Will Man City v Arsenal live up to the hype? Like Bayern v Real?!

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1:27Revolution is available now at bookstores and online.

1:33The Athletic FC.

1:43Mark Carey: Totally Football Show. Today, Bayern, Real Madrid, a Champions League classic. We celebrate the greatest four free results since the chicks in Money for Nothing. The thrills, the spills, the Real Madrid bellyaches of a match for the ages. Then we talk to a man who watched Arsenal sporting on the other side instead. Lowest XG of any Champions League game this season. You'll never sing that. Then it's on to the Premier League with the most mouth-watering match day of the season so far. Chelsea Man United, yes. Merseyside Derby, OK. Man City Arsenal, ah! It's the Totally Football Show.

2:24Unbelievable, unbelievable this.

2:27Mark Carey: Thursday, 16th April. What a day to be talking about football with Mark Carey of The Athletic. Hi, James. Hi, Mark. With Duncan Alexander of The Athletic. Hi, James. With JJ Ball of the, well, semi-official Scotland World Cup song, JJ. Yeah, it's very unofficial. Very unofficial. But maybe, I mean, no. No? You never know. It's a great track, JJ. we'll hear a bit more later on but you're taking that on the road as we speak aren't you? People need to hear it so I'm taking it around the world tour of England I've got gigs in Southampton coming up I need to sell tickets for these Okay so what dates would they be?

3:07May the 10th is in Southampton and then I also have 21st of May in Luton you all want to go to Luton so that's important too then I've got Birmingham 28th of May 29th of May is Manchester 31st of May is Newcastle Manchester is sold out

3:21Mark Carey: oh nice really exciting yeah yeah that's uh well well done excellent uh we're going to talk about champions league mark did you watch everything on double speed again i watched the arsenal game on

3:32Duncan Alexander: double speed just double speed and even that was too slow if i'm being totally honest we'll come on to that but this is from last week that where i said that well in order to watch both games ahead of doing the podcast last week um i watched one game live and then watched the whole game the other game back in double speed and there was this sort of was a bit of a controversial thing to say in the room but i feel like i'd have kindred spirits certainly jj i think you'd agree that you you'll often watch games at two speed right from a tactical perspective sometimes um sometimes uh you need to get the feel of it so i think some games you can't watch unless it's um normal people you want to get a very like a sort of idea of what's going on it's kind of there yeah but then if you know what the score is as well i don't know there's a certain thing you'll look at a game differently if you know what the score is and if you watch it you don't know what's happening it makes it different i i missed football from the 1980s so i watched uh games at half speed

4:21Mark Carey: yes yes you also missed last night's by a munich real madrid how much but that was that you were assigned to watch arsenal sporting for us which well i wasn't really well i was sort of assigned but also my son is an arsenal fan so i had no real choice um how long before you switched over or at least kind of well the second screen did emerge at half time after a cavalcade of texts from friends. You missed the first 45 minutes. Yeah, I caught up with, you know, the key bits. But yeah, I mean, I had lots of messages of like, oh my God, this is one of the all-time great. And, you know, fine. But I saw Declan Rice do a tackle, so who's the real winner?

4:59Mark Carey: Who is the real winner? Do you know, the Bayern Munich Real Madrid game was so good that when the game finished, having watched it in real time, I then watched it all over again. And I don't think I've ever, not even thought about doing that for a football match before, but But it was incredible. Game of the season, without doubt. Maybe more. Also, there's something about that scoreline, the fact that it was a 4-3. If you think back to the legendary games, we did recently a totally extra on the Liverpool-Newcastle 4-3 in Italy, the game that's regarded as the greatest of all time. La partita del secolo is Italy-Germany 4-3 from the 1970 World Cup.

5:36Mark Carey: But yeah, I don't know what it is about 4-3, but this really was a game for the ages that Duncan missed most of.

5:41Duncan Alexander: Absolutely, yeah. it's weird that i didn't almost think of it as a 4-3 because it was all about who was going to swing it a little bit like it felt like it wasn't about just clinching it at the end to score you know elise's goal at the very end i was more just thinking about bayern kind of going through because by that point they had secured it and um yeah we can come on to the somewhat controversial red card from eduardo kind of ingran how that maybe swung things at the end but um it was action-packed from quite literally the very first minute literally yeah when manuel neuer gave the ball away he He's sort of known for being a little bit laissez-faire at times on the ball, you know, with the ball at his feet.

6:19Duncan Alexander: But he's just so experienced that he kind of overcomes it with so many good saves, which was probably more the case for the first leg. But he just passed it straight to Ardegulair. He slotted it.

6:28Mark Carey: Duncan, you're going to be amazed at what Manuel Neuer did at the start of the game. We'll get on to that in a second. But JJ, I loved your tweet. Absolutely love the Champions League these days. That's where the fun's gone. I don't know if you saw, Seb Stafford Bloor wrote a lovely piece this morning on The Athletic where he basically talks about how it was good for the soul, this match on Wednesday. I'll just quote it. He says, dynamic pricing, a new streaming service that wants your bank details, VAR, accounting shortcuts, pending points, deductions and years-long litigation. We needed this.

7:00Yeah. Well, we do need this because we, I mean, everything costs too much. Everyone's trying to squeeze every penny out of you and you don't even get anything fun out of it half the time. Like all these, halfway through that game, it was amazing watching this game some of the best players on planet earth doing all amazing things and pushing forward and going end to end and really relying on their skill to entertain people and then they go I think Matt faces the commentator and says and coming up we've got some more great games starting with Brentford versus this is good

7:28Mark Carey: Thursday night we've got Forest against Porter wait till the 0-0 smash machine comes on Saturday they'll be big tall lads his work on promoing the new season of Euphoria was stellar as well. Not an easy job I would say as a commentator in this new world of broadcasting to shoehorn in the adverts, one of which very egregiously they put over a Bayern Munich free kick, which I'm curious. Anyway That's why I didn't watch the game. Exactly, yeah. Let's not nitpick over the things that maybe weren't perfect because there was so much to enjoy. Let's talk Bayern Munich 4, Real Madrid 3. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC Podcast Network.

8:32Mark Carey: What a tie. 73 shots across the two legs. This game on Wednesday had the fastest Champions League goal of the season, as you mentioned, Arde Goulair after that Manuel Noah error. Bayern striking back after six minutes, which made it the first time in a Champions League knockout match that both teams had scored that early. Five first-half goals in all, the bonkers red card for Eduardo Camavinga. At least three laugh-out-loud moments from Michael Alisse. And those two brilliant late goals, one of which was from Alisse, as we just heard, the other one from Luis Dias, who really deserved it too. plus a real meltdown or a real meltdown if you will at the final whistle we'll get on to the controversies later on perhaps but it was quite unusual that the referee blew peeped three times straight after Bayern had scored do you not usually get a bit of time added on for that?

9:21Maybe but sometimes you would just get the kick-off happens and that's it but there's no point and also it makes it so much cooler it's like in a it makes them like a video game or something like that when you finish like ah they're done anyway do you know it was because on the nature of the finish as well it was like everything about that That was so funny. Followed by the meltdown afterwards. Right. Made that at peak entertainment, all of it.

9:40Mark Carey: It was a great game and both teams had a lot to be proud of. They gave us an absolute treat, but a lot of bitterness. That's what Drew Belling was saying to the ref at the end. Well done, ref. We both had a lovely time. This game will be remembered for ages. It's a shame that it had to end that way. But I guess from Real Madrid's point of view, not just that lack of time added on, that lack of an opportunity for a classic Real Madrid comeback but also the the red card for for Kamavinga was that what swung the game or were Bayern did they already have the upper hand at that point we'll never know whether with 11 men

10:17Duncan Alexander: and whether Bayern would still have done I think that they were I mean across both legs they were the more dominant across across the sort of the performance rather than anything Real Madrid we can come on to it Real Madrid always sort of packed that punch on the break and in transition but Bayern were dominating the game for large periods in both the first leg and the second leg I believe so I think that it would have even had it gone to extra time I think Bayern still would have still would have done it people were saying that had Eduardo Camavinga still been on the pitch he would have probably been the one to block the shot but you can't you can't sort of theoretically think that that would have been the case I think Jude Bellingham maybe could have got out a little bit quicker I think he went too early he went he went and left the space that the ball wouldn't I got into I think like Camavinga going off is not what lost them the game at all I think what him going off signified that they I think all those players believed they could still get back into it and having that chance denied from them is why it was so frustrating coupled with the can-can music playing every time they kept conceding a goal that would drive you insane I think that's very very funny the way you do it yeah that's up there with the most it's up there with QPR doing do do do do oops every time they score a goal yeah you know you just deliver bad news or something if you're in a doctor's office and they're telling you something really bad.

11:31And then every time he does the can-can music, it wouldn't be good.

11:34Mark Carey: Duncan, because you were diligently watching the paint dry over at the Emirates. So let's break down for you what you missed in the first 45 minutes. So it's worth taking it goal by goal. 30 seconds on the clock, pretty much. Yeah, yeah. About 30, yeah, I think 36. So Manuel Neuer doesn't see Adeguilé. Adeguilé is masked behind, I'm not sure which defender, I think. Yeah, and it was a loose pass as well.

11:57Duncan Alexander: it wasn't necessarily just that um he like it wasn't it was opportunistic from gulet and by the way if you've seen the reverse angle of the finish itself as well from for seeing it in real time it just looked like he kind of passed it in but that reverse angle the control and the power of it i would have put that into the sand yeah he could have rolled it in like in theory but the way that it did curl so that was um that was then back into the game straight away from a mistake um and then it's hard to keep up with then what happened in order then it was pavlovich scoring another calamity. So what happens to the goalkeeper?

12:28Duncan Alexander: To Lunin there? Well, again, you want to watch the replay and especially from watching Premier League football, you think, okay, maybe there's been a foul on the goalkeeper because he basically kind of fell into the net. And you think he's clearly been pushed. So this super game of Artists had a goal from a corner? Had a goal from a corner. Interesting, all right. Just make a note of that. But it actually touches on Pavlovich though. Pavlovich didn't really do anything. He doesn't move. Lunin just decided to fall over. it's like if you had control on a computer but you you know you think forward is back and back is forward and he's gone the wrong way into his own net yeah and Pavlovich didn't move and just thought okay i'm just gonna glance this off the side of my head and it's gone i thought initially that it had gone straight in from the corner yeah such was just kind of the ease of which it

13:07Mark Carey: happened calamitous yeah from from both goalkeepers so that put bayern back in front on aggregate 3-2 but then here came real madrid again and arde gulet with a magnificent free kick yeah it was

13:21Duncan Alexander: it was a magnificent free kick it wasn't postage stamp which this isn't in the category of calamitous goalkeeping far from it but again it was kind of jarring to see because Manuel Neuer also fell into his goal a bit more of the side netting um from the free kick and there's some good analysis after the game on TNT sports and sort of the English coverage and it was Joe Hart former goalkeeper saying that had he been you know one step half a step further forward he would have maybe dived for it right but because he was kind of he went a little bit backwards to jump off he would have basically smashed against the the post-Mermann Neuer and he basically just kind of stumbled into the side and just watched it go in which was a bit odd but Bayern came back

13:59Mark Carey: again Harry Kane is something what felt like a classic Kane goal yeah lovely like a composed finish uh where he just puts it into the bottom corner the ball comes in from a defender there's a bit of a Trent Alexander-Arnold defensive moment there everyone's picked up on where he He takes a step away from Kane rather than pushing in, and he probably should, which is obviously the thing that then talks about his World Cup place and whether he should be there. But later on in this game, he plays one of the most amazing crosses you've ever seen. Extraordinary. He's an unbelievable player. You probably saw this, Duncan.

14:31Mark Carey: It was in the second half. It was maybe the best moment of all. Trent's swinging ball across, which Mbappe meets first time with an unstoppable volley, except that Manuel Neuer stops it with his forearm. How his forearm wasn't shattered by the impact? I don't know. Like Donnarumma against Odegaard last season in the semi-final, very similar sort of like, wow, my arm would have disintegrated at that point. Just on Harry Kane, that was his 50th goal of the season. Only the fourth English player to ever reach 50 club goals in a season, thanks to the Athletics' Will Jeans, who points out the other players, Dixie Dean, of course.

15:07Vic Watson, back in 1930, very much these players very much beneficiaries of the change in the offside look as we as we well know um and then a season later tom pongo wearing so is he okay yeah yeah so harry kane's operating in a late 20s early 30s vibe that's i mean there's so much to admire about not just his

15:27Mark Carey: goal but his performance he was doing his you know modern kane thing where he he wanders all over the field does a bit of PLO maybe a little bit of left back work he was extraordinary i thought Yeah, he's just an elite player. These kind of players you don't maybe appreciate as much in the Premier League, but I think we see that a lot with how many great attackers there are in PSG, Bayern, all these other teams that we've watched over the last couple of days. Well, it's funny you say that because J. Cole writes in with that very point. Are there any world-class attackers other than Haaland playing in the Premier League?

15:58Mark Carey: I can think of defenders and midfielders who are world-class, but not attacking players. Those from PSG, Bayern, Real Madrid and Barcelona brought us so much excitement over the last two days. well I think there definitely are and I think if you put a lot of the front players from any of the teams in Premier League into La Liga or PSG team or something like that a lot of them would fit in straight away but they also play against different styles of football and it's different kinds of defenders and not everyone it feels like the risk is less but also if you're playing for I mean I always think back to when I was watching football in the 90s when Celtic would win everything you know when you had Henrik Larsson obviously Rangers won some but like Henrik Larsson playing against the Aberdeen players the difference in quality is astonishing so you get all these amazing moments and when Aberdeen would beat Celtic one time it would be phenomenal which happens in some of these European leagues as well because not all is competitive whereas in the Premier League every team is essentially the same now the differentials are so small so I don't blame the coaches for kind of reducing them to try and eliminate old dice rolls but it means that creative players can't really have any fun because the consequence of losing the ball is so much that it's just not worth the manager letting you do it.

17:06Mark Carey: Yesterday's game wasn't about that philosophy at all, though. No, I think players on this game relied on their skill and their talents. And so if you can lean on that and make it fun and watchable and say, try that pass, just make sure you get it right, rather than don't do that, don't do this, don't do that. And it reminded me of, I think someone shared a tweet, I can't remember who it was, and it was a video of Ryan Cherky playing at under 13's level or something like that. And the observation on the tweet, whether this is true or not, is that there's no dads in the sideline going, pass the ball, pass the ball, pass the ball, pass the ball, just letting them have fun and do it.

17:38And then eventually you end up with players who can just dribble and do things. Yeah, what's the French for get red? But it probably wasn't shout-out. But I mean, it's interesting, I think, on that point that obviously Bayern's front three, who have been magnificent, are all former Premier League players. So, yeah, I think they've all reached a new level. But as JJ says, the level is quite tricky to compare because I think you could drop, I don't know, junior Kruppi in a year or two into one of these teams in here it'd look magnificent

18:04Duncan Alexander: that's the thing as well but there's been 10 goals in this tie with Munich and Madrid but this is the thing too many you could point to maybe some poor goalkeeping some poor defending but when you actually just strip it back to the conversation that we're having it is just elite attackers like even with the best defenders in the spaces and what they're being asked to do which is to go toe-to-toe with each other even the best defenders would struggle to do that because the sheer individual quality which is what really shines through at these sort of latter stages of the Champions League is just on a completely different level

18:31Mark Carey: If you're talking elite attackers, you can't say fairer than Kylian Mbappe, Mark. And it was he who shortly before half-time put Real back into the lead 3-2 on the night, and it was now level on aggregate. Did you want to talk about that goal?

18:46Duncan Alexander: No, just the idea that across the first half, and most of the game really, and most of the tie, to be perfectly honest, it was, as I mentioned before, Bayern kind of a little bit more controlling the game. But every time, and I think this was said in commentary as well, Mbappe and Vinicius Junior, as we know, don't like to defend all that much. but it was described I think by Steven Gerrard as kind of cheating a little bit tactically which I agree with they just stayed really high so it was like right you lads go and just try and stop the goal we're going to go and just be like 20 yards away from you and then the minute we can we've just got a long ball and we can go and just run through the opposition which is essentially what happened for that Mbappe goal it was just the theme of of Real Madrid and has been for quite some time they didn't really have the patterns quite in the same way but when you've got Vinicius junior Mbappe who can just you blink and then they're in your own box um it's quite hard to

19:33Mark Carey: defend against and that was an example of that okay but it was magnificent second half and one that was heading towards extra time with about I guess eight minutes left in the 90 was it when off camera the referee produced a second yellow for Eduardo Camavinga the first one there's no question that that was a that was a bookable offense he was hanging onto the shirt of I think

19:54Duncan Alexander: at the time it was musiala and it was described as a good foul which i kind of agree with musiala

19:59Mark Carey: yeah good tactical foul just stop him before he gets too close yeah yeah i don't mind that right it's annoying to watch the second comes after a foul and he then picks up the ball and walks away with it to prevent by and taking the free kick that's a bookable offense yeah so he made the

20:16Duncan Alexander: foul i think on harry kane which was wasn't it was a foul but it wasn't anything more then he kicked it like just dribbled with it like three times then he picked it up and then he threw it so there was i think the referee said there was two but he kicked it for a bit picked it up ran with it for a bit and then threw it right it's like i think again doing the quick like i think it's i think it's a yellow card it is a yellow card i think there were suggestions that the referee didn't quite remember that he'd already given him a yellow card yes but in the sense that

20:44Mark Carey: had he known that it was going to be a red card he wouldn't have gone to that extreme yeah but

20:49Duncan Alexander: Again, it's like the letter of the law versus smelling the game a little bit. No, all we want is consistency. Yeah, exactly. I want both. Is that wrong? I want neither. Neither.

21:00Mark Carey: Oh, dear. Anyway, even though they were now down to 10 men, Real Madrid still looked lively and you would not have ruled them out of snatching it late on. Even when Luis Diaz, after that lovely backheel from... Who was the backheel from?

21:15Duncan Alexander: Good question. a Bayern Munich player backheeled it to Diaz to finish again I'm being cynical we said about not criticising the defending Musiala Musiala who was the one who backheeled it and then again critical because you think okay well Mbappe and Vinicius Junior if they get it they can be the ones to break forward and when you've got 10 men maybe it's even more of a threat to be in sort of a transitional attacking threat but you look at that goal that when Diaz actually takes the shot both Vinicius Junior and Mbappe are just watching from easily 20 yards away and you think well when you're at 10 men take away that that's eight players rather than obviously um nine take you know minus them one of you just tuck in and one of you just become a little bit part of a defensive unit and then still have one as the sort of the attacking threat in transition i thought was a little bit naive a little bit

22:05Mark Carey: it's a good point they've been playing with essentially nine men for most of the match and now they had a man sent off as well what was your favorite bit of the game

22:15Duncan Alexander: oh yeah i don't know really i really like the way they finished not just because of the can can um the elise goal like yeah the way that he strikes the ball and he did it a few times in that same game as well and again across both legs but it's been described of how he doesn't break stride it's not like he sort of winds up for it and you can sort of telegraph it and you know he's going to shoot even though when you do know he's going to shoot it's still hard to stop him but he just decided i'm going to sprint now and then with the next stride i'm going to kill it and just ping it off the post and just completely end the game it was brilliant and I suppose it maybe is similar to to former Bayern Munich player who they do telegraph it you do know what they're going to do and you still can't stop them in Iron Robin where he's still always going to get it onto his left foot Michael Alise he's not really going to ever he can get to the byline and cross it but he's so left-footed yet still you can't stop him when he just drops the shoulder shifts it and then always goes for what seems like the far corner every time a goalkeeper can't save that sort of shot.

23:12Mark Carey: He had some special moments. I think particularly in the second half there was one bit where he was up against Mbappé and he completely bamboozied him. Another time when somebody was on the overlap and he kind of dummied that he was going to supply and then instead just slid it in and everyone was kind of nonplussed by this. JJ, what did you love most? I liked that it was teams full of amazing players taking each other on. They were actually trying to dribble past each other. They were trying to go forward constantly. Their first touch was always immaculate. Seeing through balls you wouldn't think.

23:40Watching them Bappi start to like rev up and go is always really exciting so there's something to look forward to that's going to happen when they have the ball the sweat of Bayern losing the ball and they might be on the counter-attack then seeing either team fall apart in different ways the start of it was amazing like the uncharacteristic Neuer thing like oh how's he going to recover like all these narratives going all the way through it

23:59Mark Carey: yeah it set the whole game up perfectly with Rebordred suddenly equal in a tie that few gave them much chance in and as I say apart from that that was pretty pretty standard right nothing much happened apart from that so true so true and nice to see Louis Steers get a goal because he worked so hard so underrated when he was at Liverpool I thought I don't really know why that was but when he left I mean I think I said it publicly on some sort of podcast that I thought that would be a massive loss because he's unbelievably well good I can't think of a better word than that but he makes things happen whenever he has the ball things actually happen and rather than some players who will get like 8 goals and 4 assists he'll get just 15 but they'll be out of nowhere and he'll dribble past someone out of nowhere.

24:41Duncan Alexander: And also when he doesn't have the ball, he makes things happen. I think that's what Liverpool have been lacking that he's just so tenacious and he wants to just nick it on the blind side as well and then he can suddenly just start a transitional moment and that's how Bayern can score. It's that sort of, yeah, aggression in and out of possession that just is infectious to other people. He scored some good goals but I think there was a couple of times in the first half where, yeah, Romer just thought that they could just build out and then Diaz was just on them and then suddenly Bayern threw on goal.

25:09there was one more thing I found funny in the game you know Conrad Leimer who was playing I think he was playing left back but he was all over the pitch for Bayern in that game he was like having a meltdown because of especially things that Vinicius Junior was doing like weren't fouls or like overreactions referee calling things and every time he's like I don't understand what's going on and he's like what are you talking about that was quite funny having to keep his lid on

25:30Mark Carey: the entire time Vinny Junior who escaped a yellow card for his foul and then shoved on Kimmich back at the start of the game Kimmich took it quite well didn't he

25:37Duncan Alexander: I think he smiled and laughed I don't know whether he was thinking, I'll remember that for the next time you have the ball. Didn't then subsequently see anything. But quite petulant for Vinicius Junior.

25:45Mark Carey: It was. Bayern will face Paris Saint-Germain in the semifinals. The first leg is in a fortnight's time in Paris. Might work that. Depending on what's on the other side, Duncan. Well, luckily they're on two separate days. Nice. Nice. It's a repeat at the 2020 final, which Bayern won 1-0. Two teams have met seven times since then. Five of those have seen Bayern triumph. only two Paris Saint-Germain wins I must admit though watching Bayern's they're extraordinary going forward but they I think famously are quite vulnerable at the bat yeah it is an interesting prospect what Paris Saint-Germain depending on how they're finishing is do in that semi-final there are just two exceptional teams that will be really fun to watch with it I think this is the thing so there's there's always this the idea that you have to play perfectly to win games like you know Hansi Flick at Barcelona playing a high line what a fool but it's a tactical choice when will he learn exactly you want to push that way because then you can play the way you want to play it's really good if you just go I can't remember well this is the thing right so like this is very cliche but it's much much easier to destroy than to create it's so much easier and you see it everywhere it's so easy to laugh it's so easy to hate JJ it takes strength to be well strength the first time and then yeah true well yes and so Arsenal versus Let's Go I mean the memes have all started with that you know it's going to be you think it'd be a horrible watch but Arteta I think Arteta's Arsenal playing against if they were to get through someone against Bayern or PSG that's really interesting because well corners for example they're massive lads so you can just win it on corners you can just do that and lock it down but you should be able to go forward and do stuff Arsenal in a second but here comes Duncan just on a slight bringing everything together that's just been said obviously Bayern beat PSG in the 2020 Champions League final yes Which I regard that tournament as slightly non-canon.

27:37It was held as a sort of power league tournament in Portugal in August. So if you ignore that season, which I think we should, the last season in the Champions League not to have either Barcelona or Real Madrid in the semis was 2006-07. So it's been a long time that we've had neither. Good Lord.

27:55Mark Carey: In the more recent past, these two teams met in the group phase of this year's tournament and Bayern Munich beat Paris Saint-Germain 2-1. Of course, Paris Saint-Germain have beaten them over in the USA in the Club World Cup 2-0 last summer. Again, perhaps a tournament you would add an asterisk to. Anyway, very, very shortly, let's hear about what Arsenal got up to Wednesday night against Sporting.

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30:16This is the Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. The Athletic is the only place you can read articles by Daniel Taylor, Amy Lawrence, Phil Hay, James Pearce, Oli Kaye and the very best football writers around. And Arsenal have found a way through thanks to that one goal that Havertz scored in Lisbon right at the end of the first leg. But for their supporters, they've been put through the ringer here tonight. Mikel Arteta marches onto the field. He called for fire tonight. It was like torture.

30:48Mark Carey: Crikey, Arsenal nil, sporting nil, the words of John Murray there. Yeah. Torture, Duncan? No, it wasn't torture. It was a job well done. Yeah. Aggregate win. Classic. John referencing Mikel Arteta's invocation pre-game. No fear, pure fire. Yeah. It wasn't really fire. It was a bit of a damp squib. But it was a strange game because although it was technically on a knife edge for the whole thing, neither team were that impressive. So there was no real jeopardy. he said about you know the fans being put through the ringer and i think maybe they were in the first half when sporting were a bit better but the second half i mean also just kept the ball for the last 20 minutes and there wasn't really any any jeopardy so i thought it was in the end i think it it was a sort of job well done and yes it did sort of feel a bit odd at the end when the players didn't know whether to celebrate or trudge off or get ready for man city at the weekend but But, you know, as many people pointed out, including Mikel Arteta, it's consecutive semifinals for the first time ever.

31:54And this is only their fourth Champions League slash European Cup semifinal in the club's history.

31:58Mark Carey: Good Lord. As many other people have pointed out, it was also the game that had the lowest combined XG of any match in the Champions League this season. Yeah, the famous globally popular low-scoring sport where the idea is to prevent your opposition scoring and getting good chances lived up to all the hype. So, yeah, fair play. But Arsenal, after their recent yips in a variety of competitions, do you saw them as more confident, more composed side? I think they grew slightly towards the end. I think they brought on Havertz, they brought on Daumann, they brought on Trossard. Martelli had a pretty poor game on the left.

32:31I mean, they are stuck in this kind of vortex at the moment, Arsenal, where they pick one of Trossard or Martelli for left wing and they have a bad game and they bring on the other one who slightly improves matters. But it is a big hole in the team, I think. um maduecki got injured which is obviously a concern ahead of the weekend downman came on and sporting seemed to spend most of the final 15 minutes trying to injure max downman like went in on his ankle a few times so you know everyone has hobbies i guess but um yeah i mean the the gocarez had one shot in the first half which he put over and then like sort of a half chance which he sort of flicked into the goalkeeper and defender sort of blocks but he wasn't too impressive it It wasn't a fluid performance by any means, but I think it was an important...

33:15I think defensively they were good. They had Mascara at right back. They had Hincapier back at left back, and they did look very solid at the back, other than David Rea. Why? Well, his passing was slightly wayward during the game, which obviously was an issue against Bournemouth at the weekend. He did go noticeably longer in this game, but still gave the ball away and put it out of play numerous times. I mean, Hincapier was very good, still gave away one foul throw probably should have given away four foul i mean arsenal i would posit are the worst team at throw-ins ironically given there so they just normal throw-ins they they don't really know how to do it and they've worked with thomas chronomark this season haven't

33:57Duncan Alexander: they to even work well maybe not work on just how to throw yeah i think he takes that as a given but maybe maybe they need someone to come in and help them just with the basics but But I think what Arteta will take out of the game is a level of solidity that they need to repeat and then some on Sunday. So it felt like almost, it sounds silly in a game where you got through to the Champions League semifinals, but it felt almost like a preparation match for their biggest game of the season.

34:23Mark Carey: No one will remember at the end of the season, were they to win something? Atletico Madrid in the semifinals after they bested Barcelona on Tuesday. First leg in Madrid. Neither Arsenal nor Atletico have ever won the competition before. Surely the two biggest teams never to have won the Champions League. You'd think. Rafinha boldly predicting that Arsenal will put Atletico out in his post-game salute. The only team Arsenal can regularly thrash is Leeds, so maybe that's right. What do you think about that tie? The Gunners beat Atletico 4-0 in the lead phase at the Emirates. you probably saw that game, Duncan.

35:04Mark Carey: Now, since then, Atletico maybe improved a bit. They've certainly brought in Adam Ola-Lukman, who, as we mentioned in Wednesday's show, has been a brilliant addition. Yeah, and I think the big difference now is that Arsenal looked at their best, A, in the autumn, and B, in the Champions League in the autumn, because teams were a bit more open. You know, they dominated Bayern. They beat Atletico. Even the Champions League teams have now gone, you know, logged into Wisecout and worked out that if you sit quite deep against them, they'll struggle to break you down. Can a Diego Simeone side do that?

35:37We simply don't know.

35:39Mark Carey: But we're about to find out. We actually maybe don't know at the moment because of the way they've been defending of late. We saw this on Tuesday against Barcelona. Yeah, well, I think Arsenal have all the power. Like, they have all the power and the tall lads and the organised aggression. They've taken all, like... I know this will sound like I'm just going on a hate watch of Arsenal all the time, but I just think they've taken all the fun out of it and it's removed what football's meant to be for me which is entertainment and like release from everything it's taken far too seriously everything's become so important that like early in the season when you're working towards something the intensity of that is quite good because it can galvanise and get you towards something but when you come to the bit of the season where you have to then like there's certain moments where you have to get them right all of that work the weight of like all the work done to get there is too much and so the pressure is too high and they just look they seem like exhausted mentally they can't think of anything they're like burned out like mentally so they can't have they've got no creative thoughts left because they're not not really allowed to have them within the structure anyway and I understand it because that's how they are able to win things and look where they are what a difference it is but you know it's the Waluigi thing at what cost well it's a very good point you may look where they are in the semi-finals of the Champions League and top of the Premier League still six points clear yeah I mean people have pointed out that if you said to Mikel Arteta or Arsenal fans that in mid-April you'd be sixth clear at the top of the Premier League, albeit having played a game more, and in the semifinals of the Champions League, most people would have gone, yeah, fine.

37:07But to JJ's point, I think, I mean, I feel slightly vindicated because I went against the grain in this podcast and said that if they lost the Carabao Cup final, it would have an effect. And I think it really has. I think that's just compounded the fear of not winning something this season. You can see it. There were numerous occasions against Sporting where and again we have to caveat that with the fact that they're one nil up and that does change the dynamic of a game but they were taking a safe option and it feels like they need a game where they really cut loose and kind of remember their ability and their sort of creativity but that's not going to come on sunday really they're missing some key ones as well like odegaard not being there the whole time and saka being out now as well and especially it's not even that they're out is that they're not at their creative peak.

37:56So they're missing the players who have really led them for the last couple of seasons. And so those will make a huge difference.

38:02Mark Carey: We'll talk about what awaits on Sunday at the Etihad next as we get on to what looks like an absolutely extraordinary round of Premier League action.

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38:53That hologram trading card. One of the rarest. The last one I needed for my set. Shiny like the designer handbag of my dreams. One of a kind. eBay had it. And now everyone's asking, ooh, where'd you get your windshield wipers? eBay has all the parts that fit my car. No more annoying. Just beautiful. Millions of finds, each with a story. eBay. Things people love. Most all-in-one HR systems are a patchwork of disconnected and manual tools. Rippling is totally automated. If you promote an employee, Rippling can automatically handle necessary updates,

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40:30You're listening to The Totally Football Show with James Richardson. Now we do four times a week. Keep up to date with us on Insta and enjoy us in glorious Technicolor on YouTube at The Totally Show.

40:42Mark Carey: Oh, it's been a busy week in the Toadley Studio. Why? On Tuesday, I was sat here with James Horncastle and where Duncan was sat was Gigi Buffon. The actual Gigi Buffon. Woof. Is he taller than me?

40:57Duncan Alexander: Yeah, how tall is he? He's tall. I didn't measure him. I'm going to say, Mark, I forgot to measure him. It is quite rude to just get a tape measure out when someone walks in the room. He's an inch taller than me.

41:07Mark Carey: Is he just an inch? Just an inch? he also another difference with you he's got one of the most significant careers in football history and he spoke with us for over an hour about some of the the best bits some of the most revealing moments in in that career it was absolutely fascinating chat it is in italian though he did a little bit in english which you can hear at the start of our podcast but it is in italian so if you don't speak italian the good news is that it'll also be available on our youtube channel When James? Why? From Saturday. Saturday on a YouTube channel, you can see Gigi Buffon plus myself and James Horncastle with the subtitles.

41:47Mark Carey: Or if you speak a de lingo, JJ, just grab it on a podcast form. JJ, meantime, you are very much on tour, as we mentioned before. And listen, if you don't have World Cup fever yet, that's only because you haven't heard his semi-official Scotland World Cup song. I know he's got a score He's Scott McTominay He's Scott McTominay Ballon d 'Or

42:18Very unofficial but you never know

42:20Mark Carey: Have you got any other nations that you've got in the works? I want to do yes and with you but I'm going to say no I'm going to just stick only with Scotland Yes I want to try and do a little remix version of talking to a well-known Scottish was he a celebrity or a mini celebrity? I don't know. There's something in the works that maybe I'll do. It'd be quite fun. Really? Okay. Did you also not get contacted by a bona fide Scottish celebrity after you dropped your Scotland track? Not contacted. James McAvoy followed me on Instagram. I've not DM'd you yet, James, but thank you for the follow. We'll have a beer.

42:51Right. The drummer from Biffy Clyro liked it. Okay. And I love Biffy Clyro, so that's good. In fact, there's quite a few famous and non-famous Scottish well-known people who've followed me or messaged me off the back of it. It's been nice. Damn, JJ.

43:05Mark Carey: All right. What are you talking? Idlewild? No, I mean, oh, God, if Roddy Wimble liked it, I would, that's all I need. Mokwai? Again, if they liked it, I'd be very happy. Twilight side, any of them. If any of you like it, please let me know. Excellent. I liked it, JJ. This is what I'm talking about. Yeah. Now I feel better. All right. Oh, a pickleball update. California, we talked about pickleball with Charlie Acosher in Wednesday's show. And I asked, why is it called pickleball? California Canary writes in, says I am an English pickleball coach in California. Legend has it that pickleball was invented by an American in the 60s and he named the sport after his dog, Pickle.

43:45Mark Carey: Is that the same? No, the dog that found the World Cup with unicorns. Oh, right. I mentioned that Premier League match, say 33, is a special one. some would call it the most mouth-watering match day of the season, JJ, because pretty much every game looks sensational. Certainly once you get past the amuse-bouche of Brentford-Fullamon, 12.30 on Saturday. But get past that and you've got just delight after delight. At 3 o 'clock on Saturday, Leeds, fresh from their Old Trafford triumph, will be taking on Wolves. At the feet there, could see Wolves finally relegated. Newcastle, also at 3 o 'clock, will be the first stop on Andoni Iraiola's goodbye tour with Bournemouth.

44:27Mark Carey: At 5.30 then on Saturday, who's up for a bit of crisis club Tottenham Hotspur. They're trying to escape the drop, but they're only facing De Zerbi's outside Brighton. We're on a run of three straight wins. Before then, you manage a second game in charge. And then 8 o 'clock on Saturday, top five rivals collide as Chelsea host Man United. No Martinez, no Maguire for the Red Devils. On Sunday there, boom, you've got the Merseyside derby at 2 o 'clock, Everton against Liverpool, along with Forrest Burnley and Villa Sunderland. That's followed at 4.30 by, whammy, Man City Arsenal. 90 minutes of maybe even title-deciding action from the Etihad.

45:09Mark Carey: And then you get a data digest and it finishes off on Monday night with Crystal Palace against West Ham. Crystal Palace, who, by the way, could well be in the Europa Conference League semi-finals by the time you hear this, because they're 3-0 up against Fiorentina and they're away in Florence Thursday night. Right. Wow. So many great games there. But I think we'd better start with Man City-Arsenal. Duncan, you've told us a lot about how the Gunners are looking coming into this. What about City? What about all the stats that have been flying around this week about how when it comes to this time of the season, Pep don't play?

45:45Duncan Alexander: April is the month where they are in the ascendancy. I think they compared it with Arsenal. maybe slightly harsh to compare directly because there were a few occasions within the time frame that those stats were used where Arsenal weren't really going for the title quite in the same way so maybe a little bit unfair to directly compare but City just know what to do at the business end of the season they've they've they dismantled Chelsea really and they did the same the week before against Liverpool albeit it wasn't in the Premier League but they have just hit the the perfect format at the right time i think that a lot of the time this season so midway through the season they were saying that all city need to do is go on a run and they're very capable of going on a run and then they never actually sort of kick-started you know went on from there because they're just not quite the same city of of old but this maybe looks a little bit like they could very feasibly win every game for the rest of the one defeat in their last 19 premier league

46:37Mark Carey: games i guess the precedent that most trouble arteta and arsenal is the 22-23 season when they set a record for the longest period of time on top of the Premier League without actually winning it after being reeled in by Man City with, I think they had a five-point lead at the time with this many games to go. City, who had two days off courtesy of Pep this week, that's how relaxed they are about Sunday. That's what you need. Just make sure you're ready to go. I mean, this is, I think the most interesting thing about this is that all the Arsenal players, they must be hearing all the stuff that everyone's saying about them.

47:13like they know what everyone thinks of it and uh i wonder if any of them are conflicted about whether they you know they stick to the plan they've had the entire time and get there i'm sure they're right behind our teta and they want to do it but it didn't work in the cup final um so that's obviously not a great thing to have i think the interesting thing with city is that like although you know they're on forms they've won three games in a row right so they and that's the back of losing to real madrid and they got like dunted like three nil or something as well i think if city take the lead they can absolutely then tear you apart because they have that ability but there is a certain vulnerability to them when the score is level especially early in games there's something about them there's like a i can't quite pinpoint what it is there's a certain weakness to there which would suit an arsenal well corner again i'm not trying to be overly harsh on arsenal i promise but there's a if arsenal do manage to take the leads by the way they do things normally i think they'll easily be able to hold on to that and it just block things

48:06Mark Carey: down it's impossible for them to get through because city do need to win a month ago they met each other in the Caballet Cup final and City did win 2-0. Any reasons you can think that this is going to be different for Arsenal? The context is different because a draw really suits Arsenal. Yeah. Okay. Which obviously isn't the case in a cup final. And we should point out that yes, Arsenal lost their last league game but they've taken 12 points from the last five. City've taken 11 from the last five. They've drawn a couple in the league. So I don't think it's quite as open and shut as it seems. And even, you know, if City do win, and then they win their game in hand.

48:42They're still only level with Arsenal. Goal difference. Yeah, and then it comes down to kind of a shootout with the fixers remaining. And City have still got to go away to Bournemouth. They've still got to go away to Elton.

48:52Mark Carey: You'd love to see them get something. Yeah, they've got to go away to Middlesbrough, which again, the fixer computers had an out-of-the-night nightmare there, but it is what it is. So in some ways, a head-to-head shootout for the last five weeks of the season would be amazing. Right, especially with a playoff at the end of it, which could happen technically. Technically. Technically. But Kaosaka's still out injured. Noni Madueki was replaced by Max Dowman, as you mentioned, in Wednesday night's game. Could Dowman start, do you think, at the edge it had? I mean, I wouldn't think so, but it would be a big call.

49:24I mean, he does look confident enough. I mean, it was noticeable, actually, that, you know, we talk about Arsenal's corners. Declan Rice's corners were terrible against sporting. But Dowman took a couple late on that were really, really good, like absolutely arced in from the right-hand side. so it would be you know does this game need more narrative but yeah Chuck Max Dalman I was just thinking this league is set up 100 % for the next Premier League Aguero moment not had one for a while like a Mickey Thomas type thing it's just something about because the way these two teams are paced the way that Duncan's talking about there's something will happen in the last game it'll be like Saka some sort of amazing moment something like that

50:06Duncan Alexander: I was just going to say in terms of the risk aversion that Arsenal play with or played with kind of against sporting, they can very much do the same at the weekend and if it is a nil-nil, that sort of suits them. Which I was going to ask you, Duncan, if it weren't to be Dalman with the injuries that are on the right-hand side, who would it be and would Arteta maybe go for a bit more of a safer bet knowing that they need two results suit them out of three. They can win or draw and as long as they don't lose then that's okay whereas obviously City need the win. Would he set up his team accordingly and would that even then psychologically think you know at the start of the game okay well we are being if not negative then risk averse yeah i mean he's so wedded to that system you'd imagine that maybe marceli would go across to the right or something yeah i mean that might be that you know back five there's sick nor guard in it as well i mean you know but um i mean just on your aguero point city are at homes of villa on the last day which obviously the gundigan come back and Arsenal were at Palace.

51:07Selhurst Park's obviously had some Premier League title impact. It's Cristian Bull and all that. So, yeah. I mean, it is, you know, for all our, oh, look at Bayern against Real Madrid. There's some big games this weekend.

51:21Mark Carey: There certainly are. And this is one, we've been talking about it for so long now. But listening to you guys, I have the sneaking suspicion that maybe it's not going to live up to all the hype if Arsenal can take them. Oh, I think it'll be great. Yeah. We should point out that some of their games recently, And we should also point out that in the reverse fixture at the Emirates this season, obviously City scored early via Haaland and then sat in an incredibly low block. Haaland almost playing as a sort of defensive linchpin. And then obviously Arsenal managed to craft a very good equaliser via Eze and Martinelli to get a draw.

51:57But this idea that City are this flamboyant, permanently attacking team in Arsenal. You know, Arsenal do face the deepest blocks of any team in the Premier League this season. They might actually enjoy playing against a slightly more open team. Obviously, they didn't in the Carabao Cup final. But there were maybe some extenuating circumstances in that much.

52:17Mark Carey: OK, we'll see. 4.30, that is, on Sunday. Prior to that, I mean, all sorts of delights. It's worth mentioning the Merseyside derby. That's two o 'clock on Sunday. that's the first time that fixture will have graced the new hill dickinson's stadium everton regularly used to draw their encounters at goodison liverpool coming into this without ekitike of course poor chap who has a suspected ruptured achilles tendon from experience that's

52:44Duncan Alexander: not fun have you had that i have had that sort of twice yeah i did it and then didn't fully recover and did it again um but the the for an elite sports person it is about six to nine months from experience I've lost a yard of pace I think it's fair to say there used to be an absolute career ender I mean John Barnes did it and went from had to basically convert from being one of the best wingers in the world to sort of deep lying creative midfielder still very impressive but he lost a lot of pace the counter argument with modern medicine would be Eberichi Eze who did it a couple of years ago and has come back to his former level so I think as with most injuries these days they are more recoverable from

53:23Mark Carey: but it is a bad one. Right, and coming at a terrible time ahead of a World Cup. Best of luck to him. The smaller picture very much is how Liverpool will fare without him as they try and maintain their advantage over Chelsea in the race for top five places. Chelsea now four points behind them. They have a big game of their own Saturday evening at home to Manchester United. Chelsea, I note, have lost their last three games in the Premier League without scoring a single goal. Ooh. Well, it's not ideal. I don't really know what to say about Chelsea. They're just fine, but they're also not at the same time.

54:03It's weird. What do you want to say about Man United then? Well, Man United is interesting because the question, obviously everyone wants to ask now, is should Michael Carrick get the job? Well, after starting his tenure very well, certainly things aren't going quite the same because what happens in the Premier League is that it's so important. Every game is so important. The analysts do everything to death. And so within three games, they worked out this is what they do, this is how you stop it, that's what happens. And so unless they can make things click, then it doesn't really work. And they have the same players that they've had for all the season.

54:37And Amirim, for everything that happened to him, he set them up pretty well, got rid of the people who are making things worse in the dressing room, we think. What did you say? What do you mean?

54:48Mark Carey: well people like Kobe Miner who he has sidelined no I'm not saying I just mean he put Man United he handed them over in a sort of decent place you know they were on the up when he left them and Carrots come in and made it look more like what Man United should look like in my head like 14 just the formation looks familiar the players are playing with a bit more freedom they're going forward they're having lovely little rondos in the middle of the pitch I like watching them again it's really fun and so that's good for it but I mean the converse is like Arsenal again. So Arsenal are not very fun to watch, but they get results, damn it.

55:22And that's kind of what you need at some points in the season.

55:25Mark Carey: Right. Arsenal, of course, not getting results quite so much of late. Man United equally with that defeat against Leeds United on Monday night. But they are still, what, seven points ahead of Chelsea in third place. So looking reasonably good for a top five spot. They will be going into this game, as I mentioned before, without Lissandra Martinez, who picked up the red card, for that to tug on Dominic Cavaloon's ponytail. In Monday Night's game, Harry Maguire as well for mouthing off at the ref is receiving an extra game on his ban. Crikey. Do you want to call that? Mark, or shall I move on to other fixtures?

56:02Mark Carey: Chelsea Man United, Resenia against Carrick.

56:04Duncan Alexander: It feels like a draw to me. Okay. Neither team would convince me that they would be too comprehensive in flattening the other. I think it seems like a 2-2 draw. Okay. Heard it here first.

56:16Mark Carey: One for the double speeder. Down the bottom, all sorts of stuff going on. Let's finish off then with a look at the teams in to rubble. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC Podcast Network. Spurs in the bottom three coming into match day 33. First time they've been in the relegation zone at a proper point of the season, Duncan, since? since the appointment Harry Redknapp had to come in and rescue them from Wander Amos 10 was that I'm going to say 8 or 9 I think yeah but I mean they were in the bottom three after the opening game in 2015 but that doesn't count does that I don't look at the league table until I don't look at it until April it's been a real joy checking it out this week

57:02Duncan Alexander: well if you were to look at the league table only in 2026 Spurs are comfortably bottom of the league so they've only logged five points in 2026 and no team has scored fewer than their 13 goals or conceded more than their 28 goals. That doesn't sound good, Mike. Which is mad. I mean, we're in April as well, for anyone who didn't know. Or you might be listening to this at a later date. Correct. So it's not like, you know, if you're looking at like just in January, in 2026, you know, there's been three games and caveating the stat accordingly. It's April and they still... But I think that's been quite interesting is that people have been like, oh, look, Spurs are struggling well, you know.

57:36But then there's been a sort of cascade, Like a domino rally falling across the nation. Everyone in the last few weeks has just gone, oh no, they really are really bad. They are the worst team in the Premier League. And they really are.

57:50Mark Carey: So will they still be, because they're not the worst squad, they're not the worst group of players in the Premier League, but will they still be the worst performing group when they line up against Brighton's Saturday tea time after a week to work with De Zerbi, a week for the new manager to get some confidence back in the side, maybe some new formations. I don't think tactics are going to make any difference whatsoever to what Spurs are doing just now. It's all about combinations between players, players who are scared to make the wrong decision, their muscle memory is failing them, they're not hitting passes the way they should, they lack any proper controlled aggression, they've got petulant aggression, people getting sent off and it's misplaced, they don't have the belief, it seems, they don't have the urgency.

58:38This is what I keep seeing when I watch them. It's like they are on, they're realizing too late what trouble they're in.

58:43Mark Carey: The Optus supercomputer has predicted that they, has now made them favorites to go to fill that third spot. The Athletic did an article about that. Joel R responds, I don't think you need a supercomputer to predict Spurs going down. Haven't won a game all year. Midfield has no creativity nor any backbone to protect the defense. Center back's been shocking. Our full back's consistently made mistakes leading to goals. up front. We played three quarters of the season without Solanke, only for him to return without a recognised winger or creative midfielder to supply him. And finally, we played under too many managers this season with completely different philosophies.

59:17Mark Carey: The players genuinely look so confused with what we're meant to be doing. And adding to that, they've had some questionable refereeing decisions. Duncan. And even if, you know, they've spent all week with De Zerbe drilling them perfectly and getting them to exactly where he wants, they're Playing Brighton. Which squad knows how De Zerbe's methods work better than Brighton? So true.

59:39Duncan Alexander: And also, which team is one of the best in the league for pressing really high? When De Zerbe likes to bait the press and then try and play through it and play in a deep way, Brighton are known, especially this season, for pressing really high. That's kind of the perfect storm. It could be quite messy, I think.

59:54Mark Carey: Wow. Brighton on a real run of form. Won their last three. They've won their last two on the road as well. They've won five of the last six. top of the Premier League form table. Oof. So things are going to get worse before they get better, if they get better ever.

1:00:09Duncan Alexander: Yeah, I mean, we did a piece looking at the relegation battle and we looked at the fixture difficulty of all of the teams. Leeds, incidentally, do have the easiest run-in and they also play Spurs late down the line. That could be something where they just keep them at arm's length and maybe consign them. Spurs don't know much about. Well, exactly. But you look at the difficulty of the fixtures for Spurs, objectively speaking you think maybe it's manageable they're kind of middling in terms of the difficulty if you look at it on paper but each one you're like actually i don't i can't see them getting much there so they've got brighton as we know at home then they've got wolves away who might be down by then and like just cutting loose yeah and just vibing yeah they've got villa away which is tough leads at home as we mentioned chelsea away and everton at home like on paper you think all of those maybe you could try and work away to to get a few points but in the context of how they've been getting on.

1:00:58Duncan Alexander: That Chelsea fixture looks the most incredibly ominous fixture I think I've ever seen in football. Like the chance for Chelsea fans to relegate. I mean, we remember the Battle of the Bridge. Battle of the Bridge 2. Too fast, too rough.

1:01:10Mark Carey: Battle of the Bridge when they cost Spurs or Spurs cost themselves but the result cost Spurs their remaining chances of winning the title ahead of Leicester. When you analyse all the run-ins, West Ham, they're only two points above Spurs. That takes some getting used to. How do their fixtures look?

1:01:26Duncan Alexander: well it's the same point i think stands where they've got one of the most difficult um run-ins but the way that they're playing at the moment it kind of all goes out the window where you think momentum feels more important than fixture difficulty and they are kind of in the ascendancy obviously they had a really good win um against wolves on last friday so they've got crystal palace away everton at home brentford away arsenal at home newcastle away leeds at home it's quite tricky but they're like they clearly are playing in a sort of a new no style now aren't they where they are sitting in and then breaking forward at breakneck speed and they're doing the thing where like nottingham forest happened so often towards the start of last season where they're scoring first and then it just plays into their hands and they're able to actually execute sort of the game plan they want if they're he's tightened up the defense as he has done you can start to play the way that he wants to play and you look at like newcastle away i remember nuno's forest going there and just absolutely battering them and go on the counter alanga looked amazing and And you can see that happening again, for sure.

1:02:25Mark Carey: What about Forrest then, who are also very much within Spurs' reach, only three points above. And they're at home to Burnley. Burnley, who are below Spurs, 12 points from safety. Just one win in the last 23, with Scott Parker presumably sitting by the phone thinking, Bayern are going to call any moment. Forrest haven't won for ages at the city ground, but huge opportunity for them to pick up three points.

1:02:50Duncan Alexander: I was going to say, if they do win this against Burnley, would that be enough I mean same with Leeds recently as well would that be enough for anyone to come back is it then just a straight shootout between West Ham and Spurs so historically in the last in the stretched memory league era it's sort of 34 35 has been enough obviously points yeah I think we're looking at a sort of a 38 to 40 the famous 40 points yeah I don't know I like the return of that yeah but so I think maybe Forest need a couple more results as do West Ham and Spurs maybe need three so yeah it's exciting remember the last few seasons when it's just been the three promoted teams straight back down very boring this is as good as it gets a point that actually

1:03:31Mark Carey: one of our listeners wrote in with I think on Sunday's show saying when was the last time you had a season when not just the bottom three was wide open but also European places and the title itself this is vintage you can't get that in the Bundesliga do you indeed not Chris Wood is back yeah and potentially facing his old club here Forrest of course having to manage a European campaign at the same time. They are 1-1 with Porto after the away leg last week. So that's going to be at the city ground Thursday night. Potentially they could be facing, well, they'll be facing either Villa or Bologna, probably Villa in the semifinal, which is tremendously exciting.

1:04:10Mark Carey: Leeds we've talked about, they're up against Wolves. Four goals in four games for Nora Okafor, that's lovely. Villa, who I mentioned are in Thursday night action in the Europa League, hosts Sunderland Sunday 2 o 'clock. Newcastle are up against Bournemouth. Oh, Eddie Howe against his alma mater or mater. Bournemouth, who are 12 matches unbeaten in terrific form. And the other game is Brentford-Fulham. West London derby.

1:04:38Duncan Alexander: TNT.

1:04:38Mark Carey: On TNT. There you go. Famously. Irayola's out of contract at the end of the season. Well, he's going at the end of the season. Glaston is going at the end of the season. Marco Silva also added contract come the end of May. What's that sound I can hear? Manager and Meri go round, I believe. The giddy carousel of coaching our choices. Yeah, indeed. Excellent. Any of those excite you, JJ? Nope. Okay, then. You've got your head in the keyboard, haven't you? Always. I mean, I like watching the big games with all the bright colours and the big names. I like that. You know, Chelsea Man United, Arsenal Man City, That's what I want to see.

1:05:16I want to see that, all the big lads.

1:05:18Mark Carey: Okay. Very good. That's it for today's Totally Football Show then, JJ. Thank you for having me. No, thank you for being on. Thank you for the musical accompaniment. Anytime. And we'll be back with you soon, I hope. Mark, lovely to have you with us. Also you, Duncan, Jake, producer Charlie, and also producer Chevy, who's the shadowy mastermind editing the show remotely. they. Listener, perhaps the most important job was yours, so thank you for performing it with Ilan. We'll be back with another show for you on Sunday. Don't forget, Buffon, on Saturday. And for now, from all of the series, goodbye.

1:06:01You've been listening to The Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC Podcast Network.

1:06:06Duncan Alexander: For other great podcasts just like this one, including the Athletic FC and our dedicated club podcasts, search for The Athletic in all the usual places. We're also at The Totally Show on Insta and at The Totally Show on YouTube. The Totally Football Show is an Athletic Media Company production.

1:06:27The Athletic FC.

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