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of trading card singles, sealed boxes and memorabilia. Start pulling heat today at ebay.com slash upper deck. That's ebay.com slash upper deck. Come through and collect with us today. The Athletic FC podcast network. Totally football show today on a weekend when Timber fell and wood was on fire. We took Arsenal Liverpool all square in a proper Super Sunday, Sizzler. Also West Ham do man united the Dallow Chancen is it time to Dallow Cab for 10 Hague and, couldn't you believe
it? The walls wild finale and all of the Saturday late gold bananza or that and more in this totally football show. Sunday the 27th of October. We've got some totally football show for you on the back of a wild weekend of Premier League action. Matchday 9. They're calling it. To chat about that and so much more. JJ Ball. Hey JJ. Hello. Lovely to see you. Thank you. David Adams fresh back from Stanford Bridge, man. Oh yeah. Where you saw the Cold Palmer
show. Sure did. That was the episode. Was it good? On his way back as we speak from the London stadium with the latest on 10 Hague, etc. and West Ham's mighty win is Karl Anker but not here yet. He'll be sliding into the chat as and when a reminder by the way, if you catch in this in our podcast format on Monday, Tuesday, whenever that if you do want to for whatever healthy reason, watch us make this show live. You can just tune in on our YouTube channel around 6.45 on a Sunday evening like
you're doing YouTube viewer. Lovely stuff. Busy weekend. Loose to talk about. What's your favorite bit, Matt? Oh, can I be utterly predictable and say, not even for a swimming at Leicester. I think it was actually detaining of the forest support to sing in the Steve Cooper chant when the third goal went in. For the uninitiated, explain
to us the significance of them doing that. Just because the game was won but also I think the fact that the chant originally included the line hates the Leicester and the Leicester support has seemed to not have much positive feeling toward him. Yeah, it was a forest haven't been handly beaten there during Cooper's time. It was a nice, full circle moment of redemption for many of us if not for Cooper himself. Are you going to miss the relegation
battle this year, Matt? No, not so much. JJ, I guess I don't need to ask you what your favorite bit, probably sleeping on top of the table on Saturday night like a cadaver. That's exactly what I was going to see. Right. And that was words. Yes, beaten, undenated one-nil, a late goal from a player who hasn't really done an awful lot for Aberdeens and it's not exciting. It was fantastic. Being top of the table with Aberdeens, I've never
seen it this late into a season. So it's very exciting. This late into a season. Oh, yeah, like this is, I mean, it's too much to handle. Of course, Celtic are now backed up the table and I have, of course, on goal difference. Yeah, but I mean, it's significant. They
will finish top. But maybe they won't. Okay. So JJ and I are both adults who work in football professionally and I'd imagine that we both took screenshots of league tables this weekend, which is sort of endearing and a little bit embarrassing. A lot of people are asking about your Aberdeen pessimism. CGW says, have you started to dream yet? JJ obviously not. Casper Bonnayn says, could Aberdeen beat Real Madrid? I mean, we
did once do it in 1983 cup and there's Cup Final of course. Right. Was that when, which was a huge thing for the club, which I've never mentioned before in any media places before. I am allowing myself a little bit of fun now. I can, the momentum is building and I still think Celtic are just too far ahead. And I think like when you compare it to Leicester winning the league, the differences are that you had other teams that weren't doing very
well and you need that to happen. You need everything to go perfectly for you and everything to rise and you ride the way of the confidence momentum. But also the teams who are meant to win should fall away and Celtic are just, they're just too good. And it's not pessimism. I think it's hard and realism. I like to think. But yes, the dreaming part, I'm allowing myself a little bit of fun with it now. Okay. Rangers midweek. Yes. Okay. Let's talk
about the Premier League results coming in for you as indeed is kind of Lanka. So while he takes his chair, let me just run through what's happened so far on Matchday 9, Friday evening, a 31 victory for Nottingham Forest at Leicester. Chris Wood with his seventh goal in seven games for club and country. Saturday at three, Man City's 1-0 win against Saints was straightforward enough, early Holland and his league drought. But there was late,
late drama and all the other Saturday game. Brent for coming back from two goals down to be Ibswitch 4-3 in the 96th minute. Wars. Make it 2-2. A Brighton in the 93rd. The Cherries scoring their equaliser in a one-on draw with Ashton Villa in the 96th minute and in the T-time game. Everton Fulham, Beto scoring for the Toffees in the 95th to make it 1-1. Madness. Sunday then, West Ham beat Man United 2-1 at the London Stadium. It was 2-1 for
Chelsea over Newcastle as well. And then Crystal Balanced got their first win of the season, 1-0 against Spurs and Arsenal and Liverpool drew 2-2 at the Emirates. Welcome, Karl Anker. Hello James, I'm sorry, I'm late. No, you missed nothing. Excellent. Very, very shortly. Like next, we'll talk about Arsenal Liverpool. This is the tightly football show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. Call the Salah
celebration. Police Mo Salah there make it 2-2 at the Emirates. The brilliant equaliser. What does that mean for Arsenal's title dreams? We'll talk about that next. But first, here's James Piers with thoughts on Liverpool's performance. James, once again, a tough test for Liverpool and one that they pass. How did they do it? I thought they showed a lot of character and resilience to dig themselves out of the whole twice, really. I think a lot was made
about Arsenal's absentees. I'm sure a lot we made about the players that they lost over the course of this game as well. But let's not forget that was Liverpool without Alison Beckham, without the Ogo Jotter, the best goalie in the world and their main striker. So, yeah, I thought they were outplayed for big chunks of the first half, but responded really
well to go in behind. Got themselves back into it with that Van Dyke header. And then, when Marino made it 2-1 just before the break, you thought, is this going to be the day when the wheels came off this remarkable start to slot frame, but credit to him, I thought it's substituted, made a big difference. Second half, and I thought they deserved a point in the end. What was the difference, do you think, at half time, because there was a
real switch in the domination of the game? Yeah, I think it was probably a few factors really. I mean, I think the changes slot made certainly helped. I thought bringing on gag poems, the Bosley and Simicast. Bosley, especially, I thought, gave them a bit more energy and athleticism in the middle of the park. I think also, you could see the arsenal were affected by the last of Gabrielle. I think that was, you could see it was such a
kind of patched up back for that it just lacked a bit of leadership. And I think that just gave Liverpool encouragement. And, yeah, I mean, the amount of ball Liverpool had second half, you were starting to wonder if they were just going to pay the price, were not doing enough with it, but it was a wonderfully crafted second equaliser, you know, exquisitely weighted pass down the right from Alexander Arnold, Star with Nunes pulling the ball back
and, and salad doing what he does best. Three big games, three big tests that they've passed, but what questions James, do you think are still there to be answered for this slot side? Yeah, I mean, I suppose if you're nitpicking, you'd say again, you know, they, especially the first half, they were, they didn't, they, they caused a lot of problems for themselves with how, how, how poorly they, they, they were, they were in possession
in terms of giving the ball away. I thought they invited pressure at times. Also, you know, Nunes worked really hard, but he was coming so, so deep in that first half that there was no outboard at all when they, to relieve the pressure. And, and of course,
you know, they rode their luck at times against Chelsea. There was times in this game, especially first half, where you thought, Arsenal could, could, if they'd been a bit more ruthless be out of sight, but yeah, the, the positives far, far outweigh the negatives for Liverpool the minute. I mean, it's, it's no surprise they're working progress because this manager's only, only been coaching this for the players for what is it three months.
James Pearce there at the end of what was a rollercoaster of emotions, certainly for us watching. And I imagine the Arsenal fans in the stadium watching their players dropping like flies like Timber. Like Timber. Essentially, yes, one in particular. What do you think? Where does that leave them at? If you go on vibes, which probably shouldn't, it doesn't feel great, does
it? But if you go on available players, it doesn't feel great either. So, I mean, there are only three points behind Manchester City, but considering how they seem to be the dominant force in the first half, it was quite stark how they seeded that control of the game. And you can put all of that down to players being unavailable or going off during the game. It certainly feels like a season defining period for them now. Doesn't it? Newcastle next week, Inter in Chelsea
away in the near future as well. Yeah, they could do it. You know, even if it was something like Lewis Scully or Wanyeri coming off and doing something to get you off your seat, go, right, okay, well, here's somebody we can put some stock in for the next few weeks, but it all just feels a bit, a bit flat at the moment. I mean, the back four by the end of the game, I imagine would
have read Lewis Scully, Kibio, White and Parties, that right? Yeah. We were wondering whether this is like Arsenal having injuries this season as a result of overplaying last season, potentially, because they had so many that played. I was looking through just some very basic numbers with minutes and games played. And I always compare Arsenal to Man City, because I think they do it best. They have the biggest and best squad possibly. So that's probably our real reason.
I've got a lot of rotates very, very well. You always forget. They have a great player and right towards the Italian this season, you always go, ah, would you like some bananas or John Stunton or whatnot? Well, that's it, but he uses them in purpose, right? So they all get like 25 starts basically each Man City. So they like jobs here almost, but they still get loads of starts. 11 players played over 2,000 minutes in the league from Man City last season. Nine players
played outfield players played over 2,000 minutes for Arsenal, so that's more for Man City. However, no player played over 3,000 minutes from Man City last season and four played for Arsenal. With a sack and white, about 90 minutes off, about 12, between 12 and 80 minutes off, that's even just in the league. So it could be that they're just, maybe it's like workload. You don't know if that's the result,
what's was happening with them now. But yeah, it's probably like the missing Oregard is huge for them in particular, because all their link up plays sort of disappears. But I think this game was more two teams defending really well and making it super direct. Like there was no midfield to play against the other team. There's no point playing through the middle, because you're getting marked there. So everyone's going wide, means you're options with you are to go long or wide. And so then does
nothing happens. And you see it in the result of like how many chances there were expected goals in open play, where 0.58 for Arsenal to 0.6 will ever pose, has nothing really created. I had this on, you know, part radio, part typing up my match report for Manchester United game. And one of the thoughts that came through was that when Arsenal went to one up, they sort of decided to try and shut up shop instead of go for that third goal. Yeah, but they do that all the time,
right? So that's the, is that ways to do against Liverpool? They almost got it. I think, I think, so yeah, I mean, it's, I think it's a really good point for Liverpool. I think Arsenal disappointed. What I'm going to say, is it that bad a point for us, not given the injuries that they've got, and given the nature of, of Liverpool's recent form, mentioned Chelsea last week, I'll be liposigging midweek as well. But if they come from behind twice to Drupal,
then it's not, is it? But the fact that they let twice in the game is the psychological. I hear you. I hear you. We salute it, the magnificent Mo Salah goal with which Liverpool equalised. The Sacka goal, which I think was pretty good as well. Pretty good, eh? Yeah, yeah. He's one of those SJJs just touched upon there that worries me that we're just going to get to him being 27-28 and go, yeah, he just played way too much for Bordeny, and now he's a diminished force. I was concerned when
I saw his name on the team sheet because you think, how, how fit actually is he? And, you know, could you, Rahim Sterling not start this game instead? It's not pretty fit, is he not? Yeah, he did, but I just think as we're seeing with, you know, Yagabriels and others, accumulation of just game after game after game is going to make him more susceptible to longer-term absences. And yeah, that's my worry for Sacka in particular, but yeah, he sure
leavened it, didn't he? He certainly did. He certainly did having first sat, and he rubbed him down on his bum very firm. He's had it a few weeks, Robbers, and that's the thing. He seems a little bit off it, but yeah, not a big story from this game. That's good. Good to have him back for Arsenal, Liverpool then equalised through Virgil Van Dyke, who personally, naively, I felt, might have been in a bit of trouble before this when he kicked out, and I kind
of slightly Beckham 98-esque fashion. Yeah, repeatedly. It's too early in the game. You couldn't possibly send them off then, it would just be silly. I think you have to lay a little bit, like, I think both teams would have known they'd been told in the dressing room, like, these are going to go at you. You're going to get in loads of arguments, keep your head cool, which then, I suppose, is an interesting point that Van Dyke then did kick. Yeah, it's like that. But like,
Havr has been like, pulled on him, who knows? I think if you referee, you watch his, like, come on, like, come on guys, like, chill out. It's like the common sense rule where you just go, just behave, it's fine now. Okay. You've got to lay it sometimes. Liverpool will level, but then, as first of Drew took a close, Arsenal got a free kick, which was foul on party. Match director, pressiantly, called the close-up on the Arsenal, the Nicholas Yover.
Yeah. And lo and behold, one of the Yover schemes came to fruition. He made it easy for the match director to be fed in a by-place game self-right on the edge of the technical area away from Miguel Arte, I'll tell you that he could be bangin' middle of the shot. That's what Arsenal has become. Alita is set pieces that they can grind games down there. Amazing out of possession, Arsenal. So everyone's man-marked. It's like hybrid pressing system,
then man-marked everywhere else. You can't play through them. You don't want to risk playing through the press because the result is that they're going to score. And everything then comes down, so, like, expected goals come down and open-play chances come down. But if you grind games down, that way, what you need to do is be really effective at your set pieces, which I think we've probably covered a thousand times before, but this is what Yover has done so well with Arsenal.
They've got all these big units in the team that can attack up all really well. But no matter how many times you practice those set pieces, the delivery every single time from SACA and then in this instance, Declan Rice, the ball he puts in is perfect. Perfectly awaited, perfectly curled, like, the pace on it is exactly where it's meant to go. The headers obviously really good,
like, the delivery of the ball. That's the kind of thing. If you have a player like that, and instantly your chances of scoring are going to go up from those situations, and that's what they've focused on, right, is set pieces that season. The way we are describing Arsenal now, so, maximise and control. Maximise and control of games. Try and reduce the variance. Try and maximise and set pieces. This sounds, they shone us. This sounds like how some of the top
soft-wable managers in Prokse. It's a very international football team approach. We're going to make sure we're not going to lose the game and then we'll have that extra 5-10% whatever you call it. I was saying something like, ages ago, Karla, like, two years ago, we were talking about this, we were doing videos and stuff. Like, I jokingly have said in the past that they're like, I'd really elite version of
Stoke or something like that. I'm joking. But it's not that different to what a lot of managers do. It reminds me of the old Abedinian manager, Derek McKinnis. You'd be hard to beat. You'd fend it where you need to play, and then you have elite players that can take you through. Diggle Simione is similar, right? So you'd be, first of all, if you're hard to beat, but it also reminds me of how Alex Ferguson's best team played.
Where you had players who weren't maybe the best ones, but they defended so well as in possible play against them and they always did a way of scoring against you. Back to back weeks in the Premier League, they haven't been hard to beat. Oh, sorry, they haven't actually lost, but they certainly haven't had the win. Should we put that exclusively down to the injuries at the back? Well, the Bournemouth defeat was coloured by the red card, wasn't it?
Yeah. That kind of takes care of that one, I think. But yeah, if you're missing Celeba Rodegarg, Califurri. Timber. Timber. And now Gabrielle, for you know, who obviously Celeba comes back for the next game, but how long is Gabrielle going to be out for? It's, yeah, it's caught up with him. Hmm, Carabell Cup Action next for Arsenal and Liverpool. Wait until then I ask them or deep down, take on Preston North End. How did Preston get on this weekend, Matt?
They were three in the other, but Wayne Ruiny's Plymouth and can try to throw that lead away. They got his next for them, Liverpool will be trying to brighten. And then on the weekend, they'll be hosting Brighton in the Premier League match day 10. Anything else you want to say about this game at the Emirates?
Any other conclusion, it's only just finished, but I don't know if JJ is something that's... I don't know, I think it's interesting that the way that that game's played, that two really amazing teams who have fantastic players on there, it's so tactical now, like it's really slowed down.
And that ball has to go long constantly, which is not what you'd think of that sort of game, but you can see both managers are constantly doing things out of possession to try and stop the other one from being able to play. And so although there was two goals and you can see it was quite a good game, I mean, was it, like it wasn't... I'm not going to remember that game tomorrow. No, it wasn't as usually exciting, I don't think.
I think just two teams of good players, I mean, they're clearly both good teams. I mean, what I might even sing here, there's two exceptional goals as well, I would say the first, the opener and the final. I'll set two set pieces and then you're looking to try and hit people in the counter a little bit. Like really like Sackers goals, but hey, you know, maybe you enjoyed some of this weekend's other matches. More, let's find out next up having spoken about Arsenal and Liverpool.
Let's find out what Man City got up to. Thursday Night Football is all and it's only on Prime Video. All the way for the touchdown. This week it's a Halloween treat as the Houston Texans take on the New York Jets. What? The catch! coverage begins at 7 p.m. Eastern with TNF tonight. Presented by Verizon, not a prime member, signed up for 30-day free trial to stream the game. It's the Texans and the Jets Thursday at 7.
Both a prime video, restrictions apply, see Amazon.com slash Amazon Prime for details. Members SIPC. Responsive for this episode of the Totally Football Show by Shopify. And when it comes to successful football teams, it's not just a players on the field, all the tactically astute and typically bald continental managers who are responsible for results. It's the entire backroom staff and the infrastructure of the club, and that's the same with business. When you think about companies like Skims,
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Sign up for your $1 per month trial at Shopify.com slash totally, all in lower case. Go to Shopify.com slash totally to upgrade your selling today. Add Shopify.com slash totally, TOTA.LY. This 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 P.S., Oli K, and the very best football writers around. Man City Saturday, played Southampton, did they win? Yes, of course they did.
But on Thursday, we were talking about them maybe getting 10. We got a 1 and a 0, but not all on one side of the score sheet. It was Erling Hall and with the only goal. They're quite impressive stride though while being hauled over. Yeah, I thought you did well. Pep and Bernardo Silver said that Saints did well as they... Of course they did. Oh, of course they did. The Pep compliment is... Yeah. It was one of the more egregious Pep complements before the game.
And then afterwards it is reminiscent of when Pep Guardiola would put several goals past Norwich and going, guys, they're so good. I'm out. Saints are so good that they're off to the worst start since 1998-99 when they failed to win as this season. Any other opening nine matches. But when Tonto survive in the Premier League, so there's that... Martin, Martin, Marian Parha, I hope you'll call that one. Oh, here's a stat. This from Daniel's story about Man City's Yosko Gradiole.
He has had more touches in the final third of this season than any other player in the Premier League. Isn't that mad? I think that's really interesting. And I've actually got a theory about why this isn't... There's so many defenders now that are becoming increasingly important within just modern football. Right. Tonto do without a possession stuff. Like, so everyone's locked down. So when you want to find the spare man, it's usually someone at the back, cleared centerbacks.
But if you're marking, you man-to-man using a 4-4-2 block and the left back or a centerback starts wondering up the pitch, you have to work out whose job that is to take them. If you do it very quickly, you're not organized and not expect it. That play then appears in spaces that is really dangerous. I've seen Guardiola, often in the last two seasons, has ended up in the final third, in a let-have-space game and pings it in when there's right foot.
Piece of spare man, because he runs in from the left. That's a cheat code thing. He had the last to end. He's a cheat code, ever in a sense. He could... Guardiola coming forward though. That's really interesting. And then you think that centerbacks do it as well. Van de Venz Russian 3, Romero does it quite a lot? And so... And Legus, they do it a lot, actually. Yeah. Today too, which is... It's a good reason not a lot of the season. And it just gives you...
It doesn't have to be that they get even the touch, but they make a run that drag someone else with them, which then freaks up someone else. And I think that's an increasing... Yeah, absolutely. Man City with the win, a point clear of Liverpool at the top of the table, Arsenal. Five points back, five yikes. All right, onto Sunday's other games then. Matt Euret Chelsea, car you're just back from the London stadium. Indeed. And that man United West Ham game. But why don't you start with that, eh?
Okay. The comeback in the Saver's David Moist Darby, I'm calling it. Okay. It finished 2-1-2 West Ham. How far a result was that? That is perhaps the worst first half performance I've seen of a Premier League team that has managed to win in the second half. Really? Eh, Manchester United fit came in at half time with... I think the AQM in XG was 1.48. The I test is they should have won... This should have scored through a four.
Right. At 100 Garnatcha hits the crossbar within the first three minutes. He shoots just wide after eight minutes. Bruno Fernandez misses a free header around about the 20-minute mark. Uh, Diogo Dallo has what I'm going to think I now think is the miss of this season. So much of the game plan is... So this is a Bruno Fernandez ball, like pumped up field. It's one of those superb passes. Daniel Storif and talks about this where...
Where someone makes a pass and it's a button press if you're playing a computer game. And yet if you did that five a side of Sunday League, you'd be talking about it for the rest of your life. Right. Fernandez plays this sumptuous ball into the right channel for Dallo who's coming in from the right into the half space. He takes it around Fabianzki. Well, he got some braires from... Some braires, nudges it. It is amazing. Fabianzki's left in No Man's Land, Marooned.
Westown players retreating back. No one's going to do it. You can feel one Westown the fund and going. If I can just get to the near post, maybe I can close down an angle and it won't just be an obvious goal. And then Dallo shoots high and wide. And you can see Vanisteroe shaking his head in disbelief. I've got my head in my hands. Manchester United fans... Wait, wait, wait. You have the ones that give them something... Everyone's far away from each other. In sheer disbelief at this miss.
But at half time, if you were a conventional team, if you were a normal football team, you do your half time team talk. If this is going really well, gentlemen, keep up the good work and the goal will come. But... This is Manchester United we're talking about. And Westown two smart changes at half time. Christian Summivall came on for Carlos Saler, who's having trouble suggesting to Premier League, to my shoe check coming on for Pakatar, who is looking really undercut. Really?
To start this season, I must say. And they built... They built and built Summivall gets the goal. Casamiro had a... in the 80s first, to spare some blushes. And then just the refereeing decision that... Yeah. OK. So there's a coming together of players, which is... Yes. Which is delixed. A coming together of delixed and downings. In the penalty area. No Westam player protests for a penalty in real time. Right. The ball is cleared. Then you hear the VA are doing... reviewing a penalty.
Quite confusing. Everyone's where, why? How? Very lengthy review. To which Mr. Koot is sent over to the screen. And Michael Oliver has an image that shows sufficient contact in the lower legs between delixed and downings across the threshold. And therefore a penalty can be awarded. The penalty is awarded. Garen Fletcher is... I would like to say... Four rows in front of me. In the analyst section. I see him close his laptop. He says some... Married time language. Right. Shall we say?
About the thresholds. And then storms off towards the dugout. Eric Tanag is apoplectic. The review by Nistory is apoplectic. Ten hugs. Press conference. It's one of the better ones I've had talking to him and see where he talks about how he's clearing obvious how his team was the best team. And then also says it was not clear and obvious. We were told about clear. It did a real nice wrestling program, man. Where he brought up how it's clear and obvious his team was the best team.
And then also brought up how it was not clear and obvious that this should have been the penalty. Would you say it was a better press conference than the one he gave off to the one on Drogant's Fenerbahce show where he... I would. Yeah. I would. That one was peculiar. Where he denied the Tottenham 3-0 defeat to a place. Yes. Yeah, that was red card. That wasn't a red card. He said there were three now... Now three injustices, Manchester United have faced.
He also did say we didn't take our chances and that we allowed West Ham to come into it in the second half. There's a lot of people say you can't put this on the manager if there's bad-riffering decisions. And particularly if the players don't take their chances. But their scoring is the worst that they've had at this point in the season since the 1973-74 season. Indeed. They've got the greatest on the performance in front of goal on the XG table or any Premier League team.
This is a team that does not create enough chances. Right. Their forwards are not shooting enough on goal. Right. When they do shoot on goal, their ball striking is incredibly wayward so they're shooting high and wide, missing presentable chances. You've got a collection of forwards like Garnatcher who needs the ball in high volume in order to make his Garnatcher really like shooting at near post when he's through, which when it works, he probably needs about two warm-up shots to get his rhythm.
The problem with that is, Manchester United don't give him six shots. So those two warm-up shots are going, okay, well, you get one more now. And if you don't score this, the United aren't scoring again. And the United are a confidence team in that. They often need to score one goal before they remember how to do a throwball other than Bruno Fernandez.
So this is a team that is in bad form or you can outright just call them a bad team that are now being affected by bad luck in both penalty areas. Okay, 14th of the Premier League table. Also, I was a bit stunned by this. They've now gone a year with the Fernabashi draw on Thursday. They've now gone a year without winning a game in Europe. One more goal than Chris Wood in the Premier League, though, so I mean, you can compete with Chris Wood in the Premier League right now of Northern Ireland.
Well, Carl, that was extraordinary. That was extraordinary. Many thanks. West Ham, any positive thoughts for them? I'd say the second half turnaround was good. Yeah. Loppa Tegi mentioned about how perhaps the... He said it, the first half was difficult because we had two players on yellow cards, so it's hard when you have to press a big team with that. So you have to make those change. I think some of you already did change the game.
Having a genuine wing out there is useful because as much as I love Mohammed Kudu, so I think he's better off as a ten or a boxer box. So, Kudu's does come back from his suspension. It might be an opportunity to play Kudu's in more century and actually give Pachatara a breather. Because I think Pachatara is a really odd state in that. West Ham don't necessarily want to bench him because they don't know how many more weeks or months they're going to have left with him.
But also, he is in need of the rest. He perhaps what is going on in his life is affecting his form, but this is not the Pachatara that charm to many people last season, the season before that. Fair enough. West Ham moving above Maniaget up into 13th spot. Matt, meantime, you were at the big Chelsea Newcastle game, Sunday, Oct. at Stanford Bridge, one of two Chelsea Newcastle clashes this week? Sure, yeah, Premier League points today, disgusting, slash delicious carabiner for.
On Wednesday. Okay. It was very much delicious, the parts with which Cold Palmer has set up the opening goal for Chelsea in this game. Two great pre-assists today. The Trent one as well, didn't we? I'm very similar kind of style passes as well. Coles was better, I reckon. Yeah, I think so too. He'd had a goal chalked off for a very marginal offside just before that, but he thought, hang it all if I'm not going to influence this game in some formal fashion.
Chelsea probably just about worth the win, quite like in the Enzo, Merezca Quirks, of which there seemed to be some in every game. Reese James left back was not something which I had on my bingo card, nor was Reese James playing 90 minutes, actually. Yes, it's a pro-demon. Made it tremendous clearance at the end of the game.
Merezca's thrown some shade his way in his pretty much press conference, saying that he needs to basically be more of a captain and show more of himself around the club and be a bit more. I'm the spearhead figurehead of this team, which I think is nice copy, but as ever with Reese James, it's all moot until he starts playing some games. This is the first time he'd started a Premier League game at Stanford Bridge since November, which is not really what you want your captain to be in.
But yeah, Chelsea, I mean, there could have been three or four years after about half an hour, and the UCASL's organisation was bizarre. The gap between the defence and midfield was quite extraordinary to watch. They looked like a team with a mound down, essentially. Yeah, they did. Yeah, yeah. But then you come back to organisation, and Simon Johnson wrote a piece for a little website called The Athletic.
Last week talking about Chelsea's lack of leaders in defence, and you see this for the goal that they can see, they're kind of a bit all over the place like Newcastle back into the game. But then Newcastle returned the compliment at the start of the second half, and Nick Pope, who looked like he'd been spooked by something. He was flapping at Steph Punching Crosses. He should have caught a parmer's goal. How long will he make? We think it has to be. Well, the spooky stuff in the ceiling.
On Grave and Popes, possibly. I don't know. I'm going to call someone that. Yeah, yeah. At Col Parmer, by the way, it's called 21 goals in 21 Premier League games at the Stanford Bridge for Chelsea, which is a leading Chris. He's had 45 goal involvements in 42 Premier League games. Madden away, which is nuts. So, yeah, that was good. Poor goalkeeping from Pope, but generally otherwise Chelsea-wise, I think the big thing is having Lavier and Kaiseido as to kind of screeners.
I'm thinking about this. I mean, it's just not crow-barring Enzo Fernandez into the team in a role, which is not good at. And I mean, I think he's pretty underwhelming anyway, to be perfectly honest, whereas Lavier was exceptional, and he got a standing o as he left the pitch, which were a defensive midfielder. It's not something that you see very often. So, yeah, big promise for Chelsea there. I think Newcastle.
I know they've got the PSR thing, but to be this far down the line are being owned by who they're owned by, and having Fabian, Sharon, Dan Berners, their starting centre-harves, and bringing on Willock and Longstaff and Murphy to try and change the game, you think, are you that into this, guys? Is this...
You know, they didn't have Anthony Gordon for this game, which is obviously a big blow for them, but yeah, you just look at them and think, this is all a bit man, not what we thought was going to have. Meg Piers, indeed. Hey. FPL Ralph says, who's been the best player in the Premier League this season so far? And why is it Cold Palmer?
So, JJ and I were talking before, you know, everything started happening today, about if you bought a football club, who you would rather sign, would it be Cold Palmer? Who do you rather have a new team, Cold Palmer? Or Eurling Holland? Probably you'll say, Oh Chris Wood, at this point. I'm at it and fair enough. JJ, did you come up with a conclusion on that? Well, it's hard to pick, because we're saying that the most valuable commodity in football is goals. Right.
So you'd get that from Holland, but you feel like Palmer is this unbelievable player who can make an entire teamwork, whereas Holland finish off the moves. So I would think almost in every single day I would pick Holland, but actually, now I think I would pick Palmer in every single day. Imagine if football club had both on the books at the same time. Yeah. Incredible. Yes, well, I think we've never known.
Holland, at the end of the City Game on Saturday, Holland just looked really annoyed that he missed those couple of chances, and the fact that he was the match winner and kind of passed in by, whereas Palmer seems impervious to any kind of negativity in a way, which is sort of extraordinary and I'm really envious of. Right. That he can do that. So I think for a kind of level, headiness, as well as the brilliance, he'd be my pick.
There is the point that he hasn't done it on multiple seasons to the extended heart. Holland does. And to your point, Pep had both of them and decided to stick with Holland, which, you know. I think the next frontier for co-op Palmer is doing in multiple seasons, and also doing it in the biggest, biggest, biggest games. Yes, I know before someone yells at me. He did score in a Euro's final.
But there are going to be, as Chelsea go from being this, I'm like, a team currently in the conference league to a team that, at least to my mind, will probably play a Champions League football next season. What is he going to do when he's up against the top, top, top Champions League quality defenders? And what not? And I have every faith and conviction that he will do it.
But I think that's the next one, because the sample size isn't quite big enough yet for me to go, OK, you've got the necessary intangibles to take a game against Newcastle by the Scruffler-Leck. Can you do it against Liverpool again? Can I see you again against Manchester City and see what you have? I think you can tell when you watch. The one thing with Palmer is probably on your point, actually, with Backstreet Up, is that, with Palmer, the first time I saw, I didn't really quite see it.
I was long to say he was great. The difference with these players at Palmer and Holland is when you have games that are locked down, the difference makers are the ones that the most valuable in football, and Holland gets you goals out in nowhere. So he will just finish the chance you should never have, but he doesn't give you other stuff. He's the pinhead that you need, right? The final point. Pinhead. Pinhead. There's a poor choice of words.
And he has a giant head, so I don't know what I was saying. But then with Palmer, he is a game changer. He's like a moment decider. He is the one that pulls something like that pass to send Neto through in the wing. There's very few players that know that that run's going to be there. I know to thread it between the dissenter back or the fullback and Neto running, rather than just pinging it over the top.
Then it's that, I think he's a decision making, I think he has that few players at that level have. That's what he's really switched on on the ball when he's playing. I think he's amazing. I want to say I do it more, but it's not a case of, when I say I want to see him do it more, that's not me saying he hasn't done it enough. You're not brave enough, Carl. You want to push it out.
No, I want to say, well, it's quite frankly, he's not played enough top six teams, yet for me to get really out of my city going down. He's also saying that with Holland, we know what he's capable of, but with Colp Armor, we still don't know how much he's engaged. And that's always a bit more captivating. And Holland's a machine, isn't he, which is for the purposes, if you want that for your football team, somebody who's ultra reliable, yeah, great.
But to steal a line from the athletics Daniel Taylor, who used to say this about Wayne Rooney, I found myself quickening my step once I got off the tube at full and broadway to walk to Stanford Bridge because I thought I'm going to go much Colp Armor. I can't wait to get there. Which would you rather interview, Erling Holland or Colp Armor?
Probably, Palmer, because neither a good, but Harlan can be quite scathing, whereas Palmer's just sort of one word, is that Harlan would let you know that it was a bad question and you're an idiot. Ah, there you go. Alrighty, lots of people excited by Chelsea, just quickly, just, mentioned Andrew Turner, thank you for writing it. Andrew points out, Chelsea at one point off third. One point off third with the younger squad in the league.
There was never anything confusing about Mariska wanting two players for each position are moving on veterans who didn't suit his system. The mockery in the summer was, misguided and cheap. I don't think he's in the free with Mariska. No, I think it's important to say that, and I think that it's fair to say that Chelsea's approach to recruitment has been slapped that, but it's calm down a lot now and they deserve some credit for that. But yeah, they built a squad of excellent players.
It's not a surprise, the results have picked up, but Enza Mariska deserves a lot of credit for the way that he's implemented it and the way that he's shown more flexibility than we previously thought he had based on what he did with the last of last season. I didn't go back to last season. I thought they were, with the end of the season, he's finished what's sixth, seventh for last season? Chelsea, yes. Yes, the next one. Because they've just spring up turn on the Pogetino.
Basically from April onwards, they were very, very good. And yes, yes, Chelsea did accumulate and churn in what is an unusual unorthodox manner. I remember scoffing when they signed Pedro Neto, but also Pedro Neto is a good football player. That's it, like there's like an overwhelming narrative that what they're doing is so silly. Look at those idiots, what they're doing.
But then when you actually look at what the squad is, two great players' preposition with like a good age and a high ceiling and lots of... I see a very intense, so Pedro Neto is a very different style of left-hand, left-sided winger to Jaden Sancho, which is good as well. You do, there are some players in that Chelsea squad that are good enough to be starters if not the centerpiece of teams that should be finishing sixth place.
So for example, Enzo is good enough to be starting on, let's say this new castle team and helping this new castle team get better. And yet he just doesn't fit and cost more than 100 million. So now what? Or in Coo-Coo? I don't think in Coo-Coo gets into Chelsea's best starting, 11. And yet I look at him and go, again, not to pick on new castle. He could definitely do a job and be really useful for new castle. And I just put part of it is jealousy, part of it is confusion.
And part of it is that just thing of, could you not just let someone else have a bit of fun with that person you've got in the back of your cupboard a phrase that horribly wrong, I'm very sorry. I think we all know what you mean. But anyway, yeah, mockery misguided where Chelsea's concerned and I feel one I'm glad that there are no old recordings of this podcast featuring any skating words on their whole transfer setup. But the other game early on Sunday was Chris Paliske and Spurs.
And it saw the previously winless palace, get their first three points of the season following a visit from our old friend, Dr Tottenham. With the word on what actually happened at Sirhurst Park, let's hear now from Ruben Pinder. Ruben, thank you so much for being with us. We didn't see the palace spurs game. What did we miss? Well, palace is best performance of the season is what you guys missed. Yeah, I'm a lot happier coming on this call than I thought it would be this morning.
It was a brilliant performance all round a really positive response from Paliske after a very disappointing game against Forest on Monday. Back three look settled finally. There's a lot more intensity and purpose in Paliske's out of possession, play Adam Warton looked fitter than he has done. So obviously he's been carrying that growing injury and yeah, really positive atmosphere helped by Spurs. Being quite underwhelming, I would say.
Dr Spurs, as we say, Jean-Valik Matetta with the only goal after a lovely flick on from Eze. How was the atmosphere there ahead of the game? It was interesting because when these slumps kind of start to happen, the atmosphere can get obviously like frustration grows, it can get a little bit toxic sometimes, but given the time we've had to wait since the Forest game and all the discussion about, is he going to play two strikers?
And there was a positive atmosphere, which Paliske fans are kind of known for producing in important moments and the players clearly appreciated that. At the end of the game, he saw Max Senslokkwa, who had his best performance in a palace shirt, run over to the Homestell and giving it large, I would say. And Matetta scored the only goal and bringing back his kick in the corner flag celebration which he hasn't done for a while. Indeed, that's not that much cause to, of course.
Oliver Glasser, who was looking a little bit like the new Royal Hodgson in that he come in at the end of last season and had amazing run results. And the following season started with a not amazing run of results. How important a day could this be for Paliske, do you think, Ruben?
Yeah, it's hugely important because the games that we've got coming up, wolves and full-arm, obviously both games that Paliske would kind of highlight as we should win those and while we might not win others, having not won all season until almost, you know, the end of October.
Pressure was growing on Glasner and it did seem like one of those patterns where you kind of maybe got a bit of a new manager bounce and there was, you know, the back end of last season was never going to be sustained, especially with the departures of Alisa and Anderson.
But yeah, there is still a lot of good faith in good will for Glasner and patients for him knowing that the pattern of Paliske go through of, I would get firefighter in, then try to upgrade to a kind of sexier manager and then it all starts to go a bit wrong because maybe we don't have the right players, firefighter and then, you know, it repeats.
But is it hugely important afternoon for him and showed that, you know, the players do still, can still carry out his plans because in recent weeks, they look drained of confidence but that was not a problem today. Excellent Ruben Pinder there, next up, we're going to tackle Saturday's action. This episode is supported by Merrill with a dedicated Merrill advisor. You get a personalized plan for your financial goals and when plans change, Merrill's with you every step of the way.
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This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. Totally Football Show European Edition is going to be out on Tuesday afternoon. What a European edition. It's going to be this week. The final whistle is just blown on an extraordinary dead-and-be-detailier, 4-4 draw between the event as an intern, injury event as. That was in the headline. Was it? You also had El Classico at the Bernabé with Barcelona winning four in the year.
The Bernabé with Barcelona winning four-0. Look classic, which is taking place at the moment in France. PSG must say the Derby de Nour, the Derby de la Couture, also in Liga. Those are stuff. PSVI and Hoven make it 11 league wins in a row with a six-no-win-over, Peck Zwoller, which is how they're pronounced. And a six-one win-virtual entry against Hellers-Ferrona. Where were those girls when they took on Celtic JJ? What happened there? I don't know, I didn't watch the game. Did you not?
I won't catch the smile. I didn't catch the smile. What did it? Yeah, brilliant. All right, well anyway, Tuesday, due join us for that as we round up all the big stories around Europe and there's some midweek league action. As well, back in the Premier League, let's look at Saturday's games and let's look, first of all, at Brentford Ips, which we were talking on Thursday's part about.
The fact that the G-Tech is the most golly stadium in the Premier League this weekend, I did itself, seven goals there. That's now 24 goals in the last five matches. And this was just crazy. This is the game of the season for me. Game of the season. Oh, tremendous. I had everything caught. I watched this stood up with my arms behind my back. Watch the match of the highlights. Truly, I'm going to go do some aeronauts or hang on, this is really fun. Let me really sit down and take this in.
A game with just absolutely no handbrake. Truly fantastic football. I adore Brian Boimmer. Right now, what he's doing, his partnership and Link Upplay with the WISER is, this is, Brentford did just, I was quite disappointed when Brentford came to Old Trafford the other week. I thought they were rather flat and expected quite a bit more. I think a lot of that was down to the San Joe Martin. It's just snapping into Boimmer and making sure he just couldn't turn around with the ball at his feet.
But give the man time to do that and give WISER a bit of time, and give space to run into. And this Brentford team can really, really hurt you. I also just quite enjoyed Calvin Phillips having some nicer touches for the upper switch. Phillips hasn't really shown everyone what he can do, but there were two or three flourishes here. I went, Erid is, keep out of it. You'll get there again.
If for any reason you miss this game, it saw Ipswich looking for their first win of the season taking a two-goal lead, but then going down to 10 men, then managing to come back to equalise with only to then see Brian and Boimmer's crazy cross, kind of somehow make its way into the net in the 97th minute. And then, even then, there was still time for Ipswich to almost equalise again.
Yeah, I'm personally, I think Ipswich would have been quite overrated generally this season by people, but yeah, you've got to feel for the mere. I mean, it was strangely, I'm delighted that didn't start the game. I've really nice equaliser for him, but I just love Brentford. I love Thomas Frank, I think, I think that you go through that team. I said this last time I was on a thing, but you go through their team, and there's just no superstar as that.
And they develop, like King Lewis Potter looks like a much better player for just being developed and having a bit of patience shown with him. And remember Ivan Tony? That was kind of a supplier who looked very, very good after Euro 2020 with Denmark. And you're going, okay, you're going to go to a spur-style club. Goes to Brentford, doesn't really kick on a bit. Maybe that's a bit of a dud, but no, he's again, slowly developing, looking very good. I do have question marks of a Vandenberg.
I think teams are targeting him when they are. But let's give him six months with Thomas Frank working with him. Yes, and then let's see if he gets better, like all the other brands. And I think this is a thing of just being a non-spurs, Arsenal Chelsea London team is hard, because while you have the pull of being in a big market like London and have that sort of attraction, how you hold on to those good players for too long. It's quite hard, so you have to do a lot of polishing.
I love in Boimow, and I think with Boimow, he's got the two or three qualities on that. Yeah, Alex Ferguson would have tried to buy you for like five million. I totally agree with that. And I'll let it go. I totally agree with that. I think I was doing loads of stuff that's been doing this thing of sensible transfers for what was T-fo but athletic. No, it doesn't do no matter.
So you have to profile, you know, what players would replace certain players, and looking at Liverpool's right side, I'll have a player kept coming up and all, like the data, all the deep analysis was in Boimow. And so you're looking at him more. I think some players don't have like the brand awareness, they don't have the star, they don't shine like that.
And I think in Boimow, put him in a bigger team of Brentford and something like, oh, this guy's amazing, because he is so good at everything he does on the pitch. Yes, such a flex to take the Tony Pan as well. I was like, I'm what, yeah. I take that. And then the dreaded Stutter penalty. A weird and hairy clock. Can Jonathan Woodgate now rest easy? We were all thinking it, weren't we?
Yeah. So scoring an own goal, conceding a penalty and getting sent off all in your first start in the Premier League. Yeah. Not great so many minutes. I still think Woodgate's as funnier and therefore worse. Worst but better, like better for him because of the comedy involved in it. Where it's very clarky, kind of like that. I felt like it was like a round of dread. You've played for it, switch up Brentford.
Yeah. The end goal was a bit harsh though, given that essentially that ball was going in. He was just trying to hit it out. He didn't do it. He's already sliding. Yeah. But yeah, better times will come for him no doubt. What is up this season with two goal leads? We talked about this on Thursday, the preponderance of teams letting two goal lead slip and Ipswich do it here.
In fact, now being five occasions this season of a team winning a Premier League match having been two goals down during the game. To put that in perspective, the only time that there have been more such victories in a single campaign was the 22-23 campaign couple of seasons back. At that time, there were six all season. We've already had five this time around. We just wanted more and no. Jay, what does it mean? This is one to more. It's just that mentality. Everyone's mentality wants to know.
I don't know. I'd need to really look into that. It must just be a freak thing where the... Do you think? What's that statistical? There's a theory for it where eventually statistics balance out in the end. So there might be there's none of them for aggression to the main. Not that one. Do you think it's that one? No. It's a thing where you might think something looks like an outlier therefore it's something to note. It's actually just because you've got five here and five below.
It becomes zero in the end. The history is long and your life is finite, essentially. So whether or not the statistic history has less to do with the thing happening in more cases at what point you were live in the big curve going from now on. Oh right. Yeah, where you are. So say for example, yeah, where you are. Yeah, you often see this with fashion trends, right? Oh, this is really big. I was like, are you just of the correct decade where Baggy jeans are in now. Baggy jeans.
Or fashion as well. In another thing. Jesus Christ. So where are we on that curve? I was about to say to big game-per-intuition. We can only play Leicester, but yeah. They are actually. We can. We can. Huge. Got to camera cut before that, Matt. Full list of the last 16 games would be as follows. Tuesday, Saints take on Stoke and Brent for the up against Sheffield Wednesday, confusingly. Wednesday then it's Brighton against Liverpool. Press and North End against Arsenal.
Man United Leicester, UCostle Chelsea, Villa Palace and Spurs against Men's City. That would be interesting. Carabell comes great. It would be the quarterfinals by the end of this week. It's, it's the first one. This one has the potential for opening up quite nicely for the next round. Hopefully, maybe. Could see some interesting teams with each other winning. You could watch Aberdeen versus Rangers. Excellent. That's Wednesday. Huge, huge. Huge. Huge. How many points for two in the moment?
I can't remember it, no, it can't be nine. Sure, that would be eight. That would be crazy. What do you check on that? Let me ask Carl about your trip Saturday, T-Time, to Goodison Park, to see Everton against Fullham. What a dramatic finale to this. All the games on Saturday, apart from Man City's had these late after the 90 significant result, altering goals. And this was one of them. Absolutely. This was Stodgy. Why did you go to the UK? That's the question.
Why, like, my good friend Aaron lives in Portland. He has supported Everton since about 96. Never made it to Goodison. Turned for E recently. And his wife, who does not like football said, look, you need to go to Goodison while you still can. I will get you some tickets. And Aaron, in his infinite wisdom, sort of looked at the fixulous. That went, this game might be winnable for Everton at this current point in time. So I've got two tickets. She does not want to go to this game.
So when Carl would you please come with me? Of course. What about Beto's tears with her Aaron? Beto's tears, I mean, that was them. That was a moment. So I went and I watched, I was up with the Everton fans. And this Everton team is quite one dimensional right now. I think it's, it's, it's, it's, it's the only player who can go past the player. So it's set pieces or what he can conjure up. Or can Dwight McNeill get into the ball in the bit of space. Who's now got it injured in this game?
It did go off injured. Against a full-oom team that can defend pretty well. It just didn't look. He was going to ever going to come. So Woby had one of the, the stranger mutated celebrations or he did the hands up. But also had quite a large smile on his face. I mean, they're, they're like, a Woby's link up with Emelson and Ferro is nice. I think, I mean, I'm sure Arsenal fans are still looking at our good job boys.
And in the last minutes, when McNeill went off, you're going, well, this is, this is it for everyone. They're not going to get a goal here. We saw Michael Keen emergency striker, which was quite fun. And then Beto gets equalizer. Who do you think it? I like Beto. Beto works hard. It's a great story. It's really, really, really hard. And you can see what it meant to him at full time. What is your great story, Matt? Didn't he work in KFC up until a few years ago?
Yeah. He took the long-secute to the professional game. Very much seemed like he wasn't going to make it. Then got in, then got out, then got back in again. His rival, Everton, was one of just question marks going, why have you bought this player? He does not have the requisite talent. But Beto has been very, very clear. He's going to make up any gap, just working his socks off. And if there's any manager in the Premier League, he's going to appreciate that. It's probably Sean Dyshe.
Do you know Everton have the second lowest amount of possession of any team in the top five leagues? Who's a lot? Well, Emily. Seven from that list, Matt. Two time European champions, not even for us. That's the one. All right, come on. Then let's talk about Nottingham Forest. Friday it was, costume I'm back to last week. When they had a rainy night at the King Pass stadium, rocked up and left with a 3-1 victory, going at the time, fifth in the table.
Yes. Dizzying. Crazy. And I think Chris was second in the scoring shots at the time. He's a third, but I mean, still nobody apart from, I mean, I guess even early on, I can't really match his scoring rate at the moment, Chris. Well, what's happened to him? I mean, he's been new, though, basically, because he has made quite a lot of not very subtle digs that Steve Cooper and Howard use by Cooper and how it feels to have a manager who genuinely appreciates him.
I think it helps a lot that he has pace and quality from wide areas around him. So you stay between the gold posts during the game and finish off chances when they come your way and he's kind of been knocked with a lot of, and he scores tapings or headers and his first goal, disproved that theory here because it's absolutely magnificent. And the header is well other than the header came with the assist from Vatelfast.
But yeah, he's just turned himself into an excellent player, but in the same way that a lot of forest players have and Nuno deserves immense amount of credit and humble pie come into world my way for being massively underwhelmed when he came in. I think he's showing what a flexible coach he is. I think you see that in this game as well when Ryan Yates misses from two yards out to make it 4-1, and he goes right. Wingers, off you come, we'll put defenders on now.
We don't try and score the next goal. We just see out this game, really clever management. He's been doing that all season. Forest have got Danilo and Ibrahim Sangare, or to be the two starting central midfielders and had James Watt-Prowse unavailable for the previous game. They haven't felt that absence because Ryan Yates has stepped up.
You know, this guy who's played in the top five divisions of English football who shouldn't be a Premier League captain, he's been at Barrow and Shrewsbury and Knox County and Skundthorp, and through sheer bloody-minded perseverance has managed to make himself a Premier League captain. Discoring this game was fabulous as well. Obviously there's the whole Steve Cooper thing too. It was a lovely old job. I enjoyed it tremendously. Forest looked like a decent Premier League team.
It's until the end of December to win back-to-back Premier League games last season. They've done it for the first time here. Beat Palace on Monday. Beat Lester on Friday. They've won at Amfield. Who have you got next? Who have we got next? He's West Ham at home next weekend. Maybe they could even make it three on the spin. I did also enjoy, obviously, Nuno watching them from the stands serving at his touch line ban. Because I was a fiend for content after this game.
I watched three separate post-match interviews he did. And each time the first question was, well, maybe if it carries on like this, you should stay in the stand and then you have to do the same for a slap of a slap. Maybe, but I prefer to be on the touch line. That's a question. Talk to me a bit more about Elliot Anderson. Because in the highlight of some seeing, I'm going, Jack really used to do that for Villa. Just steal that line from UCAL.
He could have done a job for Newcastle today, but unfortunately, they had PSR requirements they had to meet. So Forest got him instead. But yeah, Morgan gives Whitely in playing this game. Didn't play on Monday. Not a talking point, because Elliot Anderson played instead. Forest had got great depth. Another club who were pilloried for their recruitment for a couple of years turns out they've actually done some pretty good business over the last 18 months or so.
Eggson, Saturday afternoon also saw walls with a storming finale and really limbs of the weekend when at about four o'clock, sorry, when at about seven minutes to five on Saturday. So this was the moment, no, because you have Brighton on a four and one break. And again, everybody who watches it and everybody who's commentating on the game saw the sky, it saw the match of the day. I mean, once he gets it, imagine if they score from here. When you watch it knowing the score, I know what happens.
Just imagine if walls score now, match is Kuneha. They've got five forward. And he does score. It's incredible. Tremendous. Yeah, and match is Kuneha is a real different maker for walls. I think isn't easy. You look at that group of teams down the bottom who are going to struggle and every time I see him, I think he's a really impressive player. And he gets good, good returns for goals as well. He might be, might be vital for me. That's real Kuneha and the Mina and Doyle.
Dawson, I suppose, probably not to mean. If that if walls are going to get out of the Maya, it's going to ask a lot from them. And also, yep, because Kuneha is in this very difficult position where when walls do wind the ball, it does have to tend to be quite deep. And he does have to carry it maybe ten yards more than you watch you want an attacking player to have to carry.
But what's quite nice about him is he doesn't have that sort of exhausted fogging brain fog that happens when a lot of players go, I've done the sprint. What? Oh God. And they're with the pass. He does have that extra five percent in that ball striking. There's just enough in there that you think that'll be okay providing. He stays fit. Well, better fixtures on their way for walls. Once again, it was a team 2-0 up, failing to hang on for the win.
Just quick word on Daniel Wellbert, but I didn't mean quick because us some villas aboard are going, well hang on. Did we play this weekend? But Daniel Robson says, has there ever been a player that has peaked as late in his career as Danny Wellbeck? It's his 17th Premier League season. And he's looking the best he's ever been. Also to mention, Evan Ferguson getting his first goal in, I think over a year, but 20 Premier League matches, a lot of injury time off there.
And Brighton, for all the drop points against walls, they are still off to their joint best points, and I think that's the best time of the top flight season ever. Can't be many times in his career that Wellbeck scored in three successive games. Good on him. Nice one. Now, ask some Villa Bournemouth, one-one. Oh, there was a late goal here as well. Evan Ilson, and the keeper was up as well. Yeah, I look at Bournemouth, you know, Erayola, lots of attractive players.
I think you kind of labeled them as aren't they nice to watch. But the thing that really strikes me is their objurateness. I saw this forest on opening day. As they were here, they won the All-Down for quite a long time in the game, but they just stayed in it and stayed in it, and eventually a chance comes, and they take it, you know, they obviously did something even more spectacular away to Everton. I think that's a really impressive facet of their game, which is not talked about very much.
I quite like Bournemouth this season. Ah, would it have been asked of Villa Champions League hangover? They had the tuna win over Belonia midweek, and much as I think they did, it was the No-No-Draw against Manianite, and I thought it would have been a big game, didn't it? They lacked energy then as well. I think that really happens to a lot of teams, you see it. It's common, maybe you'll all know that. It's just a little bit, the drop-off in their centrum midfield levels.
Just a little bit too stark. Russ Buckley, I think, is a very fine player. You're a team-limins, very fine player. Barkley is coming towards the end of his career, and team-limins has never been the most athletic. So, if you really run out of them, you can, for an angle, them a little bit. A non-align can only do so much coverage.
Interesting to see if they prioritise it differently now, because they're probably the new Champions League format that pickles my brain a little bit, but they're must have pretty much qualified by now, right? That's the top of the group. They're the 16 points. So do you then go, okay, well, the family game is coming forward? I think the 1560 will get in the top eight points, and the league phase in all versions of the competition.
I think what we will probably see now as we approach match day five, six onwards, our teams will probably rotate a lot more in the Champions League when, if they are comfortably in that top eight. It's very harsh retiring Russ Buckley, and he's like 30. You'll get a few more years out of him, do you think? That's up to Russ Buckley. It's close in this game, though. He did, he did. I think he's great.
I also think the drop off from that starting midfielder of Teedermans and Anana to Teedermans and Anana. It's a different style of playover. I really like back to what he's doing now, pin the deeper, the thing he was doing before at Luton. I really like it is the quite busy six. I think it's a theory I've got players who are good in the final third, but don't actually create chances. They don't know numbers aren't ever that good.
They probably are quite good being deeper when they can see more of the pitch, and they can be a bit more time, because they're not as busy in that part of the pitch, where I think he's been really, really good for them. But maybe we wouldn't start him, because he's got the other two obviously there in there. They've got options, but yeah, I take your... Ground coverage is the slight concern to ask them, especially in these games, off the top.
Especially if you're playing in the Champions League. If you're at a good position, you can't run as much and it changes the way you defend. Yeah, what's the loads of a concern for Asda Villas, the fact that for all these drop points, they are still top four, level with Arsenal on 18 points, Krike. I love that Ross Barkley is getting a third act to his career like that. Yeah, long may it continue. Big fan. Yeah. Ross Barkley, Danny Welbeck. Yeah, who's next? Me?
Excellent. Anything else from Match Day 9? Just the win over Dunedinator Dead Sea. That was the big one. That was the big one. The new firm, Derby. That's the one. Excellent, JJ. Well, what's staying touch? No, no. I mean, keep us up today. Okay. I'll see if I can really go to ride that. Is the Dun season. I'll take you, I'll use them updates. Yeah. That's a nice one. Many thanks for being with us today. Thanks for having me. And to Matt for coming in from Stanford Bridge.
I've for Card, hot-footing it across from the London stadium. Liam, I've produced a child in the booth. To everyone who join us on our YouTube channel. And you listen to our podcast many, many thanks. As mentioned, the next show we'll be doing will be that bumper Tuesday. Additional, the Totally Football Show with all the Euro news and what's been a crazy weekend across the continent. Do join us for that. For now, though, from all of us here. It's goodbye.
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