City stunned by Chelsea as Arsenal go 6 points clear. And Amorim sends a message?

0:00The Athletic FC

0:30in press conference to decipher. All that and much more in this Totally Football Show.

0:43Well, it's Sunday the 4th of January, 2026. Sat here in their jetpacks, we've got Mark Carey. Hi, Mark. Happy New Year, James. Happy New Year to you. Matt Davies-Adams is in. Good evening, James. Lovely to see you, Matt. And joining us on the big screen is Daniel Storey. Hi, Daniel. Hello, James. Hi. Daniel's been watching both West Ham and Spurs this weekend, so all side out, I imagine, Daniel. West Ham at least brought an element of fast to proceedings, but Spurs didn't even do that. George Corkin will be popping in later too to discuss a good result for Newcastle this Sunday afternoon. And I hope you're wrapped up well and toasty wherever you are, listener, as we get into what was a pretty momentous weekend of action, particularly on the Sunday.

1:29we just watched Man City won Chelsea won for example Pep Guardiola almost 10 years on the job at Man City held to a draw by Callum McFarlane who'd been in the job for a matter of hours really thoughts on the game Daniel first of all you I was really disappointed with City even though they played well which might sound a bit weird but from the moment they went 1-0 up certainly in the second half I assumed they would just shut down the game in a way that we are used to seeing them as season champions do. And yet the last 15 minutes was bizarre, really, with how easy it was for Chelsea to pass through them.

2:07And I was kind of glad that Chelsea scored the late goal because of that, because it felt like City deserved it. You know, Shirky overplaying in the final third, bringing off Rinders over him I didn't get, wasting chances on the break, just not shutting down the game in any way. And Guardiola said, we've got Rodri back, we'll be able to shut down games. This is, you know, this is, we're back, we're back, we're back. And they looked like a team that hasn't been at the top of the league before and didn't really know how to deal with a big match situation, which is ludicrous given, as you say, one of the managers is one of the winners of this generation of football.

2:41And the other one has been in a senior role for about 15 minutes. So good on Chelsea for exploiting it. I didn't think they were going to. I thought Neto kept wasting and slowing down counterattacks. Enzo Fernandes is their kind of Mr. Big moments. And he was in the right place at the right time to rightly punish City. Mac, preparation for this game for Chelsea hugely marked by the departure of their manager did they look shook in the first half and what did Callum McFarlane do to turn things around? Yeah, I mean I think to be honest more significant than the absence of Enzo Mareska from the touchline was the absence of Robert Sanchez, Wesley Fofana and Moises Caicedo now obviously McFarlane knew he wasn't going to have Caicedo to call upon in this game and you know it's an irrelevant conversation now but why Enzo Mareska picked him to play against Bournemouth when he was on the precipice of getting a suspension, I'm not too sure.

3:33But to have lost for Fana this morning and Sanchez after yesterday's training session. And it's a weird world where we're saying that Robert Sanchez is a big miss for Chelsea, but he is at the moment. So yeah, to adapt to that was particularly impressive, I thought. And I slightly disagree with Daniel that City played well. I thought they were pretty limp, to be honest, quite lethargic, almost feeling like the win was just going to come to them. I think Chelsea set up in a way that you would have expected them to, in the way that they would have done if Anza Maresca had been the coach. But the difference was early substitutions that made a difference from McFarlane in this match.

4:07Obviously brought on Andre Santos at halftime. I saw that Rhys James got man of the match, which I thought was a bit strange because I thought he really struggled in the first half, actually. But Santos really helped things in the second half. And then Liam De Lappe, albeit getting another silly booking for an act of petulance, which is something which he absolutely has to eliminate from his game, was a much better hold-up player than Joao Pedro had proved to be in the first half. And that allowed other people to come into the game. And Daniel mentions Enzo Fernandes. He is somebody who I've wondered what his best role is in the Chelsea team, but he's always best when the kind of chips are down and he's got a grudge to bear or a cause to fight for.

4:47And I thought he personified Chelsea's battling qualities. It wasn't like they were full of free-flowing football and taking the game to City. They almost doubled their XG, but they were pretty tepid around the edge of the box. Pedro Neto wasting a lot of chances in particular. But you felt from the second half onwards, really from that change at half-time, which allowed Chelsea to press a lot higher up the pitch, that they were just as, if not more likely, to get the second goal in the game they should have with that chance that Neto had had. Overall, I think they were well worth the point. Yeah, deserved point.

5:20Nice to see Shai Callum at the end sheepishly being dragged out by his players to share the applause for the travelling fans. Weird situation for him, obviously, but not as weird as having to do the press conference, I don't think, before the game, which is a real kind of hospital pass. Here you go, what are you going to do with this one? So I think he was probably quite glad to have actually had the game to focus on after all of that. And it always felt like he was going to end up being a quiz question after this game because it's going to be a one and done. But rather than who's the Premier League manager who lost his only game in charge, 6-0 to Pep Guardiola, as Chelsea have lost 6-0 at the Etihad in the not-too-distant past, he goes unbeaten against Guardiola, which not many Premier League managers could say.

6:02Indeed, and six is instead the number of points between Man City and Arsenal now. Arsenal, who were victorious on Saturday away at Bournemouth. City, meanwhile, with back-to-back draws, are now level with Villa. and have lost Josco Guardiola and Diaz as well from this game. Yeah, I mean, you'd argue that that could have been key to the reason that Chelsea scored the goal at the back post. Could that have been or would that have been cut out otherwise? Don't they do that all the time? Yes, I'm glad you brought it up because I don't know whether this one would have been statistically sort of put down as a back post goal because it ended up getting a couple of deflections or touches off the City players.

6:42But Chelsea do have a penchant for scoring back post goals this season. The context being that they've scored nine this season. The nearest in the Premier League is four back post goals from crosses. So they seem to... What does that mean, do you think? I don't know. I mean, the fact that it's goals, they're not the highest in terms of overall chances created as well. So maybe it's just that they have a disproportionate number of goals scored from the chances they've created, which maybe is a bit of a quirk at times as well. But I think as much as anything, it's sometimes from full-backs crossing conventionally like Gusto did today but sometimes players on their opposite side putting it in a bit more of an in-swinging cross and getting on the end of it but speaking about Enzo Fernandes as well he's pretty good at getting into the box to arrive late to finish off whether it's sometimes with his head or obviously this was a bit of an easy one a bit of a tap in today but getting the bodies forward once they're cutting in and swinging in seems to be something that's worked well for Chelsea So, yeah, back post chances, I looked at it a couple of weeks ago to be like, it seems disproportionately high.

7:45And then them scoring from that style of chance today only goes to strengthen that. OK. There's midweek action for both clubs, of course, because there's a full round of Premier League games. Chelsea have Fulham on Wednesday. For Man City, it's Brighton that same day. Matt, you're saying one and done for Callum McFarlane on the Chelsea bench. French media, Mark, even as we're reporting that Liam Rossegna, due to be the next Chelsea manager, is in London. We've seen pictures of him sat at an airport in France looking at the Chelsea game on his phone. You've written about his tactical approach without going too deep and giving me a headache.

8:26How well does it marry with the squad of players that he's inheriting? Broadly similar in terms of building out from the back. Mike Penders who's on loan from Chelsea is the goalkeeper really likes to push out and start from outside the penalty areas often to get involved in the build-up likes to have a lot of possession very aggressive out of possession going man for man at times they're all the things that you'd level at an Enzim Resca side the thing in the piece that I wrote about was that where typically and Matt can sort of add to this as well that where typically Chelsea fans have become a bit frustrated or had become a bit frustrated of the labored attack that Chelsea would have sometimes and was death by a thousand passes and being a bit toothless in attack at times by pinning the opposition back.

9:08Rossini likes to instill in his players when there's an opportunity to go, go and attack fast and make sure that you are exploiting the spaces that you've created rather than necessarily just slowly forcing the opposition back and trying to unpack a congested penalty area. So that will hopefully bode well from that perspective that actually there might be a little bit more excitement in the final third when that opportunity arises. Okay. Broadly similar. All right. Here's Strasbourg, who've been one of the success stories of this campaign in League, drew 1-1 on Saturday with Nice, who very much haven't been a positive bit of news.

9:44Nice, who are a resounding example of successful Ineos football management. There you go. Are you excited, Daniel, about that? Just to finish off on Chelsea, about Liam Rossegna? I mean, I wish him all the luck. His issue is that he is a standard bearer for Bluco. So if he doesn't start quickly, then he's going to have less patience than most Chelsea managers will because he's not managed at an elite club before. He's got this job via a route that... I don't know if Chelsea planned it this way. Matt might know more than me. It doesn't feel like it to me that the plan was for Resenia to come in.

10:21Certainly not yet. The idea was Maresca to see out his contract or at least see out until the end of this season, probably next season, and then see where Rossini was at or see who in Bluco's system was ready. So it's a huge ask because Chelsea are still in four competitions. There are matches of a size that Liam Rossini has never managed before, and he will be managing players of an ability and a status in the game that he's not managed before. That's the bigger question than tactics for me. I believe that he is an excellent tactician. I believe he's a good developer of young players, which will both play pretty well at Chelsea.

10:57But he represents the owners. He represents the people that are making the decision. And it's not a wholly popular decision with supporters. So therefore, your patience is inevitably reduced. I see. We shall soon be seeing how things go for whoever it is, Liam or whoever on the Chelsea bench. As I mentioned, they've got Fulham, who had a terrific result. this day, Sunday, in the Premier League with that 2-2 draw at home to Liverpool. Just to run through the other results on Matchday 20, we'll get into these matches more in depth. It all started with four games on Saturday. It was Villa Forest, the centre-fax Clasico at lunchtime.

11:36That one finished 3-1 to Villa. Arsenal winning 3-2 at Bournemouth at team time. In between, you had Brighton beating Burnley 2-0 and shocker the weekend. Wolves winning their first victory of the season, The first clean sheet, two, defeating West Ham 3-0. Wolves now just the 12 points behind Forrest and safety. Sunday, Leeds and Man United shared the points in a fiery 1-1 draw at Ellen Road. It was 1-1 for Spurs and Sunderland, two. Bullham drew 2-2, as I mentioned, with Liverpool, Harrison Reid, four. And Newcastle got a win at a clean sheet with a 2-0 victory over Crystal Palace. Brennan Johnson making his debut there for the Eagles.

12:16Finally, Brentford got only their third away win of the season by going to the Hill Dickinson and winning 4-2 against Everton. Crikey, we'll get on to lots of that next. This is the Totaly Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. Reid, Reid hits one, oh what a goal! That is extraordinary from a player who has just come on. And he's just come up with a blinder. All right, matchday 20 of the games. Fulham to Liverpool 2 was one of the Sunday afternoon affairs. Mark, you were watching this. I was. I mean, Harrison Reid, first of all. We have to start at the end, don't we?

13:03I mean, is that going to be iconic, like a Clint Dempsey against Juventus type? It may well be. I mean, it couldn't have been more in the top corner. Right. And the context of it as well was just mad. Fulham heading towards what would have been an ill-deserved defeat because frankly that Florian Verts goal looked very offside Yes, no I think so And conceding in what was it, the 94th minute to Cody Gakpo and that's surely the end of the game Liverpool have taken three points and Harrison Reid, when was the last time he scored a goal? Three years ago Three years ago Last scored a Premier League goal 8-4, 20-23 Wow And that is why, I guess, Tom Kearney was all of us at the end on the pitch.

13:45It was one of the moments of the weekend for me. Yeah, he's very, very visible, very lip-readable. Yes, what the funk was that? Indeed. It was extraordinary. It was extraordinary. So, yeah, I mean, the goal? Well, I think the context of how the goal was scored, and I would just implore anybody to just watch it, because even my description will not do it justice. But I do think the context of what you said, of Liverpool going up to 2-1 in the in the latter stages in the final minutes final seconds of the game was crucial to then how Harrison Reid scored the goal because after Gakpo had scored to make it 2-1 Honest Lot brought on Joe Gomez for a player and I forget who it was now but I'm sure while I'm talking someone might tell me but the point being that they brought in a defensive player defensive minded player when Fulham had a throw in the idea was for Joe Gomez to have the aerial strength to pack the box to deal with a long throw a set piece that Liverpool struggled with so much this season and then throw was played quite simply to Harrison Reid and there was no Liverpool player anywhere near him so I don't want to do him a disservice and say that he had all the time in the world to pick his spot because it was an unbelievable goal I still just think the context to that is that Liverpool sat off far too much when they it should have been closed down so I do think Liverpool going up to 2-1 was sort of crucial to then sitting off even in the final seconds in almost the last kick of the game but to your point I do think a draw was probably a fair result even though Liverpool did have Fulham push back for quite a lot of the game and the first shot that they had Fulham was the the goal scored by Harry Wilson however Liverpool kind of huffed and puffed but it's a bit of a theme of recent weeks it's just a little bit too stodgy in possession and in attack as well.

15:30So on balance of everything, with the excitement at the end, you probably would say that a draw is about right. It was a lovely goal from Harry Orson, wasn't it? A lovely footwork from Florian Wurt, although, as I say, it did look like he was over the line on that one. That is him scoring or assisting in three of the last four matches. Cody Gakpo then, who was ostensibly carrying the forward line in the absence of Hugo Iketike, giving Liverpool the lead in the 94th minute. When will Iketiki be back? We hear that he's got D-O-M-S, delayed onset muscle soreness. Yes, in his hamstring, I believe.

16:06For all intents and purposes, I believe he'll be back for the Arsenal game. Will he? I think it's more just that they didn't want to take any risks with that. But I do think that Gakpo kind of playing through the centre just didn't really work. It's not necessarily his game. I know he's played there in the past for Liverpool more as a kind of a false nine, tried to do a bit of a Firmino impression at times. But when he was running in behind, there was a moment in the first half where Curtis Jones played a ball through that he ran on to. And he just doesn't have the striker's instinct and you almost wouldn't expect him to do so.

16:35But there was a moment where a world-class striker would have cut across the opposition defender to make sure that they couldn't even put in a challenge. And instead kind of went more towards his left foot and it was a feeble shot. But that was one of the few times that Liverpool were looking to actually get in behind Fulham. Because they were really compact and a back five and just had a lot of the play in front of them. and Liverpool were able to just circulate it without too much penetration with their passing. The few times they did, Liverpool didn't truly make the most of it. Obviously, they scored two goals, but I think the moment they needed to do it with Gakpo, especially in the first half, to open up the game, wasn't taken.

17:10So they need Eketike back as soon as possible. OK. We'll have Chelsea on Wednesday, I think. Yeah, they've got a really good record against Chelsea, particularly at Craven Cottage. They've got a good record in general. They're unbeaten now in four games. are the Cottagers. Hey, take a fanatic writing in on our YouTube because, of course, we're live on YouTube putting this one together on a Sunday night. Take a fanatic says, I wouldn't have minded Matt's views on the Maresca exit as you'll have had many dealings with him. Yeah, you know, I actually didn't have many dealings with him. But what I would say is that I think, I think Daniel said earlier about Liam Rossini sort of ultimately being always eyed for the Chelsea role by Bluco.

17:51And I think that that is definitely the case. but I think it was just expedited by Mareska's actions. I'm fascinated to see where he goes next and how he does. I think that's one of the most interesting things in football in the next couple of years because I still can't decide whether he's really good, actually not that good, or somewhere in the middle, which is probably the answer. But that's two clubs he's left now, the two managerial jobs he's had, one where he's won the league that he was competing in, one where he's won two trophies. And the majority of neither fan base are going to particularly miss him much.

18:22I thought it was extraordinary that the rants that he went on and the things that we've all read about behind the scenes, I'm sure, came from such a position of weakness. And we'll get on to Ruben Amorim later, I'm sure. But he won one of seven Premier League games and, you know, gone from a good performance against Arsenal, swatting aside Barcelona. But the familiar failings were always when they came up against teams lower in the table. He just didn't seem to have a formula to get through them. So I thought the timing of it was really interesting from his point. Maybe he thought, well, my stock's dipping a bit here because we're not winning games.

18:51All of a sudden, I might as well get out now. Maybe it was the fact that he couldn't manage up or he didn't want to manage up. But yeah, it's strange to say that the most successful Chelsea manager of the Blue Coat era, and that is not a grand statement, but is not going to be particularly missed by anybody, I don't think, really. And you look at Andre Santos today, I think what a difference he made to Chelsea and couldn't get looking under Maresca. So yeah, all in all, he came, he won a couple of trophies. that you can decide for yourself how legitimate they are. He will get a decent job as a result.

19:25I'm not sure. I mean, Club World Cup, they had to beat serious teams to do that. I know it was in the middle of summer, but that was really impressive. They beat one serious team in it, yeah, who were knackered. And it was great. And that is a defining moment as a coach because he came up with a brilliant game plan to beat PSG and he deserves all the credit in the world for that. So, yeah, well done, Tim, for that. Absolutely. but you know as for the rest of it we'll see we'll see okay so Chelsea at the cottage on Wednesday Liam Rossini's old club of course a bit of extra narrative yeah that's nice Arsenal meanwhile will be hosting Liverpool on Thursday Daniel had you ever heard of delayed onset muscle soreness before and what do you think about Liverpool's prospects at the Emirates?

20:12I had heard of it. It's used by people that do weights in the gym, which is, I cannot stress enough, not a scene that I'm part of. They use it. Doms, it's all about the Doms. So A, yes, I'd heard of it. B, I'm going to Arsenal-Liverpool on Thursday and I cannot wait because it feels like a game. It was the last scene when Arsenal beat City 5-1 and in the second half they just dominated and they surged over and it felt like a real breakout night. Now they've got that six-point lead. I can foresee another one of those on Thursday because the way that they have dealt with the last week in reasonably difficult circumstances, both falling behind against Bournemouth where they lost last year and also the injuries they've got, is champions-esque.

20:57Arsenal have won five in a row now for the second time this season. The difference this time is that four of those wins in this run were against teams they didn't beat last season in the same fixture. So there's a kind of exercising of psychological demons there, I think. And they look like the best team in the country by a distance on the basis of this weekend and others. So, yeah, I'm really looking forward to Thursday. I think if Liverpool play as ponderously as they did against Fulham, then Arsenal will just swarm all over them. Liverpool, one of only two teams to have beaten Arsenal so far this season.

21:28Arsenal this weekend, 3-2 winners at the Vitality. after a terrible start with Gabriel passing straight to Eva Nielsen in the 10th minute, who duly converted, and then making amends shortly after. Then Declan Rice chipping in with the first league brace of his career. Of course, he got that one with those fabulous free kicks against Real Madrid in the Champions League last season. But yeah, their uncle Jeffness is extraordinary. Four straight wins against teams that they hadn't beaten last season, and that's why they are surging ahead. They're currently on the same number of points as Liverpool were this stage last season when they were good and looking to be champions in that.

22:09As for the Cherries, any consolation for them? They're about to get a visit from Tottenham. Dr Spurs, make your house call midweek. I saw them at Stamford Bridge whenever, you know, that point betwixt us. The 2-2. Which was a day, which we obviously can't remember the days of. And there were yawning gaps in their midfield but because of their absentees, I think that was sort of understandable, but they've definitely looked better in the last couple of games, I think. How Bournemouth, I mean, you spoke on the show last week, didn't you, about Antoine Semenya going and how to spend that money. My big issue with that is how do you attract players when the manager's out of contract at the end of the year and seemingly not about to sign another one?

22:47I mean, my answer to that would be sign one and put a release clause in it and don't tell anybody about it. And then maybe you'll be able to do it. But I think that's the issue that Bournemouth have got. And also it's a bit of a kind of, their season's in danger of just petering out, isn't it? They're not going to get relegated. They're not going to get much higher up the table in the form that they are at. But there are slow signs of improvement from where they've been over the last couple of months in the last two games, I'd say. Bournemouth are the Premier League's entertainers. So 60 % of their games in the league this season have had four or more goals, which is like almost 20 % more than anyone else in the league.

23:19So them playing Tottenham is very much movable force, refusal to entertain. we will find out which one wins of those two. If you can get Spurs to be involved in a game with five goals in it then Bournemouth deserve all the credit they can get. Excellent. We'll be hearing about what Spurs got up to this weekend very, very shortly as we round up more of the Sunday action in the Premier League.

23:47This 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. Over in Morocco, last 16 of the AFCON Cup of Nations is happening. Right now, indeed, it's Cameroon against South Africa, which is very much the tie of the round. The winner, I think Cameroon are up at the moment, 2-0 up at the moment. The winner is going to face Morocco, who got past Tanzania earlier on. Brahim Dears with the only goal of that game. That's his fourth of the tournament.

24:23He scored in every match. Also through to the quarterfinals are Senegal and Mali. Senegal came from behind to beat Sudan 3-1 on Saturday. Mali, meanwhile, had quite an extraordinary win against Tunisia. They went down to 10 men before the half hour and then went a goal down as well, but still managed to equalise in the dying minutes to force extra time and eventually won on penalties. They've actually drawn, so I actually called it a win, but of course going to penalties is a draw. They've drawn all four of their matches so far, this AFCON. We'll have a proper roundup in Thursday's Totally Football show.

24:59In Scotland, though, a quick nod to Danny Rawls' Rangers, who beat Celtic this weekend. 3-1, and with Celtic getting beat at Motherwell on New Year's Eve in their game in hand, that's now six defeats in eight games for Wilfred Nounsi. And it means that Rangers are now level with them, a whopping six points behind leaders' hearts. Oh, we've got Totally Football Show, European edition out, first thing on Tuesday morning. Amongst other things, we'll be talking about the Paris Derby. Finally, it's back. The 44-metre game. That's how far apart these two club stadiums are. And it's being played. That is also happening as we speak.

25:43so find out how that went and loads of other stuff as some of the European leagues get back underway in the European edition of the Totally Football Show which may have a brand new French guest on it we think anyway back to the Premier League and Sunday lunchtime it was the Derby of the Roses the car park for a coffin classico Leeds United against Man United centuries of ill will how was this one Daniel, you were watching for us. Yeah, it was kind of everything you expect in that it was pretty low on quality and high on bluster and energy and people pushing each other and shoving. The only surprising thing was that Manchester United were actually the better team in the first half, which I didn't really expect.

26:30Leeds took the lead and United then came back, which I also didn't really expect having trailed. And a game that sort of happened to an extent, it sort of petered out into a one-all draw, largely because of a distinct lack of quality. And then the narrative of the game completely shifted when Ruben Amarim pulled Nenzo Mureska by deflecting from what I think was probably a fairly creditable point for Manchester United, given the absentees and given Leeds' form. But then that in itself is a marker of diminished expectations, given that United have won eight of their 20 league games now this season and don't have European football, so don't have that excuse either.

27:09and then Amarin came out and said I am the head coach and I want to be the manager which given he was appointed as the head coach and signed as the head coach and said he was the head coach it's quite an interesting PR strategy I notice you receive selective information about everything Daniel as Amarin also told the assembled press after the 1-1 draw which saw Leeds' USMNT regular Brendan Aronson score the opening goal probably one of the most cherished goals of the season I should think Leeds United scoring against Man United, and especially because it came from an absolute howler from poor old Aidan Heaven in the Man United defence, ambling towards a ball and seeing Brendan Aronson streak past him to then put that away.

27:53And it was almost immediately afterwards, though, that Joshua Zerksay, who'd just come on, put a lovely ball through for Mateusz Kuna, and it was 1-1, and so it remained. All right, so Amrim's comments after the game, Before the game even, he informed the press that he was beginning to think that maybe he might change tactics. And the question was raised on behalf of all of us, I think, what took you so long? And Amram answered, I don't want to talk about that, which seems a strange way to address it. He's got a weird matter. What does he actually mean? What's his game plan here? He says, I'm not going to quit.

28:29I'll do my job until another guy's coming here to replace me. it's going to be like this for 18 months or until the board decide to change. That's the thing that confused me a little bit was that it feels so transactional. Normally a manager, a head coach of a club will be willing to say that I want to get this club back to where it should be, etc. And saying all the right things and not suggesting that their contract is going to end as though they are being subcontracted for a specific period of time and then they're going to leave, whatever the outcome may be. Just that comment at the end of saying that when I move on after 18 months, He feels that he's already, I mean, the results speak for themselves, etc.

29:05But he's already thinking of his exit route. He spent much of last season talking about potential. It felt like he was with one eye on the door for most of his press conferences. But that was more kind of like, oh, yeah, maybe it's me kind of thing, wasn't it? Whereas this, again, like Mareska, coming from a position of weakness, I mean, my assumption was that he wants some players. It's January and he's been told he's not going to get them. He said, I have the feeling that if we have to play the perfect 3-4-3, we need to spend a lot of money and we need time. I'm starting to understand that is not going to happen, so maybe I have to adapt.

29:38Maybe you're not familiar with Jim Ratcliffe's work, but also they did spend quite a lot of money on three attacking players in the summer. So it just feels like such an odd... This is a team that have won successive games in the Premier League once so far this season, and that was in October, that are in what feels like a race to the bottom for fifth place with Chelsea and Liverpool, hoping that will get you in the Champions League. They're the only team that don't have to worry about midweek games. They should be far and away ahead in that regard, in my opinion. And you're drawing at home to Wolves and, you know, before your next game complaining that things aren't right and you're going to leave.

30:14It just feels really strange in terms of timing. Obviously, something's going on we don't know about, but you're not going to get people onside that you want onside when you say things like this at the time that he's saying them. At least distract from another fine performance from Leeds, Daniel. Should we touch on them and their unbeaten run, which now stretches to seven games since their manager had his tactical Damascene moment? Yeah, that's their longest unbeaten run in the Premier League since November 2001, which sounds absolutely ludicrous. So again, we talked about, I think on the last show, about some of Leeds' attacking numbers were outdoing some of Bielsa's and their unbeaten runs are outdoing Bielsa as well.

30:55it works. I'm also really pleased for Brendan Aronson, who any Leeds fan will tell you is easily the most criticised Leeds player. I don't know about of all time, but certainly the Premier League era, they just didn't want him in the team for a long time. They think he kind of works really hard, but there's no end product. And I think that was probably true at the time, but now Daniel Farker's created a team where, by working hard is the whole of the truth. Aronson looks pretty good in it. He presses, he wins the ball, he tries to create. I think he sometimes almost tries to do too much. So he's the sort of lightning rod for when things aren't going well.

31:30But he's been excellent since his recall to the team. Farker, fair play, he has stuck with him despite the criticism. And as you say, that hard work and that kind of nuisance is what created the goal today. Credit Farker for his substitutions as well. I think that, you know, against Manchester United, especially with all the history of the fixture and stuff, you could have maybe wanted to accept a draw. But in the second half, he put on Joel Pirro, Lucas Mecha, Ayo Tanaka and Wilfred Nonto, all attacking minded players. And all of them did OK in trying to get a winner. I think obviously the main idea for Leeds is to be robust and physical and compete in that regard, which they did in this game and have in recent weeks.

32:11But the sort of the bravery, which I think there's been criticism among the Leeds fan base about his use of substitution, whether it's timing or selection of it. It was a pretty clear idea from him that he's going to at least try and go for it. we might not actually be successful. They got the draw, but he really went for it, which is credit to him. Excellent. Midweek, Man United will be at Burnley and Leeds will be facing Newcastle, who were also in action on Sunday, getting themselves a 2-0 win at home to Crystal Palace. How was that game? Well, the Athletics' George Corkin joined us a short time ago, in fact, just after the match, to tell us.

32:47Let's hear from him now.

32:53George, how cold was that? Freezing. Absolutely bollock freezing. How was the game? It was a slow burn. Let's put it that way. Newcastle have had to tough it out again. A pretty difficult, not particularly compelling first half, but they got stronger. You know, they made a habit this season of throwing away leads or conceding late goals, but it was a bit of the opposite today. They got better and stronger as the game went on and they needed that win today. All right. a rare clean sheet as well. In your match report, you posited the question, have Newcastle finally made their move? It would be a great time for them to be doing so with a very important January ahead.

33:33Yeah, massive. This was the first of four home games in all competitions, consecutive home games. They've got six out of the next seven, including today at St James' Park. You know, they're only a couple of points off fifth. They're back in the top half of the table. At ninth, it's been a really busy, difficult tough transitional season it was always going to be that once what happened in the summer happened in terms of all that late pretty desperate business so yeah uh if they're going to do it then it has to be now really because you know they won't get another opportunity like this you know they've they've obviously got to find a way to do it consistently away from home too but uh yeah really important that they put back-to-back premier league wins together but only the second time this season.

34:19Indeed so. The Camaro Cup semi-finals coming up as well against Manchester City. Before any of that, midweek, it is Leeds. What are your thoughts on that? Yeah, I mean, I hope and think there should be a bit of momentum behind them now. There should certainly be a bit of self-belief, a bit of confidence. You know, they have shown that they can win at Burnley. That was, you know, that was not an easy game to watch. You know, Burnley came back into that strongly, but Newcastle closed it out they closed it out again today i would like to mention it if i may bruno guimara's it was a proper kind of captain's performance from him today always running always trying pops up with a goal and i'd also like to mention lewis miley who's been filling in at right back i use the phrase filling in that it does him a huge disservice kieran trippy was on the bench today so was Tino Livramento but Lewis Miley at 19 years old he he had 100 percent ball possession today he didn't give the ball away once he he he played more passes than anybody else on the pitch and he didn't give it away once he is a phenomenal young footballer you know whether right back ends up being his position I don't know I'm sure he still sees himself as a midfield player but he's he's dug Newcastle out of a massive hole they've had a lot of injuries in defense he's just been superb.

35:36He was superb again. You know, he made Bruno's goal, but just a wonderful footballer he is. Excellent. One last word on Palace. Brennan Johnson making his debut for them. How did he do? I think he would say there's more to come. I mean, they've obviously, you know, like Newcastle it's been transitional in terms of losing a huge player in the window, and that's kind of a hole that's not being filled for them. He was busy, he was energetic. It was interesting to see him come straight into the team after joining from Spurs. And he was energetic. He wanted the ball. But yeah, they're a team who are not looking fluent at the moment.

36:15They did make life difficult for Newcastle but they didn't really look like they were able to do much else today. So you would hope from their perspective that there would be more to come from Johnson. Indeed. Well, looking forward to more to come from you, George Corkin. Hope you have a safe journey home amidst the freezing conditions. And many thanks for joining us this evening. Thank you. It's a quick journey, Ham, but it will be cold. George Fulkin. Hope that went well for him. There you go. That was Newcastle 2. Crystal Palace, nothing. Brennan Johnson, his former club Spurs, I'm moving on swiftly here because so many things happened this weekend.

36:56His former club held to a 1-1 draw by Sundler. Daniel, as I mentioned earlier, you were watching this. It was Ben Davies with his first start of the season and his first goal in two years who put Spurs ahead in what was a better first half, I'm told, from Tottenham. But oh dear, it ended in the same old-fashioned Sunderland scoring late. Brian Brobby in the 80th minute. Yeah, and with apologies to Harrison Reid and all that he did, Brobby goal is my favourite one of the weekend. It was a magnificent finish and a really good move as well. A really kind of Sunderland move in that they don't look like creating a counter-attack until they suddenly do.

37:34And that counter-attack is excellent. But, I mean, Spurs were very Thomas Frank Spurs in that, you know, as soon as I think I'm in, they reel me out. Because they were really good first half. They had all the ball. They had all the territory. They were dangerous. Richarlison was getting behind. They got over losing Mohamed Koudis early to injury. they look quite fluid for the first time that I've seen them in well basically this season and then on 70 minutes with them controlling the game Thomas Frank brings off two players to bring on Lucas Bergvau and Jao Polinia two midfielders they sit deeper invite pressure and then they just can't deal with that pressure and then are unable to switch through the gears and Sunderland look like the team most likely to win it in the final 10 minutes you mentioned Sunderland's late goals I think only one team in the Premier League has got a better goal difference from the 80th minute onwards than Sunderland which is basically the opposite of what you expect from a promoted club because normally you think that promoted clubs would sit on for points you know bigger clubs have got deeper squads they can afford to push forward later on Sunderland just the opposite they just seem to fly in the last 20 minutes of games albeit aided by Frank again you know I got a message from a Spurs fan just saying like more tactical cowardice And it does, you know, that's a big old statement, but it does feel like that.

38:50Frank must know that Spurs fans want to be entertained. So if you're controlling the game by controlling the ball, I don't get the logic of sitting deep and trying to see it out when repeatedly you've proved yourself incapable of doing that. To dare is to do. Hey, what about Mokudas going off injured inside 20 minutes when you've literally just sold Brennan Johnson, his nearest replacement, to another London club, eh? Anyway, anything else you want to add about Spurs 1, Sunderland 1, Mark? Well, I might lead a little bit on the numbers with Spurs. I mean, Daniel obviously explained it really articulately in terms of how the game panned out.

39:27I think when you just look at things purely in both boxes, yes, you control the game with possession, but just looking at it in terms of both boxes, leaning here on expected goal difference, essentially the quality of chances that you're creating and conceding added together and looked at. And I've looked at this at a per game level. Often this is a good proxy for maybe where teams should be in the league table if things sort of panned out as you would expect them to. Often the best teams are at the top, the worst teams at the bottom, so it's a good proxy for the league table. Arsenal are at the top, for example.

39:57Spurs are 16th. So this is a league table of? Of the expected goal difference per game. Spurs are 16th, which of course they're not flying in at the table either, but they're in a position. Not that far off 16th. Exactly. They're in a position that they deserve, basically, because they're not really doing enough going forward or creating enough chances, and they are conceding chances at a higher quality than you would expect for a Spurs side who are looking to improve this season on last season. So I just wanted to say about the underlying numbers match what the eyes can see, really. It doesn't look like there's too much positivity of predicting that the future of things might get better.

40:34Oh, dear. Sunderland are in eighth spot. One place ahead of them are Brentford after their remarkable 4-2 win on Sunday away at Everton. Crikey, Daniel, you had an eye on this as well. The Bees here, who are five games unbeaten themselves, turning their away form on its head with this game, in large part thanks to Igor Thiago and his remarkable hat trick. The Premier League seems to be doing a really good line over the last couple of years of strikers who are excellent at holding the ball up and therefore you think that's all they can do, but their finishing is also brilliant. So we had Chris Wood doing it.

41:09Haaland's been doing it for a while. Jean-Philippe Mateta does it. And now we add this season Igor Thiago to it, who needs two more goals to be the highest scoring Brazilian in any Premier League season. And he is absolutely fantastic at almost Haaland-esque in terms of he seems to get the ball in space and you can't work out why because he's playing as a lone striker. It shouldn't be that easy. And it's just the movement. It's exceptional, his movement. The finishes today, so for the first goal, the cross comes in. He's in between two defenders. It looks like bad defending, but you go back and watch it and his run's really smart.

41:43He slows himself down, so he arrives late. The third goal, he's played through on goal and has a long, long time to think about it and just sits Jordan Pickford down and dinks the ball over him. He is an all-round excellent striker. What Brentford have done really well recently in this march up the table is that when Thiago is on it, he scores. and when he's not quite on it, he's still keeping so many defenders busy that the likes of Keane-Louis Potter and Kevin Sharder, you know, you've got, in the last few weeks, you've got Igor Thiago scoring a hat-trick, you've got Kevin Sharder scoring a hat-trick and you've got Keane-Louis Potter scoring twice in a game.

42:19So, you know, Brentford players have scored half of all the Premier League hat-tricks this season. So everything is going right. And fair play to Keith Andrews because I think we all doubted at the start of the season because he was so inexperienced what he might be able to do. because of his inexperience. And the great irony is that he was the set-piece coach and they've been pretty awful at set-pieces, but they look really, really good in open play. They were miles better than Everton today, who are probably the epitome of the weird Premier League in that they got roundly booed by a two-thirds empty stadium today.

42:52And yet they're something like three or four points off fifth because the Premier League is absolutely bonkers and there's nothing between fourth and fifth and 13th and 14th. But yeah, Brentford were brilliant today. That's as good as an away performance I've seen this season, I think, in the Premier League from a non-elite side. OK. Igor Thiago is on 14 Premier League goals for this season. The most ever scored by a Brazilian in a Premier League campaign is 15. Only Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappé and Harry Kane have scored more goals across Europe's top five divisions than Thiago this season. Woof!

43:23I see. The Brentford thing is the thing that I've got the most wrong of the many things I've got wrong this season. But it's really interesting that, you know, not to bring it back to Chelsea, but this talk of the head coach being a kind of movable piece, being a more common thing in football these days and Brentford maybe being the example of that actually going well. And like, we're not putting all our stock in the manager who can come out and say something daft and put us all under pressure or might walk away for another job at any point because the people around them are working effectively as well, that it can just be that you can slot somebody in from an existing position within the organisation.

43:58They can take over the reins and it actually works quite well. Now, whether that's something that works better, a club of Brentford's size than it would at Manchester United or Chelsea's or whatever, I'm not sure. But it's interesting to have a positive example of that because it's always quite a negative thing that people look at, I think. So true. Mark, one last thought before we get on to the situation at the bottom and Forrest perform. Matt rushes off to get his train. Yes, very true. No, I didn't want to give myself a pat on the back because I don't want to be that guy. But I think on this show, I said, I think people slept on just how much the consistency of that for Brentford would be good.

44:30And I do think it's worth saying that Igor Thiago was injured when he was bought or shortly after he was bought. So people slept on how much of an impact he might have made because he wasn't a new signing, but he was essentially a new signing because he was coming back from injury. Kravine Kelleher has been a massive upgrading goal as well on Mark Fleck. I do think it's worth saying just how much he keeps them in games for longer as well. So really good recruitment there. Jordan Henderson, fantastic leader, etc. Everything that comes with it. I think so many people were focused or hyper-focused on Thomas Frank leaving, Christian Norgard leaving, having sort of departures.

45:04And actually, quietly, they did have some really good recruitment as well as having some good consistency. Brentford hosts Sunderland this Wednesday in a clash of surprise success story narratives. All right. We've been talking about teams having a less successful time of it. The teams down at the bottom, your Burnleys, your West Ham, your Wolves, your Forests. Next.

45:53What a week for Wolves. last Tuesday, last year in fact. They got that 1-1 at Old Trafford. Asterisk it, all you like, but still very impressive. And now, this weekend, they're going to get their first win and first clean sheet of the season. It came against West Ham Saturday afternoon. Dan, you were literally there at Molineux because you sniffed it. You smelt this in the air, didn't you? Yeah, I've seen Wolves play West Ham at home twice this season and they've scored six goals. So, yeah, I knew what I was doing for once. When I mentioned this being the first winner, the first win in the league, because they'd beaten West Ham in the League Cup.

46:35Yeah, 3-2, yeah, back in the day, in that day being 2025. Yeah, I mean, Wolves were really good in that they're playing with this, A, they're playing with this freedom that we're already down. So we might as well try and stop everybody screaming at us and try and have a little bit of fun. The chairman's obviously gone. That's helped. Rob Edwards is picking young players. The primary beneficiary is Matthias Mane, who's this teenager that they got from Rochdale when he was 16. He's only 18 now. And he was absolutely magnificent against West Ham. He just wants to get the ball and run at players. And that's what I think what home fans want to see when you're bottoming the league with three points.

47:15You might as well give it a go. But West Ham were, I mean, yeah, they were diabolical. I think they were actually worse in the second half, which is an incredible thing to think about. a team that were 3-0 down at half-time to a side with three points. But in the second half, Wolves were going to be nervy, and they were a bit nervy. West Ham had 75 % of the ball and had less XG than Wolves in the second half. They barely created a chance of note in the second half despite dominating possession, despite needing a goal. The away end, to be fair, the away end was absolutely brilliant, and I want to make that point, because there was quite a lot of good humour between the home fans and away fans about how bad West Ham were.

47:55So the main chant of the second half was West Ham are S, ole, ole from the Wolves fans in which West Ham fans just took it and sang it louder. But you can do that mid-game when you're like, this is awful. How do we distract ourselves from how awful it is? As soon as that game finishes, everybody realizes just how much trouble West Ham are in. The only ray of good news is they've got Forrest at home on Tuesday night. So they have a chance to at least, yeah, to address the issue against the team that they are most likely to finish above if they don't go down. But it sounds like Nuno's in big trouble.

48:29He deserves to be in big trouble because they were just routinely terrible. We say this a lot about teams that are performing badly and you can't really work out how they're going to create chances. That's true of West Ham. But your cast can't work out how they're trying to stop the opposition creating chances. There's just massive gaps in midfield and at full back. It's like the best way to describe it is it was like they were playing with nine men from minute nought to 90. And they were playing a team that had three points, albeit, as you say, a little bit of confidence in the Man United draw.

48:59But it was shambolic. It felt like a kind of end of days performance. And yet they are seemingly going to have a chance to remedy it. Well, we'll talk about that chance very, very shortly, but no shots on target against Wolves from West Ham. Wolves themselves, who having picked up a point against West Ham, have picked up now four from the last six. They are 12 points from safety. Were Forrest to lose against West Ham midweek, that margin could come down even further. Is there any world in which Wolves could be launching a late, late bid for salvation? I don't think so. I mean, that's hardly me putting my neck on the line by saying no.

49:40I accept that the more interesting answer is me to say yes there. But they've stopped the bleeding. And when you stop the bleeding, there is an inevitable, okay, we can actually go to watch our team play out of something other than just grim loyalty and low-key addiction because it's what we always do. You can actually go and enjoy yourself, which Saturday felt like a re-realisation of that. Like, oh, actually, going to watch your football team can be quite fun at times. and that is bigger than any survival bid now because you need to focus on that for a bit. If they win two of the next three and West Ham and or Forest continue to be goddamn awful, then maybe, but not yet.

50:18Okay. So Wolves have got, oh, Everton. Got a trip to Everton on Wednesday, but before that on Tuesday, Matt, come to you quickly because I know you're heading off in a second. Before that, it is Nottingham Forest. I was hoping I missed this bit, but yeah, sure. Against West Ham. Now, we've just heard about West Ham. Forest themselves beaten 3-1 by Aston Villa down the road on Saturday. Mark, were you actually there at this game? I was there. Oh, you were there. I'll quickly get Matt's thoughts as, you know, Forest familiar and that. What's going on with Sean Dyche and Forest? Because the honeymoon seems to have been over for a bit now.

50:56Yeah, well, this is a fourth successive defeat in the Premier League and just ridiculously passive in this game. I listened to the first half on the radio and Stuart Pearce said after five minutes on commentary, this has all the hallmarks of a 3-0 win for Aston Villa. Forrester doing absolutely nothing in this game. And he was almost right. Yeah, just you could see, chatting to Mark before we started, you could see that the game plan was to kind of let them have it in the first half. And then you can see with the last kick of it and that plan goes out the window and you wonder where Forrester going to change the game.

51:27and despite spending£200 million on players in the summer, Amari Hutchinson at a push, she's been a success. I don't think any of the rest of them have. People like Elliot Anderson seem to have progressed massively in the last few weeks and that is increasingly on Sean Dyke. She seems to be able to get the team up for the bigger games, albeit you possibly put this in that bracket. But yeah, other than that, it's been stodgy. It's been, let's put some crosses in the box when we're at home where maybe somebody will score, even though the striker's not Chris Wood and he's not that kind of player.

52:01They've looked devoid of any kind of plan B and they don't look like they've got any goals in them. They score very few goals. They've obviously lost Chris Wood. I'd be surprised if he played again this season from the mood music that's come out of that. They're going to have to scrabble around and try and find somebody in the next couple of weeks to fill that void. It's basically, let's hope that they're not as bad as West Ham for the rest of the season. And then as the goals were going in at Molyneux, I was thinking, steady on Wolves. We don't need Nuno getting sacked tonight and a bit of a new manager bounce.

52:31We need that toxicity at the London Stadium to be at its absolute peak on Tuesday night. And that gives Forrest the best chance of getting something because it's not going to be what they do in terms of being proactive in a game based on current evidence. Drops, Mike. Yeah. All right. Forrest, sorry, Nuno facing another of his former clubs, of course, on Tuesday. Just four points currently between West Ham and Forest. Forest on the right side of that dotted line. Some interesting goals in this. John McGinn with a brace. The second of which... No, the first. Which was the one that was the... The calamity.

53:10The calamity from John Victor, the Forest keeper. That was the second of John McGinn. That was the third in total. I cannot explain it. You can watch it so many times. You know, normally you can see, OK, maybe there's a miscommunication there. It was maybe something which, upon a replay, you can maybe unpack it a little bit. I can't understand what he was doing. There was absolutely no need to be that high up, to even half close down. He wasn't really tight enough to actually close down John McGinn. So he was way out of his goal. And when the ball comes flying upfield, he thinks, rather than head back, I'll go up and meet it.

53:43Yeah, and it wasn't really a truly counter-attacking pass that he would have had a chance to make in the first place. It was bonkers to kind of see live. He also pulled his calf by all intents and purposes. I think he is out for quite a while. Matt Sells is already standing by to come back in, is that right? Well, he wasn't standing by to come back in in this game. It took him nearly four minutes to get ready. But yeah, he should be the first-choice goalkeeper anyway. He was injured. John Victor played alright when Forrest beat Spurs so kept his place in the team but that's the last we'll be of seeing of him in the Premier League for some time I would have said OK Oli Watkins got his fourth goal in three matches he's somebody who's turned his form around this season hey yeah I think it's 7-7 since the start of December as well I believe but yeah seems to be a bit more full of confidence even taking on that shot from outside the box shows that he's kind of got that confidence back linking really well with Morgan Rodgers, as you'd expect.

54:43I believe they have linked up for the most goals of any pairing in the Premier League since the start of last season, if my memory serves me correctly, which just shows how strong they are as a pair. Another shot from distance, Villa, I believe it's 13 goals in the Premier League outside the box, and that's comfortably more than any other side in Europe's top five leagues in terms of shots from outside the box. And they play well. I think that as much as anything, You can look at it from a Forest perspective. I do think the low block did have merit for long periods, but then the goal from distance did kind of undo that.

55:16But Villa were really, really patient. They just kept circulating it. And there wasn't really too much frustration at Villa Park, but you could see that it was just keep going, keep going. Once they got the goal, the whole game opened up. And plus, it can happen to lose at Villa Park because let's face it, it's happened to 11 visiting teams in a row now. Matt, head off and get your train. Thank you. and thank you so much for being with us today we'll excuse you talking about brighton burnley but listener stroke viewer do stick around for that and a quick run through all the midweek fixtures lovely stuff matt davis adams brighton burnley did you see any of this daniel i watched it back this morning um yeah i mean you almost don't need to in from a burnley perspective you you can almost tell what's happened just from looking at the match stats.

56:06I thought what was really interesting is that this is the first time that Scott Parker has really kind of thrown his players under the bus. He's been talking about good attitude and good intensity and good intentions. But he just said, yeah, I didn't feel for a second we were in the game. I thought the general approach and the body language was off. I thought we were a powder puff. So he really kind of laid into them. And I think this is probably his end. I can't believe that it sounds like, according to local media, that there is more faith in him. But they've taken two points from the last 33 available, Burnley.

56:38You kind of forget that, you know, at the end of October, they had more points than they'd played games and they were nearer the top seven than the bottom three. So they had a decent start to the season and it's just completely capitulated. And I can't quite believe the extended faith in Parker to turn that around. But now he's laying into his players. I think that's probably the beginning of that end. Just to flag up from a Brighton point of view, that Pasquale Gross came on after re-signing for the Seagulls following his 18-month spell at Dortmund. And also James Milner, who turned 40 on Sunday, played, which means he's now featured in the Premier League in each of the last 25 calendar years, overtaking Ryan Giggs, who only did 24, Mark.

57:20Nice. Now, I just want to say on Brighton in general, obviously they won, having drawn against West Ham previously. They have put together a winning run of two in total this season, a back-to-back win against Forreston and Brentford but they are the epitome of an inconsistent side and if you'll indulge me I can go through just the results from start to finish no no don't do that I'll do it very very quickly how fast can you do it I'll do it as quick as I can here we go deep breath draw loss win loss draw win draw win loss win draw win win that I mentioned loss draw loss draw loss draw win There was the incident with the pigeon.

57:59Yeah, it's bonkers, though, just how little they're able to. They're not even in a bad run of form because they'll maybe draw. It's crazy just how much they can't quite get a strong run together. They're sat in 10th place, which I guess is what happens when you win, you lose, you win, you bang in the middle of the table. They, though, have a tricky match midweek as they visit the Etihad. That's on Wednesday. the midweek round round 21 begins Tuesday with that massive West Ham Nottingham Forest game which I'm guessing Daniel you're not going to go along to steering well clear of that can't be there sadly that's a shame Man City Brighton Brighton actually drew this fixture 2-2 back in March that's on Wednesday as is Crystal Palace against Aston Villa I'll be there oh yeah Glasner the Palace manager has never lost against Aston Villa I'm checking that that's right yeah in six games brilliant Fulham are up against Chelsea on Wednesday.

58:55It's Bournemouth, Spurs, Everton, Wolves, Burnley, Man United, Newcastle, Leeds and Brentford, Sunderland. And then on Thursday, Arsenal, Liverpool. On Thursday morning, we'll have our usual Totally Football show and then we'll have an extra Totally Football show on Friday, probably. I think we're doing a Friday one to cover Arsenal, Liverpool and probably all the AFCON action as well. Going to get back to you on that one, listener. And of course, there's the Euro show before any of that with you on Tuesday morning. Super. But that, I think, is probably enough from us for this evening. Many, many thanks to the departed, Matt.

59:34Mark, to you as well. Thank you. And Daniel, you too. Look forward to reading other thoughts from you in the eye. There's one other thing you want to add right now, though, isn't there? Just to say we might want to add it in, but Sky Sports Germany are reporting that Nuno's on the verge of being sacked. who's only going to get one more game, which is the Forest game, obviously. All right. I mean, I think we could have predicted that. Right. Yeah, Florian Pettenberg. Okay. I wonder why that would be coming from Germany. Is it because West Ham are going to go for a German replacement? I don't know.

1:00:04I'm probably reaching a bit here. Anyway, tell you what, though, if there's anyone who knows about that, it'll be Seb Stafford-Bloor and he'll be in our Tuesday morning Euro Roundup, if it hasn't already become news by then. Anyway, Daniel, thank you so much. Many thanks to Jake and producer Charlie in the Booth and you viewing and are watching. We'll be back with you soon for now from all of us here. It's goodbye.

1:00:53The Athletic FC.