Szoboszlai stunner sees off Arsenal, as Man City are beaten at Brighton again

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0:26Totally Football Show today. Premier League match day three. Liverpool Arsenal, free kish, free kick means three points for the champions. Did Arteta make classic student error taking too long getting his Eze in? Also, Brighton beats City. Bournemouth trip up Tottenham. West Ham win at Forest Palace. Are the Villa killers once again? We talk about all that stuff, plus Fulham business, Hurt by Video and a song about Newcastle. It's all in this Totally Football Show.

1:00Hello, if you're watching us on YouTube, it's our Sunday night live record of the podcast, which possibly, podcast listener, you're checking out on the Monday morning. Whatever it is you're doing, welcome to the show. As we record, it is Sunday the 31st of August And the we in question is Mr Tim Spears All right, Tim How's it going, James? Yeah, pretty good Just been watching some football Some soccer With my friend JJ Bull Hello Hi, JJ You going to sing us a song later? Yeah, yes Good The whole band's here Excellent And so, at least on the big screen live from Glasgow Is Daniel Story Hello, Daniel.

1:45Good evening, James. How are you? Yeah, I'm all right. You were in Glasgow for the Old Firm game on Sunday. How'd that work out for you? It was a game that happened. It was, according to one XG Twitter account with hundreds of thousands of followers, the lowest game for XG that they'd ever recorded, 0.33 combined. And yeah, boy, did it feel like that. Also, when you're in the stadium, you don't kind of notice that because everybody's just hating each other, which is what you're there for anyway. I was sick and tired of everything when I called you last night from Glasgow. There you go. No goals and barely any shots in that game for you there in Glasgow.

2:28But there was plenty that happened afterwards, Sunday afternoon, evening, pretty much night in a packed day of Premier League action. We've just seen Palace's win at Villa. there were away wins for West Ham home wins for Brighton and Liverpool anyway we'll get on to all of that we'll probably touch on a little bit transfer deadline day because that's if you're a podcast listener that's today isn't it Monday at 7pm right across Europe the transfer window will slam shut and it's been one of the biggest ever Tim is that right? numbers wise 3 billion spent or something? yeah numbers wise it's been absolutely insane What can we anticipate happening on Monday?

3:10Potentially the biggest deal of the whole window is still to happen. Do you think it will? I think the planets are aligning a little bit. You sort of factor in that Stran Larsson maybe edging towards, which then frees up the fact that they can sell him. Right. For the other guy. For the other guy, Mr. Izak. It would be the biggest deadline deal, well, ever, obviously, with the money involved, but also the stature of it, I think. What do you think, Daniel? Is it going to happen? I still have absolutely no idea. And we record with about 21, 20 hours left of the transfer window. All right. We're still, I feel like I'm going to be saying in about three weeks time, I'm still going to be saying, well, if we can replace him and that domino falls, then maybe he'll get his move.

3:57And I've just found the whole thing like really distasteful this year because of the behavior of players who think they can kind of force their way out of a contract to another club. and I'm really kind of proud of the clubs that have said, well, hang on a minute, mate, you signed a deal without a release clause so you can shove your gentleman's agreement, up your gentleman's agreement. Wow, Daniel Story. All right, I love it. Excellent. Let's move on from transfers and talk about things that we do know, things like results. So Sunday night, Crystal Palace beat Aston Villa 3-0 again. A little bit earlier on on Sunday, Liverpool were 1-0 winners against Arsenal thanks to an absolutely stupendous free kick from Dominic Sloverslie.

4:38In the two 2 o 'clock games, Brighton came from a goal behind to beat Man City 2-1. City have now lost two of their first three, while Nottingham Forest West Ham was 0-0 until the 84th minute and then was 3-0 to West Ham a very short time afterwards. We'll be finding out why shortly from Tim Spears, who was there. On Saturday, Bournemouth were 1-0 winners at Spurs. Everton had a very fine away win as well. They were 3-2 victors at Wolves. Meanwhile, it was at home to Burnley and it did take a stoppage time penalty, but Manchester United won their first game of the season, 3-2 against the Clarets.

5:16Chelsea needed major help from VAR to overcome Fulham, cruelly ruling out Josh King's opener. Not that Josh King, but yeah. And there were controversial scenes at the Stadium of Light too with Brentford's brown kit. Newcastle leads Ended goal As Brentford by the way Losing 2-1 to Sunderland Leeds Newcastle No goals there whatsoever Wolves are now Bottom of the table And On top of the table though Tim Spears are Liverpool After their 1-0 win Sunday evening Against Arsenal Which is where We begin This is the Totally Football Show With James Richardson Part of the Athletic FC Podcast Network Dominic Somerset Oh it's a gem It is a gem

6:02Dominic Somerslai lands the first mighty blow of the title fight. Well, it wasn't the greatest game, but that might just have been the greatest free kick we've ever seen. JJ, what do you think? Is it the best free kick I've ever seen? It's very good. That's too much, I think. Yeah. I'll go with it very good. It was the moment that that game needed to make sure that we would remember it. Yes. Because apart from that, it was, I think, really thoroughly boring. I think it's probably very interesting tactically, but I find it so hard to watch because it was so unentertaining that I didn't even really notice.

6:39You spent a lot of your time trying to compose a song that TV stations could use to promote their Sunday afternoon football games. Daniel, it was an unusual freak, not least because it was straight down the middle. Yeah, on initial viewing and I think on the first two replays, I thought that David Ryer had dived too late and pushed off not far enough with his foot to make a full dive. And then there was the angle almost from behind Schauber's Liesback where you see just the kind of whip. And the whip, it was like curl without the ball ever slowing down, which is unusual, I guess, physically. And yeah, there was nothing he could have done because he dives as if the ball was going to be a foot or maybe a foot and a half away from the post.

7:27And then that late dip just takes it onto the post. I mean, it was, you couldn't have placed it any better as Peter Drury was very keen to tell us. Yeah, it went up, it went down, it moved across. It was absolutely brilliant. It was from miles out as well, what, 30 yards out. You've been on your way back from Nottingham, Tim, so I'm not sure if you were able to catch it, but it was an astonishing moment. And it was also great to see it from the referee's chest. Yes, so good, right? Yeah. that's an angle we've never had before. Is that where they keep the camera on, the referee's chest? I presume it's not here.

7:57It's a circle here, yeah. That's where I would put it. Maybe it'd be too disorientated. Oh, yeah, because he moves his head, doesn't he? Fair enough. He had a great game anyway, Slob's Lie, in the new attacking sort of right-back a la Trent position. There was an amazing ball that he pinged up to, I think it was Gakpo, in very TAA fashion earlier on in the game. Yeah, he's got that in him. also there's a few games where he's either played at right back now he's played a couple now but in other games when they've had a different player playing in that right back slot like Kwanza last season there's often times Sabah Zay would be dropping deeper to be able to offer that like the progression from the back because he can ping those balls and then join in and although he's definitely really definitely meant to be like a central attacking midfielder he's done the right back stuff very very well there's a couple of occasions when he was 1v1 on the side defending did very well So I don't think he'd want to change his position to there.

8:52But he's done very, very, very well so far. How much was this an amazing piece of skill from Slobber's Eye that you can't legislate for? And how much was it Mikel Arteta throwing away a game that was there for the Gunners by being overly cautious? For example, and I'm paraphrasing a little bit, Gary Neville kind of slamming the Arsenal manager's approach because the Gunners take all their risks at the wrong end. What do you think? Daniel? To an extent, I think that that was the criticism Arsenal was in on this occasion, slightly driven by the narrative of an absolutely freak, free kick. And Arsenal did come into the game without Saka, with Erdegaard on the bench and with Saliba getting injured after five minutes in there, probably their hardest league game of the season.

9:40So I do have some sympathy in the isolation of today's game. The problem is that Mikel Arteta is picking up a reputation as somebody who has been quite defensive in some of these games. He also, two years ago, got accused of being kind of bizarrely cavalier in this fixture when Arsenal were 2-0 up and went for a third and got done 2-2. He hasn't found a balance, therefore, yet. He has also, as Arsenal manager, and they weren't particularly good for some of these years, but as Arsenal manager, he's played 15 games away at Man City and Liverpool in all competitions and hasn't won one yet. and the longer that run continues, as more and more money gets added into this squad, the more that will become an issue.

10:23What it does, it really puts pressure on the games that Arsenal were bad in last season, which is breaking down low-block teams because you're not quite at the stage, obviously, of you can't afford to lose games, but it costs you double if you lose your rivals. Absolutely. Arsenal conceding their first goal in this game. Liverpool, by contrast, keeping their first clean sheet. Tim, again, you didn't catch enough of this probably to comment. No, I saw a fair amount. I think the thing with Arsenal, it's happened too many times now for it to be a coincidence that it's a mentality issue. And Marteta talks quite a lot about this sort of, or hints that it's been their time and how he's got the team and the club to a certain level.

11:06And now they need to kick on and start winning things. You know, he said this very explicitly in May. and you kind of wonder has he brought in enough winners for them to take that mentality step for them to switch that mentality from being sort of runners up and not winning a thing for five years how do they then morph into champions you probably go and buy a couple of people who've been there and done it they haven't really done that I think they've got the defence and now probably the attack and the squad depth to be good enough to win the league but you watch them in these big games they haven't shown that they've got the mentality to be champions yet that would concern me slightly Okay and Liverpool?

11:40Well, the biggest negative from their opening three matches was their defence. And to shore that up and win the games, a huge plus. They just look seamless to me. They've lost key players as well. Frimpong was a big miss today. But they just carry on regardless. Was he a big miss? Who would he come in for at this point? I think, well, certainly the way that Slots tried to change the team with the attacking full-backs and more direct approach. That was the evolution that they were going for this year. So I would have thought he'd still be playing at right back. I suppose that's what I'm fitting in.

12:14OK. All right, then. Aaron writes in. Hello, Aaron. Says, in the past 10 seasons, the team that scored the most goals won the league seven times, whereas the team that conceded the least goals won the league four times. Is the old saying, attack wins games, defence wins titles, now a myth? Arsenal, after all, conceded the fewest goals over the last two seasons. Is that now gone, do you think? Daniel? I think what has happened, and this is me dodging that question almost completely, but I think what has happened is that increasingly big six matches are decided, particularly title race matches, are decided by incredibly fine margins.

12:52And I think the criticism of Arsenal is that they have allowed themselves to fall the wrong side of fine margins so often that you begin to question whether it's just bad luck or whether there is a slightly different way of playing games like these that could have been more beneficial. You know, Liverpool defended really well today, but they also came into the match with everybody talking about their defensive woes and their issues. And Arsenal basically allowed Liverpool to grow into the game, to play the first half pretty much as they wanted, albeit not with attacking very much, at which point we expected Arsenal to really try and go at them.

13:31And again, Liverpool were able to just kind of grow the impetus over the course of the game. You could sense that in the noise from the crowd, that they sensed that Liverpool were growing into the match and that they were starting to, in the second half, starting to put more pressure on. It was a freak goal. But as I say, if you fall the wrong side of those margins too often, people start to ask why. So true. Adding to the injury list that you mentioned earlier was William Saliba inside five minutes of this game. I'm not sure how long he'll be out for. We've got the international break coming up, of course, and a reinforcement arriving in North London in the shape of Piero Hencapier, who's coming in from Leverkusen.

14:09All right. Good news anyway for Liverpool, not just the three points, but the fact that not only Arsenal, but also Manchester City lost on Sunday. We'll get on to what happened to City next.

14:27I'm Winnalou. I write the game Connections, one of the puzzles from New York Times games, and I love horror movies. I love my dog, and I love trying to trick you. I'm Tracy Bennett. I get to pick the wordle word every day, which is not as easy as it sounds. A fun fact about me is that I am descended from a witch who was put on trial in Salem. New York Times games are made by people, like the ones you just heard from. Go to nytimes.com slash games to start playing today.

15:01This 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. Check out our new Saturday show, Totally Extra, if you fancy a bit of easy listening. This week, we're grappling with a variety of enigmas, including Nicolas Anelka, and why Julien Laurence likes cricket. If you fancy us having a chat about another topic, get your requests in. Next week, though, for the international break, we're going to be doing Colombia in the 90s.

15:40Hmm. Certain amounts to talk about there. Also, should mention that on Tuesday, we'll have our European edition of the Totally Football Show out with all the continental news, including the greatest hat-trick anyone's ever seen, JJ. Or Joe Neves. Yeah. And also, Eric Ten Hag news. He's had two games at Bayer Leverkusen. He's already on the verge of getting sacked. Extraordinary. What's all that about? And Jamie Vardy on his way to the Italian League leaders. Find out all the deets on Tuesday or any time thereafter. That's the magic of podcasts. Now, also on Sunday, loads of other things happened.

16:17You had Palace's stirring win at Villa. You had the West Ham victory by the same scoreline, 3-0 away at Forest, which Tim will be telling us about in a moment or two. But first of all, what did Brighton do to Man City Sunday lunchtime? Tremendous last half hour to this game. Now, JJ, you caught the last half hour. Who else actually saw the way this game turned around after... Daniel, after Fabian Herzog executed a quadruple substitution and really turned the game and City had no response. So tell us more. Yeah, I wonder if this is a kind of new trend in the age of deeper squads. And I also think, I don't think I'm speaking out of turn here, but at most clubs now there's a smaller gap between the players in the first team and the players on the bench.

17:11you can now use five substitutes the benches are deeper so if you are trailing in a game it feels like a bit of a roll of the dice but if you're bright and playing against manchester city then a roll of the dice is fine so you change 40 of your outfield players and immediately the opposition doesn't really know how to cope with everything being different and bright and it won't work every time but bright and maximize it perfectly by you know two of the players they brought on scored and they just unnerved City. I think there is a weakness in City. I kind of went through all the stats because it kind of flagged an alarm in my mind.

17:48Since the start of last November, City have, in the Champions League and Premier League, have lost six games that they've taken the lead in. So they are get-at-able when they take a lead. In the three league seasons prior to that, they'd done it once. So there is like an issue now with City where they're not able to control games with a lead as much as they can. and you can unnerve them, but Herzler did it absolutely brilliantly. We'll get on to the reasons for this loss of control for City, perhaps in a second or two, but James Milner, just remarkable. He was one of the players who came on, who scored, converting the penalty.

18:21The game basically had seen Erling Haaland scoring early on, his 88th Premier League goal in his 100th Premier League appearance, and it looked like that was going to be the story. And then you get the changes made by Herzler. Brighton win a penalty and James Milner steps up, converts Cooley, becoming in the process the second oldest goal scorer in the Premier League era. Teddy Sheringham still holds the top spot there. But he's not only, James Milner, the second oldest goal scorer at 39 years and 239 days. But he's also, of course, still the second youngest goal scorer ever in the Premier League.

18:5916 years and 356 days when he scored his first Premier League goals. There are 23 years between those two scoring strikes. As Colin Miller points out, when he scored his first goal, James Milner, James Trafford, who he scored against, was only two months old. Brajan Gruda, who scored Brighton second, was not even a twinkle in his parents' eyes. Erling Haaland was a two-year-old. And Brighton boss and James Milner's boss, Fabian Herzler, was only nine years of age. James Milner, everybody. And just to say as well, since I've been talking for about a minute, may as well keep going, he did the Diogo Giotto PlayStation celebration as well in homage to the departed friend whose number he now wears because he's changed to the number 20 as of this season, Milner.

19:45Yeah, also, James Milner, I'm older than him, and this all makes me feel weird. To think what James Milner was doing at 16 and still now. It's incredible. Compared to what I'm doing. Well, JJ, we'll talk about what you're doing perhaps a little bit later on. you know everybody's pushing ahead in their own field i think i feel like james milner's achievements are better than mine and i think that's fine to say but uh he's also like how important he's been at various different massive clubs like he's had so many different careers that you think like he came broke through at leeds i think right when he was great there it was quite important for newcastle sort of but then you go to like liverpool really important there um man city as well obviously who he uh scores against today and uh now you can put him into that Brighton team and hope that he can help get everyone else up to the level that needs to be.

20:29He sets a standard in training. Right. You need these players. Yeah, and he's still got probably another five years in Napoli or somewhere like that. Yeah, for sure, yeah. Just magnificent. When he stepped up, I was nervous for him because he hadn't scored a Premier League goal in six years. But Daniel, he was so calm. Yeah, he's a lovely guy. He is one of the good guys. What you see is what you get. He is, as JJ says, incredibly hardworking. Like, none of that is by accident. He is a manager's dream, not least a manager who is, as you say, younger than him and therefore can use him as a kind of disciple on the pitch.

21:04He's everything you want. Brighton have been sort of led the way with those sort of players. They did have Adam Lallana doing it for a while and now Milner. And I think, yeah, I think especially in a club where there's quite a lot of transfer churn and the model is to buy, develop and sell and bring in again, those players just become the glue and Milner is perfect for it. Do you remember when it was boring, James Milner, and then he leaned into it and eventually killed it? No one even talks about that now, but for a while he would do videos of himself ironing. And he's universally liked by all of his clubs.

21:40I have to mention Aston Villa was JJ left out just for the Aston Villa fans. But he's completely non-offensive. Everybody loves him. He was on offence today, putting Brighton level. and then Brajan is it? Brajan Gruda, what part of that transfer churn that Daniel mentioned scored a very fine second sitting Ryan Aitnori down and the keeper Trafford and giving Brighton the lead. Crikey. City by the way did start this game with Rodri which was supposedly the key thing for them not losing but lose they did making this the worst start to a season in Pep Guardiola's career. Yeah, crikey. Next up for them after the international break, they've got a Manchester derby against the United team that's actually six places above them in the table.

22:30That's how dramatic things have got. Is it all that dramatic, Tim, or is it actually just August and they've got a lot of new players? They have got a lot of new players, but they have been planning for this since January when they started to put together this season's team. I think the Club World Cup's probably had a bit of an impact on their preparation for the season. And also, yeah, Rodri's back, but crikey. you know he's going to need a little while to get up to speed and midfield was the biggest issue for them they looked so good on the opening day and you think they're back but then you remember that it's Wolves so yeah so yeah no you'd definitely be slightly concerned well Daniel you mentioned the lack of control and a lot of people pointed to the fact that that used to be Pep's way of completely steamrolling championships and it doesn't seem to be there at his command anymore why is that?

23:18I mean it's it feels like an easy answer but it strikes as at least partly a mental thing sometimes when elite teams things start going wrong it becomes very hard for them to process that because things have not gone very wrong before I think that was what certainly was happening at the beginning of last season after the good start it felt like one defeat inevitably bred two or three and nobody could really work out how to fix it and they have also lost their air of invincibility and I think that's probably permanent now for however long Guardiola stays there were times when teams non-elite teams were going to league games against City and think if we lose 2-0 or 3-0 we'll take it and we'll move on to the next I don't think any club now and it's a credit to the Premier League I suppose but I don't think any club goes into any game and thinks we haven't got a chance here so we should just roll over and keep the score down and losing that invincibility when you already not quite got that belief yeah you can get at them and i do believe that the more it happens the more likely it is to happen again all right well manchester united after the international break of course won that fixture last season uh man united to one this weekend we'll get onto that game a little bit later but tim first of all tell us about what happened at the city ground on sunday where noddingham forest Forrest came unstuck against West Ham.

24:41Jarrod Bowen, Paqueta and then Callum Wilson making it 3-0. Wow. So what happened around the 80-minute mark? Well, nothing had happened before then. And I was thinking, what on earth are we going to talk about when I'm in the studio later? It was a real nothing game. Forrest had one shot in total in the first half, which is the lowest they've had since promoted back to the Premier League. I couldn't work out if West Ham were trying to kill the game and play for 0-0 or if they were just incapable of taking charge of it but the sort of longer it went on the more they grew in confidence and it was a sort of tale of the two number 10s.

25:16Gibbs White and Pakatar were both utterly dreadful I've never seen, I can't remember Gibbs White playing that badly for a long time. It was like he had concrete boots and he was furious with himself. He was jumping on the spot with all the terrible decisions he was making and Pakatar was just continuously giving the ball away. But yeah, then the subs changed the game actually Callum Wilson came on. I had absolutely no expectations for him to do anything whatsoever. You know, he hasn't scored for a couple of seasons and he's not been fit for a couple of seasons either. But he was great. He was a couple of jinking runs and a couple of good shots and sort of got West Ham going again.

25:52Right. And Crescente is some of those. Exactly. Okay. Yeah. Well, his first appearance since Potter's first match, which I wasn't aware of. He hadn't been out for that long. But he sort of… So since Potter came in last season? Yeah. Yeah, right. His first game Somerville played, but not since then. And he sort of just takes the ball and drives with it. And Mateus Fernandes, who's making his debut and did really well, he was doing that as well. It gives West Ham something a bit different. They've looked so flat in the opening weeks of the season and so one-paced. But Somerville and Fernandes and Callum Wilson just sort of changed the game.

26:25And basically, West Ham scored three times in seven minutes. Just before then, it was on, well, I say knife edge, a very blunt knife edge. but the away end was singing Wooden Spoonish the away end was singing Frank Lampard's name which I don't know if that's something they do very often I've not heard them they were singing Frank Lampard's name and you'd think they didn't do that a lot when he was still playing because he moved to Chelsea but obviously he's doing very well at Coventry and West Ham heading for another I guess not a great result and then yeah everything has changed with three goals in seven minutes the whole outlook for them has been completely transformed and a couple of really interesting points of note one, Lucas Pacquettar reported by The Athletic that he didn't want to play in this game amid discussions with Aston Villa trying to sign him he does play he scores a second goal which is a penalty and then his celebration is something I've never seen before he basically mimics turning down a phone call on his phone yeah he's got his which finger is that?

27:27a finger and a thumb extended to mimic a flip phone talks on it, throws it away. Yeah, and then kisses the badge. Right. Which is just absolutely hilarious. Yeah. So he's not going anywhere. Apparently not. And then Potter, his post-nacht press conference, it was a bit sort of 10 Hargat Man United, kind of like after the FA Cup final, like you shouldn't doubt me, and sort of taking the journalists on a bit. Not happy with a culture that criticises him for three consecutive defeats at all. Talks about the state of the world on three occasions, saying this is the world that we live in and he's not happy with it at all.

28:01And I basically said, look, this is why I'm sat here and with the greatest of respect, you guys, as in journalists, are sat there because I can do the job. I've done it for 15 years and I believe in myself. I was slightly more animated than Graham Potter. It wasn't quite as aggressive, perhaps. Wow. But yeah, it really is the game. And then Nuno, I've never seen him so angry or use such emotive language. He said it was shocking, truly shocking performance. he said everyone was very upset he couldn't explain it at all and yeah amazing really how it just turns in seven minutes It is extraordinary but I guess that's football isn't it?

28:38Yeah, Nuno walking off the pitch with a face like thunder and it seemed that things had become a bit more amicable or calmed down a bit between him and the club last week but where this leaves them ahead of the big meeting with Marianakis, I don't know Daniel, probably you've got a view on that as a Forrest fan, I just want to give a shout out to Callum Wilson, who I had the opportunity to sit alongside a little bit over the summer. And what the sweetest guy, really. Such a nice bloat. And as you say, it's been a while since he scored. But the way, as he kind of, I'm going to call it, powered upfield for the third goal, he kind of swerves one way and then kind of hauls himself in the other way.

29:18And then does it two or three times. By the end, he's hypnotised the defender. And through he goes for the header. Boom. Great for him. is obviously an underwhelming signing. You can imagine a 33-year-old free agent with a bad recent injury history and no goals for two years. Plus the fact that he's made a couple of tongue-in-cheek, banter-esque comments about West Ham on his podcast, Michel Antonio, which were picked up and retweeted. You know, West Ham fans unhappy about Kudus leaving and not a great summer of recruitment. So he's not the last person they want to see, but, you know, they were underwhelmed by it.

29:47So great for him to score, basically. Although he did ruin potentially one of the greatest goals I would have ever seen live. Really? Jared Bowen, the first person that came to mind was Diego Maradona. He goes from one side of the pitch to the other, taking on sort of three, four players. A crazy, sort of John Barnes at the American Ark kind of, that angle, right? And he's about to put it in and Callum Wilson just gets in the way and tries to shoot. And Bowen is furious. He's like, what are you doing? Right. But they have a chuckle. Eventually. Yeah. Eventually. It reminded me of when Michael Owen scores that great goal in the 98 World Cup and Paul Scholes almost gets in the way because at the end he doesn't know what to do and sort of get out of the way of the run.

30:29But they were 3-0 up. I'm sorry you missed out on what would have been a very special moment for you, Tim, on what's otherwise been a difficult weekend. Daniel, very briefly, where does this leave us with Nuno and Forrest? And how comforted are you at least with the draw for the Europa League, which will pit you, you being Nottingham Forrest in this case, pit Nottingham Forrest against Malmo in a rematch of the 1979 European Cup final, which Forrest won, for anyone who's not aware of that. Yeah, I think that is a very small silver lining today, but it's probably the perfect draw. You've got Betis away, which is a big club.

31:07You've got Porto at home, which is a big club. Then you've got winnable home games, including Malmo, and then you've got short away trips. So that's perfect. But the question inevitably over the course of this international break will be whether Nuno gets there to manage in the competition. and it's just the worst timing for a performance like that. It's comfortably the worst performance of Forrest under Nuno since he joined. It reminded me a little bit of the 1-0 home defeat to Everton last season when they really needed a win. And so we're pushing and pushing and pushing and then Mario made a bad mistake and they got broke on to lose 1-0 in the final minute.

31:41And there is a sense that, particularly when they have to break down teams, they couldn't do it in pre-season, the passing's just a little bit too slow. It feels odd in that really that should be Morgan Gibbs-White's best chance to shine when Forrest needs to break down a team and he's a kind of lock picker. But actually, I think he struggles most in those sort of games when it's all on him to pick the pass. He tends to sometimes try and do the difficult thing rather than the easy thing well. And yeah, I mean, it was just a shambolic result. But fair play to West Ham because they came with a game plan, put a change system from three at the back to four at the back.

32:17It looked more solid. they soaked up pressure barely conceded a shot of note and then hit Forest at the end which is pretty much a perfect away performance Absolutely Alright, Sunday night then another London team, Crystal Palace going away to Aston Villa and notching up a fine 3-0 victory it was the first defeat for Villa at home in over a year second time in a row though that they've lost 3-0 to Palace who have the wood over them as they say because they did them in the FA Cup semi-finals on their way to lifting the trophy just last season. Was it Mark Gay's last game for Palace? If so, he marked it with an absolutely monstrous goal.

32:57Jojo, what was that? Concer clears. Mark Gay. Oh, it's two! Mark Gay for Crystal Palace! Wow! I didn't know he had that in him, but I liked that he did. I said to you earlier, it must be very frustrating if you're a forward or if you're a defender and you have what Mark Gahey had and that ability to hit a ball from the corner of the 18-yard box, picking it perfectly into the top corner. It was the only time I've ever seen him take a shot, I think, when he must watch all his teammates do this all the time and not do it. Yeah. They should have 11 Mark Gahys. That would be extraordinary. They may not have any, of course, by this time.

33:32That's worse. Tomorrow, because Liverpool are circling. Palace apparently have already turned down one bid, but who knows if Liverpool might not be returning I mean, we'll find out in 24 hours, unless anyone's got any info on that. If not, let's just talk about other things from this game, like Mateta, after Kamada had been brought down by Biza, who was in goal for Villa. Mateta stepped up, scored the penalty, and they got booked for kicking the corner flag, which is his goal celebration. Anybody know why this referee decided that he was going to book him for that? it's the Premier League's clamp down on fun that they've had this weekend in all the televised games ah yeah as part of that I think it's some sort of conspiracy to enjoy to ruin my enjoyment of the games don't know why that is though so we were talking about this earlier as well he's allowed to kick it at Selhurst Park right but and at Wembley and at Wembley but not now not now the third goal came from Ismail Assar as a result of a very long throw and we also got a little glimpse of Jeremy Pino the new signing as well he looked lively he's a great player yeah so he's been Touted as a wonder kid for a long time I think it was at Villarreal I think But no one's ever managed to Well either try to get him Or haven't been able to pay the fee Because it's meant to be really high And the fee that Crystal Palace paid I think is about 30 something 30 million euros I mean from what I know of Pino That is a really good deal And I think you saw just that one little bit Where he took the ball And then dribbled it past a bunch of players And they made the right decision every time Not to keep going too long When to stop, when to pass But there's also a bit Where they had a little break and play And he went to the manager and there was tactical instructions, I think they were telling him not to go wide then, they should go inside now.

35:15And you could see him going like, okay, I understand that. So he's going to learn what is expected of him. And I think if he performs anywhere near what I've seen him do in La Liga, he should be really fun. He had a bad knee injury a couple of years ago, didn't he? Which I think sort of brought his value down a bit, but it's half the price of his day, you know. Pretty good replacement potentially. Tim, if next summer Wolves were to be looking for a manager, you'd have Oliver Glastner at a contract at Palace, You'd have Marcus Silva at a contract at Craven Cottage. You'd also have Andoni Iriola, now free of his contractual obligations to the Cherries.

35:49Which one of those would you pick? I mean, might be looking for a manager in the autumn, let alone next summer. Yeah, but that's when their contracts run out. This is purely hypothetical. I think Marcus Silva's a massively underrated manager. Yeah. I would probably. But what Glasser's doing with Palace is amazing, huh? The players that he's lost, the players he could still lose. Yeah, they just look so settled. They look ready. It's probably helped that they've had the community shield and getting prepared for Europe, but they just picked up where they left off last season. It'd be a real shame if they lose Gay as well.

36:18It's going to be impossible to replace at this stage. Well, that seems to be Glaston's position as well, that he'd rather the club took the hit of him leaving on a free than see him go now with no... They've already lost£30 million on the£65 that Newcastle offered last summer. It's an awful lot of money to a club like Palace. Okay. What to make of Villa, who are currently second from bottom and the only team in the Premier League yet to score a goal? Daniel? I mean, they feel like, without wanting to deflect from Forrest's result today, they feel like the Premier League's random crisis club. You know, every weekend someone is the crisis club that your job is not to be at.

37:00Villa are... So they haven't scored a goal yet this season in the league. They haven't, or in any competition, because they've only played league games. Their goalkeeper wasn't in the squad, so he had their manager just repeating the name of the reserve goalkeeper who was starting over and over and over again and turning him into the weekend's protagonist. Emi Martinez not in the squad at all tonight. Why is that? Bisotto. Marco Bisotto. Where is Emi Martinez, though? Marco Bisotto. Will he be your future goalkeeper? Marco Bisotto. Extraordinary. But he's done this kind of thing before. There was a moment at the end of last season when Villa just won at Bournemouth and confirmed their place in some European competition and the post-game press conference went like this.

37:49How important, though, is it for Aston Villa to secure a second season in the Champions League? Good afternoon. Europe. Europe. Europe. Yes. Yes, of course. Europe. To be in Europe. very important. I know we've had players not being available and pulling out and it's been a mad summer for that as I've already ranted about once and won't do again but with Emi Martinez I mean I've heard some you know there's been some reports of vague Manchester United interests but he I mean it doesn't seem enough that you could just pull out the squad so that's obviously bizarre Emery himself being like that you know was a kind of red flag to me in terms of where his head's at.

38:30The bench looks extraordinarily weak. I don't know how many Premier League clubs this weekend had a stronger bench than Villa's, but I bet it's more than half of the league and they've got Europa League football this season. And it sounds like because of the squad controls that UEFA are imposing after the last two years, that Villa are then, you know, in a position where they can't really spend an awful lot of money. You know, they were linked heavily with Paquitar and now he's done his kind of NSYNC star celebration. So we know that deal's off. And yeah, I just, it does feel like, it's amazing to me how quickly these things can feel like they're beginning to unravel because Villa have been a positive story only for the last two years.

39:11And now, yeah, it's quite hard to see where the goals are coming from because there's no obvious creativity there. Morgan Rodgers is, I don't know if his form has dropped off a cliff or he's just being double marked because there's nobody else. but they could have played three games tonight and not look like scoring. Nsync though, great shout. Emi Martinez possibly going to Man United. Victor Lindelof apparently heading to Villa Park. That's one reinforcement coming in as is a 17-year-old from Aberdeen, JJ, by the name of Fletcher Boyd. Fletcher Boyd, yeah. So he's not really managed to get into the team much in the last little while but he's a very tidy young player.

39:50He's like an attacking midfielder. his specialty is penchant I don't know what that means but it came to be what does that mean penchant means yeah something he likes to do well his penchant is that he likes to shoot from distance and he can do that pretty well excellent a couple of goals you can see him well one goal you can see him score in the Scottish Premiership and I read one of his club programme interviews with him and he says that his first memory of football he's asked and he said was I think lobbying the keeper from the halfway line but him doing it at under 10 so it was his first memory of football what am I doing here he must have thought yeah extraordinary Aberdeen by the way how's their season going no it's on it's underway okay bottom of the table yes have you scored a goal yet not in Scotland well not in the Premiership but in the Conference League because managed to lose the Europa League playoff final okay playoff final we'll just playoff yeah so yeah in the Conference League that should be good not going particularly well After all, you'll remember last season, I've talked about it a lot because they did such a good start to the season, but I think they've only won something like five in 30 or some mad statistic like that.

41:02It's very much not going very well for the manager. Okay. And so it'll be interesting to see what happens in the next little while. Yeah. Okay. Common story in Scotland, of course. Very good. Next up, should we get on to Saturday's action?

41:24you'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 quick shout out to the one team in the entire football league with a 100 winning record this season do you know who that is tim i don't know middlesbrough top of the championship Four games played, four wins. Now under the tutelage of the former Luton boss, Rob Edwards. Yeah, I was at the Riverside on Saturday lunchtime to watch them beat Sheffield United 1-0. Sheffield United, who are the crisis club, I suppose, of the year.

42:03Well, crisis club owner shenanigans notwithstanding. On-pitch crisis club Sheffield United. They were routinely terrible and Middlesbrough were not particularly good, but yeah, they're flying under Rob Edwards and I'm really pleased for him. I interviewed him last season when he was at Luton. He was kind of really happy to be back in the Championship and hoping to take Luton back to the Premier League and it all kind of de-escalated. Yeah, it was a pretty rotten season for him. So I'm really glad to see him back and doing well. All right, four wins out of four for him. Four defeats out of four for Sheffield United under their manager, Ruben Sellers.

42:39You remember him at Saints? Yeah. Anyway, rotten for Sheffield United, bottom of the table with no points whatsoever Tim, Wolves Yeah Give us one to JJ Wolves were involved in one of the most exciting games of the weekend There were a couple of 3-2 victories on Saturday Man United at home to Burnley But Everton away to Wolves And Everton looked, I mean, sexy David Moyes knows what he's doing he gets good characters in he gets centre-backs know how to defend, he makes them organise like a possession doesn't do too much, he also lets them play, he lets players play so you get to see them actually enjoy themselves, you've got Grealish being allowed to play, you've got Jusri Hall playing positions where he should be, actually getting the game I love Njai, I think he's so much fun to watch, and then you've got Beto up top there, they signed Tiernan O 'Barrie who I think has done okay so far as well, but those three in front of just a good solid Premier League midfield two of Garner and Gay is alright that's kind of okay and they're very much a team that could and should finish around about 13th but considering what it looked like a while ago and how bad things looked to be going so many players leaving and everything they're just not okay with that and then Tyler Dibbling is coming in as well it looks like and another player I love watching him as well so they've got good players they can come in and out with and when Grigge came in everyone was saying well wouldn't it be great if he was back to something like his form for Villa and I don't know if you would call it that but he's had four assists in two starts.

44:11That's crazy. Warmed my heart hearing David Moyes talk about him after the game. He was asked a question. He thought for a moment and said, yeah, the mad thing is he's better than I thought. And I thought it's quite good that David Moyes, this sort of wizened old head of the Premier League, can just get a player in Grealish and be surprised by his quality. Having watched, we've all seen so much of Grealish. And then Grealish put a post on social media about just saying, I'm really loving football again. and this is the good stuff, right? I mean, I'm jealous that Everton got him, but he is, yeah, when he wants it and when his head's in the right place, he's obviously absolutely magnificent.

44:48And I agree with JJ, like just having him die, not having to do, like sing the theme tune, write the theme tune, do everything himself is such a massive advantage to Everton because he's got all the quality, but if they can kind of refine it so he doesn't have to do everything, he's a star. Okay. Tim, are you still staying out of this or are you? No, no, no, no. just talking about Grealish there reminded me of a tweet I saw earlier which really made me laugh of a picture with Grealish sort of hugging the away end at full time and really nice scenes and someone said this is like the before and after that you get in an RSPCA or a dog's trust advert which kind of sums it up quite nicely indeed, not dogs but wolves Tim wolves who are bottom of the table the only team worse than Aston Villa so there's an interesting kind of West Midlands derby going on at the foot of the Premier League no points from three games so far under Vito Pereira Jürgen Strand-Larsen are you going to lose him to Newcastle?

45:53I'm not feeling very confident I mean he has been carrying a knock but the fact he didn't play in this game is not a good sign turning pretty toxic at Molyneux the chant was back the team or sell the club very much aimed at the owners You know, Vito Pereira's not in any danger, certainly from the fans anyway, you know, did a good job last season. But it was basically, you know, sleepwalking towards relegation, I think. We're only in August, though. No, but I'm really concerned about the recruitment. You know, you look at their team last year, it wasn't great, but, you know, there were sort of about five or six good players who've all gone.

46:26So Kunja's gone, Aitnori's gone, Semedo's gone, Strand Larsson, no longer in the team. And Agbedu, who was a bit of a phenomenon in the second half of the season, his form has completely gone off a cliff he looks like a different player so that's sort of half the team gone and replaced by really inferior replacements you know they've really struggled with recruitment this summer a lot of players turn them down they're sort of down to second third fourth fifth choices in the players that they bought so that basically i feel pretty confident saying that the team is a lot worse than last season and i was was confident that there was a safety net in the form of three promoted teams just judging on what's happened in the last two seasons.

47:03But it doesn't look to be the case. You know, I think they've got 13 points between them, the promoted teams already. So that does really concern me. And it concerns me that Strand Larsson wants to go, which, you know, we talk, okay, he's behaved, you know, fine, whatever, came on and scored two midweek. But he only joined the club two months ago. He signed for Wolves in June. And now he's asking the chairman to leave, right? And okay, apparently he's done it in a very nice way and maybe he's not going to kip off us. but that is not a great sign. I understand completely why he would want to go to one of the biggest clubs in England.

47:38So yeah, I'm concerned about that. I'm concerned that Wolves will see what is an incredible profit in two months of buying him for 23 million and selling him for 65 and sell him and obviously with a replacement before the end of Monday. But I don't know how they can do that. I don't see how they can bring in a replacement who can guarantee Premier League goals. But even if he'd played on Saturday, I don't think it would have changed the scoreline. so it's all pretty depressing. OK. Maybe West Ham could sell Callum Wilson. Yeah, I'll take Callum Wilson. Everyone wins. Very nice. Wolverhampton Wanderers currently bottom of the table.

48:11Villa in 19th and Fulham in 18th. So none of the promoted sides in the bottom three although we are only three games into the season so no peeking at the table. Sorry for that. Burnley, one of those promoted sides were beaten three to away Old Trafford on Saturday in one of the three o 'clock games. Ruben Amarim, who'd had such a terrible time of it with his Man United side away at Grimsby, or at least in Cleethorpes, against Grimsby on Wednesday. He needed a response. Did this constitute one for you, Daniel? They were really, really good first half. They were as good, if they'd have played like that midweek, they'd have been three or four nil up at half-time, and they could have been three or four nil up at half-time against Burnley.

48:57The second half collapse is obviously pretty worrying. The fact that Altai Bay and Deer spilled a shot to keep up this record of kind of which Manchester United goalkeeper is going to be at fault for a goal this week, competition is bad. I did also think that Burnley were really, really good second half. I know we kind of have to view everything through the prison of United, but I thought that Josh Cullen and Lesley Ogachukwa in midfield as the combination, I thought they were really, really good at getting around the pitch, at breaking up play, and one of them driving forward and the other one passing.

49:27But they are not of a level that Manchester United should be at. And the problem is that central midfielders tend to find that they are able to make hay against Manchester United's midfield and that problem hasn't gone away and nor is the goalkeeper problem. They may sign a goalkeeper, I guess, it sounds like, on deadline day. But no, the problem hasn't gone away. It's kind of funny hearing Amarine after the match. like it's one victory against Burnley is not going to make that man smile it's fair to say there was one movement early in this game where the ball got pinged all the way across the pitch and Buma with one touch kills it and pushes it away from the defenders to take a shot and you can just see like even if the system's not working you've got all these amazing individuals who can maybe open up a game for them and get them out of trouble which is not ideal still but they do have that now okay and they're up in ninth place in the top half of the table very nice We should talk about what happened at Tottenham with the brilliant performance from Bournemouth.

50:27We should certainly talk about Chelsea against Fulham. And to an extent, we should talk about Leeds-Newcastle, but to a lesser extent. But anyway, we'll do all of that next.

50:41Big news at Tottenham Hotspur. Last week, the club confirming the signing of Javis Simmonds from RB Leipzig. and then on Saturday demonstrating exactly why they need him with a remarkable performance against Bournemouth. Daniel, first off, Bournemouth were so good in this game and we mentioned Iriola being out of contract at the end of the season but the performance that he's got out of a team that had lost so many of his first-choice players from last season is remarkable. It was a performance that was so good and so dominant that on the back of watching it back, I basically decided that I think Bournemouth can finish in the top six this season because they don't have European football, of which nine other clubs do.

51:25They're already out of the League Cup because they lost home to Brentford. And to say they lost three of their four central defenders and have changed goalkeeper, the ability to protect them with their high press and cause turnovers and problems so it doesn't matter is already looks as good, if not better, than last season. They will concede more goals than last season because the quality of individual defender is not as good. But they just look such a composed team for one that lost so many individual parts this summer. They limited to Spurs to, I think, 0.17 next year in the entire game. But the point is, is that they limited Spurs to no shots in the first 50 minutes.

52:08and in that time they had created enough chances, enough big chances to have won two or three games. It was the most dominant performance you can imagine by a supposed non-elite team against a supposed Big Six team. It was just phenomenal. Everybody did their job perfectly and these are not big money signings. Iraiola can have any job he wants next summer if Bournemouth keep playing like this. Well, the job that he didn't want this summer was Spurs I think because he wanted to honour his contract down on the south coast. His team leading the shot count at half-time in this game, 10-0, which is pretty remarkable stuff, especially against a Spurs team who've been earning plaudits for their performances thus far.

52:53Comments on the athletic from Spurs fans, Matt Cezanne, they played like a bunch of guys who heard how great they were for a week after beating City away. Fictitious Jay answering that by pointing out that Spurs have failed to win the corresponding fixture after beating Man City for nine consecutive matches. And they've also got a horrendous pre-international break run, which I think is also nine matches. I'm sure I heard yesterday that they haven't won before an international break, which is weird. So if you combine those two, there was absolutely no chance they'd win it. Well, Jay Harris also points out that not only those numbers were pointing to something like this happening against Bournemouth, he reminds us that in pre-season, Spurs basically got all their goals, or the majority of their goals from set pieces because of that lack of creativity, which is why they brought in Xavi Simmonds.

53:41And it was that lack of creativity that really set Bournemouth up to dominate them the way that they did. Yeah, and the early goal, which I don't think helped. But yeah, obviously that's a position they'd be looking to fill all summer. Gibbs-White, Eze, thought they had both through the door. Maddison, obviously injured as well. Kulusevski's out till January, I think. So there is a dearth of creativity there. Xavi Simmonds, I think he's a fantastic addition. but not necessarily going to come and hit the ground running. He's had a sort of unusual career history and his end product was certainly there last season at RB Leipzig but they need to find his role in the team and then work the attack around him, I think.

54:18I think he's that kind of player. But this was alarmingly bad. Daniel mentions XG, you've not put 1-7. It's their lowest for four years since they lost 3-0 to Palace under Nuno. It's just so hard to explain really. They've looked so defensively disciplined in the last couple of weeks but they look completely open to continuous counter-attacks here from Bournemouth. And the whole attack just had a massive off day, but I don't know how you explain that, from two really good, competent, or three, if you count the Super Cup, performances to going to five shots from 61 % possession. But I guess there was no one to unlock the door, but then you can't say, well, Xavi Simms is going to come in and we desperately need him.

54:57I don't know, you look at the team, it is a bit one-dimensional, and Curtis is the only sort of creative spark is really going to do something on his own in that attack. So concerning. But obviously, they're a massive work in progress. Right. And a manager who's only just arrived. Some people would describe Xavi Simons as their biggest signing since Christian Eriksson or potentially the most exciting. Daniel, you have a view on that? I am TBC. I think what they do need to do is, I think how him and Mohamed Kudu's work together is going to be really interesting. Xavi Simons strikes me as a guy who wants to get the ball in space and do things quickly.

55:34And one of the reasons I think they struggled on Saturday is because Hamid Koudis didn't seem content with beating one player but tries to beat another and then loses the ball. He touched the ball, I think, 45 times and only made something like 15 complete passes or something. So it's almost like he just needs to do the simple thing really well. And I think because they lack the creativity at the moment, he's feeling like he needs to do everything. Like we said about Ileman Indai, actually, the hope is that Xavi Simans can be the Grealish. That means that no one person has to do everything. But you have to find a way of that working in tandem.

56:09And Kudus has to get on board with that and Simans has to acclimatise. TBC, I don't know. He's always a player. He's one of those players, Xavi Simans, that barring the game against England at the Euros, always seems to play well in games that I don't watch and done not well in the games I do. OK. I've got a stat for you, courtesy of producer Charlie. in the last two seasons in the Bundesliga, there were only two players with 100 shots, 100 chances created and 100 successful dribbles. Those two players were Florian Wurtz and Xavi Simmonds. Mind you, Florian Wurtz hasn't exactly lift things up so far.

56:43But anyway, early doors and all sorts of reasons to be optimistic. Now, Chelsea played Fulham on Saturday and they beat them 2-0, but that really wasn't the story. While the game was still goalless, young Josh King scored a fine, fine goal that I think everybody, Chelsea players, Fulham players, everyone at the stadium was perplexed to see call back by VAR for essentially, what, an unpaid parking ticket or something? It was a moment in midfield. Tim, do you want to take up the story? Well, yeah, Mouniz sort of does a pirouette to get away from Chalabar and just happens, well, he tries to put his foot on the floor, as happens when, you know, what goes up must come down.

57:28And Chalabar's foot is there. Right. It was a glorious little kind of Zidane turner. Yeah. It was lovely. It was not a foul. I've not heard anyone say that this was a foul. It was just contact. But this is genuinely, you know, you hear about football going, oh, Daniel's making a face. He's not going to do this. He's not going to, is he? I don't know. it's contact but it's not a foul. Daniel? Yeah, I don't think the goal should have been disallowed because I think it was nowhere near a high enough bar for VAR to get involved and overturn the decision. So I think that is true. If my player had his foot stepped on in the penalty area, I would want a penalty for my team because I think that, I know not every contact is a foul but when they say not every contact is a foul, I think what they mean is like jostling, right?

58:17They don't mean standing on someone's foot. I've seen, I don't know, I just feel like I've seen a lot of occasions where someone standing on someone's foot is given as a foul and the player goes, ow, that hurt my foot, and the referee gives a free kick. I feel like that's not that weird. And I think the context of the game, maybe, like non-Big Six team taking the lead at home of Big Six team, maybe played slightly into this kind of disgrace. But does it matter that Muni's actually had the ball when he was executing the move and Chalabaz trying to take it off him and that's why his foot's in the wrong place.

58:52Well, yeah, because that's part of it, right? Because Chalabaz is there. I mean, I think a good way to look at it is if you're applying it to five-a-side. If you're playing five-a-side and it happened against you, because there's no referee there, would you want to foul for it? I think you'd probably go, no, but it would hurt. So therefore you might just do it because it doesn't matter. But when you're on the elite leagues with a team of referees watching it, I don't think you can see that's a felt. Well, the Premier League, or PogMol, felt that it was an incorrect decision by VAR to intervene to the extent that they removed the official in charge from acting on the Liverpool Arsenal game on Sunday evening.

59:32Yeah, and Rob Jones in his, you know, what he said to Stadium, it was incorrect information. He called it a careless challenge. But it wasn't a challenge. He wasn't challenging anyone. and he was looking either way and trying to put his foot on the floor. It's not... OK, he can maybe argue he was careless. It was Chalabert who was making the... Yeah, but it was not a challenge by my knees. He was in full control of the ball. If it was on a video game, he would have still had the light above his head when he made the trick, so it would be his ball. There you go. James Baker says, Fulham fan here, can the talk not just be about VAR, please, brackets, we feel robbed, etc., but what can you do?

1:00:07And instead, give a little time to the very fabulous Josh King. Oh, yeah. Yeah? Yeah, he's great. I watched him on the opening day away at Brighton and it wasn't his full debut, I think he started one game last season, but he just slotted in and just looked so composed on the ball and constantly wanted the ball and very positive, gets his head up and just drives with it and just was dovetailing beautifully with Uwobi and has this real sort of confidence but elegance when he's on the ball. and it's a big one for Fulham because they've lost quite a few stars over the years. Fabio Cavalio springs to mind.

1:00:45They lost Sessegnon the first time around. They lost Harvey Elliott. They lost... Alenia? Mitrovic? Mitrovic? No, but like players have come through the academy. Matt O 'Reilly would be another one. So time and again, they've obviously got a very good academy and bring talents too, but then they end up losing them. And of course they bring in ready-made sort of 30-year-olds. that tends to be their thing. So, Fulham fans absolutely love him, already singing his name and, yeah, he's got issues with, needs to bulk up a bit and the physical side of the game can pass him by a bit but, a huge talent, already better than the last Josh King for me.

1:01:22Well, well done and I hope he stays around at Craven Cottage and Chelsea won the game 2-0. Would it have turned out that way had Josh King's goal stood? We just don't know but we can salute Jean-Pedro for making it now five goals in five games and, remark on the fact that Alejandro Garnaccio has moved from Man United's bomb squad to Chelsea's rather large squad. Does this make sense? Is this one of those random-seeming Chelsea moves, Garnaccio? I think he's clearly incredibly talented and has a massive potential. I think whatever the reasons that Man United didn't want to have him around are probably relevant to his future career and everything.

1:02:02I don't think it's just because of what it offers on the pitch. but again same sort of thing is he going to break into that team they just signed Gittins to play on the same side so where does he go now they have a better attack in theory for having him there and they've got him for a pretty decent price and Chelsea operate now as a sort of transfer business trading window and so you can just bring in players like that and even if he doesn't play that much next year they can sell him for an extra 20 million what they got and they would get it for him Also some breaking news Chelsea have recent agreements to recall their lone striker Mark Gee from Sunderland.

1:02:36Is that right? That's right. On my word. Well, Sunderland are up next as we round off today's show with a quick look at the North East teams.

1:02:59MUSIC PLAYS Sound of JJ Bore with Why did Alexander Izak do me like that? Came from the heart, that one, JJ. I tried to embrace the emotion of what those Newcastle fans would be going through. It's very much like a real-life breakup, you know? How could you do that? How did you do it like that? You had to let the emotion out. Well, you certainly did, and that's now out as a single. That's right. You can get it on Spotify and Apple Music and all other places that I don't know what they are. Or you can buy it on vinyl. Not that one, but you can buy a record I've made on vinyl. OK. You really can.

1:03:31And some people have, in fact, which I'm very grateful for and surprised by. It would be surprising if they hadn't, JJ. That's right. And now, up in the northeast, Newcastle have made a signing. Stuttgart's Nick Voldemard, a.k.a. he who must not be named, caught the eyes of many of us in the under-21 Euros this summer where he was top scorer. And also because he's really big, 6 '6". so sounds like an exciting player and possibly filling in for another big striker that Newcastle have had who no longer turns out for them we're talking about this because Leeds Newcastle this Saturday which did not feature Alexander Izak was of very little consequence is that right?

1:04:19anything to report from that match? nothing really I tried to watch some of it back today to remember I was trying to work out if it really was as boring as I remember it being but it kind of was some of the highlights you get you can see what they're trying to do Newcastle and I think Newcastle maybe were the better team but I think what you see with Newcastle is that this really intense way that Eddie Howe has them play that's going to be really hard to sustain all season long but also I mean for the amount of money that they were supposed to have had when these owners came in they ended up with a front two of Jacob Murphy and Will Osula which is just not going to do it for me and so obviously they need to bring in these players Valtamada stands out because he stands out because he's massive he's a massive boy I have watched quite a lot of him trying to work out was good or not and I cannot decide normally I can tell you straight away yes I get a bit of the Xerxes about him oh because he dribbles really well technically very very good he's got the strength but just because you are big and can dribble doesn't mean you've got the speed and power to get away with it in the Premier League so I it's a bit of a cop out to see I'll be interested to see what happens to him well I really can't tell no okay Daniel yeah he strikes me as a potentially a kind of streaky striker that when things start going well he might go on a bit of a run but I think he's going to be pretty raw in the Premier League.

1:05:32There's always a... I think the Bundesliga to the Premier League, they're sort of seen as the two most similar of the big five leagues. And yet I actually think in terms of translating the skill sets, it's actually probably the hardest jump. There's something about, particularly Bundesliga attackers, I think, freak Erling Haaland notwithstanding, where there is an acclimatisation period. And unless Newcastle get a new striker in tomorrow, then he's pretty much going to be starting every Newcastle game as a centre forward unless Anthony Gordon does it. And there are 50 more games potentially in Newcastle season.

1:06:09It's a heck of an ask of a guy who's really only had one successful domestic season, albeit he is absolutely massive and skilful. OK, and Newcastle with so many of these extra fixtures because of the Champions League, a Champions League draw which has given them some really intriguing match-ups. Their first one, which sees them at home to Barcelona, and their final one, which on Wednesday, the 28th of January, will see them visit the Parc des Princes again, where they had quite a famous and controversial match last time. Anyway, finally then today, Sunderland beat Brentford 2-1. That's six points from six now, at the Stadium of Lys, at least, for the Black Cats.

1:06:52And Tim, you were talking about how it's worrying for the likes of Wolves, how well the promoted sides are doing. Sunderland may be with a slightly easier fixture list, but they are making hay while the sun shines. Yeah, they have had a kind start, West Ham, Burnley and Brentford. But I think you can't take anything away from the way they've started the season. It's so hard to tell how they're going to do when you look at a lot of their signings that came in. Full disclosure, I hadn't seen too much of them in action before. a lot of them have well barely played in their careers anyway sort of you know 20 year old Diocongo internationals etc but yeah they're already looking like they're going to give this a real go I think they've done the best recruitment of the three promoted teams I mean they had eight new players in their 11 on Saturday they basically bought a new team we have seen that not work in the past I remember Burnley doing the same but the midfield in particular looks really effective you know Diara from Strasbourg I think is their record signing looks very dynamic and you've got Siddiqui in the sort of engine room role and then Granit Xhaka pulling the strings and just looking like he belongs back in the Premier League again.

1:08:01But not only have they got a decent XI, they've got good bench options. Simon D 'Ingra coming off the bench and Isidore scores the winner. So it looks like their recruitment has been excellent. They haven't been too pig-headed in their principles and sticking with only young players. They've brought in some good experience. Players who've played hundreds of games at the top level. So yeah, they'll get hammered at some point, I'm sure. but they look like they're going to give themselves a real chance of staying up. Excellent. Brentford, their opponents, in a chocolate kit. Daniel? Yeah, I mean, it's not a nice kit, but I admire them trying something different.

1:08:36It's more outside the box. The thing that annoyed me about Brentford, thus ends terrible segue, was that they scored against Forrest on the opening weekend, Thiago penalty. Thiago's taken 12 penalties in his career and scored 10 of them. They get a penalty against Sunderland to take the lead. Thiago's on the pitch and they give the penalty to Kevin Shardy, who's never taken a penalty at senior football in regular match. And he has it saved. And I think that to me just strikes as really poor planning. Well, it's either a stupid decision that the players have taken or poor planning that Thiago is not the guaranteed taker.

1:09:10I just didn't understand it at all. You don't always pay for those mistakes, but Brentford clearly did. Right. And paid the price. Enzo Le Fay and then Isidore in the 96th minute. Anyway, wild scenes at the Stadium of Light and more where that came from, very possibly, but not until after we've had an international break. On Thursday, Tony Football Show will return with a look ahead to the fixtures that await for our various nations. Who have England got, Tim? Oh, crikey. Daniel? Andorra, I think. Andorra at home and Serbia away. There you go. Wow. Ring Thursday in your diary then, because we'll be breaking down Tomatukul's squad for those key fixtures and so much more.

1:09:59Loads of really interesting stuff from the international break, no doubt. But I think that brings us to the end of today's show. Of course, before Thursday, we've got that Euro show that I mentioned way back at the start. Don't need to tell you about that again. For now, let me just say to you, Daniel thank you so much for staying up late in Glasgow to give us the benefit of your wisdom JJ thank you so much for dropping in where can people find your music? Oh it's on all the places Spotify and Apple or YouTube or Instagram everywhere I'm everywhere JJ Bull That's right And Tim Spears whose output can be found at The Athletic I'll be here on Tuesday with the Euro crew perhaps you'll join us for that shout out to Jake and Charlie in the booth and you're listening.

1:10:43For now, from all of us here, it's goodbye.

1:10:47You've been listening to The Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. For more great podcasts just like this one, including The Athletic FC and our dedicated club podcasts, search for The Athletic on Apple, Spotify and all the usual places. We're also at The Totally Football Show on Insta and at The Totally Show on YouTube. The Totally Football Show is an Athletic Media Company production.

1:11:13The Athletic FC.