Salah lets loose on Liverpool as Villa blow title race wide open

0:00The Athletic FC

0:30and much, much more to come on this Totally Football Show.

0:43Sunday night for us and for you too, YouTube Live viewer. Welcome also to the podcast Fundamentalist tuning in at your leisure and also to our panel in the studio, Colin Miller. Colin, all Northern Ireland need to do is be Italy, then Wales, then Bosnia, and you're at the World Cup in a group with Canada, Switzerland and Qatar. It's a small mountain to climb. Simple, isn't it? Simple. Yeah, it's hard to believe there's so many teams in the draw to begin with, of which Northern Ireland are still one. It's quite a tricky path to the finals, albeit it's almost more frustrating that you then have a group and you think, oh, we could actually probably do quite well in that.

1:18So, yeah, there's a long way to go. I'm not getting too far ahead of myself. But, yeah, it's nice to still be involved. It's the hope that kills you. Also in the studio with me, Ruben Pinder, fresh from watching his beloved Crystal Palace win again in the Premier League. It could be another golden season. I am maybe getting a bit ahead of myself, unlike Colin. Champions League, here we come. On the big screen, Daniel Storey, who was in snowy Washington, D.C. for the long-awaited sequel to Rio's World Cup wind-ups on Friday. You've watched the weekend's football across multiple time zones, and I'm guessing through bleary eyes, Daniel.

1:54Yes, I have been awake for, I think, 30 hours as we record. So I don't know how that goes. I've watched a lot of Premier League football, so maybe it ends in sort of horrific hot takes and producer Charlie asks me to do it every weekend. Well, if you need a sedative, Brighton versus West Ham for 75 minutes will be good for what ails you. Right, after review is the catchphrase du jour in the Premier League and it'll be applicable come the end of the pod. But we need to start first and we'll do that appropriately enough at the top of the Premier League table. This is the Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network.

2:27We now have a top three separated by only three points from a title procession to a three-way dance. Life comes at you fast in the Premier League. Let's get to Villa Park. Rogers cross and Sancho and Chielemans and Buendia denied. And camera blocked by White. Camera. Buendia. absolute bedlam at Villa Park Saturday lunchtime a game described by none other than Michael Cox as being far too entertaining for a 12.30 kick-off Aston Villa becoming the first team to beat Arsenal since August thanks to Emi Buendia's 95th minute winner which cut the gap on leaders Arsenal to three points with the last kick of the game Daniel what a game and what a finish to it Yeah I mean my main takeaway even before Villa scored because I couldn't quite work out how they had so much energy and Arsenal had so little.

3:22There's a moment where Arsenal were attacking with about eight minutes of normal time to go. And Emi Martinez gets the ball and he's like, right, we need to go, we need to go, we need to push, we need to charge. I was thinking, you've won 4-3 at Brighton in midweek. Arsenal had this procession at home to Brentford. And you know that Arsenal haven't lost in a long time and yet you are determined to go and beat them. And that has to come down from the manager. it has to come from the confidence and momentum they've got. I think I'm right in saying that 1919 was the last year that Villa won 9 of 10 top flight matches in a row they just look really really good and really determined that everything's going to go their way and obviously that was completely personified in the late goal where they try and do lots of things yes it's a bit lucky but you make your own luck and then Emi Buendia curls home and produces one of the great South American runs towards the side of the pitch to say, it's me, it's me, this is why I'm here.

4:21Yeah, Villa fans are rightly quite vocal over the last few weeks, saying that we haven't given them enough credit. Dudley the fraud, have Villa beaten anyone decent yet, lads? And John says, top of the form table, second in the league, scoring non-set-piece goals would be clear at the top if we'd started the season a bit better. That's the thing, isn't it, Colin? The transformation from where they were at the beginning of the campaign to now is stark. Oh, yeah. I mean, this is one of almost the strangest transformations for a team to be so bad for not just one or two games, but it was quite a stretch at the start.

4:54It had just two points from five and there were some really bad performances in there. And then they had a dip again when they went to Anfield and they just sort of went into their shells and they lost. And obviously when Liverpool were in that run of form, they lost to go ahead Eagles in the Europa League as well. I think it's a strange performance, but they then bounce back again and they've gone on this run. I think this has been, Villa Arsenal has been the best Premier League game of the season to date for me. I just thought this was such a great matchup. It was such a great contrast between two teams who are fundamentally very much based on their coaches and how they play.

5:29And you can see that systematically in the styles, but there's just, there's so many narratives in this game. Obviously, Unai Emery coming up against this former club again and once again producing a result, which sort of makes them doubt what their actual ambitions could be this season. Because as we said, Arsenal have been in such a great run of form recently. And then you go to Sunderland, you drop points there, you drop points at Chelsea. And individually, those results are sort of OK, they're fine. But when you start to then go on a little run of that and you start to think, well, you know, they're not actually going and winning any of these matches.

5:58And they've allowed some of the contenders, including Villa, to come up on their shoulder. And I think you have to now put Arsenal and Villa in a position where certainly they're looking at not just Champions League football again, but also could they actually go better than that? In this league, in this league that's so unpredictable and where clubs are really struggling to string any sort of run and form together, Filler doing just that. You look at Emi Martinez, who was trying to force his way out of the club up until the final day of the transfer window, had completely broken his relationship, apparently, with not just the fans, but the coaching staff, even some of his teammates.

6:30And though he's a cult hero again, they absolutely love him. And this fella said it was fantastic in this game. They fully deserved the win. They had over two XG, which nobody has done against Arsenal this season. They had more shots on target than any other team has done against Arsenal. More touches in the box, more big chances created. All the sort of measurements of how well they did. But they also turned Arsenal's strengths into weaknesses because even at the start of this game and whenever the commentary team were speaking about Calafiore, who's fundamentally a left-back by trade, right?

6:57But he's in midfield and it's him finding space and linking up play that makes Arsenal so dangerous and so hard to keep on top of. But what Villa did was they managed to restrict how much control that midfield had from Arsenal. And not only that, but they were able to get the ball forward quickly into the space that he had left in left fullback position. So Matty Cash obviously scored the opener. And it was Everett Giese who was the sort of player back in that position trying to stop him. Lovely little yelp from him when he realises what's happening. No! And five minutes before that, Declan Rice had the blocker shot that was going on target from Cash there too.

7:31So they had really exploded that. and Emery did again get the better of Arteta. And not many managers have done that this season. And it was just such an impressive display. But it's the energy and the belief, and it all comes from the manager. There's no signings really coming into this team and making an impact in that 11. It's still all players that Unai Emery inherited when he was appointed, what, over three years ago now. So it's such an impressive coaching job. They've been Arsenal at home, they've been City at home. I think any team going to Villa Park now, you've got a fear factor there.

8:02It's a weapon for them in the same way that Ellen Road might be for leaders. We'll talk about Ruben. But what puts Villa in the title conversation long-term for you? Is it Emery or are we just making too much of one good result, a good week for them? And this table will eventually shake out to look a bit more as we might expect it to. Well, it's certainly not just one good result. Obviously, they've won five in a row now, maybe more. Yeah, like Colin said, they played with the required intensity, which is surprising maybe given that they don't seem to rotate that much. They have European football to contend with, which is affecting other teams.

8:37But it's mostly Emery, isn't it? He's been the big difference at that club since he came over. And the most impressive thing for me is turning around that form at the start of the season because the narratives were all about the kind of underwhelming transfer window, the chaos and lack of direction that ended up with emergency opportunistic signings of Jadon Sancho and Harvey Elliott. Elliott, who's barely played. Sancho's not, until this weekend, not really done anything particularly eye-catching in a Villa shirt. But I was actually quite impressed with, he made at least two very good attacking contributions in this game.

9:11One to play Mattson through on the underlap, which almost ended up in Raya's goal as Timber got a stud on it. What was the other one? Yeah, he dribbled through two or three players that led to Buendia's goal, kind of you know a goal mile scramble later um so yeah emery deserves huge credit and yeah the tactical part of the game i found interesting like colin was saying that canafuri was kind of limited in how much he could roam with villa playing central players in wide positions you know the you'll see mcginn on the left on the right and rogers on the left both central players by trade that means that matty cash and whoever plays at left back quite often have to attack and then you're kind of left with two, two, four, two almost.

9:54And when it comes off, it works really well. And yeah, Watkins looked busier than he did at the start of the season as well. Obviously created that excellent, well, he was played through on goal, but kind of held off a few challenges to create that big chance for himself at the start of the game. Maybe unlucky not to score. But yeah, it's usually an impressive performance. Like you said, we keep on thinking the league will shake itself out and it remains very clustered. On the Athletic FC YouTube channel this weekend, we did an episode looking at who is actually going to finish fourth, assuming Chelsea were a lock for third and looking at teams like Villa and Brighton.

10:28Chelsea are now fifth. So, I don't know. I find it impossible to predict this season. All right. Straight shootout between Palace and Everton for the Champions League and Villa going for the title. Arsenal-wise, then, Daniel, here's Omar who asks, a midfield three is a difficult balance to create in football. Once a combination clicks, you don't alter it. Zubimendi-Rice as a was a working formula alternate to accommodate Odegaard has returned us to our creativity problems it's not a question it's a statement but you can comment on it anyway yeah I don't really agree I think the issues were were defensively I actually thought Odegaard and Saka in combination were really dangerous Saka had one of those afternoons where he did a lot well but it maybe didn't all come off and he got quite frustrated about decisions going against him but I thought that part of the team worked the two things that didn't work are one having to change the defence again after injury, this was their problem last season, losing central defenders and having to make do and Durian Timber I think struggled as a centre back, I don't blame him, it's not his natural position but he just didn't seem to be quite sure where to hold the line and when to go with the runner and when to stay which is kind of a lot easier at full back when you're looking right across the line and obviously he had had a defender next to him in Capier who is really good but has not been there that long.

11:46It's not a combination that is used to playing together and Arsenal's strength over the first half of this season or the first half of the first half of this season is that central defensive combination of Gabriel and Saliba and it's not there anymore and a team will suffer. I think if you took out the best two central defenders of every club in the Premier League their form would drop off. I think it's probably been coming for a little bit. They've dropped seven points in the last five league games now. That is definitely a downturn against the standards before. And then the other issue is that Victor Diocro has came on at half time as a kind of, the Marino plan's not working.

12:20We need something different. Let's bring on our summer signing. And he did absolutely nothing. I think he completed four passes, didn't create a chance, didn't create a dribble, didn't win a duel, didn't have a shot. That's not working at the moment. So there's not that. Whereas you look at City's strength is that the weekend was Harlan had two touches in the box but they still found other ways to score goals and to be dangerous bringing off Mourinho for Giocco has actually felt way too similar on Saturday which is mad given one's a central midfielder and one was one of the best strikers in the world last season it's just not working right now and they're not getting those what I'd call cheat goals those kind of free unexpected goals where a striker just creates something and scores so they looked like they were having to really work quite hard to create big chances on Saturday and that is a slight issue.

13:13One of the things that I would say about Arsenal and I had these sort of thoughts obviously they've made such a strong start to the season and they have the strongest squad in the league there's no doubt about it I mean obviously as Daniel says to lose so many central defenders I mean you've lost probably your starting two and the third in Muscara as well so I mean to have to deal with that that's all about combinations and understanding between players too But you still have Ben White, Jurian Timber, Hinkafé, Calafiore, you know, all these players who are established internationals, really, really high quality.

13:43And I think any other side would love to have those replacements individually. But it doesn't really matter how big your squad is whenever you do have to keep chopping and changing because that in itself creates instability. But Arsenal haven't won a league title in 21 years, 22 seasons now. Now, that's a very, very long time. And whenever you have a club who have gone that long without winning a league recently, even going back to 2020 with Liverpool, having not won it in so long, Napoli in Italy and Barry Leverkusen in Germany and all those things, where it's like, there's almost like a hoodoo around the club of, you know, if you were in a close title race, that plays on your mind.

14:19It's a subconscious thing. But they won it because they had such big leads that there never was a title race. They sort of cantered to those league titles. and I thought, oh well, that kind of looks like what Arsenal could potentially do this season and I still think they are favourites for the league, I still think they will win the league and I don't want to just overreact to one defeat but what I would say is that you do get a sense that with Manchester City, certainly in that mix that you've got a team, a squad and a manager who've just won so many titles and other people have said it on this show before but if they're in that race, if they're on the shoulder even going into the last stretch of the season you sort of think that's not something that you want at all you just don't want that added pressure and the added noise so I don't want to overreact to this because I still think Arsenal have more potential than anyone else they've got fewer vulnerabilities, they've got more options but I did mention it earlier that there's almost a mentality that a draw away from home against a good team is fine and it is individually but there's so many good teams in the Premier League that you can't allow that to become a pattern and that's just something that they've got to solve And I think, as Daniel said, when you spend so much money on Victor Jokeres, and he does have those attributes of stretching defences, of creating space, but he's not in form and they don't have an alternative natural backup striker.

15:37And that is an issue. All right. Well, they got Klubbrugger away in the Champions League and Wolves at home in the league next. That might be good for what ails them. So that was Saturday lunchtime, Saturday tea time. A rain-drenched, floodlit banger at Ellum Road. Leeds and Liverpool saved all the action for the second half. And we'll get to Salah's strop shortly. But this game, this game, zero shots on target in the first half, six goals in the second. And I feel like, Ruben, we should start talking about Leeds because it's been quite a week for them. And in particular, Daniel Farker, I think probably looked at three games against Man City, Chelsea and Liverpool and thought, well, if I haven't got my P45 by the end of those, I'll be doing OK.

16:19And he deserves full credit, right? because this tactical tweak has paid dividends for him. Switching to 3-5-2. Yeah, I mean, I was really hoping that for their sake that he stuck with that, having done it against Chelsea because obviously Liverpool quite often end up with Van Dijk and Canate isolated, especially when the full-backs kind of venture forward. So yeah, to occupy them both, it's not something a lot of centre-backs are used to nowadays in the Premier League with most teams playing with one forward. So yeah, Farker deserves a lot of credit because it's quite strange, isn't it? because the narrative around him and Leeds when they came up was, I mean, there were rumours that they were going to sack him before the season started and try and pre-emptively replace him.

17:00And then when the season began, there was always this underlying feeling that they were waiting for the most appropriate time to do it. And now he's getting results that mean they probably shouldn't. So, yeah, well done him. And actually, Colin, maybe those three games helped him out because perhaps the board were thinking, well we don't want to bring somebody in in their first three games be City, Chelsea and Liverpool and yeah he's managed to figure it out and particularly impressive in this game the fact that his team went 2-0 down and still managed to rescue something from it assisted yes by Ibrahim Okunateenko but This week started with that match at Manchester City when they had this incredible comeback and then that massively deflating moment but it wasn't really deflating at all because they just carried exactly what they showed throughout that second half certainly into the Chelsea match.

17:49And that felt like such a big, big moment for them. It felt like such a relief to get that one huge result. And you saw it against Liverpool as well, but that Ellen droid crowd, and we said about Villa Park and Ascend Villa, but that's such a difficult atmosphere to play in, right? And I know that Chelsea and Liverpool have their vulnerabilities, but that must play a part in being in that sort of environment when the fans know just how to support a team really, really well. and Leeds fans have suffered for quite a long time. I know they had a spell in the Premier League, but they've never had a team, certainly outside of the kind of COVID spell, which really kind of did justice to the size of that club.

18:28And I'm really happy for Dominic Calvert-Lewin as well, because he scored in each of these three games. And certainly in the early part of the season, he kind of seemed like a bit of a tragic figure almost because he was struggling so much in front of goal and you could see his confidence was totally shot. So to have him sort of fit and firing again is a big thing. and yet the Leeds were so so impressive. The one thing you would say is that ultimately this week has brought four points which is obviously great in the context but it is just four points and they have been beaten by Burnley this season, by Forrest this season, even by Fulham and those are the games where you sort of think naturally they should be targeting points from them but they haven't really got them so yet they're out of the relegation zone for now and they've had these great results but can you translate that intensity and that unity and that togetherness and I mean that change of formations work but there'll be a manager who kind of comes up and thinks well actually we can combat that and we know how to open that up it's maybe a bit more predictable now so again it's a fresh challenge for them but yeah I just say I think it's been a fantastic week for them and then where do you start with Liverpool?

19:29Yeah quite the contrast Daniel in terms of what happened on the pitch they helped leads out to a large extent and in a way that's become quite familiar to us this season Yeah if you rattle them they immediately collapse perhaps, which is something that used to get said about pretty much all of the other supposed big six, at least, over the last five or six years. We used to say it about Manchester United. Weirdly, there was not that long ago that we said it about Pep Guardiola's City, even when they were winning titles every other season, at least. There was a kind of sense that if you got into their faces, they might not be able to hack it.

20:09It's been said about Arsenal before. It never really was said ever since Liverpool has signed Virgil van Dijk it's never really been said about them but they are the most classic example of that now is that if you put any lean any pressure on them then the wall just falls over and it falls over because people aren't a are not doing their own job properly b are not trusting anyone around them to do their job so everyone's overthinking everything and getting things wrong and trying to make amends and in doing so making things doubly worse and also and I don't think this is now given what happened after the game I don't think this is being hyperbolic there seems to be a question within the club of whether Arnest Lott is the right guy to take them forward and the right guy to get the best out of this squad now and it is a squad that is going to be in transition it's an aging squad despite the signings this summer because at least two of those big signings were for the now not for tomorrow and that's a really hard thing to deal with all right well somebody who doesn't seem that keen on having Arna Slott around too much is Mohamed Salah thrown under the bus good to know he's a Traitors fan at least Ruben I guess I said many times before I had a good relationship with the manager and all of a sudden we don't have any relationship I don't know why but it seems to me how I see it that someone doesn't want me in the club and Lucas will Slott be slightly pleased by this it means selling Salah is an easy win with the fans now.

21:34Maybe, yeah. There's a strange kind of PR side to management, which, you know, this, I guess, does help slot. I'm not sure what the general consensus is among Liverpool fans on whose side they're on, but personally, I think you've got to back the manager and I think Salah's been extremely unreasonable and quite petulant. And, you know, a lot of people have pointed out that he only speaks to the media when he wants when he wants a new contract or, you know, he's very calculated in choosing when he speaks to the media, which makes me think he thought very carefully about the words he would use before he went over to speak to them this time.

22:10So it's not like an emotional knee-jerk reaction to something. Well, it is, but it shouldn't be, you know. I think it reminds me of the Ronaldo situation in 2022 at United when he's kind of a big ego that you have to have to get to that level of relentless, consistent success. prevents athletes from recognizing when their powers are waning. And he might have more of a point if the results were still losses by three goal margins. Obviously, they're not doing as well as they should, but the results did marginally improve when Slott took him out of the team. And you can see the extra defensive work from the likes of Soboslai in his position.

22:51So I really don't think Salah has a strong point at all. And yeah, he's put the club in a horrible position. And AFCON's only around the corner. He could have waited and come back. So, yeah, it's an awful situation. And I don't think Salah's been very reasonable at all. What's he doing, Daniel? Yeah, I mean, I guess he's doing one of two things, which is trying to immediately force a move, which it sounds like he is. It sounds like that next weekend might be, well, he might have already played his last game for Liverpool if next weekend's going to be this sort of weird goodbye. Or he's trying to get the manager's sack to then Renej on that, I want to leave.

23:29And going off to AFCON does create a window where it's not completely outside the realms of possibility that when AFCON finishes or when Egypt finish in AFCON, Arna Slott is not the manager of Liverpool anymore. I mean, I don't think, I can't really, as we stand, foresee a situation where either of them are at Liverpool come the start of next season. But there's a heck of a lot of water to go under the bridge before that happens. But no, I mean, to back up Ruben's point, he doesn't have a leg stand on. I think it's like 11 non-penalty goals and assists in his last 33 Liverpool games. He's been poor.

24:03He doesn't seem to be particularly in tune with a front three where he has to pass the ball an awful lot. He seems to be getting visibly frustrated. And yeah, he has kind of gone beyond the pale. I think he's gone beyond the pale because as it stands at the moment with Liverpool, it's still in, you know, still taking backward steps. I think he thinks he can win that PR battle I think he probably thinks that Liverpool fans will back him over Arna Sla and I think he's probably right in terms of a majority but that doesn't mean that what he does is right because it isn't and it doesn't mean that he'll actually win the war because I think if an offer comes in from the Saudi Pro League in January Liverpool would be stupid not to take it I think they should have sold him I said two summers ago they should have sold him and he then went on to be brilliant last season which kind of made me look silly, but there was always a peak value point.

24:58It was 200 million was being talked about at that point. It's going to be a lot less now because he's 33 and he's not really played well for about seven to eight months. So I don't really see how he can push forward his case to be in the team. The only way this gets better and Liverpool move forward is if they're building towards a better future. At 33 years old, Salah is not going to be part of that future long term. so it's a huge risk on him to say he's effectively saying look Liverpool need to build around me or Slott but what he's kind of forgetting is that there's a second option there which is neither and I think that's what will end up happening I think one of the well it's not an irony of this but last season under Arnie Slott he had his best season at Liverpool I don't think it's simple to say he was the reason they won the league because they did win it quite comfortably but his form was out of this world it was ridiculous his goals and assists but not just across the season but the regularity in the big games and they were just such a force of nature with that but the reasons behind that were well there was multiple reasons for it Trent Alexander-Arnold's build-up down the right was a huge factor of Salah's form that's completely gone Shobaslai's form of feeding him from the midfield has also gone because his position in the team has changed and he's probably the one player in this Liverpool team who has sort of maintained his levels you've also had these coaching changes so obviously Arne Slott's one of his main assistants last year was Johnny Heitinger and he departed and whenever he left the club there was people had mentioned to me that he had such a big sort of impact that nobody really saw it but his impact between with the players and the sort of the team spirit that they had the bridge between the coaching set up he was the guy that provided all that and his departure hasn't it looks like it hasn't really been been sort of sustained with somebody else coming in obviously you've had changes to that but Liverpool have struggled since day one of this season and they haven't fixed it It is a major, major coaching issue.

26:48And I've become convinced for several weeks that there's no reversal to this. I watched them against Sunderland in my week. And even though that was a draw and they were pushing for a late winner, they were dreadful in that match. They were dreadful. And for the players that they have to have such a lack of identity, such a lack of cohesion, that is such a negative on how the club is being run from the top down at the minute. And yes, Salah's statement, there's elements of it I would be quite uncomfortable with, especially the thing of, you know, I've earned the right to play. Of course, you've been fantastic, but you haven't done that.

27:18But it's also a statement to have left him out for three games and on the substitute bench not to come on for two of those matches. That was also very much a statement from above. So you've got two sides of this and it just isn't, to me, I think it's been said, but both Slott and Salah, maybe one of them can survive this, but I don't think both can. The other thing, and Colin's absolutely right to bring up about being left on the bench for three games, That was a statement. And Anastasia was asked about that. And he kind of gave the sort of media spin answer of, yeah, the relationship's fine. Mo's great.

27:54He knows that he's still an important fixture. He understands he's absolutely fine when we select the team. Now, that clearly, at least according to Hamid Salah, was not true. We know that Salah and or his agent use the media infrequently. And when they do, it's generally to push forward their own agenda. and you know the game's the game fair enough but I think that was pretty naive of slot a time when he needed everybody to stay together I think that was pretty naive to leave the highest paid player the kind of star player from last season on the bench for that long and then when asked about it just say yeah Mo's absolutely fine because you know I don't know but it sounds like maybe that more than not being in the team is what's annoyed Salah here it's that the manager comes out and says yeah he's fine with it and Salah's like well hang on a minute I'm absolutely not fine with it I think I deserve to be in the team and I'm not happy that I'm not and I think that is probably what's that's probably what's provoked this latest announcement I still don't think you should do it because Liverpool have been through a hell of a lot over the last six or seven months and the one thing that they need is unity within that squad and they need to keep dirty laundry inside the building and Salah has he's absolutely scorched that earth by you know taking seven and a half minutes to pick apart his manager in public so he shouldn't have done it but I also think it's pretty poor management on Slott's part in terms of a not picking him and not bringing him on even and then also just kind of brushing aside that that was any issue it's a complicated one isn't it um because Salah mentioned promises made to him I guess when he signed his new deal last summer which came at a time when they needed a PR win, having obviously lost about to keep Trent.

29:43And obviously when you win a league title, it's politically quite difficult to let your top goal scorer leave for free and maybe do the same with the captain in defence. But from Slott's point of view, he won't have necessarily made those promises to Salah that he would play all the time. And then the club go and buy him three very expensive, very talented attackers. so then when Salah says it's very obvious that somebody doesn't want me here and won't elaborate on who but who could that possibly be other than the manager it's all it's very explicable I can understand why he's why he's angry nobody likes being like effectively demoted or told that they're not as good as they were or you know having the fun part of their job taken away from them like you know if I didn't get to do these that would annoy me but yeah it's it ultimately it's still very selfish and lacking in self-awareness.

30:36And just very, very quickly on this as a final point, that Salah doesn't say anything at all unless he really does think about it, and that's been established. He did make a post as well in September at the very start of the season, just after the transfer window closed and Wurz and Isik had been signed. And he did quote tweet, like a massive Liverpool fan account on his social media, that he said were disrespecting the players that had left, as in the Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunes. and I kind of didn't really think too much of it at the time again but when you sort of look back on all these things it's like the players that left like how much of that has disrupted the unity that was there and there just seems to be disconnects all over the place at the minute Was the tweet like about upgrading on them?

31:17Yeah, yeah, yeah Be a sad way for him to go if that is the end for Mo Salah because he's one of Liverpool's best ever players Next up for them, Inter in the Champions League at San Siro on Tuesday They thrashed Cesc Fabregas' Como 4-0 on Saturday. Hopefully it's a comfy bench there for Mo's sake. Next for us, it's off to the Etihad.

31:59steps it up pace-wise, gets the tricks out for Bowden! And you have to marvel at the assist from Rea Cherky. Ryan's Rabona there, impressing everybody except his manager. Manchester City making surprisingly short work of a Sunderland side. He'd previously taken points home from Stamford Bridge and Anfield. 3-0 to the citizens here. A second Saturday running, Ruben, that City have scored three at home into a newly promoted cyber, but this was much more straightforward. Yeah, three lovely goals for different reasons. You know, not often you see a Manchester City centre-back lash one top bins. The only one I can think of similar is the bins and company one in 2019.

32:42Disappointing deflection. Take a little bit off it for you. Yeah, fair enough then. Rubbish, yeah. Yeah. Guardiola's header I actually really liked because it's like he meets the ball at its highest point and he's like everything about it is just perfectly timed. Again, not often you see City kind of rely on that method of goal scoring. And the Foden one that comes from that Rabona, another lovely, delicate header, which, of course, is that the second header? At least the second header Foden scored this season, which you maybe wouldn't expect from a player of his kind of stature. The Rabona, you know, I love pointless, flashy skills, especially when they lead to goals and stuff.

33:18I do enjoy that. But Ryan Shirky is left-footed, So it kind of made the whole piece of skill quite pointless to use his weak foot. But, you know, it worked. So fair enough. I note that Jordan Campbell on The Athletic has described Ryan Shirky as the most two-footed player in the league, which I wasn't really aware of. I always had him in my mind as a lefty. So maybe he's just doing it because he can. And fair enough. Two points behind Liverpool then. You used the word ominous earlier, Colin. It feels a bit like that, doesn't it? Two points behind Liverpool, two points behind Arsenal, of course, I mean.

33:55Yeah, they've been here before and they've chased down on occasion as well. And you get the feeling that Guardiola is kind of tapping into that a little bit. And the fact that he and a lot of his squad still have the experience of this title race, which, as you referenced, Arsenal maybe don't. Yeah, and it has been such a strange week for City, hasn't it? The game against Leeds and the game against Fulham, which could have been in each of their own right two absolute disasters in terms of what they were looking to achieve in those matches and very on Pep Guardiola-like to not have that control that we all associate with our style of play.

34:29And again, this City team are different though, right? You're different in terms of you've got the Donnarumma as your goalkeeper who you wouldn't associate with Pep. Different in terms of Haaland is now such a central figure to be dominating and again, not somebody who's exactly in Pep Guardiola's mould that we think of, but also Ryan Cherky, and we talked about that assist. I just think it's so interesting how Guardiola described it after the game, because he tried to dress it up as praise, but it was very obviously criticism for how he did it, which feels like a bit of a killjoy, but it's because he compared Cherky to Lionel Messi, and he's like, you know, what I admire most about Ryan is that, you know, the skills, he has such a special player, but, you know, I'm used to Lionel Messi, and Lionel Messi would never have played those kind of crosses.

35:16It was all about the simplicity. And it was such an interesting way of framing it because obviously he's trying to get across the comparison and their technique, but you just don't do stuff like that. But again, he's such a fun player, isn't he? And Manchester City have quite a few of those as well on their team. Obviously, Jeremy Dock, who's one who can really turn it on and is quite unique in his own right. Again, I mean, he said he was fine in this game. It was a routine win in the end. But the two goals in the first half, it was obviously the Diaz goal and an end from a corner. Sunderland, I think, would be disappointed with that because they weren't picked apart.

35:52They were two goals out of almost nothing. And there was a 20-minute spell at the start of the second half when Sunderland were not dominating, but they were really on top. They had a lot of pressure. Xhaka hit the post. Isidore broke free. Had a one-on-one and it was saved. And he had these chances and he thought, could it happen again for City? But then they've got it over the line. And it's so important that they followed up that Arsenal defeat with that, right? And just that they continue this. It is momentum that they have, albeit in a very strange way, and that they're still getting these results together without Rodri starting week in, week out, and how that might transform things.

36:26And they, I think of the teams who are looking at, realistically looking at the title, they're probably the one team who in January might be able to actually make a signing or two that might make a difference in terms of maybe their options and maybe releasing a bit of their reliance, I guess. I know he didn't score in this game, but that has been the trend this season. So, yeah, you don't want to be in a title race for City, do you? Yeah, they certainly did that last January. What would you reckon then, Daniel, maybe still not at their absolute peak, but something which has changed, certainly over the last week, is that they don't just need Erling Haaland to score for them.

37:01Yeah, and he's doing... There were kind of two extremes before of City, and we're now in that second extreme. The first is that he has lots of shots, lots of touches in the box, lots of goals. And the other extreme is that everybody else scores and Haaland does next to nothing but occupies two central defenders, which is certainly what happened at the weekend. Like I said earlier, but he had two touches in the opposition box, which is kind of mad given the dominance that City had in the game. But it sort of doesn't matter if it means that not only Foden can find space on the edge of the box, Not only Doku can be one versus one versus against a fullback because the centre-halves are busy.

37:46And then you add Cherky in there as well. There's just not enough defenders to go round to look after all those players. So you make a decision of whether to leave Haarlem one-on-one and then City can very easily change that plan and just service him. Or everybody else has fun. And this was one of those everybody else has fun days. I think three times this season I've said, yeah, I still think City can win the league. and they always follow it with like a mad drop points that you don't see coming. They need to cut that out. We need to see a run of victories that Arsenal have already produced this season, I think.

38:18And probably, as the other guys have said, in a more controlled way than three-twos and five-fours and whatever. But they 100 % have the quality to win the league. And as it stands in terms of the fitness in each squad, they've got the best squad in the Premier League with Arsenal's central defenders being out. I don't doubt that for a minute. Yeah, I still think Arsenal are favourites, but yeah, seven drop points in five games, that can't continue for Arsenal because as soon as City go our top for a weekend, I think they're going to win the league. That's just how they've operated over the last half decade.

38:55Juicy game for them on Wednesday as well at the Bernabeu against Real Madrid. A little preview of Haaland versus Mbappe, which we'll see in the World Cup next summer too. And now then, Chelsea dropped down to fifth after they drew 0-0 at Bournemouth, a real South Coast stinkfest. I had to sit through it once, Ruben. I've got nothing to say about it other than Liam De Lapp got injured and Evan Nielsen missed a world-class sitter. Anything else that you'd like to offer on this game? Evan Nielsen missing is bad for my fantasy draft team, but nobody cares about that. Liam De Lapp missing, I guess, Colin, is bad potentially for Chelsea.

39:29I mean, it's worse for him, isn't it? He's had a rotten start to his career. or is it because he's got the number nine? Is he the next Aubameyang Lukaku, Higuain, Morata, Falcao, Torres, Sidwell, Bullerys? Ah, the Chelsea number nine curse, of course. Yeah, it was really interesting, actually, because De Laap and Sanesi had this little ongoing battle in the first half of a lot of sort of off-the-ball kind of words to each other, little pushes and nudges. And I think it was an accidental collision between the two that brought De Laap's shoulder injury. But yeah, it's really unfortunate. And he just hasn't really got going at all at the club, has he?

40:01and it's such Chelsea are such a weird team they analyse because I think you can tell within the first five minutes of a game watching Chelsea that they're either going to be a really good performance or they're just really not quite at it at all and this was one of those games where they weren't they had large periods of control but it's without Moises Cossado in the middle and that's obviously coincided with this slight downturn in results and then the other way round for Bournemouth Antoine Semenu again was such a huge threat throughout this game probably the main the main player on the pitch and on Friday the Ghanaian head coach Otto Addo said that yeah he needs to make a step up away from Bournemouth which I'm sure that their fans aren't very appreciative of but it does seem like he could be on his way out and Bournemouth have another rebuilding job on their hands and they're another side who we all thought oh they're doing really well they could potentially be pushing European places and you know you just have this little downturn in results and it can be quite hard to get out of that it's just like it's just across the division it's really tough it's really competitive and this game kind of shows that there's really not very much between quite a lot of the teams.

41:04All right, we're going to chat about Sunday's action and more next.

41:13This is the Totally Football Show. Now we do four times a week. Keep up to date with us on Insta and enjoy seeing glorious Technicolor on YouTube at the Totally Show. Eyebrows raised on Sunday in the WSL, Chelsea's record-breaking 34-game unbeaten run came to an end. They lost 1-0 at home to Everton. More on that on Straight Outta Cobham. It's the Chelsea show from The Athletic. It means Manchester City six points clear at the summit. Meanwhile, in Scotland, Hearts won 2-1 at Celtic, stayed three points clear at the summit and hand Wilfred Nancy a defeat in his opening game in charge. First time in 40 years, Hearts have won at both Celtic Park and Ibrox in the same season.

41:52Back to the Premier League, but also on Sunday. Ruben, if the league finish now, Palace would be in the Champions League. I'm afraid to say that it's not going to, but you very much enjoyed the win at Fulham nonetheless. And now that Palace went and won the game, you can actually appreciate that Harry Wilson goal a bit more too. Oh yeah, for sure. Even at the time I was, you know, applauding, ready to admit that that's goal of the season, contender, maybe even push gas. Wilson, give and go. Oh, that's a beauty! That is a general goal from Harry Wilson. He deserves every bit of a grade for that.

42:26Yeah, another great result for Palace, crucially, without Daniel Munoz, who I think I've said a few times on various shows, the depth issue that is constantly referenced with Palace when it comes to juggling Europe and the Cups. Munoz is the player where there isn't really natural backup. So Nathaniel Klein played there today. I believe he's 34 years old, made his Palace debut in 2008. So not ideally where he'd want to play. and no Ismail Assar, who's also injured, on that right side. So, you know, it was Nketiah and Klein over there. But it didn't matter. They managed to make it work. Mitchell on the left had a bit more attacking responsibility, which Munoz normally does.

43:12So I think the balance of the whole team was pushed to the left a bit more, whereas Palace normally likes to attack down the right. And that works really well, especially for that first goal where Walton plays a lovely Trevella pass out to Mitchell and then the assist for Nketiah, who kind of nabs it away from Anderson. Just a really nice move, which was much needed after a very leggy performance against United last weekend. I like with Villa, I guess, Daniel, the ace at the sleeve for Crystal Palace collectively is the manager, right? In Oliver Glasner, they've got one of the best in the division and he's rinsing absolutely every ounce that he can out of them.

43:50yeah and he's he's staying just the right side of like his pr is incredible because he's staying just the right side of going throwing his hands up in the air and going my club is letting me down but he's making sure to make that point so that when palace do win away from home it is kind of all on him and i have absolutely no issue with that nor will crystal palace fans because a they think he's right and b uh because he won a trophy last season their away form is monumental in 2025 they've won more away Premier League games than everybody else. So they've got 10, Arsenal are on 9, everybody else on less than that.

44:27So that is just, it's absolutely ridiculous for a team that, since August, have had to juggle competitions. We've talked about the squad depth before, Ruben's right. And yet they just squeeze everything out of the performances. And yeah, it seems to be a combination of really, really effective key components. So Mateta, Wharton, Munoz, probably the top three of that, adding Gehi maybe. And then the sort of rotating casts of people making a difference. So Kamada randomly steps up and is good for a few games. Eddie Nketiah gets his goal today. It just seems like, you know, whether it's Saar or whether someone else comes in and offers something, there always seems to be someone new available to step up and count.

45:14And that's brilliant man management because that's preparing players in a way that when they are needed they are absolutely ready to step into the team you hear quite a lot from fans or managers i had to rotate a team so it was you know we weren't our best for the first half hour whatever you just never seem to get that with palace whichever 11 starts you you seem to know what you can get they don't win all the time because there are stronger teams in the premier league but their performance to the level of individual in the squad is I think probably the best in the Premier League. Even Chris Dantas Uche who came on, he was signed from Getafe in the summer, he came on after about an hour against Fulham and he's barely had a look in this season.

45:57Same with Romain Ese who was signed from Millwall last season, they've barely had any minutes. So when Glasner has kind of done his polite complaints and I think part of the reason why they don't become bigger stories than like Daniel's saying is because he always says things so calmly and politely even though he's saying buy me some effing players um uche came on today much earlier than he would have done in the past and maybe glasner is you know with nketiah and mateta coming off at the same time this suggests to me that glasner is accepting that while he would like some more players i think seeing how lacking in energy they were at the end in that united game that i mentioned and then obviously having played midweek as well um i think he's accepting that he has to do a bit more proactive rotation rather than wait until Mateta's got absolutely nothing left and then give Uche five minutes.

46:44A shell-borne away in the Conference League for them in front of Ruben on Thursday night. Very much in the also on Sunday category, Brighton won, West Ham won. More drop points at home this week for Brighton. West Ham were going out of the relegation zone before. Jorginho Ruter cancelled out Jarrod Bowen's opener there. We had a few firsts this weekend. first Everton goal for Tiano Barry, first Newcastle appearance for Jan Wisser, and a first Spurs goal for Xavi Simmonds. It's December at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Not so much frankincense, does frank make sense for Spurs? They finally win a home game in the Premier League for the first time since August.

47:22A rare case, this, of an ex coming over to visit without the whole thing devolving into a mess of tears and recrimination. Just me. Let's move on, shall we, Colin? That was an important win for Tottenham Hotspur against Brentford. I mean I think from a Thomas Frank point of view you've got Brentford coming to you could potentially be the worst possible result that you could have but yeah he avoided the narrative disaster I think this was just the fourth home league win all calendar year for Tottenham which just seems incredible how poor they've been in that stadium but this was they got an early lead a relatively early lead in this game but yeah the Chevy Simmons goal was fantastic not just because he scored the goal it's a lovely finish, a lovely run but the way he won the ball and I kind of looked at him this season and thought he doesn't really look like he's cut out for the Premier League.

48:09His physicality, and we keep seeing this with all these creative players that come over and they maybe do a little bit better in the Bundesliga or La Liga where they've got a bit more time and space just on the ball, but they don't enjoy having the sort of physical contact that the league has and it just has that extra layer of intensity. And I kind of thought this was the game and I think maybe there is something here that he could be the guy who transforms what, from Tottenham's massive creativity issues and actually you've got a really talented player here and if you can utilise him in that system and get the best out of him you might actually have a team who could be quite good and I think if he clicks Tottenham could click as well they've also got an important run of fixtures coming up they've got Slavia Prague this midweek in the Champions League and again maybe top eight and that is a little bit of a stretch in the Champions League but they've got a chance to build momentum certainly and they've got an away game at Forest coming up and at home to Liverpool before Christmas and I kind of think you look at those two fixtures as well Nottingham Forest obviously have all the European matches and they're a bit hit and miss as well at the minute obviously Liverpool in the form that they're in you would quite like to play them at the minute wouldn't you so I think that Tottenham have a chance Thomas Frank has a chance just to move away from this real I don't know if you can call it a danger zone in terms of his future but it just hasn't really worked at all though has it in terms of performances but if you can get two or three certainly performances back to back that can maybe renew a bit of belief, not just from the fans, but from the players as well.

49:35Because I think there has been a sort of visible issue there, hasn't there? There's players not really taking to him instantly, but a couple of results can turn that around and maybe there is some shoots of positivity there. I think notable that he rotated his midfield and brought in Archie Gray to play next to Bentancur because there's been a lot of frustration with the Bentinha double pivot, as it were, with their kind of lack of progression through the middle, which maybe was playing a part in Xavi Simmonds' isolated contributions. But yeah, I was pleasantly surprised by his physicality for that goal as well.

50:06He snapped into two tackles, came away with the ball. And in recent weeks, you've seen him constantly get caught up by defenders and then have to kind of slow down and go backwards or whatever and not be able to sprint away from them. But it helped that Brentford gave him like a runway of space to just run in a straight line into the box. But yeah, he'll be very pleased with that. Briefly on Brentford, Daniel, We went a bit early on the Keith Andrews scepticism. Did we go a bit early on the they'll be fine, seven defeats from eight on the road in the Premier League for them? They've got a problem away from home because I was looking at this on Saturday when watching the game.

50:43Igor Tiago has been fantastic this season, but he's basically having to create everything himself. So he started Kevin Sharder and Dango Itara as the two nominal wingers next to him or either side of him on Saturday. They didn't create a chance between them. I think they completed one dribble, one pass between them into the final third. So it's not as if they're even coming deep to play those through balls. They just offered absolutely nothing out wide. Every time Itara got on the ball, he would sort of run off it. Shada seemed to be playing really deep but not able to progress the ball either.

51:18And Igor Tiago is basically in his own postcode for most of the game and having to get the ball to feet hold it up for five seconds, play someone in and then make the run into the box. There just seemed to be a heck of a lot that needed to go well for Brentford to create a good chance away from home. And I think that has become a little bit of a theme. They need more from those wingers. I think they expected more from Utara. Maybe the fact that he was allowed to join the club was maybe reflective of him not being as rated as others at Bournemouth. Sharder is a kind of he's been a bit stop-start he must play well in the games I don't watch because he just doesn't seem to offer enough for me Keane Lewis Potter's out they're just not getting enough creativity Mikel Damsgaard was fantastic for a period last season but he's not quite creating in the same way so they just look a bit one-dimensional away from home I do still think they will be fine because there's worse than them there are teams with higher and lower extremes than Brentford.

52:18I think that Andrews has made them solid, which is what I thought he would struggle to do. So I do still think they'll be OK. But yeah, I mean, they were absolutely dreadful at Spurs on Saturday. More than OK. Our Everton beat Forest 3-0. Gav Jones says, can we have Matt's thoughts on Everton, please? Naughty Gav Jones. Look pretty good in this game with a fair bit of help, it must be said. It's like a stealth Premier League table, right, Reuben? And I looked at it and Everton are the stealthiest team. Somehow they're in sixth position. Yeah, absolutely bonkers. They look quite good in attack sometimes this season.

52:55Obviously in this game they scored three goals. I think Dewsbury Hall, Grealish and Njai have struck up nice kind of chemistry there. And, you know, David Moyes' teams are always kind of solid enough. But them being sixth, you know, what were they after the midweek games? Like sort of 13th, 14th, you know. so it's still a bit of a false table which feels quite mad to say given that we're almost halfway through it but yeah David Moyes one of his post-match interviews afterwards he kind of remained quite defeatist in his in his it just sounded quite of a tonal mismatch given they've just won 3-0 to be like well we probably won't challenge for Europe but he essentially said we'll keep trying to win games and see where we end up which I guess is all you can do but I was like come on smile you know his striker just scored his first goal Yeah, he can never be accused as being a man who's let success go to his face, David Moyes.

53:48Yeah, good to see Tiena Barry get on the score sheet. What's the beef with Forrest then, Daniel? Is it all peaked already under Sean Dyche, not particularly convincing at Wolves midweek, or is this just one defeat in isolation and they can go and stick a couple past Utrecht on Thursday and all will be right again? I don't know, is the honest answer. I really don't know. I mean, three of four of Forest's worst league performances this season, Bournemouth away, Brighton away, Everton away, have come under Sean Dyche. I'd add in West Ham at home as the alternative or the other in that four. And that is going to become a problem.

54:29It's certainly going to put a ceiling on where Forest can get to in the league and whether they can kind of tuck up into that lower mid-table group. because at the moment supporters, and I include myself in this, are basically watching everybody else around them and just hoping they lose. So you're just watching Leeds and West Ham and Fulham and Burnley games. Sorry, Wolves, we've stopped watching those. And that is a problem because they're going to have to take some points pretty soon. They played really well under Anfield and won 3-0. But if they lose next weekend at home to Spurs, then that suddenly does start to slightly feel like the exception performance because the other two league games they've won were, as you say, a wretched game against Wolves in which Wolves missed a really good chance at 0-0 and then they come from behind win at home to Leeds which at the time felt like absolutely necessary to build some momentum.

55:22They're just hurting themselves with sloppy starts away from home and that is losing any momentum that builds up and it's kind of weird because that's sort of the last thing I would have expected of a Sean Dyche team. All right, one more Premier League game to touch on. Before that, though, let me point you in the direction of a Totally Extra out on Saturday, reacting to Friday night's World Cup draw. It's Jimbo, Duncan Alexander, Natalie Jedra and a load of other guests as well. So have a listen to that when you're done here. Will Lionel Messi lead Argentina to the retention of the World Cup?

55:53I wonder, he secured a different piece of silverware on Saturday into Miami, won their first MLS Cup in the grand finale of US men's soccer. and Messi got two assists in the 3-1 win over Thomas Muller's Vancouver Whitecaps in Fort Lauderdale. Back to the Premier League finally then, Colin. Newcastle 2-1 against Burnley. I'll let you choose where you want to go with this. Is Bruno Guimaraes right to talk about how brilliant his goal was and he's basically mishit a corner? And is Scott Parker under pressure having lost six games in a row? Is Bruno Guimaraes right? Well, I mean, if I scored directly from a corner, I would never shut up about it.

56:30So in the direct aftermath of it, I think I could forgive him that. Yeah, I mean, I think this is probably more about Burnley, the story of the minute. Newcastle are doing OK. They're mid-table, their home form is quite good. They're a little bit hit and miss away from home, obviously. They got the win at Everton last week, but they've struggled other than that. But yeah, this game is obviously defined by that corner goal in the first half, but also the red card to Lucas Pires, the Burnley defender, which was, I mean, it's a little bit unfortunate to be directly sent off for that, albeit it was the correct decision.

57:04And Burnley and a really bad run at them, aren't they? Five or six defeats it is in a row now. And there's a fear that they might be cut off a little bit. They're five points adrift of safety. Obviously Wolves are much further back on the table, but Burnley look like they could potentially get dragged into that. The one thing you would say is that this month of fixtures that they have coming up could potentially be a make or break for them. They've got Fulham at home, Bournemouth away, Everton at home and Newcastle at home. Obviously the first fixtures are at the end of the month. And you look at those four matches and I think if you're a team who aren't in a particularly good run of form, you want to be at home, right?

57:44But you also want to be against teams who maybe aren't in the best run of form themselves. And I think they've got that. Maybe Everton's a little bit of an exception, but you kind of think looking at that, if they can get two wins from that, they're right back in the mix and they can strengthen again in January, they can have a bit of a refresh and I don't think that they're at a level where it was Leicester, Southampton last season, the relegated teams, it's not quite at that drastic level but they are getting into a bit of a rut now and they do need to pull themselves out of it pretty quickly because if you look at teams like Mollingham Forest and the resources that they have and the score that they have, It's just simply much stronger than what Burnley do.

58:24Obviously, they don't have the European distraction, but it kind of feels like they'll be doing quite well if they do stay up this year. But it's a big run of games, and it's a big month in January for them, and I think that's what's going to define their season. Just on Burnley, they've now lost six in a row. Six is the most that any Burnley manager has ever lost in a row in the Premier League. So Kompany had a six. Sean Dice never had more than four. And I just wonder, once you go past that Vincent Kompany run of six defeats that was ended with a 5-0 home win against Sheffield United. If they go past that, Saturday was the first time I saw supporters really turn and be like, well, if we don't make a change, are we just going to fall down pathetically as we did under company?

59:06And they obviously remember what happened under company, which is that they kept faith in a manager and then that manager ended up leaving anyway. Now, that's not going to happen with Scott Parker if they keep him. But realistically, you have to ask yourself, do we think Scott Parker is going to keep him in the Premier League and I don't think he is. That might because the squad's not good enough and you might say, well, we'll go down with him and we'll come back again. But that feels like a heck of a long-term investment on Scott Parker given his Premier League record because once you start losing seven, eight, nine games in a row, it does look like you've just completely run out of ideas.

59:42I think he clings on long enough, Ruben, to get the Bayern Munich job. No, I don't think so. So, yeah, that's a televised fixture next weekend as well for them. So more eyes on their terrible performances. All right, we'll look forward to that. I appreciated the use of the phrase televised fixture as well. That is where we're going to leave things for today. Jim Bell will be back with the Totally Football Show European Edition. That's our first thing on Tuesday. Looking ahead to match day six in the Champions League. As we say, you get to see Mbappe versus Haaland in a pre-World Cup preview. Loads of other good stuff going on as well.

1:00:18so join Jimbo and the gang for that if you can. My thanks go to Daniel, to Ruben and to Colin and to Jake and Charlie in the booth as well and to you for listening or watching. Back with another show Tuesday, totally back on Thursday as well. For now though, from all of us, it's goodbye.

1:00:37You've been listening to The Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. For more great podcasts just like this one, including The Athletic FC and our dedicated club podcasts, search for The Athletic on Apple, Spotify and all the usual places. We're also at The Totally Football Show on Insta and at The Totally Show on YouTube. The Totally Football Show is an Athletic Media Company production.