Shocked Arsenal head to Anfield as Carrick’s United go to Chelsea

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2:05Liam Twomey: Totally Football Show Today Carabao Cup Fourth round Featuring biggest Upset in the Cup's Quite long history Arsenal min Fleetwood max As League 2 Cods beat the odds To knock out The Premier League Champions on pens Spot kicks needed too For Liverpool with Chelsea And Man City In their clash With Brighton Finally Some penalties That Man City accept With a clash With Bradford City next And who knows How often we'll be saying that in the near future. We'll talk come action today and the weekend ahead and more in this Totally Football Show.

2:39Liam Twomey: It's Thursday the 29th of October. Joining us in the studio today on Totally Football Show, we have Tom Williams. Hello, James. Lovely to see you, Tom. Likewise. Liam Toomey's back as well. Hello, James. Great to see you, Liam. Great to see you. Fabulous. We've also got a very special guest today because to my left, it's Jay Bothroy. It's been a long time, James. It's been a very long time. Jay and I last met. I'm thinking in a piazza in Perugia. Exactly. When would this be? Mid-noughties? You were at Perugia in an extraordinary period of that club's history. You've gone on to have an incredible...

3:12Liam Twomey: We were having a bit of a chat before we started the podcast about what Jay's been up to. Oh, my word. Oh, my word. There's several series of shows in that. No, we ain't got enough time for that. No. But you, I mean, briefly, went to Thailand? Yeah. I mean, you had this incredible period in Perugia, which I think you look back on with fondness. I do. I do. And, you know, because of it, there were some moments where, you know, I met people, experienced things. I ended up getting married to an Italian woman that I met there. So that was always good. You met me and your wife. Exactly. Exactly. Special times.

3:45Liam Twomey: OK. So and then you spent six years in Japan. You've also got a wealth of experience that you can bring to bear. on the many topics we'll be discussing today. Liam, topics like the Carabao Cup, fourth round. Yeah. Banging as ever from this glorious competition. Wall-to-wall Carabao. Yeah. Everywhere. It's been fantastic. Yeah, some really good games. And I think a good advert for straight to pens, no extra time. Which caught the Fleetwood manager by surprise. He wasn't expecting it. He wasn't. They hadn't practiced pens and he wasn't. He hadn't practiced extra time. So he was really pleased. So, yeah.

4:23Liam Twomey: So I think he was caught very much unawares when suddenly it went to spot kicks, but how well it turned out for Fleet. We were actually chatting about whether this was the biggest upset in the competition's history, because people will point to Grimsby and Manchester United just last year. But the fact that Arsenal are reigning Premier League champions makes this feel... Guys, you know that I'm an Arsenal fan, right? Oh, AJ. Yeah, I know, yeah. This is painful. No. This is painful. The counter to this is I suspect it was more painful for Man United with the predicament that they were in last season than it is for Arsenal.

4:59Liam Twomey: How upset will Arsenal be then? you know what the thing is I think about it I think big clubs in this day and age the Carabao Cup is not really important to them let's be honest it's an opportunity to play the squad players give them the minutes the sharpness and the young players you know can they hack it against men when something's on the line right so I think for like Arsenal, Liverpool, City, Chelsea it's not a big deal unless you haven't won a major trophy then it's like okay at least we won the Carabao Cup. Right. Would it also be something quite useful for Mikel Arteta to beat his players with in the weeks or even months to come?

5:40Liam Twomey: A warning against complacency, if you like. Yeah, I bet this is for all footballers. You turn up somewhere, especially like, you know, that pitch, them conditions, and you're not 100 % on it and you haven't got your mind right, them games are so difficult. I've been in situations before where you think, oh yeah, we'll just beat these, it's a midweek game, you know, the game will be over in like 30-40 minutes and you can just cruise, probably come off at half time if you're playing regular on the weekend, but then the longer the game goes on and they're still in the game, then they've got something to hold on to, so as soon as they scored that goal, I was like we've got a problem now because they're going to hold on for dear life be compact, work extremely hard, and obviously they've got the win in the end.

6:26Liam Twomey: They did on penalties, have a quick run through the results from Tuesday and Wednesday. There's still a game to go on Thursday evening. But yeah, Fleetwood Town, 18th in League Two currently, knocking out Arsenal. 84 positions above them on penalties. Fleetwood Town in the quarterfinals will welcome either Everton or Newcastle who will be facing each other this Thursday evening. Penalty shootouts in Liverpool and Manchester as well. Liverpool going through after a 1-1 draw with Chelsea. They take on Bournemouth in the quarterfinals. Of course, that's Riola's old side and the Cherries made their way to the quarterfinals with a third straight 3-0 victory.

7:03Liam Twomey: A week ago they'd beaten Milan by that school line, they did Man United at the weekend 3-0 and now Aston Villa 2. At the Etihad on Wednesday City had a blistering 2-2 draw with Brighton. City going through on spot kicks. Brighton will be back there this weekend in the league. In fact they're staying up in Manchester. Interesting. City in the quarterfinals will face League 1 Bradford City opportunity for humour The other quarterfinal we'll see Crystal Palace face Sunderland. Palace will wonder winners over Fulham on Wednesday. Sunderland, meanwhile, downing Brentford 3-2. All right, well, let's talk about events at Highbury.

7:41Liam Twomey: First of all, on Tuesday night, very much the perfect cup night, I think, Tom. You had a packed lower league ground. The Giants knocked out on penalties. You had a pitch invasion. You had Captain Pugwash on the tannoy. Glorious. Perfect. And the drone, lest we forget, the first time that the reigning champions of England have been knocked out of a domestic cup competition by fourth tier opposition since Wrexham beat Arsenal in the FA Cup in 1992. So talking about where this stands in the long list of greatest ever League Cup shots, I think this has got to be at the top. I guess what tends to happen with cup upsets these days is that you see the headline and think, that's incredible.

8:26You then see the team sheets and think, OK, well, it wasn't the first XI. Look at some of the players who Arsenal had starting. Timber, Mosquera, Zubimendi, Lewis Skelly, Kai Havertz and Victor Jokeres. These are first-team players, some of them at least. And then they threw on more starting players and yet weren't able to take control of the game. Max Damman gets sent off, which was a big talking point. Bruno Gimaraes takes an absolutely wretched penalty. A carbon copy of the wretched penalty that he took in the World Cup when Brazil got knocked out. And yeah, Fleetwood marched through. But do you know what?

9:03On that, though, I'd say that it doesn't matter what Arsenal team they put out. Those players still should be able to beat Fleetwood. Oh, yeah. And that's the fact.

9:11Liam Twomey: Well, they gave the Cods a battering. The statistics suggest 78 possession and 26 shots. But the only goal they produced was that incredibly ugly Victor Jokeres. I don't know how we need to find it. It wasn't a shot. It wasn't a shot. It was like a ricochet off both feet while he was falling sideways. And somehow, yeah, I've not seen a goal quite like that. It was very on-brand. Some strikers have their signature finish. The Thierry Henry side footer into the bottom right, the Romario toe. I can see Giocares really leaning into that. The falling over and scoring with your arse approach. Never has the Zorro celebration felt less earned.

9:46Oh, that's what I was thinking. When he scored and he'd done his celebration, I was like, that is not the time to do that celebration. Right.

9:52Liam Twomey: Right. That leveled it. and the red card to Max Downman played a part in Arsenal not being able to find a winner. But it did come, what, five minutes from the end? It's the second card that Max Downman has picked up in the space of this last month because he got one for the under-19s against the USA. Did you feel sorry for him at all, Jay? Yes, and I like his reaction, if I'm honest. Yeah? I really do. Because that challenge in itself, that could have broke his leg. If his foot was planted, he's going to be in serious trouble. And he knows that. And I think most people would understand that. But definitely if you've played, you will understand that.

10:35He didn't have to challenge like that. And I think that's what Max Down was going to get because he is a wonder kid. When he plays against these lower sides, they're going to go into the game thinking, I'm going to let him know he's in the game. and you know even from the beginning that fullback i can't remember the fella's name but he was like aggressive with him there was a few times when he the running down the side i think yeah that's it yeah batty there's a few times even when he's running down a lost cause and he's just like you know elbowing his phone his shoulder into him um but i like his reaction because that showed me he's got a bit of bite about him yeah he got a red card you know i'm not gonna it's not so much i'm congratulating for the red card.

11:17I'm congratulating for his reaction in terms of, he stood up for himself and he was like, hold on a minute, you can't do that to me. Yeah, at 16 as well. At 16 years old and then he was there amongst it, you know, grabbing people as well. In my mind, I came away from that looking, you know what, he's got a chance because that kind of player that has that kind of mentality at such a young age, they're going to progress. They're going to go far because they've got the mental toughness. They've got that bite about him where you can't bully me. Right. You can't act this certain way because I'm 16 years old.

11:47You've got to treat me like a man. And I liked it.

11:50Liam Twomey: Okay. Well, he's going to be probably at least a month older before he can play for Arsenal again. And that is a bit of an issue, even though he's not been a regular starter for them by any means. But given the other injuries that they've got at the moment, Liam. Yeah, they're a bit depleted. A bit kind of non-imadweke reliant, I think, at this point in time. Yeah, I kind of agree with Jay. I'm not sure how avoidable it really was. And that means, I think, Arteta's reaction was quite interesting because he didn't seem to be very understanding in the moment of Downman's reaction Has there been a definitive lip read of what he said?

12:24There's been a lot of speculation as to what Arteta said when Downman went past him I'll tell you what I didn't understand is that they appealed the red card They have So the fact that you've had a go at him suggests that he was wrong Why would you appeal it?

12:39Liam Twomey: Because you might have seen the replay afterwards But he was there Famously from the Arsenal sideline you can't see anything at all anyway a bad ending to the game for Damon and Arsenal but for Fleetwood a night they'll remember for the rest of their lives the Guimaraes penalty as you say leaving the 19 year old centre half Connor Hawkey to take the decisive kick to send the gunners out and Fleetwood through and he dispatched it with aplomb fantastic penalty and he was given the given the chance to do that by Jay Lynch's heroics in the goal as well. I think that not just the save from Bruno, but the save from Ben White in the last couple of minutes was sensational.

13:24Arsenal almost won the game even without Daumann. So, yeah, as we said, it had all the ingredients of just a classic Cup upset. Including a gloriously sweary post-match interview from Conor Corhey after scoring his winning penalty. So, yeah, all the boxes were taken.

13:41Liam Twomey: Yeah, and the pitch invasion. By the way, we mentioned Captain Pugwash on a recent show because they play, I think, it's their goal music. Pete White writes in, long-time fan of the show, says, Pete, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that the cultural impact of Captain Pugwash stretches as far as the Totally Football show. I don't think it's that far, actually. Says Pete, my dad Colin was the animation director for the 1998 series. I didn't know about this. They rebooted. Yeah. he's having a less than stellar time in hospital he would make him feel a lot better to have a shout out on a global podcast if at all possible many thanks Colin to your animation direction on the esteemed show which was many happy hours looking at that in my childhood oh by the way he says the sexual innuendo is a largely urban myth that one my dad is too happy to perpetuate did you ever watch Captain Pogwash show?

14:37I didn't This will all be new to you. That was before my timer.

14:41Liam Twomey: All right, then. 98 one, not so much. But that was maybe a bit after your time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it wasn't. The timer was a bit off. Par Gorsh, Liam. Fred, Tom. No, again. Isn't that? No. I'll move on. Young first time around. But I'm aware of the, because it's lived on. Yeah. The innuendo lives on. If you were a student anywhere near, yeah. Yeah. Are we allowed to? No, we did that. But he's officially debunking. I mean, officially, yeah. Take those innuendo accusations out of your mouth. Let's move on. Next up, let's catch up on the other midweek results.

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17:52Liam Twomey: So Liverpool beat Chelsea on penalties. Epic penalty shootout. So there were two penalties which had left the game. One won after 90 minutes. There was the ill-advised, I would call it, Gravenberg challenge, which led to Chelsea taking the lead. That was terrible, James. And then an ill-advised hands in the air from Wesley Fofana. Wesley Fofana, hold my beer. Yeah. Yeah, very much three minutes later. Right. So out go Chelsea on penalties. And it was, as I say, a very long-winded penalty affair. You had Omega missing, who Tim Spears officially raced the worst transfer of the recent window. That was saved, actually, by Mamadosh Vili.

18:37Liam Twomey: Joe Gomez puts Liverpool ahead. And then Fofana, capping off a terrible night for him, wasn't able to convert his spot kick. And Liverpool goes through. So, Jay was saying that probably the big clubs don't mind too much. How will Chelsea feel about this? Well, Xabi Alonso said as much in his post-match press conference. He said, this is the least important competition for us. Didn't want to win it anyway. Yeah, but it's kind of a brave thing for a coach to say because they've got United at the weekend. They now need to win that game, having lost to Spurs as well. Otherwise, I think the Chelsea fans will be less than forgiving.

19:10Don't you think that everyone kind of knows it, though? Yeah. I mean, he might be one of the first to say it, but I think everyone knows it.

19:16Liam Twomey: Well, most managers say it with their team sheets. In fact, almost all of the Premier League sides had eight or nine changes. But he only made four. Did he? Yeah, so he played a strong team. That's because of opposition, though. Yeah. That's because of Liverpool, right? That's part of it, yeah. Well, it's a lottery, isn't it, penalties? Having said that, this is the fifth time in a row that Chelsea have lost a penalty shootout to Liverpool. Yeah, it's very unlucky in the lottery. No, I think it was maybe not entirely random this time. Liverpool won the toss so they were not only kicking first which if you ask Ben Littleton and other penalty taking experts will say gives you a slight advantage.

19:52Does it? And they were also kicking towards the Kop which I think made a bit of a difference psychologically as well with certain Chelsea penalty takers but it was a funny shootout. Who? Who Lim? Well I mean the ones who missed Barco, Enneke obviously Fafana. Right. But it was a funny shootout in that the penalties were really really good and then suddenly were really bad. I tell you what, I watched that game. The game was terrible. Right. Three passes couldn't get strung together. Particularly the first half. Yeah, it was just like pass, pass, lost it, pass, pass, lost it. And it was like, these are like two top sides with some unbelievable players in it.

20:28What is going on here? But then obviously the penalty shootout brought the tie to life. That was it because the game was this awful. So often the case. You think about Chelsea, I mean, you know, Chubb Alonso is free to frame things however he wants to. But given the chance you don't have European football this season, if any of the top clubs could have done with a cup run just to keep fringe players happy, not that he rotated very much, but if Chelsea had gone deep into the League Cup, it gives an opportunity for second string players to get a run out. Speaking of fringe players,

20:57Liam Twomey: I'm going to ask about Esteval because many people were surprised given the nature of the fixture to see the highly rated young Brazilian starlet not given any time at all in this one. Liam, what can you tell us about Xavi's issues with Esteval? Well, it's been a running subplot of Chelsea's season. He's had 47 minutes in the Premier League off the bench so far. And he had played the two previous Carabao Cup games, but was taken off at half-time against Leeds when Chelsea were in trouble in that game. Is there a suggestion that he's done something, or there's something about his attitude that Xavi doesn't like?

21:35there's nothing explicit in terms of a personality clash that we've heard I think honestly there are there are football elements to the decision that Alonso has hinted at when he's been asked about it I think you know he mentioned how physical and intense the game was and I think uh quite a few of the Premier League games that Chelsea have been involved in and there seems to be an implication in that that Esteve is not quite physically up to that kind of intensity in Alonso's mind. I think there's also maybe a hint of defensive vulnerability when he plays, that he's not necessarily the most intense presser, but he also doesn't necessarily track back.

22:16That's why I think you've seen Pedro Neto trusted so much more in that kind of, don't call him a wingback, Alonso says, but sort of hybrid winger role. And in the attack, he's been behind Palmer and Rodgers, the two best performers in the squad. I think that's exactly it. And I think that goes for, when you look at all the big teams now, they want wingers that are prepared to do the hard yards. I love Esteval as a player. He's going to end up leaving Chelsea because he's not going to hang around and wait for time. I'm happy to be a backup to Neto. He's not going to be... Players think differently now.

22:51And especially young players, they want to play week in, week out, especially when you have his kind of talent. But I think that's what Xavi Alonso is thinking. and he plays Neto as a wing-back when he does a 3-4-3 and he's reliable on both sides. When you play him as a winger, he's reliable. He'll track his full-back and I think that's what all these managers look at now. Even when you look at Arsenal, you look at Eze. Eze was, he started off the season well, was it last year? And then it was Aston Villa. I think it was and Matty Cash scored. Arsenal ended up losing straight out of the team. He was out of the team for like two months and I feel like nowadays those ringers you know used to kind of the managers used to say okay come back into an area where you can break fast now you've got to come all the way back and do the hard yards and I think that's why Esteval is not being selected at the moment

23:43Liam Twomey: He might have been handier on penalties than Fofana though had he had he been included Anyway I'm reading a lot of rave reviews from this game for Trenioni Yeah Trenioni Yeah Liverpool I thought Liverpool's team selection was very interesting and you had lots of players playing in positions that we haven't seen them play in very much. So Ronaldo Raoho, who's made a huge impact, a huge impression on Liverpool fans, we've invariably seen him play as a right-back this season. He played at centre-back alongside Van Dijk. Second half, Van Dijk goes off, Jeremy Jacquet comes on. You're like, oh, Raoho and Jacquet, a Liverpool defence without Virgil van Dijk.

24:18It is possible. Lewis Kumas, who's played through the middle quite a lot of late, he was out on the right. Cody Gakpo played through the middle. But yeah, Trey Nione, youth team graduate, was part of the double pivot with Ryan Gravenberg, but seemed to be given a lot more responsibility with the ball. When Liverpool were building up, he was the guy who was dropping deep in between the centre-backs, getting on the ball, turning, looking for forward passes, taking risks in possession, seeing if he could get past a man and break a line with a dribble before he looked for the pass. and yeah very decent and you know Liverpool's team was a mix of you know youth and experience as is often the case in the Carabao Cup they did sort of turn to the cavalry in the second half Barcola Wirtz Alexander Izak came on and you know that coincided with Liverpool you know getting on top a little bit also made an impact in the shootout the fact that they had so many high power attackers that step up and take penalties yeah some fantastic I mean like Like penalties, I think, across the board are just getting better.

25:23Like the number of players now who just very obviously aim for the top corner and a hit like Phil Foden's penalty. I know we're going to talk about this again in a bit, but Phil Foden put his penalty into the roof of the net. Yes. Like that is literally unsavable. And there's some very good penalties in this game until there were not. What do you think of Wurz? What's your thoughts on Wurz? We've talked about him a lot on this part, haven't we? I think he's absolutely wonderful, but he's been there quite a long time now and things just aren't clicking. Yeah, I'm the same. Before we came to the Premier League, I loved him as a player.

25:55In the Bundesliga? Yeah, in the Bundesliga. Even when he was playing for Germany, I was in... In the Bundesliga. I was... I went to the Euros and I was at the... Oh, yeah. And I'd done a lot of Germany games and especially that Germany-Spain game. He was fantastic. He was everywhere. He was getting on the ball. He looked brave. He was committing people. And I just thought when he came to the Premier League, he is slight. He's body. you know he's thin he's he's lightweight but i just think i thought he was going to be that player like you know like david silver when he first came okay it would make defenders make challenges and commit defenders he's come in and he like plays one touch everywhere and i'm like

26:32Liam Twomey: do you think that's a um a bravery issue can i call it that bravery yeah but i feel like you train with some of the best like i remember when i was at arsenal as a kid um Tyrion Reeves to say like we're training against the best defenders in the in the country like training is harder than games and he would have that with Redwell Van Dijk you know with Jacquet with Aris out like all these defenders that are top defenders so you would you should be able to build that confidence on a day-to-day basis you're playing against strong players on a day-to-day basis but to me it just looks like he's out of his depth I don't even think he can play as 10.

27:13I think if you're going to play him, you have to play him as a wide player and let him kind of drift in field. Because, you know, even that game yesterday, you look at it and you're like,

27:25Kaiseido is there. And I'm like, you don't want to be anywhere near Kaiseido because he's one of the strongest players. He's like a shark. Yeah, he's like a shark. He'll just hunt you down and then just brush you off the ball. You know, you look at Lavia, again, he's young, but he's strong. You don't want to be around them kind of players. And I feel like if he's going to get back to that point, I think he has to change his role and play wide inwards or he's going to have to go back to Bundesliga or La Liga.

27:49Liam Twomey: Well, City out or something, yeah. No, it's interesting. A lot of Liverpool supporters, I think, feel the same way. But, yeah, interesting to get a professional's view on that. Tom, you're keen to talk about Man City Brighton. Sure. The first of two clashes between these two sides this week. This one finished ever so even, 2-2, with City then going through on penalties. City had made nine changes from the previous weekend. Brighton, eight. Brighton were twice ahead. But Heruex from Geronimo Rulli in the shootout saw the citizens go through. They're going to be facing Bradford City, as I mentioned.

28:26Liam Twomey: Anything else you want to tell us about this? Brighton are fantastic. Yes. They are never out of a game. Like, really. Like, they're losing the game. But you just don't feel like we're at 1-0. Fine, they play the same way. 2-0. Fine, they play the same way. they always have the same philosophy they all understand exactly what is expected of them in those positions and I'm going to single out Gross because Gross is fantastic whatever happens at Brighton it just seems to all really tick around him but then the recruitment is amazing I enjoy watching Brighton play more than most Premier League sides who's the team you least enjoy watching?

29:05the least? Man United at the moment is it?

29:08Liam Twomey: it's so much fun to watch For the neutrals. Yeah, for the neutrals. But I support football. I'm a purist. So I want to see the best possible football matches. That game last night was a great game to watch. You know, Man City against Brighton. They both play a similar way. They both want to have possession of the ball. They both create chances. And I think where Brighton are right now, I always say this, I'd love Brighton not to have the model that they do. To sell all the players. Sell all the players. I'd love them to have all their players. to see how good they can actually be. And it's like, for example, Fabregas at Como now.

29:45Them players are leaving at some point, especially their best one like Nico Paz and people like that.

29:48Liam Twomey: Yeah, although, to be fair, the success has meant that they've held on to Paz longer than they ever thought they would. Definitely, definitely. We'll see. I mean, it'd be lovely to see that begin to happen at Brighton as well. But then if they get Champions League this year, then it could start to shift the balance. Can they get Champions League then? But I mean, these clubs with these models are moving in the right direction. You know, Brighton, Bournemouth, Brentford and group them all together. They've all got similar models in the sense that they have to sell their big players every summer and they reinvest it very intelligently.

30:18But initially they were doing that just to survive, just to establish themselves as Premier League clubs. Now they're all, you know, speculating to accumulating. Well, yeah. And whether they're in Europe this season or they're targeting European qualification next season. So it shows that a club like Brighton, using this model, they might have to sell their big players all the time, but it doesn't prevent them having, you know, really... But this season is the best...

30:43Liam Twomey: But they don't have the depth, though, do they? As a thing, if you're selling your big players, and this is what I was saying... Maybe they do. I was speaking last night, and we were talking about it. All of them clubs that we're talking about, Brentford, Bournemouth, Brighton, all of them, at some point are going to be in danger of renecation. They will be, and I'll tell you why. because they sell their players, because they have that model, if one, two, three transfer windows, they sign players and it don't pay off and them players are not making a difference or they're not even getting the start in 11, all of a sudden now they've lost three of their big players.

31:19You look at Bournemouth. They lost their whole back line. But that's what I'm going to say, Jay. And their goalkeeper. And look how they're doing right now.

31:25Liam Twomey: I'm going to say that much as you like watching Brighton, Bournemouth are more even of a formed team. Unbelievable. They've won five games in a row. They've scored in those five games in all competitions, 14 goals, conceded absolutely none. It's extraordinary. Now, they played a Milan team that wasn't at full strength, isn't perhaps the best Milan side we ever saw, and didn't really have much luck in that game either. They then beat a Man United team, who we know all about, but beating Villa 3-0 this Wednesday. Well, that run of wins also began immediately after they lost heavily at Stamford Bridge.

32:01I was at that game and they were horrendous. And it was their first really bad performance of the season. And, you know, going back to what you were saying, you're thinking maybe this is the year where Bournemouth can't reinvent the wheel on the fly and end up down there in trouble. But they've responded incredibly well. They still don't have Alex Scott and Creepy. He's going though. Well, yeah, maybe in January. He's definitely going in January. He's definitely going. Well, they're showing a lot of resilience though, aren't they? in terms of their squad. I think Marco Rosa's ideas have started to take hold as well.

32:35Liam Twomey: Is this something about Bournemouth? Because we saw a similar issue when Iriola came in there, didn't win any of the first 10. Is there something about the amount of time it took for him to bring his ideas to the team? What do you think the difference has been? Well, that point was made to Rosa in his press conference at Stamford Bridge. And he was like, yeah, I'm quite glad that's been raised, that Iriola had a slow start as well. I think there is something to that. You know, as much as they would have identified and hired Rosa for certain similarities to Arreola's football, every coach is slightly different.

33:07And obviously they've had a lot of change in the squad. So that would have taken a little bit of time. I'll tell you what's impressive, though. They were conceding goals early on in the season, like a lot. And I was thinking, man, if they keep conceding like this, they're going to have a tough time this season. Then all of a sudden they've gone on a run now where it's like clean sheet after clean sheet and they're scoring. So credit to Rosa because he's got them well drawn. Last night, I just want to say, because I did that game. You did? Yeah, on another show. And I'm like...

33:36Liam Twomey: Who did you do it for, Jane? Sky Sports. Oh, you were in the first place. Yeah, yeah. So I did the game. And I have to say, they pressed you. They pressed so well. It could have been more than 3-0 yesterday. There were so many times where they're putting Aston Villa defenders under pressure and just like drowning them. to the point they're making mistakes and they're having chances. They got into the really good positions just from good press. But again, they were really good individuals. I was really impressed with Rodriguez who played out front. Again, that's a good siding because if someone like Evan Nilsson leaves, he's someone that could definitely lead the line.

34:15He's scored a really good goal, really good touches. They've got depth as well, especially in the attacking areas. Kruppi's back. Kruppi's back. Kruppi came off the bank. Kruppi's unbelievable. he's going to he's going to get a big move the only reason why he didn't I don't think is because he got that injury otherwise he's leaving like I think he's like I'm not trying to sell him to Arsenal but he's like an Arsenal player to me is he an Arsenal player he's an Arsenal player to me

34:40Liam Twomey: what's an Arsenal player someone that's got abilities someone that can drop into holes someone that can score goals someone that can float that's why Alvarez is like on the Julian Alvarez yeah he's on the transfer there but just last point on board that's got to be their greatest week of results in the club's history. I mean, there are caveats because it is this Manchester United, it's this Milan, it's a second string Aston Villa. But if you told Bournemouth fans 15, 20 years ago that there will be a week in your life as a Bournemouth fan where you will win 3-0 at home to AC Milan and Aston Villa and then you'll go to Old Trafford and beat Man United 3-0.

35:18They would probably have struggled to believe it. Can I put something out there as well? Yes, Jay. I heard a whisper yesterday. Oh, yeah. I heard a whisper yesterday. And it was before the game. Someone called me and says, every might be going to Man United. What do we think of that?

35:39Liam Twomey: The whisper gets louder. Tell you what, we'll talk about Man United in a second or two. Just to round up the other two results from Wednesday. Crystal Palace got a much-needed win for Piers Sarge. 1-0 against Fulham. Eddie Nketiah, formerly an Arsenal player. Very much against the run of play. Was it? That win, yeah. Fulham had a ton of chances. And I think Pierre Sarge said afterwards, we defended really well. I mean, a lot of it was a very last ditch. Right. There was some real scrambling and some good saves from Dean Henderson. But Nketiah took his goal brilliantly. And it's the second time that Palace have done that to Fulham this season.

36:14Because when they beat him in the league, they were absolutely battered. And Pierre Sarge said afterwards, we didn't deserve to win that at all. And it was the same when they... Did Forrest? When they beat Forrest again. I mean, Forrest should have been out of sight by half-time. So, I mean, yeah, but breathing room for PSA, at least.

36:29Liam Twomey: It's all part of the game, isn't it? Last-ditch defending. Sunderland beat Brentford 3-2, thanks to a flurry of goals that they scored in the space for about 10 minutes. Brentford coming back, but unable to secure even penalties. And through the Black Cats go. They've got other things to worry about, though, Sunderland, being as they are bottom of the table in the Premier League, a composition which we'll move on to next. as we look ahead to Manage Day 9.

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40:04You'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.

40:14Liam Twomey: Hey, this Saturday morning, Halloween, everyone. Happy Halloween. Happy Halloween. What's your costume? What's your costume? No, I'm going to go to Milan for Halloween. I'm going to go to the Derby. Okay. Yeah, the Milan Inter. having just slagged Milan off it's live on BBC2 if you fancy a bit of 90s feel to your Saturday viewing do enjoy City Out on terrestrial television Milan against Inter Milan who yesterday actually four sides have remained unbeaten through the first eight game weeks this has never happened before Milan and Inter are two of them and they're playing each other however they also had a midweek round in which Milan lost 4-2 to a very feisty Bologna side who were doing a lot of that pressing, asphyxiating press.

41:08Liam Twomey: Roma. Do you? Yeah, but I always support football. Like you, Jay. I support football. Anyhoo, Lazio, meanwhile, strangely another of those four teams and they had a 6-2 victory. This is going to be very dull unless you care about European football, but on the European edition of the Totally Football Show, we've discussed the fact that Lazio's incredible start to the season, their best ever, has come against the backdrop of empty stands because the fans hate their chairman, Lotito, and basically don't turn up to the Ferdie Kavanagh Stadio Olimpica. But they did turn up to this game, which was away in Sassuolo.

41:44Liam Twomey: They took 10 ,000 fans there who saw them absolutely smash. You see what Gattuso's doing? Yeah. I'll tell you one thing. When I watch that Lazio team play now, it's a reflection of Gattuso and the way he plays. Grinta. Yeah, I remember playing against him when I was in Perugia. and he was the hardest working midfielder I think I've ever seen and he was one of those midfielders. He defended, obviously closing down other midfielders and whatnot, but then he stopped the ball coming into the striker as well and I just remember being in that game, I had Maldini behind me, I think it was Costa Curta and then Gattuso in front of me and I was like, how am I going to touch the ball today?

42:24Liam Twomey: Wow. Yeah, Gattuso, he would cover a lot of ground and much of the touchline as well, famously with Gio Jordan that time. But lovely to see, especially he came into that job having bombed out with Italy. So it's quite the redemption story there. Now, the Premier League is also happening. Oh, you know what? The reason I mention Halloween is we've got a special Totally Extra coming out or dropping on Saturday. And it's all about Romario. We put this together a week or two ago with Duncan Alexander and Natalie Jedra and Jack Lang. Both classless as well. Should have got me involved in that, man. Romario is one of my heroes.

43:01Is he one of your heroes? Why, Jay? Really briefly, 60 seconds of why. So I don't remember the World Cup 1990 so much. There's a few games I remember, but I didn't really watch football properly. Until 94? The 1994 World Cup is where I was focused. I was tuned in and he was unbelievable. And everyone was trying to learn the toe poke. He was always scoring toe pokes and his movement was really good, but he's so tiny, but he's so strong. And he's got that character as well, that kind of... Feisty. Yeah, I'm the guy. Yeah, I'm the guy. Bebeto, you're good, but I'm the guy.

43:35Liam Twomey: A lot of great stories about Obaxinho, the little one, in our Totally Extra, including his somewhat fractious relationship with Bebeto, whom he famously refused to sit next to on the airplane and go to the World Cup. Anyway, do enjoy that on Saturday. And once you're done with that, have some Premier League football. What does Match Day 9 offer? Well, there are eight matches on Saturday, one on Sunday and one on Monday, continuing that kind of 90s feel. Very 90s. I mean, yeah. Yeah. What are they? Like a retro-scheduling special. Top four all play each other. Man City against Brighton and Liverpool against Arsenal.

44:12Liam Twomey: The bottom two face each other. Coventry taking on Sunderland. Should we begin at Anfield? Liverpool taking on Arsenal. Go on, Jay, as an Arsenal fan. Liverpool are six points behind. Man City, we don't know to what extent they're going to be involved in the title race. this could be a very important game for where the title ends up. Yeah, definitely. Liverpool are going about their business quite quietly, actually. No one's really said that Liverpool are going to be involved in the title race this year. Do you think they will? Yeah, but I think Man City are going to get docked in points. So then it's like, who else is there?

44:46So then obviously there's Liverpool. Obviously there's Chelsea. I don't think Chelsea are being there because I don't think they've got the defence. But Liverpool, they could be. if they click into gear and Iriola has them playing anything like what he had at Bournemouth in terms of pressing really high work rate obviously then you've got more talent they're in that conversation the only thing I would say about Arsenal is the reason why Arsenal are so successful now sounds boring but defence is the best in the world and even when you rotate it it's still one of the best in the world you know especially when everyone's fit I still feel like Arsenal miles off it in terms of their attack I don't think they have anyone that would be in the conversation as world's best wingers, world's best strikers, world's best tens I don't and Liverpool?

45:41I think Liverpool do and Isak, I think Isak is one of the best world number nines he scores goals, he's got great technique and can manufacture his own goals um he's that he's one of the only players i've seen bully saliba and gabriel in a game at newcastle and i was i was shocked because when you look at his physique you don't look strong but then he was like holding them off to the point where they didn't even want to get tight because he was turning them um so i think he's like one of the world's best number nines okay sports ally as well when he's on game i know he's injured now

46:17Liam Twomey: Right, that's an even worse pronunciation than the one I usually give. What is it then? Schoberslai. Schoberslai. Schoberslai. That's what I was thinking. You mentioned defences. And they were certainly key in the two encounters between these two sides in last season's Premier League. Only one goal scored. It was that fabulous Schoberslai free kick. So, you know, it might be a tight one this time around. Man City will be taking on Brighton. that Arsenal game is taking place Sunday at 4.30 the day before Man City will be up against Brighton who have talked openly about revenge for their cup exit midweek.

46:58Liam Twomey: As I mentioned, they're staying up in Manchester. It's what they call in American sports a baseball series where they play the same fixture twice in a very short space of time. If not seven times. Yeah. Or something. But two very different teams, weren't it? Yeah. I can see Brighton getting the result of you, though. Brighton have never won away to Manchester City, ever. I think this plays into their hands, the fact that they've lost. The players are going to be bang up for it a few days later. There's going to be changes and they're going to go and I'm going to say they're going to get a result.

47:27Liam Twomey: All right. Chelsea, Saturday lunchtime, 12.30, will be facing Manchester United Football Club. Liam, you're going to be there. So, rather surprisingly, will Michael Carrick? How's that going to work? Well, apparently they've ironed out all the issues and Fernando Fernandes is back onside. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I was fully expecting after the Bournemouth result for a time is a flat circle moment where Manchester United sacked their coach, appoint an interim in time to play Chelsea and get a bounce, which is what normally happens. Oh, right. It's happened like three or four times in the last few years.

48:06I mean, Chelsea don't have a great record against United, home or away in recent times, which is less excusable if you've got the fact the stats

48:17Liam Twomey: Yeah, I mean with two wins in their last 17 Premier League meetings with Manchester United When you consider how bad Manchester United have been for that stretch of time Here's another stat United we're talking about Since the start of March who has lost the most games in the Premier League? Since the start of March? Yeah Of the entire league Chelsea No team has been defeated more often than Chelsea since the start of March. I mean, the end of last season was truly horrendous. Right. And they've had more kind of just bad days under Alonso so far this season rather than bad stretches. Okay. I'm surprised because I'm thinking Tottenham.

48:58Liam Twomey: Well, yeah. That's the thing. I'm thinking Tottenham. They finished, what, 17? They had a good finish to the season, though. Wadshaws were having their problems. De Zerbe had come in and they rescued their season. something which Man United may well find themselves trying to do this time around. They're currently 16th. Are they going against Schumperlder? What, Man United? Yeah. I mean, they could be in the bottom three. They could be in the bottom three if they don't win at Chelsea. Yeah, it's pretty incredible. I mean, you'd think they will have some motivation at least for this game. Right.

49:32We fought that last week. Yeah, exactly. And it's hard to know what levers are left for Michael Carrick to frantically pull because he's tried things, you know, made the big call to Lieber and Fernandes on the bench for that game against Bournemouth. That didn't work out. We learnt yesterday that Benjamin Sheshko is going to be out until the new year with a shin injury that he can't shake off. So they still don't have... Do you think De Ligt was back in? Yeah, but I mean, I'm not sure De Ligt is the solution either. You know, when they lost at Como, I mean, you know, that was it the... I'm trying to think which goal it was.

50:06There were so many. That one where Nico Paz plays the ball through. Is that the one where he's almost like a fire engine going to the wrong fire sort of thing? So, I mean, he should help, but it's going to take him time to get up to speed. So it's not like there's all that much Carrick can do. The fact that the fans are still onside is obviously helpful. Onside with him? Onside with him, at least. United's away support are pretty boisterous. So there's that. But it's not much to go on when you're trying to turn around one of the biggest institutions in world sport. Can we still call them that?

50:41They're definitely a corporate club now. I said this the other day. They're not... Okay, historically, yes. Revenue, yes. Fan base, yes. But on the pitch, they're just average. Football, no.

50:54Liam Twomey: They're average at best. Right. When you watch their performances like against Como or The Weeknd when they were getting done by Villa, Do you feel that this is a team that has, to borrow Gary Neville's expression, down tools? Do you feel that this is perhaps a team riven by divisions in the dressing room? And is that something that no matter how many changes you make or managerial moves or even transfers, that's something that's just going to blow the season? Yeah, I always think it's really difficult when you keep going through managers. I had that when I was at QPR in a few seasons we had like Harry Redknaut we had Mark Hughes we had Neil Warnock and all of these players fancy their own players right but by the time the last manager comes in there's loads of players there it becomes clicky it becomes divided and there's no team spirit there when I look at this Man United team I see that I don't see players that are all fighting together for the right goal.

52:02Even when you look at them press, like you've got one player, two players pressing and you've got someone walking behind. Like you can't do that in this day and age. I haven't seen a team in this day and age be successful without playing a high line. Like to press, you have to play a high line. You can't press and then your back line be sitting on the edge of the box. And that's what Man United do. And it's because they've got a real lack of pace in that central area. Harry Maguire De Ligt Martinez They also don't look bothered Would you say? Yeah I said this And they don't look like They have motivation They start games And they don't even start fast The body language of the players Look like I don't want to be here

52:45Liam Twomey: Right This is why Ludicrous though it may sound There is a chance That they could end up In a relegation scrap They flirted with it In recent seasons And who knows Maybe they'll turn it all around But They will be in the bottom three One would imagine if they don't get a win this weekend. Yeah, and there's a lot of jeopardy on the game, I think, because Chelsea need a result as well. Alonso needs a result. It's not the same situation as United, but he lost the game that, as Chelsea coach, you cannot afford to lose Tottenham at home. The fans do not react rationally to losing it. It doesn't happen all the time.

53:20It happened in 2018, and that's the only other time it's happened, I think, in my adult life. Since 1993, maybe. I'll tell you one thing. It's a game they do not lose. Do you think Estava was on the bench because he's going to play this game? Because Kyle Palmer's suspended, right? No, he's back. Oh, he's back. Oh, yeah, he's back. Missed Liverpool, he's back for this game. So you don't think, you think he's going to come straight back in? I think he'll come straight back in. Yeah, I think Morgan Rodgers will play and then the decision will be whether you stick with Danny Welbeck or Emmanuel Emmerger.

53:51I don't think he's ready maybe to start, but whether you go with a proper number nine or... Can you play Estava? It's a bit of a risk. The track record suggests he's not going to play Estes. Is Emmerger the worst signing of the summer? I mean, we haven't seen him. So it's really hard to judge. He didn't even play much for Strasbourg last year because Chelsea agreed to steal way in advance. I think believing that his value would go up last season the more he played for Strasbourg and in Europe. And then he was just injured for most of the year. I can tell you right now I'm a bit mad. and we saw glimpses of this when he came on last night at Anfield.

54:29I don't know whether you saw this, but there was one where Virgil van Dijk, his international teammate, his international captain, clears the ball down the pitch. And it wasn't so much that he tried to leave one on him. He was about five yards away when the ball left van Dijk's foot. He picked up speed. And he still ran into him and then he squandered his penalty. I mean, it is the Dutch national team, so who knows? So, I mean, yeah. They call it a Dutch handshake. I'll tell you what I was saying. He was renowned for this at Strasbourg. He is a very provocative individual. He was promoted captain and then agrees to join Chelsea and is photographed with the shirt early in the season.

55:03And he is someone who does rub people up the wrong way. So not only is he failing to score any goals, but he's a bit of a tricky individual. You know what the thing is about European football coming to the Premier League football? You can rough people up in Europe. Coming to the Premier League, everyone is very strong. Now, we spoke before the show even started and we were talking about the players back in the early, late in the 90s and the 2000s. They were technicians, a lot of them. They had unbelievable ability. But now, eight times out of 10, you're looking at players that are just athletes and really strong, have a great understanding of the game.

55:41When I look at him, I look at him and I say, he's raw. He really needs to work on his touch. He needs to work on his movement. if he's going to be scoring goals in the Premier League because he can't be in a battle with people like Saliba and these people. You might be able to rough him up. But when it comes to playing the football match, getting the better of that player, he's going to have to improve his movement and his link-up play. For someone that's so big, you would... And I speak about Giorca Rez like this. For someone that's big, and I'm big, I'm like six foot four. I'm expected to hold the ball when it wants to come into me.

56:16And I'm not even that player that's like, a target man. I hate it to be called that. I'm more of a football player. But at the bare minimum, if you can't hold the ball up for your team at that size, there's something wrong. And that's why I look at him and I'm saying it's an early shout and I hope he does do well in his career. I can't see him doing well in the Premier League. Not in the Premier League. I think that was a really important step in João Pedro remoulding himself into a number nine. Yeah, exactly. Playing more with his back to goal. Holding off defenders often bigger defenders and linking play and they really miss out about him.

56:51But Liam, his touch is really good but even when he was at Brighton when he was wide in the number 10 you play the ball into him he can turn or he can control it play one touch football.

57:01Liam Twomey: And his absence at the moment is perhaps one of the reasons why they were unable to get the result they wanted so desperately against Spurs that he'll be out of course for this game and a few more to come. Yeah, we don't know exactly how long for but it's likely to be weeks rather than days. Right. How they could do with Liam Dillap right now. Brentford taking on Nottingham Saturday at 3 o 'clock Forest are in the bottom three The numbers though Their numbers 79 shots they made in the last four matches But only scored two goals Equally this season they face the fewer shots In the Premier League So they don't concede chances Do those numbers mean that Things will soon turn good for Forest?

57:41You tend to think so I guess you need to know What the quality of the shots was like but I think about some of their recent games. I watched them when they lost at Palace the other weekend. And first off, they were brilliant. They hit the bar. They created loads of chances that they didn't take. They then gave Arsenal a bit of a run for their money, ended up losing to that deflected Noni Madueke goal towards the end of the game, drew away Ipswich last weekend. I think you look at that Forest team and again it's just it's hard to see who is going to score the goals if and when things do click because the amount of money they've spent on Liam De Lapp means that he will start nine games out of ten and he has you know fantastic qualities he scored I think 12 goals in that season with Ipswich when he was in the Premier League previously so he can score in the Premier League he's probably never going to be especially prolific Chris Wood has clearly been relegated to a support role now So same for Igor Jesus.

58:44You know, Dan and Doyle are a decent start to the season. Morgan Gibbs-White, we know, can score goals. But yeah, like it's obviously not sustainable to be shooting this much and scoring so frequently. I actually really like Diluc. You do? Yeah, I do. I think his movement's good. He's strong. He's robust. He can finish. Those chances that he's had this year, one thing I would say is he's hitting the ball as hard as he can. and that he needs to improve because he needs to be caressing things. When you look at the best goal scorers around the world, Messi's and all these kind of people, Ronaldo, a lot of the time, you know, they're hitting it with like their laces or the inside of their foot but they're not hitting it as hard as they can.

59:24It's a lot of maybe, you know, 70 % power, you know, when they shoot. He needs to improve that but I think Nottingham Forest will be more than alright. Yeah. Like to the point, I see them like top 10 because they've got a good defence. It's going to click into gear. they've got a really good manager. I like Milenkovic, I like Murillo. At the back they're solid. Nico Williams is really good in that full-back area where he puts balls in the box. And Morgan Gimms-White, I think he's had a slow start to the season but we've seen how good he is. He's a top player. And I just think they're going to be more than comfortable this season.

1:00:00One related issue on De Lapp that came to the fore at Chelsea actually was that he often would not get shots off quickly enough. And that might be partly because he's kind of loading up to really hit it. Whereas if he's going for placement a little bit more, maybe you can get those shots off a bit quicker.

1:00:16Liam Twomey: Bournemouth taking on Leeds. You mentioned Bournemouth's incredible run. Will it continue with the visit of Leeds in what is an all German managers on the sideline? Expect pressing. Yeah. Nice. Leeds are good as well now, by the way. Hmm? Leeds. Yeah, they're a handful. Yeah, they believe they belong now. Especially at home. Do you want more to be? Do you want to be shocked? Who's eighth in the table? Newcastle Newcastle are 8th in the table 8th? doesn't feel like that doesn't feel like that at all they face Everton on Monday at St James' Park oh and of course they meet tonight in the Carabao Cup funny how that happens isn't it it's more of your baseball baseball games Spurs are up against Crystal Palace at 5.30 what will happen we simply don't know more than any other team and for all their recent run of forms three straight victories they remain spurs demonstrably so Palace have conceded more goals at this stage of the season 19 than they have for 36 years so issues at Palace 40, is it 46?

1:01:26Since 1980

1:01:27Liam Twomey: Yeah, and what's it? Oh yeah, that is Hold on, what? I do that a lot as well What the 1990s? You mean 15 years ago? 15 years ago of time. It goes quick. But this is another one. Palace are another team. They're in danger. They are another team. They lose their players. They're in danger. Ah, yeah, right. Okay. Of that model. Yeah, of that model. That's the thing. It can only go for so long before you get in real trouble. Yeah. Well, I think the fact that they lost Gehi in January and then lost Maxon Secois and then haven't, like, properly replaced. Back when Wharton leave. Wharton's going to leave at some point.

1:01:59And Wharton is just, like,

1:02:01Liam Twomey: miles off his usual level. He is, yeah. Here's a club who'd do it and do it well. Aston Villa. Aston Villa they take on Fulham who are themselves looking to make it three wins on the spin but Villa have been fantastic lately I don't know they have been I think there's signs of their attack their new look attack really beginning to coalesce around Nicholas Jackson and Zambi I think they're building really nice chemistry and this is what Unai Emery does you know they rope a dope at the start of the season they look like they're going nowhere and they've often got a lot of new faces to bed in and then it comes together and they go on a run.

1:02:37Can I say about Jackson? Yeah, I was going to ask you. Jackson, he got, I think the way he was treated at Chelsea, sorry Liam, was terrible. Why? What happened to him at Chelsea? I think he got so much criticism and I thought it was so hard. Everyone focused on what he couldn't do rather than what he could do. But when you look at it, right, his first two seasons at Chelsea were better than DJ Drogba's seasons for numbers, right? And I'm not saying he's better than DJ because DJ is one of the all-time best Premier League strikers. But his numbers were better, which suggests that he's on the right track to me.

1:03:13Cole Palmer's best season at Chelsea is when he was playing up front with Jackson. That chemistry was superb. Yeah, because he would stretch defences. Cole Palmer's got loads of space in there to do what he does. And I think now when I see him, I think going away actually, I don't know if you've noticed, but going away to Bayern, even though he didn't play, it seems like he's come back and he's finishing his better. He's not swiping at shots no more. He's very caressed.

1:03:38Liam Twomey: Your checklist of full, when you look at the NAMD, he ticks a lot of boxes but maybe not all of them. How many boxes does Nicholas Jackson tick? Again, he ticks a lot of boxes because he works extremely hard. He'll run in behind. He can come to feet and hold the ball up. His link-up play is super bad. The only thing I would say is he's finishing. I look at him and I'd probably say maybe he's a one and three striker. Yeah. Which is still very good. Still pretty good. Still very good. You're going to get, if you get the chances, you're going to get the numbers. But I think what he does really well, he occupies defenders.

1:04:12And I don't like this thing about occupies defenders as in just stands there and waits for centre half to like come narrow. He will run in behind. He will bully defenders. You can play a ball up to him and know that he's going to get hold of them or he's going to at least, you know, with a flick on or something. the fact that Emery signed him I think he could be one of the sign-ins of the season Well Emery adores him he had him at Villarreal as well and there was a cracking concept for how they could work together Yeah, I like him

1:04:42Liam Twomey: There you go Villa are playing, oh yeah, Fulham that's a Saturday 8 o 'clock kick-off I just like to reiterate my opposition to Saturday 8 o 'clock kick-offs in the Premier League, just as a general concept No one likes them Fulham fans will feel that way with a trip back from Birmingham. There are fans who have had to make much longer journeys than that with this time slot previously. At the rather more amenable 3 o 'clock on Saturday afternoon, you've got Hull against Ipswich, which is the first time these two teams have ever met in the top flight. Of course, they were co-teams, they were co-empetitors, that's the term, in the championship last season where Ipswich won both of the meetings.

1:05:26Liam Twomey: and the other game taking place this weekend is another Saturday 3 o 'clock one and it is 19th against 20th in the Premier League as Coventry your former side Jay take on Sunderland are Coventry going to be alright? are you happy about them? James, I mean I would love them to stay up but I just think nowadays if you're going to stay up in the Premier League you've got to spend serious money and you've got to bring in players they're still playing I think like seven or eight of their team are the team that got promoted to the Premier League and I just feel like it's going to be a real real tough ask if they're going to stay up they've got to make their home a fortress they've got to win them games and pick up points at home and then try and nick stuff in away games I really like Frank Lampard as a manager I think he's he's learned from a lot from being in the Premier League with Everton and Chelsea but I think in order to keep commentary in the Premier League I feel like they need to strengthen in January and bring some players in that can actually go and say right we're one of the first names on the team sheet we can take this club up a level so they can go and win them games right now I'm never convinced especially away from home There you go they are at home they need to make it at Fortress against Sunderland Sunderland are winners in six Premier League games since you asked and haven't scored any goals in their last three but they are scoring goals in other competitions yes so we talked before about Sunderland having to grapple not only have they got second season syndrome but they're also you know Europe playing with Europe they got the league cup and the balance is working in the sense that they are managing to get results with the second string 11 pretty much there's a kind of like you know crack squad of players you come in when they play in midweek and they've been doing the business is Brobby back now?

1:07:17Brobby is back yeah that's important so Brobby's back but they just need to Start doing it in the league.

1:07:22Liam Twomey: Well, Trips Coventry might well be the opportunity to do just that. We shall see. That pretty much wraps it up for today's Totally Football shows. I mentioned before there is one out on Saturday all about Homario. So do join us for that. Jay, it's been lovely to have you with us today. I look forward to having a Totally Extra just about you and your travels. We can have a Totally Extra extra. Yeah, yeah. It will need to be. It will need to be. Liam, lovely to see you. Thank you for coming in. And to you, Tom Williams as well. I think you're with us, well, soon again. Yes. Yeah. And hopefully you will be too, listener stroke viewer.

1:08:02Liam Twomey: However you consume your totally. We're back Saturday and then Sunday, straight after the Liverpool Arsenal game. For now, though, from all of us here, it's goodbye.

1:08:14You've been listening to The Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC Podcast Network. For other great podcasts just like this one, including The Athletic FC and our dedicated club podcasts, search for The Athletic in all the usual places. We're also at The Totally Show on Insta and at The Totally Show on YouTube. The Totally Football Show is an Athletic Media Company production.

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