Man City stage incredible comeback at Anfield to keep title race alive

0:00The Athletic FC

0:30Eddie Howe too. Is it now a question of when for Howe and Herzl are as well? And why is it called football? All the questions that we'll be looking at in today's Totally Football Show.

0:43Sunday the 8th of February and we're recording our Monday morning, Manchester 25 roundup. We have Daniel Storey on the big screen. Hey, Daniel. Hello, James. Hello there, Daniel. And here in the studio, Tim Spears. Hey. Hey to you, Tim. And also Ruben Pinder. Hello. Fresh back from the M23 thing. We'll get into that, yeah. All right. That was before on Sunday, but what we've just seen was the extraordinary finale to the Liverpool Man City game. Holland, huge! And the race is on! Manchester City trailed at Anfield. in stoppage time, they lead at Anfield. I'm not sure where to even begin with this, possibly with the very final significant moment, which was the third Man City goal that never was.

1:41And Liverpool's goal is empty, and Cherki has played it forward, and Haaland will get there first, and Somerset hold him back, and the ball rolled in, and that wins the game. The final decision is a direct free kick to Manchester City and a red card. One of the weirdest incidents or collection of incidents I can remember in Premier League history. Firstly, I think the worst shot from halfway line that I've ever seen from an elite professional, Brian Shirky, which should not be... Why? Yeah, I mean, because they can reach the goal. It was a goal, wasn't it? Yeah. It went in, Daniel. Just a little bit of context for anyone who didn't see the game.

2:26it had been an inconclusive affair until what was it about 73 minutes was it when 74 74 when Slobber's life had a stunning a sensational missile that free kick was incredible yeah very similar to the one he scored against Arsenal in August heading towards Donnarumma for the slightest of split seconds and then pierces right into the corner and Donnarumma just doesn't even know in honour of the Super Bowl this evening I would call it a post-corner pattern, a post-corner route, I think the Americans would have it. Where he goes straight, the receiver would barrel downfield and then veer off at the last minute.

3:04And it was a beautifully executed goal and felt like a deserved lead for Liverpool at that point, Ruben. Yeah, absolutely. I think it was a little bit of a basketball match, as the cliche goes. It was quite end-to-end and very open. Not quite what we're used to seeing between these two teams in the last 10 years. The quality wasn't quite there, which led to a lot of scatty midfield play. But Liverpool were the more threatening team, it felt like, and the goal was probably deserved, like Tim says, kind of almost identical to the one at the start of the season, but kind of with the opposite trajectory.

3:37Instead of a dip and curl, it was a dip and swerve almost. And at that point, we're all thinking, where would Liverpool be without slobbers like this season? The funny thing is we'll find out midweek, of course. But then City somehow dragged themselves back into it, Daniel. Yeah, Neville's glory on Skycoms, where he sort of said, what we need is Erling Haaland and Bernardo Silva to step up. Okay, fair enough. That has now happened. A ball is crossed into the box. Haaland does his Nile Quinn to Kevin Phillips by winning a really good header, to be fair, and knocking it down. And Liverpool, I think because the game was so frantic at that point, and as Ruben says, there were lots of mistakes, it was a really wonky defensive line.

4:17Sabozai was probably a yard too deep. Van Dijk was probably a second too slow. And Bernardo was the guy who popped up his first goal of the season, which surprised me. I thought he was probably the game's best player in terms of like the good stuff and the naughty stuff. That tackle at the end at 2-1 where he just sort of lashes out at flooring verts. Maybe the defining player as much as the best in the game. But yeah, City got into it and it did then feel like there was a really odd situation, which is that when seven minutes went up, it's really unusual. normally when that happens and the game is a draw one set of fans sort of roars as if to say we've still got time and actually at Anfield both sets of fans roared which is just I can't remember hearing for a long time as if like anyone can still win this chaos but it did feel like City would probably be the ones that did it because they needed it more and had the advantage or it seized the advantage at that point um I love how into this game we are by the way we're just straight into it we just want to talk about it uh but anyway that that goal the equaliser it's sort of really epitomised New City because if you freeze frame it just before the cross comes in, there aren't any City players lurking outside the box waiting for them to do their little oval passes, you know, sashaying around.

5:27There's four players in the box waiting for the cross, no one really lurking outside. And there are only four Liverpool defenders marking them. So when there is the slightest of little darting runs from Bernardo Silva, the Liverpool defenders don't know how to handle it because there are no spare defenders to sort of counter that. So that goal just wouldn't have happened a couple of years ago because City never line up. like that. That's also kind of symptomatic of the league more broadly right like that style of football. Arsenal seem like the only team who are really good enough and dominant enough to play that suffocate you into your own final third and eventually find a way through whereas City this season have had to lean into more up and down dynamic play.

6:06So all of a sudden City at a level which seems to not Liverpool well out of their stride had they sat back Daniel? Was it one of those moments when they when they'd taken their foot off the gas a little bit too much at 1-0 up? I think there was probably an inevitability of that, particularly they'd been pushing so hard to score the opening goal and then they'd scored it. I don't blame them for that in any way because City looked deflated at least for a few minutes. Guardiola was on the bench, kind of sat back like, is this happening again? And yeah, they put a lot into the game. I don't, it didn't, until City scored, it felt like they were playing percentages, but not necessarily going to win them, which was sort of the whole game in a nutshell for me, kind of risk versus reward and neither team getting enough of either.

6:53But yeah, I suppose in hindsight, they were the ones pushing. And to completely sum up the game again, it was a brainless decision from an individual player to give them the winner. So this is Alisson with his challenge on Nunes. On Nunes, thank you, yeah. So a brainless decision to come and challenge for that ball. Well, brainless in so much as it was pure instinct. It was kind of getting caught up in the moment. It was like, I want to make the difference. I feel I need to do something to stamp my authority on a game that feels like nobody can get hold of the ball even, never mind the contest.

7:30And yeah, I mean, he's slightly unfortunate, I suppose, that the ball wasn't out by the time he fouled Nunes. But he did foul Nunes at that point. It has to be a penalty. I know he kind of argued the point, but as soon as you saw the replay, it was pretty obvious. Well, you can't really argue with that decision, but a lot of people had a lot to say, not least on our YouTube channel comments, about the big decision at the end. Tim, before that, I think there's something else you wanted to add. I mean, just on that, yes, Alisson makes a poor decision, but he's not helped by his defenders, where Nunes plays a really simple one-two and runs into the box.

8:02And if you watch the replay, Jones and McAllister, I think it has just stood completely still. So nobody's tracking a very simple one-two into the box into the 92nd minute. Kurt Jones has only come on five minutes earlier, so he's got no excuse for being tired. It's just, yeah, very strange. It also feels like one of those penalties that has to be given because it's a foul in the box. But the scenario that it happens in feels very, that makes it feel unnecessary. and the way the contact, it's not like an outstretched arm on a player who might score. The ball's going out, but because the attacking player gets there first then the keeper kind of goes into it and then it has to be a penalty.

8:40But it's not like he didn't feel that necessary. But I suppose Alisson ends up in that situation for the reasons you say to him where his defence haven't helped him out. So now Man City have managed to turn things around and a 2-1 up. Liverpool have piled up the other end, including their goalkeeper Alisson, which is a bit unfortunate because then the ball breaks. and somebody deftly gets it to Cherki, who pretty much by the centre circle, fires it at the Liverpool goal. And it's going in, Daniel. And you'd like a little bit more on it, perhaps. I'm not sure. But the thing is, it's heading in, and behind it, you have this foot race between Erling Haaland and Dominic Slobbersly, which Slobbersly is quite concerned that Haaland's going to get to the ball first.

9:19So he hauls Haaland back, and then Haaland hauls him back, and the ball rolls in anyway, and everybody jumps up and down. wild scenes but then Pogba comes in and says stop having fun everyone there's serious rules to be obeyed Daniel you're not having any of this well no it was like my one criticism of the incident is that I wish it had been the referee on the pitch that had done it had said I've played advantage and now I'm going back but the defensive player commits a foul and then some advantage is played and then the attacking player commits a foul you cannot be annoyed that that goal is ruled out unless right so let's say a player he goes through on goal and is wiped out by a defender but he's brought down is he that and then allowed to just pick the ball up and run into the goal within his arms no because one foul doesn't get counteracted by another foul that's not how football works you can you can try and play an advantage and if Haaland hadn't have failed Sobber's lie and the goal had been given then fine but one you can't it's not prison rules you can't go well you had one so I'll have one I know it looks weird because of the same type of foul and because the ball goes in and because the whole denying goal scoring opportunity kind of sort of doesn't make sense if a goal is scored but it's just a really weird you are the ref style incident where it rarely I can't ever remember it happening but by the laws of the game the right thing happens and the point I would make is that for people saying like oh yeah but it just doesn't feel like it fine but what happens if city beat arsenal the title by one goal and goal difference which is not completely outside the realms of possibility we're all just going to go yeah well fair enough they shouldn't have been won that title because that goal shouldn't have stood but it felt right at the time it's like that's not how football works you can't have it both ways i disagree with var completely its introduction and without var that goal would have probably stood and we'd have all gone yeah that seems about fair but in a VAR age you can't just ignore the rules because of it unless unless you're playing in prison because by prison rules it would have stood unfastened by that but it's the perfect example of of VAR having to make the difficult decisions that none of us like because as Daniel says that never would have been given you're saying VAR is kind of like the conscience of football yeah well because the referee 100 % would have taken the easy option and just yeah that's a goal yeah it's probably a foul but it's ended up in the net and it's nearly the 100th minute.

11:47It kind of feels right, doesn't it? And look at the scenes in the corner. It's 3-1. People are happy. Yeah, and the ref... Everyone got what they came for. Yeah, and the ref was probably quite far away and wouldn't be sort of bold enough and clear enough in his mind to know exactly what had happened between Sir Bosley and the whole. So he just would have given the goal. And nobody would have minded, really. I think everybody in the moment... I completely understand what Daniel's saying. But yeah, your gut instinct is that in a non-VAR world everyone would have gone, oh yeah, that's a goal, isn't it?

12:13And maybe Solversly gets a yellow card and that would have felt fair. It's the game being re-referees. I mean it just is. Maybe it has come to the right decision. But it's annoying. Those scenes are great with the fans on the pitch, the bench on the pitch. It doesn't happen with City really. I'm struggling to think of a City match other than the sort of obvious title wins on the last day where that happens. Because they're normally so boring and in control and so bland. You don't really get these sort of... They need to be a bit rubbish for a bit to reintroduce some jeopardy to their season. So the goal difference is currently five in favour of Arsenal.

12:50They're five better off on goal difference. Where is this going to leave City, who were confidently announced by the commentators to be back in the race now, even though they're exactly the same six points that they were back on Saturday morning from Arsenal? Let's see. Comments on our YouTube channel include Santiago EH2TS who likes to come out on a Sunday evening. Hello Santiago. This Man City win can galvanise their season. I remember a few seasons ago, they won a home to Liverpool 4-1 without Haaland and went on to win the treble. Fingers crossed because I don't like Arsenal, Santiago, crikey.

13:23Is this a galvanising moment, Daniel? I mean, there would be something deeply wrong in City's psychosis if it wasn't galvanising. It has to be. Because, I mean, we literally saw Guardiola go from doing that weird spitty thing on the bench at 1-0 down and only being able to spit on himself, which was kind of a fair epitome of his situation at that point, to him running around on the touchline and hugging players. It has to be galvanising. They also, and it feels relatively important because it will still feel very real in the moment at that point, they have Fulham at home before Arsenal go to Brentford this midweek.

13:59So I think that helps them. The fact that it stays with them a bit, the fact that they can go three points behind Arsenal and maybe put some pressure on. But I understand why it's a big kind of City are back in the title race. And it did feel like a kind of big moment. I still think Arsenal will play better than City did this weekend. They play with more control. I still think they'll win the league. But it's good for the neutral because if City had lost that, I think we would have been saying, yeah, it's done now. It's eight points. It's done now. I mean, it has to be galvanising. How could it not?

14:33It got me off my seat as a complete neutral. so it has to be galvanising you know there is a path to City really getting back in this race in the next few weeks before they play Arsenal at home on the 18th of April their next two home games Fulham and Newcastle expect them maybe to win both of those and then they play four struggling teams in a row City they play Leeds Forest West Ham and Palace and if they can go on a bit of a run then they've got Chelsea away and then they host Arsenal whereas Arsenal's next three are Brentford away Wolves away really tough one and then Spurs away. Palace struggling, but Wolves tough.

15:10But there is a path there to it really kind of tightening up in the next few weeks. All right. And Liverpool, who've won one game in their last seven, I think, in the Premier League, are now four points off the top five. If this is galvanising for City, how much of a punch in the guts is this for Arnie Slott? Well, not only the defeat, but the red card for Sobbersly I believe it's only a one game ban Only a one game ban, I'm hearing it So they miss him for midweek And where are they going midweek? Sunderland Tough game, tough place to go But yeah, I mean not only missing their best player this season maybe alongside Eketike in Sobbersly but he was filling in at right back because they have no other right backs So it'll be interesting to see who plays there Maybe Curtis Jones gets some more minutes filling in on the right side of defence but yeah, not ideal for them at all All right, only two league teams still unbeaten at home anywhere in English football this season.

16:11One is Sunderland, the other is Bromley. Yeah, Bromley, tough place to go, Bromley, under any circumstances, as you all know, as a Palace fan, I'm sure. Go there every day. Do you? Yeah, no, no, it's a nice part of the time. Anyway, excellent. That was the Sunday, Super Sunday, late afternoon fixture. Let's get on to the rest of the Matchday 25 results. Brighton lost 1-0 at home to Crystal Palace. Ruben will be all over that very, very shortly. But with Arsenal 3-0 winners on Saturday, the gap at the top of the Premier League stays at six points. Elsewhere in Saturday's matches, Villa drew 1-1 at Bournemouth, which means they are now very much within reach of both Man Utd and Chelsea.

16:55Villa, that is. Both Man Utd and Chelsea have now got four game winning streaks under their new managers Carrick and Rosseña. United beating Spurs 2-0. Chelsea 3-1 winners at Wolves. What else happened? Brentford and Everton both climbed a place. The Bees coming from behind to beat Newcastle 3-2 at St James' Park. Everton, meanwhile, 2-1 winners at Fulham. While down the bottom end, West Ham's 2-0 win at Burnley. And Friday night's 3-1 win for Leeds over Forest leaves Nottingham Forest just three points above West Ham and the bottom three. Burnley are now 11 points from safety. We've got a full midweek of action.

17:36Matchday 26 coming up Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. And we've got an extra pod if you're after a bit of Tuesday night reaction. Wednesday morning we'll be here with an extra show to talk about what's happened in the previous night's matches. Very well. Having covered what happened to Man City, where do you want to go next? Do we want to touch on briefly Arsenal's 3-0 win over Sunderland? Or is there something, perhaps actually, Sunday's other affair, Ruben, Brighton-Crystal Palace? I agree, I think we should go there. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network.

18:13Dunk, heads it back into the mix. Here's Gesson, bit of pace, strength, good ball in. Sar, can he finish it here and put Palace ahead? Yes, he can, 1-0. the Eagles were up and the Seagulls there you go Ruben Saar will tear you apart again just the one goal in this game but it was a good one it was a good goal yeah with a huge huge impact from Evan Gesson coming off the bench just after his so Villa fans had roundly decried Gesson as the worst player they'd ever seen yeah what was your take well a colleague of mine And Alex Barker was very positive on Gesson in the summer, actually suggesting him as a Crystal Palace signing for that position.

18:59As it went, he went to Villa and didn't really play. And when he did, he didn't impress. And I kind of put that, I would like to put that down to the fact that Villa have a strange way of using wide attackers. And so maybe he didn't quite fit in to Unai Emery's very specific system. But he came on for Pino and was instrumental in Saar's goal, which you know Saar just loves scoring against Brighton apparently so yeah great to have him back from AFCON and an injury before that so Palace have really missed Saar he's kind of the only well was the only penetrative attacker in the team whereas like Jeremy Pino who came off for Gesson has kind of been struggling to influence games much adapting to the physicality of the Premier League from a Palace point of view an encouraging performance Walton returned from suspension also I was going to say another new arrival Strand Larsson yeah of course and you know he made his debut so I was actually at the city ground in Nottingham last weekend to watch us draw 1-1 with Forrest and that game you know with all the Mateta stuff he was deemed not in the right headspace to play so kind of it was Pino false nine with kind of split strikers and it was all very a little bit weird but kind of worked but you know the team that like to go long and play quite direct and they were clearly missing a physical number nine and stranelarson made his debut today and uh you know looked good it's a low bar given how paulie mateta's played for the last few months while carrying that knee injury um and seemingly having his head turned on a move away uh so to have a mobile nine who actually linked up some play um had a couple of shots and seemed to be believing in the in the team project he you know he spoke about wanting to win the conference league that seems to be that's got to be the priority now so that was really positive as well and yeah the club all of their post-match posting on social media has been using the word togetherness which seems to be a little bit of a jive at Fabian Herzler who said in the build-up to the game that he wasn't jealous of Palace's January spending because they have such great togetherness but it doesn't seem that pointed that you'd need to necessarily come back at him on social everyone's having a go at Fabian Herzler well quite it didn't seem that together at the end when the fans were reportedly singing Sacked in the Morning at Fabian Ertzler, who seems to be, they've escaped a lot of scrutiny this season in Brighton.

21:21And obviously I have a kind of fandom bias when I say that, but it does seem to be that a couple of early wins against big teams brought them some credit. And because maybe they've stopped bringing through the Caicedos and the McAllisters and selling them on for big money as frequently, they just garner a bit less general attention from the neutral and they space out their wins. so the pressure never kind of mounts to the point that they become top of the news bulletin. But they didn't seem that inspiring on the pitch today. It was a tough watch for a lot of people. It was, although Dean Henderson enjoyed it.

21:52He did. Lovely knee slide at the end. Very nice. Palace have been spacing out their wins, as you put it. How many games has it been since you've won a match? Twelve. So the last time I was on this show, mid-December, I'd just come back from Ireland to watch us beat Shelburne in the conference league. And then the day that we recorded, Palace lost 3-0 to Man City. and we haven't won a game since then until today in any competition. There you go. Palace climb above Brighton into 13th spot in the Premier League table. Daniel? Yeah, on Brighton, I think Herzlou is probably in pretty serious trouble and I think Chief Exec Paul Barber used the programme notes today to say that everybody was with him which I always think is one of those things that if you're mentioning it, you kind of get that there's some pressure building.

22:35but they've only beaten Burnley and that was at home since the end of November they've been pretty rotten since then I thought they were awful today given it was a rivalry, a grudge match they just looked so hesitant summed up by Bart Verbruggen being two yards off his line when Sar gets like seven yards away from goal before shooting Jorginho Rutter was he produced a kind of Garnaccio style performance from the other week he was playing as like a linking up number 10 and he completed four passes in 82 minutes, which is just appalling. He was really poor. There just doesn't seem to be anything about them other than occasionally Matoma driving forward and being able to beat a man.

23:16But that's about it. There's just, yeah, there's not really anything about them. They just seem to be drifting a bit. They're not anything, really. They're not like a possession-heavy team. They're not like a counter-attacking team. They're not like a set-piece team. You know, they're just nothing. I think that probably is on the head coach, too, fair. They spent an awful lot of money, got a lot of talented players. They've got a good mix of experience and youth, I think. You know, really stable club. So it's hard to look elsewhere other than the head coach, I think, which is obviously where the Brighton fans are looking.

23:46Also, nothing's happening. They're not going to get relegated. They're not going to be in Europe. The season's over, really. But they lack the on-pitch identity that De Zerbi's team had. Like, De Zerbi has – and he's a bit of a unicorn manager. Like, he has a very clear style of play that worked really well for them for a bit. And now they don't seem to be particularly bad at any one thing, but also not particularly good at any one thing, kind of in terms of style, like kind of stuck in the middle of nothing. Brighton will be travelling to Villa on Wednesday. Villa who had a disappointing draw from their point of view away at Bournemouth this weekend.

24:22Crystal Palace, meanwhile, hosting Burnley. Potential for... One would expect another win midweek. Can you ever expect anything in this maddest of leagues? When it's Burnley, I would say yes. Possibly, possibly. All right, we'll talk about Burnley perhaps in a bit. We should clear up what happened with Arsenal on Saturday because, Daniel, you actually went along to the Emirates to see Arsenal's 3-0 win over Sunderland, three goals, none of them from set pieces, two of them from Jokery. So lots for Arsenal to enjoy. Yeah, it fit a similar pattern to recent games other than that the first goal was a shot from outside the box rather than from a set-piece situation.

25:06Sunderland actually competed really well. They've been poor away from home recently, haven't won away in eight league games, but they competed really well in the first half and it took that Zubimendi shot from outside the area to kind of open the game up a bit. And then in the second half, Arsenal kind of do what they've done this season, which is they make changes and generally the strikers who come on score more goals than the strikers who started the game. Jokeres has now got eight in the league this season, six of them are against promoted clubs. The other two were at Everton, which was a penalty against Forrest at home.

25:39So he is being that kind of flat-track bully, but while Arsenal need to beat teams who they are better than, then Jokeres may well prove helpful because they're better than most teams. And as soon as they broke the resistance, it did feel like the game was theirs. It was very much a last 20 minutes played at half speed which is everything Arsenal and Arteta want with four competitions. Absolutely. Is that kind of what he's actually been bought for, Jokre? It's given that Arsenal could beat the teams that actually came out to play against them but it is the sides at the bottom of the table, relegation, strugglers, etc.

26:14that had posed them the problem in the past that a player like him does enable them to bully the flat track teams. Yeah, certainly for the low block thing. I'm not actually sure if that's completely happened. I mean, Arsenal won all six of their games against promoted clubs last year. And as I say, six of the eight goals have been against promoted clubs. And most of those, I think only the Everton goal were to kind of change the match situation. So to turn a draw into a lead or a deficit into a draw. The others were two against Leeds in a 5-0, Leeds in a 4-0, one in a Forest 3-0, two here where they were already 1-0 up.

26:52It's more been sort of icing on cake goals, I think, which I don't think is what he was bought for. But him starting scoring again and them having Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus, who both started this one. They've clearly got three options now for probably one and a half positions. So I think that kind of works, just the competition alone. All right, six points clear of Man City, but they may not be by Thursday when they take the field against Brentford. Brentford, who are along with the Gunners, I think, a form team in the Premier League. Fresh from a 3-2 victory away at Newcastle on Saturday, Jobbik Stravik rising in saying, with two-thirds of the season played, currently Brentford and Everton are seventh and eighth in the table.

27:36What are their chances of holding on for a European spot? Yeah, I mean, you know, they've been defying everyone's expectations, certainly mine, this season. And I thought they were a decent shout for relegation, to be honest, at the start of the season. Brentford. Yeah, just purely going on the fact that, you know, they'd lost Mbumo and Vissa and Norgaard. And their manager. And their manager, who felt like Thomas Frank was everything to Brentford. Right. And he was the one instigating and overseeing everything. Are they better without Thomas Frank than they were with him? I'm not. Given the players that they've lost in the meantime.

28:11Maybe. Yeah, maybe. This season would suggest so, right? I don't mean to have a dig at Thomas Frank, but just going on the 25-game sample size that we have, obviously Thomas Frank did an amazing job to get them where they were. But they've won more games than Liverpool this season. Obviously Liverpool went through that terrible run. But 12 wins, seventh place, 25 games at the way through, it's no longer just like a run of luck. They are legitimately good. I thought Dango Wattara was amazing in that Newcastle game. his cross for Jan-Elts header was superb and obviously the Murphy handball that led to the Brentford penalty reminded me very much of you remember Stephen Taylor back in the day in the mid-noughties handling a ball on the line and to try and make it look like he maybe hadn't done that he kind of fell backwards as if he'd been shot I thought maybe Murphy could have taken a leaf out of that book but yeah Brentford were amazing and what I really enjoyed watching that was that You have the late drama of Newcastle making it 2-2.

29:14And then the Brentford fans, obviously, at St James' part, the away fans are way up in the gods. And then that gut-punch winning goal for the away team that just gets met by some distant noise. And the rest of it, you can feel the silence. Yeah, it's great. So how much of a game are Brentford going to give Arsenal on Thursday? Is that at the GTEC? It is at the GTEC. What do you think, Daniel? I mean, they'll certainly, yeah, they'll give them the game. It will be a relatively set PC affair, I suspect, given that both teams are really, really quite good at that. I mean, this is a level above. Brentford this season, I think, have excelled in those situations whereby I think they just get taken too lightly.

29:56They're seen as like the other game. You know, we've got Liverpool and Chelsea coming up and then we've got Brentford. They're seen as that by some teams, I think, and it's pretty unforgivable given how well they've done. But yeah, they've just won at Villa Park. They've won at Newcastle. they'll give a good game and they'll really really want to stamp their authority on that because they can qualify for Europe I just think Arsenal's control probably means I mean I think Arsenal will win the game what I will say is this game is basically the two managers of the year the two contenders to be managers of the year this season because Arteta if they win the league will probably get it and Keith Andrews in terms of expectation versus achievement is way way ahead of everyone else I'll just I have to put Unai Emery in there sorry there's got to be three contenders there Daniel surely you get fine but they haven't signed any players third in the league you're absolutely right still third just brought back old ones injury crisis kept Douglas well I think I'm right in saying that they're the only team in the Premier League who haven't had a goal scored for them by a new sign in this whole season great a word about Newcastle who after three defeats in a row in the Premier League and with some tough away matches coming up I think everyone felt needed to win this game and did take the lead, but once again let those points slip.

31:12Why is it that keeps happening, Daniel? Because it all just feels the same every time. If a team doesn't put pressure on Newcastle, then they are capable of playing perfectly well and scoring goals. But the moment that you put some serious pressure on them or they allow that pressure to ease off, they look defensively vulnerable and they still have problems knitting together the attack because they're still not quite worked out which of this or Voltemard or both or neither works best. And yeah, I think I said a few weeks ago that how potentially could leave in the summer if it doesn't get better.

31:44And I slightly regretted saying that at the time because it felt a bit unfair, but I'm glad I did because it certainly could happen now. You've got the chief exec going on TalkSport last week and saying, you know, we completely believe him. He's under no pressure at all. A few weeks after saying he wants Newcastle to be the biggest club in Europe and win the title by 2030. And it all just feels like pie-in-the-sky stuff. It's almost like the idea of what Newcastle want to be and the reality of the situation are just completely different things at the moment. And there's nothing... For the last two and a half years, Eddie Howe has been the person to knit those two things together and to make it feel like maybe something beyond just winning a trophy or just qualifying for the Champions League is possible.

32:27So when he's the guy that then struggles, you can quite see how it can all kind of look like it's falling apart. But there are already stories in the week about Sandro Tonali and I've just seen a story about Manchester United interested in him this summer. The problem is that when you have a project like that, if it doesn't constantly keep marching forward, people wonder if it's stopped for good or if it's just got stuck. And because all of the off-pitch stuff hasn't happened, the training ground design, the stadium design, the sponsorship deals that fans assumed would happen haven't yet and the recruitment's not been great.

33:02when Eddie Howe then struggles it's sort of like what have we got here now other than a group of quite good players not performing very well Alright what they've got is 12th in the Premier League currently as many points from Chelsea in 5th as they are from West Ham in the relegation zone It's a tricky one isn't it like for that progress that they want to happen they kind of need to get every single signing right because the PSR bogeyman will limit how much they can spend to fix their problems you know they don't have the same kind of leeway as uh clubs that generate more revenue and that's that to me that is an obvious reason like elanga hasn't really worked um jacob ramsey hasn't really had a great impact they're relying on the same players that they have done in the last two seasons strikers aside and of course they're in the champions league and that european run that like next season when they're not in the champions league they'll probably if they keep this team together be much better because they've got fewer games and they seem to do this kind of one season on one season off pattern depending on whether or not they're in Europe and I think that fatigue is very evident when you watch them I think match of the day showed a stat saying they were nobody it was them and two other teams have conceded 11 goals in the final 10 minutes of games and nobody's conceded more and I think that fatigue was very evident there was a lot of passive defending towards the end and maybe they're a bit knackered and they seem overly reliant on Bruno Gimaraes as the creator in midfield which is kind of why they moved him from playing as a number six to as a number eight.

34:32But a lot of their team seems built with physicality in mind and maybe they need to address that balance slightly and have a bit more creativity in there as well. Good news is there's a visit from Dr Spurs coming up midweek. Tottenham Hotspur, who've waved their benevolent wand at so many struggling players and clubs of late. We'll get on to what they got up to this weekend next.

35:03This 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 K and the very best football writers around. At Tim Porn, who's watching in Sweden, hello Tim, it says, what is flat track anyway? This relates to Jokker is a scoring record. What is flat track anyway? and why is it easy to bully someone on it? Cheers for lovely pod. Thanks so much, Tim. Anybody want to answer? Tim, Ruben, you... I believe this idiom derives from the... A flat track describes a cricket pitch or wicket, I suppose, with not a lot of movement.

35:47Very easy to predict where the ball is going to go. People describe that as flat. So then for a batter, it becomes very easy to rack up runs. it's like we call it stat padding in football i suppose if the pitch is very easy to play on for the batter yeah that's where it comes from one of many idioms that football has stolen from cricket you hear it more in football now than you than you do in cricket which which other ones a corridor of uncertainty is that a cricket that's like a fourth fifth stump it makes the batter hesitant and then and in football it makes defenders hesitant as to whether or not to try and intercept it because they might score an own goal it's the same principle yeah i mean in football as in life i would say what other ones this is fascinating you have a corridor of uncertainty in your house.

36:26I have a corridor of certainty and it's really narrow. Do you have any other cricket into football? No? I'm sure there are more. I'm sure there are more. Hey, perhaps you know one. Do let us know. Anyway, moving on, I teased everybody by saying we're going to talk about Man United's game against Spurs, which was Saturday lunchtime affair. Interesting. Four wins out of four now for Michael Carrick. Last time Man United won four Premier League games in a row. was actually not that long ago, 2024 under Erickson Haag. And their run under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was even better than that. They won eight victories in a row in all competitions when he first got his hands on the wheel.

37:07But this game here, I guess we should start off with the big turning point, which was the red card for Christian Romero. Nine minutes later, United had taken the lead through that Brian Mbomo goal. He scored in three of the four games under Karek so far. but Romero who was kind of widely kind of vilified pilloried etc for this red card I would say it takes something special to go on social media criticising the club for not giving the manager enough players to work with and then getting yourself ruled out for the next four games with suspension hey Daniel yeah well that's it it's actually the perfect piece of performance art he's saying look like I'm missing even now like you've got even fewer options if you'd have signed and players, it wouldn't matter if I'd have got sent off.

37:55I mean, he does seem to be this sort of lightning rod as a person and as a player for things to happen to Romero. You know, he's won, I think he's a second top goal scorer this season in all competitions. He's now been sent off six times in all competitions as a Spurs player, which after the game seemed to really surprise Thomas Frank, who started an answer by saying, you know, this doesn't normally happen. And then someone pointed out that it happens quite a lot. and he went, really? That surprises me. Which again, PR wise, it just made me laugh a little bit. But yeah, it was the turning point of the game.

38:29He doesn't need to make the tackle. I understand why he feels the need to imprint himself upon it. And I absolutely think he's right in terms of what he says about the hierarchy at the club. You can argue whether it's helpful to have the captain do that in public, but I think what he says is right. But you have to lead by example and he doesn't do that. He's not reliable. He shouldn't be the captain because he's not reliable because too often this happens. Tim might disagree as a quasi former Spurs correspondent. I heard that. Someone threw that out last night or this morning. Yeah, he shouldn't be the captain because he gets sent off a lot.

39:03But I don't know, Roy Keane and Pratici Vieri used to get sent off quite a lot. Sergio Ramos, maybe a closer comparison here. Yeah, it depends what you want from your captain, really. If you want a sort of a leader on the pitch, someone very thoughtful, aggressive. Yeah, when he's on the pitch. I don't know, I disagree with that notion. I think it speaks more to the absence of other potential candidates rather than him, that people are talking about whether or not he should be captain. Like if Spurs had a properly built squad, then he wouldn't have to be. I'm not sure if it's the biggest issue facing Tottenham right now.

39:35Certainly he won't be something that's relevant to their next four matches, which is a lot. Signs of progress under Spurs, perhaps in the second half against Man City. pretty hard to get a read on this game, given that they were down to 10 men within 29 minutes. But they did look a lot better in the first half hour. After that, United came through and made it 2-0, which, as I say, makes it four wins out of four for Michael Carrick. Jamie Garwood says, if Carrick is only an interim appointment, and Thomas Frank is on borrowed time, which job would you prefer to have for the start of next season, Spurs or Man United?

40:11Is that a trick question? I feel like it's obviously Man United, isn't it? Well, yeah, I suppose they're both kind of poison chalices, aren't they? Are they? United probably have more money to spend. But isn't Carrick demonstrating that United's not a poison chalice if you just come in and do sensible things? Well, interim managers can do well at Manchester United. Permanent managers can't. That's how it works. Why does it work that way? So we did address this about a week ago, and apologies for this, But why is it not right to look at what Carrick's doing and go, well, obviously he should continue if this continues?

40:45Well, that's a fair stance to take. But I do think there's no harm in waiting to see how he deals with different game scenarios. Because the first two wins are playing, quote-unquote, underdog football against big teams. And that doesn't necessarily mean that it would be consistent. And, you know, playing Spurs, who did sit deep. But, yeah, 10 men is a caveat. but also they beat Spurs and they were defending quite deep and United managed to engineer the chances necessary to win, which was encouraging. But I don't think there's any harm in waiting. Was it eight games, you said, when they gave it to Solskjaer?

41:21No, I'm not sure if it was eight when they gave it, but he had eight consecutive victories. But Ole Gunnar Solskjaer does seem to be the answer when people say, why should Carrick not continue come the end of the season? I don't know if anybody has a... I think we would probably almost all agree that there have been systemic issues at Man United for quite a few years and issues with the ownership and issues with recruitment and issues with appointments and decisions. None of those things are anything to do with Michael Carrick. But they will probably rear their head again in the summer when they have to start making decisions again.

41:54And yes, Carrick's doing very well with this team. He's doing well with a group of players that were assembled in those circumstances. so why should that not continue to be the case? Because there's lots of evidence over the last few years that Man United will mess it up somehow either with the appointment or their recruitment or the decisions they make in the summer. I totally get what you're saying but if you do have a guy there and he is doing well it seems like the safest thing you could do is... I'm not saying he shouldn't get the job. Right. But just wait until the end of the season. Here's Daniel.

42:26Of course, Ruby. The biggest argument for him getting the job is not like the obvious thing which is bringing Mianu back in, putting Bruno higher, going to a back four that we were all, Tim said it on the show a couple of weeks ago, we've all been screaming about those and we are amateurs. So if we could spot it, then a manager doing that does not necessarily mean he's going to be the answer to Manchester United. But there has been an improvement in fringe players or in players who were not performing at their peak before. So Diego Dalloe looks more comfortable at right back. Luke Shaw looks far more comfortable at left back.

42:57Harry Maguire has been absolutely faultless in the four games under Michael Carrick so far. and Buemo is finding pockets of space and getting service that he wasn't being able to find before. Sesco's more involved when he comes on. He's missing most of them, but he's getting chances that he just, he wasn't even getting the chances before. I think that's the bit that persuades me more than just, oh, he's picking Kobe Mainu now and we look really good or, oh, Bruno's doing a lot of stuff because that sort of felt like the logical thing of what should have been happening anyway. So yeah, it's that other stuff that makes me think, maybe he is going to get this.

43:32It's West Ham away on Tuesday. Four wins in a row and West Ham away on Tuesday. Should we book the barbers? You can say that. We are all Manchester United on Tuesday, yes. West Ham have a good record. I think they won. Let's check. Oh, they won this fixture the last three seasons. One of them got Ten Hag the sack, didn't it? I think it was a late penalty. He's got to be there, hasn't he? I assume that there'll be a betting company we'll be putting in front and centre at the London Stadium. Yeah, ready. Somebody there ready to... Well, I hope so. Tuesday, that is. Tuesday. As for Spurs, on Tuesday, they're going to be taking on Newcastle, which is, stats fans, the most played fixture in the Premier League that's never finished nil-nil.

44:22Remarkable stuff. How worried should Spurs be right now? They are six points from the bottom three. They have Newcastle coming up, and admittedly, we just talked about Newcastle's current issues. After that, they've got Arsenal. Anyway, yes, how worried should Spurs be right now? Yeah, they can go down, definitely. I don't think they will, and I suspect the odds suggest that. But they certainly can go down because they're not playing well against any type of opponent other than European opponents who tend to give them a little bit more space, allow them to play with space in front of them, allow players to run with the ball.

45:00That's not happening in the Premier League and they look pretty clueless at how to deal with it other than passing slowly or eventually over committing someone and getting caught. So yeah, they are in trouble. They've still got to play most of the teams down there. When we've talked about this before, the question was whether the teams below them would get enough points to put enough pressure on. Still, I'm not sure about that. But yeah, they can. And the thing is, if they don't, this is a real cliche but like if they don't get into the headspace that they can go down and then they are in a position where they are one or two points above it that's a real problem because if nobody's even thinking about that as a possibility then it suggests that nobody realizes how bad they're playing because ask any Spurs fan they'll say we're one of the three or four worst teams in the league at the moment identical record to Leeds seven wins eight draws ten losses Spurs admittedly have a goal difference of zero.

45:51Leeds is minus nine. And Leeds have kind of had a resurgent last couple of months. But that is alarming when you look at the table. Also alarming for Spurs is the fact that in Tuesday's Newcastle clash, they're going to be without Romero because his suspension will be getting underway. Also, Destiny Udoggi went off with a hamstring injury. Porro's missing. So they were playing Archie Gray at right back. Right. Judd Spence also out. It's all a bit reminiscent of that. You know that period under Ange when Archie Gray had to play centre-back? It's a little bit like that now, isn't it? Well, I think the end of the game with Souza at left-back, who's their new Brazilian, he's only a teenager, I think, and Dragasin at centre-back.

46:29I mean, if they have to go with that for a couple of games, that's not good. We'll have a reaction to what happens on Tuesday there and in the other matches that night. In Wednesday's Extra Special, totally extra. Next up on today's show, we're off to look at Leeds Forest.

46:52You're listening to the Totally Football Show with James Richardson. Now we do four times a week. Keep up to date with us on Insta and enjoy us in glorious Technicolor on YouTube at The Totally Show. Got an extra show for you on Wednesday morning. Before that, on Tuesday, we'll have a brand new European show which will be dealing with all sorts of exciting Juventus' big Sunday night game with Lazio. Perhaps you're watching that at the moment. I don't know. Also, Le Classique, which is happening in Ligue 1, which is Paris Saint-Germain, try and reclaim the lead in the French top division, but against their arch-rivals, Deserbes-Marseille.

47:26Anyway, we'll have a reaction to all of that on Tuesday morning. Right now, though, Daniel, coming to you for a big chat about Leeds 3, Nottingham Forest 1. First of all, this new Leeds manager is doing brilliantly well. Yeah, it's a sort of sliding scale now. It's starting to end the negativity around Leeds. But when the teams were announced and Gurev was playing central midfield, I saw quite a lot of Leeds fans saying like, God, this is the moment he's lost it. It's all going to fall apart. Why? I understand that that is part of Leeds' entire, not just modern, but their entire identity. So why was Gurev regarded as such a disappointing pick for the starting XI?

48:07I just think they think he's quite unappetising. He can be quite stodgy with the ball. But actually it worked magnificently. I think he was probably the game's best player in terms of energy in midfield. He wasn't the one to recycle the possession and play dynamic passes for the most part, which helps because he isn't brilliant at that. But Leeds were as good as they are in every evening match under Daniel Farquhar at Ellen Road. So he has now been Leeds manager for 21 night matches. They've won 18 and drawn three, which is ludicrous. There is something about that stadium, and I know this sounds twee, but if you haven't been there is something about that stadium for a night game where you feel like you've got far less a chance than if it was a Saturday lunchtime kickoff.

48:49Can confirm? It's just louder, yeah, definitely can confirm. Guriev, not only doing the things which you just said Daniel but also producing, was it the pass of the season? Was it? Oh yeah, lovely goal. For the Bogle goal. For the Bogle, yeah. Brilliant. Yeah, they've completely transformed haven't they? I think the formation shift, people have spoken about it a lot but the formation shift to a kind of wing-back system has really given them a new lease of life and maybe got players closer to Calvert-Lewin than a 4-3-3 would. And Bogle has been quite a big attacking threat and kind of made that run from right wing-back and ended up on the left wing almost.

49:27So yeah, excellent. I've just seen Leeds generated 2.5 expected goals. So I can't say they didn't deserve their result and that would be a concern of Sean Dyche's team that are meant to be good at defending. Right, well, let's hear about the concerns. You did get a goal back through new signing Lorenzo, Pizza, Crouch, Luca. But what other Forrest thoughts? Any other positives, Daniel? Oh, no, absolutely none. I mean, it won't be worth it, my I told you so, when Forrest eventually get relegated. And I've been saying that they could go down for six months. But they just, they throw in these defensive performances.

50:04Ruben said there that Leeds generated 2.5 xG, which is technically true. But around 2.3 of that was generated by Forrest's inability to mark a man or react quick enough in midfield. And Leeds were just rampant. Forrest looked really bad. Their principal issue is that they spent 300 million in the last couple of years. And their three backup defenders now, their first three backup defenders now, it seems, are Morato, who isn't good enough, Luke Canets, who they've just signed for£2 million, started on the bench, came on. And Zach Abbott, who is an academy kid, who is a centre-back, who's played at right-back on Friday night.

50:41It is almost gross negligence for a football club to spend that much money and have those three as the direct backups. So Murillo is out injured. He hurt his calf on Thursday in training, so he couldn't play. No further news about that. Nico Williams is suspended. He will be back this midweek. But that's not good enough. if you are reliant on Milenkovic and Murillo to play every single game and that doesn't happen, then you're going to be in trouble because the whole thing is last season is something like 34 of the 38 games Forest started, Ina, Milenkovic, Murillo, Williams and Sells. And Sells is injured as well.

51:17So Stefan Ortega made his debut on Friday and looked a little bit shaky as well. So, yeah, it's not good. They do have Wolves at home on Wednesday evening. And I don't, this is not said with any intel at all, but if they don't beat Wolves and West Ham have beaten Man United, I think Dyche might go because I think the owner will get very, very worried about being in the relegation zone and being unable to get out of it. Would that leave you looking for your fourth manager of the season, Daniel? You better believe it. Four, in inverted commas, permanent managers in the same season that's never been done before.

51:47Not in the Premier League. Not one to make rash decisions though, Maranakis. We'll see. It would also leave Nottingham Forest and West Ham level on points. So, yeah. And West Ham are a team in form. We'll touch in a second on what they did this weekend. Ruben, I know you've got something to interject, but I'm not sure if it's quite as relevant as this from Podrick, who says, I'm behind watching your stream, but the most obvious cricket to football term migration is hat trick. I didn't know that was a cricket term. Podrick continues. The term first appeared in 1858. Have some of that. 1858? Yeah, cricket's been going a long time.

52:28It certainly has. Interestingly, a cricket hat trick... I haven't finished. Podrick's still going. Oh, go on, you might notice. A cricket hat trick can span across days. What? Oh, of course, because... Because you could have the last two balls of one day and the first ball of the next day. Right. Yeah. So why is it called a hat trick? Was there something to do with the hat? The etymology of it, I don't know. Oh. So, Podrick, if you... Oh, Daniel? Well, I was just going to say, on a slight tangent, and to be a parody of myself, I was watching a Nottingham Forest 97-98 season review DVD the other day or video the other day.

52:58And the commentator used the phrase old-fashioned hat-trick to describe scoring three consecutive goals in a match. That's a German hat-trick, isn't it? No, a German hat-trick is in the same half, I think. And it has to be each foot and a head. Which we call a perfect hat-trick. Okay. But they need to be in the same half, which is pretty brutal stuff. I'm just taking it all the way back to basics. Do you know why it's called football? Tifo did a video. Yeah. am I going to be surprised by the answer I mean I was because it's played on foot as opposed to on horses oh right according to the brilliant guys at TIFO is that genuinely the case according to TIFO we don't doubt TIFO sports but were horse baseball games that prevalent at the time really having watched handball at the Olympics they do not do it doing handstands So, disappointingly, because that would be a sport.

53:57Sorry, just say in the video, they talk about early versions of football, you know, people could, would just pick the ball up and run around with it as well. Yes. So, yeah, but that was still... But was that called football? I thought that was called... We call that rugby now. Yeah. Do you know? We'll get back to Matchday 25 in the Premier League. Let's see. West Ham mentioned them in a good run of form. 2-0 victory against Burnley this Saturday means they've won three of their last four and they got a clean sheet as well that's the first clean sheet that Nuno has enjoyed all season Burnley now 16 Premier League matches without a win FPL Banger podcast says are Burnley fans better off just watching their team every alternate season because they'll go down to the championship do really well sometimes under Scott Parker come up not do very well sometimes under Scott Parker and so on and so forth how long do you think this Scott Parker cycle will be continuing at Turf Moor?

54:56Well, we've seen clubs go up, like Southampton, for example, come up, be embarrassingly bad, go back down, and maybe a couple of years later come back up and the same thing happens again. And it must be, like, I compare it to when Crystal Palace went up in 2013 with a very weak squad. You look at that squad now and you think they would absolutely come rock bottom, maybe not get a win all season in the current Premier League. They finished 11th and Palace were able to, you know, solidify their place in the league. Push on. It feels a lot more difficult now with kind of financial disparity and everything.

55:30So it must be a strange existence to be one of those yo-yo teams knowing that wins are going to be very, very rare. Daniel? I think one of the, one, this is off the top of my head theory, like fag packet theory, but I think four of the last six teams that got 100 points in the championship came straight back down. I wonder if there's a, you almost get punished so Scott Parker last season at Burnley had a brilliant defence they got 100 points you sort of can't legislate there's no mandate there to overhaul the squad where Sunderland finished I think 24 24 points behind Burnley and obviously went up in the playoffs and then there is a mandate to say right oh my god this we only came third in the championship we were miles off it we need to completely overhaul the squad and they obviously got their recruitment really, really right, which helps more than anything.

56:21But I think it's really hard if you win a league, then, you know, Leeds had it. They had Joel Pirro as a striker for half a season until they got Calvert-Lewin in because they thought, well, this guy was our top scorer last season. So we sort of have to stick with it. You know, they played Nonto and they played Dan James for until that change against Man City, because they were like, well, these are the guys who are the best players in the championship last season. So it is really hard, I think, if you dominate in one league to have the guts to go, we're going to spend£150 million because we don't think these players are good enough.

56:52Well, that's a very fair point and an interesting theory, although I should continue with the second half of FPL Bang & Podcast's post, which I missed out, where they say, how have they possibly spent£100 million in each of their last two Premier League attempts only to finish 19th? So it's not that they didn't make the spending. Yeah, although this season was slightly different. They lost James Trafford, who was the best goalkeeper in the championship brown hill went yeah brown hill went didn't he but there was someone else who was like key last season they lost i think this was just a bit of a i mean i don't think they're very good and i think it's getting a bit toxic at burnley now and i think parker probably should have gone a couple of months ago and because there's no almost no point sacking him now but i do feel for clubs like that because it's kind of hard to get it right like leeds leeds are a bigger draw to players than burnley are that's just the reality of it so they could going I don't think Calvin Leone would have joined Burnley I don't think Okafor I don't I don't think these players would have joined Burnley so it's actually I think it's really hard if you get 100 points then say right we're going to try and buy half a new squad and we're also probably going to be shopping for players that is because they haven't got another offer in the Premier League basically.

58:00On Daniel's point about having kind of like a mandate to spend because you've come up through the playoffs so in theory you were a level below the championship winners I wonder if there's like a tactical element to that as well. Because anecdotally to me, it seems like playoff winners fare better in the Premier League than championship title winners. Because maybe they're more used to playing in uneven games or sorry, like more even games where they're not the dominant team. Whereas like Companies Burnley, for example, they were playing everybody off the park in the championship. They were never able to play like that in the Premier League.

58:34Whereas teams who maybe go up in sixth have a little bit more. Scrapping. Yeah, scrapping, but also maybe just tactical diversity to them. OK. West Ham anyway winning this game. As I mentioned, not conceding for the first time under Nuno. Crescensio Somerville continuing his excellent form. He's now scored in the last five matches in all competitions. Taticasso Janos meantime with his first Premier League goal for his new club having previously scored in the FA Cup against QPR. Villa dropped points. Tim, how do you feel about that? Not really very much Bournemouth 1, Villa 1 January signing for Bournemouth Ryan With a lovely goal It was very nice But if ever you're going to give an assist To an opposition defender You'd give one here I think Who was it?

59:27Was Luca Dean Absolute traffic cone I've never seen anything like it Especially at this level It was like when you're playing FIFA And your controller dies So your player just stands still Maybe that's what happened. We'll never know. Emi Martinez had to make seven saves because Bournemouth were really piling on the pressure. 20 shots they had. Eventually, they broke through past the Argentine keeper and answered Morgan Rodgers' excellent early goal in which he slammed the ball into the roof of the net from quite short range for him. Anyway, there you go. Villa are going to be hosting Brighton, as we mentioned, who are in rotten form.

1:00:04That's Wednesday, while Bournemouth, who currently lie 11th in the Premier League, are at Everton. Everton, who were 2-1 winners at Fulham. Quick word on that, or should we go straight, Tim, to Wolves-Chelsea? Yes, just get over with. Yeah, the Wolves-Chelsea. I mean, it's important, isn't it, because this race for top five, where are Villa in that? As it stands with Liverpool's defeat, there is now a four-point gap between Chelsea and fifth, and Liverpool just outside the almost certain to be Champions League positions. Aston Villa are third with 47 points, three points behind them are Man United and a point behind United are Chelsea.

1:00:46And of course you have to mention Brentford in this race now because they're level with Liverpool on points and goal difference. Crikey. All right, well let's talk a little bit about Chelsea as they pick up their fourth straight win under Liam Resenia. He's only the second English manager ever to win his first four Premier League matches against a Wolves side who have the lowest points tally after 25 games of any team in Premier League history. So even lower than that Derby side at this point of the season. It's still on. Yeah, yeah. And I was, you know, they had that sort of five game on beating run and I was thinking they'd be fine for that.

1:01:26But Rob Edwards has gone a bit weird. I don't know if you remember, a couple of weeks ago, he played no strikers at Man City. Here he played almost four by changing the formation. I don't know if you're sort of planning for next season in terms of the fact that, you know, Wolves will generally be on the attack and, you know, be up against weaker opposition. But here they played Chelsea, you were quite good. Then they gave them two penalties. I mean, literally gave them two penalties. Really idiotic mistakes. The Wolves had actually started the game quite well. first 10 minutes it's pretty much all wolves and then uh matt doherty decides to kick jab pedro as he's sort of running away from goal towards the corner flag really and there's another man helping him out so it was absolutely ludicrous to do that and then the second penalty was mascara pushing jab pedro in the back again very little sort of reason to do that cole palmer two really good penalties since Sarr the wrong way sort of very easily both times and then to fair Chelsea's third goal really nicely cut back from Kukurea to Palmer for his hat-trick but you won't have an easier afternoon I don't think if you watch every Chelsea match this season I'd be surprised I'd be really surprised if they had an easier match because Wolves went narrow with this new formation they played four attackers including Adam Armstrong as a left-sided striker and Chelsea just absolutely dominated the wide areas and could do whatever they wanted.

1:02:53And it was so easy that the guy who scored the hat-trick, which I haven't seen this for a while, was taken off after, I think, 59 minutes because they kind of had worked it out by that point that they were in for a pretty easy afternoon. 3-1 had finished. Cole Palmer, it was, who became the first player in Premier League history, if you're collecting these stats, to register three first-half hat-tricks in his career. Hmm. All right, they've got leads on Tuesday. have Chelsea and Everton, meanwhile, who, as we mentioned, are up there on the fringes of the Champions League, certainly in European positions, with 2-1 winners against Fulham.

1:03:31Daniel, do you want to take us home with this one? Yeah, Everton, the former away team in the country, so only Villa, Chelsea and Arsenal have got more away points than Everton this season, and they're all within three points of Everton. It's a phenomenal effort given that the Hill Dickensons felt quite grumbly and buoy this season and Everton haven't been brilliant at home and they wouldn't be the first team, the first club to take time to acclimatise themselves to a new stadium. But they've been completely overshadowed by Everton's away form. They are absolutely fantastic. This is sort of anti-analysis but it's quite hard to work out how they manage it because you get sort of 20 minutes of an Everton game where nothing really happens and it just happens to be that the first major incident after that lull is Everton creating a chance out of almost nothing.

1:04:23Dewsby Hall was back which helps, he was heavily involved at the weekend but yeah they're just they're kind of a classic getting it done and making sure that most of their games are settled by three or four major moments and David Moyes' Everton away from home are just managing to get themselves on the right side of those moments pretty much every time. Good Lord. It certainly was the kind of match that looked like it was films for the taking until all of a sudden it wasn't courtesy of another Everton away performance. Anybody want to add anything to that? Thomas Tuchel attended this game and I was wondering to watch who.

1:04:59And the closest, my best guess would be James Garner, potentially, who's having a very impressive season for Everton and maybe in the frame for that fourth, maybe fifth central midfield position for the plane in the summer. But yeah, I was trying to work out who because I don't think it would be Smith Rowe or anyone like that. Very possibly, very possibly. Everton take on Bournemouth on Tuesday, it's a busy night Tuesday, but if you don't have time to follow all the football as mentioned Wednesday morning we've got a special pod to round it all up for you before that there's the Euro show and also somewhere out there right now is a brand new Totally Extra which came out on Saturday in which we discuss one of the most remarkable stories of the Premier League era, which was Leeds.

1:05:54Their rise under Ridsdale and their extraordinary journey from one game away from the Champions League final to bottom of the first division in six easy seasons. That famous press conference, was it? Yeah. But we lived the dream. We did live the dream. Well, I mean, I don't remember it, but yeah, I'll take your word for it. Well, relive, well, actually don't relive it, but experience it as if for the first time, Ruben. I will. Via the magic of our Totally Extra podcast. Excellent. Well, I hope you enjoyed this evening, YouTube viewer, and indeed you podcast listener. Daniel, thank you so much for being with us.

1:06:27Hope your cold gets better. Thank you very much. No, not at all. Look forward to hearing further thoughts from Daniel in the eye with his The School Roundup of the weekend. Reuben, thank you so much for being with us on this auspicious day for Palace. Thank you very much. And also, Tim. Thanks, James. Thank you, too. Thank you, too. Many thanks to Jake and British Charlie in the booth and you wherever you've been joining us. We're back soon. And for now, from all of us here, it's goodbye.

1:07:25The Athletic FC.