, this Liverpool team feels a bit like that Roger season where they're all right, but their injuries and form puts them into some tricky situations.

44:45Duncan Alexander: Fair to say that maybe West Ham at this point in time know more of what they are as a team than Liverpool do. Liverpool still seem to be figuring it out.

44:54Liam Twomey: Interesting. Well, that's Saturday, three o 'clock. By Sunday, then, Spurs could find themselves, were West Ham to get a result, Spurs could find themselves very close to the bottom three when they make the trip to Craven Cottage to take on Fulham. I'm going to call Fulham in form because they won at Sunderland last weekend, which only one other side have been able to do. It was Liverpool. This anyway, Fulham Spurs will represent Igor Tudor's second game in charge of the Lily Whites. You saw the first one, Charlie, last weekend.

45:28Charlie Eccleshare: Yeah, and I think there was a sense always, Spurs fans wouldn't want to say this, but the Northland derby was a bit of a free hit in the sense that it was his first game. He had that much time with the players. Objectively, they were pretty big underdogs. This is a huge game, really. already. It's his second game, but it is massive for him. They need to start picking up points quickly. And I think if they can, if West Ham do drop points, which the likelihood is they win and Spurs go and get a victory, then all of a sudden that does ease the pressure a bit and people maybe stop talking about relegation quite so much.

46:01Liam Twomey: Right. If Spurs were to get a victory, here's an extraordinary stat though. Macclesfield and Mansfield Town, that's non-league Macclesfield and League One Mansfield Town, have beaten more Premier League teams in 2026 than Spurs have. What? Yeah. Spurs haven't won against any Premier League teams. I'm not laughing. I mean, they're the only team yet to win a game in 2026.

46:24Duncan Alexander: We mentioned as well that Chelsea have the hardest fixtures remaining. I think Spurs have the top five easiest. Yeah, one of the easiest. But then you have to remember that it is Spurs playing those games.

46:35Charlie Eccleshare: It is really difficult. I mean, I naturally always assume that the bigger clubs eventually will sort of end up where they should, because that is normally what happens.

46:46Liam Twomey: Asper is where they should be, though, Charlie.

46:48James Richardson: Well, they're one place above where they finished last season, so progress of sorts.

46:52Charlie Eccleshare: My sense is that they will and should end up a few places higher than they are, and they won't really be in this scrap. But obviously, at the moment, the direction of travel is only going one way.

47:03Liam Twomey: Yeah. Christian Ramirez.

47:04Charlie Eccleshare: They've got a couple of players back. They've got Pedro Porro and Kevin Danso have trained this week, which is significant.

47:10Liam Twomey: No, that is big, particularly in light of the continued absence of Christian Romero. That's what Spurs are up to. But Fulham, you hesitate to be too confident about which one they're going to be, but that's a game that they could really enjoy, I think.

47:26James Richardson: I mean, Fulham just enjoy life, don't they, really? I mean, they've got a swimming pool in their stand.

47:30Liam Twomey: They've got a Bodo Glimp to the Premier League.

47:32James Richardson: They are. They're 10th, which is where Fulham should be. They're never under much pressure. Harry Wilson will be buzzing around trying to score some nice goals.

47:40Liam Twomey: He scored a lovely one in the reverse fixture. Do you remember? It was an error from Vicario and he cut inside from a crazy angle, produced this magnificent sort of banana shot.

47:50Charlie Eccleshare: Yeah, I mean, they've had a good record against Spurs recently, having had a terrible one previously. But they've won at the Cottage, I think, the last two seasons. Obviously, they won that game at Spurs earlier in the season. so I think they'll fancy themselves off the back of that Sunderland win which did arrest a bit of a tricky period that they had Tricky

48:08Liam Twomey: Forrest they are just two points above the draw up and they are at Brighton who also arrested a recent run of tricky fixtures last weekend when they won at Brentford did the Seagulls Yeah, which is a great win Very much so As for Forrest since Lorenzo Luca aka Pizza Crouch scored at Ellen Road against Leeds back in Sean Dyche's penultimate game in charge. Forrest have had 56 shots and an XG of 3.86, but not scored a single Premier League goal. Anyway, Forrest are in action on Thursday night. They did score goals, of course, in the Europa League against Fenerbahce, three of them, in what was Vitor Pereira's first game in charge.

48:51Liam Twomey: So that was a great start for him. The return leg is this evening as we record at the city ground. Very good. Wolves are up against Aston Villa. Villa don't have a very good record at Molyneux. They've lost on six of their last eight visits. Duncan, is this the weekend, is it, for Wolves? Yeah, I think so.

49:09James Richardson: Yeah? Yeah, I think Villa are definitely in the mix-up for the top five.

49:12Charlie Eccleshare: Yeah, I was going to say, that's where they're going to get dragged to, I think. You think? Yeah.

49:17Liam Twomey: Villa fans getting in touch after last Sunday's show, when we were questioning about the fall-off in Unai Emery's side's form, and pointing out that they're having a quite severe midfield injury crisis. And Liam, you were touching on the impact that'll have, generally regarded as an important sector of any footballing concern. And yeah, that's very much been a problem for them.

49:41Duncan Alexander: They seem like maybe the streakiest team in the Premier League, don't they? Because they started the season horrendously and then just went on this kind of title contending run.

49:51Charlie Eccleshare: Yeah, it's odd because they are now sort of evening out a little bit because there was all that talk of over-performance and things. So they're about where they are, it's just they've done it, like you say, in such a weird, streaky way that's made them... There's a parallel universe where they've made this charge now and we're saying, aren't Villa doing amazingly? They're third. We didn't think that was going to happen after they had a bad summer or whatever, rather than it's being framed as they're falling away, which is obviously, you know, that is how it sort of looks. But they, you know, never thought they were in the third race.

50:21James Richardson: It starts early and finish well in a season. Well, maybe. It does. Whereas if you're Newcastle in 96, it's like, what, you're just clowning.

50:27Charlie Eccleshare: But that does change how a season's viewed massively.

50:29Liam Twomey: They certainly started slowly this season, and maybe they will finish strongly after what's been a difficult recent run of results.

50:35James Richardson: Well, the other team whose numbers, underlying numbers, didn't necessarily reflect their lead position was Sunderland. Yeah. And they've got a current record of 9-9-9, and there are some alarm bells ringing because they're slipping down the table.

50:47Duncan Alexander: They've dropped like a stone, haven't they, in the last few games. Again, missing a key midfielder. Yeah. Although he was back for Fulham's win. And Bournemouth have gone the other way, haven't they? Are we getting on to Bournemouth, shall I?

50:59Liam Twomey: Well, Bournemouth are at home for Sunderland. There you go.

51:02Duncan Alexander: I just remember doing a piece a couple of weeks ago and looking up Bournemouth and thinking they were on the fringes of the relegation battle and now they're eighth. It just shows how compressed that middle area is.

51:12Charlie Eccleshare: It has been a bit that kind of season. Palace have been similar as well, where they've had periods where they've been like, oh, they're just outside the European spots. and then it feels like only a few weeks later they're kind of amongst it in the bottom half. I mean Wolves as well pushed Villa pretty close in the reverse fixture at Villa Park. I think it was 1-0. You know, and they have shown, albeit seemingly only against Arsenal, but they can also be a difficult team.

51:38James Richardson: Wolves are not that bad. Yeah, they're not. Arsenal dropped points against them.

51:42Charlie Eccleshare: They pushed Liverpool close as well at Anfield, didn't they?

51:43James Richardson: People saying, this is the worst team in Premier League history. It's not even close. They're not in the top 25 worst teams. Not in the top 25.

51:50Liam Twomey: Bournemouth-Sundleum was a terrific game last time they met with the Blackcats coming back from 2-0 down to win 3-2. Also featured one of the goals of the season from Tyler Adams. What did it look like? I'm actually just trying to watch it right now.

52:01James Richardson: Tyler Adams has got it in the centre circle now. And Bournemouth have got men falling numbers. They might not need it. Adams! Oh, it's brilliant! He's loved the goalie from a long, long way out.

52:13Liam Twomey: From downtown. That was the one. So Tyler Adams was racing clear, more or less at the centre circle, and he just, he sees the keeper off his line and... Why not? Why not?

52:24Duncan Alexander: Charlie Adams it. Yeah.

52:26Liam Twomey: There you go. Also this weekend, Newcastle Everton and Burnley Brentford. Interesting, while the Magpies did well against Carabag, they've had four defeats in five Premier League matches. Yikes. Anthony Gordon taking on his old side in that game. Burnley against Brentford. Burnley, is it done for them as well? Eight points from safety?

52:50Duncan Alexander: Well, they showed quite a bit of spirit at Stamford Bridge. They don't look like they've checked out on the season. But just looking at the table, the situation isn't reparable for them. So I think it's more a case of them trying to salvage as much pride as they can from these final games.

53:05Charlie Eccleshare: Yeah, they'd have to pick up a pretty extraordinary points tally. I mean, it would be an unbelievable improvement on what they've been so far this season. And as Liam says, they've showed some kind of incremental improvements in the Chelsea game. And obviously they beat Palace. But I think they've got too much to do.

53:19Duncan Alexander: Also, I think if the evidence of Stamford Bridge is to be believed, Kyle Walker may not play that much for them between now and the end of the season. He was hooked at half time there, at fault for the goal, miscontrollable straight to Cole Palmer. So he's...

53:36Charlie Eccleshare: The old legs have gone.

53:37Duncan Alexander: Maybe, yeah. seeing him being out sprinted by Cole Palmer was quite a jarring experience. Leave the clarets before.

53:48Liam Twomey: And so on and so forth. There you go. All right. Well, that is Premier League match day 28. There's no Monday night fixture this time around, which means we'll be able to present you with a clear and complete picture of how things stand on Sunday evening when we get together for the next Totally Football Show.

54:07James Richardson: There's no Monday night game.

54:08Charlie Eccleshare: Full round of our league next week. Oh, so there is.

54:11James Richardson: Midweek, our league under the lights.

54:13Charlie Eccleshare: Wow. Leeds will be licking their lips. Although they may be away. Yeah. Does it only count at Ellen Road? Yeah.

54:20Liam Twomey: Well, anyway.

54:21Charlie Eccleshare: It's a microclimate.

54:22Liam Twomey: Sunday evening we'll be here putting together our weekend roundup. You can either wait and get that as a podcast on Monday or join us on our YouTube channel around about 7.15 on Sunday evening to enjoy the whole experience. Slight asterisk on that. live. Very good. That's it for today, though. So many thanks to you, Charlie Eckershire, to Liam Toomey, to Duncan Alexander, to Jake and producer Charlie in the booth, and you, listener. See you soon, have a great weekend, etc. and so on. Goodbye from all of us here.

54:57James Richardson: You've been listening to The Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC Podcast Network. For other great podcasts just like this one, including the Athletic FC and our dedicated club podcasts, search for The Athletic in all the usual places. We're also at The Totally Show on Insta and at The Totally Show on YouTube. The Totally Football Show is an Athletic Media Company production.

55:23Charlie Eccleshare: The Athletic FC