Will Villa end their Man United hoodoo? Will Arsenal’s away day blues continue?

0:00The Athletic FC

0:30Turf More. Plus, AFCON. Now that lots of players have gone to Morocco, how much are we looking forward to the Cup of Nations? All that and more in this Totally Football Show.

0:45Thursday the 18th of December. Hello. Duncan Alexander's in the pod again. Hey Duncan. Hello James. Lovely to see we had you here just yesterday. We did a special extra show with that Asif Kapadia and Sasha Gurionov. It'll be out with you Saturday, Jay. Saturday. Sounds very exciting. What's it about? What isn't it about? What is it about? El Nino. Ah, yeah. Fernando Torres. Fernando Torres. OK, that's Sasha. I thought it was going to be something I'd make. It's actually Isaac Kapadi, a big Liverpool fan, amongst his many other qualities. Jay Harris is with us. Hey, Jay. Hey, James. You all good?

1:25I've kind of done this back to front, haven't I? But hello. Good morning. I appreciate you still saying hello to me. Yeah. And Benji Laniado, CEO of Pick Fair Tick. Thank you. Hi, Jimbo. How are you? I'm all right. You know, sort of reflective this time of year. Wow. Do you sort of find yourself looking back at your camera roll and thinking, what's the best shots I've taken this year? Wouldn't it be nice if... That's one thing people are thinking. With regard to another, again, as a public service at this difficult time, let me ask, if you're struggling for present ideas this Christmas, then how about the Athletic's lovely and prestigious volume, The Soccer 100, which contains lovely stories and profiles written by the many talents of the Athletic family.

2:12All new fascinating content, yes. There you go. I've been leafing through my copy. Yeah. It's a big book as well. You give that to someone, they'll be like, whoa. Yeah, it's not a stocking filler. It's a main present. That's a proper present. Or if you really want them to cry with joy come Christmas morning, buy them tickets to the Totally Football Show Live, which, as you know, listeners, on Monday the 23rd of March. Actually, why don't you just buy them all the remaining tickets? And then they can stretch out in their own exclusive area. We might throw in a velvet robe with 79 selected guests of their own.

2:50They can have a little party. There you go. Duncan's on the drinks. Duncan will be on the drinks. That is happening. Yeah, so there's 80 tickets left. Not very many. Right now, listener, other listeners are scrambling to lock down those few places. So, well, snooze, lose paradigm. Ahoy. There you go. Oh, how do you find out details? Go to leicestersquaretheatre.com or click on the link in the episode description. Now, speaking of the episode description, also in there this week, you'll find a survey in which you can tell us what you think about the Totally Football Show hey what's this you can nominate your favourite episode I'm thinking this one's going to be a strong contender who your favourite guests are IDEM and just generally give us your thoughts not a referendum not legally binding but I've already done mine Benji and were you in it who did you vote for best guess I'm not going to tell you that come on you can tell me I'm not going to tell you that I feel extra pressure now.

3:52This is a bit sort of... That's very much... Popularity context. Exactly. This is your season review performed by the listener. Okay. We're answerable to our audience. So let us know, friends. My flaws, if anything, is that I try too hard. Yeah. What are the other kind of interview questions? You give 111%. Oh, easily. Yeah, I'm just a perfectionist. That's my biggest problem, I find. And you don't have many different jumpers. No. I see you like Richard Gere in American Gigolo going to a wardrobe and picking out one of 20 identical black Pigfair sweatshirts because that's what he's wearing, listener, as he always does.

4:31So we did a totally extra yesterday, Duncan. We've got another one we're going to make for next week, which is going to be of a seasonal nature. And if you want to get in a question for that, you have to be quick because we're actually going to record it this Friday morning. but I think we're giving a copy of the Soccer 100 to the best question. On the subject of Christmas presents, Benji, have you got a seasonal pick fair offer? Yeah, there's things going on at the moment. I mean, if you're looking to seamlessly share your images with friends and family, there might be something pretty special up there.

5:01It's that time of year, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Jay, did you buy the Odden Wingy shirt from QPL? I did not. Actually, I forgot about that. We should see how much that's going on. Would you have a look? I don't believe that's real. I think they've got a shirt from that era and they've printed it. Do you reckon? Yeah, I don't think that's true. It looked too pristine. Had the deal gone through, would they not have had to have a shirt for him to be posing with? To be clear, I'm saying it's a genuine shirt from that season, but I think that they've printed that. Really? Yeah. Otherwise, where has it been kept all this time?

5:31Just a bit like Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark. Someone should ask Peter. He's incredibly intelligent, Peter Olinwigi, and he speaks he's fluent in Russian as well is that right? he's done the knowledge he knows everything is that the one he's done the knowledge no no no right well he found his way to Luftwaffe I can't remember what very good I can't remember what it is but you hear him speak he's very eloquent and then you look at his background it's very interesting and he speaks multiple languages so give him a call he's one of those that's like a bit of a sort of polymath type character really and his shirt is currently 875 pounds and there's one day at the time of recording one day one hour 40 minutes left so by the time you're listening you probably have under 24 hours so you could buy that shirt which may or may not be genuine or all the remaining tickets for actually not quite maybe half the remaining tickets for or you could you could buy the shirt and come to the live show wearing the shirt damn if you did that yeah you get a free book if you do that so there you go very good born in Uzbekistan sorry that's kind of fascinating he was born in Tashkent isn't that a funny old thing okay born in Tashkent we're doing an Odin Winging yeah let's do it This can be a totally football extra Odunwengi edition.

6:40First club, any guesses? Obviously, it was Bendel Insurance. Where's that? In Benin, Nigeria. What a... What a mad... Oh, Benin City, Nigeria. What an amazing career. And then Locomotive Moscow, and then obviously West Brom. Obviously. But not at any stage QPR, despite the existence of an authentic QPR shirt. Anyway, Jay, we're going to be asking you about how excited you are about AFCON. soon enough. But there's lots to talk about, of course, with the League Cup popping back in for a little bit of an appearance. Quarter-finals this week, three of the four. Chelsea on Tuesday won 3-1 at League One Cardiff City to book their semi-final slot.

7:23Wednesday, Man City joined them. They beat Brentford 2-0. That's City's sixth win in a row in all competitions. In the semi-finals in January, Man City will be facing Newcastle, who were 2-1 winners late on against Fulham on Wednesday. 92nd minute was that Lewis Miley popped up with the header to book their passage. As for the other semi-final, well, that will see Chelsea in a huge London derby. But we don't know against who because the other quarterfinal is Arsenal against Palace and that's not going to be played until next Tuesday because Palace are in action this evening as we record, Thursday night, In the Conference League against Finnish side, capital K, lowercase U, capital PS, Cups.

8:11Wicked. Yeah. Poor Palace. Palace have to play Thursday night. And then on Saturday against Leeds, that's two games in 48 hours. And then on Tuesday, they're back out against Arsenal. That's three games in six days. I can't imagine another club being put through a schedule like that. I think they're away against Leeds as well, that Ellen Road, to just add to the load. They're going to play in Cups. No. So they're going to play the full reserves against Cups. It's just a good thing that they don't have one of the smaller squads in the Premier League. They've got players. They'll go down the Power League and get some players in.

8:47Yeah. I think they're going to concentrate on the Leeds game with a little glance at the Arsenal game. Really? Yeah. Okay. Well, speaking of fixture congestion, Chelsea and City getting through to the semi-finals means that those two clubs will now face nine matches in January across four different competitions. Newcastle will have eight. City, who, as I mentioned, booked their place with a 2-0 win against Brentford. Pep had made seven changes to his line-up. Brentford, six. It's still that kind of phase of the League Cup. When do we get to kind of full-strength line-ups? Semis? Yeah, semis. But, I mean, I was surprised that Brentford did do that because I think I was looking online and some of their fans were pretty annoyed that they went so sort of defensive.

9:30I mean, it's kind of understandable, away City, but they kind of almost gave the game up a bit. And there seems to be, Jay might know more, but there seems to be a little bit of doubt creeping in about Keith Andrews and a bit of upset. I think some of the changes were enforced and the biggest misses were Igor Thiago, who'd just been crowned Player of the Month. First Brentford player to ever win the Premier League Player of the Month, which I was quite surprised by. I thought surely Ericsson or Tony had won it once, maybe in Buma or Bissa last season, but no. Thiago and Henderson were both missing and I think instantly that just nullified Brentford's fret Dango Wattara's gone off to AFCON with Burkina Faso and I think this sort of showed that Brentford's starting line-up is very good the second you take a couple of especially those attackers out of that line-up they look very Fredbear they're essentially over-reliant in this game on set-pieces and Shada using his speed which did work I don't know if you guys have seen the the Kusunov incident well that's the other thing missing was the red card for Kusunov surely exactly I've watched it back so many times now you know when you almost convince yourself ah it's definitely a red card you can't remember how you felt when you first saw it but it is a wild challenge yeah Shardis got in between the two centre backs and he's about to have a one on one on goal so surely that is denial of goal scoring opportunity you would think so wouldn't you that was about 15 minutes in about 15 minutes later came a Ryan Chegey banger Oh, and that is quite something.

11:01Ryan Cherky with a bolt from the blue. He had rifled the back of the net. He nearly broke it. Fantastic goal, after which he did the Erling Haaland celebration. The thing which amazes me about this goal is Michael Coyote actually touches it on the line, but Cherky hits it with such heat. Watch it back. I'm like, fair play to anybody who even attempted to try and flick the ball with their head over the bar because that probably stung. But it's a fantastic piece of skill to trick Damsgaard as if he's going to hit it first time on his left and just rifle it with his right. It was a sensational goal.

11:36Cherky is very much bringing the heat right now. 11th goal involvement in 17 appearances. He's the joint top assister in the Premier League now. And I think the way that City have introduced him kind of has worked better than the way Liverpool have done Florian and Verts because they were kind of the same sort of signing. Liverpool were thinking about Cherokee as well and City obviously were thinking about Verts but Liverpool just played Verts as much as they can and it's not really worked because Cherokee, he started quite slowly and didn't get that much games on. He was injured at some point wasn't he as well?

12:08Yeah, he picked up a few injuries but as Verts has I guess but like he's been kind of adapted to the Premier League and well obviously this wasn't the Premier League but that level and he's really coming good now and yeah, I mean he's just one of those players that you just love watching and he's so two-footed as well. Yeah. City with their sixth win in a row in all competitions the chances of them making it seven in a row look good because they host West Ham West Ham at the weekend Benji Pep has he ever lost against West Ham in his 20 meetings with them in all competitions we knocked him out of the cup once actually Jimbo well actually you did though after a penalty shootout that's the draw then yeah knocked them out alright well that's a question so once in 20 yeah I actually hope that we do a Brentford and play a weekend side really yeah sack it off we've got four much more winnable games afterwards.

12:54We can talk about that later. Okay. But just on City quickly because obviously Savinho scores the second goal and it was at the point in time where I think it was around the 67th minute. Brentford were trying to attack a little bit more and they get hit on the counter. But I just hadn't heard the name Savinho since the summer when Spurs were endlessly trying to sign him for about 50, 60 million pounds. It's only his second goal of the season and they both come in the Carabao Cup and he barely plays for City but it's just so strange because fast fast forward rewind 18 months ago and he was supposed to be this really promising winger who'd had a really good season with I think it was Girona on loan from Toa and it's just beaten other teams to that signature Man City go on Benji spell it out they pretty much own Girona the City group part of the City group I think Toa are part of the City group as well I think yeah a number of them there's did he New York did he Did he ever actually play for Troyes?

13:54I don't think so. I think they signed him. Maybe you're right. No, he didn't. He never played for Troyes. He was on loan at PSV and then Girona. With that cleared up, Newcastle on Wednesday night. We thought that was heading to Pens until Lewis Miley popped up. Lewis Miley? Lewis Miley. He's been eating his vegetables. He's a big boy now. Don't you remember? He was this tiny little waif-like thing. I'm not sure it's the vegetables that did that. Well, either way, someone, well done his parents. they're like making sure he you know yes definitely his parents are not the nutritionists fair enough well he's 6 foot 2 now apparently he scores the winning goal like a glancing header it's a lovely header it's a nice header and he's like sort of he's bulked out a little bit he's really tall he's still got that kind of like 8 year old face but yeah I thought yeah lovely moment for him and I guess it's you know Newcastle they need a bit of homegrown something I think right a local hero yeah yeah like they had you know those moments stand out for Newcastle I think we had like long staff in the Champions League and Dan Byrne in the cup last year.

14:56Right, they won't have Dan Byrne for a while. He's been confirmed to... Do you remember that was that sliding challenge? He's going to be out six to eight weeks. It's a bad one. It's a punctured lung. Is it a punctured lung? A broken ribbon. That's as bad as it gets, right? Going in for a tackle in the derby and puncturing your lung. That will hurt him more than any other person. Who is it? Mucchielli. Watch out, Mucchielli, next derby. Dan Byrne's coming for you. Good news anyway for the Magpies after that defeat to Sunderland at the weekend. There was some bad news though as well because they picked up yet more injuries.

15:28They've already got burnout after the derby. Kieran Trippier, Emile Kraft, Sven Bottmann already on the sidelines too. Tino Leverimento came off looking uncomfortable after 76 minutes. Lewis Hall also pulling out in the warm-up. So ahead of their clash this weekend with Chelsea, that's not looking too clever. Chelsea, who themselves went through in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday with a 3-1 win away at Cardiff. Enzo Maresca went with a completely different line-up to the one which had beaten Everton at the weekend. But he then had to go back to the bench because the League One side, Cardiff City, proved not as easy as perhaps he'd been hoping.

16:13Garnaccio opened the scoring. Then Cardiff City pulled one back through David Turnbull, another nice header. And eventually it was Neto with a very nice team goal and then Garnaccio late on. Garnaccio? Yeah, Garnaccio. Two really cool finishes. And I didn't have him down as a cool finishes kind of guy. No one had him down. But he did win the push-poss award for an overhead kick. Yes, well, yeah, more that than cool finishes. but if he can add that to his game consistently Cool finishing Yeah then Chelsea might have pulled off an incredible signing there Occasionally I do have it with Gun Actual and I was like oh my god is he maybe going to be the best player on the planet and then of course he deeply lets you down but there is this whole cavalcade of players leaving Manchester United and instantly becoming really really good and I do wonder if that will happen to him as well Perhaps Benji Remember it was against League One Cardiff I know it's a good finish I think the second one in particular, because he's got to take it quite quickly.

17:13Because usually he's rapid and he'll get past his player, he'll go one-on-one and then he'll do a Calvin Bassey. Whereas this time... Is that what we're calling it now, a Calvin Bassey? This time, they were really sort of deft, cute finishes. Anyway, we probably won't see another one of those for a couple of seasons. Or maybe we will. Maybe we will. When the Carabao Cup semi-finals roll around in January. Enzo Mareska, love index. How's that standing after his worst 48 hours ever? he was applauded by the fans Tuesday who sang, oh, Enzo Maresca and he said he was happy afterwards still no word on what the beef was but anyway, there you go they travel to St.

17:52James' Park for the opening game of Premier League Match Day 17 on Saturday it's been interesting to see how that goes as I mentioned, the Magpies without a bunch of players they've got a terrific record at home particularly against Chelsea Chelsea, they've won their last four on Tyneside against the Blues. Chelsea, though, have Moises Casedo back from suspension, which feels important. Massive, yeah. He's like, he was doing a bit of research into all-rounders. What were you, Benji? Yeah, we'll come back to that later if you like. He's got three goals and an assist this year, and his interceptions are incredible.

18:28So he's missed 25 % of the season, and yet he still made more interceptions than any other player in the league. I think he sort of properly ties the room together for them. And if Cole Palmer's sort of coming back fit now, he's rested for this game, I do think available Caicedo and a fully fit Cole Palmer could make them into a real, you know, challenger. Chelsea taking Cole to Newcastle. Very good. I mean, it's legacy content. Anyway, there you go. Well, that's a little taster of Premier League matchday 17. Let's get on to the full picture next. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network.

19:10Premier League match day 17. What's this? Eight games on Saturday, only one on Sunday, and then another on Monday. That is the most, talking of heritage content, that is a 1992-93 line-up. Is it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's how the Premier League started. All right, lovely stuff. Did it start with two games at 8pm on a Saturday? No, I didn't do that, no. That would have blown people's minds. Well, that's progress for you because thanks to science, we can now have two fixtures involving London clubs playing way up north at 8 o 'clock on a Saturday night. Let's see. It all starts, as mentioned, with Newcastle Chelsea Saturday lunchtime, then strap in for Wolves-Brentford at 3.

19:48Strong chance of Wolves' first win of the season? Question mark, question mark? Yeah. Also at 3 o 'clock, Man City against West Ham. Brighton Sunderland for the first time ever in the Premier League and Bournemouth Burnley. At 5.30, Spurs and Liverpool take the baton of crisis and pass it like a hot potato back and forth between themselves. And then those 8pm games, Leeds Palace and Everton Arsenal. The one game on the Sunday is Aston Villa against Man United. And to be fair, if you're just going to have one game this Sunday, that's not a bad one to have. and then on Monday it's Fulham Forest let's begin with Villa against Man United hey I've got two big questions here one can Villa keep up their remarkable form and two how will United be after what they got up to on Monday night in that Rush It To DVD instant classic 4-4 with Bournemouth did everybody see this oh yeah it was mag you can't unsee it no So I close my eyes and I see it again and again.

20:55Yeah. And that's going to break. Oh, it's too much this game. Krupe! And a celebration to match the scoreline. Bournemouth keep on battling. It rivaled, many will say, they, they are saying, that it rivals Man United's Lyon Europa League banger for just sheer chaos enjoyment content. eight goals, two direct from free kicks, more shots than any Premier League game this season, and more shots on target as well. 18 shots on target in this game. And a controversial T-shirt. Well, not controversial. What was the T-shirt? Kobe Mainu's brother was wearing a shirt in the crowd which said free Mainu or free Kobe.

21:40Free Kobe. Is that their transfer policy? It must be. Right, okay. That's very much the question. Where is he going to be going in his bid for minutes? we don't know do we know? no we don't also Duncan also we came so close to the longest running good stat of all time being shattered which is Manchester United haven't lost a home game when they've been leading at half time since May 1984 I can't believe that it's extraordinary Man United they're rubbish now yeah it's amazing it survived the banter era but Lama's made two pretty big saves in injury time and you know I was poised because that's a foundational bit of information.

22:21They both had chances to win it later on. There could have been, I don't know, three or four goals in time added on. Throughout the game, no side had ever had more than a one-goal lead. So it was pretty excellent. In terms of just crazy from start to finish, it's going to be hard to beat. But then again, maybe this weekend we'll see it because Villa are in absolutely amazing form and United can score goals but absolutely cannot hold on to Leeds. And for all the excitement for the neutrals, that must be the big concern for Ruben Amorim. Yeah, I think there's definite signs of improvement. I think the first half against Bournemouth was the best I've seen Manchester United play for, I don't know, eight, nine years.

23:03It was really kind of... Yeah, yeah. Some of the interplay was brilliant. Weirdly, if you look at their average positions for the first half, they were sort of playing a back four. he sort of I remember Laurie for the Athletic writing a piece saying that they were shifting to a 4-3-3 from this game onwards yeah and like in possession like Leni Jorow was basically playing at right back so and it kind of you know whether Amorim was pleased or not to suddenly see his team become incredibly creative and attacking you know what managers are like but yeah I think they just need to learn and Amorim keeps saying this but they just need to learn control they kind of is it learning control or is it they simply don't have the midfield to control Possibly a bit of both.

23:42I think the argument that Bruno Fernandes as an eight doesn't give you that control. But yeah, they've let eight points slip from Leeds this season. Well, I've got ten. They dropped ten points from winning positions this season. Oh, yeah, yeah. Over the course of the season. Certainly six of those ten have been from home games against Everton, West Ham and Bournemouth, which, if you're a United fan, is not really a great sign. Anyway, they are... Well, if you had those points on, they'd be up there in the title race. They would be literally joint top with Arsenal. Villa are not far behind Arsenal, three points currently.

24:16They're on an extraordinary nine-game winning run across all competitions, including their last six in the league. Villa have already beaten both Manchester City and Arsenal, the top two, at Villa Park this season. In fact, they've only lost one of their last 26 Premier League matches there. The other thing about Villa was any conversation about them really until the last couple of weeks has had to be asterisk with the, yeah, but they're massively overperforming their XG. They're not creating enough chances now. But I believe that the numbers no longer say that. Is that right? No, they do. The XG table, Villa are 16.

24:51Yeah, overall. But if you look at the XG form table, which surely has to be a thing, in recent weeks. well wasn't that XG against cover years West Ham against 0.6 yeah yeah so and they scored three goals you you offer West Ham I give you Brighton where they had a 2.41 XG against Arsenal 2.16 boom four goals of course in that Brighton Kane also yeah but hold on one of those goals was Morgan Rodgers shooting without a goalkeeper but that's the XG floor with due respect no the XG takes into account where goalkeepers are if a goalkeeper's not there the XG will be boosted. Well, as I say, big XG against Brighton where all their goals came from within the penalty box.

25:36The other side of this narrative, by the way, is what a season to be a Villa fan. You're just scoring bangers every single week. That's much better mentioned than this XG chat. Go with that. It's the same thing. That is the same thing. One man's going the XG's not good is another man's look at this succession of fans. I like that other man. Do you like the other man? Yeah, much more fun. And I think it's interesting because I think Villa fans are getting a bit annoyed, rightly, by people externally going, well, actually, I don't think this will last. Because, you know, everyone likes seeing their team score long-range goals.

26:05Is it sustainable? But this is my point. In recent weeks against Arsenal and Brighton, they didn't score long-range goals. They scored goals from within the party area. So Villa, I don't think, if we did a quick straw poll, hang on with your butt, take your butt out of here. Hang on, Scrooge. Put a humbug over there. I don't think any of us would say that we think Villa are going to be in the title race come May, are we? Yeah. But... Benji says yeah. You think? Yeah. I think so, yeah. I think they're going to have a big part to play. It's a huge... A big part to play is a different story. Chelsea and Villa are the two that I think are going to...

26:43Right, they could have an impact, but will they be contenders come the end of the season? I'm not sure anybody truly believes that. Maybe this is wishful thinking, but I do wonder whether Arsenal are getting a bit wobbly. and therefore their XG is good mate Arsenal are clearly getting wobbly if we study the much hated XG table then Arsenal and City are first and second but that's an XG table based on the season so far if you look at the trend if you're looking at the performances away from home which they will be this weekend at Everton Arsenal a side who've failed to win they didn't win against 10 man Chelsea on the road they got beaten by Villa on the road Drew Sunderland.

27:26Drew Sunderland on the road. Only Crystal Palace have got more away points than Arsenal this season. If you want to base it on points, the order of X points. But that's like going to see a doctor and saying, Doctor, I don't feel very well. And he says, well, over the last six years, your temperatures have been completely normal, so your average is fine. Whereas if he says in the last five minutes, the thermometer shows you with a raging fever, he would correctly suggest you take some medication. Do Arsenal need some medication? That's very much the question. And do Villa? Or are Villa now very much looking the brightest and bounciest of the ward?

27:58I'm really stretching this. I believe in Villa. I believe in Villa. All right. Having seen it last weekend, like, it's, there is, it does feel like something quite magical is happening here. Yeah, but they deserve it as well. You know, it's that thing, is a team good or have they just played West Ham? What's so mean? It's Christmas. So harsh. Villa have a weirdly terrible record against Man United. they've only won one of their last 26 Premier League meetings at Villa Park I think with them which is a crazy stat also final day of last season at Old Trafford they got beaten that was the defeat which cost them their Champions League place and then messed up their whole transfer thingy over the summer and forced them into taking lots of long shots which Benji likes so you know, starting doors the one thing that Villa will be happy about is that United have lost Ahmad and Buemo and Mizrahi to AFCON AFCON, Casemiro is going to be suspended is suspended and Bruno's not feeling loved, his comments about essentially Man United hoping to get rid of him last summer which certainly surprised me, was that rather than a plea for love, was it actually a bit of a hello clubs out there, come and get me because you can get me I don't think so I think it's sort of fair enough I didn't blame him for coming out No, I don't blame him for it.

29:19I think he loves Manchester United. I think he was a little bit hurt that they were kind of going, there's quite a lot of money. As in, is it more him saying, I'm fed up with this now, I could be swayed in the future? Is that what you're... I think he's... I was wondering whether he was inviting moves because having carried that team for so long, he's clearly bitter about the fact that... Bitter is a strong word? He's not happy about the fact that the club said, we'll be fine with that. You know, there are Bruno sort of truthers out there that think he's the problem with Man United. You get a lot of people talking about how, like, he fundamentally sort of misaligns their shape.

29:56And I did, which I personally think is nonsense. You look at his output, it's consistently, like, elite. But, you know, at some stage he's going to go. And I do want, you know, it would be unsurprising if it was this season. The end of this season, anyway. I wonder if this interview is the classic scenario, because he did it in Portuguese, but the next time he's asked about it he says it's been translated badly, I didn't say that I just said you know I want to be here etc and he's going to try and sweep it under the carpet is my take on it which seems to happen all the time anytime a Premier League player does an interview in their home country they always say oh no it's been mistranslated I didn't quite say that Well by the time this game takes place Villa could be six points off the top of the table because their potential title rivals Arsenal and Man City both play on Saturday Arsenal will be at the Hill Dickinson at 8pm Man City will be earlier that day at home to West Ham City with that remarkable run of form themselves they've won their past four in the Premier League and scoring at least three times in each one of those Benji as they prepare to host the Hammers how do you feel?

31:10Overwhelmingly pessimistic I think relegation's over at Christmas for the Hammers yeah probably I mean I actually I actually think that we've looked a lot better since Nuno came in I mean we're back where we started he's sort of Portuguese David Moyes right which is fine you know that worked really well for us but you start looking around and wondering well who someone's got a drop and I think at the moment all West Ham fans are solely thinking about Leeds they're the only ones Leeds I can't hold on to them well and And Jimbo, you never guess who West Ham have got on the last day of the season.

31:44I have no idea. Really? Yeah, Leeds at home. So I actually do think it's probably coming down to us two. Because I don't see anyone else sort of dropping precipitously. Someone's held Westfield. Oh my God, can you imagine? Is that a Westfield song reference? No, it just will be a war zone. Shopping centre. Upset Leeds fans marching through, you know, one of... Stratford, Westfield. London's... If that's a relegation playoff, Westfield better get the right place. Oh, I had Westlife. I had Westlife. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. The situation down the bottom, Benji, Wolves are 14 points from safety.

32:21So far they've collected two, which by my calculations means they would need another 3.36 seasons just to close that gap if nobody else picked up any points ever. Still, Brentford visit them on Saturday afternoon. We'll get on to that game soon enough. Forest, Leeds, West Ham and Burnley are the teams that most look at risk. Burnley has six points from safety and they're at Bournemouth on Saturday. West Ham in 18th spot, three points behind Leeds. Visit City, as we know, and Leeds play Palace this weekend. That's City, anyway, who will be confident of the chances of picking up three points and taking top spot in the league on Saturday until at least Arsenal play their game away at Everton.

33:12Could psychologically rock Arsenal as they warm up. Could do, couldn't it? Arsenal, who are looking to be top at Christmas, they've done it twice already in the past three seasons and of course it worked out so well for them on both equations. It will see Mikel Arteta up against his former club. Everton who drew both games with Arsenal last season Arsenal's away form Very good Is it though Duncan? Yeah right They're winless in their last three away But I think they're mitigating circumstances in some of those I think this has been the first clear week they've had for quite a long time Possibly since the start of the season Yeah All season Yeah Yeah, and Arteta spoke about decompressing after last weekend, and then no doubt they've been hard at it at the training pitch.

34:02I think if Trossard's fit, he'll start, and yeah, I think. Okay. Calafuri's also back from suspension, while Everton are now without Njaye and Gay and Dewsbury Hall too, and probably Jack Grealish, we believe. Yeah, this is Everton's issue. I watched the Chelsea game last weekend, and they're really good. they create a lot of good chances but they've got like 11 good players well I'm not sure first of all remember that lad Tyler Dibling this gives him a bit of a chance and I think that if he does play on the left he usually plays on the right but if he does play on the left in Grealish's absence in fact sorry he can play either side if Di's not there maybe this is his time to shine and I really like that Carlos Alcaraz chap he always seems to come in and do a really good job he reminds me of in fact he was at Southampton wasn't he He reminds me of Fernandes, who's gone to West Ham from Southampton.

34:53Good kind of all-round box-to-box. I don't know. I think they'll be all right. I think they've got a chance of doing something. Saturday night under the lights. Everton? Nice. Nice. All right. Well, that would certainly throw the title race wide open. The sort of biggest question for Arsenal, I know earlier you said that they're wobbling, is the defensive injuries and how they sort of handle that. Because, yes, Calafiore is back from suspension, but Ben White was back for a couple of weeks and has gone. And I think the load on Timber over the next few weeks is going to be very... Load-bearing Timber.

35:30Because one week he's playing centre-back, then he's playing left-back, then he's playing right-back. And I think if he was to get injured, Arsenal would be in real trouble because he's so adaptable. Gabriel's said a few weeks away. So I think that's what makes it look as if they are having a little bit of a wobble. I think that's the reasons why. When Ben White was replaced by Lewis Gurley last weekend, Arsenal changed the position of everyone in the back four when he came on and I don't think I've ever seen that before and it's like they do look weaker without that Saliba-Gabriel partnership but yeah it is a concern and it's mad given the size they've scored and the options they have but here we are Here we are indeed There were six points clear it's now down to two what's it going to be by the end of the weekend we shall see more of your top, top, top weekend Premier League content next

36:25This 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 Kay and the very best football writers around. It's been a busy week. Aside from those League Cup quarterfinals, there was also the Intercontinental Cup final. This is essentially the old Club World Cup, which FIFA took, expanded into a wonderful new tournament over the summer. But the old Christmas time couple of Confederation winners playing each other thing finished on Wednesday night with South American champions Flamengo, coached by Luis Felipe, beaten by PSG on penalties after a 1 -1 draw.

37:09Intriguingly PSG's backup keeper Matvei Safanov Saved four spot kicks In the penalty shootout Which means Given that he also stopped two Against Lens In the Coupe de France He's now on six out of ten Saves in Shootout penalties That's amazing isn't it It's PSG's sixth trophy this year That's remarkable It is Jimbo It is also midweek we had the final round of Women's Champions League league phase all the main contenders won which means that Barcelona Lyon Chelsea and Bayern take the four automatic spots in the knockout stages the likes of Arsenal Man United Real Madrid Juventus Wolfsburg all go through to the playoff phase Roma despite a 6-1 final league phase victory against St Poulton miss out, as do Benfica and Paris Saint-Germain.

38:10Woof. Up in Scotland, how's Celtic manager Wilfred Nancy getting on? Badly. I mean, Russell Martin 2.0. Have you seen the Venn diagrams flying around? Ooh, what's in the Venn diagram? Ah, wow. I mean, this feels harsh. So he... He had already, prior to... Wednesday night, they got beaten 2-1 away at Dundee United, which means that he's now lost his first four games in charge. That's never happened to a Celtic manager. It is Celtic's worst run now since January 1978. They've dropped to six points behind Hearts, although with a game in hand. Yeah, and it's a mad season in Glasgow, isn't it? Because obviously Rangers started appallingly and then podcast friend Martin O 'Neill steadied Celtic and got them back on track and then it's just gone very badly.

39:02And as Benji says, Wilfred Nancy changed his profile pic on his Twitter account to a Venn diagram. It's a very kind of Instagram. He's just come from America, hasn't he? It's quite, it's not Instagram, it's quite LinkedIn. Yeah. It's kind of like. So what does the Venn diagram represent? Well, Dunks, you've got it in front of you. Yes. On the left-hand side, it's things that matter. On the right-hand side, it's things you can control. Oh, yeah. There's a little overlap. And he's like, that's what you should focus on. But then Dundee United beat them last night. I mean, this is some of the greatest posting for a long time.

39:34They've done their own Venn diagram, which doesn't actually make any sense, but it's just great fun. It's got the two circles. One's got, one's win, one's lose. And the overlap in the middle says 2-1. With, weirdly, the William Hill Premiership logo pointing at it. But anyway. Maybe that's some branded content. I'm not sure I understand that. I think the biggest question is, Venn, will Celtic win again? Oh, yeah, very good. Either like, Venn on Venn action is quite, you know. Oh, yeah. There you go. Fans booing and calling, as you say, for Martin O 'Neill. Fans booing and calling for replacements.

40:05That segues nicely into Tottenham against Liverpool. There's another, you know, talking events, Mickey Vander. Oh, nice. That's even better. We'll do that again. Let's not forget that last bit. Anyway, Spurs to take you on Liverpool. That's satay tea time, Jay. You're going to be there, aren't you? Certainly am. You ring that in red on your diary because this is the top-scoring fixture in Premier League history. Never has there been another pair of teams who've combined for as many goals in their meetings. Yeah, I think this fixture was played at the exact same time last year, just before Christmas.

40:45Yeah, like Everton Arsenal is every year. That fixture computer, don't trust me. How did it finish? I'm trying to remember. It was the 6-3 game. One was 5-1 and the other was 6-3. So probably this was the 6-3. I think it's the 6-3 game, yeah. So not much about Tottenham's season so far suggests crazy scorelines. But... They did lose to PSG 5-3 a couple of weeks ago. Oh, yeah, that's true. I think in the beginning of the season they were defensively solid and they looked better. But that sort of seems to have fallen apart over the last few weeks. And they conceded 3 against Forrest at the weekend.

41:22Yeah, that was quite crazy. yeah the thing that amazes me about Spurs this season is like Jay you know better than anyone how good a manager Thomas Frank is he is an indisputably good manager but I do just feel talking of Venn a couple of weeks ago when Mickey van der Ven and Spence when they basically are walking off the pitch and they just mug him off right they completely ignore him and you do wonder if that's sort of like really emblematic of no everybody did wonder oh ok yeah yeah everyone wondered a lot It reminded me sort of of Graham Potter at West Ham when these managers just don't seem to have the authority and the heft.

42:02And whilst obviously he did an amazing job at Brentford, he's dealing with a different level of egos now. And I just think it'd be so spursy if they managed to do away with another potentially really good manager just because they can't sort their s*** out. I mean, this kind of universal tool that is the adjective spursy, is that now a quality of Spursiness getting rid of really good managers who do well elsewhere who have they got rid of then well Ange yeah amazing record until he got to Spurs and afterwards well previously Conte he had a pretty good record before he went there do you not remember Conte's Nuno had a pretty good manager record before he went there so Nuno I accept yeah but do you not remember Conte slagged off the club in a famous 5-10 minute press conference where he said this is the history of Spurs he had to go I take your point that it would be unfortunate if Thomas Frank, but that's what a lot of the fans, I believe, Jay, are now praying for.

42:59The word this week of Jack Pitt-Brooke reporting on The Athletic that the hierarchy at Hotspur have given him their backing. Yeah, I think Thomas Frank said it himself after the Forest game that it's not a quick fix at Spurs. Ever since Pochettino left, no managers lasted longer than two years. So to break the cycle at some point, you need to trust someone. I guess the fan base are asking themselves, do they feel that Thomas Frank is the right person to trust? I think a lot of them already have their answer as well. I think a lot of them do already have their answer. Sometimes it's hard to tell because you can look on social media and everybody seems to say, we don't want to keep Frank.

43:35And then sometimes when I look in the comments of my articles, people seem to be a bit more thoughtful and considered and want to see him given time. I think the biggest frustration is that Spurs just aren't, they're just not fun to watch at the moment. They look quite disjointed. They had two good wins against Slavia Prague and Brentford at home. You should be winning those games. And then they go away to Nottingham Forest and they struggle to create any chances. Duncan will know the exact figures. Is it six games this season they've not even managed an XG of one? It's more than that. I mean, six of their last seven Premier League games, they've gone under one XG.

44:11The only one they did get above was Brentford, which is kind of like almost a free hit for Frank, isn't it? So this is the concern. As Frank says, you need time. you can't turn it around without time but when you're not showing any signs of progress in fact possibly quite the opposite that's when people start to feel that you're throwing chucking time away it's really difficult because Spurs in Ange's first season were fantastic for the first 10 games and then teams worked out how to play them and they dropped off a cliff there was a point in March where they looked dead cert to get the Champions League and they didn't they finished 5th last season they finished 17th it's hard to know exactly what this team's level is.

44:49Right. Because if you take away the 10 games at the beginning of Posta Coglu's reign, Right. they were a bang average mid-table team. And take away a couple of the players that they lost. Exactly. They've not got a, I sort of made this comment on the View for an Elaine podcast that we do at the Athletic for Spurs the other day. Is the difference between Spurs now and a couple of years ago that the average quality of their squad is the exact same. They just don't have Harry Kane and Songham. Is it as simple as that? They had two incredible players. Exactly. Is it as simple as that? But Kane and Son as well are two of the players who outscored their XG by more than anyone else.

45:26So, you know, maybe their quality was hiding that longer-term issue. Spurs then in difficulty, essentially, and not much prospects of improving this weekend as they host the ball. I mean, Kane's 17th last year. So, you know, they're a mid-table. That's kind of like... If another team had come 17th, and then the following season at this stage was 11th whoever they are people would be like I completely agree with you and that's why I find it so frustrating the Spurs fans are getting moany about Frank I think the other side to what Jay was saying is that the results are probably better than the performances and the results aren't great and the performances are bad and it's like particularly at home I think if if you're going to have bad performances at least do it on the road because if every home game is just like a trudge I accept that but he's this is shock therapy for them right after Ange to some extent he's gone in there and said, right, I've got to improve this team.

46:18What's the most obvious thing to do? The defending. Yeah. They conceded three against Forrest last week. Yeah, that doesn't help my argument, does it? Yeah. It's a concern. But he's trying to make them less, like, gung-ho, is the point. And therefore he's made them boring. But Ange did that at the end of last season to win. In the cup. Yeah. Admittedly, against Forrest, Forrest did have a lot of chances, but the three goals they scored, one's come from a mistake by Archie Gray. Right. It's a Callum Hudson-Odoi cross shot, which even he admitted was a combination of both, and then Sangari's hit it with the outside of his boot and it's gone in off the post.

46:49So there's an element of... Yeah, it's a great goal, but there was an element of... For a second and third goals, you would let people shoot from that distance normally because the chances of them scoring are very unlikely. Unless it's Aspen Villa. What I will say is that fans don't like the fact that Frank has referenced a few times, oh, this team finished 17th last year. Even though it's a fact. Because it sounds like he's being negative towards the players at his disposal Because a lot of them finished 17th. But also, it was very obvious why they finished 17th. Because from mid-Feb, March onwards, Postacoglu rotated his players week in, week out.

47:28So Van der Ven, Romero, Madison, Son, etc. were saved for the knockout stages of the Europa League. So Spurs are clearly not 17th, the 17th best team in the Premier League. They're not the fifth best team. They're somewhere in the middle. And 11th is pretty much the exact middle, if I've got my mask. So maybe it's that, but it's hard for fans to accept that. Okay. Well, we'll see where they are after this weekend's visit of Liverpool, who won't have Mo Salah because he's gone to AFCON with Egypt. But they will presumably have a Hugo Eketike, who's got four goals in his last two Premier League matches.

48:03So look out, Spurs. And he scored against Spurs last year. For Frankfurt earlier this year, actually, no? And I think there was an injury doubt over Sabaslai, but it seems as if he will play. Ooh. Earlier on Saturday, Sunderland, who are actually on the same points as Champions Liverpool, will have their first ever Premier League game against Brighton. This is at the Amex, 3 o 'clock Saturday. They haven't met in any competition at all since August 2011. It was only Brighton's fourth ever game at the Amex. But, yeah, as I say, Sunderland, same points as Champions Liverpool after 16 games, which is pretty good going.

48:43Obviously, Liverpool's form is a factor in that. But is this where gravity hits for the Black Cats? They've got a fifth of all the Premier League players who are going to AFCON are going from Sunderland. Woof. Brighton have got Mitoma back as well. You like Mitoma, doesn't you? A lot. And I think it gives them both fully fit with Mitoma and Minta, two of the most exciting wingers in the league. Minta, I think, is sort of quietly having a brilliant season. we talked about was it Cherky's on 7 assists and I think Bruno's the other one I think Minte's on 7 as well and that you know who must I'm not sure about that unless they're including him winning penalties in the stats I was looking at they probably did anyway either way very very good season that's a fantasy stat but do you know who must be most annoyed about that is Newcastle because they're having all these problems on the right wing and spending all this money on Alanga and they got rid of Minte in a financial fair play transfer do you know who else they got rid of at the same time for financial fair play Elliot Anderson Elliot Anderson no yeah I mean that's got to be one of the most badly bungled FFP sell-offs in history ESR yeah yeah and Elliot Anderson will come back to you because he's statistically unique Jimbo is he?

49:54yeah ok there you go Brighton Sunderland on Sunderland yes you're talking about how many players they're going to miss because of AFCON 6 yeah Siddiqui Ray Nildo players who've been integral to the starting 11 if they do have a bit of a nasty crash back down to earth. At least they've got a huge points buffer where they can swaddle it for three, four weeks. Those players come back from the competition and they can hopefully kick on again. If they had seven or eight points less, then you'd be a little bit more worried about them, but they've got enough of a cushion where... And basically 36 will keep you up, generally.

50:33So, only 10 points. Will they pick up any points this weekend away to a Brighton side who haven't actually won a game so far this December and will be without Luis Duncan and Diego Gomez, who are both suspended. I wouldn't put it past those black cats. Well, the home form is, of course, what they're all about. But let's see. Anyway, next up, let's talk about the teams who are down at the sharp end of things, alongside West Ham.

51:06You're listening to The Totally Football Show with James Richardson. to now with you four times a week. Keep up to date with us on Insta and enjoy us in glorious Technicolor on YouTube at The Totally Show. Yeah, down to the bottom of the table, it's Wolves and it's Burnley and it's West Ham and then Leeds just on the right side of that little dotted line. Leeds playing at home to Palace that Saturday at eight o 'clock. Wolves though, Duncan, you seemed positive earlier on when I suggested that this could be the weekend that Wolverhampton Wanderers finally get a W. Yeah, I'm getting a lot of messages on social media at the moment.

51:47People saying that Derby's record will fall at 11. And you're here to say? That it won't. I think Wolves will get between, it's not going to be great, they're going to get between 15 and 18 points. Really? 15 and 18 points? So we've had 16 rounds so far and they've picked up two. Yeah. What are you seeing that's giving you that belief? Well, their underlying numbers, as we've said numerous times, they're not the worst team in the Premier League. Who is? Burnley. Oh, OK, yeah, fair. Yeah, Burnley, then Wolves, then Sunderland, but we're not allowed to say that. Obviously, they can't play like they did at Arsenal every week, but they were very disciplined.

52:28We saw Sheffield United a few seasons ago have a similar record to this at this stage of the season, and everyone was like, well, Derby's record is going to get shattered, and they ended up in the high teams. When you say a similar record, they weren't on two points. Yeah, they won two for about the same amount of time. Really? Yeah. Okay. But I think if they are going to do that, then this is basically the sort of game they need to start winning. Right. There's a stat here which is quite remarkable, and I'm struggling to wrap my head around it. Brentford are the only team in the Premier League this season who haven't scored from a corner, even though their head coach, Keith Andrews, was...

53:02Set-piece coach. Set-piece coach last season. And even under Thomas Frank, Brentford were known for being exceptionally good from set pieces. One of their set piece coaches joined Chelsea. It's quite odd for Brentford to be quite bad. What do you put that down to? They do have the long throw at their disposal. Michael Coyote, yeah. I don't quite know. It's a little bit strange. They should be good at it, but maybe it's because Dam's guard's not played as much this season and Dam's guard normally takes the deliveries and Buma used to take a lot of deliveries as well. might just be they're creating lots of chances but haven't scored from a corner and that eventually they will score three weeks in a row or something like that.

53:43Molyneux might be a good place to do it although Brentford while being strong at home have only taken three points from a possible 24 on the road. Leeds meanwhile who are on that three game unbeaten run which is literally the best run that Daniel Farker has ever had in the Premier League they are home to Crystal Palace who have had a great season so far, but this will be their second game in 48 hours. Rotation notwithstanding. So, yeah. But Leeds in terrific form. Dominic Albert-Lewin in terrific form. He scored in four Premier League matches in a row. That's a big game. Big game for West Ham.

54:25Teams in and around Leeds at the bottom of the table. Burnley-Bourmouth. Burnley-Bourmouth. Bournemouth-Bournemouth. with Burnley can I talk briefly about Oliver Son you see this chap who scored the consolation goal last weekend right back called Oliver Son blonde hair ruddy face you're like oh it must be some sort of academy prospect no he's from Denmark that's not the most interesting thing about him there's something more interesting about him he represents Peru ok that is cool the guy called Oliver Son from Denmark who represents Peru playing right back for Burnley that's cool he's playing against Messi in World Cup qualifiers last season And all these sort of smaller Latin American nations that are using sort of Ancestry.com as like a scouting network.

55:08And Peru are at it as well. I should say his full name's Oliver Son Christensen. That adds a little extra... I love that. Good old Oliver Son. His maternal grandmother. Who's he playing for? He plays for... Burnley. Burnley. Burnley's right back. He's the nephew of Helena Christensen. No. No, no, no, no, no. Yeah. that is that's even more have I have made it more interesting that's more interesting he is the most interesting player in the Premier League wow Henry Chrissie the supermodel yeah I've got a stat for you Benji please and indeed you listener it's not the fact that Burnley have had seven defeats in a row it's not the fact that Bournemouth have gone seven games without a win although they did their best to pick one up Monday night of course it's the fact that 42 % of all the Premier League goals scored by teenagers this season 42 % of them have been scored by one teenager by the name of Junior Kruppi.

56:06Ha! Bournemouth Junior Kruppi, that's an astonishing stat isn't it? I mean it shows that not many teenagers are scoring goals but yeah he looks good he's going to be Senior Kruppi soon if he carries the matter. Yes, that's how it works Excellent. Alright Fulham Forest is on Monday Harry Wilson is in terrific form but you want to give us a stat about well let me just tell you let me just try and set this up I'm really fascinated by all rounders so basically players that were as good going forward and Peruvians the nephew of Helena Christensen and he also worked as a model did he? yeah oh my god he's a new favourite player what about Charlie totally football extra the Oliver Son edition Oliver Son okay good looking boy 2000 word long reader yeah yeah yeah sorry anyway all rounders so as good as they are going forwards as they are going backwards and I tried to find a statistical way of capturing who the best all rounders in the league are so I separated a load of opt-in data into both attacking attributes and defensive attributes and then was looking for players that are elite in both columns stay with us and you sort of gradually increase the thresholds for inclusion until there was only one player left and that player was Elliot Anderson you distilled the numbers I distilled the numbers on both sides so he's in the top 3 % for key passes and successful dribbles.

57:27So, you know, for example, that's more than Eze and Gordon. So he's very, very good at taking players on and beating them. He's in the top 1 % of fouls suffered. Grealish is number one. So fouls suffered is generally an attribute of a good attacking player. Right. And those are the attacking attributes. He's also in the top 1 % for tackles won and ball recovery. And in terms of ball recoveries, he's an absolute machine. So he's made more ball recoveries than anyone else in the league by a distance. So the average Premier League player wins the ball back 3.1 times a game he wins the ball back 8.2 times a game he's a monster he's a monster what were Newcastle thinking but listen up rest of the world who was number two in the hierarchy of all rounders it was his England teammate Declan Rice oh yeah so you know your France's your Spain's I had Bruno Fernandes but I was clearly on that look out for those the two best all rounders and the best league in the world yeah the base at the base of England's midfield that's quite exciting So even with his incredible talents, both going forward and, well, I wouldn't say going backwards, but you know what I mean.

58:30Forrest are down there in 16th spot, only five points off West Ham. I sort of don't, I've stopped worrying about Forrest. But maybe, maybe that's incorrect because I think maybe they're doing really well in Europe. I've got to go in here.

58:46Yeah, it's very good. Forrest will be at Fulham on Monday. Monday, so, you know. Our friend Nick Miller's got a piece coming out about how Forrest under Deitcher are actually playing a bit more expansively than people thought. I mean, you'll have seen that against Spurs the other day. And it seems to be so far. I think Deitcher at Everton never felt like a perfect fit. It almost felt a bit temporary, even though he was there for quite a while. But I think him at Forrest seems to fit pretty well. Excellent. Of course, it's not his first time, though. Most Forrest fans, I think, are pleasantly surprised.

59:16It's not what they were expecting. I think they were expecting something much more dour. let's see let's see what he comes up with against Marco Silva's Fulham on Monday that is match day 17 and straight after Monday Jay you'll be hopping on an aeroplane I certainly will to Morocco yes for AFCON you're joining for I think the second round of games yes I'll be there for Nigeria's second group stage game which is against Tunisia and then I'll just be I'll be following Nigeria a lot but I'll be bouncing around everywhere I'm definitely going to go see a Morocco game while I'm out there, Ivory Coast.

59:54I'll just see how the storylines unfold. But my colleague... How excited are you? 10 out of 10. 111 % on the excitement scale. It's a callback. What cities are you going through? Do you know yet? Nigeria, based in Fez, mainly. I'll be in Rabat, and I was in Rabat a couple of weeks ago. I get to go to Marrakesh. And then again, it just sort of depends on what man some folds which team ends up in which bracket of the draw but very very excited and for fans of up and coming prospects the Athletics Radar will be published tomorrow Friday looking at 34 players at least one from every team yeah worth checking out the Fez Bazaar for my money I reckon it's the best Bazaar in Morocco everyone is always talking about Janari El Fanar in Marrakesh aren't they though but honestly on sort of like power ranked ex-bazaar yeah I reckon Fez wow under the radar Fez yeah it's really beautiful Fez and also Esauere if you get a chance to go to Esauere on the coast yeah I've been to Esauere stunning yeah Blue City I've never been to Morocco Tagazoot's where all the kind of you went the other day yeah but this tournament looks particularly intriguing this I think it's going to be amazing there's loads of storylines firstly it's on Channel 4 so I think it's possibly the first time it's been on free-to-air TV in the UK or certainly the first time in a while I think the Beeb used to show it yeah it used to be US sport and then it was Sky a couple of years ago but people have better access to it it's going to be fascinating to see what Mohamed Salah does interesting to see what Nigeria do after missing out on World Cup qualification I think I said last week Cameroon are in a little bit of chaos because they've just sacked their manager and Samuel Eto 'o who's the president of the Cameroonian FA has brought someone else in I mean Morocco were the fans were just incredible at the last World Cup And I think hosting this tournament is going to be great to see.

1:01:51And they obviously co-host the 2030 World Cup. So intriguing to see how that public transport, the infrastructure works out. Loads of different things to keep an eye on. Yeah. Mahe Mazahi was on recently when we did our World Cup draw reaction show. And he was saying that he thinks that probably the strongest team in Africa right now is South Africa. He thinks that people are sleeping on Bafana Bafana a bit. Yeah. I mean, in some content we've done for the Athletic, I've said they're dark horses as well. Well, not even dark horses. They should be serious contenders. The semi-final of the last AFCON had only got knocked out by Nigeria on penalties.

1:02:26They topped their World Cup qualifying group. South Africa have one of the best domestic leagues in Africa. And their squad is made up of lots of players from Mamalodi Sundowns, who are at the Club World Cup in the summer, and the Orlando Pirates. So that just gives them a degree of familiarity that's very hard to get in international football. I can't help but think of water park when you say that, but yeah, go on. Especially when FIFA keep pushing back their release days. But I think the only, there is a bit of a cloud hanging over South Africa now because the head coach made some quite unsavoury comments about one of their players last week.

1:02:58He's since come out and apologised, but I do wonder if that will impact the team's harmony. Crikey. What did he say? He said... Give us a bucket of outrage that it falls into. Racially insensitive comments about one of the defenders, yeah. and his female agent as well. So he was sort of ticking all the boxes on how many people can I offend. Well, that's unfortunate. Jay, I hope it all smiles all the way and looking forward to hearing from you from Morocco. Many thanks for today. Thank you, Duncan. See you tomorrow for next week's Totally Extra on a Christmas tip, y 'all. I'm sorry, what was it?

1:03:37No, not yet. Next week. Yeah. and thanks to you Benji for taking time out from your day job distilling stats about Premier League players thank you in the booth to producers Jake and Charlie and you listener do join us on Saturday when Asa Krapaniye and Sasha Gurionov will be with us doing that El Niño chat-a-thon and for now from all of us here it's goodbye

1:04:08you've been listening to the totally football show part of the athletic fc podcast network 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

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