Solanke scorpion stuns City as Man United produce more late heroics

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0:30with that no haircut vow. All that and much more in this Totally Football Show.

0:43It's Sunday evening, the 1st of February, and a big warm welcome to the Totally Football Show. We're gathered here to sum up all the weekend's action in the Premier League. Daniel Sturie on our big screen. Hello to you, Daniel. Good evening, James. Good evening. Duncan Alexander's here in the studio. Hi, Duncan. Nice to see you on a Sunday evening. Weekend action. Best weekend of the season? Maybe. Maybe so. Colin Miller's here, which makes it a pretty good one. Hi, Colin. Hi, James. Yeah, weekend of combacts, wasn't it? A lot of 2-0 deficits overturned and then overturned again. So, yeah. Wow.

1:17Wow. It was a thrilling weekend. Hello to you, by the way, if you're watching us on YouTube. Hello to us equally if you're getting this as a kind of polished podcast Monday morning or thereafter. It was a record-breaking weekend in so many ways. And not least the game that we just finished watching, the Spurs-Man City 2-2 draw at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which saw City 2-0 up at half-time and not winning for the first time in, what was it, almost eight years. What a crazy game. Before we go any further, let's just talk a little bit about the Spurs' comeback, about Solanke, about what happened to City, what this means for the title race.

1:57Daniel, what do you think? Yeah, I mean, it was a complete collapse from City. It's not the first time they've done this. I went back and looked at it because it was one of those things that sort of flagged in my mind. They've lost nine second halves this season, City, which to some extent that's them having a commanding lead and then coasting. But it's also the same amount of second half defeats as Burnley. And it has cost them recently. It cost them against Brighton. It cost them against Chelsea. It's cost them against Spurs. Leesnit almost did against Leeds when they came back to 2-2 and City won it late.

2:28And against Fulham when Fulham almost came back from a ludicrous scoreline to draw 5-0. So there's just something about them losing control of games that they weren't doing when they were winning the league. I did think Spurs were a much better second half. I think Conor Gallagher's energy helps as did Dominic Slanky's outrageous second goal. But City of old just don't let that sort of lead slip. They just snuff out, control the game. and the comparison with Arsenal, 2-0 up and under a bit of pressure at Leeds early in the second half on Saturday and then eventually get through that and win 4-0 is probably quite bleak for City supporters.

3:03Arsenal, who are now six points clear of Pep's side. City letting the game go or Spurs snatching it back from them? What do you think, Colin? Yeah, it's really interesting, isn't it? And obviously we talk about the Premier League and we're always saying why it's increasingly defined by physicality and by set pieces and all this other stuff. and City just don't seem to be particularly strong in any of those metrics. And Daniel talked about the second half drop-off. I mean, that maybe speaks to that a little bit, just not being physically quite there. Obviously, there's a demanding schedule there.

3:34Obviously, Rodri, who I thought was pretty poor in this game again, and he was so important to them pre his ACL injury and everything else, as we know. And it does just feel like a record now that City just don't have the identity that we always just assumed they did. They're a very good team in patches, but they're not able to sustain that through a game. And you're sort of just left wondering, what are they at the minute? The strange thing was about the first half, though, was that Spurs looked like they had even less physicality than City did. And the first half ended with City 2-0 up, almost without trying.

4:08And Sky running a montage of comatose Spurs fans slumped in despair. the curious thing being and this I think had fed into that first half performance was that a lot of the Spurs fans didn't want them to win anyway because Arsenal yeah but I don't think it was like it was a couple of years ago when it was a real issue because that was right at the end of the season and it was a game that had a direct impact on the title race whereas I think you could tell that the Spurs fans were the Spurs being bad at home again was a bigger issue than and potentially Arsenal increasing their lead at the top of the table.

4:45So it just felt depressing. The vibe was bleak. I mean, we know that 2-0 can occasionally, very occasionally, be a dangerous lead in football. We know this, right? How many times this weekend? A few, yeah. Yeah, things happen. But I don't think anyone saw that coming in that game. And to Colin's point, I think this is... City have changed to become a more reactive, more vertical team. which is fine. That suits a lot of their players, a lot of their new signings. But when you're set up like that, you can lose control of games. City three, four, five years ago would have just controlled that game and Tottenham wouldn't have got the ball in the second half.

5:25But they don't do that anymore and this is what can happen. What do you think this means for Spurs, Daniel? Was this the fruit of some Thomas Frank wizardry at half-time or was it just one of those games when the players rediscovered some fire in themselves? Yeah, there was some professional pride on show for sure. I think Gallagher really helps in terms of setting that energy in midfield. I think the wind back to sort of October, November and the first deep concerns about Franks Tottenham were those kind of double pivot to midfielders just passing the ball slowly to each other and Spurs never really getting up the pitch.

5:59I think Gallagher changes that. He adds a bit more kind of dynamism between midfield and attack and links play without just having to go out to a winger, which given the injuries they've got, those wingers aren't available anyway. but really I mean really I think it just prolongs everybody's unhappiness at the situation because I don't think it's the start of the great Thomas Frank comeback era I just think it's Tottenham a match closer to at least securing Premier League safety I suppose to securing some pride that they're obviously still decent in Europe and that's where the focus is going to be I don't think they will go down for you know for kind of hopeful in some corners talk of that right but it Yeah, I don't think it, it doesn't really answer anything because I do think that was more down to City letting them in.

6:45Decent in Europe, top four in Europe, but a very valuable point in this in the Premier League because they are now six off the bottom three and the next four games, even five if you look at them in the Premier League, Man City, Man United, Newcastle, Arsenal and your lively looking Fulham who have a good record against Spurs. So you could quite easily see them going, dropping a bunch of points in those. I think the conditions of this game, and it's Gary Neville on commentary called it like a charity match at the end of the first half. And that was the sort of atmosphere there. It was like players didn't seem like they were intense at all.

7:16It wasn't like a Premier League match at all. But I think Thomas Frank, the one thing that he has been consistently good at as a head coach at this level is being able to react to things in the sense that when things are going wrong, that's, you know, there can be a bit of a rallying cry and I think players can like get behind that for these individual one-off matches. We've talked about City's flaws, but Tottenham to do deserve a lot of credit in this specific match itself. Obviously, Dominic Solanke getting those two goals. The second one, which was an incredible finish. Gallagher snatched it.

7:53Gallagher plays it in. Oh, it's dropped in. That's extraordinary.

8:00Dominic Solanke has come up with an instinctive twitch. I don't know what was going through his mind. Maybe it's just instinct kicks in and you're trying to get some sort of contact on it to flick it over there as a backheel finish. So Conor Gallagher's gone on this kind of marauding raid down the right wing and crosses it. And it's a little bit behind him. I guess you could make the comparison with the Giroud goal for Arsenal. Certainly that was one made in commentary. And he reaches a foot out behind him and kind of flicks it sideways? Yeah, sideways and angled towards the goal and it kind of loops up and Donnarumma gets his fingers to it.

8:38But Tottenham are the biggest over-performers on XG in the Premier League this season. Almost 10 goals more than the chances. When you do that, that sort of thing can go in. Crikey. But they don't score a lot, so their XG must be incredibly low. Yes, 25, which is the fourth lowest. The only teams lower are Wolves, Sutherland and Burnley. So does anyone see a match like this as lighting and fire under Tottenham Hotspur, not so much. What about for City then? What do you think the implications are for Pep's outfit? I think they will pretty soon pivot to Champions League. They are not good enough.

9:16You're calling the title race? Yeah, I did a few weeks ago. I just don't think, Arsenal psychodrama aside, I just don't think there's anyone close to them in terms of consistency in game. City are a kind of roll-the-dice team at the moment in game and you can't do that and win a league. one win in six in the Premier League Erling Haaland has scored one penalty in the Premier League since Christmas didn't have a good game here at all sorry Duncan I think I interrupted you yeah just to back up Daniel's point I think there's a tendency with title races to like this time last week when Arsenal dropped points and the teams beneath them had caught them up to kind of extrapolate and assume the teams chasing will just win all their games whereas this weekend we've seen that's very much not the case literally didn't happen Yeah, yeah.

9:59Arsenal have basically got a two-mistake advantage now. And they have had most of their difficult games. But it also just quickly goes to show that when we're talking about Arsenal's drop points, and we sort of bring it back to this mentality issue, in a way, because of previous years, that's sort of inbuilt into how we view that team. Whereas you wouldn't think that naturally about Manchester City. You'd had Arsenal blowing a 2-0 lead against Tottenham today. You'd be like, well, that team's just not in that mental. We spoke on the pod on Thursday about the kind of football half-life where it takes people quite a long time to kind of accept new realities with teams.

10:35And I think City still, you know, people still expect them to just grind teams down and come back and win titles. And I don't think that this team is in that frame of mind. Although there is a Man City team that is in that frame of mind. It's the Man City women's team who were 5-1 winners over the WSL champions Chelsea today, Sunday, to put them 11 points clear at the top of the table, which is the second biggest league in WSL history at this point. How much was the... No, the second biggest ever. Oh, ever. And the biggest one was the end of last season when Chelsea won by 12. So they've got a pretty good chance of beating that record.

11:13Wow. All right. Well, back to the Premier League. And let's check up on the other results then on Match Day 24. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC Podcast Network.

11:28So Matchday 24 we saw Spurs in that remarkable two to draw with Man City Arsenal 4-0 winners Saturday at Leeds thus goes six points clear of Pep Guardiola's side and seven of Aston Villa because they lost 1-0 at home to 10-man Brentford earlier on Sunday also on Sunday Manchester United won their third game of three under Michael Carrick but only after surviving a mighty Fulham comeback in what turned out to be a thrilling 3-2. And Nottingham Forest drew a less than thrilling 1-1 affair with Crystal Palace. Nico Williams conceding a penalty after doing a Luis Suarez against Ghana and getting a red card for it, after which neither team attempted a shot on target for the rest of the game.

12:13Saturday's other games, meanwhile, well, they were come from behind wins for two big teams. Chelsea from two goals down to beat West Ham 3-2. First time they've done that, Chelsea. to win a league game since 1987. 87, wow. Liverpool, also conceded earlier, then put four past Newcastle to end their five-game winless run in the Premier League. While elsewhere, Bournemouth got their first away win since August in a 2-0 victory at Wolves. And Everton snatched a point away at Brighton 1-1 with the last kick of the game. That's one win in 11 Premier League matches now for the Seagulls. One Premier League match still remains to be played, and that is Sunderland hosting Burnley on Monday night.

12:56The Black Cats, you'll recall, still unbeaten at home while the Clarets are on their worst ever Premier League run. 14 matches without victory. Crikey. Let's move next to the early games on Sunday. A wonderful twist and turn. Manchester United might not be done yet. Szczesko. They found the way.

13:21No sooner were Fulham level than Manchester United through Benjamin Szczesko hit back at the other end and now it is like the Manchester United of old Takanada says big up let's talk about Manchester United's resurgence we just heard a bit of it there the remarkable Benjamin Szczesko capping a particularly remarkable 3-2 victory over Fulham at old Old Trafford says Takahannada. The anti-United media, they're everywhere, aren't they? Yeah, the anti-United media always revel in our downfall. So let's talk about Carrick bringing us back. Takahannada and other Man United fans, absolutely spot on. I must admit that only today I was packing up my big box of Man United banter because we've had some good years with it, but I fear those days may be over.

14:11Is it so, Daniel? They never leave you. No, never actually take them to the storage unit. Just put them in a cupboard. in the spare room because we will reach for it again they are really good at the moment because they're a team that's playing with freedom and playing like they think they can win games at any point this was a really weird game in the all week I think the kind of Man United narrative has been Manchester United are going to have to learn to break down a low block at home you know it's gonna be really hard it's gonna you know take all of their effort and actually it was a really quite open game particularly in the second half when Manchester United would probably have liked to have closed it down and they weren't particularly good at that and Fulham are a good team they're a team that has options on the bench now they're a team that's investing and they've got sort of surprise attacking players you don't really particularly the wingers you don't really know whether they're going to go inside or outside and they can hurt you and they did hurt Manchester United but they you know for the second game in a row you know I get pegged back and then produce this moment in which you know it just felt like it wouldn't have happened under the previous manager So kind of all power to Michael Carrick for that and all shade and shame on Ruben Amirim for making us all believe it was not possible.

15:24Because of course it is. They've got really good players. And it's in their DNA as well. It's now Amirim's longest win streak equaled by Carrick and it only took three games to do it. And it's just two wins from haircut for that fellow. Extraordinary, isn't it? United, three wins in a row, they've had less possession than their opponents in all three of those. matches. So much happened in this game. You were watching of the three. You followed this one. Colin, some fantastic goals. Yeah, Kevin Screamer, which would have been the ultimate Catherine O 'Hara tribute after her sad passing on Friday, of course.

16:01How nice. Yeah, that was a great goal from Fulham. It was a really good comeback from Fulham to get back into this. So United had a two-goal lead thanks to Casemiro header and a really powerful finish from Mateus Cunha. They were playing quite well, but Fulham were playing very well too and as Daniel says this was an open game I think Fulham are the sort of bellwether team for the Premier League, they're the team who you can always sort of expect will put in a sort of 6-7 out of 10 performance every game, you know what you're going to get from them and if you're not on it they'll punish you they got back into this game with two late goals obviously the Kevin Screamer followed on from the Raul Jimenez penalty and from that point on it's a record breaking penalty oh ok He's now scored 12 out of 12, which means he's overtaken Yo Arture's long-held 11 out of 11 perfect record in the Premier League.

16:51And he had that stuttered run-up that a lot of people... Maybe he was thinking about the record as he ran in, because he certainly had time to think about it as he stopped and then got going, and then had another little stop. And the Benjamin Sesko then with a really sort of... He found space in the box and a really sort of clever touch taken away from the defender. Bruno Fernandes, the way he burnt past Bassey to find space for the cross. It was a brilliant goal and a fabulous result for Man United. I do recall Casimiro, who had the brace in the first half. Sorry, not the brace, but he scored one.

17:29Yeah, had him in front. The football had left him, but it's come back, has it? I think he's been really, really good this season. obviously he's at an age and a wage that Manchester United couldn't really sustain for a new contract. I think it's the right decision for him to leave at the end of the season. But I do think he will need replacing because I think it's pretty unanimous that United needed a central midfielder anyway in terms of ball carrying and sort of progressing through the pitch a little bit more. I think they'll probably need two now. So I think that's definitely going to be the area they focus on this summer.

18:03But I think it was just so important after Saturday's results, and we'll go on to talk about Chelsea and Liverpool winning, but that did put pressure on. And as I said, Fulham are that team that will test you in a way that maybe other teams won't. I mean, you beat City, you beat Arsenal, now you beat the team who started the day in seventh. Like, these are tough fixtures, and it's just that momentum they've got now is quite important, I think. Yeah, and we're pretty likely now that the top five will get Champions League football next season, and it looks increasingly like a six-way race for that.

18:33So a nice bit of fifth or sixth place drama incoming. Man, you have to go Tottenham at Old Trafford next weekend. If they do make the top five, who do you see missing out, by the way, of your Chelsea's and your Liverpool's? Or your Villa's, actually. Could it be Villa after what happened to them today at home to Brentford? Were you watching this one, though, Ken? I was, yeah. So explain to us. So, first of all, Brentford went down to 10 men. Kevin Sharder sent off. It was a red card. What did he do? Him and Matty Cash came together in a sort of tackle slash clearance out of play, tangled together, and he kind of just put his boot into Matty Cash's, what can we call it, cash point?

19:19Midriff. Cash point. ATM. Nice. GBH, but it wasn't GBH. But yeah, I mean, it was one of those that it is a red card, but it wasn't a vicious assault or anything. So, I mean, Villa must have thought, great, ten men were facing. But then Brentford took the lead. Dango Taro with a mate. There's been a lot of roof of the net finishes this weekend, and this might be the finest one. And it was kind of very Brentford. Even with ten men, they defended completely valiantly. And, yeah, just a lot of energy. Igor Tiago sort of dropping back for most of the second half as a sort of midfield enforcer, which he looked like he absolutely loved doing.

20:00So sort of a Joe O 'Linton, temporary Joe O 'Linton scenario. But Villa thought they'd equalised. Tammy Abraham tapping home after Jadon Sancho's shot had been saved. But they hadn't, had they? They hadn't because, and I believe this isn't allowed under IFAB, the ball had gone out of play down in Villa's defensive corner. Right, 20 seconds before. Yeah, so what happened, Douglas Luiz basically tried to keep the ball in play with his thigh. But you can see it went out of play. Can you though? You can. And then there's a swift counter from Villa, goes up the pitch. Now, I can understand why Villa fans think it's unfair given the incident was so far away.

20:40But it does feel like it's the sort of goal that if it's against your team and it's allowed, you'd be equally as apoplectic that it hadn't been disallowed. Do you think there should be a time limit on how far back you can re-officiate a game? Why stop there? Could you not go back? Daniel has a view on this. I mean, I wouldn't go back to 1898, but you could, yeah. Daniel. I just hope, hopefully IFAB will come together and agree that we need to have VAR on throw-ins as well as corners. Because it just opens up the floodgates. If you're going to look at corners, you have to look at every single throw-in as well, surely.

21:15I can't wait for that version of football where the ball is in play for two and a half minutes in the 90. I completely agree with Duncan, by the way, about it's one of those that you're fuming about if it goes against you. And if it's the other way around, you're fuming about as well. Yeah, I mean, you can use it as an argument that VAR shouldn't be in football. But if it is, you can't not use it in that situation. That would be an interesting debate to have. We must schedule that. There's a lot of Villa fans who are sort of saying, you know, maybe theorising conspiracies and stuff. But I mean, Villa Park is the only ground, to my knowledge, where Hawkeye broke down, where Sheffield United were denied a goal during the first game in Project Restart.

21:57So these things happened, but it did go out of play. It did go out of play. Probably it did, yeah. Villa's XG, by the way, what was it in this game against 10-man Brentford? Because they were the big XG over-performers. Has this brought things back in line? They got 2.13. They had 27 shots. 27. But only five of them on target. They had more than 300 passes in the second half. If you didn't see the game, you can imagine how it went. Ten-man Brentford just clearing, Villa getting the ball back. But, you know, they didn't really... There was a few long shots. It kind of showed, you know, obviously they've had a lot of long-range goals this season, but this game sort of showed that they didn't always go in.

22:37But it's a frustrating one, because that's two home defeats in a row now. Right. It's also two defeats to Brentford and they got knocked out of the Carabao Cup by them as well. Yeah. And Brentford, you know, they're up to seventh now. Wow. All maintained up in and around. I mean, they're kind of the best of the rest if we think that the top six are sort of pulling away a little bit. Well, it's funny as well how these things work. We were all talking about Brentford's away from one win in eight. It wasn't great, but they've won three of their last four away now, whereas Villa who were on that eight or nine game winning run at home have now lost two league games without scoring a goal.

23:13I think the bigger issue for Villa is the injuries that they've had. John McGinn and Juri Telemans are out for 68 weeks. That's added to Bubacar Kamara. Six to eight weeks. Six to eight weeks to clarify. Bubacar Kamara out for the season two. Obviously they signed Douglas Luiz, re-signed Douglas Luiz to slightly re-address that. But they've got players in now. It's going to be a really demanding second half of the season. They play a lot of football. I think they play at quite a high intensity. Players like Tammy Abraham as well, who has had injury issues, for him to come in and make an impact straight away.

23:47You have to manage these players very carefully. I know Unai Emery is very good at that. But I just think for this season, it's because it's been so good for so long that each one of these results feels that little bit more painful than it would in a normal season. so we're just about managing those expectations but I think they just need to have one eye over their shoulder at the minute One team with an eye on their shoulder in Nottingham Forest of course who've been perched precariously a short distance from the bottom three for a while now but how important was Sunday's 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace achieved with only 10 men?

24:21Daniel you were there to witness it Yeah I mean if you'd have offered Forest fans gaining a point on West Ham this weekend at half time in both games they would have obviously snapped your hand off with West Ham winning 2-0 at Chelsea and Forrest being a man down and won all against Palace. I have to say they were magnificent the second half against Palace who were poor but Forrest had more shots than Palace in the second half and a higher XG than them despite having won fewer men. Morgan Gibbs-White was phenomenal in terms of his work rate without the ball. He sort of played as a second striker today which is I think the first time that Sean Dyche has done that and I think he does it mainly because his pressing is so, so good.

25:02He just never stops running. He was absolutely knackered for the last 10 minutes but carried on running. So, yeah, I mean, it was a difficult day for Forrest. Obviously, Nico Williams will be suspended for his handball on the line at the Leeds game. Callum Hudson-Odoi came off at halftime in a sling. Matt Sells came off at halftime for Angus Gunn to come on. Forrest have signed Stefano Ortega today. so he will presumably come into the team for the game at Leeds. But yeah, there's a few injuries that aren't great there. But yeah, Forrest will be... It's a weird old game in that I spoke to some Palace fans after the match and they were like, well, that's fine.

25:37We're a point further clear of West Ham as well and our team was decimated. But they were so poor in the second. It was moving the ball really slowly despite playing 10 men and making it quite easy for Forrest. But yes, we all move a point further clear of West Ham thanks to Chelsea, which I presume is what we'll talk about soon. Very, very soon. And Daniel, obviously this result, it's kind of like a good result for everyone in a way because obviously Forest didn't lose with that red card in the first half. Palace stopped the rot, so to speak. It's an okay result for them. And obviously West Ham and Leeds probably look at this and think, well, nobody's pulled away.

26:11And then you're looking at the fixtures that are coming up and with West Ham playing Burnley next weekend, that's a massive chance for that gap to really close. And with Leeds still being in that mix and with the Forest game coming up, It's starting to get quite interesting, isn't it? It is. And as you say, it's Leeds Forest on Friday night. So that's before. I assume that, again, both teams, as with today, Leeds fans will want to win that because six of their last seven home games are winnable, the other being Manchester City. Who knows? But, yeah, Forest fans would take a point there. Again, move a point further clear of West Ham.

26:46I think for all this noise about Palace getting dragged in and Spurs maybe getting dragged in, et cetera, et cetera, I think it probably still does come down to just Leeds, Forest and West Ham. And everybody, you know, Leeds and Forest are literally just supporting everybody who West Ham play because that gap is six points plus goal difference now. We'll hear about who is playing West Ham this weekend and Arsenal's match and loads of other stuff next on this Totally Football Show.

27:17This is the Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. The Athletic is the only place you can read articles by Daniel Taylor, Amy Lawrence, Phil Hay, James Pearce, Olly Kaye and the very best football writers around. Totally Football Show European Edition will be out with you on Tuesday morning. But actually, if you're hungry, if that's the appropriate word for some Seb Stafford-Bloor, James Horncastle, maybe some Paul Bullers and a soup son of myself, then you can own Tom Williams as well, of course, doing the French stuff. We've got our reaction to the ever-so-exciting Champions League playoff round draw, which is up now either in YouTube or podcast format.

28:00So do try that. Anyway, we'll be back on Tuesday morning talking about all sorts of stuff, but not least the XG-busting Como Atalanta game. We won't get into that right now. Let me just quote QB6828, who says, Colin Miller looks nothing like I imagined. I imagined him to be a dark, brooding figure. Well, the Reservoir Duck says, Duncan, where did you get your jumper? Where? I think it's a company called Folk. Oh, I know Folk. Of course, yeah, in Lamb's Conduit Street and online. Yeah. Yeah. Scottish, I think. Is that right? I believe so. Okay, then. And, well, loads of love for you as well, Daniel.

28:45But no one commenting on your knitwear. Somebody did ask me to say woof. So, I mean, I don't really need an invitation for that. Let's get on with the show, though, eh? Arsenal, six points clear or seven, depending upon your reference point. A match on Saturday which saw them go to Ellen Road and, despite their crippling anxiety, win 4-0 against Inform Leeds. They're having fun. Ever since Mikel Arteta said, all right, lads, let's have fun for the rest of the season, The shackles are off. Who wants to talk about this brilliant performance, a textbook away control, Amy Lawrence called it, from the Gunners?

29:28Yeah, it was really good. I mean, first 15 minutes were fairly cagey, but yes, Arsenal took the lead from a set-piece, like a recycled set-piece, put back in, and Zubi Mendy, great header, looked relieved after what he did against Manchester United last weekend. And then shortly before halftime, it was 2-0 from a corner. We initially thought it was an own goal by Kyle Darlow. But a day later, the organisation formerly known as the Jubius Goals Panel decided that... What are they called now? Goal Accreditation Panel. That's a shame, isn't it? Jubius. Anything with the word Jubius in it is good.

30:08Unless it's food. Unless it's on a menu, yeah, I wouldn't go down that route. But, I mean, it's fair enough because, as we know, when goals are decided, it's the shot on target. Now, a corner doesn't. It's one of those Schrodinger's set-piece things where a corner doesn't become a shot unless it becomes a goal, essentially. Okay. So, in statistical terms. But, I mean, Maduweki arrowed it in and it was good. If Kyle Darlow and Dominic Cavett-Lewin hadn't been where they were, they would have gone straight in. So, I think it's fair enough. OK. We should talk about Medewiki, who won his place in the starting line-up, owing to Bakaryo Saka going off injured in the warm-up.

30:48And what a huge performance he put in. Yeah, it was great. And, I mean, him playing when Bakaryo Saka is injured is essentially why Arsenal bought him. And he justified that. I mean, he plays with a lot more pace than Saka. His end product's not as consistent, but when he plays like he did on Saturday, really good. And then, yeah, two more goals in the second half. and I enjoyed these two because if you imagine in your head the sort of goal Arsenal brought Gokerez for and the sort of goal Gabriel Jesus has made his calling card in his career, that was spot on. Gokerez, shortly after having a sort of one-on-one and getting caught up and the shot blocked, this time he got on the end of a cross and bundled it in.

31:34Sort of manhandled. It was the sort of strength and six-yard prowess that he was bought for, really. So that ticked that box and then Jesus sort of... Or J-Zoss. J-Zoss? Well, so I saw the highlights of this on the Match of the Days and follow your team or indeed any team you fancy, digital offering. And I was struck by the fact that Guy Mowbray, I think it was, addresses him as J-Zoss four or five times and I'm not sure if it's a Sunderland accent thing or if there's some new knowledge. The guy gets it into Gabriel J-Zoss, a really good turn. Jézos with the shot a really good finish as well I do beg your pardon because you were making a more valid point but anyway he scored a goal yeah I mean he kind of got the ball in the area dummied to go back then pushed it forward and then just tucked it in it was a lovely finish and Finoch Finoch yeah past Lodds United so yeah I mean all the I mean we don't know how much that Arteta's kind of you know everyone's sitting down and let's enjoy the enjoy the run in I mean Declan Rice made that point after the game and said you know, we're top of the league we've finished top of the Champions League, we're in the Carabao Cup semi-finals, we're still in the cup, FA Cup, so yeah, I think it's been after the psychodrama of last weekend, it's been a solid week for us OK, and a solid performance from Kai Havertz as well ahead of Martin Odegaard because he's tougher, I think that's pretty much it in a nutshell, isn't it?

33:03Yeah, there you go So Kyrgyz has got two goals in two games this week, or four in six. I think that's right. So that's coming good for Arsenal, ahead of Tuesday night's encounter with Chelsea, which will be the second leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final. Colin? Just very quickly on this game, there's been six score nines in the Premier League this season where teams won by four or more goals, and two of those six have been Arsenal against Leeds. So this really has been the most one-sided fixture this year. Which raises the question, how tough was this for Arsenal? But given Leeds' recent form, it was.

33:39Yeah, I mean, look, I think Leeds didn't get the grips with this game at all. I think their main route was to get the ball long to Calvert-Lew and for him to hold the ball up, bring others into play. But Arsenal just stopped that at source with their press. And just quickly back on Nani Madweke, one thing he's really good at is winning quarters in the sense that he has that sort of directness on the wings and defenders just get a bit jittery and like, let's just play it out. Let's not take the... the risk of a strip on three. I mean, the point is Arsenal obviously have inverted wide players and traditionally you would show them onto their weaker foot, but then that's how Arsenal get a lot of corners.

34:12So, I mean, the points have been made numerous times this season, but the reason Arsenal get a lot of set pieces is because they're very good in open play. That's how you do it. Chelsea will be their next opponent in the Carabay Cup semi-finals, second leg. Chelsea, who were involved in an extraordinary match, Saturday tea time. Daniel, I imagine you were watching as they first went 2-0 down to West Ham and then came storming back to take all three points. Booed off at the break, much like their London neighbours Spurs, in fact, Chelsea were. But after a raft of half-time substitutions from, well, reactive Liam Resenia, there they were, Chelsea, a team transformed.

34:54Yeah, this was sort of reverse hold my beer because this was a more astonishing comeback based on the pattern of play in the first half even than Spurs-Man City, I think. I mean, Chelsea are obviously a stronger team than West Ham and have been far better than them this season, but West Ham were all over them first half. It should have been 3-0, could even have been 4 at half-time. And Chelsea, there was obviously a thing when Mareska was there and one of the reported reasons he fell out with the club was about this need to rotate for medical reasons to keep players fresh. And in Liam Rossini's early weeks, he seems to have taken that advice on board because there's been a huge amount of rotation in each game.

35:34But the reality is, is that Chelsea's backup players aren't good enough for what they want this season and maybe aren't good enough full time. I don't know. Like Liam De Lappe is nowhere near as good as Giorgio Pedro. Giorgio Hato really struggled with Gerard Bowen first half. Mal Augusto was getting forward, but then getting caught out behind and Rhys James came on for him. and the difference was just enormous. I mean, Alessandro Garnaccio was, I mean, one of the worst individual hearts of football you could see in the Premier League from him. And then Pedro Neto came on and wasn't even that good, but by not being that good was way better than Garnaccio.

36:09And yeah, Chelsea, yeah, they got it done and Robert Sanchez at half-time had a bit of a tete-a-tete with supporters and kind of said, stop booing as backers. And at half-time, sorry, at full-time was obviously all smiles. Yeah, it's an extraordinary turnaround because the first half was absolutely appalling and a better team than West Ham, I guess, would make that matter at Stamford Bridge. Nuno is struggling to do the Forest thing of closing out games. They are allowing points to slip from Leeds left, right and centre. I think I'm right in saying that his whole time at Forest, they never once allowed a two-goal Leeds slip and it's already happened twice at West Ham so far this season against Bournemouth and here.

36:49And yeah, they can't really afford that. They've got Burnley away next weekend. And I think that's pretty, it's sort of must win because you look at West Ham's fixtures after that and the next five or six are pretty tough. And then you're into the last six, seven games of the season. So yeah, the Burnley-West Ham game next weekend is absolutely massive. I think one of the most interesting things about West Ham at the minute is that on the 15th of January, they appointed Paco Hemmes as a first-team coach under Nuno. Now Paco Hemmes might not be familiar for a lot of Premier League fans, but in Spanish football, he was a really dogmatic figure, probably most well-known for managing Rayo Vallecano about 10, 12 years ago.

37:30And essentially his football is attack, attack, attack. No half measures. Loves being possession-based, high up the pitch, high defensive line, everything else. Almost the antithesis, actually, of Nuno Espirito Santo. And the fact that pretty much for his entire career, I think he has been a first-team manager to now sort of have that, not a subservient position, but where he's not taking all the decisions but sort of feeding into a wider machine. I find that dynamic really interesting. So the thing that kind of sums him up was that in 2013, when he was the Rayo Vallecano manager, his Rayo Vallecano played Barcelona and they had more possession than Barcelona and it was the first time in 316 matches that Barcelona didn't have more than 50 % of the ball.

38:11But Rayo lost 4-0. And he was sort of like, I'm so proud of the players. It's such an amazing achievement but it also sums up the kind of... That's who we are. The underlying flaw of that style of management. So I'm just really interested in that. Are you seeing that kind of philosophy evident in their play now, Colin? Well, since he's come in, they won at Tottenham. They beat Sunderland 3-1, three first half goals. Their first 50, 55 minutes of this, they were fantastic. They probably should have been more than two goals up. And you see a lot of the elements within that. Now, when Chelsea got their first goal back, and I wasn't in the stadium, but you knew that the feel in that stadium was that we're going to do this.

38:48you could feel West Ham just retreating further back, further back. Nuno brought on Max Killman to replace, I think it was Pablo, one of the two forwards. So they changed formation. They went to a back three. And Daniel referenced the points dropped this season. It's 18-9 in the Premier League from winning positions. That's a joint high with Bournemouth. So there's a real issue there. And again, I'm not sure. That's why I find this so interesting is how much of that is coming from Nuno, how much of that is coming from his coaches, these in-game decisions. distorting decisions and formation because they were just so positive and they played with so much belief but it dissipated so quickly whenever they did concede that first goal so yeah all credit to Chelsea but West Ham I would be a little bit worried if I was one of those teams 15th, 16th, 17th that one or two more positive results for West Ham can make things quite close Well we saw that, they had been threatening that but the last couple of weekends have been heartbreaking almost for them, each time they thought they were going to get something or maybe catch up a little bit on Forrest.

39:51Anyone who's watched their team be two new down in the game has made sort of like, they've said at half-time, if we can get a goal back by X, then we can. And I would posit that the timing of Chelsea's goals is the perfect 3-2 comeback. 57 is João Pedro to make it 2-1. And it's like, OK, we've got more than half an hour left. And then Cucurella scores on 70. That's like, we've got 20 minutes, we can win this. and then Enzo on 90 plus 2. And then you get a lovely melee and red card. So what happens in the melee at the end? This is a really interesting scenario because West Ham pushing for the late late equaliser deep and out of time.

40:30And Mark Kukurea sort of shepherds the ball out of play but sort of crawling along the ground almost using his head and his body just to shepherd it out. And Adam Traor is appealing for the decision. And then Kukurea sort of gets up and Adam Traor just... he just completely throws Cucurei out of the way to go with the linesman. And then all these players begin to rush in and you just completely lose track of what's happening because there's so many sort of head-to-heads and players not quite going for each other, but in that situation. I mean, as you say, the power that Truro gets on Cucurei is astonishing.

41:03It just disappears like someone's throwing a soft toy into the distance. But then after he's done that, he turns his back and Jean-Pedro gives him a big shove to which Truro turns round and there's a very good slow down edit of this on social media and you can see as he marches towards Jao Pedro, he kind of, his face sort of goes, like, you know when you're in, well, you might not know, but if you've ever been in a pub car park and you kind of, and yeah, it was very much that sort of vibe. But then as Colin says, it was then kicking off all over the shop and Tadibo was the one deemed to have overstepped the mark.

41:38Right, he'll miss next weekend's must-win game against Burnley. Daniel, sorry, you were very patiently wanting to chip in on that. Just to kind of chime in with Colin's point on the Nuno shutting up shop thing and bringing on Max Killman. It's something that he did a lot at Forrest last season. He would have Milenkovic and Murillo as centre-backs who were really good and when Forrest went ahead, he would bring on Murato and go to a back three to see it out. And between mid-October and mid-February, Forrest took the lead in 14 league games and won 12 of them. and nobody could basically stop that happening.

42:13The exceptions were Liverpool at home when they took the league and drew one all, who were obviously champions, and Newcastle where they lost. But it's just not working. Colin mentioned the 18 points dropped from winning positions. 15 of them have been under Nuno. Now, that's partly because they're better under Nuno, therefore they're taking the lead more. But, yeah, it's not good enough. I think eight Premier League matches they've led under him and they've only won two of them. They were not in a position when he came in that they could do that and hope to keep pace. They've actually been really lucky that Forrest and Leeds have not really, they've kind of drawn their way to bigger gaps rather than extending it because, yeah, they're going to need to kick on soon.

42:51All right. One last thing on this game. 2-2-6 says Rossegna effect is on at Chelsea. Six wins out of seven. Five wins on the bounce. He's for real? The results are really good. I mean, there's a lot of caveats to that, right? The fact that he has to change his line-up because it was wrong in the first. But it was almost like Saturday's game, it was almost not lucky, but because it was so bad in the first half, he had to make so many changes. Had there been one goal behind, I'm not sure. Do you feel that as a manager coming into a squad halfway through a season, he should get a bit more slack for making mistakes with his starting line-ups?

43:25I think he definitely should, but I also think that, and I think it's kind of been referenced, that there's a little bit of an image issue in the sense that should he really be Chelsea manager? Does he give off the vibes of a Chelsea manager? Is it the glasses, do you think? I wouldn't say it's the glasses. What's the drama glasses? Just wants to see the game, doesn't he? I do think football is the world's most popular luck-based sport and being lucky as a manager is very important. Napoleon had something to say about that, didn't he? Yeah, when he was manager of Lons.

44:02You're listening to The Totally Football Show with James Richardson. now with you four times a week. Keep up to date with us on Insta and enjoy us in glorious Technicolor on YouTube at The Totally Show. Chelsea facing Arsenal midweek in the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg with Arsenal. Was it 3-2 up from the first leg of that? The other one has Man City 2-0 up against Newcastle as the Magpies head to the Etihad on what I'm guessing will be Wednesday. Newcastle, who will arrive there fresh from a bit of a spanking at Anfield late on Saturday, 4-1 that one finished to Liverpool. They got their four.

44:38Newcastle couldn't muster the traditional three, but that was, extraordinarily, Arnie Slott's side first Premier League win of this calendar year. Daniel, were you impressed? I wasn't impressed for the first half an hour. I was really impressed by the comeback. I was impressed by the cohesion between Florian Verts and Hugo Eketike, which I think if you strip out all of the bad stuff from Liverpool's season, is probably the reason to most feel positive about this Liverpool team with or without Arna Slott. It's its manager because Eketike is the most, well, he's the most dangerous striker in the Premier League this season in that he's scored with the highest percentage of his shots and highest percentage of shots on target of everyone who's taken, I think, 40 or more shots.

45:23There's like 25 of those players and Eketike is top. And Florian Virts, we're seeing him the last few weeks that he feels more and more comfortable and he's creating chances. It was still quite haphazard at 0-0 and 0-1. I thought Newcastle were the better team for the first half hour. But they just have periods of games in Newcastle where, almost like we said about City earlier, you could take five-minute segments of the same team in the same game and not quite believe that they were on the same day because they just seem to lose control of matches and then make mistakes. So Newcastle have now taken five points from a possible 24 against the current top six this season, which is not only not good enough but it's also a lot worse than last season and I just cannot quite work out what's happening with them.

46:10But Liverpool, yeah, by the end were full value of it. And just a shout out for Ibrahim Akarnate who has had a difficult season on the pitch, has had a horrible week with the death of his father and when he scored in that last minute and Alisson runs 80 yards up to go and celebrate him, you do kind of think like, oh yeah, some of this is nonsense and some of this is what really matters and him scoring that goal and all 10 teammates around him is what matters. Very nice indeed. Eddie Hoy at Newcastle. I've noticed a lot of their fans are becoming increasingly frustrated with the lack of in-game changes to the system and they were just so open in this match.

46:46The midfield was bypassed time and time again on the counter-attack and on the transition. They didn't have an answer to it and they didn't correct it in the second half either, which I found a bit surprising. But the other thing was that in this first half, I think the reason why Newcastle did so well was they had so many set pieces and the ball was out of play and disrupted so much in this half that this was actually recorded. There was a 50-minute half, so it was five minutes of added time at the end of the half. The ball was in play for 22 minutes of 50. So, I mean, my maths isn't great, but that's quite a bit less than 50%.

47:19Why would Arsenal do this? It's one of those things that each free kick, each set piece, each throw in. There's just such a delay. And when you sort of see it mapped out in that way, because you kind of just think this does feel like it's... It's like it's becoming a turn-based sport as opposed to... Interesting. I've been trying to fare by looking up, so it's on their list. Yeah. There you go. Anyway, a big win for Liverpool and a disappointment for Newcastle after that fine performance away at the Porte de France midweek and indeed taking the lead in this match through Anthony Gordon. I mean, I just thought, obviously, Eketike scored.

48:03Blue Raspberries at the fans as well. He did. Florian Wurtz is in really good form now. We saw Xavi Simmonds play well for Spurs on Sunday. We saw Gokker's score. We saw Sesco's score. And I do think that people underestimate how long it takes a lot of players to get up to speed in the Premier League. And we're in another transfer window now. And a lot of those players are getting on with it. OK, we've already lost our Man United banter for the foreseeable future. Now you want to strip our hot takes away. Don't worry, there'll be new signings this summer who are pretty underwhelming in October.

48:38And everyone can say words like fraud and recruitment teams over and over again, and it's good. Excellent. Clip that up. Please, Producer Charlie. What else happened this weekend? Wolves lost at home to Bournemouth. And Brighton drew with Everton. That was heartbreaking for the Seagulls, who've only had one win in their last 11 matches. 97th minute it was when Beto tucked away that loose ball. And yeah. Which of these two games would you like to comment on, if either Daniel? A word for David Moyes' brilliant post-match interview. So for those who didn't see, obviously Beto scores last kick of the game, and Moyes.

49:24He has a sort of giggly Jose Mourinho, Porto, Man United back in the day, just sort of holding up his hands and giggling. I'd say he had the look of someone who's just won the postcode lottery. He was just sort of giggling to himself running down a street and was then booked for leaving his technical area and in the post-match interview was asked about it. It means they've got nothing about them at all. no thoughts about what football means or what it means to the managers without absolutely just saying no you just can't step outside that line and I'm worried about you Would you do it again? I bloody will do it again actually I think if I had been a bit more mobile I might have done a knee slide you know what I mean?

50:13I'm not a bootlicker but I generally am someone who's sort of those are the rules so you've got to deal with it But managers leave the technical area all the time. I kind of feel like it was slightly joyous to book him. And the game had finished by this point anyway. It was literally the last kick of the game. Duncan, you're making the point, though, that the officials are particularly stern on goal celebrations at the Amex. Well, late January 2025, funny how the fiction bit always comes up in the same order, but anyway, that's a subject for another time. Ilion and Jai got booked for imitating a seagull.

50:47Imitating a seagull. I mean those are the rules I just want to see what Everton come up with next season in late January because that's when it will be but disrespect crikey anyway a 1-1 draw Pascal Gros by the way with his first goal you probably saw since returning to Brighton and Beto with the 97th minute leveller on his birthday which was nice Wolves Bournemouth meanwhile not so nice for the home side and their slim remaining chances of a Premier League survival. Bournemouth with a goal, another goal from teenager Elia Junior Kruppi, who I'm guessing, Colin, you're a big fan of. I'm not sure why, but I feel like he might be right up your screen.

51:30I'm a big Kruppi, are you? I'm a huge Kruppi. It was a great finish. It's just instinctive. And I think it's that kind of, it's obviously the skill set that they have, but the sort of fearlessness of trying these things. Well, I just think French I mean look at Eketike's toe poke finish as well I mean what are they teaching down there in France finishing also in Brazil what are they teaching in Brazil because Ryan teenager Ryan on his Bournemouth debut setting up the second goal in nice fashion yeah I mean again Bournemouth lose Antoine Semenu but they've picked up seven points in the three games since that so Andoni Arreola has again kind of just made a couple of tweaks and they look quite good again albeit the Wolves missed a lot of chances in this game.

52:18You know, you see Wolves points total and everything else. That's such a terrible season. I'll be honest, and I dream about it, because if they don't get 12 or more, I'm finished. I think even 11, Duncan. 11, you'd be slightly off the hook. But they're still, what, on eight? Is it eight still? Yeah, it's just one win away. 14 games. It's a third of a season. Daniel, there you go. You're going to be preparing a bumper edition of The Score. for us on Monday morning. Any particularly cogent takes in there that we haven't aired so far on the show that you'd like to just throw in? Just on Brighton, there is now, I think we can officially say, a sort of movement from a section of supporters against Fabian Herzler.

53:05At first he was sort of getting grief for not making changes in game. Now he's sort of getting grief because it seems to be this thing where he brings on James Milner late in games who's quickly heading towards the Premier League appearance record. Slightly unfortunately this weekend, Milner was brought on on 90 minutes, which then meant that there was an extra 30 seconds of stoppage time in which Everton scored their equaliser, which didn't go down particularly well with supporters. And Brighton have got Palace at home next weekend, which is their, you know, it goes without saying, their big home game of the season.

53:33I think if they lost that... Three bridges v three points. Yeah, I think Herzlund comes under serious pressure. Wow. For Palace, that's back-to-back grunge derbies, of course, after Forest this weekend. And Pineapple Tree Trunk questioning Herzl's performance in similar fashion. Given that they aren't in Europe, they've been really underwhelming this season. Well, there you go. They're just two points about Tottenham and Otterbeck. And Tottenham have had all those European games and Brazl have not. So that league performance is not great. They're just not winning enough games. They're the only team in double figures for draws.

54:10They've lost the same amount as Liverpool. I think a few little tweaks and they could be a lot higher Patience Alright then Duncan We will finish off there then for tonight's Totally Football Show Many thanks for you if you joined us on YouTube and have sent in little nudges and comments and that sort of thing Many thanks to Daniel for offering a lot more than that all the way from his and Duncan who made it in and Colin as well and to Jake and producer Charlie in the booth we've got a European flavoured edition coming up on Tuesday as you'll recall so perhaps you'll join us for that and then Thursday back with a regular show and all sorts of other stuff afterwards for now from all of us here it's goodbye

55:13We'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.