Arteta & Pep set up Wembley date - will Arsenal extend their lead this weekend?

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0:31Totally Football Show. Liverpool-Man City. All games taking place this weekend. It's the Totally Football Show.

0:43Thursday, the 5th of February. Yay! Welcome to a Totally Football Show. Dan Kilbatrick's back with us today. Hello, Dan. Hello. Nice to see you. Have you calmed down after your anti-Thomas Frank rant last time? Yeah, I suppose I picked up a bit, so I'm in a better place, James. That second half against Man City. Exactly, yeah. Tottenham are back. Nice. Jack Lang's here. Hi. Hi, Jack. Nice to see you. And you, James. All right. Pleasantries tick. And Duncan Alexander also here. Hello. Happy birthday to many footballers. It's today's football birthday day, right? Is that right? It's Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Carlos Tevez and others.

1:25Poor Cristiano Ronaldo. Yeah, but it's a pretty good haul, I'd say. Do you think it was only in one era that this was a... I think that's going to get outdated fairly soon, isn't it? Why? Because Ronaldo's 42, 41? Yeah, but one other... Special report, where are the modern players born on 5th of February? Precisely. What's gone wrong? But if there was a glut of footballers born around this time, that surely speaks to a glut of footballers' parents getting jiggy around nine months before. So are you suggesting that the kind of season of jigginess has changed or... With climate change, possibly.

1:59Maybe so. It would be about the middle of the year, wouldn't it? So maybe it's now too hot. Maybe so. Maybe late December is the new golden period. All right. Anyway, Duncan's here and a happy birthday to everybody, especially poor Cristiano Ronaldo, who's, as we know, locked in a bitter battle for his club soul, really. Also, bitter battles this week. Carabao Cup, semifinal second legs. and we now know the finalists on the 22nd of March, also known as the day before our live show at the Leicester Square Theatre, if that date sounds familiar to you, listener. Arsenal will be facing Man City. Arsenal have reached their first cup final since the 2020 FA Cup affair and Man City, who've had more League Cup finals, you can shake a stick at late.

2:50They won it four years in a row between 2018 and 2021 but have not won it since. Well, today on the pod we have a man who was at the Emirates for Arsenal-Chelsea and enjoyed it. Duncan? I did. Rice to play it across. And Kai Havertz to send Arsenal to Wembley.

3:13The ultimate climax. I think it was very much one of those games that if you're at the match, you kind of appreciate the tension and the slow build-up to drama whereas I'm pretty sure and as was confirmed anyone watched on TV didn't quite have that same experience but I think the approach that Chelsea took was fair enough it's one of those scenarios where if a team is at home defending an aggregate lead, narrow aggregate lead that's kind of the match you get, right? Because Arsenal didn't want to push forward and get caught out Chelsea didn't want to concede early goals. We saw 24 hours later what happens if you concede early in that situation.

3:53So it was kind of as expected, I think. And Chelsea basically wanted to get to the last 20 minutes and then have one push. And they didn't really create any massively clear-cut chances, but they definitely had a few kind of decent efforts from outside the box. And then, yeah, Arsenal caught them on the break and it ends 1-0. But I thought it was quite a sort of fascinating game. and I thought Wednesday's semi-final kind of proved that more so. A couple of former Chelsea players featuring in Arsenal's line-up. Kepa Adore Apollo, or Adore Apollo, writes in, should Kepa start in the League Cup final, given his history in the last two finals he's played in, 2018 when he refused to be substituted, then lost the penalty shootout, and then 2022 when he lost the penalty shootout, this time when he blazed over the bar.

4:41Gazarelda also writes in on this game saying, Does the positive press around Rosseña result from him being TM, the nicest man in football? His Hull City spell was turgid, says Gazzarelda. Yet local media tried to tell fans he was great. Now national media hailed him as visionary for using the same defensive set-piece tactics versus Arsenal as Maresco. What did you say to that, Duncan? Well, I mean, he's won every match so far other than the two games against Arsenal. That is the benchmark, I guess, for any manager. I mean, he lost a bit of aura in the game because there was a high ball that dropped towards him and he tried to control it and shinned it straight into the crowd.

5:18And there's some nice shots of Chelsea players on the bench sort of half smirking. So, yeah, that might not help. But I think he did what he could do. I mean, they didn't have Rhys James that game. He obviously chose to put Liam De Lappe out on the right wing in a kind of Jostein flow style. That was one of the most aesthetically displeasing things I've ever seen. You can pick a striker on the wing within certain bounds. If it's Romelu Lukaku who did it quite a lot out on the right for Belgium and a couple of times for Man United, but he is cutting in on the diagonal and he has pace. De Lapp isn't and doesn't.

5:56And it was, yeah, I just thought it was kind of work to some degree because they stayed in the match and he was without. Pedro Neto was injured and I think Esteval had just come back from Brazil. So there were reasons for it, but I just thought it was incredibly ugly. Last night's second semi-final, as I think, aged Rosinia's approach really well because he said afterwards, we could have gone out, we could have pressed them man for man and we might have been 2-0 down in 20 minutes and that's exactly what Newcastle did really. It was kind of like two different ways to lose a semi-final decider when you're trailing from the first leg.

6:29So I think, with a bit of hindsight, his approach looks much better than it did on the night when Jamie Redknapp and Paul Merson were just frothing at the mouth saying, I can't believe what I'm seeing here. I thought it was, like Duncan, a fairly reasonable approach. I would actually take issue with the question. I don't think he is seen as this type. I think there's already a kind of a backlash wave breaking, like waiting to break, you know, after all of this kind of LinkedIn speak, which he's been criticised for rightly. I tend to control the ball in front of professional footballers. That for me is a son of footspur.

7:03He was a professional footballer, played hundreds of games. But I don't see this media darling thing. I think people are a bit sceptical. And from the circles that I move in, it's kind of like, well, he's going to be chewed up and spat out by this machine. When you've lost the Jack Lanker for the man age thing. Rightly so, I think, to be fair. And you could see it last weekend when they were 2-0 down to West Ham. People were like ready. and he turned it around. People, eh? What are they like? People. I mean, we should, as someone who was at the game, play a play to the Chelsea fans, because obviously you get more tickets for Cup semi-final or Cup games.

7:47They had the upper bit of that corner of the Emirates where rail seating for infrastructure fans has gone in. And the atmosphere was tremendous. And it kind of just reminds you that if you just gave away fans a lot more tickets, games tend to, or atmospheres tend to be much better. Although I must point out that when Havoc scored, I think the away end was still full, because obviously they were hoping for Chelsea goals to take it next time. Within 30 seconds it emptied. I've never seen it. Like a military operation they'd left, and that was genuinely impressive. Newcastle's position was substantially different to Chelsea's in that they had two goals to make up and therefore couldn't really sit around and hope to snatch something later on.

8:27But Man City have been brilliant in first halves this year and terrible in second halves. Right. Wade around a bit, you feel. Try and keep it tight till half-time and then pick him off. Newcastle's last visit, the Etihad, had seen them have a similar experience when they were 3-0 down after 33 minutes. This time it only took them 32 minutes to be 3-0 down. They'll be back at the Etihad in about two weeks' time in the league again. They did get a lovely goal from Ilanga, his first goal from the club. That was nice, wasn't it? Yeah, I think... I mean, I guess that's the thing about Howe's approach versus Rosini's approach.

9:01With Rossini's approach, if it doesn't come off and you lose the game, there's not really much to fall back on. There's not many positives. You feel like you didn't really have a go. You have regrets. Whereas Howe went for it, and I guess he could say, well, Alanga got lift off. He got maybe his first big moment in the Newcastle shirt. Could have scored at least one more. And actually, they had enough chances to make that game much more interesting than it was. And Trafford, I think, strangely, given how comfortable it was after half an hour was kind of one of the positives and stories of the night for City.

9:33So there was a lot more for Newcastle to kind of fall back on afterwards, I think, even given the disappointment of losing it. And it sets up the final quite nicely because you mentioned Kepa. You'd imagine Trafford and Kepa will keep their places for the final and both goalkeepers are better than they're given credit for, I think, albeit Kepa's still the world's most expensive goalkeeper. But, you know, I think David Raya and Donnarumma are definitely better. So it's always quite fun when clubs go into a showpiece occasion, with a sort of a chosen weakened team. But there we go. There you go.

10:03March 22nd. Should be seeing more of a languid, no? Because Anthony Gordon went off mouthing the word hamstring. It was, yeah, very lip-readable. And it looked, yeah, he sat down and instantly knew he was coming off. Yeah, another negative for them. They've got mounting, you know, injury concerns. I wonder if the injuries pushed them into the kind of playing the back three, which didn't work at all here. I mean, particularly because they had no one to mark. Yeah, three massive lads at the back, and City just played kind of rotating four attacking midfielders. But yeah, Gordon, probably a big loss.

10:38At what point do we kind of sweat on the England squad? Mid-March, when these injuries start happening? It probably feels too early just to be worried about Gordon for the World Cup. Personally, I'm not sweating about it yet. But yeah, were you to be concerned about Gordon's participation? I think at Hamstring in February, we're OK still. we're okay probably quite good have a little rest yeah there you go get back fit and then do a metatarsal in April perfect a lot of football to be played for Arsenal Man City both keeping their quadruple dreams alive in the league this weekend what's going to be happening let's check through the fixtures that are on their way it's match day 25 Friday it begins actually with Leeds against Forest the teams 16th and 17th currently Saturday lunchtime Man United take on Tottenham Then at 3 o 'clock, five games Fulham-Everton, Burnley-West Ham Arsenal take on Sunderland Wolves are up against Chelsea and Bournemouth host Aston Villa at 5.30 on Saturday It's Newcastle-Brenford Then two games on Sunday Brighton Palace at 2 o 'clock and Liverpool City in the, well, Liverpool Man City in the big Super Sunday slot at 4.30 As we begin to look forward to the weekend let's begin with that match This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network.

12:00Last weekend in the Premier League left Arsenal fully six points clear of Man City. Ah, Pepside going to drop still further behind this weekend with Arsenal hosting Sunderland. And Man City away at Anfield where their record is not great. Who has strong views on this? Well, Sunderland are brilliant at home. Right. And not great away. Not great away. No, I do fancy Arsenal for this one. I think Sunderland have come up and made the Stadium of Light a place you really don't want to go. So do you see City dropping further back? Well, I think given the Arsenal play before them, yes, I could see them being nine points behind when they kick off against Liverpool.

12:40Oh, yeah, but my question is very much relating to how. After the end of the weekend, I see. How do you think City will get on at Liverpool? Put it that way. I could see that being a draw. So, yeah, I do think Arsenal will open up a bigger gap this weekend. both teams coming off both Liverpool and Man City coming off big wins against Newcastle of course City who rested Erling Haaland midweek although given that he's only scored one penalty in the Premier League since Christmas and given as well his record at Anfield I didn't realise this he's only ever scored one goal there and it was back when he was playing for RB Salzburg missed penalty against Liverpool earlier in the season too although did make up for it yeah I think he I mean obviously there's been a lot of attention on him Mahmoud's playing so well in midweek I suppose gives Guardiola at least another option although they haven't really played together particularly effectively I'm kind of interested in what happens at the other end so City obviously missing a lot of centre-backs Ruben Diaz Guardiola was out, John Stones I don't really know what's happened to him for the last year and they look really underpowered And Ake, I think, looks like he's coming to the end of his city time.

13:54Looks a bit, yeah, not the player he once was, maybe. Kusunov, I think, is decent, but is not a senior figure. And you've got Eketike, who I think is capable of physically bullying whoever they put there. Eketike, fantastic last weekend and really confident. And I think he will be looking to this game and think, there's a couple of goals in this for me. I think it could be a really exciting game I don't think either defence is particularly impressive at the moment Yeah we knew what to expect for a long time with these games you could almost sort of see it in your head before it happened whereas this one is kind of two flawed teams but with lots of as Jack says exciting players I think Ekotike versus Kusinov, Kusinov by the way born on February 29th so he won't be celebrating his birthday this month I mean he's a real sort of cult hero already at City and he's so quick over sort of 10-20 yards Is it his pace?

14:47Yeah, and he's got a really good knack of sort of missing the ball and having to chase back, but then doing an extraordinarily violent side tackle that's within the realms of legality. So I think that's... I think I'd only be turning in his... Well, he's not dead. Turning in a tiny box. Yeah, so that's good. And yeah, I just think it could be quite high scoring because I don't think either team is particularly good at defending at the moment. So, yeah, looking forward to it. I mean, it should be, as Dan says, with the knowledge of what Arsenal have done on Saturday, that will only ramp up the kind of tension on City, which I think Liverpool are probably in a reasonable place to take advantage of.

15:28OK. City were just one win in their last six in the Premier League, remarkably enough. Liverpool, who themselves are in a fight for top five in Champions League football. Currently, Liverpool just outside the famous five. They're sixth. They're a point behind Chelsea, who are fifth. Man United are a point further ahead in fourth spot. Yeah, that's quite interesting in the sense that it's sort of six teams fighting for five places, you'd think. So you'd include Villa and potentially even City in there, would you or not? Yeah, I think City down is basically fighting for the top five. And it's obviously for all those six clubs, even Villa with their wages to turnover ratio, getting in the Champions League is hugely important.

16:10So the pressure on Liverpool, even though they're out of the title race, is there. City are currently eight points clear of Liverpool. So the idea of them dropping out of the Champions League position does seem quite a dramatic one. Five on Sunday. It could be five on Sunday, yeah. Given our beloved three points for a win system. And I just wonder, now that rumours are increasing about Pep's future and the fact that he might be leaving or the idea that he will be leaving at the end of the season, and whether that might start to play a role or might already be playing a role in this drop-off in form.

16:42But maybe I'm just constructing narratives to fill a podcast. I don't know. Anyway, there you go. That is Liverpool-Man City. Dan? One thought I had, to take it back to the League Cup, is the psychological significance of that final in the title race. Yes. Guardiola is very big, isn't he, on teaching his players how to win. But that's why he prioritised all these League Cups over the years because you get a trophy under your belt and you kind of get a taste for it and then you go on to win bigger things. And that's really what Arsenal need. Practically none of the squad have won silverware, so they need to get a taste of it.

17:18And Guardiola's got a load of new players that need a taste of it as well. So you wonder, given they're playing, I think, at the end of April, if City do win that, and Guardiola's got obviously a brilliant record. They're playing Arsenal at the end of April. They're playing Arsenal at the end of April in the title race. And if it's still, let's say, six, seven points, and City have already won the League Cup final and kind of dealt Arsenal with this big blow. Arsenal's famously fragile mentality. Precisely. So it's a kind of interesting game sort of beyond just the silverware itself in terms of what it could mean for the league and maybe even the Champions League and FA Cup as well.

17:50We saw how Spurs were transformed by winning silverware. That was a cruel blow, James. Yes. Touche. Picking up that winning habit. Liverpool-Man City, not the only heavyweight sporting clash that's happening on Sunday. it's Super Bowl 60 yay Jack sure Patriots against the Seahawks I mean yeah I bet yeah the athletic football show not that kind of football I've got daily episodes and video breakdowns lined up from Radio Row in the lead up to Sunday's game plus a big recap episode straight after Jack I'm guessing you're not going to be staying up for Super Bowl 60 you guess right Dan how about you I'm afraid I've got no interest no really yeah was that bad No, no, no.

18:34I mean, there's a lot of sport out there. There's a lot of... I'm not averse to a bit of NFL, but I don't think I'll be staying up for it because where is it? California. It's in Santa Clara, California, Duncan. What's the name of the stadium? Levi's Stadium. I've been there. That's the sponsorship name. I've been there. Have you been to Levi's Stadium? Yeah, I watched Brazil play Colombia there in Copa America two times ago. Oh, right, okay. It's a great stadium. It's a really great stadium. Yeah, it's not one of these kind of enclosed modern bowls. there's a bit of history and life to it. Really?

19:06How much history have you got? No idea. Because candlestick par, that's history for me if you're talking NFL in the Bay Area. But yeah. Anyway, I digress. That's this Sunday evening. I might watch a bit of that. Now, Arsenal-Sunderland. Dan says Arsenal are going to win that on account of the fact that Sunderland are not great. They haven't won any of their last seven away. I also should mention that among the many honours that Arsenal are chasing this year is the record for most corners scored in a Premier League campaign. Record is 16. Arsenal are currently on 14. So looking good, those gunners.

19:47Who has the record, Duncan? Do you know? Joe Royals Oldham. Correct. Tony Pulis' West Brom. And one other team. and an Arsenal team under the leadership of Nico Jova slash Mikel Arteta. Indeed so, indeed so. Oh, if you're listening and you're on Match the Day intro duties on Saturday, then you might like to know that the last time Sunderland actually won a league game at Arsenal was in November 1983, and number one was... Never going to give you up. No. Which? Never going to give you up. Not the Barry White, no. Rick Astley. Oh, right. Was that then? It wasn't number one anyway. That's surely later.

20:29I was just guessing an old song. 87, I'd say, they're never going to give you up. Dan? Wake me up before you go, go. I think that's much more of its time, but it's not that. Dan, could you have a clue or would you like me just to move on, for goodness sake? It's an American artiste. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Still going. Recently played Hyde Park. Woman? Man. this was I think his biggest hit statistically but he's had a long career Paul Simon no used to be a boxer and his face bears the scars Paul Simon kind of wrote I wonder if you wrote the boxer about this artist Springsteen no Springsteen was never a boxer he was a mechanic the two options no really Billy Joel used to be a boxer.

21:23Did he? Did you not know that? No, I didn't. Yeah, a bit of joy with Uptown Girl, his cover of Westlife's famous... It used to confuse me because I didn't realise that Americans' downtown was like the main bit, so it didn't make sense. Where would downtown be for you? Where all the lights are bright? Yeah. Yeah, but like downtown sounds like you're going out of the main bit of the suburbs. Do you think so? I think so. No, I'm going downtown. I'm going down to the centre of the town. As James James Morrison, Morrison-Whetherby-Georges-Dupree famously once did. I actually got that reference. First one today.

21:57OK. Sorry, let's then, we'll move on. That is Arsenal-Sunderland, which we seem confident about Arsenal's chances in, although you never know. You simply don't. You simply don't. But other games that we really don't know about will be coming up next, starting with Man Utd Spurs.

22:22This is the Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. The Athletic is the only place you can read articles by Daniel Taylor, Amy Lawrence, Phil Hay, James Pearce, Oli Kay and the very best football writers around. Alright that top five race, we mentioned Liverpool's task to beat Man City. Chelsea in fifth spot, just above Liverpool we're going to Wolves. Villa, if Duncan's including them they're five clear of fourth place Man United in third but not in the greatest run of form they're at Bournemouth and Man United themselves will be hosting Tottenham Dan Hello Nothing to worry about here from Spurs' point of view because Spurs beat Man United not once, not twice but four times last season Yes, that was very much a strength of Postercoglu Spurs they didn't beat many teams but they had the United's number well obviously feels very different this time there's two new managers in place two pretty different setups I think I mean from a Spurs point of view I think they're still bad and dysfunctional but I don't think they are in the same way they were probably last time I was on this pod or a month or so ago what's got better well they were just really stodgy and struggling to create anything and actually now they are creating chances Solanke's come back he's pressing from the front.

23:40He obviously scored that brilliant goal against City. And he's made a big difference. And behind him, Zevi Simons is playing really well. Odderbeer's playing well. And they look like more of a threat going forward. But it's defensively where strangely they've got their best players in Romero and van der Ven. Although Romero presumably... Well, he's going to play. Oh, yeah? Despite criticising the club again. Sorry, I thought he got injured or something last year. He came off ill against City, but I think he'll play. And then he did this Instagram post where he said it was a disgrace. Disgrace, yeah.

24:12He said it was a disgrace that there were only 11 players available for the game against Man City, is that right? Yes. And he posted that straight after the transfer deadline had closed. That's right. Don't worry about Aston Villa's title win, then he was 14 players all season. He would be disgusted. Right. Yeah, we had a lot of debate. Pretty much everyone in the company seemed to chip into this debate as to whether he was directly criticising the ownership or whether this was a translation from the Spanish, disgracia, which means unfortunate. Indeed, sir. And given the timing of it, given that he posted it just after the deadline about a match that had taken place the previous evening, I was pretty confident that he knew what he was doing and it was a deliberate pop at the club.

24:55But there was, I think, a degree of doubt. Also not the first time he's... Yes, he's very much in character. Yeah. OK, well, he should be featuring that notwithstanding, I mean, as should Solanke, whose return has made such a difference and who's got such a terrific record against Man United. He's scored five goals in his last five meetings with that side. This improvement in Spurs, do you feel that's because of Solanke's return or a bit of pride that the players have discovered in the big fixtures, a bit like Sundays, or has Thomas Frank in any way adjusted or loosened up? A little bit of all of the above, I think.

25:29Frank has found a system that works quite well with two number 10s, with Odderbeer and Xavier Simons, that's actually coincided with Heitinger coming in as his assistant. Some people have suggested that maybe Heitinger's tweaked a few things tactically or suggested to Frank, we could do this or that. Players have obviously come back, Solanke being the main one, although they've lost a lot of other players to injury. But they're still dysfunctional in other ways. They should be a lot more solid than they are. That was what Frank was really brought in to make them, more pragmatic and hard to beat.

26:01and they're still not hard to beat. So, yeah, I mean, I don't have a huge amount of optimism about them going to Old Trafford against the United side who've obviously got their tails up under Carrick and, you know, feels very new manager bouncy, doesn't it? He's got them playing kind of sensibly and with a bit of panache. So I think it's going to be a tough game, I suppose. Carrick up against his former club here, looking to make it four wins out of four. Not sure how many managers have done that before for United in their first four games? Guessing not many. Just a new manager bounce, Jack, or have they hit the real deal with Michael?

26:40We can wait and see. I will not pass judgment on that just yet, but I have been impressed. Against Fulham, I suppose what you can say for him is that he's ticked different boxes in the first game. Obviously, winning a derby is one thing. Knocking Arsenal off their kind of rhythm. Perch. not quite I avoided the word perch there but like knocking Arsenal out of their momentum and against Fulham doing it a different way kind of the Fergie time way which is also of course a strand of Manchester United folklore and I don't think will have harmed his case at all even though they did let a lead slip I thought they were they were less fluent against Fulham but they did find a way and yeah I have been just really impressed by the way that so many players look more comfortable more confident uh Lissandra Martinez looks really good in the back four and seems to be playing like one killer pass every game whereas previously United's defense um seemed unable to pass to anyone other than the wing back so then pass it back to them you know we all watched that for 18 months and I think anything that's slightly different to that has been really welcome.

27:58And I mean, against Fulham, I think Matias Kunja coming in for Patrick Dorgue actually strengthens them. Dorgue has a lot of kind of running power, but Kunja is a better player. And I think this will be a tough game against Tottenham, but I think there's no reason to think they can't continue their upward momentum. OK. Would it be a tough game, do you think, Duncan? Yeah, I think United will win, to be honest. I think they can probably target second place. on current. Really? Current momentum. They obviously don't have any cup games at all. And the fabled I'll give Ruben Amarim time on the training pitch.

28:33I think that will actually help Michael Carrick. He is actually using it quite well. So they are as many points behind Man City as Man City are behind Arsenal. So yeah, eminently doable. Yeah, and I think obviously Bruno Fernandes, everyone's talking about whether he can finally shatter the unbreakable Premier League assist record. So 22 the mark? 20 20's the mark Thierry Henry in 2003-2004 and then De Bruyne equalled it bizarrely Mesut Ozil had like 17 after or 15 after not many games and still didn't manage to do it but what's Fernandes on? he's on 12 so 8 I'm thinking yeah well 9 9 to break it but I mean at the current rate he just looks probably the best player in the league at the moment so yeah it's going to be really tough for Spurs I mean I guess 12-30 kick-offs can sometimes be a little bit sluggish to start with.

29:24Right. But yeah, this feels like a really good weekend of Premier League action. This should start it off very nicely. Saturday afternoon features two more sides chasing top five. Villa, who are currently third, will be down at Bournemouth. So that's a Basque High School alumni assemble affair with the Raiola against Emery. Villa, who are 4-0 winners over the Cherries at Villa Park in November. Chelsea, meanwhile, currently fifth, are at bottom of the table. Wolves, who had a busy day on Monday, bringing in... Is it Angel Gomez, Jack, or Angel Gomez? I say Angel, but you shouldn't take that as gospel.

30:05England midfielder, of course, on loan from Marseille. Also, they've acquired the services of Southampton striker Adam Armstrong. Wolves currently flash after pocketing 48 million for Strand-Larsen in a move dubbed Strand-Larseny. Strand-Larseny by one outlet. Yes, so it's Wolves, Chelsea and Bournemouth Villa. Thoughts on any of that, Dan? Well, Wolves had turned a bit of a corner and picked up a bit of momentum. I think they went five unbeaten and then lost 2-0 to City and 2-0 to Bournemouth. So their momentum's kind of been stopped in their tracks. So I don't see them getting a result against Chelsea.

30:51I think Chelsea will have too much. And as Duncan pointed out, Rosinha's record is actually pretty strong in the league. He's won all the games, only lost in the League Cup. And Chelsea's record away at Molyneux is great as well. Listen to this. Early this season, they went there and won 4-3. But last season in the league, they went there and won 6-2. Of course, that was before the arrival of Wolves' new additions, which mean the Wolves now have four players in their squad with a surname Gomez. Bill Edgar at the time is pointing out there's only ever been one instance of an English league club fielding four players with the same surname in it.

31:28Smith? No, it was Jones, actually. It was Jones. As you know, it was Cru Alexander in 1960. I mean, four players named Jones in one team. When I read that, I was reminded of the Sentimenti brothers in Italy. And Sentimenti 4 is the famous one. Because in Italy, if you're a series of brothers, they just give you a Roman numeral at the end. But there were nine Sentimenti brothers. This, I think, is back in the 1940s. Five of them became professional footballers and fully three of them featured for Lazio. So, yeah, the Sentimentis. But you've got Gomez, not related, as far as I know, and Angel, sorry, João, Rodrigo and Totti, Totti Gomez.

32:10But, yeah. George Mendes is doing a cracking job. isn't it? As are the various misses, go misses. Very good. Anyway, that's Wolves-Chelsea. What about Bournemouth-Villa then, eh Jack? Villa are confusing me a bit at the moment. Oh yeah. I, despite being a football journalist, I don't follow the transfer window with particular gusto. And I have to say I was stunned when I saw Leon Bailey coming on for Aston Villa at the weekend. Right. It completely passed me by. I think he was on loan at Roma. Yes. they're attacking reshuffle I'm not sure going back to these guys like Bailey, Tammy Abraham's back I don't know whether they had control over Doniel Marlon leaving but I would rather have Marlon there than Leon Bailey probably Ollie Watkins missed the defeat against Brentford and I think he should be still first choice over Abraham I think Abraham is a good squad option but I would be reticent to have him as my kind of title race hit man as it were although to be fair to them we did say probably you know two months ago when they had a wobble there was a lot of is Villa's title push over and they roared back into it so I I would not be ruling them out I think Emery is a fantastic manager but yeah the kind of the transfer window I don't think was especially uh positive for them right the kind of nature of their business model is that they have to keep churning players because they're I think their wage to turnover ratio is by far the highest in the Premier League is 90 something percent so they have to keep trying to make small profits on people like Donya Marlon and then bringing in someone like Abraham and you kind of wonder whether that level of sort of low level consistent churn is actually going to catch up with them at some point but then as Jack says Emery is just a brilliant coach he seems to improve every player he has and I think there was some mad stat during the round that they could almost field a Dean Smith era team now.

34:13Could have left back short, basically. Right. He's got a lot of the same players that were floundering kind of at the bottom of the table. And he's turned them into, you know, from a bottom three team to a top three team, which really speaks to what a great coach he is. That is extraordinary, isn't it? Eight wins in a row they had coming up to the new year. But since then, only two wins in six in the league, including the defeat at home to Brentford just last weekend. They struggled more at home recently than on the road. I think only Arsenal have won more away games than Villa this season. So I think they'll get back on track at what we used to call Dean Court.

34:48There's a good piece on the Athletics Day by Conor O 'Neill about long-range goals and whether they're sustainable. Because obviously Villa are the poster boys this season for scoring from long range. People have questioned the very soul of XG at points. But Conor kind of describes some of the intangibles. I think Villa just have a few players, like Morgan Rodgers, who are very, very good at shooting from long range. Certainly seems to. Yeah, so I think they'll still come in the top five. That's what Emery's aiming for. Okay. Next up, let's have a little look at the other games this weekend, including the Classico de Peace Pottage.

35:30You'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. Hey, Brighton Crystal Palace after last week's kind of fledgling affair with Forrest. It's the return of Palace's proper grudge derby. Neither team coming into this in what you would call good form. Since the start of December, in fact, only the bottom two in the Premier League, Wolves and Burnley, are in worse form than Brighton and Palace. Seagulls have only picked up one win in their last 11 in the Premier League.

36:05slumping from 5th at the start of December to 13th now while Crystal Palace haven't won any of the last 12 in any competitions and they are drifting down towards danger, not quite in it yet but they're 9 points above the bottom 3. Yeah, Palace feel a bit like a ticking time bomb I think. Do they? I think so. That sounds exciting. A few weeks ago we all thought Glasner would leave and his position seemed unsustainable. He'd announced he was going at the end of the season and publicly criticised the club. He seems to have patched things up with Steve Parrish and reached a kind of... Over dinner at Ham's Yard.

36:41Yes, apparently so. And reached this kind of uneasy truce. Right. I love that when people cite the restaurant, you know, Les Gargots famously back in the days of New Labour. It's great colour. I mean, that kind of detail in a long read, I think, really elevates it. I can picture that. I like that. Yeah, you want to know what they might have been eating. Nando's. Roasted eagle Right Is that on Yeah yeah yeah Probably seagull Symbolically Poached to vendor Yeah Sorry right Yeah but The question is how long That can last What do you think Dan Well I can't see it Lasting to the end of the season Given Palace's form Right And I think I mean there's a lot riding On the Australian license signing I think Because Mateta's about to have surgery Or has had surgery I'm not sure so he's going to be out plus has upset all of his teammates by precisely yeah so they've lost Gehi and they've lost Mateta so there's a lot of pressure on Stranel to come in and start scoring goals so he only scored one goal in the course of this season so far which is not great he did get I think 14 last season so is he going to be is this a signing that's going to work I don't think he's as good as Mateta I think Mateta has probably surprised people with how many goals he's scored I remember watching him in Germany previously and he was kind of a...

38:07He looked decent, but maybe not someone who had... But he'd not scored many of late, had he, Maté? No, he's... None in 12, I think, was he? Yeah, he's fallen off a bit. Well, there you go, yeah. But so maybe Strand-Larsen with two knees better than a Tessa with one. I mean, but I think probably the main issue is that Palace's creativity has been reduced. Obviously, you know, at least say, however long that was ago, two seasons ago, Eze going. And they've got players in there. You know, Jeremy Pino is a really sparky player. Right. But is, I think, more naturally a winger. Ismail Assar is quick and very good at exploiting space, but again, isn't a creative passer.

38:47So I think perhaps that is what has gone wrong. Potentially one creative arrival ended up doing a bit of a Peter Odom wingy in the shape of Dwight McNeil, who was down in London. preparing to sign on for what he and his partner, I believe, was a four-year deal to join Palace, and then it all fell through, presumably, or the suggestion is because the Mateta deal didn't go through. Strand-Larsen, that was still doable for Palace, but not the Dwight McNeil move. I think Parrish knew that Mateta's knee was dodgy. I wonder if he... Because there was a lot of negative reaction to the Strand-Larsen deal.

39:29and so there's some suggestion that he got spooked by that and that he's kind of too online and aware of what people are saying and pulled the plug on McNeil based on the kind of feedback. Ryan? I think it was a bit of a lot of people went to bed on Monday night going, I can't believe Palace are trying to buy Dwight McNeil and then woke up on Tuesday to the, you know, we're like, well, actually, that is quite upsetting for everyone involved. So I did quite a vault fast in 12 hours. When you think of the abuse... It's been really bad for Leicester recently. Nice, nice. But given everyone's reaction and the perspective that Dwight McNeil's partner has offered, actually, into what the experience is like for a player, I think we all maybe owe Peter Odom wingy a bit of an apology as well because he had mirth-poked at him relentlessly after he did his best to make that QPR deal go through.

40:26I think if you drive to the ground of a club without knowing that deal could be done, that elevates it to a new level. We may never know the exact details. Oh, Palace did get Evanguessant. What does that mean? Well, Villa signed him in the summer and Unai Emery, who we've discussed, is very good at getting players to perform above their previous level, didn't get much of a tune out of him. So I think Palace in that weird position where, as Jack was saying, they've had some amazing talents who they've sold. They've obviously had an incredible season last season where they won the FA Cup, the first major honour they've ever won.

41:04But it's very hard then to know how to play it because they can't go and compete with the really big clubs for players. The players that got them into that position look attractive to clubs, hence they get baller as they went to Arsenal, etc. So often what happens is teams end up buying players that aren't as good as the players that have left and it feels like Palace are very much in that sort of spiral at the moment. They obviously bought Brennan Johnson as well. Their business hasn't felt as good since Dougie Friedman left. Right. And they were obviously very good at finding value in the market.

41:36And Eze and Elisa were the best examples of that. Mateta was another example of that. And he left and went to Saudi Arabia, I think, last year. And it feels like their business has been a lot scattier and less canny, I think that's fair to say since Is this ticking time bomb going to explode all over the Amex this weekend Dan? You know what Brighton are like the team that I pay least attention to in the Premier League Is that fair? Can anyone tell them down to the radar? Brighton have had their own recruitment issues Obviously two summers ago they were the highest spending team on planet Earth which for someone who can remember them just about staying up at Hereford in the Football League it feels outlandish I think Brighton have got a better squad but they're just madly inconsistent they never string results together they don't even have runs of defeats it's just win, draw, loss, win so I think the fans are a bit confused they seem to just be obsessed with getting James Milner the Premier League appearance record at the moment they'll be called Barry this weekend yeah but the Brighton fans aren't happy because he keeps coming on with like 8 minutes to go the Gareth Barry super fans are equally unhappy because they're like this isn't You know, you're shattering a tentpole of Premier League history just with these random...

42:54Imagine if they meet on the beachfront at Brighton, these two factions. Well, Gareth Barrett's from Hastings, so... Good Lord. I mean, Battle of Hastings 2, too fast, too furious. Make it happen. Too fast, too many games. Not too fast, too many. Yeah, too slow, too late. Yeah. All right. That's Brighton against Crystal Palace, which Dan may not be keeping too much of an eye on. Elsewhere, you've got Newcastle-Brentford If the season started the weekend before Christmas... That's when I count it from, yep. Brentford would be where, Dan? West London second. They would be second. Second in the table behind Arsenal.

43:35And Newcastle, I can reveal, would be tenth, which isn't that bad. Mid-table. It's mid-table, isn't it? Anyway, Newcastle are hosting Brentford this weekend. And Newcastle have only won one in their last eight games in all competitions. Crikey. The thing I'm looking forward to about this game is obviously one of the stories of last weekend was Brentford and the ball out of play shenanigans at Villa Park. Oh, tell me. Well, the Villa disallowed goal for Tammy Abraham was brought back by VAR. The only other real ball out of play drama in recent Premier League history was obviously Arsenal's Newcastle scored against Arsenal a couple of seasons ago when there were three separate VAR checks.

44:16one of which was for the ball being out of play and it was deemed not out of play in that instance. It was just the artist of disgrace. Yes, back to disgrace again. So he got away with it. He meant misfortune. Everything is linked, all these little callbacks. You've got to respect the Premier League scriptwriters. So good moment has entered the English language and is now widely used. I'm in a good moment, they're in a good moment. And that comes entirely from the Latin languages, or whatever the push is. Momento bon. I wouldn't say that. They wouldn't say that. But yeah, loads of Italians coming over and saying...

44:54Was it Michael Cox that did the piece on Word of the Year in football, which I very much enjoyed? Oh, right. How things have entered the lexicon like we go again. We go again. For example. Part of the bus. Right. But I wonder to what extent disgrace might soon... Well, I think obviously it was absurd that Arteta got away with that because he knew exactly what he was doing and he was not mistranslating it. I've lived in England for a long time. A man who considered playing for England, if I recall. Well, certainly there was chat about him switching nationalities. So he knew what he was doing. I think Romero knew what he was doing.

45:29But if I was Romero being called in by Johan Langer and Vinay, that's the first thing I would say. Oh, I put it through Google Translate and that's what it came out of. What we need is some proper old-school English football men to just drop the Spanish in to get deniable plausibility. You know that famous Charlie Austin? It's a disgrace. It's a disgrace. Someone can do that on YouTube. Perhaps Conor Gallagher with his newfound Latin language skills. Anyway, Newcastle taking on Brentford, Macy, Yuan, Wissar up against the club he left in acrimonious circumstances. Also this weekend at 3 o 'clock you've got Fulham against Everton.

46:11Everton away games are tight affairs. The Trophies have scored 11 and conceded 11 in their 12 matches on the road this season. This game might also feature a debut for Loney Tyreek George who's coming from Chelsea. Elsewhere this weekend you've got the teams placing 16th to 19th all facing each other in relegation-related fixture news. So Burnley, who are 19th and got beat Monday night by Sunderland 3-0, will be hosting West Ham, who are 18th. That's a Saturday 3 o 'clock affair. And then the pair who are six above West Ham, and thus the bottom three, Leeds and Nottingham Forest, face each other at Ellen Road.

46:56Crikey. Leeds in good form, only two defeats in their last 11. Forest equally are on their best unbeaten run of the season, in the Premier League four matches so that should be a sizzler with potentially dramatic consequences should West Ham win their game away at Burnley a Claret and Blue six pointer yeah Leeds Forest feels like if you designed a Friday night game I mean if it was a championship fixture which it obviously has been many times it would also be a Friday night game what are the qualities of a Friday night game that it ticks so comprehensively Ellen Road feels like probably the most Friday night stadium in the country yeah they'll be up for that on a Friday night.

47:33Yeah. They've won all their games under the lights so far this season. Yeah. Well, that's not technically true, is it? Because you have the lights on during the winter at all points. Ah. But yeah, I see the point you're trying to make. But yeah, I think this will be a great game. You know, two big clubs in a bad way but actually maybe probably slightly better than the league table suggests. I think Leeds will fancy it. Okay. Which could leave Forrest in trouble if Burnley give three points to West Ham in a game that will be taking place the next day at 3 o 'clock. Burnley now on a winless run of 15 matches after that defeat at Sunderland on Monday.

48:13They are 11 points from safety. West Ham of Crescentio Somerville in terrific form. He scored in the last four in all competitions. I had high hopes. Well, not high hopes for Burnley. Medium hopes for Burnley at the start of the season. Did you? But they're just... Those hopes have been shattered by another cruel, cruel campaign in the toughest division in the world. What do you think, Jack? Any big drama from the relegation battle this weekend? West Ham creeping a bit closer to Forest? Yeah, I think I, I mean, West Ham are so hapless and it seems very misguided to expect them to win on any given week.

48:53But I do still think. They were on a better run of form, though. Yeah, and I just think Jared Bowen is probably one of the best players in that relegation scrap and the kind of person who can go on a run and drag them somewhere. I don't necessarily, Burnley don't have a player like that, I don't think. Forrest, touch and go. But yeah, I think West Ham will definitely make a fight of it. Well, I think Forrest's got Gibbs White, who's been really good recently. I think Leeds have got Calvert-Lewin and Brendan Aronson, bizarrely, who's turned into some sort of Superman figure. I think to Dan's point earlier, that's why Palace might be in trouble because you can see West Ham, Leeds and Forest all continuing to pick up points.

49:35And the two teams on 29 points at the moment, Crystal Palace and Spurs, I think Spurs will be fine. But Palace, yeah, as a ticking time bomb, is correct. Well, they were hiding good at Spurs earlier, but West Ham had brought in this new assistant, Paco Jemez, who I believe used to be a manager in Spain and this has coincided with them being much better. And so, again, there's seemingly value in picking a good assistant to change your fortunes. It's classic supporter, you know, fortunes improve, the recruitment team got it right, the new assistant manager, they've changed the day, the players get resting in the world.

50:16There's all these little things you can... Whereas it's all completely random. I wouldn't say completely random. It kind of is that, yeah. It's about quality on the grass. That's true as well. And Leeds having the lights on. Yeah. Well, Nuno's motivation for catching Forest, of course, doesn't need to be underlined. So that'll be an interesting narrative to follow, particularly if West Ham do get the win and Forest don't this weekend. There'll only be three points between them. Oh, I should mention that Saturday morning we'll have a brand new Totally Extra coming out, one of those kind of retro, wallow-in-a-story-from-yester-year type affairs, in which Duncan and some Leeds aficionados will be joining us to discuss Leeds living the dream, a.k.a.

51:00going from Champions League semifinals to League One in the space of about five, six years. Woof, what a tale. What a ticking time bomb that proved to be. They were the team on Football Manager 0-102. Were they? Yeah, by a long stretch. You had Michael Bridges, Mark Viduka and Alan Smith up front. It was glorious. Very good, Dan. Yeah, Kewel, Batty. Yeah, I always pick them. The light that burns twice as bright burns twice as quickly. And Leeds burns so very brightly. Under the lights at Ellen Wright. Yeah, indeed so. Anyway, well, Duncan, I'll see you for that on Friday. We'll be recording that.

51:42By the way, if you have a strong view on Leeds and you'd like us to air it in that extra, get it in by Friday morning and bosh. For now though that's it for this Totally Football Show many thank yous to Duncan, to Jack, to Dan and to let's see Jake and producer Charlie in the booth and you especially listener lovely to have you with us. Hope you'll be joining us again soon for now from all of us here. It's goodbye.

52:10You've been listening to the Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC Podcast Network. For other great podcasts just like this one including the athletic fc and our dedicated club podcasts search for the athletic in all the usual places we're also at the totally show on insta and at the totally show on youtube the totally football show is an athletic media company production

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