Derby delight for Sunderland, misery for Spurs and City & Villa keep on winning

0:00The Athletic FC

0:30and update was Saturday's Mo Salah's Big Salute. All that and more in this Totally Football Show.

0:43It's Sunday the 14th of December. Hey everyone. Hi YouTube viewer and hello to you podcast listener. Voices today will be coming from Ruben Pindar. Hello Ruben. Hello, how are you? I'm very well, how are you? Tired. Ruben's had a busy week following the Palace all the way to Dublin and then this afternoon against City at Southers Park. Also with us, Colin Miller. Hi, Colin. Hey, James. You've had a nice week? I've had a nice week. Slightly more relaxing than Ruben's multiple matches. But yeah, it's been good. A lot of football on. Excellent. One man who's seen a lot of football, as always, is Daniel Storey.

1:22Daniel, thank you for being with us this Sunday evening. Thank you for having me, James. Yeah, in fact, you, like I, have just finished watching the superest of Super Sundays, which was Brentford Leeds, which came alive a little bit at the end. No, what did you make of it? This treat of a 430 fixture? It was a nice reward for those of us who stuck with it and didn't turn over to darts or Christmas shopping online, etc. Because, yeah, it was a kind of it was a sluggish, stodgy watch until it wasn't. if that goal had been scored 50 minutes earlier, I think it would have been a brilliant game. But yeah, the last 20 minutes were pretty good.

2:03All right. If you missed it, the game featured the first Premier League goal in over four years for Jordan Henderson and the fourth Premier League goal in four matches for Dominic Cavillin. I have to say, of all the surprises this season, the revival of DCL and Daniel Farker is probably the one that's most caught me by surprise. Yeah, yeah. And Dominic Cavillin, as you said, 4-4, having had such a difficult start to the season in front of goal. He looked like his confidence was completely shot. He's had a lot of problems with injuries as well. But yeah, Leeds played very well in this game. Brentford have such a strong home record, don't they?

2:41I think Manchester City are the only team in the Premier League to win there this season. They've picked up most of their points there. So Leeds are only the third visiting team, this is from Perusa Charlie, to take anything from the GTEC this season after Man City and Chelsea. Yeah, and again, Leeds were on top in this game and Jordan Henderson gave Brentford the lead in the second half. A slight deflection on the goal, but yeah, as you said, first goal in such a long time. And I guess even signings like Jordan Henderson, who at the time of his career after struggling, obviously a little bit in Saudi and Ajax, kind of didn't feel like he would be back in the Premier League, but he fits that Brentford system very, very well.

3:19And yeah, I guess they're probably one of the, not a surprise package of the season, but I think people would have expected Brentford to struggle a lot more. Well, Matt Davis-Adams writes in, Matt who hosted so brilliantly the show just last week. Matt says, Is it still just me that thinks Brentford are in the relegation battle? Ruben, you immediately checked the table. It's so congested. It's ridiculous. We speak about that with regard to the top half in the European places a lot. But Brentford are in 14th on 20 points. They're seven points clear at the bottom three. Seven points clear. Leeds now three points clear and they're only six points off Champions League places so it's impossible to say anybody really because you would probably want to include Fulham in that conversation as well but you wouldn't necessarily want to include...

4:04I wouldn't want to, Ruben, I wouldn't want to. But I see your point. So if Brentford are in there, albeit seven points clear, level with them on points Fulham are head on goal difference and this really did catch me by surprise Bournemouth are below Brentford so if Matt's asking questions of Brentford. What must we say about Bournemouth? But all those teams are only five points, is it, behind Palace in fifth? Yeah, exactly. Six points. Palace on 26 points in fifth place now. I kind of think between the top three and kind of 13th, 14th, well, I guess 15th now, you can't really judge anyone that accurately.

4:44What are we going to talk about? I don't know. I guess one assumes that the table will shake yourself out and bigger gaps will appear but it doesn't really seem to be happening let's get Daniel's truth Daniel yeah I think with the Brentford question and indeed the clubs around them the problem is that they have to do nothing while West Ham get seven and a half points right given their goal difference so seven points plus score quite a few goals and it feels quite a long time for that to happen West Ham have got four reasonably good games coming up they play City away next weekend it just in we've seen it in recent seasons where you think can they get sucked into it and then you think actually it's taking the ones at the bottom quite a long time to pick up points West Ham obviously lost today at home they're conceding goals for fun we'll probably talk that later so I think none of those clubs are in trouble but none of them are out of trouble yet the whole of the bottom half of the Premier League is this weird like hinterland no man's land zone where you can't work out if your season's going to be good yet or not and yet we're in mid to late December right I love it Colin and just sort of circling back to the to the point specifically on Brentford and specifically their home form.

5:50I mean, the fact that they've got over two points a game at home, I think it's better to have that rather than you're in a situation where you're kind of slightly more dependent on runs of games or runs of form. If you've got just like a really solid base that you can build off, it just takes the pressure right off what you're doing away from home. But I think that they are similar to Sunderland. They're not playing as well as Sunderland. I don't think they've got as strong a team as Sunderland, but they've got that same very ingrained style of play and I think they've got full belief in Keith Andrews as well, which is obviously quite important for him as it's his first managerial job.

6:24So, so true. Mark Harris, 4544, says Andrews deserves so much credit for the job he's doing. There you go, Mark Harris. That's live because he wrote that on the YouTube thing. If you watch on YouTube, you can contribute live to the show as long as I remember to look, which is a big, big variable. The results from what was matchday 16. One game still to go. Monday night, Man United will be taking on Bournemouth, whose position there alongside your Brentfords and your Fulhams could change within 24 hours. Arsenal, anyway, stay two points clear at the top of the table from Man City, but only just.

7:01It took them a 94th-minute own goal to get them the victory against bottom of the table walls. City, meanwhile, on Sunday, won 3-0 away to Crystal Palace. with a brace from you-know-who. Aston Villa stay a point behind them after coming from behind twice to win 3-2 at West Ham. The Hammers remaining in the bottom three. The other Sunday game saw Forrest stuffing Spurs 3-0. In the big game at the Stadium of Light, Nick Voldemorti scoring in the Weir-Tie derby, but sadly in his own net. Sunderland thus with a 1-0 win against their neighbours. They are now four points and five places above the Magpies.

7:41And at the GTEC, as mentioned, it was 1-1 between Brentford and Leeds. Now, the other games on Saturday, Arsenal have already mentioned, there were only three other matches. Chelsea beating Everton 2-0 to stay fourth, with Cole Palmer back and scoring his first goal in three months. Liverpool got another victory after their triumph at San Siro. They beat Brighton 2-0, a brace from Ekitike, the second goal assisted by Mo Salah, who came off the bench early on. and Fulham were 3-2 winners at Burnley. The Clarets there were their seventh defeat in a row. That's their worst run since 1895. It's a long time ago.

8:21Yeah, in football especially. Very good. Let's start with Ruben Crystal Palace at Man City. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network.

8:54Of course it was. And yet, Ruben, for you there at Sohus Park and many watching TV, Man City taking the lead was the least thing that the game seemed to be promising. Yeah, it felt like a bit of a sucker punch. I thought Palace had very little of the ball, as you would expect in this kind of game. But that doesn't mean that they weren't threatening. You know, they created a lot of good chances in the first half. Jeremy Pino hit the bar. Potentially might have been offside anyway, but very high percentage chance there, which contributed to Palace's 2xG in the game. Matej Nunez put in a great cross.

9:32Haaland got a bit of separation from Chris Richards and the ball went in. And that's the difference in these games is the quality of player, right? And that's the same for Foden's goal from outside the box. And then the third being somewhat fortunate with the Mitchell slip, which led to the penalty as Savinha rounded Henderson. But promising performance from Palace. So frustrating result for the home team there. City will be pleased to play not at their best and remain just two points behind Arsenal. Yeah. I mean, you undersell the Foden goal a little bit because it was excellent. And City, indeed, after being the lesser side in the first half until Haaland's goal, once they got going, looked scary good?

10:14Yeah, I mean, not quite the City that one remembers from recent years when they hit that run of games. You know, when City always seemed to hit a kind of win 15 games in a row and charge to the title. they've not hit that level yet but you know I think Palace fans were relieved to see Doku not in the line-up given the Munoz injury and the kind of who would Nathaniel Klein be playing against in that position but City have been playing their wing is very narrow so Foden and Shirky kind of had a lot of joy in those pockets today City were very good in the second half but I wouldn't say scary OK Phil Foden with his sixth goal in his last four Premier League appearances Ryan Shirky with his sixth assist which means he's joint leading that category in the Premier League with Bruno Fernandes.

11:01But of course, Czierki missed a bunch of the season with injuries. So that's very impressive numbers. I thought as well that City would probably be really happy with Gigi Donnarumma's performance. People question his ability to command the box. What did you think, Daniel? Did he serve them well there? Yeah, I mean, there's always going to be, well, it's not even a question about the distribution. It's not going to be what Edison provided. You're not going to get those pinged balls over the top that sets a striker through on goal as Edison did so famously with Haaland and with Aguero before that.

11:35That's not the game. So that does sort of magnify everything else Donnarumma does because Edison wasn't perfect by any means with his shot stopping or with his decision making in the last two years at City. And Donnarumma seems to have got that stuff pretty much spot on. The kind of communication with the back line looks back. The back line itself still looks creaking to my mind. I mean, Rubens detailed it, but they could easily have been behind. They obviously conceded. They're doing a kind of will score one more than you at the moment. It's just that it happened to be today that they won 3-0 rather than 3-2.

12:08It felt pretty much like a 3-2 game watching it. So, yeah, they're not perfect by any means. But the way that Foden's finding space on the edge of the area, the way that Harland's having not many touches in the box, but almost the same amount of touches in the box with shots, it's kind of one one touch finishing and finding space for headers that seems to be back and there's this rotating cast around them whether it's Savino whether it's Shirky whether it's Dokku feeding Foden and Haaland as the kind of spine of that attack so yeah I think City are yeah we've said three times now I think this season that City are back I think they are probably back back this week because yeah winning in winning the Bernabeu was massive and following that up with their biggest away win since the opening day against Wolves.

12:53So it's entering relentless territory, I think. How did the Sohers Park fans salute to Erling Haaland and his brace? Well, when the penalty was given, which nobody argued with, there wasn't a rendition of where were you at Wembley, calling back to that baffling decision to give Omar Mahmouche the penalty in the FA Cup final, which Dean Henderson saved. Unfortunately for me and others That chant was quite quickly silenced I see, I see Well, you'll always have Wembley And you're on the road to another Potential cup final perhaps Who knows, it went well Last week away in Dublin Against Shelbourne Yeah, really promising performance there The main positive I think being That was a 3-0 wasn't it for you?

13:403-0 yeah, in the first half So some changes in the second half A couple of youngsters got a debut and Christanthus Uche signed from Getafe in the summer who had not been given much game time this season was I think now that Glasner has realised rotation is important with all of these competitions especially coming up with a League Cup game against Arsenal on the 23rd he's given players like Uche and Ketia more minutes and Uche scored his first goal for Palace against Shelbourne in Dublin and did the three fist pump thing at the end of the game for the travelling fans. So that's one positive as well.

14:18Brilliant. OK, and you've got another cup game coming up this Thursday because this caught me again. Yeah. Another of this weekend's surprises. There's Europa Conference League action on Thursday. Yeah, Coups, a Finnish team. They're not Finnish. They're 28, etc. And then Leeds away on Saturday night and then Arsenal at home, then Christmas, then Spurs. It's relentless. You love it though. Of course. Excellent. OK, lots of other teams are playing midweek in the League Cup. We'll talk about all that very, very shortly. But Villa last Thursday went to Basel. Did they go to Basel or did they put them at home?

14:53They went to Basel. Went to Basel and beat them 2-1. That was in the Europa League. And then this weekend, they went to the London Stadium and made it nine wins in a row in all competitions. Colin, you were watching this. West Ham 2, Aston Villa 3. Yeah, this was a really, really good game. I think possibly the best way of looking at it is that it was a match of sort of tangible things against intangible things, if that makes sense. So West Ham take the lead twice within the first 25 minutes. Yeah, one of which was the fastest goal of the Premier League season. Yes, Mateus Fernandes took advantage of some pretty dopey defending by Esri Conce, just caught them cold straight away.

15:36and actually you actually look at this from Arsene Villa's point of view they're missing Emi Martinez the goalkeeper and they're missing obviously Tyrone Wings is still out Paul Torres is out too so there's been a little bit of rotation there and West Ham you look at the table and you kind of think oh yeah West Ham are really struggling the last couple of results they haven't been struggling too badly they got results obviously at Bournemouth at Man United and at Brighton problem being that those are just draws rather than wins but they look quite good in this game I think Freddie Potts and Magasa in central midfield give them a much nicer balance of play.

16:07It looks like they've got a semblance of control of games, which they maybe didn't have in the past. West Ham's problem really is the speed of play at which they're playing at. And the only one player that kind of elevates that is Jared Bowen, who again was really, really good in this game. It was him that got the second goal. He also had another goal later on in the match, narrowly ruled out for offside, and that was a 2-2. What I meant by tangibles against intangibles is that Aston Villa's XG has been this sort of running theme throughout the season of they're scoring a lot of goals from outside the box.

16:37They're not creating a whole lot of chances. That was a little bit different against Arsenal last week, but it converted to type in this game. So West Ham's XG was double that at Villas, but it's only 0.65. Really? So the fact that they scored three goals out of that shows you, first of all, the quality of the goals, but also it shows you the intangibles of... Aston Villa have a lot of leadership in that team and they've got players who step up in these games, like Morgan Rodgers did again. His two goals were decisive here. and West Ham don't have those leaders. West Ham, I think, struggle whenever they have some sort of good play or are at a good point in a game, they don't know how to see it through.

17:16That was the case at Bournemouth when they threw away a two-goal lead. They obviously conceded the last-minute goal at Brighton as well. They had the lead twice in this game and they lost, whereas Aston Villa are the opposite of that. They've now had four Premier League away games where they've conceded first and gone on to win. and even as this game went in the injury time at the end of Villa 3-2 up and you look back at last week and Villa getting a last minute winner and the crowd had all stayed to the end because they believed that their team could go on and get a positive result and could keep pushing whereas the London Stadium was half empty by the time you entered the 1991st minute so it shows you the lack of belief that there is between the two clubs and those are intangible things that you can't really measure but definitely played a part here because West Ham didn't play any worse than Villa but it never looked, even when they were two and one up and you never had any certainty or conviction that they were going to see out the game and that is the problem that Nuno has.

18:10He's got them playing slightly better but the belief still isn't there and that's what needs to come. Ten wins in their last 11 Premier League games for Villa, meanwhile. When we talked about the table at the start, Daniel, we had them in that separate bracket with Arsenal and Man City. Do they belong there? how much of a role can they play in that title race? I mean they can technically play a massive role on the basis that they've already beaten Arsenal this season so one way or another I think they'll play a massive role they're only three points off the top and they're the form team in the league so they merit inclusion in the conversation as we stand and they are also I think the most resilient team in the Premier League at the moment they had a really weird stat which Colin sort of referred to there they went almost two years Villa in which they took six points in two years from away games when they trailed.

19:02So they were really, really bad. As soon as they conceded the first goal, the game was sort of over. They've done it four times since the end of October away from home. So they trailed at Tottenham and won. They trailed at Leeds and won. They trailed at Brighton and won. And they trailed twice here and won. You can only do that when you're playing Thursday night football and so your legs are a bit tired if everybody is absolutely resilient. And there are other teams in the Premier League that if their centre-back made a couple of mistakes for the goal, as Esri Conza did today, you would see everyone's head dropping and that's just not Villa at the moment.

19:34They're like, well, no, we'll make it work. We'll find a way to win and they're doing it. What do you think their level is going to be at the end of the season? I think the squad is slightly too small for a title bid. I think the first 11 is excellent and Emery is squeezing a frankly ludicrous amount out of it. If they finish in the top four and get Champions League or top five maybe and get Champions League, then that would be an astonishing season given that they lost their first five games of the season and the sporting director left and we were worried about Emery and third season fatigue, et cetera, et cetera.

20:09He's blown all of that out the water. So in a sense now, anything else is a bonus, I think. Brilliant. All right. Well done to Villa. Next up, let's get on to more of Sunday's action.

20:25This is the Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. The Athletic is the only place you can read articles by Daniel Taylor, Amy Lawrence, Phil Hay, James Pearce, Olly Kaye and the very best football writers around. Carabao Cup quarterfinals on Tuesday. Cardiff take on Chelsea. Wednesday, it's Newcastle against Fulham and Man City against Brentford. And then Ruben on the 23rd of December, is it? Yeah, there was a lot of talk about when this Arsenal versus Palace game could be played due to Champions League, Conference League and that Cups game that I mentioned. So Christmas Eve, I don't think appealed to many people.

21:04So Tuesday. Tuesday, 23rd of December, Arsenal, Crystal Palace. Oh, some interesting games in there. Cardiff, it just so happens, Daniel, that you went along to see them beat Doncaster on Saturday, Cardiff. and you described it as, what, one of the best games you've seen all season, year, ever? Ever, yeah, live, yeah. I mean, there's a double dose of recency bias there, I'm absolutely sure, but it was fantastic fair. It was the second time Cardiff have won 4-3 at home in the league this season. They are a really fun team. It was sort of piping hot nonsense from start to finish in terms of not much defending and really, really open.

21:44Cardiff won it in the 98th minute, the last kick of the game. and yeah I went because Cardiff I went to Cardiff about this time last year and they were on their way to being relegated from the championship and it was pretty horrendous lots of empty seats the owner is still there who was there then who's deeply unpopular but going down can feel quite good if it means you are top of the league they've got the third youngest squad in the country which is a huge turnaround from last season they've also got this core of six Welsh young players who just weren't anywhere near the team last year. They only had one of their top 10 starters as Welsh last year.

22:19So it does sort of feel like they're building a slightly more positive identity. And yeah, thank you because I went, I didn't really fancy the seven hour round trip drive on Saturday morning, if I was honest, and it proved at great value. Excellent. Four points clear at the top of League One at the moment. Anyway, they will be taking on Chelsea on Tuesday. So if you fancy seeing if they can notch up another 4-3, tune into that League Cup quarterfinals Chelsea of course were in action on Saturday we'll get on to that and the other Saturday games later on but next up let's hear about the eagerly awaited Weirthine derby which took place Sunday lunchtime Sunderland taking on Newcastle beating them 1-0 Michael Walker of The Athletic was there and on his way back to his car gave us this

23:10Michael freshly out of the Stadium of Light what kind of an occasion was that to experience? That was quite a big, noisy occasion, as you would expect. Colourful, loud. It was a very good tribute to Gary Rowell at kickoff, which the Newcastle fans joined in. And that was all very good and sort of promising. And then the football started. And it may not have been spectacular to watch, if you were not involved in it. It did feature a spectacular own goal, though. It did, yeah. Really unusual. Yeah, and I mean, he'll receive a lot of stick, won't he, Vultemada? And I feel a bit, I personally feel a bit of sympathy for him because he may not be the striker that is required on a day like today.

24:06Whereas Broby, you know, muscled his way through the game for Sunderland up front. but Volta Madda isn't that kind of you know, he isn't even a number nine really expecting him to do that job I don't know if that's fair on him but that's the player Newcastle have bought I don't think he's bought to play in huge North East derbies if you know what I mean stylistically The game wasn't the most sparkling only three shots on target in the entire match only one for the winning team Sunderland and it wasn't even the goal that they scored not that their fans will care at all Newcastle fans, though, already this has added to their sense of unhappiness about the defensive attitude that their team often exhibits.

24:48What did you make of the Magpies' performance? I was surprised at how limited it was in ambition, really. They didn't pressurise Sunderland in the way that you sort of are used to an Eddie Howe team. That kind of high-intensity trademark of Newcastle under Howe. There just wasn't that. I'm not saying that's easy in an environment like today. And Sunderland may not have been great in their passing and everything else. They've certainly played a lot better this season. But they were intense and they won the game in that respect. Newcastle just didn't provide enough. Robin Roos barely did anything, as he said afterwards.

25:34That's not great if you're Newcastle. Right. and not great for Newcastle fans in the fixture they most probably would have wanted some more attacking intent in. As for Sunderland, here we are, what, 16 rounds in and they show no signs at all of going away quietly. No, no, I mean, and this has been a big month. December was always going to be a tricky month and now six players go to AFCON. So they will lose someone like Siddiqui who got better as the game wore on, I think, today. But what they have done is that, They've got a point at Liverpool. They've lost at Man City, but they've beaten Newcastle.

26:10They go to Brighton on Saturday, which is an opportunity, and then they have Leeds at home after Christmas. So the December that could have been really, really tricky for them is working out okay. But then they've acquired good players, and someone like Xhaka was just really composed today in the midst of it all. Magnificent. Michael, thank you so much for that. And we look forward to catching up with you soon. I hope you have a happy Christmas if we don't speak before. And to you, and to you. Thanks very much.

26:46Daniel, did you see this game at all in amongst your forest viewing? Yeah, I did, yeah. I mean, you almost didn't need to from a Newcastle perspective because Eddie Howe has done fantastic work there, but not just the away record in the Premier League, but the lack of intensity and attacking creativity away from home. Eddie Howe, after the game, said, well, we're really disappointed and we're quite surprised that we showed so little in the first 60 minutes, at which point all the replies say, well, you're the only one because all season that's been the issue, that Newcastle have struggled to kind of gain any momentum.

27:23They look like a team that, it looks to me like a team that's got five or six new players in it. And yet today, Malik Tior was new, but he's slotted in excellently. And Anthony Ilanga was new, and he hasn't slotted in excellently. Volta Marder's also new, but not getting any service whatsoever. He's just basically a passenger in the game, bar, we should say, one fantastic flying header. Right. On the subject that Thomas Callen is saying on the YouTube, did Volta Marder think it was still the first half? I mean, it's the most convincing explanation I've seen so far. Great header. It's such a good header.

27:55Just, yeah, changes in the wrong end. I mean, I'm not saying this is Eddie Howe's sacking season and there are plenty of managers above him in that race, but he's just been given a new sporting director in Ross Wilson who is pretty close with Eddie, which indicates that he will have some say on transfers, which is a risk now, I think. They've got David Hopkinson, who's the new kind of honcho at the club, saying we want to be the best club in the world in 2030. All the things they're saying don't really marry up with how they're playing on the pitch away from home at the moment. They're still getting decent results at home, But we talked about that clutch of clubs earlier and saying, ah, Brentford, you know, in it.

28:33I mean, Newcastle only got 22 points and we're nearly halfway through the season. For a team that is playing Champions League football and had a lot of money spent on it in the summer, I know that Riss has not played much. I know that losing Izak was a thing, but it's been really, really poor and he's going to have to sort it soon because you're just finally seeing the first kind of murmurs, not murmurs, but sort of whispers of sort of, is Eddie Howe losing the trick here? Right, and particularly in a fixture like this where you need the team to, where it counts almost double, if not more. As you say, Newcastle with 22 points as it stands and fully four points above them and five places better off.

29:11Sunderland, who once again deserve so much praise, Colin, unless you were going to say something on Newcastle. Well, no, no, absolutely. Sunderland do deserve a lot of praise. and their record in this fixture in the Premier League, which now dates back to 2011, the last 10 games they've played each other. Obviously, there's been seasons when Newcastle have been in the division below and Sunderland in the Premier League and vice versa. So it hasn't been every year. There hasn't been that regularity. But Sunderland have won seven of the last 10 league meetings and they're unbeaten through that run.

29:41Obviously, Newcastle had the BFA Cup third round to win a couple of seasons back. But that run includes Sunderland managers, including Martin O 'Neill, Paulo Ducano, Gus Poiet, Dick Advocat, Sam Allardyce. It is quite extraordinary when you look at it, the stranglehold that Sunderland have had in this particular fixture. And this is actually one of the things that I've been thinking about going into this game, was that the Premier League has a lot of good things about it, but it doesn't have a lot of regional derbies or sort of derbies outside of London, Liverpool and Manchester. because a lot of the teams have sort of been up and down.

30:19So obviously this game hasn't really been a feature in the league for a decade. You've also got Villa Birmingham, Southampton Portsmouth, West Bromwolves, Norwich Shipswich. There's a couple of others that are like really good games that we haven't. Forrest would be Derby, would it? Yeah, Forrest Derby or Forrest Sheffield United. Right. And obviously the Sheffield Derby as well. Even Leeds not being in the league for quite a few years of that as well. So it's really good to have these fixtures back. And I think this was such a typical Derby game, in the sense that it's so frenetic and it's really kind of good to watch, albeit not a good game.

30:53You enjoy it for all those different reasons. But I think, obviously, we said so much on Sunderland and how much praise they deserve. And of course they do. And it's such a refreshing, a breath of fresh air, I suppose, is the best way of putting it for the Premier League. Or a breeze of fresh air, you might say. Yeah, very much. And Newcastle's signings this summer where obviously Juan Luis has been already injured we've said about that. Anthony Alanga, who they spent upwards of 50 million on from Forrest, he's had 23 games, zero goals, one assist. I was going to mention Alanga when Daniel mentioned him.

31:30He's only completed 90 minutes twice this season. And I'm surprised he hasn't been a bigger feature for them or like just played better because to replace kind of Murphy-ish, well, that's the intention, right? Replace Murphy on the right wing at a bit more quality a year or so after Almiron moved on, maybe six months, with Valtemar playing more of the kind of like Harry Kane, drop deep, play your fast wingers in behind role. Do you know why, do you have an idea why Alanga hasn't been so good? I think he was the wrong signing for the style. I think he was absolutely fantastic. He's a brilliant, brilliant winger when he's running into space.

32:06I don't think he's a brilliant winger when he's running at a man. I think the tendency is to stop and play the ball back and then try and get in behind again. He reminds me a lot. He's a different style in that he's more paced than skill. But he reminds me of when Jadon Sancho came to Manchester United and he was looking for those same runs he was making in the Bundesliga. It was like, I know what I do here. I give it to you and then I go behind and I run. Alanga at Forest was, we're going to soak up pressure, soak up pressure, and then we're going to hit you on the break and I'm going to be the last man running in behind.

32:36He scored two goals last season, one against Spurs and one against Manchester United at the City ground that were exactly that. He was through on goal from 60 yards out and then no one stopping him. I've not really seen him get that ball at Newcastle yet. I've not seen him get in behind. He just looks low on confidence as a result. The problem is you have to keep picking these players because if you don't, then you're saying, well, that£55 million has not been very well spent already. So you have to keep giving him a go. I was surprised he started today. I have to say I thought that they would bring him off the bench maybe against kind of like maybe more tired legs.

33:08And it absolutely didn't work. Like he was really, really poor again. And Howe even said it after the game. He said that we didn't get enough from our wide players. And Gordon's levels have dropped badly as well. And it all just looks a bit of a mess. Yeah, indeed. Let's talk about your lot though, Daniel, to finish off the Sunday games. Forest with a big 3-0 victory over Spurs. What a great week it's been for the Tricky Trees. Your first away win in Europe in 30 years against Utrecht. Is that right, Utrecht? Yeah, and it was a... I mean, obviously today is more important. Yeah. But this is the first time it feels like Forrest have really doubled down on Europe to Premier League again, especially a tricky European game away from home.

33:50They were absolutely magnificent. I think it's the most dominant I've seen them. On Twitter, I posted that it was maybe the most dominant since beating Brighton 7-0 last year. I actually think it was more dominant than that. Spurs had absolutely nothing in the game. Spurs were terrible. They didn't do anything right. like Brighton last year they seemed as if they'd been set up to let Forrest do exactly what they wanted to do which was press high rob them from the portal which is what they did for the first goal and then use those wingers to fly on the counter-attack but Forrest were magnificent every single player shout out to Igor Jesus who didn't score or assist today but has been one of the Premier League signings of the summer which sounds mad given he scored one league goal but his ability to hold up the ball against Christian Romero and then beat Van der Ven running down the channels was remarkable.

34:43Completely stretched the game. Elliot Anderson does what he did. Nico Williams kept Mohamed Kudus quiet. He was fantastic. We are finally seeing the Ibrahim Sangare that Forrest thought they were signing for£30m on PSV 18 months ago or whatever it was. He scored a... He hit the post, set up the first goal and then scored, well, I guess the goal of the weekend probably with the way he kind of hits across the ball from outside the area and it goes in off Ocario's post. Finally showing that form just before he hits off to AFCON. Yeah, and then last time he went to AFCON, he pretty sadly for him caught malaria and was out for quite a long time and it really slowed his development.

35:23I think that's why he struggled for a while at Forest because it took him a while to get kind of fully fit in himself again. Yeah, I wish him all the best there. I also will be cheering on all of Ivory Coast's opponents as a result. But, yeah, I don't know yet whether that was Forrest being absolutely brilliant or Spurs being absolutely awful, but I'm absolutely sure that Spurs were awful. And that was a manager getting sacked performance from Spurs. The players didn't know what they looked like. They knew what they were being told to do. The substitutions seemed bizarre. Nothing was working. So Frank brought off a full-back and two central midfielders for a full-back and two central midfielders.

36:03And lo and behold, Spurs looked absolutely identical and then conceded the third goal. Richarlison looked like he was playing in his own postcode for most of the game. Kodumwani just looks a bit broken, doesn't look like he can beat a man. Yeah, the Spurs end was basically empty before the end. And I wouldn't be surprised. I don't think they'll sack him this week because it's ahead of a massive, busy Christmas period. But if this game had happened in February, I think he'd be gone this week. There waits for Christmas Eve, probably. Thomas Frank after the game saying, there's a hurricane inside me and this is not a quick fix.

36:40Club might feel differently about that, though. I mean, they had back-to-back home wins this week. They had relatively favourable fixtures. They were home to Brentford last week and then they were home to Slavia in the Champions League. And they got their wins. And you sort of think, well, that should build some sort of confidence or it should build some sort of belief in what you're doing. And this performance and this result and all the underlying numbers and all the sort of data behind it and all the eye tests and everything else, it just showed that they had no belief in what they were doing and they had no confidence.

37:10And yes, I mean, you could argue that the goal was the result of an individual error. And then you had two kind of long range strikes, which it's not that you can't account for it, but it's not like they were getting picked apart. but as Daniel's saying, there's no attacking cohesion in this Spurs team whatsoever. And I don't want to keep going back to XG because I know that it can be something that makes you sort of misread things or look into things a little bit too much and a little bit too in detail. But Spurs have been consistently bad in this. They've posted the two worst XGs this season of any team in any individual games.

37:42That was 0.07 against Arsenal and 0.1 against Chelsea. This was 0.37, which is the 23rd lowest of any team in any game this season and they've had four of them including the top two as I said so this is a real pattern of no creativity they just don't create chances they don't have any fluidity of building the play through midfield and progressing the ball through the pitch they just don't have it and last week against Brentford and I mentioned that it was Xavi Simons who'd looked a bit out of place in the Premier League who'd looked a bit like he didn't quite adapt to that sort of intensity of play and he actually had a good game in that and then so I think well that's kind of like the blueprint but then if that doesn't happen then who is taking it on and is he going to be the guy who's doing that week in week out is that really what Tottenham and Thomas Frank are relying on and I think we have seen all season that it's just evident of some of the players body language and their actions that they just don't really seem to have any any there's no sort of managerial authority over any of it and it kind of just feels all a bit all a bit sad and it just hasn't just hasn't worked out at all Just from watching the highlights, the goals, Spurs looked so passive.

38:51It's kind of that attitude kind of, you know, I would never accuse a footballer of not caring or wanting to win, but it's kind of like a subconscious passiveness in their defending. There's nobody closing down Sangare when he scores. Archie Gray coming into central midfield seemed to be their attempt to the solution to the central progression problem that you allude to. and obviously he unfortunately gives the ball away for the first goal and they console him about that. But like you say, when they go one down, it seems that everything becomes a bit defeatist. Next weekend for Spurs, it's Liverpool at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

39:28So, yeah, we shall see where that leaves Thomas Frank Enco, assuming that he's still in charge. No suggestions on the wires that a move, a change is imminent then? I don't believe so. So Colin would know better than me. But you also think who would even come in? Well, that's a question. But not one we're going to address right now because we've got other things to get on to, like the Saturday matches next.

39:59You'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. Totally Football Show European Edition is going to be with you first thing Tuesday. Reacting to a busy weekend across the continent. All sorts of things. Loads of surprises. Do join us for that. I should mention that British football has already had its first cup final of the season. That's the Scottish League Cup final. Celtic against St Mirren, aka the Buddies. It was the 3-1 victory for St Mirren.

40:37That's their first trophy in 12 years. and a really disastrous spell continues for the brand new Celtic manager, Wilfred Nancy. Remember that Martin O 'Neill had been in charge with some brilliant results. Wilfred Nancy came in from MLS and has lost now three games out of three and shipped three goals in both of the last two games because Roma did them 3-0 midweek on Thursday. Anyway, just while we're talking about other things in the championship, Frank Lampard's Coventry are now 12 points clear of third spot so looking as locked as you can in that Madister division for an automatic promotion place this is partly because Ipswich were beaten 3-1 at Leicester did you see the Fatahou goal in that?

41:24Daniel you saw that? Yes Yes Straight to Fatahou who spotted the goalkeeper off his line he's retreating Walton Fatahou! Oh my goodness what a sensational goal from Abdul Fatah who from inside his own half of the pitch I think it was the furthest out I don't know how to phrase this without sounding clunky but the furthest out goal in championship history I think it has been recorded as How far was it? I'll check the notes very very far it was absolutely downtown he picks the ball up kind of 10 yards into his own half and in a way that now happens in the age of sweeper keepers, realises that the goalkeeper is 10 yards outside his penalty area and therefore if he gets it right, it's unsaveable.

42:13I know it seems like a slightly ambitious effort, but footballers are really good at kicking the ball a long way and straight. So if you leave 20 yards behind you for a ball to bounce, you're going to get done. There's a horrible half second in the goal where you think it's going to bounce and then go over the bar, which would just be the absolutely worst thing to happen in that scenario but it just creeps in under the bar and it's a brilliant finish. OK, there you go. That's the championship. Something that Wolves will be experiencing first hand in not too long from now unless something truly just extraordinary and almost mathematics defying happens.

42:51Wolves who notched up yet another defeat this weekend but this one was the most heartbreaking of all. They went to top of the table Arsenal and until the 94th minute looked set to add 50 % of all their points so far this season. Well, basically add a third point to their tally until a late, late goal, which we thought was Gabriel Jesus, but it was actually a Mosquera own goal. So both the Arsenal goals were own goals. What happened to the Gunners here? I mean, maybe Arsenal have had a lot of football at the minute and they ultimately win the game. this felt a lot more like the what was it the 22-23 season Arsenal whenever they had that title challenge out of nowhere and they were scoring a lot of last minute winners at home especially and it kind of felt at that time that it was very emotional and that there was a lot of sort of because it had come from nowhere it just sort of felt like it was a special moment for the club whereas this year it's different because they're obviously still winning those games but they're not doing it in this manner this is the first result really this season where they've left it so late and they've not really performed at all with a win.

44:00So it kind of feels like this season's all been about the expectation that has come with that and the control that they have in games and the squad that they have is completely different. It's a lot stronger. This was different in that they didn't manage to get a single shot on target in the opening half. But I think what was a bigger concern to supporters was the way that once they did take the lead through the first of their own goals, the way that they sat back and much as they had against Villa, which cost them the game and probably in some other games of Sunderland as well where they conceded late on they allowed their opponents to come back and get something and very nearly dropped two points that would have left them level with City and I think because you're playing Wolves who are such a low point in their season they obviously got a proper doing by Manchester United just five days earlier in this at Molineux and they approached this game differently they didn't have that high line and they made themselves really compact and Arsenal's approach to this game essentially was to get the ball wide and to cross it into the box.

44:56Now, ultimately, you know, that is a method which can be, for a team like Wolves, maybe slightly easier to defend. You'd rather be doing that than sort of vertical movement along the ground. But ultimately, both of Arsenal's goals came from that. The first one, a pretty big slice of luck, the soccer corner, which Johnson, the goalkeeper, misjudges and then points off the post and hits him on the back of the head and goes in. And then obviously the second one, another own goal by Christian Mosquera. and I mean like Arsenal I suppose they grind them down and they kept going and they did have the belief that they could get that goal and that's probably all the positives from an Arsenal point of view that you take you get the win you stay you have that cushion at the top the one other thing I mentioned quickly on Arsenal is that this now sort of is coming up to a really important run of fixtures so they've got eight league games before the end of January I'll just quickly go through them it's Everton away Brighton at home Aston Villa at home Bournemouth away Liverpool at home, Nottingham forced away, Manchester United at home and Leeds United away.

45:57Now that's interspersed with three cup competitions. Obviously talking about the Palace game and the EFL Cup, they've got an FA Cup and Champions League too. So this is a really, really busy run of fixtures, but each one of those eight matches looks very, very tricky. Very tricky because a lot of them are away from home, but also the ones that are at home are against teams who can't impose themselves at the Emirates. So this is probably a season-defining six or seven weeks, I think. I don't think at the end of this Arsenal are going to be out of a title race or anything like that. But I do think that there is a possibility that their lead could either dwindle or disappear entirely, depending obviously on other teams' form.

46:37But this sort of past couple of weeks has suggested that their control has slipped a little bit. And that's the sort of trend that you've just got to guard against and just with such a busy fixture schedule, it's difficult to then get those rotations right when they have the injuries they do have. Absolutely. And another injury added to the list with Ben White, who'd only just come back going off with what looked like a hamstring problem here. Loads of questions we could ask about Arsenal. I was going to move on to Wolves, but Daniel, did you want to... My favourite non-Forest moment of the Premier League weekend was Gabriel Jesus, who's been out a long time, and everyone thinks he's got that brilliant moment where he scored the header.

47:17And then as soon as his teammates start congratulating him, he just shouts, own goal, own goal, own goal. It's not my goal, own goal, own goal in their faces. As if like, yeah, but that's still good, Gabriel. You're still involved. You're back. And he's like, no, no, no, own goal, own goal. I just thought that's really, I don't know, it felt quite humble not to be. I think most strikes in that situation would be like, yes, I'm back, I'm involved. But he was having absolutely none of it, which I liked. Brilliant, brilliant. Not so brilliant for Paul Walls and poor old Rob Edwards. 70 minutes they held out for before that viciously in-swinging corner from Mikhail Saka put them behind the first time, and then it looked like they were going to take a point in the most improbable of places at the Emirates.

47:55Instead, they come away with their ninth straight defeat. They've never had a run that bad in the league, like ever. Two points still after 16 games. I see their executive chairman, Jeff Shee, said in an interview on Friday, I'm not an expert, said Jeff, but maybe we sold too many players in one window. It does feel like that when you can't really recognise, like they don't have household names in the XI anymore, do they? No. You couldn't use your Neveshish of this world. He also said, the supporters I speak to are very happy and supportive. And I would absolutely love to see a video of the supporters he met, having seen the protests outside Molyneux last week and having spoken to a Furniture.

48:40There might be Villa supporters to do specify, aren't there? Yeah, I was going to say, yeah. The ones with the blue shirts on are not your friends, Geoff. Yeah, well, I mean, Wolves, it's been a miserable season and wishing them the best of luck for what looks like an increasingly difficult campaign. Now, also on Saturday, all smiles for Liverpool as they defeated Brighton. It was Liverpool's second straight win after their victory over Inter in the Champions League and it featured Mo Salah back on the field after he came on as their first substitute off the bench. He assisted the second of their two goals, both scored by Ekitike.

49:19So that was all good. Salah's been such a huge story here. Should he be the big story about this game? Should it be Ekitike? Should it be the continued improvement of Wurz? What does anybody want to celebrate here? I mean, Salah will dominate the headlines given the last week. I thought he looked bright and involved and eager to impress when he came on, which would... Effective, though? Well, yeah, it would suggest there was an element of, you know, desire and maybe humility to his performance, but overhitting a pass on a counter-attack, missing the one great chance that he did have, maybe show why rotation among their attackers is not the worst idea.

49:57You know, his records speak for themselves. but it shows why maybe as he claimed he should be he shouldn't really be an automatic starter. What I noted from this game was in Liverpool starting 11 Viet starting on the left McAllister being pushed forward Jones playing Soberslai also playing on the right kind of having five nominally central players by trade forming the midfield behind Eketike. It reminded me of kind of what Emery does with Villa by playing kind of number 10s out wide and clearly it's Slott's approach to trying to stem the flow of goals that they're conceding by kind of making the middle more compact.

50:36And it seemed to work. And Eketike, of all of their attackers this season, has definitely been the most impressive in front of goal and just adaptable, you know, when he drifts out wide, when he's through the middle, scoring different types of goals. His first was excellent kind of ingenuity. So I imagine once this Salah stuff kind of settles down, then the story might turn to what do they do with Isaac? Indeed, indeed. On the subject of Salah's story settling down he was the last to leave the pitch at Anfield after the game. He walked around and applauded the four sides of the stadium and seemed to be drinking it in.

51:17I mean I wondered, I'm sure a lot of people did whether that was significant, whether it was just simply the fact that he doesn't know rather than it being a farewell, or whether he just doesn't know what his future holds. I think it is more that in the sense that what he did last week and when he chose to say that was an attempt to control the narrative after he thought that it had been wrestled away from him, so to speak, that he felt maybe powerless and then that was his power play, right? And it obviously divided opinion quite significantly and it is still the talk. Obviously, AFCON has come at a time which probably suits everyone.

51:53I think that Liverpool getting back-to-back wins this week is a massive thing for the club and obviously for Arnie Slott as well I'm not sure that they're playing particularly well I mean, look, they're playing better than they were a couple of weeks ago they have an attacking threat there is more of a semblance of being harder to play against albeit Brighton create a lot of opportunities in this match as well now obviously that's partly forced by the game state of Liverpool scoring in the first minute and Brighton then sort of having to do that. But this match really reminded me of Brighton's defeat 4-2 at Manchester United a little while ago, whereby they create a lot of chances, but the game's a bit helter-skelter and that's their sort of style of play under Fabian Hursler.

52:36Obviously, they had a 4-3 defeat against Aston Villa quite recently. It wouldn't have surprised me if this game was 4-3 as well. It was all a bit, it just was all a bit loose. There was a lot of chances being created. I thought Yacouba Minty was Brighton's best player going forward. but one of the big things was that Caro Matoma came on for the last 30 minutes I think he is an absolutely fantastic player I think probably just generally underrated just how good and how talented he is he'd been out since September with an injury so he came on for the last 30 minutes and he created I think it was two opportunities and he had a really good chance himself to just go past the post Brighton are obviously with fights Sefanos Simas who's been ruled out for the season with an ACL injury he was the guy that arrived this summer so their forward options have been depleted Danny Welbeck was on the bench for this game.

53:21But outside of Danny Welbeck, who scored seven this season, obviously Matomas by now, Zim As is out, there's not really anyone else stepping up to the plate in terms of a big goal production. And I think when you're a team like Brighton, who've got a style of play like that, which they're naturally going to concede quite a few goals, I think, that does put a lot of pressure on them to do well. But yeah, from a Liverpool point of view, look, you're just getting results. I think that you have to view this through the prism as just getting through this point of the season, not worrying too much about performances, albeit I think it is on a number of fronts kicking the can down the road, kicking the can down the road on Mohamed Salah, on Alexander Izyk.

54:00And whenever at least one of those has to come back into the starting 11 at some point, then what knock-on effect will that have? You've kind of given yourself time to find that solution, but it is already December in the season and they haven't found it yet. So I think the narratives will circle back, but I think for now you've just got to enjoy First of all, the victories. And obviously, when you've got somebody like Hugo Eketika as well, I think he has to be starting. You cannot take him in his form out of that to 11. Makes sense, doesn't it? Arne Slott, as you say, with the back-to-back victories, back-to-back clean sheets as well.

54:33David Lomax was writing in during the week and saying, if you can find time of it, I'd love to hear the totally take on whether Xavi Alonso being on the market maybe soon would shift the sands under Slott's feet at all. Ticks the ex-player loving box. and surely there's no shame in failing to tame the Real Circus Lions. Ruben, you've got... Well, it's a great idea. If only the Athletic FC's YouTube channel had covered exactly that this weekend. What did you? Yes, Saturday morning. What conclusion did you draw? Maybe. As with always. You heard it here first. But if you want to watch IO, John and JJ break that down, then head to that channel.

55:07I mean, maybe he can join another club instead, a club like, well, either Spurs or even your Chelsea's where Enzo Maresco is having a big suck after their 2-0 win on Saturday over Everton. It was their first win in five, a run that had included defeats at Leeds and in the Champions League against Atalanta. Yet to everyone's surprise, post-game Enzo plumped himself down in front of the press and said, it's been the worst 48 hours since I joined the club because people didn't support me and the team. And what I enjoyed was the fact that he didn't specify who, so everyone could just have a good old speculate about who it might be, who's the target.

55:46Daniel, what do you think? He has got the weirdest PR strategy I've ever seen for a Premier League manager, Maresca. Last season, Chelsea were doing really, really well and he was given that tee-up question about, ooh, you're in a title race. And there's obvious ways of asking that, which is like, you know, we're taking it game by game, we're in a good place, sorry, we're in a good moment. if we keep this up we'll see what happens there's no limit to our performance yada yada yada they do it all the time and he just came out and said no chance we're not good enough and Chelsea then immediately fell off a cliff and fell out of the title race that apparently they weren't even in in the first place and then again here like he's been on a bad run and he's ended that bad run this is their first win since November the 22nd and he was asked like you know why is this win important and again there's a tee-up answer which is just look everybody's been working this is proof of the hard work.

56:40This shows we're together and we're fighting. And he comes out and says, he intimates either that the fans aren't good enough and not supporting me or, and this is what I think he was doing, saying that people behind the scenes have been kind of plotting to get rid of him or thinking he might not be good enough for the job. And you might not be good enough for the job, Enzo. So focus on the stuff that's happening that you've just done really well. It's such an odd strategy. I don't get it at all. I suspect that Chelsea's hierarchy with the money spent and after the summer expected to be in a title race and expected to be competing at the top end very top end of the champions league group table and i don't think either of those things are happening so they're well within the rights to be a bit you know what's going on enzo so just control your controllables that's that's what management is all about you either in those press conferences you either play it absolutely down the middle or you use some very random weird cantona style analogy that gets everybody talking about the language you've used rather than what you actually said and he does the opposite he says things very straightly that are controversial and will be headline newsworthy and yeah I don't get it there were lots of positives you could have talked about in this game including Cole Palmer's first appearance at Stamford Bridge since the opening weekend of the season and Cole immediately back in form scoring his first goal since the one against Bayern in the Champions League three months ago also Malagusto with possibly his best game ever for Chelsea was that?

58:04Yeah I mean Malagusto scored the second it was a really nice finish and he had gone hadn't he on like a very very long run of games of outscoring a goal and then he did recently to break his dog now all of a sudden he does look like a big attacking threat and Chelsea's the style of play under Mareska is quite interesting in what he's doing with Malagusto and with Rhys James of course who's sort of excelling in that kind of midfield role isn't he and those inverted full backs the way they're playing it's quite well it's not entirely unique anymore but I think the way they're doing it and crowding certain areas at the pitch at once.

58:35It's quite interesting. It does leave them slightly open defensively and Everton did have chances in this game, but Chelsea had quite a lot more and had it not been from some very wayward finishing from Alejandro Granato, as is his, well, as is kind of baked into his style of play, I suppose, then it could have been an even more convincing victory. But they just needed to win. and I was going to say they needed the win and kind of just relieve the pressure, although Maresca kind of reapplied that pressure immediately onto himself with those comments. And it's just really quickly, it's very interesting with Maresca in the sense that he was very specifically hired by Chelsea to essentially be like, you coach the team and everything else at the club isn't really any of your concern and you can kind of be happy with that.

59:24Whereas I think whenever Maurizio Pochettino was at the club, He maybe had a little bit more of a vocality to him in terms of maybe, you know, I don't want you selling this particular player and I don't need more signings and I don't really agree entirely with your strategy. I want to have some sort of input, which I think is healthy at a club, actually. I think a head coach should have input, not a decisive say, but they should have input. Whereas I think with Mareske, it was kind of like, look, he's just going to take care of the coaching. He's a very good coach and that's all he needs to worry about.

59:53And this is the first time he has really spoken up, certainly publicly. and it just took everyone by surprise and I guess he has obviously felt pressure internally but he's not going to win that war because essentially Chelsea will see him as entirely replaceable albeit if Chelsea were to look externally they might not go for a coach who again wants to have some sort of say on how they conduct their transfer business because even when you look at players like Nonny Madweke and Nicholas Jackson and players who are part of a first team 11 and say, well, we can just we can just sell them and sign a couple of other players.

1:00:31And you just sort of coach them into the way you think that you'll get your best performance out of. But Chelsea are just such a weird club. The volume of money they spend fools you into thinking, yeah, they're a league title challenge. They have to be. They've spent so many hundreds of millions of pounds. They've got all these incredible sort of teenage prospects. And of course, they've got a very good group of core players. but it's just the way that they operate means that there's that instability to performances and that's very difficult to sustain over a season that you'll have these little bursts of good form and then they get knocked back again.

1:01:02And if you look at sort of the underlying data and all the metrics, Chelsea and Manchester United are very, very similar this season in terms of what they're producing stylistically, the chances they're creating, the chances they're conceding. They're very, very similar, yet the narratives are different because there's so much more expectation around Chelsea, whereas obviously United had an awful season. One of them just won the World Club Cup as well, which I think does shift the needle a little bit, as does the fact that one of them is up near the top of the table but not near enough as Daniel, or sorry, as you were mentioning, Colin.

1:01:37Just to move on, just because, you know, did you want to finish that off? Well, I just want to say the Chelsea and Manchester United are on the same number of points going into this particular matchday. You're kidding. Which again, just that's the thing. that you switch your expectations of what the seasons are like. Well, I stand corrected, yeah. Another one of those mad Premier League facts this season that makes you go, well, how's that happened? Well, by winning games, I guess, and we'll see if Man Utd can move past Chelsea then on Monday night against Bournemouth. Just to mention that having the worst 48 hours of his season next weekend could be David Moyes because Everton are going to be up against Arsenal.

1:02:18Not only will they be without Kinnan Dewsby Hall, who's picked up a hamstring injury, but they'll also have lost Illiman and Jai and Idrissa Gay to AFCON. After the game, Moyes said that Jack Grealish spoke to him about his hamstrings as well, so he was feeling something as well. So he's obviously going to have to be managed. He didn't play a lot of football over the last 18 months, two years. He's played a lot this season. So they are going to have to manage those. It's Tyler Dibbling and Charlie Alcaraz time because there's nobody else. 80 % of their midfield five there struggling. The three behind the striker, who actually have been Everton's brightest sparks this season with the combinations between those three.

1:02:57So, yeah, not good for Moyse. No, but then again, Wolves almost got a point. So we shall see what Everton do next weekend. The last game to mention from Rant 16 was the tea-time Saturday clash between Burnley and Fulham, which saw the Cottagers emerge 3-2 winners. Harry Wilson, yes, with another goal and two assists and looking fine. Fulham actually picking up their first win at Turf Moor since 1951. They also will be losing players to AFCON, the Nigerian trio of Basi, Uwobi and Chukwesi. Burnley, I mentioned this number before, their worst run of results in the top flight since 1895. Seven defeats in a row.

1:03:41and Ruben you were talking a little bit about Spurs players who were kind of wandering aimlessly around not showing much sign of direction you'd worry for Scott Parker's prospects based on the performance of some of his players in this It's the sort of game that as a team fighting relegation you look at as a potential place to get points and when you score twice but you still don't win those are the real sucker punch games that can kill morale So, yeah, Scott Parker will surely be under a lot of pressure. Unless Burnley kind of, I'm pretty sure under Sean Dyche a few years ago, many years ago now I imagine, they went down under Dyche, kept him anyway, went back up and were more solid once they went up.

1:04:26So with the kind of way the Premier League and the Championship are now, if you kind of accept your fate like that but kind of believe in a longer term vision, then maybe he'll stay. but I mean the performances and the results are not looking good. Indeed not. Burnley had that insane defensive record last season in the Championship but 33 conceded in 14 games against not newly promoted teams so they beat Leeds and Sunderland to nil at home but all the rest of the games they've been conceding two, two and a half goals and that's just unsustainable. The defending for these goals was honestly lamentable.

1:05:01It was so bad. It was just players not making an effort. I mean, that's what it looks like. You know, it's the sort of stuff that you just can't really defend. They're just not doing basic jobs. They're sort of just, you know, I don't know how that's happened. But yeah, Fulham's goal is probably not going to be easier all season. And Burnley are just on that sort of run. They just need points. The Daren D 'Angelo are getting caught adrift as not too far off what Wolves are at the minute. How many points are they from safety? A quick check on the table. Burnley currently six points from safety.

1:05:36Wolves, Colin, since we're here? 13? 14. 14. Well, that's quite a bit more to be far. All right, then. Well, that's how it stands with one game to go in Matchday 16. We'll be back on Thursday to preview the next weekend's action. Of course, before that, on Tuesday, there'll also be the Euro Show, bringing you up to speed on all the events around the continent. Daniel we can also look forward to your the score on the I so many thanks for taking time out from putting that together to join us this evening thank you as well Ruben and Colin Jake and producer Charlie in the booth and you listeners and viewers many thanks for choosing totally hope you'll be joining us again soon for now from all of us here it's goodbye

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