Ekitike's Liverpool run riot + can Arsenal halt Palace's relentless attack?

0:00The Athletic FC

0:30Brentford, Man United against Bogeyside Brighton and Wolves on two points. Could they? All that and more coming up in this Totally Football Show.

0:45Thursday, 23rd of October, it's the Totally Football Show today featuring Natalie Jedder of Sky Sports. Bonjour. Bonjour of us here. Also here, Liam Tham. Good morning. Good morning to you Liam and Duncan Alexander. Hello. Hi, Duncan. You're multitasking this morning. A little bit. Got your spreadsheet out? Got many spreadsheets. Have you? What sheets are you spreading? I was spreading the Champions League projections there, but something's not working. I mean, the projections work, but something in our complicated back end isn't working. But anyway, I can reveal here that Arsenal are still favourites to win the Champions League.

1:25That needle hasn't moved despite events such as Monaco 0, Spurs 0. Champions League match day three concluded Wednesday night. A total of 71 goals across the 18 games. That's a lot. It is. It's the most in a match day since match day one in 2000. Wow. That spreadsheet does work. That spreadsheet works. Nice. Since Wikipedia was invented. Really? If you want it in those towns. Wow, that did it, didn't it? Yeah, yeah. Presumably match day one in 2000 had fewer fixtures? Yeah, this is goals per game. Oh, right. I mean, the only fair way to judge anything, really. Yeah. Liverpool had five goals per game in their match against Frankfurt.

2:05They went a goal down against Eintracht, but then turned it around for a resounding and much-needed victory. 5-1 the scoreline there. Same for Chelsea in their victory against 10-man Ajax. Three of Chelsea's five goals scored by teenagers, which is a Champions League record. FC Bayern beat Brugge 4-0. Sporting came from a goal down to beat Marseille 2-1 after Marseille went down to 10 men. While Real Madrid were 1-0 winners at home to Juventus. Monaco Spurs and Atalanta Slavia Prague both ended 0-0. And the two early games on Wednesday both ended 3-1. A win for Galatasaray at home to Bodo Glimt.

2:47And for Athletic Club against Karabag. Woof. currently on maximum points and leading the way in the Champions League after three matches are Paris Saint-Germain FC Bayern Inter Arsenal and Real Madrid on nil points none whatsoever so far and bottom of the pile are Benfica and Ajax where do you want to begin folks is it at the Deutsche Bank Stadion for Eintracht Frankfurt 1 Liverpool 5 this is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson part of the Athletic FC podcast network Just evaded Ritsu Dara and Liverpool have a counter-attack. Eketike is onside. I don't think Cockle will catch him. And Eketike scores for Liverpool.

3:32And boy, they needed that. Eketike there starting against his old club and equalising, setting Liverpool on their way after a shaky start to a 5-1 win. It's just one game, so let's not go too crazy. But clearly Liverpool are back and going to win the title and Mo Salah should be taken out back and quietly. Is that a fair reading of this game? Who was watching? Everyone was kind of watching this game, no? Yeah, I was watching it. What's your hot take? Well, the thing that was funny was the three goals that they scored, obviously coming back from one or down in the first half, didn't really have a lot to do with the system or the shape that they were playing.

4:09Oh, it's interesting. They're starting Isaac and Eketika together. Is that going to be more of a traditional kind of strike pairing? It looks a lot more fluid than that. Space for, you know, either to kind of roam out wide. but I mean the equaliser I mean it's I think the most stereotypical Bundesliga goal in terms of a way of conceding a goal I've ever seen of just you know one pass between the entire defence and then two goals from set pieces similar to I think last season when they scored twice from set pieces at Milan and I enjoyed that actually Eintracht changed the blockers on Canate and Van Dijk after Van Dijk scored the first and then Canalfa I think the striker who got put on Canate then lost track of Canate as well and an argument ensued which is a good chance to have if we didn't score enough from set pieces last season really, really good on transition but I think, yeah, it's, I don't know they're still clearly figuring out the system Yeah, Eketike, Van Dijk, Konate, Gakpo the first three of those goals in the space of nine minutes the final goal coming from Schloberslai for a resounding win and Hugo Eketike with his sixth goal in 12 matches does this mean he's going to be the starter from now on, Natalie?

5:15Well, it means that he'll probably start on the weekend because Isaac got off with kind of an injury and Arnazlott spoke about him being questioned why he doesn't play Isaac more. He needs to manage his minutes and so on. I think the idea of Isaac and Eketiki is something that we'll probably see more of, but it looked very fluid, the whole system with Wirtz on the right and Gakpo on the left and Soboslay and Curtis Jones in the middle. No Gravenberg as well. So this whole setup is a bit different from what we usually see from Liverpool. and it obviously leaves questions of would it look as fluid if Salah was playing.

6:01Salah didn't start at Istanbul as well. It's important to remember because I think there's a correlation in most people's heads of, okay, he didn't play well against Man United. And they lost in Istanbul. Yes, yes, they lost in Istanbul, yeah, and they didn't play well against Galatasaray. But, you know, when you have that many options up front, I think it's kind of natural. I'm not sure how much of a big deal we need to make of Salah starting on the bench against Eintracht Frankfurt. You know, you have your options and you will rotate. How much does this represent what Liverpool should be doing?

6:40Or is this 4-2-4 the same kind of thing that got them into trouble in recent Premier League matches? I don't know. I think it works for the opposition that they're facing, a team that aren't quite at their level, a good side. but also they're playing a back five who are going to sit in deep. So I think this is the kind of game where you can say, let's play two kind of more traditional strikers. I think Gakpo kind of becomes a third forward really and he perhaps causes a bit, not of a problem in a sense, but if you didn't have a left winger of his quality that was so good, you could say, well, maybe we could play Izak or Ekotiki off the left, but you've got kind of a, you know, that's definitely found his best role there.

7:12So I think in big games, you think you wouldn't be playing this way, especially after kind of the way they conceded that opening goal of the transition issues they've had. you've got Frimpong that can play a really attacking role from right back Kirkus can do the same off the left that maybe in a 3pm home game against a bottom half team play the system all you want because you'll probably be fine you can control the game but I don't think they're going to go to the Etihad and play the same shape and same level I like the fact you specify 3pm as well it's just that classic it's going to be one of the 10 home games that they have a season time what about the GTEC at 8 o 'clock on Saturday what do you think?

7:49I think Salah will be back in the team on Saturday. Possibly, as Natalie says, because Izak's going to be injured, I suspect. Frem Pong also out for a sustained period, it looks like. Yeah, his start's been... I mean, we see this quite a lot with players that come into the Premier League that they have very injury-hit first seasons and struggle to get up to speed. So he hasn't really made much of an impact yet. But yeah, Ekutike really, I think, has now got a chance to sort of really cement himself into the team. Didn't do himself any harm with the most... The fastest muted celebration I've ever seen last night, where he sprinted back to the halfway line, but also...

8:24He did kind of acknowledge the crowd all the way, and I think immediately after scoring. So I was a bit like, how soon do you need to have the celebration be muted? Can it look a little bit after the fact, where you then go, well, I've run all the way back. OK, yeah, now I'll acknowledge you. There'd have been some Frankfurt fans saying, he celebrated. I'm not sure. So he's running very fast. I mean, he must have been tough, because he sprinted for the goal and sprinted straight back to the halfway line. But yeah, I think we do need to catch this result in the fact that if you look, I think this was the highest combined total for a single country in a week of Champions League in terms of goals ever.

9:01For England? For England, yeah, but for any country. But obviously this is the Premier League and Spurs didn't even score. So I think the standard... I mean, I saw a tweet this morning. Someone said it's a bit strange and sad that, you know, going away to play European giants is now easier than going to play Palace and Bournemouth and things like that. So I think we do need to kind of remember the levels at the moment. And I think... I still think the Brentford game is going to be a much tougher test for Liverpool than this one. Crikey. Frankfurt continue their astonishing run of either winning 5-1 or losing 5-1 in the Champions League this season.

9:37they've had 60 goals in their 11 matches in all competitions so far this campaign. It's probably too many, isn't it? Yeah. Depends who they're for, I guess. But yeah, clearly. For the opposition on Wednesday night, we'll talk a bit more about Brentford perhaps later on. But Chelsea, also 5-1 winners on Wednesday, rather easier time they had of it. Liam, you were watching this game as Chelsea notched their fourth win in a row. but all one way after Kenneth Taylor's red. Yeah, I mean they did the thing you need to do when opposition team goes down to 10 players and that was score immediately from the very free kick.

10:17Chelsea probably need a bit more of a reputation as a set-piece team. Obviously penalties aside, part of me wondered by the time they got a second penalty if they might will out Cole Palmer even in his injured state just to take one for morale but they've been really good from attacking corners this season especially and from the wide free kick just got a big overload at the back post and then nodded it back across for Guillaume to score. So I think, you know, a really convincing performance so much so that I turned it off by about half time and started watching the Spurs game in the hope I might see some goals there.

10:50Mistake. I'm sorry for you, Leo. So you missed Tyric George's goal. Really nice move. And he, by the way, you know, is really coming into form. It's been, well, increasingly a while now since you've actually seen kind of a Chelsea Academy graduate come through and cement themselves into the first team. Really talented, can play number nine. So I think he, you know, bright, bright future ahead. Excellent. Remember when they were the Cole Palmer team, Chelsea. Now are they going to become the Esteval outfit? Yeah, I know. How did you guys like his penalty routine? Because, yeah, he just gives like half a circle.

11:29Yeah, very Mo Salah-esque. Game's gone. You know, I was talking to a friend who's a Palmeiras fan and watched absolutely every Estevão game when he was in Brazil. And I asked if he always had that routine. And he said, absolutely. Like, almost 100%. There was one time he didn't do the routine. Palmeiras was playing Corinthians, the big derby. And they were given a penalty at minute 89. The game was 1-1. He changed the routine. He missed the penalty. Yes. So he keeps his routine. And it's quite, even for me, who has been hearing about Esteban for so long and all the praise and everything and watched him play in Brazil, it is quite surprising how well, how quickly he established himself in the team.

12:19And actually, not only for the goals, but the attitude. He's always trying things. He's a nightmare to opponents. And he shows so much character and so much personality. But at the same time, he left Brazil as a protagonist already. So I think people maybe don't take that too much into consideration. But he already had to deal with high amounts of pressure, even like missing a penalty against Corinthians. He had this reputation, and I heard it from more critical fans, that he didn't step up in big games. And then you see him playing Champions League. I'm like, really? Seeing with the national team is the same thing.

12:54so even though he's just 18 he already went through under a lot of pressure He looked great in the World Club Cup against Chelsea I don't know if you saw Liam Leighton that wonderful bicycle kicker I did, that was great, I really enjoyed that I think for young players just playing that kind of way I know you're kind of 5-1 up at that point but I think that's just a good sign of playing with a lot of freedom You mentioned Tariq George it's a dream for UEFA isn't it? plucky team like Chelsea come through the Conference League and give these young players a chance and then step up to the Champions League and they're doing all right.

13:32You just have to applaud. Giving everyone's young players a chance. They've bought all of them. Mind you, it was only Ajax who has mentioned sit bottom of the table alongside Mourinho's Benfica with no points whatsoever. Johnny Hightinger, Ajax manager, 12 games so far, just the four wins. Hmm. All right. Chelsea looking good then, ahead of their clash this weekend with Sunderland, with whom they're currently level on points in the Premier League. What an exciting Premier League season this is, eh? Meanwhile, Natalie, what were you doing Wednesday night? Can you imagine, James, getting a text from producer Charlie, who I really like, with the request of, yes.

14:13Interesting caveat. With the request of, can you watch Spurs? And you just go, yeah, of course I can. I'll watch Monaco Spurs. And then you hear about all these goals happening, all this action and yeah Monaco knew, Spurs knew it was not good Did you know Natalie, it was Spurs' first nil-nil draw in any game, in any competition since March 2023, isn't that remarkable you had a nil-nil draw in all that time, and you were there to see it I know, right making history, so yeah they got away with the point, honestly because Monaco was so much better, 23 shots against 11 from Spurs. Vickery was by far man of the match, player of the match.

14:55The first half, he made five saves, in the second half another three. There was one in the second half. It was minute 74. It was just pure reaction. It was a low header from Teze. He came with a lot of power. He did so well. But Spurs, they just looked disjointed all over the pitch. Defensively, Romero didn't start, but it's not about that because Kevin Denso played alongside Mickey Vandeven and Vandeven as always did his part but the balls were coming behind the midfield with Bentancourt and Palinha and Lucas Bergvau so they were all over the place second half Ansu Fati was looking good second half Minamino comes in creating at least three really good chances but also offensively because we've been talking about lack of creativity for Spurs and their chances were very slim.

15:51You know, they weren't really a lack of cutting edge. They couldn't keep the ball. And then Xabi Simons comes in for Bergwahl in minute 60 and nothing really changes. So they just looked disjointed throughout the game. It wasn't a good performance from them, even though they haven't lost in the Champions League yet. OK. A lot of Spurs fans are quite upset at this insistence on a midfield pairing of Bentancur and Palinha. Yeah, I can understand that because it is more, you could call it conservative, because you have like two defensive midfielders who really like to defend and tackle. And sometimes you're missing the fluidity.

16:29And when you have Xabi Simons, it just got me wondering, I don't know, if for creative midfielders, it takes even longer to adapt to the Premier League, because we were talking about Wirtz for so long, and he had a really good game yesterday against France. Frankfurt, but because you need to know where your teammates like to have the ball and you need to understand not only the pace and the physicality and all the things that we always say that players need to adapt when they get to English football, but also because you need to understand the spaces and the patterns and the movements because you're a creative midfielder and maybe it takes longer for them because Xabi Simons is clearly a very talented player.

17:11And you're also a little bit at the mercy of people actually finishing off the chances that you create, particularly in the case of Florian Wurtz now, at least in terms of presenting numbers that are easily digestible to people like me. Hmm. I mean, that's a real Thomas Frank midfield pairing that Nath is kind of speaking about, similar to what he had at Brentford, Norgard, Jensen, Janel. He likes the physical, sure, technical players, but a really physical midfield. I'm going to apologise here for talking down a bit on Richarlison, but I don't think he's the easiest number nine for number 10 to play from.

17:43I think, you know, he likes sort of running the channels. He might create a bit of space that way, but I think it's very different to Solanke, who can kind of play that back to goal role a bit better. And you can kind of receive those passes and set it into someone like Xabi Simons. What I'm not convinced by the Spurs is the fact that there's no place for Brennan Johnson in this team. He was a top scorer last season and developed a bit of reputation for not really being much of a winger, not really taking on his man, not really crossing much but just scoring back post-Happens all the time which I think if you've not got a number nine that's regularly scoring you do kind of need so Anthony Gordon at Newcastle that's kind of what he does it's becoming a bit of a a bit of a trademark goal and he's obviously got the pace to do it so I wonder if and Frank ironically has played him off the left a bit more so kind of tried to play him in that kind of inverted role don't think that really suits him he's very specialist and then you kind of need to build the attack around him a bit more but I think if you're lacking goals Johnson's got three goals this season only had five starts come off the bench seven times van der Ven's got three Palini's got three Richarlison's got three so there's a good spread of goals but I think you do start to go where's kind of the focal point in that attack right I mean they are a lot of their creativity was taken away from them at the start of the season through injury of course but yeah James Madison put on TikTok yes during the game showing him on an exercise bike I'm not sure what Watsy was putting out but it looked reasonable but I mean the good thing for Frank is that they are drawing games and winning games even if they're not playing well because if we think back to when Nuno was at Spurs similar sort of adaption but he was losing games and obviously by the I think it was the first of November he was axed I think Frank's not in danger of that but you know this is always going to be a work in progress and we're seeing that at the moment okay but main point is I don't hold anything against producer Charlie yeah okay you would yeah hold it against them for a long time well he's not the only one Natalie because if I'm not mistaken you were sent to Fulham Arsenal last weekend which wasn't great then you had Monaco against Spurs and where are you going this weekend?

19:42Wolves Burnley Wolves Burnley you're on a roll that might be you know a goal fest I mean it's arguably the most important game of the weekend yeah it is two of the only five teams who have won all four divisions in English football so you know there's that who's complaining now? there's your headline excellent We'll get on to that and other Premier League weekend delights later on, but there's more Champions League to talk about after this.

20:25Strasbourg, you may recall, thrilling Ligue 1. just last weekend with that dramatic 3-3 draw against Paris Saint-Germain, with whom they're locked in a title race. They're in action this Thursday evening. Tonight, as we record in the Conference League, they're hosting Jagiellonia, who aren't they the top team in Poland right now, Liam? You know your football, James. You really do. They've got that defender. What's his name? Pozzo Pozzo? Alejandro, yes. Bill Jagiellonia. Anyway, I mentioned Strasbourg, not just because of that. but also because their hotshot manager, Liam Rosseña, has been talking to Karl Anka and Ayo Akinwoleiri for the Athletic FC podcast.

21:09You can hear that from Sunday morning at the Athletic FC with Liam Rosseña. Hey, Real Madrid beat Juventus 1-0 on Wednesday evening. Second 1-0 in a row. Second 1-0 in which they didn't look entirely certain certain of three points, I would say, Duncan. Yeah, I watched this one. It wasn't a classic. It was definitely a sort of, wow, it's Real Madrid against Juventus. And then it's like, oh yeah, I remember these two teams. They've both got some flaws. I mean, Real Madrid deserved to win. They had more than 20 shots. Di Gregorio made a number of good saves, but it wasn't the most convincing performance.

21:50I think the most interesting thing was in the first half, Jude Bellingham was playing sort of number 10-ish sort of role. wasn't very impressive just kept getting in the way of other people sort of not really being in space to pick up passes second half he played a bit further forward and was really good and the goal basically was from his sort of six yard box instincts after a Vinicius shot hit the post and rebounded out and that's kind of where he was playing when he first started at Madrid and was really good obviously he had that amazing goal scoring one Right, he had the classic understated goal celebration as well It was just after Juve had had a a big chance up the other end, Andrea Cambiasso, which Courtois, who you mentioned, Di Gregorio was in fine form, but Courtois had a number of brilliant saves, particularly towards the end, because although, yeah, Real Madrid had more shots, the number of chances that Juventus had, and a better team, a team that isn't having the problems that La Signora currently has with scoring goals, could easily have walked away with a point or more from that game.

22:48And it's one of those games, you know, we can talk about how teams play, but results are always the ultimate thing. and Juventus, I think our friend James Horncast was writing on this this morning, that they played quite well. They looked pretty good, but they lost again and the pressure is mounting on Tudor. I think they had the Vlachovic one-on-one as well at the start of the second half. He did not have a great game starting for once. I didn't think he... I thought he was all right. Did you think so? Yeah, I think they looked pretty good on the break. There was one time when Yildiz worked the ball brilliantly free out on the left and crossed it.

23:27And Vlajevic, for some reason, just decided, well, I'm not going to make a run at that one. It would have been the easiest happening in the world. But hey, I'm sure we can all point at moments from all sorts of players. Juve, as you mentioned, pressure mounting on Igor Tudor. The story at the start of the week was that he had this game and the big one at the weekend against Lazio to effectively maintain his position. We'll see about that. As for Real Madrid, following their narrow 1-0 win against 10-man Getafe, and now against a similar scoreline against, well, exactly the same scoreline, to be fair, against Juventus, they will be welcoming Barcelona to the Bernabeu on Sunday in a bit of a big match.

24:07FC Bayern beat Club Bruges, Brugge 4-0, featuring a first senior goal for their 17-year-old hotshot, Lennart Karl. Karls Jr., I dub him, if you know your American fast-food outlets. Not that well. Okay. Surely they need to start calling him Lenny Carl, doing a sort of Simpsons homage as well. Okay. Yeah. Harry Kane scored. Of course he did. 20 goals now. And Vincent Kompany's side maintained their 100 % winning record in all competitions. As Matt was saying on Sunday, remember when he used to be Burnley manager? Crazy. We've now got a streak of two different Burnley head coaches walking into, or former Burnley head coaches, walking into European sides with Sean Dyche.

24:55And Scott Parker, I guess, has done the reverse from Brugge as well. So something in the water in Lancashire. It certainly is. Sporting, we're playing Marseille. Marseille, who are on an absolute tear at the moment. What are those six straight wins, I think, coming into this? Scoring goals are plenty. They had a 6-2 at the weekend. They took the lead here. And all was going well until the former Chelsea and West Ham, and indeed Roma defender, Emerson Palmieri, Valmieri thought he'd be a bit creative in the penalty box. VAR spotted his theatrics, and he was shown a second yellow card for simulation, and that was really where the game turned.

25:33Marseille hung on to about the 85th minute, and eventually was sporting duly equalised, and then late on found the winner. And it was goalless between Atlanta and Slavia Prague. Ivan Juric, late of Southampton, is their manager this season. He's drawn four of his last five. Crikey. At 5.45, anybody see any of the early games? I saw a really great clip of Victor Osheman. Ah, yeah. Relentlessly pressing. He's really, really enjoyable to watch in the block to a goal. Just really hassling. Don't feel like we see it too much in strikers these days. Dembele-esque. Yeah, well, I mean, Dembele is often a goal kick where he's just on a tear.

26:17but this is just one in kind of open play where he goes, right, I'm going to try and jump on that first pass and then just keeps kind of following the ball and chasing it round and round. Yeah, I just feel like you don't get that as much anymore because defenders are so good at ball playing that you go, well, there's no point because they're just going to pop it around me but he went for it. And he scores goals as well. He got two in this match, a 3-1 win for Galatasaray against Bodo Glimp. Galatasaray, by the way, won 10 of their 12 matches in all competitions this season and looking pretty good.

26:43So back to that long-running question, why is it the big clubs don't come in for Victor Ozymen and he's playing at Galatasaray? Or do you respect? I think there's been issues over wages perhaps wage demands are quite high and I think kind of maybe some injury issues and robustness But there's no tactical question over him? Perhaps not I mean Galatasaray are probably quite a big club as well without pannering to them too much there's quite a stacked lead now when you look at some of the forwards and the attacking players that have gone there And it's also a league that does spend a lot of money that doesn't have the same restrictions that some other leagues might do.

27:18Karabag and Galatasaray are both on six points, same as Newcastle, who are in the top eight. So it's pretty tight in the race for those automatic places in the knockout stages. We're only three rounds in, though. I think teams have taken it more seriously this year. I think they've kind of worked out that the playoff round in the winter isn't much fun, and you can end up with a Man City-Real Madrid scenario, and everyone's really trying to get into the top eight. and if you actually look at just outside the top eight now, you've got Barcelona in ninth, Liverpool 10th, Chelsea 11th, Galatasaray 14th.

27:49You know, there's some athletes... Are these all level on points? Yeah, they're all on six. So it's obviously early on in the process, but I do think, yeah, I think it's going to be a pretty tight battle this year. And you're bound to get one or two big skyquots, clubs that don't make the top eight, that are then going to end up playing a tougher game in the round of 16. Yeah, I mean, last year it was kind of complicated, wasn't it? because City and PSG finished so low down that the seeding system that was designed to make sure that that didn't happen kind of went, sorry, we're going to have to play this big game.

28:22Well, there's a lot of league-phase football to be played. A shout-out, though, for Athletic Club of Bilbao, who in the other early game Wednesday beat Carabao 3-1 to claim their first Champions League victory since 2014. Wow. All right. That's enough Champions League, then. A, it'll return in two weeks time. But this weekend, hello Premier League Match Day 9.

28:52You're listening to the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, now with you four times a week. Keep up to date with us on Insta and enjoy us in glorious Technicolor on YouTube at the Totally Show. Premier League Match Day 9 Friday night, Leeds face West Ham, who are in the midst of their worst ever start to a Premier League campaign. Wow. Worse even than that famous one they had under Alan Pardew and then later Alan Kerbishley, which we recently talked about in Totally Extra, didn't we? We did. Yeah. An enjoyable romp. It certainly was. Will this one end as well? We just don't know. Anyway, Ellen Road is their destination on Friday night.

29:31There's no Saturday lunchtime game this weekend, but at three o 'clock you have two matches, Chelsea against Sunderland, who are level on points currently, and Newcastle against Fulham, who have a great record against the Magpies, strangely enough. Really? At 5.30 on Saturday, Man United go for a brain-shattering third straight victory. However, they're at home to Brighton. Liam will be opining about that fixture very shortly. And then, unthinkably enough, at 8 o 'clock on a winter's evening, Brentford hosts Liverpool. Jordan Henderson, big game for him. big Sunday four matches at two o 'clock Wolves Burnley Natalie's on her way straight off this podcast that's bottom of the table against fourth from bottom of the table Arsenal are taking on Crystal Palace who are fifth right now but numbers suggest might just be the best team or the team best placed to unlock that rock hard Arsenal defence Villa who are on a great run of results themselves, host Man City.

30:38And then you've got Bournemouth against Nottingham Forest, which will be Sean Dyche's Premier League debut on the Forest bench, although they've got action tonight against Porto in the Europa League. At 4.30 in the Premier League on Sunday, Everton host Spurs. What are you most interested in seeing? Natalie, obviously for you, it's the game at Molyneux. But if you weren't going to that one, which one would you pick? Arsenal Palace. Really? Definitely. Why is that then? Yeah, yeah. Well, because Crystal Palace is one of the most interesting teams to follow. They are, at the same time that they have their own brand of football and their clear ideas and patterns, they are very adaptable as well.

31:15They're strong defensively. They can be direct. There's the Mateta whole entertainment guaranteed. And with Arsenal, I just think there are a lot of interesting things happening at Arsenal. But especially this moment of the season last year, they picked up just two points from possible 12. So it's still early, blah, blah, blah, October. We still have to wait. But last year, this was a crucial period because Liverpool opened a nine point gap going to November international break. So it is important for them to get as many points as possible. And Arsenal's attack, of course, I find it interesting what's happening with Leandro Trossard and Martinelli because they seem to be pushing each other way more than we expected, especially if we compare it to last season.

32:07because when they get the chances, both been doing well, both been scoring. And I feel like they can benefit as well from all the attention the right-hand side gets with Saka and Timber because Timber's having just a really, really good season. He was really good last season, but the partnership between them. And I feel like on the left-hand side, they kind of benefit from the attention that opponents put in Saka and Timber. I mean, the counterpoint to that Trousseau-Martinini thing is that they're the sort of players that have one good game in two. So if you can get the rotation right, then you're flying.

32:41And that's kind of what Arsenal are doing. And the key attack I can add on the left is kind of Fiore, really. I mean, some of his unlapping runs have been really fantastic. At Fulham as well, that was a really big threat, kind of those switches out. And the point that he made was really interesting about kind of this period of the season for Arsenal, because Arteta said after the Fulham game that you point out they were kind of on a run of matches where last season they'd drawn or lost these fixtures. So they lost their way to Newcastle, lost at home to West Ham, Drew away to Fulham, drew at home to Palace.

33:09It's kind of that thing of not just looking at where they are this season, but saying relatively, where did you drop points last season? Where do you need to be better? Uncle Jeff. The Uncle Jeff table, yeah. Or coefficient, something like that. These are the fixtures they need to win if they're going to win the title. Well, that was the difference last season, right? Because what they lost as many games as Liverpool did, it was about having more draws. So I guess that is the classic kind of you can only beat who's in front of you, but that's what they're doing better this season. Well, defensively, their numbers are remarkable.

33:37Nine clean sheets in 12 matches, only three goals conceded in all competitions. Well, I was going to sprinkle some of those numbers on in a sort of cavalcade. Because it is very much the Palace are the... So, right, Palace got the most shots on target, the best XG, the most big chances in the Premier League this season. So they are the attacking team. But Arsenal haven't faced a single shot on target in either of the last two games. They could be only the second Premier League team to go three in a row if that happens. they face the fewest shots, fewest shots on target, the lowest XG, as you say, considered the fewest goals.

34:09So it's almost like the ultimate attack-free defence superclassic. Is there anything about the way that Palace move the ball, about the way they construct their attacks, that you think Arsenal might be vulnerable to? I think the fact they've got really attacking wing-backs, Munoz especially down the right, can quite easily overload a back four. We've seen that quite a lot recently, especially in the Bournemouth draw, where the two goals Palace score to make it 2-1 then 2-2. It's basically Munoz being the spare man at the far post and playing these really great low crosses. And the way they get, I think Sarr especially, but they get these number 10s kind of crashing the box as well means that Mateta kind of doesn't, if Mateta gets marked in the box and they've still kind of got options, you know, the transitions as well have hurt big teams.

34:50They've got a really good record against kind of big six clubs. You look at how well they've played against City and Liverpool, you know, multiple occasions since obviously that big defeat at the Etihad quite a few months ago now when Glasner quite confidently said if City play the same way again, then we'll beat them. And it turns out that wasn't just kind of fighting talk. So I think, yeah, this should tactically at least be a really interesting matchup. But Arsenal have also shown that I think, you know, with the Leeds game, that the team wants to be physical and kind of a bit more transitional, that they can also get a bit blown out of the water.

35:18So it probably needs Palace to stay in the game for quite a while. And obviously, Ebrecht-Ciezer going back to... Oh, yeah. Well, actually, them coming to see him. True. Yeah. What do you think is going to happen, Natalie? Oh, God. I have no idea. No, let's find out. Sunday, 2 o 'clock. Arsenal are currently three points clear of Manchester City, who've got a tough test themselves. They're off at Villa Park, where they've lost on their last two visits, and they're finding an Aston Villa side, who after that winless beginning to this campaign, are now on five straight victories. It might even be six straight or none straight, depending on what happens on Thursday night, I now realise, because they've got go-ahead Eagles in Europa League on Thursday night.

36:04One of the all-time great names. Go-ahead Eagles. Go-ahead Eagles. Maybe that's what Palace will be doing in N5. There you go. Natalie. Well, with Villa, maybe the biggest boost is that they looked really flat at the start of the season. And now, after the win against Spurs, Unai mentioned that he was very happy with the levels of energy because they've always had a good team, a really good manager. They had a poor transfer window that we spoke in length about. But since they overcame that dry spell of not scoring, they scored in every league game. And now they have some interesting tests because they played Spurs, now they're playing City, and then they have Liverpool at Anfield and Bournemouth at home.

36:49So it's going to be an interesting spell for Villa. And as for City, we just have to keep an eye on Nico Gonzalez because he left the pitch midweek against Vidya Real after a clash, maybe having a bit of an issue with his ankle. We don't know how bad it is. Maybe it was just a knock. But if it is an issue, then it's a real problem for Pep because you have Kovacic, who would be an option, but he's been nursing the surgery that he had in his Achilles during the summer. So he's been nursing that and managing his minutes. You could also play John Stones as a defensive midfielder, but he's been fit and he's looked good this season when he's playing.

37:34You almost don't want to risk your chances by playing him two games in a row. So, yeah, it is something to keep an eye on. The other big problem for Pep is that Erling Haaland is scoring too much. I read a lot about this. Is this a problem for City? He's scoring too many goals. What happens if he doesn't? What is the optimal amount of goals for Alan Haaland to score then? I don't know. But it's too many of the Man City goals. That's the thing. That's the thing. Anyway, he's doing it for now. But will he do it at Villa Park Sunday, 2 o 'clock? We don't know. I think we were getting away with a section on Man City without mentioning Haaland.

38:12Oh, sorry about that. We'll move on to Brentford, Liverpool. Now, we discussed Liverpool, but Brentford are a whopping story and one that you've addressed this week on The Athletic, Liam, writing about the rebuild that Keith Andrews is currently supervising. Keith Andrews, who was being embraced by Igor Tudor, Igor Tiago on Monday night. That's a tie-out for the books. Yeah, that would be an embrace and a half, wouldn't it? No, Igor Tiago, who looks a lot of fun and scored the opener against West Ham and then jumped on his manager, which is always nice to see. In your piece, you point out that Keith Andrews, who a lot of people had low expectations of.

38:56He's actually had exactly the same record after eight matches that they did Brentford last season under Thomas Frank. Yeah, I mean, Brentford, I think, under Frank, could be a lot more patchy than people seem to remember. They were often hard to play against, but at times, you know, would get kind of blown out of the water in certain games, but have dealt as a club, I think, really, really well with having to just keep reinventing themselves. You can, I think at this point, almost make a starting 11 of players that they've sold or lost and obviously then losing their coaches and coaching staff over the summer.

39:24Narratives shift really quickly in football where I think for a sign of how well they're doing is that no one's really talking about Brentford now as kind of relegation candidates. I don't think they're going to necessarily be that high up the pitch. But that first half from the Forest game on the opening day where they were 3-0 down and people went, oh, this is going to be like every game this season. And it turned out Forest has had a really good half and Brentford have been a lot more solid since. And it was quite a stark contrast, I thought, to seeing West Ham and how onto like a third different head coach this calendar year looked a lot less cohesive as a team.

39:59Nuno had tried something with kind of these full backs playing on the opposite side. So Carl Walker-Peters is a right footer off the left, Ollie Scarls is a left footer off the right. And we're saying, you know, we tried to be compact, but we knew a physical Brentford were, we just kind of couldn't compete with them. And this is a Brentford team that looks so different even to last season. I think they've recruited really smartly. Keller has probably an upgrading goal. I mean, Jordan Henderson looks, I think that's the perfect role for him in that team where he can get on the ball, can control it.

40:23He's got a creative player in front of him in Damsgaard. He's got Jarmeluk next to him who just seems to sprint across the pitch for kind of 90 minutes. So they've got a really good balance. Thiago might be a nice halfway house between kind of that Tony target man and the Visser penalty box poacher. So if you were telling me on Monday night that you're looking at two teams and one of these teams has lost 39 goals in the summer from two players that they'd sold, I'd say that's definitely West Ham, which is about as big a compliment as I can give Brentford. Yeah, crazy numbers from that match in terms of the shots, shots in target, touches in the West Ham box, and something really interesting maybe building at Brentford, who currently sat 13th in the table.

41:02It's pretty tight there, though. A win here could see them moving up to kind of Crystal Palace-esque levels. Anyway, they're hosting Liverpool. That is late, late, late on Saturday. Duncan Chelsea earlier one of the two three o 'clock games are up against Sunderland this is the first time that this fixture has been played since 2017 which was the John Terry farewell incident as it's known when Sunderland agreed to put the ball out of play on 26 minutes although I can't quite remember but I'm sure it was the 27th minute because that's how football works and it was closer to 26th than 27th

41:50Yeah,

41:54I mean, just an odd post-script in the Premier League. So this was John Terry retiring. And as you say, David Moyes' Sunderland agreed to suspend proceedings. Yeah. While they essentially formed a guard of honour for his exit after he'd... You know when you're trying to leave a party and it takes you about half an hour to say goodbye to everyone? That was John Terry in the first half at the Sanford Bridge. Yeah, I mean, some people might call it a classy touch. Other people might say it brings the game with disrepute. I think both are valid. Where do you sit, Dung Alexander? Well, I don't like to see games slow down.

42:29So, yeah. Ball and play fan. Yeah, I'm a huge ball and play fan. Maybe there are numbers that can explain this, but only Man City have scored more goals than Chelsea in the Premier League this season. and yet they sit on the same points as Sunderland who have had the joint fewer shots on target in the Premier League this season. Maybe there aren't numbers that explain it. Maybe that's the magic of football. More than one way to skin a cat called football. Very good. What chance do you give these black cats of producing a bit of an upset at Sandford Bridge Saturday afternoon, Natalie? Well, they've been very efficient, Sunderland.

43:07You're talking about numbers. They've been efficient with their chances, but they've been really good at home. So, yeah, I think the Stamford Bridge factor might be big. But it's an interesting matchup because Sutherland is definitely one of the coolest stories of the Premier League so far. Excellent. We'll have some more Premier League stories as we get on to Man United, Brighton and more after this.

43:40This is the Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC Podcast Network. I never asked anybody else what match they're looking forward to this weekend, but Liam, yours might well be Manchester United against Brighton because A, Manchester United have won back-to-back games for the first time under Ruben Amarim, etc. And B, Brighton are your team. They are, that's true. I think United are in a very interesting spot. There's something Gary Neal was talking about on Monday Night Football and I thought he explained it very eloquently about how hard it is to dominate games playing a back three or a back five and that we've seen United now, some of the wins they've had, the big game wins that they've had have been because they're kind of playing a little bit more underdog football and they can play that way.

44:23They can do that at Anfield, can do that at the Etihad. It's historically, in the past few years, a game like playing a Brighton at home, kind of a mid-table team that will sit off a bit, might pressure you a bit, will play out, that aren't going to purely sit back, aren't going to purely press you high, that they seem to really struggle against. I think this, in many ways, is more of a real test for them because they're going to play more games that are like a Brighton at home than they are at Anfield over the course of a season. I think it's starting to click. Their chance creation numbers are really good.

44:57I think some of the signings are settling in really well. Brian Mbwemo, especially down that right-hand side, that number 10 role is really well suited for him. And that relationship with Ahmad, I think, is really coming into fruition. And they've got a bit more of a settled back line now as well. I think that was a part of a problem that they just, you know, through injuries and clearly not being certain on kind of the back three, it's definitely starting to settle. And it looks like they've now got a first-choice keeper after cycling through what feels like about eight different goalkeepers in, you know, this kind of year alone.

45:24So I think the ingredients are there, but they also feel like they're kind of only one big defeat away from the narrative, completely, you know, flipping on its head and being here this time next week saying, is Ruben Amaro about to get sacked. So that's Man United currently. Liam mentioned Boi Amor. I was reading an article on The Athletic from Karl Link about Mateus Cunha because I was actually surprised with, it's a curious number, in eight games he hasn't had an assist or a goal. He hasn't scored or assisted, which is... Weird, yeah, because he's looked like the best. Exactly, yeah. This is the surprising part.

46:00And I think it says a lot about his work rate, Because against Liverpool, for example, they didn't play up until Cescola came on second half. They didn't play with a recognized number nine. Everyone thought it would be Mateus Cunha. And it was kind of a change in their shape because it was more fluid than the two number tens and the number nine. So, and this kind of, it's Mateus Cunha kind of makes it happen because he did something similar playing for Brazil when they didn't play with a recognized striker. They played with Vinicius Jr., Estevam, and Rodrigo, and Mateus was just filling up the gaps while they were playing as false nines.

46:46In the 5-0 against South Korea, was that? No. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was. I was already resenting you for mentioning Japan. The other game. Yeah, the good one, yes. Sorry, James. That was very rude of me. But yes, against South Korea. Not the other game. No, not, no. Let's not go there. But yeah, I think it just speaks a lot about his work rate and the things that he can bring to Man United that are not the things we expect him to bring and he will bring. But, you know, it's just he's such a good player to have around because of that as well. All right. Well, that all sounds really positive of Man United.

47:24Here's what doesn't. They have lost six of their last seven Premier League meetings with Brighton, including Brighton's last three visits to Old Trafford. And Danny Welbeck's definitely going to score again against his former club. He's in really, really good form. We're in this era now where you're getting a lot of strikers that are able to peak quality in their career. For every season, there's a conversation about Harry Kane's in the form of his life, Robert Lewandowski kind of a few years ago. And there's so much, I think, now that it kind of prolongs players' careers of sports science, etc.

48:00But I think you can quite clearly see who the smartest strikers are kind of later in their career that have the really good positioning and kind of make runs really intelligently. And I think for Welbeck, a big help for him has been Jorginho Ruterres, kind of number 10, when he plays really great three balls, which is what, you know, Welbeck lives from. And just having another physical presence, I think that, you know, Welbeck likes you from the last line, someone that can then kind of play between the lines a little bit more. I always said that Danny Wahlbeck, and I mean this is a compliment, I think tends to be better in a game, the less of the ball he actually touches.

48:29The more you try and get him to drop in, you know, kind of receive back to goal, I don't think has ever kind of been his start. It's been more about, you know, run the channels, get into the box, and he's such a versatile goal scorer. It's, yeah, it's quite a funny conversation from a Man United perspective as a player. Obviously, they thought about possibly bringing him back, and you look at the goals numbers now, compared to what some of their more expensive signings have returned and you think what might have been. Wow, indeed. Indeed. All right, that's at the tea time, that game, Man United-Brighton.

48:59Duncan, what are you most excited about this weekend? Well, we've gone through most of the games, haven't we? Have we? You can still have, hey, Wolves against Burnley. There's one. Yeah, you can have that. You can have Everton-Spurs. Castle-Foolham. Right. Bournemouth-Noddingham Forest. Yeah, let's go Bournemouth-Forest. Bournemouth Forest. All right. There's a lot of good games at 2 o 'clock on Sunday. Yes. Is this the one you're going to choose? Probably not. But let's say yes. I mean, let's just be thankful we can choose, thanks to the wonderful people at Sky who now... I mean, technically, we can now watch that Red Zone thing, can't we, with all the games?

49:38We can't actually see what's going on in any of them. So I will pick one. Maybe it'll be this one. I mean, obviously, we don't know yet how Sean Dyche is going to do against Porto. No. Not as soon as I've said before, but it now is true. But yeah, it's probably a very tough test for him in his first game, going down, down there. Going down, down there, quite possibly, yeah. Bournemouth unbeaten in their last 10 league meetings with Forrest and on an excellent start to the season, currently sitting fourth in the Premier League table. Potentially one of the worst opponents you can have when you've been through so much is Bournemouth and their insane levels of energy.

50:19I mean, I'm just trying to understand how players will deal with, okay, now we're playing Nuno football. Now it's Ange. Now it's Daich. We go back and forth and it must be exhausting. That's the thing. You can't seamlessly transition. And I thought they had an interesting summer because they recruited quite a few technical players. You look at like Douglas Luiz, Inchenko, Kali Mawendo, Amari Hutchinson. They brought in these smaller, more technical players to kind of complement a lot of the bigger physical profiles they had. Chris Wood, Morgan Gibbs-White. Okay, Gibbs-White is very creative. But again, a lot of guys that you say can play in a very physical style, can deal with long balls, countertats, can deal with kind of sitting in, sitting deep.

51:03And I think hopefully that Dyche will find somewhere that is somewhere between the two. I think Nuno's style by the end of last season became not too extreme, but there is a big, well, there's quite a low ceiling to how many times you can win that way. They had a very big outlier season of you can't really try and win 1-0 38 times in a season. You need a little bit more variety. Likewise, we've seen with Postacoglu at Tottenham that there seems to be quite a short shelf life as well to being as expansive and kind of wild as he is. So I think if they can average out somewhere in the middle, especially in a European season where, let's be honest, they're going to get very little time on the training ground in the next couple of months, and that is probably going to be walkthroughs and a couple of set pieces, because it's just too much intensity in terms of match loading.

51:44Okay. I think it's quite interesting philosophically as well, because, you know, Sean Dykstra isn't averse to impress conferences or on podcasts sort of saying, football hasn't changed, you know, it's still about running and all this stuff. And in some ways, Andoni Arreola is proof of that, you know? Like, in some ways, his style is quite sort of 70s and 80s, but they just do it very, very well. And Dykstra's lost his last three games against Bournemouth as a manager. His last game as Everton boss was a 1-0 defeat in Bournemouth in January. So to Nassie's point, I think if he could have picked any game to start with as Forest manager in the Premier League, it probably wouldn't have been this one.

52:18So I think Bournemouth, if people haven't watched them yet, definitely do because they're just, they're so entertaining and so, yeah, so fun, exactly. A long year, realising that Sean Barsh was Everton manager slash head coach, whatever his role was, this calendar year. It's the first thing I thought on New Year's Day when I woke up. I was like, is Sean Yeast still in our league? But not for long. But now he's back. Cherries are unbeaten since the opening weekend. Forrest are winless since the opening weekend. Sunday, though, all that could change. Right, nobody leaves until we've talked about Newcastle, Fulham, Everton, Spurs and yes, Natalie, Wolves-Burnley, go on then.

52:57Yeah? Relegation six-pointer. Yes. My moment has come. Okay, so Wolves-Burnley. Yes. I'm going to sell this game. well with Wolves it's a direct rival to this Bournemouth game that Dungan's touting there I know yeah it's up for grabs if you persuade me now I'll watch Wolves running that's a guarantee oh that's okay deep breath with Wolves not a good start here because there's a real problem of lack of goals and yeah they are the team who scored last alongside Forrest and Strand Larsson he was supposed to be the main goal scorer but he hasn't scored in the season yet. There's a bit of an issue with his Achilles, but still there is a lot of frustration around that.

53:41In the summer, not so long ago, Newcastle was trying to sign him, put two beads. They rejected both and he stayed and it's not happening. Wolves are actually one point better than last season after eight games, yes, when they lost seven of their opening eight games. So the bar's kind of low. The difference is... The Wolves press office. Statistically. The difference is last season, four teams had failed to win a game in the eight opening Premier League matches. Ipswich, Crystal Palace, Southampton and Wolves. And now they're five points from safety already. They have the worst goal difference in the league against a Burnley that will go to Molyneux.

54:24And they're the only team in the Premier League yet to win an away game. Well, Wolves are the only team in English League football yet to win any match at all. Yeah, and Burnley hasn't won away. So there it is. They lost all their four games away from Turf Moor and they won all their seven points this season at home. Burnley ranked bottom of the league for average possession, successful passes, passing accuracy, shots, attempted touches in the opposition box and expected goals. They've also played the highest percentage of long passes. They're not in the relegation zone, though. So unlike Wolves, who are bottom of the table with two points after eight, hey, extrapolate that they're on course, potentially.

55:03Lose this. They are. They are. He doesn't want it to be true. If they've got two points after nine games, that will put them on track. No. No, no, no. Yeah, it will. But for Derby? Yeah. No. It will. We've just done the podcast on that Derby. We know it won't ever get beaten. So you need it to not be beaten, otherwise the podcast is never ended. Just delete it. Delete it. Wolves will get at least 19 points I've worked it out They've won twice in the Cup They're not incapable They've conceded late goals to draw in recent games I think they're alright They'll be alright I don't know if they will be alright I was watching the Brighton game and one thing that struck me was how they looked a bit like a lower league team playing a Cup game where you won that up and then she said We're just going to completely sit in.

55:54They're really, really passive. And that's hard because they're not that watertight defensively where you say, well, you've theoretically got enough attacking quality. I think it's interesting they've tried to change system from, you know, Pereira came in and stored a back three last year and had success with that. They've now gone back to a 4-3-3. But they're probably a bit of a case study for how many times you can keep selling, you know, top players and trying to reinvent. I was obviously praising Brentford for doing that. And Wolves just haven't managed that as well. And they're really suffering because of that.

56:19It's also a case study in that new managers shouldn't go down the pub every time they win a game in their first few months because you can't keep winning. He just gets it. He just gets it. He just gets Wolverhampton. But, I mean, on our weekly alternative table feature on Athletics, this week's about big chances. And Wolves only had five all season, but they have scored four of them. But Sran Larsson, who you mentioned, Natalie, hasn't had any in nearly 500 minutes of football. And, you know, he had a good conversion rate with him last season. like to your point they're attacking it may be create some chances for him and they might be alright they lost what lost Nelson Sameda in the summer lost Ryan Nuri as well so I guess you maybe had to change the system to some extent because you've lost players that's built upon lost Kunja so you know you're saying they're now down to a lone wolf nice everyone's lost someone Liam Newcastle taking on Fulham Newcastle impressive in the Champions League this week but they're still only 14th that's a bit rubbish Their only Premier League wins this season have been at home to relegation teams like our friends Wolves and Forest.

57:23Fulham, does this fixture rank in that kind of category? Given Fulham's troubled start, they're 15th. Three defeats in a row for Marco Silva's side. Though they did do the double over Newcastle last season. Hmm. Yeah, they still have a few injuries to deal with. Anthony Robinson being the long-term injury, but especially Lukic, which impacts really on their midfield. They've been playing with Burge and Lukic for so long. So they played with Tom Kearney against Arsenal. I think it is a chance for them to try on some things. But if you're going to St. James Park, might as well be conservative, you know.

58:02But Newcastle, the way they played against Benfica midweek, this is kind of what I expect them to do more consistently in the Premier League. And because last season they were so good in just finishing off games and being relentless until they finish off those games, you know, and we haven't really seen that in the Premier League consistently. They dropped points they wouldn't last season, which is kind of normal considering the changes they went through and the whole exact situation that, God, yeah, we've had enough of that. But even Harvey Barnes mentioned after Benfica that everyone needs to chip in more, even though Voltaimad has been like a goal scorer.

58:42They all need to chip in more. And Anthony Gordon's been having such a season, you know. And Harvey Barnes as well. Whenever he comes on, he seems to score. They've got really good depth out wide, I think. I mean, I'm still not entirely sure how this Alanga signing is working out. He's got the perfect profile to play in that team. It's a real shame that you've got injuries to Lewis Orlantino, Livramento, because I think that are two of the best full-backs in the league when they're fully fit. I'm a massive fan of Anthony Gordon, whose primary goal is kind of trademark goal now, seems to be that big sprint in behind the full-back to get a back post to happen.

59:16It's become, I think, a much more common goal for Premier League wingers where you just get fewer opportunities to cut in, teams double up on you, and I think that far-side full-back's always a bit liable to switching off or not being fully aware. I just think he, there's a separate discussion, is probably going to be England's first choice winger when it comes to World Cup next year. I think he's the perfect profile for that. There's not many players in the Premier League that I think at his level, I think he's phenomenal. And seven clean sheets in 12 matches this season in all competitions for Newcastle.

59:47So, yeah. That's good. Yeah. That's good. The one other Premier League game this weekend is the one that finishes off the round. And Everson Tottenham Sunday 4.30. Straight after which we'll be doing our Totally Football Show roundup of all the action. Spurs, who are actually top of the away league table. There's a league table you can do, Duncan. Away results. And Spurs are top, I can reveal. 17th, though, in the home league. If you're doing the home league, there's 17th in that one. It's a real contrast. It is, isn't it? Why is that, then? Thomas Frank, isn't it? But why? Probably plays more classic away football than home football, built on solid defensive foundations, not a high-scoring team.

1:00:33I think, yeah, just tend to be a solid team, be a bit more direct. You look at the midfields now, we were spoken about that earlier, that he's picking. I mean, I appreciate Kudacevsky and Maddison are both out injured. It might look different if they were fit, but they're very physical midfields. I think even putting Lukas Bergwijn number 10 over perhaps someone like a Simons or a Kudus and having more pace out wide is another sign of that. And that isn't necessarily a bad thing, considering where Tottenham were. I think they perhaps need to overcorrect a bit more in the direction of being defensive and then try and find a happy medium somewhere in between, because they were obviously just too crazy, too many injuries under the angiopostagoglu as well, which I think is also a reflection of the style they were playing, of how high the line was, the big aggressive sprints they were having players doing, especially the centre-back.

1:01:17So I think partly that is a big reason. and I think changing the style a bit should help them with that and now they've got European football again you can't try and play that aggressively depressing your runs beyond the ball, playing short every time they needed to be a little bit more streetwise maybe they've gone a bit too far in that like Schrodinger's Monaco Top two assisters in the Premier League in this game as well Jack Grealish and Kudis both showing that having strong legs and shielding the ball is still valuable That's nice Grealish back after his spell in the stands for the Man City fixture.

1:01:52This game also featuring two of the three biggest dribblers in the Premier League this season. Kudos is number one. Ilman Jai is the third best and the one in the middle is Jeremy Doku. He's not a big dribbler, is he? He's a tiny. Excellent. One pity loss. Natalie, Everton yet to lose at the Hill Dickinson in five matches in all competitions. They have only won one of their last six in all competitions. Yeah, it's if you talk to David Moyes he will convince you that they are having a very positive season and I think to an extent he is right because it is progress compared to what we've seen from Everton in the past couple of seasons and maybe this is how we should look at Everton season, it's a season of progress I know it doesn't sound sexy, I know it doesn't sound oh so appealing, headlines and all but it is significant because they've shown progress, especially creation-wise.

1:02:52Indy, he's been really good since last season, but evolving in his versatility and with Jack Grealish and even Drewsbury Hall, like the three behind the striker, they are struggling to score goals. And we've spoken about the striker position and the problems there. But there is clear progress with Everton. I think they can aim for a top half finish. I think that would be a good season for them. They're 12th on the league now. So, yeah. Okay. I mean, this week does remind them again that they kind of threw away the Carabao Cup campaign because it's Carabao Cup midweek next week. Is it? It was just there.

1:03:29It was right there for them. Wow. That's the game that wraps up the Premier League weekend and indeed today's Totally Football Show. Many thanks then to Duncan and Liam and Natalie, Jake and producer Charlie in the booth and you, listener or viewer, we are very much a visual option for you Sunday night we're at about 7 o 'clock when we'll be live streaming our recording of the Monday morning roundup so perhaps you'll join us for that otherwise just wait and it'll drop on Monday anyway super have a great weekend until we see you again for now from all of us here it's goodbye you've been listening to the Totally Football Show part of the Athletic FC podcast network for more great podcasts just like this one including The Athletic FC and our dedicated club podcasts, search for The Athletic on Apple, Spotify and all the usual places.

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