Arsenal stunned by Saints as Liverpool get stuffed by City

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1:57having their bubbles blown again, and Man City and Chelsea ran up the scorelines against Liverpool, and League One's Port Vale, an embarrassingly one-sided match-up that, and so was Port Vale. We'll talk all of that, plus Millwall in the Premier League, it could happen, and Roy the Rover makes his return to the Robins. It's the Totally Football Show.

2:27Very good evening to you and thank you so much for joining us here on the Totally Football Show. If you're with us on our YouTube channel, then you catch us on a Sunday evening, us being Tom Williams here in the studio. Hi, Tom. Hello, James. And on the big screen, Daniel Story. Hi, Daniel Story. Hello, James. All right, slight delay on Daniel, but bear with him. It's going to be worth the wait. He does that for dramatic effect. He's in his Davina McCall phase. Nice. That's what Nick Hart on as well, top Millwall fan, a little bit later on, because they are coming. But right now we have literally just watched the FA Cup game of the season, I would say, Daniel Storino, the extra time and shootout thriller at the London Stadium between West Ham and Leeds.

3:13Yeah, football being very good when two teams who are sort of angst ridden in their daily domestic chores of the Premier League get a chance to be quite bad against each other in a different context. It was sensational fun. It kind of had everything. And just as you thought he'd given everything, we got the sight of a novice baby keeper coming on for penalties, saving the first one to sort of load us all with narrative and then sadly seeing it slip through his hands. Right. There were other narratives, though. As you say, it had everything. Just the extra time on its own was kind of the FA Cup game of the season.

3:53But there was, what, 40-plus shots in the course of the game. Danny Dyer, half the stadium leaving when the home side were 2-0 down with 90 minutes played. And then some of them managing to creep back in and getting caught doing it on camera. But the rest of them, Tom, not getting allowed back in for the extra time and shootout. Yes, there were photographs doing the rounds on social media showing angry-looking West Ham fans who'd left early and then tried to get back in, but been told that they were not allowed to come back in by the stewards. And you kind of think, serves them right, really. If you leave a football much early, you run the risk of missing excitement.

4:31Right. 2-0 down there with 90 minutes played. You can understand why some felt the gig was up, or Jig indeed was up, for West Ham. Why wasn't it, Daniel, story? It wasn't because Leeds have picked up a tendency this season of conceding goals late, of missing chances to kill off a game and then being punished for it. And I think because West Ham finally realised that they had absolutely nothing to lose and had to throw everything at it. I thought, so West Ham's basic plan in the game was to play counter-attacking football with fast wingers. And although Adama Troio was good, I think he was probably better than Gerard Bowen, actually, They really miss Corsensio Somerville, the former Leeds player who's injured at the moment, because that gives them a dual attacking, counter-attacking threat.

5:16And they have been really good with that shape and with that plan. Without it, they just look quite easy to attack. And they are also easy to attack because there were defensive changes. And until Finlay Herrick came on as the sub-goalkeeper, I think the kind of running theme or the headline of the game would have been Max Killman's treatment at the hands of his own fans, which was pretty painful to watch, really. like booed every time he touched the ball following him giving him penalty away and that move hasn't worked out but and fans look I don't like telling fans what to do you've paid your money you take your choice but ultimately surely what you want is West Ham to stay up this season and be as good as they can so booing a player when he's on the ball on the pitch seems a fairly yeah an odd way of going about that exercise a very West Ham sort of occasion in that you had the full gamut of emotions.

6:07You had the team falling behind fairly early on and then conceding a second goal at a point in the match when they appeared to have taken control. The mass exodus of fans from the stadium accompanied by the booing of one of their own players from the supporters who remained behind. And then suddenly this late rally in stoppage time. Fans trying to get back in the Finlay-Herrick thing and yet they still end up going out on penalties. I mean, just another example of what a curious football club they are. We should also mention when we talk about injury time, when time had it on, there was fully 11 minutes of it, which was more ample than your average allowance and did indeed see West Ham pull level again.

6:49Then, I think they'd taken the lead in the opening seconds of the extra time period, have another goal disallowed. That was the thing, as the commentators were wont to say in the course of the game, how is this still 2-2? Yeah, that goal, or non-goal, was summed at the farce of the game. Lucas Perry coming, sort of charging out to do a header that ended up going basically backwards, but ruled out for offside. And yeah, as you said a few minutes ago, James, that extra time just felt like the end of two tired prize fighters just sort of swinging at each other, but without the exacting quality to actually kill off the game.

7:25and having sat through, I think it's probably the longest game without delay, you know, actual delay that I've watched. It was three hours, 10 minutes from start to finish, which is remarkable for an FA Cup tie. That is extraordinary, isn't it? Like two drunks fighting in a disco was a comparison that the great Gary Bloom once offered back in the 90s on a show of a certain vintage. Well... No less entertaining. No less entertaining. That spectacle would likely prove. Yeah. They meet again at the London Stadium on the final day of the Premier League season. Any chance that will live up to this one?

8:04Probably not, but in terms of tension, it could. And, I mean, even before kick-off, it was a very interesting cup tie, given the dynamics of both teams, who have both simultaneously turned a corner in terms of the quality of their performances and the kind of results they've been getting, but yet still find themselves mired in trouble. We know that West Ham have really improved in recent weeks and yet they remain in the relegation zone. Leeds have been a different team since before Christmas and yet just haven't picked up enough wins. And so there are two teams who are good enough to put distance between themselves and the relegation places.

8:50But as Daniel said, there is a lack of quality in both teams that suggests they might not succeed in doing that by the time they cross swords again on the final day. West Ham in the bottom three, Leeds barely four points above it. Daniel? In terms of Leeds, the overriding feeling deserves to be one of huge happiness. This is the joint longest run or ended run without an FA Cup semi-final in the competition's history. Leicester went 39 years without the semi-final before getting one. Leeds' last one was 1987, which is remarkable for a club of their size. So that's great. I actually think for most supporters, particularly given the draw of playing Chelsea and then probably Man City in a final if you get there, the overriding feeling might be one of worry because Anton Stack's been their best player this season.

9:40He went off injured and was on the touchline in crutches and a protective boot. And then later on, Joe Roden went off with an injury, who is their best central defender. If that happens and that causes any more than two or three games for them both to miss, that's a huge problem for Leeds because they are the defensive stability and the energy in midfield rely upon those two players. And as Tom says, they've not been picking up enough wins with them, even though they've been improved. So, yeah, that's a worry. Right. That kind of cup caused injuries, exactly why so many Arsenal fans were wiping their brows with relief at going out to Southampton, so they can really focus on the league.

10:20That, of course, on Saturday. A quick word on Finn Herrick, who, as you point out, Daniel, didn't quite get the ending to that story. But what a story it was being. Areola picking up an injury in the final three, four minutes of extra time. just enough time for West Ham to bring on and give his first ever senior minutes Finn Herrick he comes on, has one kick, picks the ball up has one goal kick essentially before then facing a penalty shootout for a place at Wembley and makes the first save in that penalty shootout Yeah, this wasn't a kind of charity offering from Nuno he really likes Herrick he was sent on loan to Boreham Wood in the National League at the start of this season But Nuno recalled him shortly after coming into the club.

11:08He saved a penalty for West Ham in the EFL Trophy, a late penalty against Colchester United, which I'm guessing probably played into West Ham's thinking. You know, this guy has at least saved a penalty this season, so it's not a complete shot in the dark. And he's played England under 16s, 17s, 18s and 20s. So he's not a, you know, although he is a raw kid because he's only 20 and he's not played for West Ham at senior level before, he is really well thought of and highly regarded. I suspect he'll be loaned out to League One or whatever next season and get some senior football that he'll probably need.

11:41But yeah, he'll always have that kind of that moment. It's a shame for him that you don't want the first penalty you save to be the only one you save. But I did like the way he kind of had this sort of chutzpah in goal and was giving it a bit to the Leeds players. Good on him. Doesn't even have a Wikipedia page. Still, Finn Herrick. Even what, half an hour after the game's ended? I'll do a live check right now. No, still no Wikipedia page. But he's picked up 1 ,000-plus new Instagram followers in the half an hour since I last checked. All right. And that's the real quiz, isn't it? Five and a half hours.

12:12That is the real quiz. The real cups are the friends you make along the way. Very good. It's a semi-final with Chelsea for Leeds. The semi-final draw coming straight after Sunday afternoon's game at the London Stadium. It sees the side under Daniel Farker taking on Liam Resenius, a Blues who put seven goals on Saturday first, bottom of League One Port Vale. The other semi-final sees Mad City, who faced Liverpool Saturday lunchtime for the third time this season and got their biggest win yet, 4-0 with an Erling Haaland hat-trick, take on the team who produced probably the result of the weekend.

12:55and that's Southampton who knocked out Arsenal Saturday night. Let's get on to that game next. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. Fellows beats Calafiore, plays it into Charles!

13:19Southampton have done it again! Southampton have done it again. Then Saints back at Wembley, making it, what, 16 games? They're on beaten run. Back-to-back Premier League teams beaten. A thoroughly deserved win. Yeah, I think so, based on the expected gap between the two teams. You know, Arsenal had most of the territory and most of the ball, but Southampton did far more with it than Arsenal. They played as if they had a plan of how to target Arsenal, which was fairly direct balls over the top, which the wind didn't get mentioned on commentary that much, but the number of times that Arsenal players just completely misjudged where the ball was going to land or come down for them made me think it must be a factor because it was embarrassing at times.

14:08It just seemed a really easy way to get at them, to just put a long ball over the top and see if Ross Stewart could win a header or if someone could compete for it. And Southampton made the most of those moments and all power to them. They've had this really odd season where they sacked Will Still pretty early on in his reign and appointed Tundra Eckhart because he achieved quite a lot as a caretaker in a short period of time. Then went on an abysmal run where it looked like Eckhart might lose his job. And now, as you say, James, they've gone on this brilliant run and have competed against Premier League teams, which is quite ironically something they didn't really do last season.

14:44So, yeah, it felt a very good time to play Arsenal, I think, coming out of that international break. It's probably a game that Arsenal didn't particularly want in terms of the players out. But yeah, it was brilliant for Southampton. OK. And sloppy from Arsenal. Yeah, I mean, right from the start, Arsenal had most of the ball, as you would expect. And we're getting into dangerous areas without creating a huge number of chances. But right from the start of the game, every time Southampton turned the ball over, even deep in their own half, they were managing to cut through Arsenal very easily. So although the opener from Ross Stewart, when it came, felt slightly against, you're still hearing what, Stuart?

15:24I can't help it. It's like when they say, Yamal. Yes. I get your mum. Yes. I'm sure you are not alone in that. But yeah, when Ross Stewart puts Southampton ahead, it came against the run of play, but the warning signs had been there. And even when you looked at the Arsenal team sheet, and of course there were several high-profile absentees Declan Rice most notably Miklarteta chose to start with Martin Zubomendi on the bench so Arsenal were set out with Christian Norgard and Martin Odegaard forming this very unusual looking sort of defensive midfield double pivot with Kai Havertz just ahead of them and you suspected that might prove problematic and I think it did prove problematic and Odegaard ends up giving way with half an hour to go.

16:15And what was interesting in an attacking sense when he went off for Madueke was that it was Max Dowman who moved infield into the kind of nominal playmaker role, which I think said a lot about how much Arsenal were struggling to carve out opportunities that you felt for a long time like it was only via Dowman that Arsenal were likely to create anything. as it happened it was players coming on from the bench who enabled them to get back into the game Jocheres equalising but as much as you kind of suspected at that point that Arsenal would then go on and win the game they didn't ever really put Southampton under massive pressure and ended up getting picked off five minutes from time And out they go from the cup Saints next travel to Wrexham that's on Tuesday part of a busy set of days for the Championship Huge game that because Wrexham are, I think, one place and one point above them inside the playoff positions.

17:13Saints very much pushing for a chance to make it back into the Premier League under Tom Decker. What can you tell us about Tom Decker, Daniel? Not very much. He was an analyst for the German national team in 2014 and joined Southampton as a coach. and, you know, as I say, only got thrust into the role very much by accident. Southampton didn't want to sack Will Still. They wanted to keep faith in him, but the form turned quickly enough and badly enough that they felt they had to make a change because parachute payment seasons are the most important to get back up. They put Eckhart in for just a temporary measure and he was absolutely brilliant.

17:56Southampton just turned on their head almost immediately under him. There was a game against Charlton, I think it was, I remember, where they were like four or five nil up after 40 minutes. He then did enough to get the job at which point it all kind of fell apart. It sounds like now is a different beast being a permanent manager, right? And it sounds like he's really got a handle on things. They're playing how he wants to play. The football is really good. They have more possession clearly in the championship than they did against Arsenal. But the basics are basically the same, kind of trying to high press, trying to turn over the ball, trying to create lots of chances.

18:30and I think if the season was two months longer or maybe even a month longer, you'd put them right up there to finish in the top two. I think top six is going to be their best bet. I'm actually at Wrexham Southampton on Tuesday. It's going to be a huge game for the playoff race. But if Southampton get in, they would be my pick to win the playoffs because they just look like they've got that momentum at the moment. Good Lord. So Ida Iola, who is the manager of Arsenal's next opponents in the league, which is next weekend, Bournemouth, he was there at St Mary's for the game. What do you think his big takeaway will have been?

19:03I mean, difficult to draw that many conclusions from this about Arsenal because of the team that they put out. And when Mikel Arteta was asked about the absentees after the game, he suggested that most of them are likely to be OK for the weekend. Or at least I think that was the general vibe. So I think Jarela will have known that, you know, the Arsenal team that lines up against Bournemouth at the weekend is unlikely to look that much like the team that lost to Southampton. But I think he'll have seen once again that Arsenal are in this slightly fragile period, which is remarkable when you think about the feeling of complete euphoria that accompanied their last league outing.

19:46The 2-0 win at home to Everton, Max Dalman running through to score into an empty net right at the end of the game. if you'd been told at that point that by the time Arsenal's next league game came around, the talk of them bottling everything and being in crisis would be back on the table. I don't think many people would have believed you, but they've lost the League Cup final. Now they're out of the FA Cup as well. I think there is a large section of the population who would have believed that, and they're called Arsenal fans. I mean, perhaps, yes. So here's Noxin Thawedduyo, or thereabouts, who says, Do you guys think Arsenal are going to win anything this season?

20:23Let's be serious now, Daniel. Yes, I do. I still think they'll win the Premier League. But what I find really fascinating about Arteta is that after each of the three big setbacks recently, in each of those games, I think Arsenal have been poor at, and Tom said it a few minutes ago, at creating chances. They've been reliant upon set pieces all season. We know that. But in open play, it's not looked like, not scoring enough, but maybe not even creating enough. And yet at the end of each of those games, the thing that Arteta has picked out publicly is like fire and heart and desire. He said after the Wolves game, we need to look ourselves in the mirror.

21:00He said exactly the same as that after the Southampton game, after the EFL Cup final, he was like, I've got poison in my tummy and we need to have fire in our bellies. It's odd because that's normally how you imagine or you envisage managers of relegation threaten sides talking. Like we need to just show more hunger and show more desire and be bigger than ourselves. I actually don't think that's Arsenal's problem at all. I don't think it's about desire and hunger. I think, if anything, talking up those ideals is what makes the players feel quite nervous. And there have been more individual mistakes recently.

21:32I don't really know what the answer is other than winning every game in the league. And we should remember that if they beat Burnley Palace, Bournemouth, Fulham, West Ham, those five games, they will win the Premier League, I'm sure of that. and they won all the reverse fixtures of those this season. They still should win the league. But it's just, it's odd how, to me, how Arteta goes about in a kind of, we need to show more. We need to show more and more. We need to look at ourselves and look within. And I think, actually, maybe you just need to be slightly better at creating chances in open play.

22:03All right. And relax a bit and have fun. Perhaps. I'm not sure the injury is a huge factor. Gabriel went off with what looked like a left knee injury in this match already. Timber, Declan Rice, Bukaios, Saka. Leandro Trossard, Eberici Eze were out of the squad for Saints. And as you say, Tom, they've lost back-to-back games down in huge games. Of all the time to have your blip, it surely isn't right now. Yeah, I mean, it's unfortunate timing. But I was talking to producer Charlie pre-pod and he pointed out that during the Invincible season, obviously the last time Arsenal won the league, there was a period at exactly this point in the season where, and Charlie will correct me if I'm wrong, they went out of the FA Cup against Manchester United, were then knocked out of the Champions League in successive matches and then faced a pivotal home game against Liverpool, which they fell behind in but came back to win and that proved a spur for them to go on and win the league.

23:05And I think when a team are having as successful a season as Arsenal are, you can very easily get swept up in the treble talk and the quadruple talk because that very quickly becomes the way that things are framed. I think every single Arsenal fan will have gone into this season thinking the only thing that matters is that we win the league at long, long last and that we get rid of this bottlers tag. And if they'd been offered the position that they are in now at the beginning of the season, all of those Arsenal fans would have taken it. Yes, losing the League Cup final in that fashion was a setback.

23:41Going out of the FA Cup to second tier opposition is a disappointment. None of these things are positive, but the point remains, they're still in the Champions League on the favourable side of the draw. They have their destiny in their own hands in the league. They just need to make sure that they don't allow the rot that's knocked them out of both cup competitions to start polluting their league form. But I mean, you know, that game against Bournemouth has the potential to be an ervy one. It does, doesn't it? But great perspective there. Tom, do you want to finish off, Daniel, this section by talking a little bit about Ben White's week?

24:17Yeah, I mean, for a man, a self-professed man who doesn't particularly like football, he's certainly managing to be its main character energy this week, for sure. I was at Wembley for the England game on Tuesday when he was booed. He'd already been booed in the previous game and scored and given away a penalty. And then, yeah, he is main character energy again at Arsenal this weekend. Because I mentioned the win, but whatever that excuse would have been, there is no excuse to completely mistiming the jump as he did. It was an obvious take a step back and head it without jumping if you're not sure you're going to get it.

24:55It was a really odd piece of defensive play. really good touch from Ross Stewart Ross Ross Ross Stewart to finish it but yeah he's just in a weird place at the moment I think probably it might be best for him if he isn't at the World Cup because he's already having to deal with this coming back in and being booed by his own fans he's added to that he is undoubtedly keeping out Trent Alexander-Arnold from the squad or is one player who's keeping out Trent Alexander-Arnold and I just think I don't think he's going to play in the US certainly not start and one of the issues he had when he was away with England previously is that he isn't necessarily a brilliant traveller because if he's not playing as I say he doesn't he says he doesn't really like football he doesn't watch football and those camps can be a bit all-consuming if you're not particularly into football well indeed all right then Arsenal down to just two competitions Man City though their triple dream is still very much alive let's get on to what they did Saturday lunchtime next

26:03This 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, Oli Kay and the very best football writers around. This is kind of what we've come to expect for a long time and here they are again. It's O 'Reilly, it's Harlan, it's a hat-trick. What a day for Manchester City. And what a day individually for Erling Haaland. 4-0. And he's helped himself to three of them. Manchester City, if the League Cup final, a fortnight back against Arsenal, gave us hints that Man City might be back.

26:44What do we make of their performance Saturday lunchtime as they want Liverpool 4-0? Tom Williams. Yeah, very impressive. I think the speed with which they took control of the game spoke a lot to the sense that a new dynamic is perhaps taking shape at City. It also spoke a lot to the fact that Liverpool are very fragile this season. But I think City's tactical evolution over the last few weeks has been really interesting. one of the real features of Pep Guardiola's tenure as city manager is that practically every time he's found himself in a bit of a tight spot he's managed to think a way out of it by coming up with some kind of ingenious tactical solution and one of the real difficulties he's had over the course of the last year has been that he's not been able to do that and we've seen it this season he's been kind of tinkering and trying different things and the most recent sort of tactical idea that he'd had was to start playing with two up top, Haaland and Omar Marmouche, three attacking midfielders and only one defensive midfielder.

27:57We first saw that in the away winner at Anfield a few weeks back. But that system had several limitations and after City drew 1-1 at West Ham in their most recent Premier League game, he said some really interesting things about his inability to fit Ryan Scherke into the starting 11. I think a lot of City fans and a lot of neutrals would love to see Scherke starting every game because he's brilliant. And what Guardiola said after the West Ham game was we tried that at the start of the season, but we saw that when we had Haaland and Scherke and Doku in the team at kick-off, it wasn't balanced enough.

28:38It doesn't work. And that's why we stopped doing it. But what we saw in the Carabao Cup final against Arsenal and what we saw against Liverpool on Saturday was those three players on the pitch at kick-off. And the only real change he's made is that whereas Bernardo Silva previously was playing as quite an advanced kind of number 10 almost in the 4-1-3-2 with the two strikers and the wide players, now he's playing much deeper alongside Rodri. He was absolutely brilliant against Liverpool and just gives City the kind of territorial dominance in midfield that used to be one of, you know, the real Guardiola calling cards.

29:15And there were moments in the second half, I mean, it was a slightly peculiar game because it went from 0-0 to 4-0 in the blink of an eye. But there were moments in the second half when City were popping the ball around the Liverpool press and the fans were sort of oleying that you were reminded of kind of, you know, peak Guardiola era City. So I think that, apart from the fact that thrashing one of your closest rivals in a big game like that is good for confidence, the manner of it I think was encouraging. And the fact that it looks like Guardiola might finally have figured out a way of getting Schalke into the team in a way that doesn't unbalance it.

29:49Right. So stack that squad. The Man City won the check. He actually had to line up for Liverpool at one point. He had to suit up for Liverpool in the second half. Of course, he was on the bench and just pulling on a Liverpool jersey that he got off a France teammate. Tom mentions the point about Pep Guardiola finding ways to solve crises. Some people would say, yeah, he came up with the brilliant idea of signing Gaye Insomene in the winter window. And that's really what makes this Man City look so unstoppable right now. Talents like that coming into the side. Daniel, how much do you subscribe to that side of the kind of Guardiola debate?

30:33Certainly in the case of Semenyo, who has absolutely hit the ground. I mean, literally running. He's been phenomenal. And having Shirky as a kind of ball controller and the dictator of the tempo higher up the pitch. I think with City in previous years, or really good City teams, the tempo has been dictated a little bit further back in the pitch, whether it's generally Rodri or Kevin De Bruyne dropping deep. And now Shirky seems to be doing that role further up the pitch, which means you've got Semenya who's able to basically play a free roll and just pop up anywhere around Erling Haaland, breaking through the lines.

31:12You saw that for Haaland's first goal, it's Semenya who crosses it from the right wing. For Semenya's goal, he makes a run through the middle. There's a cross from the left for Haaland where Semenya is involved. He's kind of everywhere. I loved Haaland's hat-trick goal. The movement to do Van Dijk, it's made Van Dijk look so silly. So he sort of, he hangs back and Van Dijk knows where he is, so stays. And then he makes a run and Van Dijk goes and halfway through that run, he hangs back again. And he knows where the pass is going to come. And he creates three yards of space. And we've said this before, but his ability to create space near, apparently very, very good defenders is like nothing else in the world at the moment.

31:54And yeah, that is a bit of a cheat code for Guardiola. I don't think they're perfect yet by any means. And I think Gehi is still taking time to settle. And I don't quite think they've got that midfield balance right yet. But yeah, they looked, Tom's right. There were moments in that Liverpool game where you thought this feels like shades of old city. And sadly, we should say, and I know we'll come on to it now, but shades of new Liverpool as well. Right. Well, yeah, they looked a long way from peak. Some of them, Mo Salah, missing that penalty late on, missing chances early on. Virgil van Dijk as well.

32:28Tom, you came up with the remarkable stat that he's now conceded four penalties this season, which is the same amount as in the eight previous campaigns. Is that right? Yeah. And in some level, complicit, and I think all of the four Man City goals on Saturday lunchtime. Yeah, well, I mean, it's his challenge on Nico O 'Reilly, his quite unnecessary challenge on Nico O 'Reilly that opens the door to City going ahead. And, you know, in terms of the number of chances that both sides had had, Liverpool had arguably had the best of the game up to that point. I mean, you know, you mentioned that the Salah chance that he sort of dawdles over, they were, you know, getting in behind quite a lot.

33:10But from the moment they fell behind, you know, that was it. All the fight just seemed to go out of them. And that in itself was very concerning. But I mean, Van Dijk's having a peculiar season. And I see suggestions, you know, here and there that he's been one of Liverpool's better performers. But I watch Liverpool quite a lot. And he is very frequently badly at fault at crucial moments in matches. And there was that quote from Arnaz Slott earlier on this season about Ibrahim Akarnata frequently being at the scene of the crime when goals were conceded. I mean, Virgil van Dijk is pretty much a one-man crime scene himself.

33:43Is he the man in the hot dog suit saying, we're all searching for whoever did this? Well, and he very much, though, in the sense that no sooner has he kind of like committed an error than he's the one looking around, either haranguing his teammates or, as was the case on Saturday, saying to the referee very clearly, no way, no way, no way. And then after the game saying that he felt that some of the team had given up. Yeah. And what was interesting was that he wasn't the only person to say that. You know, Van Dijk said that he felt that the team had given up. Dominic Saboslai was quite critical of, you know, performance levels and the basics not being done.

34:21Saboslai, who I see, has also been criticised a little bit on social media for kind of haranguing the Liverpool supporters to kind of, you know, cheer up a bit and make more noise at the final whistle, which was a bit peculiar. And Arnaz Lott was saying a similar thing himself. and yes, Liverpool started the game quite well, created a lot of chances, but when you basically lose control of the game that quickly, it's not a very good sign. Not good. And it did feel like a lot of it was just, you know, was basics. There were things Liverpool did well in terms of the way they were able to stop City playing at times, but then there'd be moments when just collectively the level of intensity and the level of attention would drop and the next thing they'd find themselves 4-0 down and out of the cup.

35:02It's an opponent which they had some success against, Man City, but Arne Slott saying afterwards that's one of the reasons why this was such a bitter disappointment, losing 4-0 in the quarterfinal of the Cup against a team with whom Liverpool have played so many great games against. They have had back-to-back defeats like Arsenal have. They've had just one win in five now, Liverpool, in all competitions. They've got Paris Saint-Germain coming up midweek. Generally speaking, with the race for top five very much open between them and Chelsea in particular. How worried should Liverpool be, Daniel?

35:35Yeah, really worried. I think the Champions League has probably been keeping on a slot firmly in a job and, you know, theorising here rather than any huge intel. But it's pretty clear that Xabi Alonso would be the number one target this summer. I suspect Alonso would prefer to wait until a summer to take a new job rather than rush into one now. but this does very much have the feeling of a team limping and a club limping towards the end of the season and whatever Alonso can do there will be a central defensive crisis there next season because Iben Mekhima Tannati is out of contract we know that, hasn't signed a new one yet there was talk of Real Madrid interest but that seems to have cooled for fairly obvious reasons Van Dijk signed a two-year deal up to 400 grand a week and has had his worst season in a Liverpool shirt just as Mohamed Salah has after signing his contract.

36:28After that, you've got Giovanni Leone, who will have been out for a year and cannot be expected in all good faith to come in and perform at elite level straight away. And Joe Gomez, who almost left the club last summer, but the move wasn't sanctioned and he'll only have a year on his contract as well. So there's so much work to do with that defence because you have to work out a way of getting Frimpong and Kirchhoff into the same team, whether that's one of them higher up and one of them at full-back or both at full-back. And there's just no obvious way I've seen of Liverpool working that out without them looking really soft in transition in midfield and getting broken on and really clear-cut chances against them.

37:09So, yeah, it feels pretty bad at the moment. I mean, cue them going and getting a result against PSG, I'm sure, but I don't see that at all at the moment. Well, we shall see. We'll be proving that game in our European Totally Football show, which will be out with you on Tuesday morning. Man City anyway, through to the semi-final where they will be facing Southampton for Leeds. As mentioned before, the draw has given them Chelsea. Chelsea, who on Saturday at tea time faced the bottom team in Ligue 1, Port Vale, and put seven goals past them. Becoming the first team to score seven goals in an FA Cup quarter-final since Liverpool against Birmingham 20 years ago.

37:46Enzo Fernandes was not part of the Chelsea squad for this game and he won't be playing for Chelsea next weekend when they're up against Man City in the Premier League. Ooh, that's a big game. Liam Resenia announcing on Friday that Fernandes was dropped for the next two games because he'd crossed a line in terms of our culture. This is Liam's words. And what we want to build, you have to protect the culture. And in terms of that, a line was crossed. Very much a crossed line then for Enzo Fernandes and Chelsea. What does this refer to, Daniel? Was it the bit where he said that it was a mistake getting rid of the previous manager?

38:22Was it the bit where he said he wanted to go and live in Spain? What was the issue? I mean, he said he wanted to, he said he liked Madrid as a city, which you can translate whichever way you want and will have been said with deliberate vagueness. I thought the interesting thing was that Marco Cucurella basically said exactly the same thing in the international break. Even more explicitly. And he wasn't banned. Yeah, pretty much. And he wasn't banned. Now, he isn't one of the vice captains, I don't believe, so fair enough. I mean, the one thing we have to say about Chelsea is that Liam Rossini was appointed as manager as part of the project.

38:59So I think it would be a huge stretch to say that Liam Rossini is the kingmaker in terms of making every decision at Chelsea. This is a committee club at the moment. The sporting directors get a say. People even higher than them might get a say. So it has been deemed by, I would say this is a Chelsea decision more than a, or as much as it is a Liam Rossini decision. but I don't get where it leads to particularly when it then provokes Fernandes' agent to speak to the Athletic and to say that he feels like his client's been stitched up it just makes the situation worse I feel for Rossellino in pretty much all of this because I said before the job feels probably too big for him the situation feels fairly unmanageable you've got senior players two of the most senior players at the club talking about moves elsewhere and the previous manager you've got a team of young players who are making mistakes as young players will but the club desperately needs Champions League football financially it's a really hard thing to manage and this doesn't help and in that in that context I can see why Chelsea are pretty annoyed at a senior player doing this when it's a time when together this is needed all right well there you go Chelsea fans your team has just won 7-0 we've managed to talk you up into a team in crisis By the way, when you mention Enzo Fernandez's agent, Javier Pastore, the former Palermo and Paris Saint-Germain star.

40:22That's extraordinary. Nothing about him as a player made me think he's going to be the guy I want hustling on my side of the table. He couldn't have seemed less like agent material if he tried. I mean, the kind of like epitome of a sort of, you know, willowy, elegant playmaker. Something kind of slightly ethereal about him. Which kind of player do you think makes the best agent? It's a tough one, isn't it? It is a tough one. Can I think about it? You have a think about that. I'd like Pepe, someone like that. Real Madrid Pepe. Yeah, you know he's going to fight your corner. He might fight me as well.

41:02Possibly so. There you go. Oh, the Athletic released an updated Hopometer. I know I don't need to explain what a Hopometer is, but it's the one they did at the start of the campaign. back when Chelsea fans were crowned the most optimistic in the Premier League. That was only last summer. But now they're already rated the most pessimistic, and it's Sunderland fans who are the happiest. Where are Nottingham Forests on that list? Can I check, producer Charlie? Daniel, where are you on the hopometer? A good time to ask because I'm feeling pretty good, and the club during the international break or over Easter weekend basically invited as many fans as they could into the city ground to watch a massive day of open training and interviews and that sort of stuff.

41:45Really well-designed, cleverly done, good news generator for the club, ahead of a monumental couple of months. I'm hearing from Charlie in my ear that's 6th out of 20, which is a little bit high for a team that are 16th in the Premier League, I suppose. But, yeah, things are looking better until they look worse again inevitably soon. Yeah, all right. There you go. Things looking good for Man City. The treble is still on. Saints in the semi-final and Chelsea coming up next week in the Premier League. And Chelsea protecting their culture. Good for them. I mean, no, that sounds like I'm saying that culture is protected.

42:25I don't want to. It's all about protecting and respecting it, Chelsea, this season. First, they're respecting the ball. I want to say that all cultures are welcome within this. You know, there's not like any. We need homogeneity. Yeah, that word. anyway let's move on next up crikey it's been a huge weekend in the Football League and there's more on the way Met Mence on Monday so let's get a quick catch up on big events in the Championship and what's this Millwall in the Premier League it could happen

43:03you're listening to the Totally Football Show with James Richardson now with you four times a week Keep up to date with us on Insta and enjoy us in glorious Technicolor on YouTube at The Totally Show. Totally Football Show European Edition is out first thing on Tuesday. And yes, as mentioned, we're going to be looking ahead to those midweek Champions League quarterfinals, which include Paris Saint-Germain against Liverpool and Arsenal against Sporting Club de Portugal, and also Barcelona and Atletico. Again, they already faced off in the Copa del Rey semifinals, nine goals in those two matches.

43:35They played each other this weekend as well, interestingly, ahead of their Champions League tie. Did you see any of this? Yamal, a.k.a. Yo Mama. I saw the Yamal pass and I saw the Marcus Rashford goal. Oh, yeah, there you go. Anyway, they beat Atletico. We'll see what happens, of course, midweek, and we'll be chatting about that and all sorts of other stuff as well. In Tuesday, Tom will be part of that, of course, talking French stuff. Nothing to say about PSG because they had the weekend off. No, they played. Oh, did they play? They played. They beat Toulouse. Oh, it's next weekend that they get the bye.

44:08Yes. Right. Yeah, they played Toulouse on Friday night. They won 3-1. Right. Another scorcher from Oostlander, Berlin. Even when they played Toulouse, they still win. There you go. It writes itself this time. In the Scottish Premiership title race. Oh, my goodness, it's got title again. It's like an accordion north of the border. And courtesy of Hearts drawing with Livingstone on Sunday and Celtic and Rangers both winning, Harts are now barely a point. Well, actually a point. Above Rangers and Celtic are now only three points off the lead themselves. There are six matches to go. Those three sides play each other in the run-in and it's mad.

44:47Extraordinary. Extraordinary. Oh, here's a quick message from Chin Chudder. I can see a copy of Do You Speak Football in the back of Jimbo's shot. One of my favourite football books, Tom. Thanks very much. All right. There you go. It's actually an outdated version. There's a recently updated version. It hit the shelves in 2024. I'm sure we've got a copy of that. We've not got enough Daniel's story on our bookshelves. I'm just turning around to see if I can see either of my two copies, updated and original. Right. Tom gave me the very limited edition Japanese edition. For the true heads. Sorry, they were getting a little bit eclectic here, but some people or some person on the YouTube comments hello to you, was mentioned that he could see Daniel's feed just fine because he could identify your PS5 there on the bookshelf.

45:39Excellent. Now, what we came here to talk about was not that, but rather the EFL. Daniel, Easter weekend is traditionally a big one, of course, in the Football League. There will have been two full rounds of fixtures by the time the Easter break concludes. One on Good Friday, one on Bank Holiday Monday with that Wrexham Saints game on Tuesday. Some big stories so far. Coventry, how big a win was that on Friday against Derby? Absolutely massive because they were far better than Derby, but they allowed themselves to get pegged back twice. And Jack Radoni, who is a phenomenal EFL player, but has not been, I don't think, at his best all season this season, produced a kind of, yeah, a virtuoso second half to win Coventry the game.

46:26He scores with one of those flicks behind his leg that you see quite a lot now as a way of diverting across in front of goal in. And yeah, the CBS went absolutely mad, as it has been prone to do often this season. I've been trying as part of my job to try and nail it so I can see each of the title winners in the EFL get promoted. So I'm trying to sort of look at Coventry's next games and see where I need to find them. and the results on Friday very much shifted that date forward for Coventry. Right. As we'll talk about Millwall in a bit, Millwall winning at Middlesbrough helped Coventry in that regard.

47:06So, yeah, they are not up yet, but they will be soon, I think. They need a maximum of eight points from their final six matches to seal promotion. They can get three of those, potentially Monday night when they will be at Hull. Anyway, the team who are currently now with them as of Friday in the automatic promotion places are Millwall, after they beat the previous occupants of second spot, Middlesbrough on Friday night, to take that place from them. It's the first time that Borough have lost after being ahead in a game all season. But it raises the question, could the Lions be set for promotion to the Premier League for the first time ever?

47:44Will we ask that question to Nick Hart from the Actong Millwall podcast?

47:54Nick, could the Lions be set for promotion to the Premier League for the first time ever? Well, first time since the old First Division days of 1988, James. Yeah, it's on the cards, isn't it? The only fly in the ointment is Ipswich with their two games in hand on us. So that's the only kind of thing that's bothering me at the moment. But it was a magnificent win yesterday up at Riverside Stadium. So, you know, anything's possible. is a very resilient squad and it's come through a lot this season to get into this position. So, you know, it's amazingly close given where we've been for most of the campaign.

48:31Right. For those of us who haven't been following Millwall that closely, where has this promotion push come from? We've had a lot of injuries. Obviously, the squad will never be the most, you know, resourced in the championship. There are other clubs with much, much bigger budgets than we can bring to the party. But we've had some very shrewd transfer dealings. But then, you know, as I've said, the key players being injured. for large chunks. We've really ground out many, many wins this season against the odds. And we've taken a fairly direct style to places like Ipswich, which we're achingly close to winning there.

49:05We've been to Middlesbrough on Good Friday and won against the run of play, really. So it's got a bit of a momentum feeling at the moment. I've been a middle fan for 50-plus years, and I've learned over the years never to count your chickens until they've hatched and got a new brood going because it can all go through our fingers at the last moment. We've had that a few times. But it's certainly as close to automatic promotion as I've ever known as in my time. Good Lord. So, as you were mentioning, not since the days of Sheringham and Cascarino have you been in the top flight. What would it mean to you, Nick, and to Millwall fans?

49:44Well, yeah, that was a very different era. That was the late 1980s, and football's changed immensely. the whole Premier League thing has come to pass. The money, you know, the impact it would have on the club would be immense. There are, you know, whole generations of fans I've never known as playing the top flight. I have known it. I've been lucky enough to see it. But, you know, in the modern era, I mean, I think most of us were expecting at best a shot via the playoffs. But to get this close to automatic promotion is a bit beyond our wildest imaginations, really, at the start of the season.

50:18Equally, what would Millwall bring to the Premier League? Oh, well, what can we bring to the Premier League? I mean, certainly, I think many, many fans across the board would regard Premier League football as a little bit sanitised and a little bit, you know, conformist in some ways. I think whatever else you might say about Millwall football, I mean, it's fan base. We're not sanitised and we're not, you know, we don't conform. So I think it would bring a certain edge and energy to matters. I'm trying to pick my words carefully here, James, aren't I? It would certainly be a very different experience, I think, for the average Premier League football fan.

50:58But it's a very safe ground. I mean, the reputations of the past are where they are. It's one of the safest grounds in the country to visit. And I'd urge anyone that gets a chance to get down to Den because it's an old-fashioned football experience in a way that you don't come across very often in the modern game. Perhaps the likes of Arsenal and City will be making that journey next season. Nick, thank you so much for that. Best of luck for the running. Thank you, James. All the best.

51:27There you go, Nick Hart of the Akhtung Millwall podcast. Crikey, Daniel. Often the promotion push from the Championship is constituted by teams recently dropped out of the Premier League. But the likes of Coventry, Millwall, Wrexham, all right, Borough, not that long ago, Saints just last season but there could be some very exciting faces next season in the top flight yeah and even you're absolutely right to say all that but even with that explanation Millwall are still an exception because Coventry has spent quite a lot of money Wrexham I think people have probably heard about that story now but Millwall have gone about it on a budget playing a Millwall way and making it work for them and all power to them and Alex Neal and I really you know I know they're not the most popular club in the country but I really hope they get second place because the Premier League needs new faces I'm not sure the police need West Ham to stay up and Millwall to come up but other than that I really hope they come up excellent oh also in the championship a little bit further down the table did you see Tom who's now managing Bristol City it's not Roy Hodgson.

52:35It's Roy Hodgson. What? Yeah. So 40, let me check my notes, 44 years after he first managed the Robins and having been around the world in the meantime, Roy Hodgson came out of retirement at the age of 78 to take over Bristol City, who had been on a six-game winless run, which saw their manager Gerhard Struber fired. He promptly, of course, led them. This might sound familiar to Palace fans. Led them to a victory in his first game away at Charlton on Friday. 2-1 that was. Perhaps the most remarkable element of this entire story is the fact that the Addicts are a team that Hodgson has never managed against before.

53:18In all his career, he's never sat, well, at that ground, certainly on the bench, but he's never managed against Charlton Athletic. There we go. Yeah. Maybe that was part of his decision-making. Maybe he was like, ah, Bristol City, ah, do I really fancy this? Then he had a look at the fixture list. It was like, oh, I can tick off going to the Valley for the first time. Very nice. They're currently in 12th spot in the championship and they've got... Oh, no, they've done Charlton. They've got Sheffield United on Monday and Sheffield United, I think, only next to them in the table. Anyway, they're looking to record a first home league win since January.

53:55Are you delighted to see Roy back, Daniel? Yeah, I don't know if you saw the pictures of him in his sunglasses on the touchline. He looks so smooth, this kind of lock up your nan's aesthetic on the touchline. It was a superb thing to see. Excellent. You, meanwhile, spent a lot this weekend just to finish off with Lincoln City, who've been mentioned a lot in conjunction with Spurs banter of late, but an important story in their own right, Daniel, as they bid to reach the Championship. Yeah, they are the most overachieving club in the country this season by a distance. You could throw Bromley into the mix in League Two potentially, but Lincoln even put that into a hat.

54:38They are bottom third or bottom quartile budget in League One. There are a huge number of former Premier League clubs and big spending clubs and big loss losing clubs in League One this season. And Lincoln have led them all. They sold their most valuable asset before the start of the season, Jervon McCarma, for a million to Norwich. It was a club's record sale at a million and have somehow managed out of that to create a team that topped League One ahead of Cardiff, who came down last season. I'm spending the weekend, so as we record, I'm going to the Reading game on Monday. I was at the game on Friday that they beat AFC Wimbledon late on in to tell their story kind of behind the scenes both days.

55:19So yeah, the club have been brilliant to me, so thank you to them for that. And Michael Scobala, the manager, is one of the kind of hot properties in the EFL. He's done a phenomenal job there over a period of time. So, yeah, good things happening to good clubs, which is, you know, sometimes with EFL coverage, you end up becoming a bit of a sort of grim reaper ringing your bell at crisis clubs. So it's nice to go to the ones where everything's working out. Scobala was manager of the England futsal team. Does that reflect at all in Lincoln's play? No, actually the opposite. he's a real pragmatist I mean that that was his education he was at Loughborough University and England Futsal he was at you know Premier League fans of Premier League may remember he was on Leeds coaching staff under Jesse March and was in charge or joint charge for one game after March got sacked or maybe two games but he they've been really pragmatic they've they sacrificed the ball they play longer when they need to they've kept 17 clean sheets this season in the league which is remarkable they've got our old friend David Preece in as goalkeeping coach who has also been doing some work on set pieces this season, I'm told, and they've been excellent at those.

56:26So, yeah, it's just a really, really nice club to go and visit in, I think, one of England's most underrated cities as well. There you go. Well, you'll be in one of England's most underrated cities, Reading, watching them on Monday. Lincoln haven't been in the second tier of English football since 1961, but with a draw at the Select Car Stadium, is it? Select Auto Stadium, Reading's home? Select Car Leasing. Select car leasing, of course. The romance. Exporting Goods Arena of South West England. If they do get a draw there, that will seal their promotion to the Championship. Wow. Brilliant. Nice to finish on a positive note.

57:06Thank you so much, Daniel. We will be seeing you here in the studio next Sunday to talk about Man City, Chelsea. I think I'm on Wednesday morning as well. Are you joining us, what, this coming Wednesday morning? yeah I don't know if that's secret intel for the youtube viewers but yes we have an extra show on Wednesday because of course it's champions league so post the Tuesday games we'll be doing a show Wednesday morning Daniel's going to be there I better show up too Tom I know I'm going to be seeing you Monday afternoon for our record of the Euro show for Tuesday many thanks for today many thanks to you Daniel as well many thanks to Jake and producer Charlie and to Millwall's Nick Hart earlier on and you, viewer stroke listener, that's not an instruction I do hope you'll be joining us again soon on the Totally Football Show for now, from all of us here it's goodbye

58:02You'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.

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