Arsenal wallop Wigan in the FA Cup as Tottenham take a chance on Tudor

0:00The Athletic FC

0:30We talk about Spurs' new manager, Tudor, the man, not the direction of travel. Should fans be Igor or will they mock Tudor, etc.? It's all coming up in this Totally Football Show.

0:43It's the Totally Football Show. Here we are on a Sunday evening, specifically Sunday 15th February. We're putting together a Monday morning's round-up of everything that took place in the FA Cup this weekend and other stuff too, like big managerial news. Who we got for you today? Tom Williams is here in the studio. Hi, Tom. Hello, James. Adrian Clarke's here with us as well. I've just come back from the Emirates. Hello. Yeah. I've just about dried out. Nice. Similarly, sitting on top of a radiator probably, is Daniel Story, who's got home after his trip to Blundell Park, a.k.a. Operational Headquarters of Grimsby.

1:20Yeah, I've just about not thought out from, I think, a top five coldest game I've ever been to. Really? Biting wind by the North Sea. I mean, literally by the North Sea. It was cold, cold, cold. But speaking of top fives, your top one stadium, famously, in the Football League, has that status been affected at all by today's experience? So just to interject, this is when Daniel did the 92, and of all the games he visited and all the venues he visited, you rated Blundell Park your number one footballing experience. Yeah, that's all I want from a ground, which is like A by the C, B in a kind of provincial northern town, Cleethorpe's in this case, not Grimsby, rows of terrace houses interjected by football stadium rising above said town.

2:09Yeah, it's all I wanted. It was cold today. It tested me. But there's a sort of endorphin rush when you get back in the car, like you've just jumped in a plunge pool, I think. But yeah, the heating was on all the way out. I find that's the painful bit when feeling returns to your extremities, wherever they might be. What were your other four coldest experiences, Daniel? In general, I think northern coastal towns, so your Fleetwoods, your Morecombs, your Barrows, etc. Shout out to Stoke, which is very much not on the coast, but it is incredibly cold. The media sits on the back. Yeah, it sits on the back.

2:43You sit on the back row and the wind just kind of howls around the stadium. That's pretty bad. All right. What's your coldest, Adrian? Yeah, good question. Thanks. I would say Stoke was up there, maybe Middlesbrough. Really? Yeah, that's a very cold place. The Hawthorne squad because it's the altitude. Tom? I did a cup game between Hull City and Manchester United during the Louis van Gaal era, I think, United. That was as cold as I can remember. And I had full thermal. I had all the layers on and it did no good. Actually, you know, this is something that we really can take from this conversation.

3:17What are your pro tips for attending a cold outside event, like a football match? A lot of people go with double socks. Ian McIntosh, former colleague, used to put his, you know, your laptop transformer thing, he would put that down his shirt. Interesting. I have the teabags, you know, the little heated teabags. I have them in my pocket, the feet ones. A friend of mine, Sam Parkin, who's also done bits and pieces for us, he sometimes brought cardboard. I'm sorry, what? Cardboard. That's the old Tour de France, like Chris. He would put his feet on cardboard, and it did the trick, apparently. Daniel, your pro tips for dealing with inclement?

3:56Two tips. One, tuck your T-shirt in because you lose a huge amount of heat. And it means into your underpants. Well, anything under your bed. Yeah, I do. And also, we now live in a world where heated gilets are a thing and they are incredibly good, I'm told. I don't have one, but you're just USB chargeable or port chargeable and then you can eight hours of heat straight into you. All right, there you go. That changes a man though, doesn't it? You've become the sort of person who wears a heated gilet. I don't think I could look at myself in the... Hey, you're looking at someone who's got one. Really?

4:29Yeah. A bit awkward. A bit awkward. I take it back. Jeremy Jano, former Saint -Étienne goalkeeper, he had a trick for coping with the cold weather. When he was playing, he would wear tights under his shorts and he would wet himself during the game. That's not acceptable. But that makes you very cold, surely. Well, I mean, ultimately, yes. You get an initial burst of warmth. Yeah, I think he had to keep topping it up as the game went on. Ridiculous. And serves as a deterrent for any opposition attacker. So, you know, two birds, one stone. Top tips for avoiding cold ones. My coldest game ever, I just want to shout out to 1997 November, I think it was, Moscow, Russia against Italy in a World Cup qualifying playoff.

5:14It was about minus 10, 11, something like that. You win, yeah. There was no roof as well. It was before they put a roof on. Was it a little shnicky? I'm not sure. Anyway. FA Cup. That's what we're here to discuss amongst other things today. That's what Grimsby Town and their 1-0 defeat at the hands of Wolves was about today, which, Daniel, you were at. What else happened or has happened so far in round four of this year's competition? Well, we've just seen, and Adrian, you were there, Arsenal's Biggan v Wigan, 4-0, the victory at the Emirates. Elsewhere on Sunday, Championship Promotion Hopeful's Birmingham took Leeds to extra time, thanks to Patrick Roberts' deflected strike in the 89th minute.

5:57Then it went to a penalty shootout. Roberts then one of the City players who missed in that or failed to convert. And Leeds went through 4-2 on penalties. Sunderland won 1-0 at Oxford United with a penalty about a half hour in from Habib Diara. Wolves, they won 1-0 at Grimsby. Fulham came from a goal down to win at Stoke. famously frigid Britannia Stadium. Harrison Reid with the late winner pouncing on an error from the Stoke keeper who's playing out, which I feel is calmatic justice. Stoke shouldn't be trying to play out from the back. It's like, yeah. No, he just doesn't go. Anyway, that was Sunday.

6:36Saturday saw the round's biggest upset so far. Would you agree, Daniel Story? I'm referring to Nigel Kloss Mansfield Town coming from behind themselves to shock Premier League Burnley 2-1 at Turf Moor. Yeah, probably the goal of the round as well. Reid's free kick, which was absolutely magnificent. Not just winning, but I think winning at a Premier League team, having trailed, is the extraordinary part of it. Because normally what happens in these games is they're kind of tense and bitty and chaotic while it's 0-0. And as soon as, in the two games I watched this weekend, West Ham, Burton and Greensby Wolves, as soon as the Premier League team scores, the sort of atmosphere gets deflated out of the team.

7:15everybody thinks yeah we're not going to do it so for Mansfield to come from behind and win away, first time they've reached the fifth round in a generation as well so fair play to Nigel Clough. West Ham by the way, it took them a while to actually get their goal on the board against League One Burton, extra time they were taken to but eventually Crescensio Somerville who's on a real runner form at the moment gave them a 1-0 win. Villa Newcastle saw Newcastle victorious despite a sensationally bad performance from the refereeing team. I think the linesman, the lino, referee's assistant, whatever you want to call them.

7:52Some egregious decision making there. We'll talk about all of that very, very shortly. But Newcastle are through. Liverpool saw a Brighton 3-0. Goals from Curtis Jones, Dominic Sloverslai. Another shout, I would say, for goal of the weekend. And Mo Salah, who received a standing ovation. Man City found Salford City much harder to beat this year. Just 2-0 compared to 8-0. Last season, if they meet again next year, by that metric, Salford should win 4-0. Quite comfortably, yeah. Yeah, quite comfortably. A couple of all-championthip games on Saturday. Norwich beating West Brom at Carrow Road. Canaries appointed Philippe Clermont in November.

8:31Since then, they've won seven of their last eight in all competitions. Amazing. Southampton beat Leicester. Second time that's happened in a week. Leicester not having the best of times at the moment. That was also a game that went to extra time. and two games on the Friday. Chelsea, who won 4-0 away at Hull, Pedroneta with the first hat-trick of his career. That's extraordinary. Yeah, I guess he plays wide most of the time, doesn't he? And he was in the number 10 role, which was quite interesting. But as a very sort of quick and very adroit finisher with both feet, you do kind of feel like he should perhaps score more goals.

9:07So perhaps this is a sign of things to come. Right. Rui de Lapp, sorry, Liam de Lapp, not scoring a goal was subject to much comment after his somewhat lackadaisical. Lackadaisical? Lackadaisical? Lackadaisical is how footballers pronounce it. But is it actually lackadaisical? It's lackadaisical. Because you get hard... I think people confuse it with the expression whoops-a-daisy. Yeah. So an S creeps in at the end of lack, but it's lackadaisical. Yeah, I've always gone lackadaisical. Every pod a school pod. There you go. Lackadaisical from Liam. Yeah. That's now eight wins in 11 so far from also Liam Rosseña.

9:45And Wrexham made the fifth round. Poor Adrian, you've got to... That Emirates experience has left you... I've been out since 8am this morning. Basically, I spent all morning in the rain. So yeah, I'm sneezing a lot. I think a cold might be on its way. Oh, that's terrible news. It's okay. Wrexham, they're in the fifth round as well. They beat Ipswich 1-0. Well, Ipswich didn't muster a single shot on target. But then again, they had made 10 changes. Kieran McKenna perhaps giving his priorities to their championship promotion push. The fifth round draw will be made on Monday the 16th of February, just ahead, I think, of the Macclesfield-Brenford game, which we're looking forward to.

10:28There's one other match which is still to be played for this round, which is Port Vale against Bristol City, postponed because of a waterlogged pitch, as they say. Lovely stuff. All right. Let's begin at the Emirates. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. Arsenal've got Jesus in behind here, and it's Jesus over the goalkeeper, and Jesus scoring Arsenal's fourth. And they've already got four goals this afternoon, and we haven't been playing half an hour yet. Wow, 27 minutes in. Gabriel Jesus, Arsenal already four goals up. How many could they rack up?

11:09That was the question. It turned out to be just those four, but still a fine afternoon's work. Maduecki had opened the score and Gabriel Martinelli got the second. There was an own goal from Jack Hunt, and you really want to be careful how you talk about that one. And then Gabriel Jesus and Arsenal becoming the first Premier League team to score four goals in the opening 30 minutes of an FA Cup game ever. Adrian, so much to enjoy, especially after what had happened on Thursday. Yeah, it was a tough test, that was, on Thursday. This was a bit of light relief. And I think that there were a few sort of headline news bits to take.

11:50Ezra's performance was fantastic. Two of the best through boys you'll see. He was playing in this sort of slightly deeper role. He, of course, got hooked at halftime at Brentford. So he had a point to prove. and he proved it. He just served up a little reminder that he can play those brave vertical passes that Arteta loves. And I've got to say, Wigan's tactical approach was genuinely terrible. It was Glenn Whelan who was in charge interim and they decided to hold a high line. And if you hold a high line against a team like Arsenal who have faster players than you, you really have to press your life out.

12:27You've got to put pressure on every Arsenal player and they didn't do that. So Eza slips two through balls in. Christian Norgard also played a peach of a ball over the top for Jesus, which was a great goal. So that was the pattern of the first half. Saka played as a number 10. So that was interesting. We only got to see it for 45 minutes. And for a third time this season, Arsenal lost a player in the warm-up, which is a little bit of a nightmare. I think twice it's happened now to Calafuri. And, of course, it happened to Saka at Leeds as well, which is not good. Right. Is it something to do with their warm-ups?

13:02I don't know. I mean, yeah, maybe they need to look at it. But I don't know. I really don't know why these muscle injuries – I'm assuming it's a muscle injury – why they keep occurring to the Arsenal players. So they've got to look at the way they train. They've got to look at the way they prepare. Because Arsenal fans are a little bit concerned about it. Because what we were denied was Myles Lewis-Skelly playing in central midfield. That was the plan. And he had to play at left-back. So, yeah, it was fun. It was fun for the first time. What we got instead of that was the Eze and Saka kind of dual, would you call them dual number tens?

13:38Or was one a number eight? I'd say Eze was deeper than Saka. I'd say Saka was a ten. And Eze was almost just your central midfielder, really, alongside Norgard. And I thought Norgard and Eze were probably the two best players on the pitch. Probably Norgard's been underplayed by Michael Arteta this season. I don't think he's trusted him enough. Eze hasn't been underplayed. underplayed but has probably underperformed until today okay and there was so much talk about his performances after Thursday night's game against Brentford which was I think his first start in 10 rounds of the of the league campaign he hadn't performed got hooked at half time I think Arteta was reasonably open about how disappointed he was so this was a huge game for him to turn up for eh Daniel yeah and we talk a lot when players come from abroad about settling in at a club and settling in in a new culture etc and it takes time I think with Ezzer the issue is that Palace he pretty much had to do everything he was a real ball carrier you know he was having to create the chances quite often finish the chances shoot from outside the box he's kind of this one-man band at Palace for a while and it's really hard to then go into a system where you are a component part and you're not starting every week you know you're not the most important player in that team because there are others around you.

14:53I think his role has changed. I think the situation has changed. He has had a tendency to go missing a little bit in games, I think, to play maybe safe passes, whereas maybe Arteta wants some more of those vertical passes, wants some more of those attempted through balls because that can only be the reason they signed him because you don't sign someone and try and completely change them after spending£60 million on them, I don't think. Unless you're Pep and it's Jack Grealish, I suppose. I mean, maybe. But then there's an interesting comparison there with Antoine Semenya, who Pep has brought in and seemingly said, look, go and do everything you were good at at Bournemouth.

15:30We might shift it over the summer, but for now, just go and hit the ground running. And he really has done that at City. So maybe it's just a case of recalibration and working out where he fits. I always thought it was a slightly odd signing and that it didn't necessarily answer a need I think that Arsenal had. that's kind of been backed up Eze is a fantastic player so he will work it out I guess doing it against League One opposition is not the same as you know dragging a game forward against Brentford and winning it which he wasn't able to do but probably just a confidence issue now as well he wants to start some games and the problem is is that every game is 11 out of 10 important at the moment today being the exception Alright Wigan 22nd in League One Arsenal though will be up against Premier League opposition still for the moment this coming Wednesday in the shape of Wolves.

16:20That's away at Molyneux. And it follows the 1-1 draw away at the GTEC. How concerned are Arsenal? How concerned should they be at the narrowing of their lead? Well, it's not ideal, is it? Potentially at one point when Liverpool were beating City, you're looking at nine and now it's four. But I don't think it's panic stations. I genuinely believe that that was a good point. Brentford played out of their skin. Brentford were a nightmare to play against in that game. And Arsenal were definitely below the level that they needed to be at. So I felt that Arsenal escaped, really, with quite a valuable point.

17:01I think previous Arsenal teams might have lost that game. So I'm not overly concerned, but the form has to improve. They have to score more goals and get back to the sort of swashbuckling best that we've had glimpses of this season. Yeah, they're not flowing as beautifully as they'd like to. I think that's undeniable, but definitely not panicked. I still believe Arsenal are the best team in the division. There's also this idea that they've got City on their tails and we know what City are like when they put a run together, but this isn't the old City. I think City will drop points. Arsenal aren't trying to hold off peak City when they would just hit form in the second part of the season and leave everyone for dust.

17:42You know, Arsenal will probably drop points between now and the end of the season, but I think City will as well. So I think that, you know, that perhaps is a factor worth bearing in mind. When you win a title, you always think back of the highlights, the showreel, and think that team was amazing every week. The truth is not many title winners are amazing for 38 games running. There are lots of sort of slightly dud games in between where you escape with a point. And I just think that that's where Arsenal have been a little bit lately. but they can't stay in that zone for much longer. They have to go out and put wolves to the sword on Wednesday night.

18:19Put wolves to the sword. Yeah. Woof. All right then. Oh, by the way, Take a Fanatic. Hello, Take a Fanatic. And thanks to everyone who's following us on YouTube live on a Sunday evening, enjoying the smooth professionalism, the way it all comes naturally together. And sometimes writing in with comments, Take a Fanatic, for example, says, congratulations to Daniel Story for being nominated for a Hugh McElvenny Journalism Award well done was that just for you a career achievement or is there a specific article that's earned you that nod it's Sports Journalism of the Year Award I'm not saying I'm the outsider but there's six nominees and I was the only one that doesn't have their photo on there I've got a photo of an article I did so it's a bridesmaid dress time but no it's an honour to be I mean, that name in sports journalism is everything.

19:11So, yeah, huge honour. There you go. That would sound great on the podium, those words. Very nice. Up next, let's get on to more action from Sunday. More action in the shape of the game at St Andrews.

19:31This is the Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. The Athletic is the only place you can read articles by Daniel Taylor, Amy Lawrence, Phil Hay, James Pearce, Olly Kaye and the very best football writers around. And Leeds have the chance to win the shootout through Longstaff.

19:52He does! They've held their nerve, they've got over the line and Leeds go into the FA Cup fifth round draw. Tom Birmingham won Leeds won after extra time and then what was it 4-2 on penalties yes 4-2 on penalties cracking match I thought fantastic match I've watched Birmingham City twice in the space of the last year and the last time I watched them was in the fourth round of the FA Cup last season when they played at home to Premier League opposition in the form of Newcastle United played absolutely brilliantly amid a raucous atmosphere and lost and the same thing happened today, albeit they lost on penalties rather than in the 90 minutes.

20:36And yeah, Birmingham were brilliant first half against an in-form Leeds team, very direct and really got Leeds on the back foot. Jay Stansfield went closest to putting them ahead with a sort of left foot half volley from the edge of the box that Lucas Perry brilliantly tipped onto the post. And Perry, who was back between the sticks for Leeds, having lost his place to Carl Darlow, Wales legend of late so a big chance for Perry to prove himself and he was to go and go large go large he did and it was largely thanks to him that it was level at the break Leeds were better second half Lucas Nemecha puts them ahead early on what a goal with a fantastic goal cuts him from the left and sticks it bottom left but it didn't feel a very deserved lead at that point it wasn't remotely deserved but they'd weathered the storm and you did think at half time have Birmingham and blown their chance here because Leeds will inevitably be better.

21:32And it looked like that goal was going to be enough. And then right at the end of the game, Patrick Roberts lets fly from the edge of the box and equalises, takes it to extra time, goes to penalties. And yeah, Perry went large again in the shootout, saved one penalty from Tommy Doyle. And then Patrick Roberts put his penalty over the crossbar and Sean Longstaff scored the winning penalty. So, yeah, a good win for Leeds. But, yeah, Birmingham can feel justly aggrieved having not got more out of it. We may see them in the Premier League facing the likes of Leeds next season. Of course, you watch them a lot with the EFL.

22:16Yeah, a fair bit. Yeah, and I think that they're on the right course. I really do. Like, it hasn't been a brilliant season for them. At one point, there was quite strong rumours that Chris Davis might lose his job. But he sort of weathered that storm. They've signed a lot of good players in January. Tom Wagner, the owner, who's actually recently had a stroke. He's unwell at the moment. They've put in a lot of money. They don't want to wait. Like, there's no five-year plan. This is, no, we want to get to the Premier League kind of this year. And if we don't get there this year, we definitely have to get there next year.

22:50They're in a hurry. And I think days like this, where they did go toe-to-toe with Leeds and more than held their own, that will give them that confidence that they're kind of almost ready to do that, make that next step. So don't write them off. They could make a late run for the playoffs and make it to the Premier League. That's definitely their plan. Okay. Wolves, Daniel. We heard about how cold it was at Blundell Park. Wolves who'd probably be heading in the opposite direction if Birmingham are indeed coming up and who will be Arsenal's opponents on Wednesday. Have been showing a bit of an upturn in form under Rob Edwards.

23:26Anything positive that we should say about their performance today? I mean, the pitch was terrible. I think if it had been a league game, it would probably have been off. But I heard the Grimsby CEO, Polly Bancroft, talking on the BBC before the game. She was doing the interview right near me in the press box. And she was saying, well, we really wanted this on. So they'd done everything they could to get the game on. The pitch was in really bad condition. The goal miles had extra sand on them. There was a strip on the near side where players were just slipping all over. It was like park football.

23:57And also the area at the side of the pitch was completely not underwater, but just a quagmire. So you couldn't really take long throws because you couldn't run through the mud. So that was a huge lever. And the first half was fun to watch, but not in a this game has got any degree of quality about it. They did sort of sort themselves out. I was going to ask whether in an FA Cup weekend, you did kind of want a fixture like that. Yeah, absolutely. It felt like all the clichés had rained down harder than the sleet first half because it was, as I say, it was just a park match. It was just lump the ball down the channels, try and get crosses into the box, hope that the ball sticks.

24:34There was one shot or one cross goal from a Wolves player where the ball just stuck into the six-yard box and the keeper had to dash out to avoid any issues. It was that sort of football. But Wolves did deal with it better after the break. They sort of slowed it down, tried to play some passes where they could. I think Grimsby probably ran out of puff a little bit. Both sides played midweek, but obviously A, Wolves made a few changes and B, Premier League fitness is better generally than League Two fitness. Grimsby also played midweek, which is a little bit of a shame for them. If they'd have had a full run, I'd tap it maybe.

25:05Second half, they'd have been stronger. So Wolves just about deserved it, but it was a really scrappy game. In a good way, you got to the ground and thought, this is going to be horrible today. So your expectations weren't dashed. They have been better of late. I thought they were pretty wretched against Forest last Wednesday. They didn't try and do anything. They stayed in the game, which is the best thing they did. And Jose Sarr was good, made some great saves. They're going to have to be better than that if they're not going to stop, if Arsenal are not going to score two or three or four against them.

25:34Because, I mean, Forest had 35 shots. They didn't score. But if Arsenal have 35 shots, they will. So they're going to have to be better again. And there is just a sense of Edwards in interviews sort of trying to say, you've got a bit annoyed about, you know, is this an escape from the league? I think he's just he's slightly railing against this idea that there's nothing to gain out of the Premier League season now because there's basically still a third of it left and they're already down. So he has to find a way to do something, whether it's like changing things up, whether it's, you know, I know he's brought in some players.

26:02Got to do something to avoid this just getting really boring for fans for the next 12 games. Yeah, indeed so. Let's move on to Saturday's games in the Cup. and first of all from those, how about that Villa Newcastle? Sandra Tonali with his first goals of the season. Two fine strikes, the second one in particular, but I guess the main talking point from this match is going to be the refereeing and what it meant. The previous round of action I've been saying, you know what we didn't have? VAR. Who missed it? Nobody. This time around I don't think anybody watched that game and didn't think, oh my word what must they be thinking in Stockley Park yeah I guess so but I'm not going to change my mind on that one game you know it was it added to the drama of the game in a way and we justice was served with Newcastle scoring from the free kick that should have been a penalty I do think the referee maybe got too much stick because yes of course he should have seen that Dina was in the area but the assistants got has got to give him a hand there.

27:11Yeah, the assistant would be the one better place to say. Yeah, it was a shocker. It was absolutely a shocker. It could have been a red card for Dinia as well. Obviously, there was an offside for Villa's goal as well. So the thing is, you can talk about, oh, this was a great advert for VAR, but if VAR hadn't have been there, Newcastle would still have won the game. Villa wouldn't have opened the scoring. That doesn't change that. There were some pretty serious decisions. Yeah, but they always have been in games. I just think that, yeah, the standard of refereeing should be better. Maybe referees lean on the technology a bit too much.

27:43But this is a point that Eddie Howe was making afterwards. And he made no decisions rather than use his eyes. But he got the red card right. Yes, it would be hard to get that wrong. That decision from Beezut, the goalkeeper, was more ridiculous than any of these refereeing decisions, in my opinion. that was an absolute howler and completely one of those when you're grateful to be watching the game on TV rather than live in the stadium because Bizot suddenly coming into shot when he did just made no sense what is the goalie doing there what's come over him what's got into him he cleans out Jacob Murphy just complete act of self-sabotage at a time when Villa are 1-0 up and fully in control and right on half-time hands all the initiative to Newcastle and that was all the invitation they needed to take control of the game.

28:40But it was curious. I thought there were the kind of mistakes by officials that you tend not to see when VAR is there as if the absence of VAR had sort of, I don't know, kind of like fried their brains. I mean, there were two or three goals over the weekend that were ruled out that should have stood. Ria and Gamora scored a really nice goal for Liverpool and it was immaterial by the time he scored, but, you know, shouldn't have been ruled out. The Abraham goal shouldn't have stood. And yeah, almost as if without the VAR safety net, some of the officials weren't quite as on it as they would be ordinarily.

29:15Because you tend, I think one of the most impressive things about VAR is for me, at least, it makes you realise what an exceptional job linesmen or assistant referees do because they get so many extremely difficult offside calls correct. and it's very rare that you get a bad one and there were quite a few bad ones over the weekend and because there was no VAR they weren't corrected so yeah, a peculiar weekend from a VAR perspective Indeed, a good one for Newcastle though who pick up their second straight win on the road, Daniel which given their current run of fixtures is good news to find that kind of form Yeah, good for Eddie Howe, absolutely and an FA Cup run is kind of crucial for Howe now I don't think they're going to win the Champions League I don't think they're going to qualify for the Champions League on league points or league position.

30:05And obviously they won a domestic cup last season, which is what has bought Eddie Howe lots of goodwill and breathing room amongst match-going Newcastle supporters. So an FA Cup run would be absolutely imperative for that, a visit to Wembley in a semi-final or whatever. You have to get a little bit lucky with the runs and they've not, you know, they drew Man City in the League Cup semi-finals. this was a bad draw to be fair to get Villa away but they've won it so if they get you know last 16 now and two games or three games away from Wembley that will help Hal if he can prove he can go far in domestic cups that will really help him in terms of job over the summer It was a good day for Tonali obviously Well I was just going to say because apart from their poor record on the road their record without Bruno Guimaraes has been awful but Tonali really stepped up Well he's going to have to isn't he because Guimaraes is their key man They don't have a good record without him.

30:58And Tonali is capable, isn't he? I think he's a really good all-round player. Can do stuff without... Like Bruno. But has he been in that kind of form the rest of the season? No, he hasn't been at his very best. I think that unit, when they're clicking, is up there with the best midfield units in the division. They haven't clicked often enough. We've got a glimpse of why Tonali is rated so highly and has a few suitors. obviously that he's been linked with moves away, hasn't he? But I think it was good for him and his relationship with the fans that he scored those goals and had those moments to celebrate because I think most supporters that went to that game would have been sort of cursing to Nighley a little bit because they think he wants out.

31:44Right. So it was a good reminder of his ability. One of the strikes was absolutely brilliant, wasn't it? I mean, it absolutely fizzed in. Superb. His first two goals of the season. for Newcastle, which is remarkable. When you think how beautifully he strikes the ball. He did almost score a Worldie against Villa a few weeks ago, early in the game at St James' Park, I think it was, where he sort of tiptoes into the box, hits a shot left-footed that Emi Martinez saved with his feet, which would have been, I think, a goal of the season contender. So, yeah, surprisingly, he doesn't score more frequently.

32:17But I guess one of the big features of last season was that decision that Eddie Howe made to switch him and Bruno Gimeraeus sure that Tonali became the six, moved him further away from goal. I do think that was a bad decision, in a way. We do. Yeah, because Tonali, when he first came, was all about breaking into the box and getting on the end of things. I think he's brilliant at it. And I don't, I wouldn't limit either guy to being a six or an eight. I think there you've got a midfield two. Right. That you go, I'll stay. You go, I'll stay. Like, just old school. Just try it with Gerald and Lampard, Adrian.

32:53and it doesn't work. No, it's not that. You see it with Arsenal, with Rice and Zubimendi. They're more of a two now because they can both go forward. They can both get back. So I think they've got a great pair there. And I think it has been wrong to label or restrict one ahead of the other, personally. OK, they won't be operating as a pair for a bit because Gimmarosha has picked up a hamstring injury so won't be able to feature in the next round of games starting with Wednesday's trip to Azerbaijan. taking on Carabag, a round trip of 6 ,500 miles. That's in the Champions League playoff round. We'll be previewing that in our European edition, which Tom is very much a part of.

33:35Looking ahead to the first leg of the knockout games in the Champions League, but also an absolutely crazy weekend of action across the continent. Derby d 'Italia, you might have seen the fallout from that. Madness, Inter against Juve. We'll be talking about that. We'll be talking about PSG losing big time against managerless Reims. Reims? Reims. Reims. Not Reims. Spelled like it, but it's not. Crazy. And off the top of the table as a result with Lens back in first place. They are indeed. And other things as well. Like Barcelona getting absolutely tonked in the cup by Atletico Madrid. Anyway, that'll be out on Tuesday.

34:15Do look out for that. Back to the FA Cup right now, though. Daniel did you want to say anything about Newcastle's performance or would you would you like to move on to Liverpool's three new will against Brighton I think we've got a lot for Saturday to cover so yes this was I was staggered to read only the fourth time in the last 11 seasons that eight time winners Liverpool have made it through to the fifth round of the FA Cup Yeah, and it was, I mean, they're playing a Brighton team who look like they're coming to the end of a cycle under Fabian Herzler. The anger about his continued employment will not necessarily peak after an FA Cup defeat, but they were so limp.

34:55It was as soon as Liverpool got their act together and got themselves sorted. there was only going to be one winner because there was space there's sort of seemingly both space out wide for Brighton getting dragged out wide so getting sort of attracted to wingers but not getting there quick enough and then balls being played inside to leave massive space in the penalty area the first goal being the perfect example in that Brighton are really slow to spot that Kirk has he's running onto a ball and then simultaneously three defenders allowing Curtis Jones to just steal a march in the penalty area.

35:27And they could have conceded before that. They did concede after it. Liverpool's second goal was, you mentioned it earlier, James, it was absolutely beautiful. The Salah first time cushioned pass into the path of Sabah's lie was, yeah, it was fantastic. But yeah, Liverpool look like they've sort of got a hold of themselves, I think is the best way to say it. It was probably Salah's best performance for, or certainly since his outburst before AFCON. and probably all season. He was really good. He looked dangerous. He won the penalty that he scored. And yeah, but I was really, really disappointed with Brighton.

36:03I kind of feel like if you're in a rut in the league and your draw is away at Liverpool and you know that Liverpool can struggle if they are got out early, if you can kind of get at them and make them sort of face the wrong way, get defenders running the other way, get midfielders thinking about protecting the defence rather than pushing forward, you can cause them problems. or you hit them on the counter and you so get pressure and Brighton didn't really do either of those things. I just couldn't work out what the game plan was. Brighton, whose season gets more and more anonymous, really, at this point.

36:34About Mo Salah ball, though, for Slobberzai, as Dan Sheldon was pointing out on The Athletic, so perfectly weighted that it lured the Brighton keeper into thinking that he could come out and collect, which then made it that much easier for Slobberzai to stick it away because he was not there to take care of business. Anyway, there you go. That was Liverpool looking like they've got a hold of themselves. And Salah being back to form is encouraging for them and also sort of feels reassuring because he's been so poor since the start of the season. And if you look at his Liverpool career to date, in his eight seasons so far, he's only once failed to hit 25 goals in all competitions.

37:17and in that season he scored 23. This season he's on seven goals. So he's miles off where he was. And you see it, like watching him the first half of the season, he looked like a different player. He wasn't getting past people one-on-one. He almost looked like he'd lost a half a yard of pace. Then there's the mixed zone comments after the game at Leeds, goes off to the AFCON and future shrouded in uncertainty as it still is. And you've been kind of thinking, like, is he going to show up at some point? And OK, as Daniel says, up against a very feeble Brighton team. But he did look back to his best, dispatched his penalty very, very confidently, beautiful assist for the goal.

37:58So I guess the Liverpool, you know, the Liverpool hope will be that he's now able to build on that. Because I don't think there's any debate as to whether he should be starting games. The fact there are other injuries, you know, Izak in particular in that part of the pitch means that, you know, there's not a huge amount of competition. You know, Frimpon being sidelined means that he's not, you know, a competition for Salah's play. So he was going to start every game between now and the end of the season and you've been kind of waiting for some sign that he can rediscover the old Mo Salah. And I think we did see a little bit of that yesterday.

38:27The Mo Salah mojo. The Mo Salah mojo. Perhaps returning, we shall see. That Mansfield Town victory, and Adrian, you were saying everyone's going to want the Stags in the draw Monday evening. Does it mean anything for Burnley, I wonder? Daniel for Scott Barker, who had previously been knocked out of the Carabao Cup after fielding a wildly rotated side and then did much the same thing here and has seen Burnley's Cup run in this competition come to an end as well. Given that they are, how many points, nine points off safety, perhaps the club are feeling that there's not much point in them making changes.

39:07And yet? Yeah, I think it's unforgivable for a manager. I think it's brainless as well because it's such an easy, quick win to go on a cup run. I know they had a really good result at Palace in midweek and actually looked pretty good, albeit from tuning down this crazy six-minute period where they scored three times. But they held off Palace second half, which is something they haven't done to pretty much any other opponent this season. So it was like maybe there's a sense of trying to gain some momentum here. and look the players he picked should still be good enough to beat mid-table league one opposition at home particularly with a lead but just sends the wrong message if that then doesn't happen the reaction at full time sounded really angry again it's not ideal for Scott Parker that the sort of glimpses of fight from Burnley have mainly come away from home rather than at Turf Moor where they've been pretty poor or been really poor and yeah you just the goals were good but the whole thing is preventable if you go stronger, if you kill off the game, if you don't send a message to, you know, it's an absolute cliche, but Nigel Clough will see that team and he'll tell his players, they've given us a chance here.

40:18You've got something that we don't deserve. You know, before the game at Grimsby, David Artel was interviewed and he said, look, if Wolves have picked a good team and they're at it, we haven't got a chance of winning this game. Let's be real. And that's the same. The same is true of Mansfield. But if you make changes, if you send the wrong message, I don't think Burnley's first team is up to much at the moment, so the change team won't be. And so it proved. In Scott Parker's defence, he made a load of changes in the previous round, and they beat a very good Millwall team, 5-1. It was a very similar starting 11 to the one that they put out yesterday.

40:51So it shows that it's... the decision to make multiple changes is a fiddly one. and almost all managers make changes for the FA Cup and sometimes it pays off and sometimes it backfires. But you can understand why Scott Parker might have thought, this will work because it worked in the previous round against better opposition. And also he does have a duty to believe that even nine points is not an insurmountable gap when it comes to Premier League survival. I just think a manager has to consider more things than we realise and a lot of that is keeping the group motivated. I can't accept that. No, no.

41:33You need to accept it because you do. I can accept it. Yeah, okay, good, good. I'm just saying, if you've got a load of guys there and you never play them, they're going to lose complete interest. And I think between now and the end of the season, Burnley's A team at the moment is not exactly knocking the wall down, is it? So he's going to need the other guys. And I think this was an opportunity. I look at this team, apart from the goalie, the goalie, I would have kept Dubravka in personally. But I look at the names on that team and at one point or another, they've all been first choice at some point.

42:10So this isn't a bunch of no marks that he put out there. They were just beaten by an inspired Mansford team. A guy that sticks one in the top corner with a knuckleball free kick from 25 yards. If he doesn't do that, he goes to penalties. is they probably win on pens and no one's mentioning the team. So I don't know. I thought this was just a great day for Mansfield. Kyle Noyle deserves credit. It'll get forgotten, but at 1-0, I think it was Brun Larsson goes through and knocks it past the keeper. It's going into the net and Noyle makes this unbelievable sort of clearance off the line. He hooks it away at full stretch.

42:50That's at 1-0. Of course, they then go on to turn it around. So, yeah, look, I wouldn't pile in on Scott Parker personally. All right. Thanks, Adrian. Good perspective there. I also want to say, love the Mansfield kits. Lovely. The kit. Yeah, the kit. Yeah. I was going to say, remarkable name, Kyle Noyle. He has all of the letters in his first name reappear in his surname. But his name is Kyle Noyle. In the same order. Just no. Because Noyle has a silent K at the beginning. Oh, really? K-N-O-Y-L-E. Yeah. So you've just added an N-O in the middle. In terms of name choosing, there's a lot more thought gone into that one than, say, Jack Hunt, who we were talking about before.

43:35Well, indeed. Yeah. Anyway, OK. Oh, Daniel, you went along to see what was almost a cup upset, or cup set, as they say, at the Pirelli Stadium, Burton Albion against West Ham. Went to extra time. What were your thoughts on that? Yeah, I mean, it was a desperately poor game for the 90 minutes. I suspect, well, it sums up everything we know about West Ham, which is that that first team, particularly one with Gerard Bowen, Manuel Fernandes, and I've called him Manuel Fernandes again, Mateus Fernandes, and Crosencio Somerville in it, whoever is the striker, is good enough to keep West Ham up. But the reserves are not very good at all.

44:18um they are labored but and got at them but and had the better chances West Ham had their first shot after 40 minutes I think you know it was a kind of protest mood amongst away supporters they flew a plane over the Pirelli Stadium before the game saying Sullivan out no more BS they had red cards to do a protest one guy had a poster of a Valentine's Day message to a significant other so shout out to him but yeah I mean Burton were yeah it was nice to Jacqueline so shout out to Jacqueline if she's listening and yeah the game changed when Nuno brought on the players he didn't want to have to bring on which is effectively Crescente Somerville who just changed the game scored a great goal I think it might have had a slight disappointing deflection because it seemed to leap still though yeah but it was yeah he was the only player capable of in the West Ham team capable of taking on and beating a Burton player, which is pretty worrying.

45:14I'd also like to shout out Suleiman Krubali, who is a 17-year-old kid who's barely played for Burton Albion, but has signed professional contracts last year and absolutely looked at home in central midfield against Premier League opposition. He is, you know, I spoke to a few Burton fans after the game and they're like, yeah, we're trying not to mention it because he's clearly way too good for us. But yeah, he's 17 years old from the Burton Albion Academy, so he's one to watch. Awesome Excellent Yeah I like that Anything else you want to mention because still waiting kind of circling above us is the Igor Tudor stroke bit of Vito Pereira chat which we'll be concluding pretty much today's show with because that's been big news since we last were with you Anything else you want to mention from Saturday's games Adrian?

46:01I was going to mention Man City-Salford so obviously there were some scars there for Salford City and they would feel very proud of themselves that they limited City to two which is very good. I think it's Mark Gerhie's involvement. I'm just still a bit puzzled why players aren't cup-tied anymore. Well, they changed the rules. I know, but I still haven't really had an explanation on why and what the benefit is to the competition because it's been there since the beginning of time, it feels. I must admit, I don't know why you should be cup-tied. If you play for a club in the Premier League and you sign for another club, you can continue to play in that competition.

46:45Why would the cup be different? I just feel that if you get knocked out of a cup, or you've played in a cup, then you come back and you then reappear in the next round and score a goal, it feels wrong to me. I don't know what the motivation was to change that rule, but maybe it's just me that feels relatively strongly about it. I don't know. Yeah, I sort of instinctively dislike it as well. You've had your shot at the cup. You're lost. What are you doing back? Story. I'll play devil's advocate and say, yeah, I've got no reason why. If cup tying had never been a thing, we would never want it to be a thing.

47:27The mad thing is that the rules are different in the FA Cup and the League Cup. Like, if you're going to get rid of cup tying for domestic cup competitions, you've got a situation where Mark Gay, he can play in the FA Cup. fourth round but can't play in the League Cup final because he was signed after the first leg of the semi-final. That just seems mad to me. At least come up with one hard and fast rule. All we ask for is consistency. Sometimes we do. Sometimes. All right, let's move on to a couple of clubs who weren't involved in the FA Cup action this weekend for reasons and what they've been getting up to over the last couple of days.

48:03Next.

48:10You're listening to the Totally Football Show with James Richardson. Now we do four times a week. Keep up to date with us on Insta and enjoy us in glorious Technicolor on YouTube at the Totally Show. Forrest and Spurs had the weekend off. They took advantage of the break to bring in new managers. Vito Pereira, no surprise particularly to see him at the city ground. Daniel was predicting that on Thursday. Thursday, not sure whether Daniel or indeed many of us had Igor Tudor in at Tottenham, though. So many surprising things about this decision. The fact that Spurs had just sacked Thomas Frank after an eight-game winless run and appointed a man who was earlier this season sacked after an eight-game winless run in the shape of Tudor.

48:55Or the fact that their interim bosses, Tottenham, traditionally come from within. whether it's, I don't know, Ryan Mason or Clive Allen or any of that and thoughts very much with Tim Sherwood at this point. Putting aside what producer Charlie describes as the strong Ivan Juric to Southampton vibes, let me ask you, do you think it could work? Who thinks it could work? Tom thinks it could work. Go on then, Tom. Oh, because Tom, you've seen a lot of Tudor when he had that brilliant season at Marseille. Igor Tudor blew through Marseille and French football like a tornado. It was an absolute phenomenon.

49:37He arrived in the summer of 2022 after Jorge Sampaoli had left. And OEM had had a really good season under Sampaoli. They'd finished second. None of the fans wanted him to leave, but he did. None of the fans really wanted Tudor to come in. And he was so unpopular that he was booed before his first fixture, which even by Marseille's standards is going some.

50:03And he just put the players' backs up right from the start. They had a summer training camp at St. George's Park and in the first or second training session, he has a physical confrontation with Gerson, this Brazilian midfield that Marseille had at the time. There was a similar confrontation with Matteo Guenduzzi. There were a lot of big characters in the OM squad at the time. There were players who looked like they were going to be nailed on starters, just got frozen out and disappeared. And he made them work so hard. And he instilled this all pitch man marking style that was a real break from what Sampaoli had done.

50:41But it worked, worked really well. And he was booed before kickoff in his first game. But I think they won six of their first seven matches, completely won the fans round. They finished third in the league in the end. And then he left in the summer. And they were the same fans that had booed him before his first game were devastated by his departure. Clearly, since then, things have been very up and down. He's not someone who you can depend on long term. But if you want someone to go into your changing room and bang some heads together, he will almost literally do that. And given that Spurs are trying to stave off the threat of relegation and looking for some kind of reaction, Tudor, it seems like a slightly mad left field choice, but I can see why they've gone for him.

51:31And it's not dissimilar to the motivation behind the decision to get Antonio Conte. Right. And, you know, that had a positive impact. For a while. At least initially. And if Tudor can have a positive impact, at least initially, that will get Spurs safe and then they can start again in the summer. Well, that's very much the pattern with his career. I think the interesting stat is that on six previous occasions, he's been brought in by a club in an emergency situation, whether because of the threat of relegation or missing out on Europe. And all six of those occasions, at least initially, he's hit the target.

52:06He's kept the clubs up. Yeah. Yeah. And then he's either walked or been fired. The next season has happened to him with Juventus last season, was brought in after Thiago Motta had made a bit of a mess of it, got them into the Champions League, which from an improbable position, and then to the Club World Cup, and then the start of the season wasn't so great. Off he goes. Where do you stand on this? Yeah. Listening to Tom there, I think that that is, yeah, that's the kind of character that this team needs because we've seen it with Tottenham at times this season. When they are pumped up and when they are up for it, as they were in that comeback against Manchester City and on certain occasions, there's something in there.

52:51They're not poor players. So I do think that maybe Thomas Frank was maybe a little bit too soft on them, a bit too nice. And maybe some of the guys within that dressing room took advantage of that and didn't push themselves as hard as they need to. And in this predicament, they have to push themselves to the limit. And if this guy is the sort to drive that, then maybe it is a good shout. My only issue would be he's not worked in English football before, but that doesn't have to be a negative. Yeah, I miss the days when this kind of appointment would be greeted on Sky Sports News by people in Blazers saying he doesn't know our league.

53:31But he doesn't. I mean, his two games against Premier League opposition have been two defeats to, funnily enough, Spurs. He does inherit a team, Daniel, we mentioned this on Thursday, that given that it is top four in the Champions League, must have some quality in it. It does feature a player with whom he had great success in, Jureen, Randall Connell Mwani, who got 10 in 20, which is decent, under his tutelage with La Signora. What's your thoughts? Because you put some stuff on social media, you weren't very positive. How do you feel now? Well, yeah, I'm just amazed that he is in, I mean, I know it is a very interim role.

54:10So he isn't, he is the Spurs manager, but he's not the Spurs manager. I just think, yeah, he seems to fall out with people quite quickly. I actually, I'm actually not sure. We're about to find out. I'm actually not sure if what this Spurs squad needs is someone to go and bang heads together. I think given that the guy is very short term and that given the players, or the captain at least, has been so vocal about what's happening at the club and how it affects players. I'm not sure they need someone to go in and start ranting and raving at the moment. I don't see that as the answer. That said, I think his remit is to keep Tottenham up and I think that should be done easily.

54:49They've still got to play Palace at home, Forest at home, Leeds at home, Everton at home, Wolves away. They should easily stay up Tottenham. It's a kind of farce that we're in this situation. It's to Thomas Frank's chagrin that we're even talking about it. So I think he probably will keep them up. I just think it's quite a big gamble on banging heads together being what this Tottenham squad needs. Because to me, to my mind, the squad looks a little bit broken. Now, maybe some players in that dressing will react well to ranting and raving and screaming and physical confrontation. But if it doesn't go well and if you get beaten by Arsenal heavily and it starts slowly, I think they've got Liverpool away fairly early on, then if they've got Fulham away in his second game, second league game, then it can unravel a little bit.

55:38It just, it seems a very, I called it an extraordinary gamble and that's exactly what it feels like. But I do still think he'll probably keep them up because I think they'd stay up anywhere under Tom Schrank. I can't imagine Jed Spence and Van Der Ven, for example, ignoring him as they walk off a pitch. This is the point. That's where I'm coming from. Would Christian Romero dare speak out if he had full respect for his manager. He's genuinely, my view on it, I think a captain should work with a manager and not go out and go and do their own thing. The same with that Van der Ven. That Van der Ven Spence thing was just ridiculous.

56:14The disrespect that they showed him. I think, yeah, we'll see. We'll see how it works. North London Derby next weekend. Absolutely amazing. Perfect first fake. He does have this very confrontational style. but he isn't just a ranter and a raver. I think that the main impact he had on Marseille's football was that he made them super fit and he made them horrible to play against. No one would describe Tottenham. Defensively better? Defensively much better, yeah. And his players managed to get to grips with a very different kind of defending quite quickly because they switched to man marking and all over the pitch.

56:48But then he had a full pre-season to work with them. Will he have the time to get his ideas across to the Spurs players? That's another question. A sub-editor's dream as well, all those two-door lines. Well, there you go. Daniel, meantime, Forrest appointed Vito Pereira. We were expecting this, you were expecting this. Now that it's there, any thoughts? Well, it's their best-case scenario in the position they're in, which is a guy who's worked with Evangelos Maranakis before at Olympiacos. He won the double in Greece. he has been living fairly locally ever since leaving Wolves he kept a team up last season I mean the clanging coincidence of this is that Forrest have appointed two managers this season who were nominated for manager of the season last season in the Premier League in Nuno and Vito Pereira and they share quite a lot of characteristics one being their agent so a kind of bat signal has gone out probably to George Mendes and there is a, you know, he is the best case scenario for Forrest.

57:55If you just said to me, Vita Pereira's turned it down, I would not be able to name one manager that I thought would take over. I just wouldn't have a clue because the point is, is that they kind of got it the wrong way around, right? If they'd appointed Pereira after Ange and he'd have failed by February, then Dyche would have been the natural person to come into this job and he's already had it. So, yeah, they didn't have any options. I don't know if it works and I don't know, I can't imagine that Forrest can know it works. one thing to say or two things to say firstly they've given him an 18-month contract so uh yeah there is incentive for him to do well and keep the job beyond these games and the other thing which i think is quite instructive is they've basically brought all of his old coaching staff in so there's analysts in there there's assistant coaches in there the whole shibudal have come in so that makes me feel more positive it's not just a you know an emergency call to a guy who's decided to answer his phone and he's going to do this for three months and whatever happens he leads with a payoff anyway that might be what happens anyway but yeah i don't know with i think i said it when i was on the show on thursday but the most instructive thing in staying up is how west ham play i think between now and the end of may not how forest play although forest's performances will be quite a factor and like igor tudor vito perrero debuts with a big fixture they're at home to liverpool next sunday here's a message from basil and steve who says thoughts on Scottish title race.

59:22We twice took the lead at Ibrox, which people think shouldn't be happening. Pastor Steve, you also lost 4-2 after all of that, as you no doubt know, thanks to the Youssef Chemity hat trick, which powered Rangers to victory over the Scottish Premiership. Oh, Daniel's backed away in this, over the Scottish Premiership leader's hearts. It's a really tight title race now, Daniel. Yeah, the moment of the weekend, either side of the border, was Araujo's winning goal for Celtic. Sivan Chara with the spin, across the face of goal. It's got him by Tignalli and it's slammed home.

1:00:02Araujo is in with the Celtic fans. You know how players jump over the advertising boardings, which he did, and then go and celebrate with the crowd, which he did. He then went further beyond that than I've ever seen before, which is that he climbed into the crowd and went four rows back. and was just sort of jumping up and down with him as if he was one of the supporters wearing a replica shirt. As if to say, well, this equals a yellow card. I know that. So I might as well get my money's worth out of this booking. It was sensational. So he was Eric Dier, but under very different circumstances, I guess.

1:00:36But they were 2-0 down in that game of Celtic. So that would have been huge. And Celtic fans, I would imagine it was a complete bedlam. But then for Rangers to go out and respond and go and beat hearts, is impressive. And I'm looking at it now. Rangers have only lost twice this season. They probably are the team to beat now. And that's amazing, given Russell Martin's start to this season, where they barely won a game. And they're now probably, are they title favourites if they're not? Two points still behind Hearts. Hearts have a decent run of fixtures. I believe Bazalda and Steve will know better than me.

1:01:13But I think the next month or so for Hearts is more favourable than the big two. But there are only three points between Hearts in first place, Rangers and Celtic in third. So it's going to be electric stuff. Yeah. Ooh, what were you going to say? Celtic are fairly heavy favourites. All right. Well, they have a game in hand as well. They do, yeah. But Adrian, let me just conclude by saying while we're talking about title races, Monday night sees an absolutely huge game in the championship. Yeah, I'll be there. I can't wait for this game. I can't wait for it. I worked on it on the reverse game at the Riverside.

1:01:49So this is Coventry against Middlesbrough. Yes, so Coventry playing Middlesbrough. It's now second versus first. Coventry who were how many? Ten points. They were ten points clear. Yeah, ten points clear. And they've gone on a really barren run. There have been a couple of home wins chucked in there, but they're in mid-table four. Middlesbrough, under Kim Haleberg, are absolutely flying. They've won six on the spin. And anyone that's watched them lately will not forget it because the football is really scintillating. It's fantastic. You know, the passer move, they're fast, they're fit, they're taking chances.

1:02:25They are really attack-minded. And they're kind of blowing most teams away at the moment. Middlesbrough weren't that kind of team earlier on in the season. Under all. No, they weren't. They were actually a bit dull, a bit dull. So he's had a completely transformative effect. and they are playing a level of football that is worthy of winning the league. But Coventry is still a really good team and I think if Coventry bring their game and go toe-to-toe with Borough, they could beat them. I think this promises to be a real end-to-end slog. I think they'll just both go at each other and hopefully it'll be fireworks.

1:03:04Excellent. What time is that on Monday, Adrian? Oh, I should know this. I'm assuming it's an 8 o 'clock kick-off. It's an 8 o 'clock kick-off. Okay, good. I'll be there early. Don't worry. Magnificent. Yeah. Magnificent. All right. Well, I'm sure we'll be tuning in for that. Tom, I'm going to see you on Tuesday. Well, Monday, actually, for our Tuesday morning Euro show. Tuesday in podcast land. Yeah. And then Thursday. Well, actually, no, Wednesday, we'll be back with an extra because, of course, there's Tuesday night Champions League. What a week we got ahead of us. The Coventry Borough, the Champions League playoffs, Arsenal at Wolves on Wednesday and also Champions League, and then Thursday morning, more podding.

1:03:45Wow. We better head off and get some rest. And you too as well, listener stroke viewer. Many thanks for joining us for this Totally Football Show. Thank you, Daniel Storey, for braving the wild winds of Cleethorpes and returning. Thank you. I should see Adrian tomorrow night at the CBS. Ah, the photo. yeah we're following each other around we saw each other in the canteen at Forest the other day did you know yeah yeah excellent so yeah I'll try to have a bit more of a chat to Daniel we said about three words together then you disappeared so we'll try and have a little bit more more dialogue tomorrow Daniel will be looking forward to that Tom many thanks thank you Adrian for hot footing it from the Emirates many thanks to Jake and British to Charlie and we'll be back with you right through the week so we'll see you soon

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