Liverpool lose top spot to Arsenal after dramatic Chelsea winner

0:00The Athletic FC

0:43Hey there, it's Sunday the 5th of October, Sunday evening, perhaps you're watching us live as we lay down this Totally Football show, live streaming it on YouTube, or maybe you're catching up with our, you know, polished end product on a Monday. Whatever, you're going to be enjoying. Duncan Alexander. Hello, James. Hi, Duncan. Mark Carey. Hi, James. Welcome, Mark. Lovely to have you back. Thank you for having me. And also Daniel Storey, who's been on his travels as per. All right, Daniel. Lovely to see you, James. Lovely to see you too. Duncan, you had a hellish trip in. Hellish. Hellish. Right.

1:19What was your favourite bit of the weekend? Football-wise. Football-wise. Football-wise. Yeah, let's stick to football. I think it was probably Semenyo's cameo. Well, not really a cameo, played the whole game, but his performance for Bournemouth on Friday night. I mean, the most two-footed player in the Premier League. And he demonstrated that very well. Indeed. Is he the best player in the Premier League, Mark? That's the question the Athletic's been asking. Yeah, and Antjeet asked that very question, our colleague who is our Data Tactics writer. He was out there in the pouring rain. I haven't spoken to him yet, but I do wonder how he got on in that regard.

1:54But yeah, it was an assist as well as the two goals. And on form, I mean, put it this way, he's in my fancy Premier League team. But there you go. If you don't have him, you're going to be falling behind. He's scoring points for fun. In the real world or what, you know, we define the real world, but who can say, where would you classify him? I'll go to Daniel with this. Where would you classify him? Is he right now with involvements in nine of the 11 goals that Bournemouth have scored so far this season? Is he the Premier League's most effective player? Yeah, most effective is a really good way of saying it.

2:24I think best is really hard. I think he's definitely the most effective counter-attacking player. He's the one player at the moment where everybody knows what he's going to do and yet doesn't seem to be able to find a way to stop it, which is brilliant for Andoni or Iola. It's just the way he can go both ways. He can drive at you really directly or he can slow down the ball and let other people overlap and create a counter that way. And it's, yeah, he's brilliant, brilliant to watch. I wish he, you know, he was born in London. I wish he was available to England because he's a, yeah, he's a phenomenal player.

3:01And also has had a really impressive journey kind of through the EFL up to the Premier League. It's not been plain sailing. It's not been kind of elite academy and straight into a first team. He's had to work at it. So fair play. Excellent. Lots to talk about today, including Bournemouth. But there's also drama for champions Liverpool. all those Crystal Palaces unbeaten run coming to an end. All sorts of stuff. The results anyway. Busy Sunday afternoon, which saw Man City beating Brentford 1-0 at the GTEC. Beating the Bees with E's. Everton coming from a goal behind to beat Palace 2-1, ending their 19-game unbeaten run.

3:37Newcastle got past Forest 2-0 to keep Ange's winless streak going. Wolves held Brighton to a 1-1 drop. Mullenew and Villa saw off Burnley 2-1. That's their fourth straight victory. Rene Emery's side, crikey. Saturday, the big news was Arsenal going top of the Premier League table, thanks to their 2-0 victory over West Ham and Chelsea's 2-1 defeat of Liverpool. The champions' third game lost in eight days, one point behind. Liverpool now in third and fourth are Spurs, who won 2-1 at Leeds, the first visiting side to win at Ellen Road in over a year. And Bournemouth, who indeed came from behind on Friday night to defeat Fulham 3-1 with a couple of absolutely belting goals, One of which was from Semenyo, and the other was from young, not Patrick, Justin Cliver.

4:22Correct, yeah. Justin Cliver. Also, Manchester United beat Sunderland 2-0. Duncan? No 0-0 draws this weekend, but only Bournemouth scored one or two goals. It was a lot of 2-0s and 2-1s, and it was proper football, wasn't it? The goals per game rate this season is back to about 2.6. Nice. We're back to real football, I think. Back to real football. Well, Sunday's action is going to be first up for us today. on the Totally Football Show. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. Right from corridor for Haaland, away from Vandenberg. Still Erling Haaland, trips is in him.

5:01Just one more. Erling Haaland there. That's now his 14th goal in his last seven games for club and country. I'll leave it to the mathematicians to work out what that goal per game ratio is, but it's scary. I can guess that much. And as was indeed the way that he took this goal, A Daniel, rolling past poor Sepp van der Berg, giving him the definition of a torrid time and then beating Nathan Collins as well. Yeah, he's got that kind of beast mode back, hasn't he, where he looks offended if anyone tries to take the ball off him. He scored in 10 of his 11 games this season, the home defeat to Spurs being the exception.

5:42But there's just, yeah, there's that sense. I think especially with the early goals he scores, the one against Arsenal, the one against Monaco in midweek, this one, where it's almost like the first action of the game he does seems to be absolutely perfect. And Manchester City are back in that mode, effectively, where they start with a 1-0 head start because he's playing. And that's when they got to their relentless best, when they just got early leads and then ground things out. They'd actually win that many games 1-0 City, but this felt very 1-0-y from 20-odd minutes onwards. And yeah, they obviously start the season slowly, but they are only because of the weird vagaries of title challenging form this season.

6:23They're five points off the top and in a bit of a run. Three points. Three points off the top. That's even less than five. That's less than five. So if the first 20 minutes, it looked very one nilly. Were the last 20 minutes looking quite one oney, if you know what I mean? Yeah, it was a physical battle. I think that what I think Pep Guardiola said as much. I think Harlan said as much after the game as well, that they knew that Brentford were going to be physical, lean on set pieces, lean on long throws, which has been a massive theme across the whole of the Premier League so far this season. And Coyote was the one kind of, it didn't even have to reach the final third or the final level with the penalty area.

7:01It just had to reach over the halfway line and he was willing to throw it in because his launch was unbelievable. So I do think that the final 20 minutes, the second half was far improved from Brentford. So I think it was probably a lot to do with Brentford improving rather than necessarily Manchester City dropping off. Although, go on. I was going to mention because Rodri went off. Yeah, yeah. I think, yeah, Rodri coming off, I think, was a factor. And we saw against Arsenal for Manchester City as well, that they were willing to drop back and be a little bit more defensive. So, I mean, to Daniel's point as well, there's a little bit more of a robustness to Manchester City.

7:36They don't have to always do it in the aesthetically pleasing way that they've done of previous years last season aside. But I thought the first half in particular, even aside from Rodri, Manchester City were playing really well against Brentford because Brentford was sitting in in their 5-3-2 block. They were mid-blocking, making sure that everything was compact. And that's kind of how Manchester City like to typically break down teams who play zonally, keep a really compact structure. they can stay really high and start to get their positions positionally into place and try and break down a mid to low block.

8:08In the second half they didn't have it quite their own way and it was almost a blueprint from previous games this season where City have come unstuck, where teams have pressed really high, tried to put them under pressure and they haven't been able to break out in the same way for whatever reason. So I do think the fact that Brentford tweaked things a little bit in the second half, the fact that they didn't play into Manchester City's hands was why we saw a bit more of an even game in the second half. OK, and a huge chance for Igor Thiago as well to possibly equalise, although the oncoming Donnarumma possibly put him off his shot a little bit.

8:37Daniel? I was going to say, what Mark was saying there, completely agree. This felt like a weekend for me. If there was a general theme, it was, I don't think this team would have won this game last season. The City one is exactly one of those. They looked more frail last season in games like this. Spurs is another really good example. I think there's basically a 0 % chance to win that game in those circumstances last season. and Chelsea kind of finding something late when they needed it. So, yeah, City sort of closed the weekend exactly in the way that the whole team of the weekend played out, I think.

9:09Were there teams this weekend who wouldn't have lost that game last season? Liverpool, perhaps. We'll get onto that maybe in a bit. We're going to do the Sunday afternoon games. Duncan, is there something you wanted to add to our Man City-Brentford chat? Just, I guess, the assist from Gradio was sort of just dinked over again, and a sort of pass that City didn't really use before. And Gary Neville mentioned on commentary about the spine of that team now. If Harlan's in that sort of form, Donna Rummer is just a bit of a game changer, a style changer as well, but also a game changer. And I guess we touched on it, but the impact of Rodri not quite being able to get back to fitness, that's probably the thing that is still the biggest unknown about City this season.

9:52because they are, as we saw today, significantly more porous when he's not there. Right. He has an international bait to try and sort himself out. A hamstring issue it was that saw him leave the field early on in that game. Three points for City, who moved to within three points of the top. On to the two o 'clock games then. Four of them taking place simultaneously. Daniel, you were watching the Newcastle Forest of Ed. Duncan was covering Everton as they finally ended Palace's unbeaten street. Mark, who didn't get first pick, I'm guessing, was across Wolves Brighton. And Villa Burnley, we've delegated that to Jacob Tanswell, who'll be popping up in a second or two.

10:32First of all, Duncan, what a moment around four o 'clock when Jack Krealish kind of had the ball bounce off him into the net for that come-from-behind win for Everton against Palace. Yeah, that didn't look like that was going to happen for a long time. It was the most game of two halves game I've seen for a long time. I mean, Palace were brilliant in the first half. Everton couldn't get near them. Tyler Dibbling started and didn't look that effective. There's an amazing staff. Everton have only won three of the last 31 home Premier League games where they've conceded the first goal. Right. Have they all been against Crystal Palace?

11:05They've all been against Crystal Palace. Incredible. So I think the Palace fans have had a lovely few months, but they probably, even when they took the lead in this game, when they had chances to go two up, Mateta missed a really good chance to kind of try to sort of dink. Pickford got it over him, but it was cleared off the line. And then, yeah, the winning goal from Grealish, he didn't know much about it. Ball was dinked in and Beto had a header. To be fair, Beto gets criticism, but it was almost the perfect header, like powerful and down. Right. It was a little bit too much at Henderson's feet, perhaps.

11:38Perhaps. But as the ball bounced out and it was cleared, it was literally cleared onto Jack Grealish's leg. and it bounced off and in. So, yeah. There you go. I just want to say how impressed I've been with Crystal Palace this whole season. Everyone will agree with that. But again, thinking about the numbers, Crystal Palace have created the most big chances, opt-to-defined big chances, which I think, Duncan, you'll correct me, is sort of unexpected goals above 0.3, or is it something... Well, it predates XG, so it was more that the original definition was a 50-50 chance, or a chance where the attackers, you know, reasonably expected to score.

12:14which still speaks to the point that not only are they creating chances, it's creating very, very clear-cut chances. A lot against Liverpool, they went on to win that despite conceding late and obviously came back to win again and created a lot of big chances. I haven't exactly checked the numbers from this game specifically, but the Mateta goal being key to that, the chance, I should say, being key to that, that they could have gone even further ahead. And obviously this time it's cost them. A lot of people have talked about David Moyes' changes as one of the reasons why Everton were able to be so much more dominant in this second half.

12:46To what extent is it the fact that this was only a couple of days after Palace played their first ever game in Europe, do you think, Daniel? Were their legs a bit empty? I think last 30 minutes, that's definitely true. And I think David Moyes probably realised that. And Moyes has got this trick at the moment where whichever strike he starts is effectively a sort of sacrificial lamb. And it's only the one he brings off the bench that plays really well. Both Thierry and Beto have already been hooked at half-time this season. The West Ham game on Monday I was at, it was like really bad it was really bad with the starting striker, you bring the guy off the bench and he then plays well and they're sort of stuck in this cycle where someone comes off the bench, plays pretty well then gets to start the next game plays pretty badly, they bring on a striker he plays pretty well, he then starts the next game.

13:29So I don't quite know where that ends but the game did completely change with Beto's introduction and yet on Monday night the massive complaint from Everton fans was like why is Beto on the pitch? We want Tieno Barry on the pitch. And yeah, I just, I don't quite know how they get to the bottom of that other than giving a striker a runner of games. But yeah, I mean, Barry was really poor first half. Nothing was sticking to him. And then it's how Beto brings in those three behind the striker that changes the game. Yeah, and we mentioned Dibbling and Alcaraz came on in second half and he was transformative as well.

14:01So, I mean, I guess the plus side for it for Everton fans is that after a few seasons of them barely having 12 players to choose from, really, they've now got these options and they can rotate, they can make changes mid-game. And, you know, we talked in the summer about clubs moving to new stadiums and how it takes time and Everton are proving that nonsense, really. I mean, they are making the Hill Dickinson, as we like to call it, into a fortress. The Hill. The Hilly D. And the noise at the end when the Grealish girl went in was authentic, let's put it that way. First limbs, I think, at the Hill, Hilly D.

14:38So far, Jack Grealish, scorer of the winner, picking out the man of the match. And a really touching moment after he was talking to Totally Football Show's Natalie Jedra, who moonlights for Sky Sport. Right out. Yeah. And he spots, you may have seen this, he spots that the man of the match award is there. He says, I think that might be for me, but you should really be giving it to Crystal Palace's Adam Wharton because he was amazing. I mean, those are my words, not his, but that was very much the message that Jack was sending out. That was a lovely, lovely touch to celebrate the opposition, who deserved celebration as you were doing there.

15:14This is just the game where it all came to an end. I mentioned them playing in Europe. They were two-null winners away against Dynamo Kiev, that game taking place in the east of Poland on Thursday night in the Europa Conference League. Was that a Daniel Finger that was waving up on the big screen? I was just going to say that Wharton and Grealish, kind of coincidentally, were the two probably most surprising omissions from the England squad named in midweek as well. So I wonder if that was kind of partly to do with that maybe because the fact that Wharton wasn't in was really, really surprising.

15:46He's been brilliant this season. And Grealish, I think, probably thought he'd done enough with the creativity to get back in. So, yeah, kind of shared initiative for them both to push in for the next one. England taking on Wales in a friendly on Thursday night. Is that right? Thursday night, I will be there. Are you going to go along, Mark? Yeah, I'm really excited. It'll be the first England game that I've reported on, so I'm very excited. Excellent, excellent. Now, Daniel, you were watching Newcastle's 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest with silly old big Nick Voldemar again on the score sheet. Bruno Gimaraes breaking the deadlock in this game.

16:21What can you tell us? So Ange Postokoglu, I mean, I think rightly chose to go significantly more defensive. And it was an effective game plan until it wasn't. Bruno Gimaraes' goal was really, really good. excellent finish and that opened up the game and from that point it was completely one-way traffic because Forrest made changes to try and get into it tried to completely switch the game were not able to do that and Newcastle I mean they they certainly deserve the 2-0 win could easily have been more. Forrest only created 0.3 xg in the whole game which I know that's partly about game state because they were deliberately defensive for the first hour but it's kind of mad to me that you know they've appointed Postacoglu because they want to completely change the style and within six or seven games he's having to kind of fight crisis by going defensive and seeing if that will work it hasn't really worked goodness only knows what happens over the next two weeks you said last week that you felt there was every chance that Forrest would be on another manager come Christmas this Thursday while Palace were off winning in Poland against Dinamo Kiev, Forest Bless were managing to lose at home to Michelin 3-2, a game which saw chance from the home fans have sacked in the morning at their own manager, which is pretty remarkable after then six games in charge.

17:42Is that the good track of the whip? Yeah, I mean, I mean, I was there and it was, yeah, it was toxic. I think, yes, that sounds very hasty, but I think, I think rather than towards and this was kind of towards this bizarre situation where you know Nuno for whatever reason has been made to feel like he's not in a position he he thinks is ideal over the summer and then publicly talks about it and then is sacked and then they go and get Posta Coglu who is you know I know that Nuno is trying to shift the style but it's a complete shift in mid-season we've talked about all this for the last couple of weeks I know so I think it was more a kind of declaration of like what's going on it's interesting where Maranakis sits in the main stand.

18:22He sits in front of this massive TV watching the screen. And in front of him are some season ticket holders or certainly some match ticket holders on Thursday night. And they were turning around when Mitterland scored the third goal as if to say, like, what's going on? Like, if nothing else, Forrest were in control of everything last season or felt in control of everything. And now, like, what's happening? This is not what we signed up for or thought we were signing up for. And that sounds really entitled. but Maranakis' whole shtick, his whole ethos is we want more, we want more, we want more.

18:53And if you tell supporters constantly, we want more, we're going to spend more, we're going to do better, we're going to, you know, finishing seventh just means we finish higher than seventh next year. It's very difficult to then be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, you need to be patient when the manager draws two and loses five of his first seven games after being appointed. So it's quite a hard thing to do, you know, to tell supporters when you've told them to demand more. But there's no question that of a change happening over the international break surely for Forrest I don't know where the percentages lie so I'd be guessing I said there would but there is a significant chance that he is not there at the end of the international break I suspect wow partly that will come down to who the heck Forrest appoint next because it's only you know as we've just said it's only five or six weeks until they were looking for this guy so I don't know how easy that is to do there is an argument I think definitely, even if you're Maranakis, to saying, let's give it three or four more games, let's give him the international break to see how two weeks in training does, although quite a lot of the squad are off with England, particularly the midfielders.

19:55But yeah, there's definitely a non-zero chance that he's not there for Forrest's next game. Wow. As for Newcastle, who actually won this game 2-0, mentioned Vulder Mardis scoring. That was a penalty, which you particularly admired his style on, Mark. Yeah, I just thought it was a little bit odd. I mean, you put it right in the top corner, in the top left corner, it It just felt like, you know, we've all watched so many penalties, yet still that one seemed unconventional aesthetically. And you look at a replay and he doesn't kind of, his leg, I'm trying to sort of explain it audibly. The trajectory of his leg doesn't look as though he's kicked a ball very hard.

20:29He almost ends with his right foot that he kicked with crossed over his left foot. And I think you mentioned it before, James, it almost seems like a Rabona shot, except it was a conventional shot because it was almost from a standing start. It just seemed a little bit odd, but it clearly worked because it went to the top left-hand corner. Bamboozled Matt Sells, who probably couldn't have got to it, even if he'd known what Big Nick was doing. Only three players have ever scored in their first three Premier League appearances at St James' Park. Nick Voldemort is one. The other two are kind of footnotes in the Newcastle football history by the name of Ferdinand L and Shearer A.

21:04Crikey. What's it going to be like? Is Visser going to be back after the international break? Are the Toon fans going to see the Vissa-Voldomade combination up front? What's that going to be like? Because it sounds good. It's who would come out of the side if they did sort of double up. It's not quite the same. Because you've got Elanga at the moment and Lady Di. Gordon on the left. Sorry, Alexander Gordon. Yes, yeah, yeah. Anthony Gordon. Anthony Gordon. That is a very good comparison. No, not mine. I've seen that online. No, I know what you're referring to. It's very good. But even in the midfield, who would come out of the midfield if it were to be that?

21:36because you need your width on either side. Full-backs, of course, would stay where they are. I mean, I can't think between Tonali, Bruno Gimraes and Joe Linton, they are so crucial to the way that Newcastle play, the energy that they play with, the tenacity that they play with. It was because of the tenacity that Bruno Gimraes showed that led to the first goal as well. So I can't see who would come out. And as I say, I think it's a bit akin to the Eketike-Alexander-Isak comparison with Liverpool. Do you play them together or do you just have them as rotational options? I'd probably say that. I mean, to Daniel's point about Everson Strikers, I think, you know, football managers these days love to use the word finishers rather than substitutes, and it's a good position for these clubs to be in to have those options when they're available.

22:18Good problems to have. Speaking of problems, Wolverhampton Wanderers still bottom of the table, but they got another point today. For the second week in a row, they thought they were about to get all three, Mark. This time it was up against Brighton. What happened? The best way I can explain it is a game happened. there wasn't a great deal of action probably be on last on match today but I don't want to be too disparaging about the game I think a draw was probably about right I think that the point that you make about Wolves having a lead which they haven't had too often this season and then sort of giving it up was unfortunate but I do think they attracted Brighton onto them a little bit right they were sitting deeper probably after about 55 to 60 minutes and you think you can't do this for that long and it was about I think it was 86 minutes that Jan-Paul Van Hecker scored from the it was a corner that was played short and eventually crossed in it was an excellent header as well but they they probably Wolves looked quite dangerous on the counter-attack if nothing else but in possession it fell a little bit I think it was said in commentary as well that there was a kind of attention for a team that is sitting at the bottom of the league to think as long as we don't make a mistake here it was very risk averse if I can just play it backwards to a teammate, then it's not my problem.

23:31I've not been the one to give up possession. And if you do that across enough sequences, it ends up going back to the goalkeeper and can't go further back. It just felt a little bit negative at times, but they did look pretty dangerous on the counter-attack. But credit to Brighton. They came back into the game and did really well. It's interesting that both of the goals, albeit not from first contact, but both of the goals came from set pieces. And it's been widely spoken about, I know, but this season in the Premier League, it's been a season so far of set pieces. And of course, I looked into the numbers on this, including penalties, so all dead ball situations.

24:0735 % of the total goals scored in the Premier League this season have been via set pieces. And that's the highest in the data set that I at least have, going back to 2018-19. Does that include throw-ins, he said stupidly? No, I believe so. Yeah, absolutely. So it's when you can get a dead ball situation, get your choreographed routines out and get it into the mixer because it's clearly effective. Wow. Anyone who's a fan of anguished fans on TV should watch behind the goal as that Brighton equaliser goes in because it wasn't completely full, the Wolves end, so you can actually make out people a bit more clearly and there was so many sort of just that moment of understanding that the two points had just disappeared out of the road.

24:51But there's still... Was Vitor Pereira sat there? Because he got sent off early on in this. yeah he um he protested how was it belabor that that got booked for a foul on the touchline it didn't need to be protested that much so he kicked the ball towards the fourth official is that right towards the match official yeah i it didn't require that much uh anger i don't think he was just frustrated by it this was in the first half as well and so it wasn't like they'd just thrown away the lead um and was duly sent off and then within about 90 seconds wolves go on and score so maybe it was a good luck channel i don't know there you go there you go uh daniel if you have nothing else to add on that next up we can hear about aston villa clocking their fourth consecutive victory this one coming against burnley watching our villa park was jacob tanswell who joins us now

25:47jacob you're live from erstwa crisis club aston villa following the 2-1 victory over burnley what's going on there? Four straight wins. Yeah, the Guardian seems a little bit rosy now, doesn't it? I think that was always going to be the case, really. You saw these four games and you thought this is a really good chance for Villa to turn around. You know, two pretty favourable home games on paper in the league. Then you have Europa League, which always tends to be a bit of a salvation for struggling teams. You know, you saw that with Tottenham last year. And in fairness, Villa's players are looking more confident because they're scoring, because they're winning games.

26:18You saw it, the fact that Villa didn't score a goal on the first team in the top seven divisions and yet to score a goal. So that obviously weighed on them. But now they look a little more free going forwards. Of course, there are still vulnerabilities. You saw that in the final 15 minutes against Burnley when they pulled a goal back. But it just feels like Villa are starting to get into their mojo. Not quite there yet, but the signs are promising. They do go a little bit under the radar, Villa. Daniel Marlon with the brace in this game. But who would be the most kind of under-the-radar-esque player at the moment for Villa?

26:47You always have to say Lamar Bogard, really. A young player. He's a player that Emery hasn't quite developed young players since he's come to the club. And that's something that he wants to develop and he wants to do in the next couple of years. With Bogard, he's a player that's very versatile, a right back, a right side, a centre back, a centre midfield. He's not been seen as one of these players that would go on to these heights. But he started today. He's been fantastic in recent games. He's very intelligent. He's only 21, 22, but he can play multiple positions. He's got a very good game awareness.

27:16and now as Emery always like to say, he's got this real structure and he understands the structure of Emery's team. So Bogart is a young Dutch international, very good, very composed and I think he's probably been a shining light in the last few weeks. And a word for Morgan Rodgers who continued his excellent series of assists. Yes, what is it now? He's had eight assists since April. In fairness to Rodgers, he's had a really tricky time really. You saw he got cheered when he made a pass against Bologna. He got cheered when he came off against Sunderland. And he's been maybe Villa's worst player this season.

27:49He's really struggled. But today and against Bayern on Thursday, of course, he's not been polished and he's still been quite loose in his passing. But he keeps getting the ball. He keeps getting into these great positions. And if you get enough chances and you get enough opportunities in that number 10 position, driving at the back line, you're going to create and obviously record assists. So it's very good for him. He just needs now to go up to the levels that we saw last season. Villa, when they come back from the international break, will be away at Spurs. What do you think Emeril will be most focused on over the next 10, 12 days?

28:23I think rest. I think more or less is the case with him, really, because he's such an obsessive. His players are tactically demanding and they sit in long analysis sessions. They had four before the game today. So I think the players will be burned out. I think it's a good time for them to go on to the international break. It's a good time for them to go back to home if they're not away with their countries. but with Emery you always know that he'll be planning and this is why this period before the international break was so key to win these games because they've got Tottenham they've got Liverpool coming up they've got these big tough games that they might not win but they've now got points on the board and they've got a bit of momentum so that's the most important thing heading into this international break Spurs, Man City and then Liverpool the first three back after the international break Jacob I hope you have a lovely spell off as well and thank you so much for that Thank you mate appreciate it

29:14cheery stuff from Jacob Townswell that's the Villa on the march up the Premier League table at the top of which there was a change this weekend we'll get on to that after this

29:44Enzo Fernandes. Liverpool lost it in stoppage time in London last weekend. Here's Kukureya. Right across for Esteban!

29:54What a moment for the 18-year-old! His first Chelsea goal has got Mariska down the touchline. Top two in the Premier League. Arsenal and Liverpool swap places on Saturday. The Gunners moving a point clear of the champions after their win over West Ham. and Liverpool's defeat away to Chelsea. In front of the watching Madonna, who of course penned True Blue in celebration of her deep affiliation with the Stamford Bridge side. Wild scenes at the end for Chelsea with Enzo Maresca doing a Jose down the touchline, kind of. Picking up a yellow card, getting sent off. Biggest win for Chelsea since New Jersey, Daniel?

30:38Oh yeah, definitely since New Jersey. just the kind of resilience for one the fact that they had to do things in game which felt a bit uncomfortable so I thought Rhys James was he wasn't the best player on the pitch but his ability to play in multiple positions kind of ironic that him and Trent are the sort of two England right backs and Liverpool really look like they've got a problem at right back that they're really struggling to solve and Chelsea for as long as Rhys James stays fit and will always provide a consistency. He can play central midfield, he can play right back, he can play right wing back, he can play central defence for a bit here.

31:15So I thought the way they managed that was really effective. And Esteval getting the goal at the end because Chelsea have an awful lot of wide attacking players and what they need is someone to go on a run and deliver or at least support Gio Pedro. And so Esteval scoring is massive as well. As soon as Liverpool equalised, I thought, last season memory kicked in and I kind of thought that Liverpool would go on and win the game they'd be the one that pushed but it was Chelsea doing that so that feels like a change as well I still got no idea about Chelsea by the way I still think they could finish fifth or they could finish second I've got no idea but that makes the moments that they produce all the more important and this was a huge one So a win achieved without Cole Palmer so many other players absent as well for Enzo Mareska's side so a really really impressive performance.

32:06Liverpool meanwhile, first time that Arnie Slott's lost three games in a row in his managerial career. What's up with Liverpool? You mentioned Trent, this is kind of the weekend when everyone's bringing up Trent. Mo Salah, maybe his form bears some factoring into this whole conundrum. Are they the kind of issues that can be fixed over an international break, do we think, for Arnie Slott? Good question. I think naturally when you have that much turnover in the squad. Of course, they had such an unbelievably terrible sum of themselves as humans, never mind sort of on-pitch stuff. I think the amount of bodies that they got through the door in terms of turnover means that they do need to take some time to get used to how each other plays.

32:49The runs and that will all come. I know that's been spoken about quite widely, but when you're a team the size of Liverpool, you need that to click quite quickly. But then yesterday, Slott did refer back to, or go back to Sobbsle, McAllister and Gravenberg in the middle to try and just get a bit more familiarity again. And it still didn't quite work. I think the credit does have to go to Chelsea. The way that they were really, really aggressive and stopped Liverpool kind of building through the thirds was impressive. But I don't think there's anything you can really put your finger on specifically.

33:19It's not just right back. It's not just left back. It's not the fact that the attack isn't quite clicking. It's not just Salah. It's kind of all of the above. I think specifically yesterday, it was a little bit the case that Liverpool kind of struggled building through the thirds because of Marmadashvili. The fact that he's left-footed I thought was quite crucial because they were playing passes to him, I think almost thinking it was Alisson, and he was having to just shuffle it back onto his left foot or play it with his weaker right foot. And he was kind of fine with it, and there wasn't an error per se, but it meant that each then subsequent pass was laboured, and by which point Chelsea were just able to be in position and basically intercept the Liverpool attack.

33:56So it was very stilted, very uncomfortable to watch, very laboured in the way that Liverpool were trying to build through the thirds. There were a lot of misplaced passes, all things which were just so unlike Liverpool last season, basically. Yeah, I think something that's gone a little bit under the radar is Alexis McAllister's form as well. He was so crucial, particularly in the second half of last season. And he just looks, I mean, I know he's had quite a lot of injury problems, but he really looks off it. And as Mark says, you know, where do you want to start? The attack's not clicking. Kerkers is, I mean...

34:29They need to improve on crosses. They need to improve on defending. Yeah. I mean, Arnie Slott needs to dig out that Moyes tweet and do his own version. But then again, on the flip side, some of the reaction has been insane. Really? Yeah, I mean, like people sort of, you know... I mean, obviously, a club like Liverpool will have a larger online fan base than others. But, you know, the sort of anti-slot... Have people been doing face swaps on him? No, he hasn't quite got to face swap. Well, they're quite an easy person to face swap, I imagine. But he hasn't got to that stage yet. But, yeah, you know, like people already talking about who Liverpool's next manager should be.

35:06I mean, come on, it's, you know, he's one of only two managers to win in the league in the last 30-odd years. So there is a lot to work out. But this is why Mark and I will bang the sample size drum in August and September because, yes, Liverpool won their first five league games, but a lot of those were quite fortunate. They're better than they've shown this week, but they're probably not as good as they looked, maybe, in the late summer. The truth lies somewhere in between. Trent, as I mentioned, getting a lot of references conspicuous by his absence in this season's Liverpool. Mike says, was TAA actually incredibly underrated?

35:47Liverpool having huge problems now at full-back finding it so hard to progress the ball I had to laugh, says Mike at match the day analysing Salah not helping Bradley as if that ever happened with Trent who was just mocked for being a poor defender Well, Cucurella pointed out post-game that Chelsea had worked on attacking Liverpool's right-hand side because they know that Salah doesn't really track back so yeah, I think there was some harsh criticism of Alexander-Arnold for his defending when he actually, not only did he do that reasonably well, but his ability to step in midfield and play the passes that maybe McAllister and Gravenberg can't do has also been missed.

36:26Sorely missed. I wrote that piece, as Duncan will know, about Liverpool changing their out-of-possession approach. I won't labour on it too long, but the idea basically being that Gakpo is now starting a little bit deeper out-of-possession, which allows McAllister to shuffle along, which allows Gravenberg to shuffle along as well to try and support whoever the right-back is, and there have been many so far this season, to try and mitigate the fact that Salah doesn't tend to track back very much. That didn't happen quite as much yesterday, which is why I think Conor Bradley, especially in the first half, well, it was only him in the first half, and he obviously got hooked at half-time, was quite exposed, which I think was quite telling that they were targeting it.

37:00On the point of Trent Alexander-Arnold in possession, one thing that he did, we know about his passing range in general, but often when the team, the opposition was coming on to him, onto Liverpool specifically, he was able to play that ball, off on a diagonal or sort of up the line to Salah. And as much as anything, yes, it was a searching pass, but it was also a bit of a release valve for the pressure. And they don't quite have that at the moment as well. And the other player who no one seems to mention at all, but who left is Luis Diaz. And he was often the recipient of those balls and was able to sort of hold the ball up.

37:34And that's another big loss. And it is hard to change a team so significantly. On the subject of Mo Salah, if he doesn't track back and he also doesn't score goals, he's got what? Let's check this out. He's got four goals in the last 16 Premier League matches. Is it heresy to suggest that maybe he could do with a spell out? Or again, is that too small a sample size? Personally, I would say it's not even small sample size. I just feel like he's judged by his own standards, of course. I think that for the goal that Liverpool scored, it came from the fact that Dominic Soberslai, when he moved to right back, was overlapping and having bodies and supporting Salah, there was a lot of occasions throughout the whole game where he was isolated.

38:16And sometimes he likes that because it means that he can face up the opposition fullback one-by-one and have a bit of space to run into and then you need runners ahead of him. There was a lot of times where, I think it was actually when Florian Wirtz came on, there was a very specific example where he gave the ball to Salah. With that magnificent spin. No, that was a fantastic, what could have been assist, chance created, which was really good. And that's the sort of positions you want to get Salah in. but it was some later in the second half where he gave it to Salah thinking okay well you're the guy I should be giving it to and then I think turned his back to the ball and just sort of ran away and then it was Salah against two to three Chelsea players and it was like he needs runners ahead of him he needs bodies ahead of him and that's when he can either cut inside and play those back post crosses that he did so so well last season or maybe cut inside and score or shoot whatever it may be when he's so so isolated he can't really do any of those quite as well So I think it was telling that when Sabasla overlapped him, he had a pass to make for then the subsequent cross to be made and then the subsequent goal to be scored.

39:15They've got Man United coming up at Anfield straight after the international break. They've caused some problems in the past, Daniel, and also not. Daniel, what's your take on how much Schlock is going to be able to sort out over the next 10 to 12 days? I mean, it's really difficult. Cool. The Salah question is a really interesting and instructive one, I think, because if you've got five problems to solve, Arnaz Slott is effectively left with two options, right? He tries to solve all of them at once. So he tries to get the perfect team together and hopes that when it clicks, Liverpool, you know, everybody knows, right, this is what I'm supposed to be doing.

39:51This is how we're supposed to operate. We're now all good again. If you try and do that compartmentalised, you know, you say, let's take out Salah. And then you think, right, we solved the other problems. Well, there's a chance that when you bring Salah in, everybody has to learn how to do that again. And if you're in a title race or you're expected to be in a title race, that's really hard to do because that can take like two or three months and you might not have two or three months. So I suspect he's going to have to try and solve them all at once. I think the Trent thing is interesting because the question is whether they're sort of missing players and what they did or they just have, there's so much change that different players are operating in a different way.

40:28So I think Dominic Slobberslai could be a really good right back, but he's a very different one to Trent. I think Frimpon could be a good right back, but he's a very different one to Trent. I think Connor Bradley maybe could be a fill-in, but he's a different one to Trent. So all the options they have are not just different to Alexander-Arnold. They're also different to each other. So it's almost like every team he picks feels like the first day of the season at the moment, and we're not quite sure how they'll play. And that's, you know, the international break is massive for that because, yeah, two weeks on the training ground is something that managers of elite clubs, Champions League clubs, don't get very often.

41:00Although he won't have too many of his squad there with him because they'll be off on international break. Arsenal now one point ahead of Liverpool at the top of the table. They beat West Ham 2-0. Goals from former West Ham boy Declan Rice and then Bukayo Saka with the penalty. 21 shots and 47 touches in the opposition box for Arsenal, which are their best numbers in a game this season. That was the good news. The bad news is that, once again, Martin Odegaard has gone off. Indeed, he's left before half-time in each of his last three Premier League starts. Aye, aye, aye. This time it's a... First time that's ever happened in the Premier League.

41:40Third time. First time. Oh, first time. Yeah, and it's ridiculous, really, because he came off injured in midweek in the Champions League as well. And it's almost like, give him a rest, Mikel. but then the flip side argument to that would be that he has been back to his best at times this season so I can see why he was risked Indeed, a medial collateral ligament, an MCL who wants to venture a medical opinion on the likely duration of that? I really wouldn't know but it doesn't sound good, I don't know if you know Daniel but unless I google it It's not that bad It's about 3-4 weeks 3-4 weeks the MCL It's the hipster ligament.

42:20Yeah. It's an ACL light, let's put it that way. West Ham, who are now managed, of course, by Nuno Espirito Santo, have picked up four points from their first seven games, which is their joint worst start ever in the Premier League. Just on Arsenal's defence, which is imperious, and I know Daniel loves this sort of chat, they've considered three so far now, I think. Is Chelsea's 15 under threat? We had this chat with Burnley, didn't we, last season? But that wouldn't have counted because it was in the championship. Do you know the last team to score more than twice against Arsenal in the Premier League was Luton Town two seasons ago, which is mad.

43:02That is mad. So they've conceded three in seven. Seven is about 20 % of the season. So five times three is 15. So you're pretty much on track to match Mourinho-era Chelsea. That's remarkable. Yeah, they're on about 16 at the moment, so they need to tighten up a bit, but they got a chance. All right, well, best wishes to Martin Odegaard. A lot of positivity, though, regarding how Arsenal performed without him once he did go off, thanks to the arrival of Zubimendi, of course. Anything else you want to add on this, or should we get on to the likes of Spurs and Manchester United and, yes, Bournemouth?

43:44We'll do that then, next.

43:51You'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. Way for the Premier League. All sorts of things have been happening. For example, Barcelona getting absolutely not sure what word you use. Spanked, I hope, really. Spanked by Seville. Seville. this weekend 4-1. Also around Europe, Juventus and Milan going at it on Sunday night. Don't know what's happened in that because that hasn't actually kicked off yet. But I'm warming up to say that all these stories and their outcomes will be featured in the Totally Football Show European Edition, which will be out with you first thing Tuesday morning.

44:35It'll also feature another record for Harry Kane, who's now set a record for the number of consecutive games that he set a record in. I think also word on the future of San Siro Giuseppe Mianza and loads of other stuff in the Totally Football Show European Edition with myself James Horncastle Julian Aronnes Paul Belouz and Seb Stafford Bloor speaking of away from the Premier League Daniel you went to see the best team in Scotland on Saturday and they don't play in Glasgow

45:19Yeah, I went to my first Edinburgh Derby. It was kind of everything I wanted to be. Like really nasty before the game. Really blood and thunder and, I mean, a nonsense wind as well for the game. and then Hearts scored with pretty much the last kick to win the derby. And yeah, I mean, I went up for this on the road series because not just because of Hearts, but because I think the story for the kind of the narrative or the core celeb for like 20, 25, maybe even longer years was that will the old firm come down and play in England? And actually, it now seems that the alternative, the flip side of that might be the far more relevant question because Hearts have what they've been invested in by Tony Bloom at Brighton and Bournemouth's owners have a minority stake in Hibs.

46:11So it's kind of the first Edinburgh Derby with Premier League investment. And I genuinely think, I'm not just saying this because I went, but I genuinely think it could be a game changer for Scottish football because I don't think it would take a huge amount of investment with the state that Celtic and Rangers are in at the moment now to create a title challenge. I didn't see Hearts being top of the league at this point, and they are, and they are deservedly so. But their recruitment this summer, their best player at the weekend was a guy they signed from a Slovakian top-tier club. They signed players from Germany and Portugal, and they've got this Kazakhstani guy joining in January who everyone's very excited about.

46:48So they are kind of in with the Tony Bloom data model anyway. And yeah, it's really interesting. It can bring competition to Scotland. it can improve the league it can the question I have for supporters is whether there's any degree of that subservience to a Premier League club sits awkwardly in any way but I don't think they have a choice because the finances of Scottish football are so weighted against everybody but Celtic and Rangers that you take your chance when you can so yeah the piece will be out I think this Thursday so I'm really looking forward to writing it To back up Daniel's point I think the Scottish League was quite slow in adopting data and things like that and their recruitment.

47:26And I think that's where they really fell behind some of the sort of equivalent European leagues in size and stature. And I think it's pretty exciting. I mean, having a team other than Rangers or Celtic win the Scottish title would be good. I mean, obviously, Bournemouth and Brighton, as Daniel mentioned, there's a bit of other South Coast influence as well with Russell Martin going from Southampton to... He's doing his bit for the team's president. Yeah, well, he's helping as well. So they've got a plucky point at full Kirk, so, yeah. Excellent. Excellent. Also should mention that the Old Farm derby took place this weekend and for the first time in 6 ,013 days, it saw Ipswich Town beating Norwich City in that celebrated fixture.

48:143-1. Yeah, the Athletics' Michael Bailey, I spoke to yesterday, was very concerned, he's a Norwich fan, that they would lose for the first time to Ipswich since the iPad had been invented. And lo and behold, maybe they'll start selling it in East Anglia. 16 years, 14 matches in that time. Sorry, Daniel. Some incredible S-housery at that game as well. So for people that don't know, Marcelino Nunes became the first player for a long time to go between the clubs this season when signing from Norwich for Ipswich. And some Ipswich town supporters had brought a banner, which was effectively a screenshot of a Norwich fan's tweet that said, build Nunez a statue already from when he was a Norwich player.

48:57And they had this massive banner in the home end. It was, yeah, it was pretty fruity at full time. Ipswich were, by miles, the better team. They've kind of flat to deceive the season, but if they keep playing like that, they will go up. And yeah, some of Norwich's defending was not safe for work, quite literally. Crikey. Excellent. There you go. That was Ipswich 3, Norwich 1, which is the exact same scoreline actually. I noticed that our next game that we're going to talk about featured that's Bournemouth 3-1 Fulham from Friday. I asked the question, which I read in The Athletic, is Antoine Semenya the best player in the Premier League right now?

49:38Effective, says Daniel. Duncan, you're going to say yes, aren't you? You love him. Well, I wrote that headline so I'm going to back up. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I think as we talked about earlier, he is just, yeah, I just love how two-footed he is. like he's not just a player that can use his weaker foot it's like he genuinely is equally talented with both feet and that is a good thing Did you know that because I saw this I think on the TV yesterday and I had to check it in the numbers he has taken the most non-penalty shots of any player since the start of last season in the Premier League more than Erling Haaland and it's just jarring you just think that it's always central strikers who are going to be at the top of that list and Semenya is on 141 non-penalty shots and ahead of Harlan, Salah, Cole Palmer, all the big names.

50:25And he himself, of course, now is a big name, fantastic player. And maybe it's because he's able to shoot off both feet that there's no angle too tight that he can't still get a shot away. Speaking of tight angles, how about that opening goal in this game? Wow. Yeah, the way that he... Well, there was two players doubling up on him and you thought, OK, well, he's kind of going to a bit of a cul-de-sac. He might need to turn out and pass it, maybe make a run as a consequence. But he thought, no, I'm going to just drive to the byline, keep the ball in and then I think he said in his post-match interview he said he looked up and there was no one there so may as well go for it but he managed to yeah exactly it wasn't even I think sometimes it's so much more satisfying if it's just cleanly through rather than just like off the goalkeeper's back leg and then you know in whatever it is I was watching that game with some people and I think at least two of them involuntarily went whoa because just seeing the net bulge from that position it defied logic for a few seconds Justin Kluivert's goal a moment for a lot of his teammates as well.

51:23You are predicting the Cherries to finish in the top six this season, Daniel. Yeah, I think I said that a few weeks ago, so it would be remiss of you not to bring it up when they win, so thank you. Yeah, I just think the amount of teams in Europe this season was always going to create an advantage for someone else. I kind of wondered whether it would be Manchester United, but maybe not. But Bournemouth are very very good at lots and lots of things there's no obvious weakness in the team they have rebuilt the defense and I always think the sign of a brilliantly run football club or elite football club is when players leave and the their replacements look better than the players who left for more money and I can't think of a better example this season so far than Kirk has and Trouffer because he just looks made for Bournemouth and this it's this it's this ability to have these plug-in and play signings that always look like they've already been at the club six months before you see them play.

52:22And that's a huge compliment to the environment of the club. And it's a huge compliment to Andoni Arreola and his role in that because, yeah, they are really, really, really hard to play against. And they also, like, they are punching above their weight by such a distance. If you go to that ground, it is small. It isn't a football heartland necessarily, but they're just really, really sensible and clever and smart and do things right and squeeze things out of players who you don't expect so you know Lewis Cook and Adam Smith and the the kind of unheralded players the glue that makes everything stick together they're really really good at it so eventually what happens in this is that a club has that rise and then the bigger clubs switch on and think we need to shut this down either by signing their players which people have tried with Bournemouth or by shutting down the style.

53:13So that's the kind of next era of Bournemouth. But I don't see any reason they can't finish in the top six. I'm currently lying fourth, two points off the top. They will struggle to repeat that trick of selling somebody and having a better player coming in, in the case of Antoine Semenyo, as and when he does move, which is likely to be, I guess, a big story maybe next summer. But sorry, Duncan. I mean, the other fear, I guess, for Bournemouth fans would be that Irelia is targeted and picked up by someone else. But I think he's really enjoying the freedom and the space he has to do to instil his principles at Bournemouth.

53:46I think for someone like him going to a bigger club and doing that, we've seen many times, it's not as easy to walk into a hyper club and make that much difference. But he was out running the line in an under-8 girls game. Was he? Yeah, so it's good to see him. Excellent. There you go. They're lying fourth. Manchester United, who Daniel mentioned as potential beneficiaries of a nice gentle midweek calendar by and large, did indeed this week get a victory. They beat Sunderland. What's that stat about? Is it 50 % of all Ruben Alvaro's wins in the Premier League have been against promoted sides? Yeah.

54:27There you go. So 2-0 against Sunderland. But was there a bit of flexibility here? A lot of people accusing him of being too wedded to his 3-5-2. but was there a different approach from Man United here, Mark? I'm not too sure. I think as much as anything, the fact that he was playing the players that he was, including Mason Mount, I know that Mason Mount scored the goal. I always feel like Manchester United just look better in and out of possession. It's widely spoken about, but I do think that's the case. When Mason Mount is in the team. When Mason Mount, right. I think so. I think the widely spoken about thing is that he looks so porous in midfield when there's just a midfield two.

55:02Mount can play a little bit further forward, but when Manchester United are out of possession, and he can start to plug a few gaps and block a few passing lanes, etc. Should I be getting ready for the Mason Mount kind of redemption of bandwagon? If he can stay fit, I think that's the thing. And it's one of those as well with the firepower that Manchester United have added this summer. I always like to say it's your best 11 or your 11 best. And if it's your 11 best, you'd maybe include Sesko, Brian Ibermo and Matthias Cunha. but I think that your best 11 probably includes Mason Mount for the reasons I described.

55:35So I think with Sesco and the team as well, it seemed like they were doing it more of playing directly. Sometimes they do just circulate it around the back and it's for passing sake, but then when they do go direct to Sesco, he can then get a flick on. And I basically think United look most dangerous when they go a little bit more direct and now they've got someone who can make it stick or flick it on better than Rasmus Hoyland, basically. Mount's one of those players. His career is absolutely bizarre, really. I was looking at this the other day for something else about England. And Mount was the player fouled for Harry Kane to get the penalty that England missed in the last World Cup against France.

56:15So he was central to that massive moment of England's last World Cup. And it's pretty much his last cap. I think it might even have been his last cap, 2022. He's got like 36 England caps. He's only 26 and he hasn't played for England for three and a half years now, or three years now because it was a Winter World Cup. He's just a very strange player. Obviously, Manchester United has been really bad for him. But I agree with Mark. He makes a difference to teams. There's a reason why managers really like him. I think there was a really interesting sliding doors moment when Manchester City signed.

56:50Both he and Jack Grealish were both available at roughly the same time. And City went for Grealish rather than Mount. and I think they were looking at Mount at the time and Guardiola liked him. It's been really interesting to see how those two careers could have gone differently over the last three or so years since because I think it's fair to say that they both kind of all made the wrong choice. Wow, Grealish at United and City with Mason Mount. A better world is possible. And Mount's finish in this game was excellent. Yes. I think the other thing we should mention is that and Manchester United fans were singing about Peter Schmeichel on Saturday was the Senna Lamon's debut in goal and was good at catching and saving and kicking and I think that made quite a big difference so United that's three homings in a row they've got now they're only five points off the top now they're not going to challenge for the title I suspect six points six points off the top six points yeah but it's a very condensed Premier League and to Daniel's point you do think that But, you know, Bournemouth, Man United, maybe Sunderland, Everton, with fewer commitments, it's a really good chance for them to get a top five finish, which should be Champions League football.

58:07Manchester United in the Champions League. It could happen, says the Athletics' Duncan Alexander. Nice to have some good news to report about Man United for once. And also, the other thing is, we know everyone, there's a lot of Ruben Amirim stats that people know, but one of the classics is that he hasn't won back-to-back games since being there. As we mentioned earlier, their next game is against Liverpool. And, I mean, the narrative gods have served us up a treat there. I mean, that's a game to look forward to. Certainly is. Only four wins away from that lad getting a haircut now as well, actually.

58:42The other game from this weekend, which I'm not sure how it's ended up last, last but by no means least you would call it it leads one spurs two by assassin lunchtime which was kind of a pint of pure premier league with pouring rain and lots of physicality and people getting stuck in daniel did you enjoy yeah i really did yeah i said like i said at the top of the show that watching the game if this had been last season there was as there was a 0 % chance that Spurs would have won that game because they completely lost control in the second half. When Xavi Simons went off, I think pretty much, I don't know if coincidence or just the changes enabled Leeds to kind of feel that are stronger.

59:29But yeah, Spurs ground it out and they just haven't done that recently. And they are near the top of the league because they have been doing that in the league more often than not. I went back and looked and between the start of November 2023 and the end of last season, so that covers pretty much all of Anz Postacoglu's tenure. Spurs only won one away game in which they conceded. That was 4-1 at Ipswich. So basically, whenever they face any adversity on the road, either going behind or a team comes back at them, they just didn't win the matches. They either scored first, were pegged back, and then just sort of wilted, or they conceded first and never got back into the match.

1:00:08And these are the things, I think, where Frank is making that tangible difference. There will obviously be little things he's doing. the new players help, but there just seems to be a different resolve amongst Spurs players that haven't been there before. I was really worried at the start of the game when I saw the front three. It looked too kind of weak to me. I was not sure if that Leeds are a really physical team in midfield and in defence and I thought that might kind of Tottenham might just look a bit powder puff against them, but they got it done. We saw that resolve of which you speak as well in the Champions League midweek when they came from two goals down to Bodo Glimp to earn a point.

1:00:42Lovely to see Mattes Tell getting a goal here as well. I imagine that'll mean the world to him. Yeah, he was picked out as a really good story for the fact that he's got, I think, by Thomas Frank saying he was so, so pleased for him. I think it was Mohamed Kudus' first goal for Spurs as well. So really glad that both of them got off the mark, I suppose. I think Kudus has been the main creative threat almost too much, I'd say, in the early weeks of the season for Spurs. I think they kind of lack the same balance on the other side. And it's kind of been up to Kudus to create something or cross the ball each time and hope that someone gets on the end of it.

1:01:18And again, looking in the numbers, he's had 60 take-ons already this season, which is comfortably higher than any other Spurs player, but comfortably higher than any other player in the league. So it very much has been get it to him and then hope that he kind of does something with it. But just speaking about that balance, I think since Destiny Udoggy's come back into the side from left-back, he can make those forward underlapping or overlapping runs again. And it does kind of get Spurs forward a little bit more on the left-hand side because previously it had been Jed Spence playing his weaker foot, essentially, and often coming inside or maybe playing it backwards.

1:01:51I think they've now got a bit kind of thrust going on on either side. So I think that's been a key reason why they've, I say, picked up. They've been about par, I'd say, in the opening part of the season, but they've looked a little bit more potent going forward, I think, in recent weeks. All right, line third. Just two points off the top of the table. Leeds losing a game at home in the league for the first time in over a year. 385 days. We should mention the beach ball or inflatable ball. Right. Which almost got in the way when Okafor equalised. I mean, to the extent that it was in front of Vicario and he batted it away in anger, which is, you know, how you should treat a beach ball.

1:02:29Were you rooting for a Sunderland-style beach ball incident? Probably not as much as Darren Bent's agent was, I suppose. but yeah it was and we know now that if it had got in the way the goal wouldn't stand wouldn't stand yeah mad as that that goal stood yeah different times different times well there you go that was the Premier League on this match day seven anything else you want to add Daniel before we head off into the ether I'm going away on holiday this week to the Isles of Scilly where I will yeah I know well we not just reporting not just reporting on the world's smallest football league but actually playing in the game next Sunday no way that's going to be fun what?

1:03:09yep wow no deadline day no transfer windows on the Isles of Scilly amazing amazing well best of luck with that may the best team win what position are you going to be playing has that been agreed? I think substitute will be probably the natural position to start with and then where I'm told I mean it all depends on it all depends on whether I can get a boat from St Agnes to St Mary's on the morning of the game, but I'm reliably informed that one will be running to take me over. So it is on. Wow, that's extraordinary. Well, when you return, look forward to hearing all about that. Thank you for today, Daniel.

1:03:49Have a super time in the silly hours. Mark, thank you for being with us this Sunday evening. Duncan, thank you for struggling through the vagaries of big city transport. Yeah. And listener stroke viewer, thank you for joining us in making us part of your Premier League experience. That's what I'd call it. We'll have another Totally For You, the European one that will be up Tuesday morning and then Thursday we return with the regular show. So do look out for those for now from all of us here. It's goodbye.

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