Arsenal thrash Atleti, PSG hit seven and Napoli ship six

0:00The Athletic FC

0:30leaving West Ham on their knees in Monday's Premier League action, and new managers, pleasingly, both Roel and Dyche involved, as Rangers and Burnley gamble on new men. It's Totally Football Show. Wednesday, 22nd October. Woo! It's an extra Totally Football Show. It's the Totally Extra, essentially, which we've shifted to midweek because there's Tuesday night Champions League and a lot to talk about. Well, here to do that talking, we've got Duncan Alexander. Hello, James. Hi, Duncan. We've got passive-aggressive thumb-raising's Jack Lang. Okay. What? From your WhatsApp group chat picture yesterday, there's Jack with a rictus grin.

1:13Oh, Charlie. Yeah. I thought that was a private message, but good to see that. Not private. Nothing. Nothing private. It was thanking Charlie for asking me to watch the Man City match. Me, the caption read, me enjoying my routine city win. And there was a look in his eyes, listener. Yummy, yummy. He wasn't entirely enjoying it. Also, with us, Art De Roche. Hi, guys. Thanks for having me. No, thanks for being had. Yeah, I hope you all had good Tuesdays apart from Jack. I didn't think Jack's Tuesday was that bad. It ended on a sleepy note. Did it? Yeah, it set me off nicely. We'll get into that.

1:51We'll get into that. There's lots to talk about today. You've got a wild night in the Champions League on Tuesday. Possibly the wildest in terms of goals scored ever. We've also got Tuesday's news that Sean Dyche is confirmed as Nottingham Forest's new manager. And we can maybe have a quick look back to what happened between West Ham and Brentford on Monday night, which also happened since our last Totally Football show. But first, Champions League match day three. The result, 43 goals scored in nine matches. One of them was 0-0. You could have had that one, Jack. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, nice and easy for the English clubs.

2:272-0 for Man City at Villarreal. 3-0 for Newcastle at home to Benfica and 4-0 for Arsenal at home to Atletico Madrid. Big scorelines, but then elsewhere there were even bigger ones. Barcelona beating 10-man Olympiacos 6-1. PSG winning 7-2 at Leverkusen, while there were eight goals in Eindhoven as PSV whipped Italian champions Napoli 6-2 in possibly the shock of the evening. Also this week, so far, Inter beat Union San Gilroy 4-0. and there was a 4-2 win for Dortmund and Copenhagen featuring Fabio Silva's first goal for the German outfit. Kairat Paphos finished 0-0. We're going to start off with the English sides.

3:12This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. And all the way round the back was Gabriel and it's raining goals at the Emirates and having gone 10 hours plus without one, Jukka Ress is back two in two minutes. Pretty straightforward for the English sides on Tuesday night in the Champions League. Even Arsenal, who had what looked like the toughest test against that Atletico Madrid side, who'd given Liverpool a real go back on match day one. The Gunners, though, thumping them at 4-0. Art, you were there at the Emirates for a dominant first half and then an absolutely blistering, what, 13, 14-minute spell in the second?

3:58Yeah, it was, I wouldn't say a total surprise, the way the second half panned out, just because of, I think, the platform that Arsenal gave themselves in the first half. I think going into the game, I wasn't actually sure what to expect because a lot of the talk was obviously around it being Arteta and Simeone's first meeting as managers, and you didn't really know how that would go. But Simeone had his moments on the touchline, but it wasn't really about them. The first half of me was all about Bukayo Saka. I thought he was absolutely phenomenal. Again, even though he didn't come off the pitch with a goal or an assist, I think he really took the game to Atletico Madrid.

4:43And then I think all they needed was one goal. And you saw they just had the momentum with them. lucky enough was sat right behind that Declan Rice delivery as well, I think it was ridiculous, the height on it from the press box was just something else, so yeah good one to be at So that was Declan Rice floating the ball in for Gabriel and then you had Miles Lewis-Skelly roaming through romping through the midfield to put the ball through for Martinelli for the second after which he had two goals from Goikarez Yeah, I think the Jochores goals were interesting. The first one was very scruffy, and I think he actually looked quite embarrassed when he was celebrating.

5:28I don't know if that was just me or if you guys... He did his celebration, but he kept his fingers less tightly clasped. Yeah, but then his second one was funny. So I kind of called it a thrust. A thrust? Yeah, he kind of thrusted it in. It was really romantic. Yeah. And there was some debate around what body part he used to thrust it in. But I think for him, it's just about getting confidence, really. That second half, I think, shows as well that if you look at Arsenal's season so far, I think they've been steady in August, in September, most of October as well. But now it's about really kicking on.

6:11And I think if we look at that game as maybe a case study, it could be what happens in this kind of chunk of games before the November international break. This might be when Arsenal can really kick into gear. Because we saw them beat another Madrid side, Real Madrid, 3-0 at this ground not that long ago. What was that, April in the Champions League in what was in some regards a disappointing season for the Gunners. This time around, though, there's the look of a different side about them. Definitely. I think there's some similarities in terms of, I guess, the style of play and stuff like that.

6:49But then I think just the seriousness of the team, you can really see it in every game. Saka's the main one that shows that, I think, even in the first half. It wasn't just what he was doing with the ball, but I think two or three times he pinched the ball quite high upfield and allowed, I mean, he stopped Atletico from really playing any football. But then that goes across the whole team. They didn't concede a shot on target for three games until I think right at the end of the second half yesterday. So, yeah, I think you can just see that they're really going about their business in a serious way.

7:30Yet to concede in Europe this season. In fact, 11 matches across all competitions have only conceded three goals. who had six wins in a row now. And yeah, very, very impressive. Good to see Myles Lewis-Gelley come back and have an impact. I guess it's natural with young players. They break into the team. They have a couple of good months, like he did a year-ish ago. And then probably to be expected that they bubble under a bit, go out of the team. But the way he carries the ball is just not just for the goal. He did it a few times. I saw the long highlights. he's just so comfortable in possession and I think that you know Kelly Fury has a lot of assets in that position but he doesn't carry the ball with as much dynamism as Lewis Skelly and I thought that just lent something really created the space obviously for the Martinelli goal and yeah it'd be nice to see him playing on a more regular basis even if he's not first choice when he was running through the midfield for that goal again very lucky positioning with the press box where it was you're right behind the away dugout.

8:38So you could see Diego Simeone's kind of reactions and stuff. And as Luis Skelly is running through, he kind of leans back and just kicks his leg forward as if he's already like kind of conceded that a goal is going to happen at this point, that there was nothing his players could do. It was just really interesting that this 19-year-old kid who, as you mentioned, was so good against Real Madrid last season, again was making another Spanish side I guess his victims really um and then the finish from Martinelli was exceptional as well I think he's he's always tried to have that kind of far post finish but sometimes it's so telegraphed but um last night it just all came um came out perfectly so yeah the run itself was amazing and thankfully there was a finish at the end of it I think it also showed just the sheer strength of Arsenal's squad last night.

9:35I mean, they've obviously got Havertz still out, Madueke, who started the season really well. He's out, Odegaard is out. I mean, last season, that would have been, you know, a massive blow for them. But I mean, last night they were able to rotate. I mean, they were able to keep Calafiore and Trossard on the bench, not use them. Brought on, you know, Mourinho, Ben White, Mosquera, who's set in really well. Norgard, who's just kind of like, yeah, not the first choice midfielder but very tidy and Nguyen Airey as well who you know this time last year people were talking about as a prospect and now feels just a sort of you know really good rotation option so I think they it was a real sort of display it was it was a message wasn't it to Europe last night that Arsenal game they are they're the favourites to win the Premier League they're the favourites to win the Champions League.

10:17According to the Optus supercomputer. Both the Optus supercomputer and men in betting shops, I think. So, the big two. And you can't really argue against it at the moment. What's the difference between a computer and a supercomputer? How do you earn that badge? You can't get a supercomputer at PC World. Yeah, you have to earn it. They have to do a lot of calculations. It's like a blackbird in karate, but you've got to work up to it. Nice one. Big win for Newcastle as well. Newcastle 3, Benfica 0. Newcastle looking fantastic. Yeah, pretty much. I mean, it was a bit in the balance for the first kind of half of the first half.

11:03Benfica were targeting Dan Byrne at left back and getting in behind him a few times and hit the post. So it wasn't as comfortable as it maybe looked in the second half when they really did just get on top. But again, I just think last night kind of showed how strong the Premier League is at the moment. You know, Newcastle rotated as well. They brought Lewis Miley in, Jacob Ramsey. And yeah, it was a pretty comfortable win in the end. Also, the Premier League's new secret weapon of long throws being taken to new extremes here by the Newcastle goalkeeper. Yeah, Nick Pope's first ever assist. And we've talked about how the NFL is a bit influencing football at the moment.

11:41and that was very much a sort of, you know, lost his linebacker. Not linebacker, was it? Quarterback. Quarterback. No, no, no. No, but he was at the defensive end, I don't know. Yeah, linebacker would be the one making the sack, trying to sack him. So, yeah, Harvey Barnes made a run, deep coverage, and quarterback Pope saw him. It was a corner pattern, I think. Yeah, it was a great rout, I believe they call it, and helped by the Benfica defender completely missing the ball. But then, yeah, basically, if you look at the throw from behind it, the curve that Pope put on it. How far did it travel?

12:19Well, it was just beyond the centre circle, so maybe like 60-odd yards, I'd say. So, yeah, fair play to Nick Pope's arm. And, yeah, Harvey Barnes obviously came on, scored twice. Yeah, I mean, Newcastle, we said at the start of the season that the new format should suit them because, you know, win four or five games and you're there. So they've already won two out of three. Excellent. Anthony Gordon with his fourth goal in three Champions League matches this season. He also set up Harvey Barnes' second goal with a slightly more conventional assist. Another lovely flick from Volta Marder. How was Volta Marder's evening then?

12:59Well, he didn't get in the box very much, but I think people are starting to realise that he's very Peter Crouch, sort of player when people just judge him because he's really tall but actually he's got the the feet and the brain of a tiny number 10 from argentina and like he's always playing little little flicks little through balls and um i think it's really helping people like anthony gordon and harvey barnes because suddenly they're they're making runs and are being found in loads of space so i think i don't think people kind of envisaged him making they thought that i think they hoped to make a difference, but not this sort of difference.

13:34Yeah, I was at the Under-21s Euros in the summer and he was with the Germany squad, obviously, and he was top scorer, but I think for those who are watching the games, you just see how he carries himself on the pitch with the ball and you see someone who is like a ballerina and it doesn't make sense, but I think that's what's so appealing about him, even when you look at his goals in the Premier League. Yes, he scored the header against Wolves, but I think most people are more impressed by the back heel he scored against Brighton. And yeah, it's such a joy to watch. And I think, I don't know, when you look at how, I guess, Newcastle recruited after Isaac, I think they've done exceptionally well to find him because he was obviously linked to Bayern Munich in the summer as well.

14:25The best of the summer Bundesliga signings, perhaps, no? Probably. So far. I mean, it's funny because obviously he's already struck up a really good relationship with Newcastle fans, understandably, because he started really well. And I think you saw that Arsenal last night, the relief amongst players and fans when Gokura's got a couple of goals. Because whatever players do, and both those players, as we've said, bring many other facets to their game. But strikers will be judged on goals and you do need to keep them ticking over. Still think about Diego Forlan and what could have been. What a great player and then just could never recover from that start at Man United.

15:02Yikes. Erling Haaland, he scores goals. Got another in the game of the week so far, probably. Villarreal 0-1 Man City 2, Jack, which you were all over. Yep, definitely happened. You called this a routine City win, but in many ways it wasn't routine in that A, it was their first away win in the tournament for over a year. and B it came with no Rodri on the field so quietly impressive was this from City? Yes they were impressive it was they started off really well so they had two massive chances in the first couple of minutes and from that point you just it was just waiting for the inevitable and they did eventually break through obviously with Haaland and then some horrendous marking to let Savino cross for a free Bernardo Silva in the box.

15:57I really enjoyed after Harland's goal. Was it Rico Lewis who celebrates by jumping on top of Harland and then looks like a toddler riding on daddy's hip? There was some really, celebrating was actually the best part of this because that did happen. And then also after the first goal, you've got Harland and Lewis messing around and then Bernardo Silva doing some coaching in the celebration, like saying to Harland, are you doing this wrong? Very Guardiola. And after the second goal, like Harland just randomly kicking Nico Gonzalez in his chest. and Nico Gonzalez looking at him like what? Kicking him in his chest?

16:26Yeah, just like playfully like roundhousing him and Gonzalez is like, what are you doing, man? Right. How good was Savino, by the way? He was really good. Yeah, kind of glidey. I've been slightly disappointed with him since he's moved to City. I think his overall play is very good. He's a very classy, smart player, but his end product has been a little bit lacking. He's been maybe in the kind of, you know, classic Grealish way, slightly blunted by the pure rationality of Guardiola's football sometimes. But he was really good. City in general were just in command completely. Vera Hale were pretty polite as hosts.

17:06I think you could say, apart from like Nicola Pepe could, maybe should have scored and was a bit sparky, but the rest of them were, didn't know it often much. Okay. And City roll on. They've got Villa, well Villa actually. Got the real Villa. The real Villa. Nice. That's on Sunday. That's away. On the subject of Villarreal, though, there was some other big news concerning Los Yellows submarine on Tuesday because you know that famous thing about them going off to Miami to play their league match against Barcelona and all the fuss that caused? It was cancelled. They went and called it off. Christmas is cancelled.

17:47Yeah. Called it off, yeah. So that 15-second delay that all the Liga teams had on Sunday to protest the plan apparently worked. Relevant sports, the event's promoter and media rights company co-founded and owned by billionaire Miami Dolphins owner Stephen M. Ross, yes, I am reading this off a piece of paper, says there is insufficient time now to organise the event, and also cited uncertainty in Spain. Crikey, so they're just going to hold it at the Ceramica after all. Thanks for that. It's going to be a great sight, all these people in yellow shirts wandering around Miami Beach. Miami Beach. Just before Christmas.

18:24They chartered planes to take thousands of them over, yeah. At time of recording, by the way, City are still pressing ahead with their plan to fly Milan and Como, who are about 40 kilometres apart, all the way to Western Australia to play their February the 7th fixture. So, hmm. Anyway, more Champions League from Tuesday night next.

18:51This 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 Kaye and the very best football writers around.

19:22Well, it goes galore in the other Champions League games. Nine of them came at the Bay Arena, where Leverkusen will be needing an aspirin after that 7-2 hammering by visiting PSG. Seb Staffenblor was there, and he joins us now. Seb, PSG, looking awesome. Mighty, Jimbo, every inch, the European champion. And just so efficient. I forget the quality. In the first half, they scored four times from four shots on target, and each of those goals was an absolute masterpiece in its own right. So, so impressive. Leverkusen is the other side of the story, of course, but goodness, what a talented team, PSG are.

19:59Well, your piece begins a perfect Champions League storm with a young team, Leverkusen, an undisciplined captain and a ruthless, gifted opponent. Yeah, so a couple of things there. I think, obviously, one of the big incidents of the night was Robert Andrich, the Leverkusen captain, getting himself sent off. A little bit unfortunate, but he was careless with an elbow in the first half. Was that careless, do you think? It looked pretty deliberate. Yeah, I mean, it was hard to say with the replays that we had access to, but particularly damning for Andrich is that this is the second time this happened this season.

20:32So he got himself sent off against Eintracht Frankfurt, got away with it because Leverkusen still won. This time did not obviously get away with it. And the reality of the situation is is that Leverkusen sold a lot of players over the summer. Everybody knows this. They saw a lot of leaders. Everybody knows this too. People who listen to the Totally Football Show Europe should know that by now. And you're a captain, you're a senior player, you're a German international. You cannot let young players firm themselves in that situation. I mean, last night, Kasper Holm and the Leverkusen head coach started three players all under the age of 22 as their forwards, in a new combination.

21:13And unfortunately, Andrus left them exposed. obviously yes PSG got their own red card but it did not matter and yeah but I just lost the entire evening awful awful They had pulled it back to 1-1 after converting their second opportunity to get a goal from a penalty spot Grimaldo had hit the post on the first of those two but in the end PSG just ran away with it themselves brought down to 10 men as you mentioned Due getting a brace Ousmane Dembele returning and scoring as well Kvavatskelia scoring an absolutely wonderful goal off both posts and that's the other side of it Jimbo PSG did play very very well I think if you dig into the detail though you see so many moments where Leverkusen tripped over their own feet their rest defence was abysmal the amount of times they lost the ball around the halfway line then instantaneously faced 4-on-2, 3-on-2, 5-on-2 at times some of the defending if you see the attempt by Equi Fernandes to clear the ball ahead of that Kravic Skellige goal.

22:16Come on now, come on now. It's not a Champions League standard. And this is difficult because obviously a new team, there's a lot of real lack of chemistry here. And afterwards, Hülmönd, it wasn't so much that he was disappointed, he just looked shocked. He just looked shocked. Remember that scene in Titanic when Rose sees Thomas Andrews and says, I can see the iceberg in your eyes? A little bit like that. It was clearly a very, very bruising moment for the club. A lot of the players who came through the mix zone looked wounded by what happened. Not surprisingly, because this is the worst. This is the first time in Leverkusen's European history they've conceded seven at home.

22:55And I looked it up in the dead of night without any coffee. So forgive me if this statistic is wrong. But I think this counts as the eighth worst result in Bayer Leverkusen's history. 121 year history. Wow. And they've had some bad results as well. that said we should have a shout out for Alex Garcia's second of the game and indeed by Leverkusen's second goal which was an absolute peach might have been the goal of the night actually and it was very much, I remember Benny Carboni scoring a goal for Sheffield Wednesday at Newcastle Blackburn Rovers a long time ago, there was 7-0 down at the time, scored a wonderful goal and just turned around and walked back to the halfway line and it was like that, Garcia it's a wonderful hit and there was an explosion of noise but it lasted for about two or three seconds before everybody realized oh yeah sorry yeah we're still we're still quite a way back and that made it 5-2 and then from that point on i i saw that the um the labor coos and social media accounts just stopped stopped recording goals just went straight to full time 7-2 yeah Which is always a bad sign, right?

24:06Yeah. Seb, thank you so much for that. Have a safe journey home. We'll catch up with you soon. Thanks, Jimbo.

24:15Seb Stafford-Bloor. Yeah, that Benito Carboni goal bears re-watching, he said, having just done that. That was in a 7-2 defeat by Blackman Rovers for the Owls back in 1997. Crikey. Fresh-faced Benito. now anyway that was PSG winning big Barcelona's winning margin was even bigger though as they hosted Olympiacos at Montjuic 6-1 they beat them although I'm not sure if any of you saw this was it bigger or was it the same were they both a five goal is that right they're both five goals aren't they yeah fair same winning margin but I would say that PSG is more impressive because I'm not sure if anyone saw this Barcelona It wasn't a 6-1 game, was it?

25:02Well, not until the referee intervened. Barcelona went a goal up with a goal that, as Dermot Corrigan points out, had heavy La Masia influence with Balde, then Yamal, then Firmin, who ended up with his first senior hat-trick combining for that one. There was another La Masia graduate, actually still very much in college at La Masia, 17-years-old Drew Fernandes. He was involved in the second. Now, at 2-0, Olympiacos score, but then the referee interrupts celebrations. It looked because he said there's been a handball by Barcelona, and everyone's going, well, yeah, but Olympiacos just scored. So why are you now chalking the goal off and making them take a penalty instead?

25:45But apparently there might have been an offside in the build-up. Anyway, Olympiacos do convert their penalty, and they're now back at 2-1. However, shortly afterwards, they go down to 10 men after a frankly ludicrous second yellow for Santiago Hedze, whose hand accidentally just lightly brushes. It was so weird. So we had it on in the Arsenal media lounge. And before we even got to that point, with all the penalty offside bar nonsense, the scoreboard went to 2-0 for a second. And then because we didn't have the sound, everyone was just trying to work out what was actually going on. How many are still correspondents does it take to?

26:31But yeah, that red card decision, it was like, wait, has he actually sent him off for that? And I think we were also expecting like another intervention from VAR. Right. So somebody who knows the rules like Duncan might be able to explain why VAR couldn't intervene on a second yellow. Yeah, you're not allowed to on yellow cards. And it's, again, ridiculous. The same as if a linesman gives a corner when it should be a goal kick and that leads to a goal, that can't be changed. The list of what can be adjusted and what can't remains ephemeral, to say the least. But yeah, it was a mad red card. It's always funny when a group of players are so astonished by a red card that they're just almost like little kids at school going to the left.

27:17But why? Right. Swiss referee giving the second yellow and consequently red and in Blimpiakos going down to 10 men. I should say that as much as it was an error by the referees, it was a pretty disgraceful bit of play acting from Marc Casado, who, as we say, lightly grazed, if that, but then a couple of seconds later recoils violently, clutching his face in kind of Rivaldo fashion. Anyway, I have to say, I think Marc Rashford kind of, Marcus Rashford kind of died for the penalty as well, although that was given even after VAR review. Yeah, it was one where it looks like he knows the contact's coming, so as soon as he feels that he's got to go down.

27:57I think the keeper actually keeps his arms in. Yeah. You're a penalty? Yeah. Keeper died. Anyway. I accept that this is really boring and no one actually likes these chats. He does bring his arms in, but then his body hits Rashford. Does it? Does it though? I wonder. Anyway, Barca probably would have won big at that point anyway. the penalty puts them 3-1 up against the 10 men and then they score another 3 goals and bosh Rashford's goal from the outside of the box oh yeah that was the second one unbelievable most of them were like incredibly precise near post finishes yeah very Mbappe like yeah but yeah the second one just the power he got I mean he's basically collecting or creating a collection of powerful shots and it's the one at Newcastle as well so the way I kind of put it when we were watching it it was like he was just in training and thought, OK, I'm going to try this next.

28:48It was very, very well done in a casual manner, but very sharp as well. A good night for Barcelona ahead of their visit to Real Madrid at the weekend in the Clasico. Mixed night for the Italians, Tuesday in the Champions League. Inter gave Union San Gilroas their second straight 4-0 home defeat. Dumfries, Lautaro Martinez, Chalonoglu and Esposito on the score sheet. Pio Esposito after the miss of the night. astonishing miss you could see how bad he felt by the way he celebrated his goal after thanking was it Bonnie for the assist thank you so much so true that's now seven wins in a row for Christian Kivu's Inter in the Champions League they've won three out of three and like Arsenal have not conceded a goal yet the other Italian side in action Napoli meanwhile did concede a goal or actually six of them away at PSV Einhoven Oh, this is also another high school football.

29:47Drijoush, yeah, yeah, yeah. 6-2. 6-2 for PSV. Against the national champion of Italy. Everything is on its own place tonight. What a win anyway for the Dutch champions. They hadn't made the best of starts of it. Ivan Perisic running the show for them. Dennis Mann, a former Parma player, was man of the match with two goals. They are the first Dutch side to score. six in a Champions League or European Cup game since Ajax in October 1979. Now, what actually happened here? Because you'd think Antonio Conte's football, this is never going to happen. In fact, it's the first time any of his teams have ever conceded six goals.

30:31Gazeta this morning pointing out that PSV have done this to another Italian side recently. Juve, in the playoffs to reach the knockout stages last season, lost 3-1 here. I think after taking the lead as well, as Napoli had scored the first goal through McGull, Scott McTominay. But PSV is playing with an energy and an intensity that Serie A sides are not used to in their day job. And the other thing about this, and this is perhaps more troubling, is the way that Napoli fell apart. Now, there was, again, a red card in this as well. Lorenzo Luca, who was playing. so they got Lukaku out injured so they signed Rasmus Hoyland to replace him and he's been doing really well but he was out injured so in comes the towering Lorenzo Luca who's not been doing particularly well and he basically as the Italians would say well he did the tapping the forehead are you crazy to the ref yeah so good and then tried to lie and said no I was worried my opponent had a head injury yes and it was like watching a four year old lying absolutely magnificent and you could see it in his eyes I was like, oh, God, am I going to get away with this?

31:40Didn't. Great. Red card for that, though. I always find it funny when they go straight red for descent. Straight for descent. Yeah, straight red. It's like if you call the referee a cheat, that's worse than swearing it. Like, for refs, that's like, you know. Well, he didn't swear at him. He just taps his forehead like, are you mad? Anyway, red card, after which Napoli pretty much gave up. I mean, the second goal for PSV, which came minutes after the first, wasn't great because it wasn't the most lightning of counterattacks and kind of everybody in the Napoli side did what they weren't supposed to do, move forward when they should have gone back or given space, etc.

32:16And Conte afterwards, who looked with a face like thunder during the game, but afterwards was saying basically, I was worried about a result like this coming. There are a lot of players here who have lost the passion that they had last season, a lot of new players who have maybe got too big an idea of themselves and then he mentioned getting his whip out which I presume he means figuratively but you just don't know I could see him owning an actual whip an actual whip fourth straight away defeat for Conte the thing I enjoyed most about this game I think was the kind of like Playstation 2 ness of the goals at the end because the way the PS3 fans were running down to celebrate so that was very kind of like mid 2000s computer games where people ran towards the...

33:05Yeah, very pro-eva. Two late goals, what, kind of 87th type thing, 89th. Just lashed in. By which point Napoli did seem to have pretty much given up. It is the kind of result that you could see causing the wheels to truly come off. If there are problems within that team, and worryingly, they've got Inter at the weekend in a big, big game in the City, a title race. It must be so annoying for Kevin De Bruyne, for example, thinking you're joining this like rolling party and then actually I've just missed it. Same as all the people that joined Leverkusen after that title. Like this is, what a story this is.

33:42And here I am. And then like a few months later, you're seventh and two managers deep. Also this Tuesday night, Dortmund beat Copenhagen 4-2. Oh, that first goal. Did you see the first goal? Lovely move. Basically, they're just manoeuvring the ball back and forth around the Copenhagen box before Felix Metcher puts it in and Fabio Silva as mentioned before later scoring his first goal for Dortmund. He's already matched his tally for Wolves I think possibly, is that right? Yeah, good finish as well. Wednesday's action includes Chelsea hosting Ajax who are having a miserable time of it. Real Madrid at the Bernabeu against Juventus ahead of the Clasico.

34:26So, Juve aren't having a great time either. Winners in five, is it? Six? A lot. Anyway, Monaco are up against Spurs. Monaco with their new manager, the former Union Saint-Gilois man. Eintracht Frankfurt host Liverpool. And Sporting take on the Ligue 1 leaders, Marseille. Just on Frankfurt-Liverpool, it reminded me of the Bundesliga comment you made earlier about Vltimada. Oh, yeah. Being one of the best, I guess, imports from there. And Eketike, I think, deserves a mention as well. I think him and Vortimada, I think, are the two strikers I enjoy watching the most at the minute, just the way they play football.

35:06So, yeah, it'll be interesting to see if he's able to get one over his old team. Absolutely. He's returning to Frankfurt. Good point, huh? Excellent. Next up on the Totally Football Show, a spot on this day and big Premier League news.

35:26You'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. 22nd of October, as we record this listener, which means that today is the 20-year anniversary of the worst penalty in Premier League history. Do you all know the one I'm referring to? Arsenal, presumably. Arsenal against Man City at Highbury on the 22nd of October 2005. Arsenal playing Man City, leading 1-0 at Highbury. Awarded a spot kick, second of the game actually. Robert Perez steps up to give him a commanding two-goal lead.

36:09Instead of shooting from the spot though, he goes to make a short pass sideways to Thierry Henry and perhaps a homage to that classic hookus-pocus penalty from Johan Croft's Ajax. Instead, though, he misses the kick. So Thierry Henry arrives to find no ball there for him. And there's a bit of confusion. No ball, but Danny Mills, who's standing there, giving the pair of them a piece of his mind. Yeah, Danny Mills isn't impressed. I mean, it's a strange thing in the sense that it wasn't like Arsenal were in their absolute pomp at that point. They'd only won four of their opening eight games. And as you say, they won the Vyro-Perez penalty.

36:48I think the story is that in training, it was Henri taking it to pass to Perez. And they switched it up on the day. And I think Perez was just, I mean, as you might do in that situation, just a bit scared of what could happen. But the reaction at the time was extraordinary. You know, people saying that the game had once again gone. That's the day when it went, I think, probably. Possibly, yeah. Never came back either. And it was disrespectful. But it was kind of like a supercharged version of when someone takes up an anchor and doesn't score. It's like, well, this is just, it's a penalty. It's a direct free kick.

37:20You can kind of do what you want with that. Right. People have done it since as well. I mean, Messi and Suarez, Neymar, and he'd done it at PSG, so I can't remember who the other player was that finished off the chance. But other people have done it. I think the main difference is they've scored. And Robert Perez steps up a second time.

37:43Oh, and they're trying something here. That involved Ulrich coming in. Well, you might do that when you're five or six up,

37:55but Arsenal left with egg on their face. Funnily enough, though, when Johan Cruyff and Jesper Olsen combined for the classic Ajax one, that was also at 1-0 when they did it. But then I guess Johan Cruyff was involved, so that was all right. And the comms, bizarrely, the comms on this, The Dutch comms are so unimpressed, they just go, yeah, Cruyff, Olsen, 2-0. Enlighten people, the Dutch, aren't they? Adam Etheridge says, hi, Adam. I think it might be time to have a conversation about Coventry City. Tuesday night, Coventry City won 2-1 at Fratton Park against Portsmouth. They are top of the championship after 11 games.

38:39More to the point, they are the only team in English League football, Duncan, who are still yet to lose a single match. Wow. Super Frankie Lampard. I mean, they're scoring 2.8 goals a game, which is a goal more than any other team in the league. They've got the most clean sheets, best XG, best shots and target per game. They're just playing very well. I mean, the only issue is that, as we know, EFL seasons are very, very long. They're almost like three seasons in one. So we've seen plenty of teams start like this and then fade. But they're good. I mean, I think the key thing is maybe they didn't bring in that many players in the summer.

39:15They've got Carl Rushworth, who's kind of impressed lower down in the EFL on loan from Brighton, and he's doing really well for them. But it's a team that was very good at the end of last season and has just carried on. I think it's a slight lesson with the winning the transfer market vibes during summers, is that often teams that just know what they're doing start seasons well. Frank Lampard's had a fair amount of shade thrown his way in his managerial career so far so nice to see him doing well because you get people who say wouldn't it be good if Sheffield Wednesday got back in the Premier League but Coventry for anyone who watched the Premier League in the 90s they were very Premier League they survived virtually every season on the last day and I think they were on 99 Premier League wins so it's been a while but their chances of getting 100 are higher than they have been recently.

40:08Excellent. Speaking of the Premier League, since our last show, Sean Dyche has been appointed manager at Forest and West Ham got beaten 2-0 at home to Brentford on Monday. Brilliant night for the Bees, who picked up their first away points of the season in what was a ludicrously one-sided affair. Brentford had 22 shots, which is the most they've ever had on the road in the Premier League. 20 of those 22 shots were from inside the box. 15 of them in the first half. It was one of the worst displays I've ever seen in the Premier League from West Ham. Awful. One of the worst so far.

40:50Igor Thiago scoring the first goal and then giving a beaming performance in his post-game interview which I think warmed everybody's heart a little bit. and Jensen with the second deep in stoppages. Only Erling Haaland and Antoine Semenya have scored more goals this season in the Premier League than Igor Thiago. What did he say post-match? Oh, he was just really nice. He was really nice about playing alongside Damsgaard and how easy that made it for him, how much fun it was. So, yeah. Protests were planned ahead of this game. there was deafening silence certainly for most of it and swathes of empty seats towards the end even though West Ham were only a goal down at that point but I guess there was nothing about their performance that suggested that they were on the way back they are in the bottom three they're three points from safety they're at Leeds next weekend and they've started their campaign with four home defeats out of four for the first time in their history former Nottingham Forest manager Nuno Spirito Santos now in charge.

41:58I opined to a West Ham supporting acquaintance the other day. You'll be all right. You've got Nuno in. He said, yeah, I'm not so sure we've got the players for his kind of football. Is that a fair take? Yeah, I think so. When you look at, I guess, the squad he assembled, not just at Forest, but at Wolves as well, you could see his ideas very clear. And if you don't have the players for that system, kind of like when he went to Spurs, It might just, it may need extra time, which I'm not sure he'll get at West Ham. So yeah, when you look at players there that are talented, you look at the academy players like Freddie Potts, for example.

42:41I think there are players you can really look into. And I was at the Arsenal-West Ham game, which was Nuno's first, or second, I should say, in the Premier League. and he spoke about needing to kind of play different players to get more knowledge about the group. And he was talking about Marshall, who came on in the second half at the Emirates. And it was about not just using players he already has an idea about. So Callum Wilson was the example. Callum Wilson, who sat on the bench while Nuno made five changes on Monday night. Poor chap. Yeah, so I think it'll be interesting to see just how much time he needs to get that knowledge that he was talking about and, of course, get results.

43:25And the last couple of seasons, the established Premier League teams have had the luxury of knowing the three Premier League teams are rubbish for two seasons in a row. I mean, last season, at this stage, the Premier League teams had 14 points combined. The season before it was nine. This year they got 29. So I think that puts Wolves, West Ham, even Forest in quite dire straits at the moment. Perhaps the biggest problem is that they can't play Nuno Espirito Santo anymore. That was the one game that she won against his Forest earlier on. Crikey. Meanwhile, Forest, who are only a point above West Ham, onto their third manager of the campaign with confirmation early on Tuesday morning that Sean Dyche is their new boss.

44:11it's the earliest the team has ever been into their third manager yes yep first time before the clocks have gone back crikey Daishi was sat by Everton back in January is he a better fit for Forrest than say Nuno who's at West Ham ooh good question I think he's a better fit for what Forrest have than Ange Postacoglu was which is probably why they've appointed him but yeah The thing is, the third manager stat is interesting, but I think it almost underplays the extent of the change. Like going from Nuno to Ange is... Nuno's not, you know, he's more defensive than many. He's not completely defensive.

44:58Maybe that was a 170 degree. And now they've gone from Ange to Deitch, which I think is about 180. That's 270. On the Athletic in 2023, we actually did a feature because it was about to be Possicoglu playing Deitch in a league game and it was seen as such a ridiculous clash of styles that it warranted an actual article. So, yeah, good luck to the Forest players, you know, with their dossiers of tactics because I'm sure there's some different ones coming. Not least regarding set pieces, which have been absolutely calamitous, a previous strength of Forest, but under Ange, they were conceding 61 % of their goals from set pieces.

45:40General average, to put that in perspective, for a Premier League club is around 25%, although I imagine it might be going up at the moment because of tactical shifts in our league. Something of a dream come true for Sean Dyche, who was a youth team player at Forest and gets to reunite with Chris Wood, who he had in his Burnley days. so Chris Wood played 165 games under Sean Dyche which is more than 100 more than any other manager in his career so I think he'll be yeah very happy that he's back get Ashley Barnes back in January Wade Elliott swinging the balls in oh Matthew Loughton come on first game of the new era at the City Ground will be Thursday night when they host Francesco Fadioli's Porto in the Europa League.

46:32Crikey, who've they got the weekend then? They've got Bournemouth away. That's a bit of a test, isn't it? Another of your 180 or whatever tactical opposing perspective things. While West Ham has mentioned will be, did I mention that they're going to be at Leeds? They are. Anyway, they're going to be at Leeds who are four points better off and a couple of places outside the drop zone. That's on Friday night. Hmm. Okay. Ooh, another managerial move on Monday. Rangers finally convinced Danny Royal to come in and join them. Danny Royal, who'd had a couple of good seasons at Sheffield Wednesday, saving them from relegation and then taking them actually to a 12th place finish last season.

47:16It was great to see him in a suit and very shiny shoes. Oh, yeah. because obviously that was one of the things that Rangers fans were displeased with Russell Martin for. So his lack of... One of the things. Amongst the other ones is the fact that they are 13 points off leaders' hearts after eight games of the Scottish Premiership campaign. That's pretty unprecedented territory. Grim stuff. Best of luck to Danny Roll there at Ibrox. That brings us to the end of today's show. Of course, we're back on Thursday morning afternoon. the podcast should be out as we discuss the events Wednesday night in the Champions League and also look forward to all the action this weekend in the Premier League do hope you can join us for that, many thanks to Art for coming in today, to Jack to Duncan, Seb who we heard from earlier on from Leverkusen and to producer Charlie and producer Jesse and you listener, hope you have a great time until we speak again from all of us here it's goodbye

48:49The Athletic FC