Haaland the hero in Manchester, Liverpool’s late shows + yes to Madueke

0:00The Athletic FC.

0:30The Totally Football Show.

0:43Sunday the 14th of September and live for some on YouTube and safely polished up on the podcast platform of your choice. For those in no hurry, it is the Totally Football Show today consisting of Duncan Alexander. Hello, James. All right, Duncan. Also here, Tom Williams. Hello, James. Hello, Tom. And Jay Harris. Hey, James. Nice to see you, Jay. Tom's been in Paris this weekend, haven't you, Tom? I have. Was that a rhyme with Jay's surname? It was. So good you don't even know you're doing it. I mean, those are the levels we're hitting. Accidental rhymes from the off. Indeed so. But yes, I was.

1:23OK. To do the French Match of the Day, which is called? Match of the Day, which started out as a highlights programme. So it was very much the French version of Match of Zerde. And then it became the vehicle for Canal Plus's coverage of live Premier League games. But they liked the name so much that they kept it. Magnificent. What were you doing on it yesterday? I was doing my usual English football guy role. I was working alongside Olivier Dacour, former Everton and Leeds United legend. And yeah, watching all the games and trying to say insightful things about them. In French? In French. What were the French most excited about?

2:04They must have loved yesterday, right? Because there were hardly any goals, which is the sort of, you know, the trade. No, they want a break from that. They rely on the Premier League for excitement. So actually they were bereft at the lack of goal action. Yeah, I've enjoyed Arsenal's performance. I think, you know, most French people still have a bit of a soft spot for Arsenal. And, yeah, and obviously finished off with the Chelsea game. and the late drama at the GTAC. Well, yeah, and Jay, you were there to see that. Yeah, I was. Pretty good performance from Brentford under Keith Andrews. I think that's quite a big moment for him.

2:38I know they went 1-0 up, but I think to score so late is pretty big for him. Right. I remember you, before I think the season got too far underway, saying that all those people predicting doom and gloom for the Bs this season with their set-piece coach wildly out of his depth, with everybody having left, with people maybe being a little bit pessimistic and how right you've been proved if that performance was anything to go by. We'll hear more about that game very shortly. But Duncan, where were you this weekend? I was at home. I was working yesterday, but I was keeping a roving eye across the whole of football.

3:12Thank goodness. Did that include Wickham's trip to Peterborough? Sadly so, yes. Peterborough, who hadn't won all season, but now they have. What a kind club Wickham are. Deary me. results results from Premier League match day four so Sunday saw the Manchester derby which featured two goals from Erling Haaland and another from Phil Foden 3-0 victory as maths fans will agree against Manchester United earlier on the Sunday Burnley lost 1-0 to Liverpool in the 95th minute heartbreaking scenes for Scott Parker and co. Saturday Arsenal were 3-0 winners Arsenal against Forest that's the Gladiator opening sequence Classico of course it was also Ange's debut on the Forest bench but the second straight game that Forest had lost 3-0 in and there was a 3-0 win as well for Spurs against the side that beat Forest by that scoreline last time out West Ham Brentford held Chelsea to a 2-2 draw Newcastle had a 1-0 win against bottom of the table Wolves while Fulham moved out of the bottom three with their first win of the season, a 1-0 victory over Leeds.

4:27Elsewhere, Bournemouth beat Brighton 2-1 and there were goalless draws for Everton and Villa and Palace and Sunderland. We're going to begin at the Etihad. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. They're ahead of Haaland who starts to run from inside his own half and has miles and miles all to himself, firing Haaland!

4:56Quite the week for Erling Haaland. Five goals for Norway against Moldova midweek and a couple here could have had at least one more in Man City's 3-0 victory over Man United. The goals, first of all, were pretty special. Tom? Yeah, and in many ways playing Moldova is kind of ideal preparation for Manchester United because in terms of defensive robustness, there are similarities. But yeah, no, I mean, three really nice goals. Jeremy Doku playing a key role in the first with that wriggle into the box. Cross gets blocked back to him, puts it back in, and then Foden steers the header past Al-Tai Bay India.

5:36And then, yeah, Haaland, the beautiful build-up to the second goal. Little nutmeg, Nico O 'Reilly. Phil Foden with like a kind of elastico pass to Doku. Slips in Haaland, little dink. And then the third goal, I mean, absolute calamity. United cough up possession inside their own half. Haaland is released. And you're thinking very briefly, is there any, if we run this simulation a million times, would Harry Maguire ever catch up with Erling Haaland? I suspect the answer to that question is no. Yeah, the computer definitely says no. I also love goals where the striker basically looks offside, but he's in his own half.

6:12So it's just absolute schoolboy stuff. How good was City? How bad were United? I think I was really disappointed by Agate. I think he was culpable, not just for a couple of the goals, but a couple of other chances that City had. You know, Tom just mentioned the nutmeg from Nico O 'Reilly and it's on Ugarte. And I just think you just don't need to dive in where Nico O 'Reilly is right on the touchline. You just need to hold your ground and then he's completely out of position. I don't think we touched upon the chance where Haaland goes round Bayern there and hits the post. But that all comes from Ugarte's just woeful back pass.

6:46And then De Ligt is forced to try and play a snap pass into midfield, gets intercepted. City on the attack and then the Ryan does chance where he somehow chips the ball wide when I was watching the replay I just thought he started in midfield you can see him making the run and just no one follows him so just it's far too easy to play against Man United the amount of time City just had so much space to run into it was ridiculous That said they could have been back in the game had Gigi Donnarumma not pulled off a magnificent save on Brian Mbemma at where the scoreline 2-0 would have made it interesting I mean it was just the most oh yeah that's why they sound on a rumour thing I've ever seen it was like well that's good and oh no here's the man with the strongest wrists on the planet and I've never seen a goalkeeper congratulated so much after a save it was like every player came up to him I was like ah thank you Roy Keane must have been particularly furious about that but yeah I mean obviously people focused on Donovan was passing before the game a couple of slightly shaky moments but he didn't put anyone into trouble at any point so yeah a perfect debut City only had 45 % of possession.

7:52They've been moving away from the old Guardiola model slowly but steadily. Playing with four centre-backs across the back was one indication of that. Signing Erling Haaland was another indication. I think signing Gianluigi Donnarumma is almost the biggest indication of all. They're not going to bother trying to build up from the back as intricately as they could with Edison because Guardiola is just embracing the chaos. And, you know, United did create a decent amount of chances. You know, Donnarumma made that one great save and Buema was actually pretty lively for United, got in good positions.

8:24But this is the new, you know, this is the new man city. And I think Donnarumma's arrival is really kind of shows the extent to which Guardiola's thinking has shifted. Get it long, hit Haaland, let Foden feed off scraps. That sort of works. I think to be fair to United, the front three were all right. Cesco, his first start in the Premier League, and I thought he made a lot of runs. A bit like Gokoros in a couple of early Arsenal games, he made a lot of runs and just wasn't seen, and he kept going past the last front, and it's almost been like, is anyone going to see me? So he ran a bit. He ran a bit, but his movement was good, and Buemo had that chance that Donnarumma saved, missed a couple late on, very much consolation territory, But he is a very good player, as J well knows.

9:13He's lively. And there's also the moment where Diallo sort of fakes the shot, crosses it, and Bouma's like three yards out of goal has almost come at him so quickly. And Donnarumma makes the save. But I think with him... He has a mirror chance as well. Yeah. I think with Bouma, at least, he was always trying to do something. There might have been times where he was shooting from too far out, but he was at least trying to give a little bit of impetus. Well, last season we saw Bruno Fernandes, this kind of lone figure, desperately trying to keep the team afloat, kind of the Jared Bowen figure at Old Trafford.

9:44I wonder if that's going to be a little bit Brian Mbemo's role this season as well. I think one of United's big problems is they do not have a midfield, or they have not figured out the midfield configuration. They've bought lots of shiny new attackers, some of whom look really good. I think Dorgou looks a better fit at left wing-back than some of the other players they've tried there. They've got good centre-backs, but they want to play a style of football that they're, you know, Ruben Amarim's choice of central midfielders are not capable of playing it. Ugarte being the prime example but because they've now got, you know, Umbermo and Cunha when he's fit or Diallo today, Fernandes has to drop deeper, he can't play there.

10:22I thought Kobi Meynu did quite well when he came on given that, you know, he's been getting a bit of criticism from his own coach of late but I think that is, you know, that is the problem area. Okay, so that's Man United but Man City, How good were they after their back-to-back defeats are thumping for their neighbours? Yeah, well, it's just, I mean, this is the rollercoaster pattern with City, isn't it? Since the rot first set in about a year ago, they play really well. They're like, ah, City are back, City are back. Oh, we're wrong to doubt them. And then they go and, you know, lose a game that they shouldn't have lost the very next week.

10:55So I think you need to judge them against better teams than United. Yeah, they've beaten Wolves and United. All right, fair enough. They've lost to Brighton and Tottenham who look like better teams or better organised teams. Well, they have Napoli coming up on Thursday with Kevin De Bruyne returning to the Etihad. We'll be recording a special extra Tony Football Show on Friday, actually, to come in on that game and the other big game taking place in Thursday's Champions League league-face fixtures, which is Newcastle-Barcelona. One last stat on this game. This is the 57th Manchester derby in the Premier League.

11:31the first one not to see a yellow or red card. Now, I'm not one to say the game was gone, but... I imagine Roy Keane would have something to say about that. All right. Anyone else want to outlast that, Duncan's last stat? He can't outlast that, man. Okay. All right. Also, on Sunday, and somewhat less eventfully, Liverpool went to Turf Moor and had a very frustrating 94.5 minutes until a crazy handball from Hannibal saw all of Burnley's fine defensive work undone. Mo Salah stepped up. I'm not sure who saw it. Tom, did you see this guy? Yes. Okay. Yeah. Heartbreaking for Scott Parker. Famously, he'd lost 9-0 in his previous encounter while Bournemouth manager with Liverpool.

12:28But I imagine that this one late goal must have hurt almost as much as those nine. Yeah, massively. And, you know, Burnley have lost three of their four games so far this season and won the other one at home to Sunderland. But they've been quite unfortunate. They lost 3-0 at Spurs on the opening day, but they weren't terrible. They lost to United with the last minute. And they lost to Manchester United. And again, you know, you go back to that United game, they're 2-2 going into stoppage time and Jadon Anthony tugs Amadiello's shirt right on the edge of the box. literally the same patch of grass where Hannibal Medjbri was standing this afternoon, albeit in a different stadium, when he inexplicably chose to lift his elbow above his head like that.

13:04Well, and turn his back as a grass. Very significant turf floor. So, you know, they've been very close to getting creditable results against, albeit quite a Fieberman United team and the defending champions. Do you think his manager would have given him a Hannibal lecture? It is entirely possible. along with everyone else who was at Turf Moor. Because they defended pretty well prior to that Burnley. I mean, it wasn't like Martin Dubravka had the busiest afternoon of his life. They were kind of keeping Liverpool at arm's length to an extent and the pressure was mounting and mounting and you kind of thought, OK, they've probably survived here.

13:42But for the fourth game running, Liverpool make the difference late on. Yeah, that was the 44th, I think the 44th cross that Liverpool had put in which saw the Hannibal Ham ball. Liverpool had 27 shots, sounds good, but only four were on target, obviously including the penalty. So, yeah, it looked, you know, Burnley went 5-4-1. It was very much not Vincent Kompany's Burnley, but that's kind of what promoted teams should do, right, against the champions. And, yeah, they probably did deserve a point, but didn't get it. Wasn't all Hannibal's fault. There was also the red card about 10 minutes before the end.

14:16Yes, Lazio Gachukwu, yeah. Right. A second yellow, the first one, which was a crunching challenge on McAllister's ankle, I think. Yes, and he had to go off at halftime. Liverpool also subbed Kerkhez before halftime, which was a rare manager spotting that this player is probably going to get sent off. Kerkhez has been a little bit too enthusiastic since he's joined Liverpool, hasn't he? The yellow card there was for an egregious bit of theatrics. Some suggestions that Arnest Lott maybe gave him a piece of his mind as he left the field as well. One hopes so. Because he was booked for diving and then he gave away a foul just inside his own half as Burnley were counterattacking.

14:59And there was a little moment of like, is he going to get sent off it? And he wasn't. And I think that's when Slott thought, yeah, need to get him off. So he did, you know, he seemed to be explaining himself as Kyrgyz went off. And he, you know, they seemed to be on relatively good terms. But he, I think of all of, I mean, all of Liverpool signings are still finding their feet. And most of the attention is on Hugo Ekitike, who started very well Florian Wurtz who started quite slowly I think Kerkhez has struggled a little bit I mean Madueke gave him a real chasing in the Arsenal game Bournemouth did as well on the opening day yeah so well one of them we haven't seen yet and that's Alexander Izak I think the reaction to him not being in the team was a bit weird everyone was like where is he why is he not but it's like he didn't have a pre-season strike again what is it now yeah but you know but the fact that he wasn't on the bench was perhaps what people were surprised about.

15:51He's a man. I guess they just don't need to take any risks with him. Right. And Slott's talking about potentially using him on Wednesday when they'll be taking on Atletico Madrid in the Champions League. Not at all. Sweden are underperforming in the World Qualifying Group, aren't they? So their need to throw him on and see if he can do anything is a bit more pressing than Liverpool. We've got a 100 % record. So true. Busy week, I was going to say, of Champions League, but Duncan? Yeah, I mean, obviously fans of teams who aren't Liverpool and who think they might win the league were left dismayed at another late winner from Liverpool.

16:27But it occurred to me, when Liverpool won the league in 1990, the following season, 1991, that's how it works, they won their first eight league games that season. Everyone was like, well, they're clearly just going to do it again. I think they had a record of 12 wins and two draws from their first 14 and then just fell away. So, I mean, you know, we've said this a few times already this season, but it's still very, very early. It's too early to draw conclusions. Yeah, yeah. I don't think any of their wins so far have been, like, the mark of champions. So what do you draw from that as a conclusion?

16:59Well, they're... Too early to say. Yeah. Too early to say. That's ultimately what Duncan's leading at. Ask me after Halloween. Put a little reminder in. Can I ask you about Arsenal's 3-0 win against Nottingham Forest? Mm. There you go. for a start should we temper our enthusiasm for this victory in light of the fact that West Ham beat Forrest by the same scoreline last time out I don't think so I think Arsenal were really impressive everything every flaw if there were flaws that Arsenal had last season they kind of solved or had solved in this game I think you know last season I think the sight of Saka and Saliba on the sidelines would have been a real blow but I mean Madueke was brilliant all game Eze really grew into the game particularly good in the second half.

17:48Gokre's scored again. You know, Zubimendi scored twice. He only scored twice all season last year. So they were a bit more direct as well. The second goal in particular, Califiori, knocked it on. And Eze just did a brilliant first-time cross or lateral pass. And then Gokre's was just where you want a centre-forward to be. And it just felt, I think, it felt like they've made progress. Yes, they've now got other ways to score and other ways to win and I think that was the big thing that cost them in the league last year. It was a beautiful goal from Zubomendi, the first, the second, a rare header from him, but the first, I think, takes a slight nick on its way in.

18:27Yeah, I think it goes off Murillo's head. Fair play for even putting your head in the way of that shot. Madueke.

18:36Zubomendi!

18:41Well, there's opening goals for a club go. That's pretty darn special. You could see there was the camera angle behind Zubimendi. You could already see the trajectory of the ball. He'd already put an amount of swerve on it. I mean, it's always annoying when you see a goal like that and then you realise it's been deflected. But I suspect, I think it would have gone in anyway. I think it was already swerving. Will Arteta continue to quietly amass the Real Sociedad team from 2020? It's working so far The old Marino, Zubimendi, Odegaard Triumvirate

19:20Odegaard going off though in this game And that was the bad bit of news for us But also just to add to what Duncan was saying about Saliba and Saka being out Declan Rice on the bench Odegaard hobbling off early on If that had happened last season This is exactly the kind of game that Arsenal would have probably struggled in. And I think the goal that Jocheres scored, that is exactly the kind of goal he's been signed to score and the kind of opposition he's been signed to score against. These are the kind of games that Arsenal struggled in last season. When they had all the possession and they had to break down a well-organised defence, their record in games against other big teams in recent years is really good.

19:57They're able to get points in those games. It was these games that cost them last season. And that's just another sign that things appear to be moving in the right direction. I think we should give a bit of credit to Mosquera as well. So in his second appearance. And I think what has caught my eye is that he's very good at just punching passes in between the lines very quickly. He's definitely a bit more confident in that than maybe you'd expect. So two games and he's performed pretty well. Obviously, Duncan mentioned Madueke. That's probably quite a significant moment for him. Right, I've deleted all my old social media posts saying why did Arsenal sign Madueke and now I'm typing one out saying why did Chelsea sell him?

20:35Yeah, it's a really good question but I think he got a standing ovation at the Emirates and like you alluded to there are a lot of Arsenal fans maybe foolishly signing petitions and saying that they didn't want to sign him in the summer. And obviously, as Tom mentioned, Madueke played very well against Kerkers at Anfield, but that's a way. So for Madueke to have a performance like that in front of the Arsenal fans is probably a really significant moment for him to sort of say, I'm here, I can kick on now. And yeah, why Chelsea got rid of him baffles me because as you mentioned, I was at the GTEC last night and had Jamie Gittins and a couple of other players and I wasn't that impressed by what they were doing.

21:09So it didn't make much sense to me. I mean, the Chelsea model is to sign players and then sell them on. I mean whether you should sell them to one of your main rivals and improve them Sometimes it works I mean sometimes you loan them sterling and it doesn't work as well but then that's why I didn't really get the Arsenal fans the ones that signed petitions in the summer like they saw with Havertz that he left Chelsea with a not stellar reputation at the end but has been a really important and valuable player I mean you cannot judge players on well you can judge them on how they play at clubs that's essentially what we do That's what we do.

21:42But not until the 10 games into the season. Well, exactly. But I think, yeah, it's really good. Maduweke was so... He was going on his right foot a lot. And, you know, in a way that Saka probably doesn't as much, I think. Saka will always cut back on his left. And, yeah, it was really impressive. Arsenal's backup right winger for Saka last season was Raheem Sterling, who was ineffective. Obviously played Wanyuri a lot, who came on in this game and was quite good. And then Wanyuri got injured because he was playing too often because he was only 17, 18 at the time. So I think Maduweke also probably relieved some of the pressure on Wainiri and Dalman to sort of be amazing week in, week out.

22:19And the Arsenal fans even sang his name yesterday, which must be the quickest turnaround from petition against his signing, graffiti telling the manager that he needs sacking to getting your own song. What is the Maduweke song, Tom? It wasn't all that inventive, but it was about him. I think it was very player early on in a career at a club when you basically just go for one of the classic tunes, so, you know, noni madu eki, or something like that. Something like that. I'm sure they'll come up with a more inventive, specific one. A lot to work with in terms of syllables, rhymes. A noni noni could go to English folk.

22:56If you wanted to go more than an English folk route. He's got all five vowels in his name, which you've got to respect. Spoil for choice. As for Andrew Postacoglu, who had had, I think, one training session with Nottingham Forest, prior to this match it was suggested to him post-game that it will be a while before we'll see Ange ball at the city ground no mate, it will not be weeks it will be Wednesday and when Ange makes a prediction you best listen this is what made me laugh when you said well organised defence I was thinking how many times did I see Spurs have a well organised defence last year, not many the funny thing about Foster Cogli yesterday and him giving that response was you're like oh we're still doing this, we are still doing this I mean, of course, he's not going to have changed since he left Tottenham.

23:42But the desire to be just slightly more prickly than the question, you know, necessarily invites you to be, that remains very much intact. They could be in serious trouble because Ole Einer picked up an injury on international duty. First choice, I think, right back. I can't remember. I know he's versatile. He can play both sides. Murillo obviously went off with an ankle knock. So, obviously Spurs struggled last season when the injuries hit in and Postacoglu couldn't rotate. And already he's lost a key member of his starting XI. Don't know how serious the Murillo knock is. And you just think, you know, all it takes is one more and it's a slippery slope.

24:20They've got a trip to Swansea in the third round of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday. Arsenal, meanwhile, will be off in Bilbao. A trip back to the Basque Country for Mikel Arteta and, indeed, all the former Real Sociedad boys. That's obviously in the Champions League. That's Tuesday, the early game. We've got an early Tony Football Show European edition. That should be with you Tuesday morning. Looking ahead to that game, all the match they won fixtures, Liverpool against Atletico Madrid. That'll be big. Spurs against Villarreal. Chelsea make the trip to Bayern. Newcastle host Barcelona. And as previously mentioned, Man City have Napoli.

25:02Napoli who are top of the league in Serie A. A fine 3-1 win against Fiorentina on Saturday night, which saw Rasmus Hojland come on and almost immediately score. Of course. The kind of goal that he could never score at Old Trafford. There's never been a better time to leave Manchester United and know that your career is immediately going to improve. The man he beat, of course, was De Gea on a similar note. Earlier that day, I should mention an absolutely extraordinary Derby d 'Italia between Juventus and Inter. We'll be diving into that on Tuesday morning with James Horncastle. Lloyd Kelly opening the scoring of what was a seven-goal thriller.

25:40So very, very special. Seven goals, only eight shots on target, by the way. And both Turan brothers on the score sheet. Curiously, only one of them celebrated, which I was taken about by. So Marcus Tram didn't celebrate. Ephraim Tram did. Did they both do the little raise you? No, he did point to his... but he very kind of visibly didn't celebrate beyond just signalling his name. His dad was there in a rather smart hat watching on, and I wasn't sure if possibly it was kind of out of respect for his dad's Juventus heritage, but it seems a bit strange to take the non-celebration not just to your own back catalogue but your father's.

26:22Just when you thought non-celebrations couldn't get any worse, there's a whole other Pandora's box. There's probably a very, very good reason. where he's added by all when you need him. Well, exactly. Did we see the picture of the RefCam shot of him looking at the Turan brothers? It's very good. They just look nonplussed, but it's quite rare. It's a rare benefit of the new RefCam era, I'd say. Duncan's not there for RefCam, Tom? As in, am I team RefCam? Yes. It's a stupid gimmick. But every time it happens, I'm like, oh, RefCam. I'm going to avoid judgment at least for 10 games. Jay? It just looks like something out of a video game.

26:57Yes. It just sort of throws me off slightly. I find it hard to take seriously, and this is also when they give a player a chest-worn camera in the warm-up. When you see their arms go in front, it looks like you're in a kind of first-person shooter, isn't it? Early days. Early days. Chelsea heading to Munich to take on a Bayern team who've won all five of their matches so far with an average goal scored of four per game. Yikes. It might be their year. in the Bundesliga this season. Possibly so. Might be getting ahead of myself, but I've got a good feeling about Bayern. We'll hear how Chelsea prepared for that trip next on the Totally Football Show.

27:44This is the Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. The Athletic is the only place you can read articles by Daniel Taylor, Amy Lawrence, Phil Hay, James Pearce, Oli Kaye and the very best football writers around. And that could go anywhere, it's gone in! Carvalho! Fabio Carvalho has equalised for Brentford, three minutes into stoppage time. Well, it's a brilliant throw, and long throws are a thing again. Quite the evening at the GTEC on Saturday. Jay, you were there. Yes. So 2-2 between Brentford and Chelsea. The home side opened and closed the scoring. I mentioned before this whole notion of a washed-up Henderson pitching up there and Keith Andrews way out of his depth and all that.

28:35But early signs are that there might be something to this new look Brentford after all. Yeah, I was actually quite impressed. I think it made sense for Brentford to sign Henderson because Norgaard moved to Arsenal. But I've never really watched Henderson week in, week out, especially in the last few years. So I don't really know what he was going to bring to this team apart from the classic leadership and shouting a lot. but actually even when he's not on the ball he's just constantly moving around he's trying to you know offer a centre-back a passing option a midfielder a passing option you know he's playing alongside Iho Yarmouk who I think is only 20 years old he's a very talented player but you can just tell that he's going to grow and learn off Henderson and then I think Henderson's very front-footed he will always try and play a first-time cross or whip something into the box and his assist for Charler's goal was fantastic and I think arguably what's even better is that he nearly did the exact same thing two minutes before so clearly already forging a connection with with some of these Brentford players there definitely was a point in last night's game where I felt that Henderson was sort of holding the hands of the other Brentford players saying look won the Champions League I won this England international just give me the ball and I'll try and make something happen and to be fair to him he did okay long throws that was the other big news from the GTA yeah I was a little bit confused why people were saying Brentford have done well from a long throw and they basically scored the exact same goal when they beat Arsenal 2-0 on the opening day of the Premier League four seasons ago whenever it was Brentford are the purveyors of long throwings it's just strange that it's Kevin Charder the centre forward who throws it in the box in the first place so the name was it Kaobi Michael Kaode Kaode sorry who had a monstrous throw in the first half it's quite ridiculous they've just clearly just got like a whole army of them just at the training ground.

30:23They're just training them week in, week out. Are they training them week in, week out? I think so. Because you spent time there. I think so. I think what they normally do is maybe on a Friday dedicate half an hour at the end of a training session to doing that type of stuff. But it's extremely effective. That sort of, I think, the opening game of the season when Brentford lost to Nottingham Forest was quite concerned by Keith Andrews' line-up. I thought it was a little bit naive, if I'm honest, the midfield he went for. This was a bit of a classic Thomas Frank, Brentford era display where it was a free-fight 5-2.

30:53You know, you had the big man in Igor Thiago flicking on for Kevin Sharda. You know, they attacked the spacing behind Chelsea. They scored from a set piece. And I think it was very pragmatic and it's what they needed to do. And I think that was a big point for Keith Andrews. You know, they've taken four points from Villa and Chelsea at home. Obviously, disappointing loss to Sunderland. So I think for him, that's something he can build on. Just on long throws, I mean, Mark Kerry did a piece before the weekend about them because obviously Thomas Tuchel said last week, I'm going to use them for the World Cup.

31:22Everyone's like, what? But it's allowed, it's fine. And Thomas Tugger was there, so he would have been delighted. Well, so this doesn't include the weekend just gone, obviously, but since the start of last season, Brentford were taking 121, which is almost double anyone else. And the team to take the fewest was Chelsea. Is that so? And the funny thing is, is that Chelsea's set-piece coach, Bernardo Cueva, spent many years working at Brentford. So you'd think if anybody was going to still use them, it would be him. When did he leave? He left at the beginning of last season, so he's been with Chelsea for a year.

31:55And he got them good at corners. Maybe he hasn't got on to throw-ins. Page seven, he'll be on to throw-ins. First-year corners, second-year throw-ins. One at a time. The Henderson assist was great and that goal was good, but seeing Keith Andrews as a set-piece, especially as a plauding open play goal, made me feel the burning. Didn't like it. His opposite number, Enzo Maresca, was his starting XI with one eye on a trip to Munich? I think it was one eye on a trip to Munich and one eye on the fact that a lot of his key players done a lot of travelling during the international break. I think that was one of the reasons why Estevão was on the bench.

32:32Obviously, Cole Palmer, only just coming back from injury, wasn't fit enough to start, made an immediate impact when he came on. But it did feel like quite an experimental line-up. I mean, they're already missing key players at the back, notably Levi Colwell. and then you had Pedro Neto, Fecundo Buonanotte, Jamie Gittins in support of João Pedro, who I'm not sure was necessarily signed to spend the whole season playing as the number nine, but is stepping in in the absence of Liam De Lappe. And they did look like they were not entirely sure what they were doing and looked immediately a lot better as soon as Cole Palmer came on.

33:11Sorry, they were up against, like I said earlier, a back three, which is basically a back five for Brentford. So there are a lot of times where if Jean-Pedro got away from Ethan Pinnock, then Nathan Collins had him. Then it would be Sepp Vandenberg. One thing I noticed was that Igor Thiago was man-marking Moises Caicedo, just seemed to be following him everywhere. I don't think he did it completely successfully. I think he got tired of chasing after him at times, but he just sort of tried to prevent them playing through the middle of the park. Caicedo, he thought he'd won it for the Blues with that thunderous late strike, but in the end they had to share the points.

33:44Cosy Cuddles says, did we all overrate Chelsea on the back of them winning one big game in a glorified pre-season friendly tournament, the Club World Cup? Quite the game it was that they won, smashing the previously indestructible Paris Saint-Germain. But since then, asterisk, they didn't have a pre-season. But since then, nil-nil with Palace. They did get the big win against West Ham, but asterisk, West Ham. They were pretty lucky against Fulham. And then this, and they've got Bayern next. How worried should Maresca and Chelsea be? They got Manchester United next weekend in the Premier League.

34:19True, on the Saturday. So Bayern on the Wednesday, I think, and then Manchester United at Old Trafford. But it wasn't just because of the Club World Cup that people were talking about Chelsea in a positive sense. They finished last season very strongly. They finished in the top four. They also won the Conference League. Cole Palmer hit form again at the end of the season, which always makes a big difference. So I think it's legitimate that people thought they were going to be competing for top four again. I don't think anything we've seen suggests that they're going to struggle to do that. Although, Colt Palmer hitting form at the end of last season, what was the stat?

34:54How long? He scored in since March, I think. We've mentioned all their signings, but we should say that Jackson played a lot for them last season. Madueke played a lot for them last season. I remember at one point, maybe January, February, it felt like their starting front three was Jackson, Madueke and Palmer, and two of them have gone. So there's also going to be an adaptation period as they bring all these new faces in. Nice bit of context, Jake. Ten games into the season, we'll know a little bit more. I just can't say at this early juncture. I think they're the best. If we accept Liverpool and Arsenal, they're probably the two strongest teams.

35:29And Man City? You wouldn't have Man City in that bracket? I'd have Chelsea and Man City as about level at the moment. Okay. As for Asterisk West Ham, they were facing Spurs. on Saturday, Spurs, who brought a little bit of that Brentford set-piece magic along to North London with Thomas Frank. Yeah, I don't want to start on a negative for Spurs, but my only worry for them is that at the moment, they're just scoring a lot of set-piece goals on the Thomas Frank. At some point, they do need to score from open play. Do you think that's a legacy of their previous set-piece-obsessed manager, Ange Postacoglu?

36:02Possibly. I think, Tom, you know, I spent time in Hong Kong and South Korea with Spurs on tour, and some of the players were talking about, I remember Ben Davies saying, since Thomas Frank had come in, they'd sort of identified low-hanging fruit that they could just, I guess, take advantage of. And I think set-pieces is clearly one of them. I think what is maybe more important for Spurs yesterday is that Frank rested Ben Tengkur, Richarlison, and still got three points and a fantastic performance. You know, there was no Dominic Solanke, Colin Mawani started on the bench, Jabby Simons gets his debut.

36:39mentioning Posicoglu again yes he had a bad time with injuries but there were also occasions he didn't rotate when he had the opportunity to and I think Thomas Frank already has shown that he just seems to be a little bit more in tune with right I'm going to give this player an opportunity instead I'm going to tweak the line up here It also feels like he's got a specific plan for every game which was not a Posicoglu thing He looks at the fish each week and goes Revolutionary I'm going to change a team like this because I think this will help us win the match. It could catch on, you know. But then, I completely agree with that, but then my only worry is that when you have a week at the start of the season to prepare for Man City away, when you've got a couple of days to prepare for Villarreal in the Champions League and he's never had European experience before, it's a very different challenge.

37:30So, yeah, I agree that he's so switched on. He's had midweek Carabao Cup. He's had 46 games in the Championship, so I'm not completely putting that away but the Champions League is no doubt a step up so I'll be intrigued to see if he still has such detailed plans when the rest between games is so much shorter. Although Spurs do seem to have managed their way to a Europa League fixture list in the Champions League so that'll help. Lucas Bergwahl with a goal and an assist in this. Lovely header, a delicious assist. The hype is real, Jay. Yeah, Bergwahl's a great player. I actually met him in Sweden before he officially joined Spurs, got to spend time with him.

38:09And I thought, OK, he's a good player. I think he was only 18 at the time and he's playing in the Swedish top flight. But I thought, he needs a lot more development before he's going to be playing in the Premier League. And this time a year ago, I thought the exact same. So we can see he's technically very good. And then I don't know if something happened. Maybe he just bulked up in the gym and he just, I guess, settled into life in a different country, moving away from home, his parents, his brothers, who are also professional footballers. And the second half of last season, he was just absolutely fantastic.

38:37And, you know, with Jao Pelinha coming in, maybe he won't play as frequently as he did towards the second half of last season. Same role, is it? I just think Frank has a lot of different options in midfield and he'll change it around a little bit. And when you've got some of Jao Pelinha's experience and quality, if he wants to play Benton, Kerr, Pelinha and Simmonds, that's a conundrum for Frank to deal with. But the worry is that Bergvau and Saar might lose minutes. But I think Bergvau's quality on the ball against teams like West Ham and Bournemouth, for example, just shows why those games like that he needs to start.

39:08It's just so good. Right. The look of pure delight on his face after each goal as well. Yeah. Reminiscent of Dimitri and Dimitri finds out the early nightclub based meme. Yes. Yeah. Very similar. Very similar. Just quickly, I should say. So I think that's his second goal for Spurs. and the first goal he scored for Spurs I haven't got it right it was a Carabao Cup semi-final first leg against Liverpool where he should have been sent off for a second yellow and he somehow got away with it and scores like two minutes later Slott and Van Dijk were going absolutely nuts on the touchline I think Slott's assistant got sent off so at the end of that game he just walked straight through the mix and he didn't do any interviews because he knows he was only going to get asked about one thing should you have been on the pitch should you have been on the pitch so I think from his perspective last night was also like I can actually celebrate this goal and enjoy all that adulation.

39:59Nice. Nice. Spurs then with a Serena win. Briefly, West Ham, the woe continues. Yeah. There weren't many fans left by the end of the game. Yeah. They weren't that bad first half. I felt like they looked like a team who'd picked up a bit of confidence in their previous fixture. And I think most West Ham fans were very underwhelmed by the lack of business they did in the transfer window. But I think one area where they signed well was at full-back. Kyle Walker-Peters is a proven Premier League operator. And Elhaj Malik-Doof, who was one of the star men in Senegal's win against England, has got a beautiful left foot on him, set up the Callum Wilson goal against Forrest just before the break.

40:44And they feel on the flanks, at least, there's a bit of thrust. Yeah, some of Willem Bowen are decent. But yeah, I mean, they just can't defend corners. and they gave away 13 against Spurs, which is the most in any game this season. If you know you're not very good at them, sort of giving them away for starters. And the Spurs were unlucky not to score in the first half, but they did score. It was overruled. Exactly. Harshly. We should say that it was only 1-0 when Socek got sent off and obviously at that point it's going to be even more difficult. But it could have been 2-0. It should have been 2-0.

41:17It should have been 2-0. Very good. We'll take a quick break there again. after which we'll have some more news for you including Newcastle Wolves and Bournemouth-Brighton and Fulham getting their first win of the season and other stuff too.

41:39You'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. Next week's Totally Extra as mentioned is going to be on Friday and very much concerned with events Thursday night in the Champions League. But last week's Totally Extra came out on Saturday and featured Duncan and Michael Cox and another famous MC, Pedro Pinto, UEFA's ball handler in chief. Button presser now, to be fair. Is he a button presser? Well, it's the computer, isn't it? I haven't watched one of those in a while.

42:17I watched the draw and, yeah, it was seeing Kaka just press a button like he was on every second counts. Not as good as the ball era. Nothing's as good as it used to be, including Jose Mourinho's career. And that's actually partly the subject of the aforementioned Saturday's Totally Extra. We're discussing the time when Mu really did work miracles, when he was in charge of Porto and won absolutely everything for two straight seasons, including the biggest thing of all. Very good. Check that out if you fancy it. A little bit of EFL news. Ruben Sellers has been sacked as Sheffield United manager.

42:57Has that now been confirmed? Has now been confirmed. This after the 5-0 defeat at Ipswich which made it five defeats out of five this season for Ruben with the blades. The man who's apparently going to take over is, surely not, Chris Wilder for the third time who was himself dismissed for losing something, only in his case it was the Championship play-off final, which sounds harsh. I believe the friction was based around the team's desire to use, or the club's desire to use AI in their transfer planning. Is that right, Duncan? Yeah, as a lot of EFL clubs have done recently, they've got new owners and they've sort of lent into a sort of data recruitment policy, which, yeah, Chris Wilder is not...

43:43It's AI-based. Yeah, that's... It's overblown. Is it kind of like Liverpool with their laptops? Yeah, but Chris Wilder is very much not a data recruitment or AI man, I would suggest. A man who gets angry if a fourth official is eating a sandwich possibly isn't an AI man. I don't know. But, I mean, the one thing you can say about AI is that it doesn't need to eat sandwiches. Sandwiches, but the only thing that it doesn't consume. Well, yes, indeed, James, indeed. Dangerous times. Thursday, one of the games that we're going to be talking about in Fridays, a totally extra, is Newcastle-Barcelona.

44:2128 years and one day after that famous Newcastle-Barcelona with the Esprilja hat-trick and a 3-2 win for the Magpies. Woof. A play-back Gillespie going down that line. Sergei chasing after him. The cross coming in and it's a good one. It's a history. a hat-trick for Esbilla fancy one of those again on Thursday? 3-2 a hat-trick, absolutely I mean that would be a turn-up that would be a turn-up it's not been the best of starts to the season for Newcastle but they did get their first win this weekend in the league, 1-0, it was a narrow one and it was against bottom of the table Wolves, did feature though a debut goal for Nick Valdemada He'd only ever scored one headed goal in the Bundesliga.

45:14I found that extraordinary, given how well he headed this one. Well, it was a weekend of great headers. His header, Bergwels, Foden's was great, including Pep on the touchline, and the classic manager helping it in. Gabriel Gudmundsen, albeit at the wrong end. Can I just say I also scored a header in my Sunday league? He wasn't going to say, but you dragged it out of him, Duncan. When the ley lines collide... As a scorer, as he calls himself, Jay, how good was what Voldemort did? Yeah, it was really good. I think it's probably a little bit trickier than it looks at first glance because he's sort of leaning backwards.

45:48He has to back off, yeah. So it's a really good finish right into the corner. And his hold-up play was really good. It was interesting to see what he would bring to Newcastle's attacking play. A different kind of player to Isak with some kind of crossover skills. He's very good on the ball, good dribbler. But something that really stood out for me was the hold-up play. and very often, particularly with a kind of old-school centre-forward, albeit he's a slightly more well-rounded player than that, but it can take time to develop a connection with the players around you. But he was popping off little one-twos here and there, a little lay-off seemed to kind of slot in quite smoothly.

46:27The league's been crying out for a huge man with a good touch for a while. I mean, obviously he had Peter Crouch, Traders. And the Carroll. Oh, sorry, with a good touch. Yeah, Carroll was more, you know, classic, you know, powerful in the air sort of figure. Ian Ormondoid, for older listeners, was that. I quite liked Volta Marder's interview on Match of the Day as well, because he just said, I was happy when I scored. I was just looking at the fans. They were smiling. I was smiling. I was happy. I don't know. It's just quite wholesome. Sometimes don't get Premier League players just be that normal.

46:56He's only young. Yeah. Give it another year and he'll. Yes. So Barcelona on Thursday. We'll preview that game in Tuesday's European edition. Any particular thoughts? I believe that Barcelona may be absent one star in particular. Laminia Mal wasn't available for this Sunday's game, which hasn't quite happened yet, as we record, against Valencia, which they're having to play at their training ground because the builders didn't finish on time. Not like Barcelona to find themselves at the mercy of administrative obstacles. Playing at your own training ground. So that is very Tim Pot, isn't it? That is fair.

47:37I'm pretty certain they're not supposed to get away with it as well, right? But they've got special dispensations. How do you mean not supposed to get away with it? Because I think there's a rule in La Liga, I'm just trying to remember what I read on the athletic the other day, that the capacity has to be above a certain number and the training ground's substantially below that. 6 ,000, so you feel it's probably not going to be up to code. Very good. Well, we'll see how they fare at the rather larger St. James' on Thursday. Anything else you wanted to mention about the... Oh, yeah, we should, shouldn't we?

48:10What did we want to say about them? They're not very good. Right. I mean, weirdly, they started this game really well and could have scored twice in the opening minute. But they're the... Once in the opening, what was it, eight seconds? Yeah. I mean, that was encapsulated in my twice in the opening minute. But, yeah. No, but I just felt that you could have gone... More granular. Yeah, always go more granular. But yeah, they haven't got a point. They haven't got a point. The worst start to the Premier League season in terms of straight defeats is seven, which Palace did in the Frank de Boer season and Portsmouth did in one of their we're going to implode financially seasons.

48:50Well, Palace in the Frank de Boer season are also evoked by another Premier League game this season, which is Everton's 0-0 draw with Aston Villa and another West Midlands side struggling right now. I'm not sure which you'd rather be, Villa or Wolves. They're not that far apart in the league. I think Villa are in penultimate spot, are they not? With West Ham currently rounding out the bottom three and Wolves at bottom. Villa are the only team in the top seven tiers of English football. I'm not sure how many clubs that would be. A lot. 150 or so? More, I'd say. You don't know the answer to that?

49:25It's about 168. I actually thought you'd know that. I'm disappointed. The only one of those teams not to have scored a goal yet. And what's particularly worrying about that is that all of their forward players are fit and available. They have got injuries in midfield, but Ollie Watkins is there, Morgan Rodgers is there, and they're just not doing the business. And I sort of had half an eye on this yesterday, and Everton were the better team. Jack Grealish, for once, not chipping in with a couple of assists, but it wasn't for want of trying. He created a shed load of chances. Five chances more than any other player on the pitch.

50:03Toffy's had 20 shots. Only two were on target, but Jacob Tanswell with the illustrative stat that Michael Keane on his own had a higher XG than Villa did. Billy Mustard asked, what has happened to Ollie Watkins? I don't know. He looked right for England the other night when he came on. I think my only guess can be that Villa have had quite a turbulent summer where they've been under restrictions as to what they can do in the transfer market. Had the whole Emi Martinez debacle, only made, I don't want to call them panic buys, but maybe business they didn't expect to do at the beginning of the window when they got Elliott and Jadon Sancho.

50:45And sort of get the sense that everything's just a little bit muddled at the moment. They sort of need things to settle down before things start heading again in the right direction. There's no doubt it's a squad that there's a lot of quality in there. But I think clearly the summer's just been a bit too hectic. Harvey Elliott coming in and taking the number nine shirt was not going to help matters because that is not on. And indeed the connection with Crystal Palace and Frank de Boer. It's only the fifth time that a Premier League side has failed to score in their opening four games and the first time since Frank de Boer at Soho's Park.

51:18Should we have a word on how amazing Bournemouth are? 2-1 winners over Brighton the Cherries who lost four of their back five in the summer gave Liverpool a bit of a scare on opening day and have won three in a row since on Benji's Uncle Jeff coefficient which we used in a white label form on the Athletic last week just for anyone who's not familiar with Benji yeah it's basically you take the fixtures, the same fixtures from the previous season so So you look at Bournemouth away at Anfield last season and you look at their other games, you look at them at home to Brighton last season. They lost.

51:56So basically they were already up five points on last year's fixtures going into this weekend. They've won this match, which they lost last season, so they're plus eight now. So they are probably the most improved team in the Premier League. Who's the most not improved team? Well, going into this weekend, it was Aston Villa. The aforementioned. The system works. don't tell Uncle Jeff because he wants royalties what's a white label Duncan? well we yeah

52:27it's just got other names he didn't invent it Benji needs to no no I know we were explaining about what that was and then I was thinking there'll be people who are wondering what is a white label? you know like as in a non-branded version or something right I think actually white label was DJs would either well they would essentially put a white label over the hot sounds they'd be dropping so that other rival DJs couldn't pick up on there. So essentially, you've just kind of own-branded it, I guess. Or improved it. Or improved it. As Iriola has done to Bournemouth after all these departures. Daniel Storey has tipped them for a top-six finish, and that would sound pretty amazing.

53:14They did have an incredible run last year, during which it looked like they might end up with something similar. They fell away. This time around, does the fact that so many clubs are going to be in Europe and they're not, does that give them an extra chance? It might help them out. I think they had quite a nasty spell with injuries last season as well. I remember there was a shot where they've got like a little, what's the word? You know what I'm talking about? The box. Yeah, the box. There were like 11 of them just sitting there. I do want to shout out Alex Scott. Obviously, it's a fantastic finish.

53:48I saw Bournemouth when they beat Spurs a couple of weeks ago. And I thought him and David Brooks in particular were just fantastic that day. So good on the ball, very silky. And I was thinking, how long has Scott been at Bournemouth for? Because I remember when they signed him, there was such a big thing about him being this really exciting English talent. And I think I knew he was injured when he first joined Bournemouth. I didn't appreciate he was injured quite a lot last season as well with meniscus tears. So you sort of hope that if he can stay consistent and play more than he did in the last couple of seasons, then he'll just keep going from strength to strength.

54:17It was only his second Premier League goal. Semenyo is one of my favourite players to watch in the division for a reason, whether he's playing off the left or the right. A little bit of a naughty shove on De Kuiper into the advertising hoardings, but I just think Semenyo's two-footedness, unpredictability, he's fantastic to watch. I mean, we wondered pre-season how all these departures were going to affect Bournemouth. losing almost their entire defence and their starting goalkeeper from last season. But their calling card as a team is their pressing. And at the risk of making a slightly basic sounding point, the players that do the pressing in a team are the forwards in the midfield.

54:56So the pressing unit has not been dismantled at all. And I think that's why they're able to play with something that resembles continuity with last season. because the forward players, be that Semenya, be that Evan Nielsen, Marcus Tavernier, they're still doing the same jobs and they've signed very good defenders who've come in and kind of slotted in and taken the places of the players who've left. But yeah, looking very good. Also on this match day for Palace, had a 0-0 draw with Sunderland who got what they came for. You would probably sum that game up by saying and perhaps move on to the Cottingers.

55:34who got their first league win of the season in a 1-0 victory over Leeds, and it came in dramatic fashion, Jay. Yeah, I mean, I feel for Goodmanson a little bit. What did he do, Jay? He just, this was explained to me. I don't think he knew anything about it. This was explained to me before I saw the goal, and so I was going in expecting nonsense, and I still didn't quite predict that. The corners come in, I think it's the 94th minute of the game, and he basically falls backwards and heads it right into the top corner of his own net. And I think there's a Fulham player and Joe Roden who I think jump immediately in front of him, which clearly obscures his view because the way it hits his head and he falls backwards is almost as if he just had no idea what was about to happen.

56:25But it is like a scene out of, I don't know, Only Fools and Horses or something like that. You've been framed. You'll often see a sideline reporter, I say often, you will sometimes see a sideline reporter hit on the head, there was a famous BT Sport example by some well-aimed ball who took them during the warm-up and it very much reminded me of that. And yet in written coverage of a game a goal like that is invariably described using one adjective and one adjective only and that adjective is bizarre, a bizarre own goal. And in everyday parlance you would save the word bizarre for something really weird.

57:02like a dog riding a bicycle down the street would be a bizarre sight in like football parlance bizarre seems to be the go-to word for anything slightly unusual you might also get calamitous but you get a lot more bizarre in football coverage than I think you should should say that Farker said and maybe he was just I'm not exaggerating but Farker said that Goodmanson was in tears in the dressing room afterwards because yeah feel bad for him because I think Leeds have what's called one goal, a penalty, which was in the opening game as well. So very much they're going to sort of have to rely on being defensively solid.

57:42They lost out on Buonanotte. They found a few days at a transfer window. So to come so close to getting a point and to throw it away in that fashion stings. So the 94th minute. Yeah. Henning Fulham, as I mentioned, their first victory of the season. So well done to them at least. Very good. it's a busy week ahead Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday with the Champions League proving it all is Totally Football Show European Edition early on Tuesday we'll have a show for you on Thursday morning Thursday afternoon actually and Friday afternoon no point in rushing it and then yeah we'll have another round of Premier League action for now anything you want to add to that steaming pile of words Tom?

58:27I think that's enough steaming words to be getting on with right okay many thanks to you for coming in and to you to Duncan and to Jay in the booth Jake and producer Charlie to you at home or wherever you might be whether you're listening on the podcast or watching us via YouTube many thanks for being part of it we'll look forward to speaking to you again soon 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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