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What happened? News from outside the Premier League that other podcasts might ignore. That is a difficult one to explain, so let's go bit by bit. Or it's Champions League week and you just need someone to put it all into context. It's made for a very useful away point in a difficult game. The Athletic FC Podcast Network. Totally Football Show today. Wafer Champions League, mega midweek bonanza as we wafer goodbye to the league stage. 18 games at once. Is it the way forward?
We talk Man City, Bruges but unbeaten, Villa Celtic, Morgan Rodgers, Rodgers, Rodgers and PSG stunning Stuttgart and all the rest of the midweek winners and losers. Plus, we look at Premier League matchday 24 with Liverpool visiting the graveyard of the... Listener, thank you so much for joining us here on this Totally Football Show.
On the big screen today, Rory Smith, joining us from Shea Smith. Hello. Hi, Rory. Did you have a good Wednesday? I did. I had a very exciting Wednesday, actually. I enjoyed what I saw described as the Betway WrestleMania. of the Champions League. Or is that what it was described as? I think the Royal Rumble is a better parallel. Okay. Tom Williams also with us. Tom, what did they describe it as in France? Hi, James. What did this guy... I don't think they came up with a...
They haven't yet come up with a catchy phrase. They were very excited this morning to be able to herald the fact that all four French clubs made it through to the knockout rounds. The headline in the keep was Grand Chelem. which of course means grand slam in French. A slam is a schlem. It's like a phonetic.
It's a phonetic French spelling of the word slam. Grand slam. Grand chalem. They're going to all knock each other out, of course, in the next stage, aren't they? That's Adrian Clarke. Adrian Clarke with us. Hello. We haven't got a name for it in this country. What would you go? I don't know. I liked it, though. Did you? I did like it, yeah. Can I shock you? Go on. I didn't like it. I didn't like it. So...
We've had Duncan Alexander on this show all this time saying, oh, yeah, yeah, you're not sure about all these matches that seem a little bit like exhibition games. Just you wait till the final round when all the drama's piled on and this kind of cataclysmic concurrence of cliffhangers. When you watched it, there wasn't that. You had PSG Stuttgart, which PSG, bless them, wrapped up pretty quickly. And then you had the Man City drama. So once that was resolved, what else did you have?
You just had a whole load of games going on at the same time. I don't think there would have been a problem with having nine games one night and then nine another. That would be quite enough matches. Because there were loads of fixtures that I really wanted to watch. Barcelona, Atalanta.
But I couldn't because I had, you know, you had these two games that actually meant something. Yeah, yeah. It wasn't just about the last night, was it? I just like the fact that you had eight different opponents. From Arsenal's end, last night was quite a... nondescript night because I was already through but even I found myself a little bit caught up in the whole
We must come fourth, not fifth drama, which would mean nothing to non-arsen fans. But you would in the old group stage. So this is one of my issues. The eight different opponents, I get that. But I also think that not having the... the kind of head-to-head, the Noah Wei Tai to avenge whatever had happened to you in the first leg, I think that's a major...
a major loss to the kind of build-up of narrative in the course of the competition. But I went back, or actually I asked Britney Sir Charlie to check, ahead of, say, just last season's group stage, because there was way more drama with this format. Actually, no, there was more. at the end of last season's group stage when you had no less than three.
direct in or out head-to-head matchups you know two teams both battling to survive you had that Milan Dortmund PSG Newcastle group where only Dortmund were already through so you had three teams there battling Newcastle Milan and PSG. And you had Man United up against Bayern scrapping to stay in the competition.
empirically there was more going on and you didn't have 18 games to try on, which I find a bit distracting, but I've been talking for a long time. Tom, interrupt me. Well, I mean, not to start the show on a massive downer. Yeah.
And I would say that I have really enjoyed this new format of the Champions League. I think it has been a success and I think it has surprised us and I think it has thrown up narratives that have been very enjoyable. But I share some of your reservations last night. For me, I mean, obviously it's fun to see.
sit there watching all these goals flying in but it was like football sort of totally denuded of any kind of nuance or context or you know kind of slow burn intrigue and I found myself thinking With a bit of a shudder.
Is this what football is going to look like in the future? And the first thing that came to mind was what Florentino Perez said when he was trying to justify the Super League project. Oh, young people don't have the attention span for watching football matches anymore. We've got to rethink the product. What could be better for people with no attention?
span than an evening of football where there's a goal scored literally every 30 seconds or something, where you zip around from ground to ground and just get constant goals, constant incidents. But it felt a little bit superficial to me. And I thought I did enjoy it on a sort of surface level, but I was also slightly troubled by what it might represent. Rory's looking pensive. I'm always pensive, yeah. No, I've been broadly...
Like Tom, I think the new format is good. I don't think it's objectively any better or worse than the old format. And although I take your point, James, that last year... there were head-to-heads that were dramatic and you know you have that kind of slow burn drama which is what i think we probably all enjoy about football i don't know how representative that
necessarily was of what the group stage had become. It certainly felt to me like we spent an awful lot of time complaining about how boring the group stage was. So I think to an extent a change is as good as a rest. Last night, I did enjoy. I agree completely with Tom's assessment that it felt like kind of bite-sized football, like slider football almost. It wasn't especially nourishing, but you quite liked it.
You felt a little bit... Champions League canapé. Yeah, I don't know, it was more like you felt a bit like you'd been to Five Guys and you really enjoyed it, but at the same time you felt a bit gross with yourself afterwards.
I think this sounds really pretentious. I think philosophically it's quite interesting because it does indicate a kind of direction of travel for football in the future. It's clearly designed to play to that kind of... let you know let's just lean into being old like that zoomer like second screening flicking mentality that that for some reason we're all desperate as media organizations to sell out to rather than to try and say
Maybe they'll get older and have a bit more of an attention span. And at the same time, I actually think it wasn't quite as dramatic as I was expecting it to be, because by the time... that it kind of built to its crescendo. You had an interesting little subplot in terms of who was going to finish eighth, but Villa kind of killed that off by beating Celtic. But I think an Atalanta goal would have qualified them instead of Villa. And then it...
If Barcelona had scored again and Celtic had equalised, then you could have potentially had Dortmund, Bayern and Real all going for eighth place on goal difference. I think that sort of jeopardy was genuine, but the main interest was down at the bottom where Sporting's equalised obviously meant they got in.
and Dinamo Zagreb, slightly cruelly, were knocked out. But other than that, it did feel like a lot of jostling for position in a way that was kind of... jeopardy light so i i would be i remain kind of vaguely in favor of the new format but i do wonder if there are one or two tweets to be made the main one being i think if you're leipzig or psg or ironically liverpool right you might look at that and think i'm not sure that draw was especially fair
OK, we'll talk about the draw, which will happen on Friday. We're going to live stream our reaction to it, by the way. We'll look towards it very shortly. But to put it in language that you will understand, Rory, this felt a little bit like... with kind of eight teams going out, only the first or second of the round tables in your traitor's mansion. And it was a lot of effort.
to get there, essentially, is what Rory's saying. But that was the story of last night. It was like, oh, there's been a goal at Lille. Sorry, there's been a goal at the exact same time in Lisbon. Wait, there's been a goal at the Etihad. Oh, what does it all mean? Well, all the teams we thought would go through have gone through, except for Leipzig. And all the teams we thought would get knocked out have been knocked out. If you're Real Madrid...
Every single one of the games you play is basically your opponent's biggest game of the season, except for maybe Liverpool. Brest against Real Madrid, I think Brest... called it the game of the... I think West France called it the game of the century for Brest. For Lille, Lille had never played Real Madrid before. That is the biggest game...
possibly in Lille's history, to be perfectly honest. Real Madrid at home, they win 1-0. And that's been a real challenge for quite a lot of the elite teams to kind of get over. And I'm not sure that was foreseen, but it is quite a useful corrective. Okay, fair enough. Fair enough.
Results. Rory's done a pretty good job of running up some of the outcomes of the final night of league stage action. But there were four big teams, of course, at risk. Man City, Paris Saint-Germain, Stuttgart and Benfica.
and a bunch of other teams scrapping to finish top eight. City got the win they needed against Bruges, although there were nervy moments when the visitors took the lead. 3-1 though it finished to City, but both teams ended up going through. PSG went to Stuttgart, thumped them 4-1. And Benfica won 2-0 in Turin against Juventus. So join them in the playoffs. Elsewhere, six goals at Villa Park as Villa beat Celtic 4-2 to seal their spot in the top eight. Morgan Rodgers.
with a hat-trick. Rest of the top eight, who go straight through, of course, to the last 16, were Liverpool, the winners, who were beaten 3-2 at PSV. Barcelona, who finished second after their 2-2 draw with Atalanta. Arsenal were third. They came from behind to win 2-1 at Girona. Lovely strike to win it from Juan Eri. Beautiful. Yeah, yeah, he's such a talent. Honestly, he's frighteningly good.
And that goal, if Saka had scored that goal, you know, you wouldn't have been surprised. That was top class. And it does make you think, what's he going to do at the weekend? Is he going to... play one area in that Saka role or will he go with Martinelli? We'll have to see. Comparing him to Saka is no Saka-ri-ledge. Yeah. No Saka-ri-fite to use him instead of... I'll move on. Inter were fourth.
3-0, they beat Monaco with the Lautaro Martinez hat-trick. They conceded one goal, one goal across eight games in the league stage. Atletico fifth, they won 4-1 at Salzburg. That was their fifth straight Champions League win in a row. as straight implies. Leverkusen, sixth. Two nil winners against Sparta Prague. And one more result. Lille thumped.
Feyenoord 6-1. Feyenoord, who were battling themselves for a place in the top eight. Feyenoord, who had beaten Bayern Munich 3-0 just a week before, beaten 6-1 by Lille. Biggest ever European win, the Lille Loire. And it featured a hat-trick of own goals. It did, yes. Two of which were scored by the same hapless defender, whose name momentarily escapes me. Gernotrauner, an Austrian centre-back, who got a 1 out of 10 from the keep this morning. But yeah, incredible achievement by Lille, given...
The extremely difficult draw that they got had to play Real Madrid, who they beat, had to play Atletico Madrid, who they beat. And yeah, finishing off by thrashing Feyenoord. And this is a club that had a change of coaches last summer. Paolo Fonseca going to Milan, Bruno Genesio coming in, had to go through two qualifying rounds, Fenerbahce and Sparta Prague, I think it was, have had all sorts of injury problems, key players missing since the start of the season.
and Bruno Genesio has kind of mixed things up between every game and sometimes put out really inexperienced looking teams and they've managed to do the job so yeah a remarkable achievement Trauma. Listen, you know, I think he had an Alp Traum. Meaning? Nightmare. Oh, he certainly did, yeah. I'm sure that was the headline. Somewhere. Somewhere. Very good. All right, well, Friday there will be the draw for the last 16 at the House of European Football.
at Neon, Switzerland. And as I hinted before, James and Jules will be joining me to live stream our reaction to that. 12.45. When you say live stream your reaction, does that mean it's not an audio thing, it's just your face. Your face is, as the jaws sort of trickle it. A bit like that Radiohead, no alarms, no surprises video, perhaps. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
With the water or without the water? Just to add a frisson of danger. There may be some speech. I hope you're going to do it for the entire draw so we can watch you all talk about how thrilling it is. over the sort of hour-long build-up that precedes the draw. I mean, one of the things about the draw is that, to an extent, it's on kind of, how would you put it, on railway lines, on tram lines, perhaps. It's... Metaphorically, you mean.
Yeah, metaphorically. I mean, that would lie now. At last. Well, we'll get on to some of the potential opponents for the team. Quickly, Luis, quickly, the 517 from... But like speed. Geneva arrives. Where if they slow down the draw, the whole thing explodes. Anyway, let's get on. Can I just make one quick point on the fact that there is a draw? Yes. So I think they changed...
And this is now entering the realm of tinfoil-hatted conspiracy theory. I think they changed their plans so that instead of it being 9th plays 24th and 10th plays 23rd, you're now paired. So 9th or 10th will play 23rd or 24th.
I am not certain there is some debate about this, whether that was in the original kind of sketch for how this tournament would work. And what I find intriguing is that I'm not sure this is a... like the usual like UEFA have tried to fix it in some way in favour of the big clubs I think they have literally done it because they like having draws
There is a whole like big draw industry that they need to satisfy the people who make the balls, the people who make the pots, the people who make the little bags. Cafu.
Right. They've got to pay for it. What would they do? They're waiting for the phone to ring. These people would have no purpose in their lives if there wasn't a draw for the Champions League. So I think they've arranged it. They've just meddled with it a little bit. And it's, you know, it's not... better or worse or you know anything i like a draw different thing everyone likes a draw so they've they've they've arranged it so that we can have a draw that's nice
And then, of course, Inter-Miami come in in the quarterfinals. Is that right? Special invitation. Tom, you cynic. Anyway, let's get some thoughts on some of the games you're waiting for us to chat about, like your Man City Bruges and your Stuttgart PSGs and... Villa as well, Celtic and Arsenal too. Why not? But first, Tom Stuttgart. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. Dembélé, Ashraf Hakimi in the repair surface. Dembélé enchaîne !
All right, so maximum jeopardy probably on Wednesday night was the Stuttgart PSG. which could see both teams through with a draw, but whoever lost, if there were a loser, would be out. Wow, Tom. That PSG that we saw last week against Man City turned up again and absolutely did the Germans. They did, yeah. The suspense did not last very long. Bradley Barcola put PSG ahead from a corner.
In the sixth minute. The assist on that. Lovely assist, yeah. Who was that? It was Desiree Douai. It was, right. It was a corner from the right by Ousmane Dembele towards the near post. And Desiree Douai flicked it on with what the French call an aile de pigeon or pigeon's wing. And that's basically a volleyed back heel. So if you think Zlatan Ibrahimovic against Italy in 2004. Is that what that was? Yeah, pretty much, I think. Where did they get a pigeon from?
Pigeon's wings. Yeah, I mean, I like it. I mean, I guess any bird would have done, but for some reason they went with pigeon. Sparkola nods it in at the back post. Then there was a crucial moment in the 17th minute. Stuttgart are on the attack and I think the chance fell to Chris Furich, only had Gigi Donnarumma to beat. smashed it across him towards the bottom corner on the other side of the goal. And Donnarumma pulls off an absolutely fantastic full stretch, one-handed set. You've...
PSG immediately counter. I think it was Jean Neves plays in Barcola down the left. He burns off the full-back, crosses it in for Dembele to tap in the second. And then he scores another couple of goals. And yeah, PSG run out very comfortable winners. And the issue with PSG... in the Champions League this season has been that they've dominated most of their games but have really struggled for goals. And, you know, they didn't sign a direct replacement for Kylian Mbappe.
And the hope was that players like Barcola and Dembele would kind of step up and score some of the goals that they lost when he went to Real Madrid. And in the first six matches in the Champions League, neither of them scored a single goal, despite the fact PSG were generally dominant.
their matches and then suddenly they came to life in that win against City we saw the same thing again last night against Stuttgart and they're both in really good form and have been since the turn of the year and this kind of the post Mbappe project is now it feels like like it's very belatedly coming together in that... Luis Enrique continues to refuse to pick a recognised centre-forward. They've thrown another jinky winger into the mix, having now signed Kvistak Varskelia from Napoli.
But with the caveat that they played an ailing Manchester City team and a quite naive Stuttgart team, they're suddenly flying. So, yeah. I was going to say a team to look out for in the draw, but we know who they're going to play anyway. Well, we know it's either Monaco or Brest. Both teams who they're very familiar with and enjoy a good record against, I'm guessing, Tom, given Ligue 1's usual outcome? Yes, I mean, Monaco did...
briefly look this season like they were going to mount a bit of a title charge but they have fallen away a bit of late they lost 4-2 at home to PSG just before Christmas that was the game where Donna Rummer got The big mark on his face from, I think it was Wilfred Sango's boot. And they beat them in the Trophy des Champions, the French Community Shield at the start of January. And yeah, you'd expect them to beat Brast as well. So kind of disappointing.
I think in particular for Brest to know that they're getting they've had this incredible adventure they played all these kind of European heavyweights now they're going to play a team they play you know twice a season every single season good news though for the coefficient Well, that's true. You know, there is that. If PSG make it past Monaco or Brest, they'll be faced by either Liverpool or Barcelona in the last 16. So, hmm. There you go. Rory.
What about Man City Brews? You were on Etihad duty for us. I was. I was keep trying to watch as much of everything as I could. It was... Kind of what you'd expect, I suppose. It was very nervy. Brews looked quite good on the counter-attack. And in the end, Manchester City's slightly kind of hidden... Now... somewhat fleeting kind of quality told. They eased past them in the end, but there were moments, obviously once Bruges had stored in particular,
where it looked very, very dicey. Opening 45 minutes, City made 399 successful passes, but failed to record. You'll never sing that. 399 successful passes. But failed to record a single shot on target from them, which you feel is significant. When Pep, and this is maybe a little bit of microcosm of the season in general, when he moved Foden inside from the left wing and brought...
Savinho on, things turned around. Is that a fair summary? Yeah, Savinho made a big difference. I mean, it was curious with Foden because he'd said, I think, the day before that he felt that playing on the left for England was a difficult... adjustment for him to make during the Euros and that's why he felt he had quite a poor tournament. I don't remember Phil Foden having an especially poor tournament at the Euros. They did make the final. But he said he found the adjustment difficult and...
clearly kind of implied that he felt his best role was in the centre and then Pep duly started him on the left. But once Savino came on... And to be honest, I think once Bruges got a little bit tired, City were far too good for them.
The first goal, trying to sum things up, where Bruges' man marking just fell apart completely and Mateo Kovacic literally just walked through the centre of the pitch and took a pot shot from 20 yards, which on first glance, it looked like Simon Mignolet didn't really bother to save. And from that point on, it was fairly...
obvious what was going to happen I think and City by the end it looked relatively undramatic on Foden very quickly this hot streak that he's been on has been playing off the right He's played on the right. He hasn't been as a number 10. Earlier on in the season, he was in the number 10. Didn't really happen for him. He played more on the left at the start of the season again.
didn't really happen for him, certainly didn't score any goals. This glut of goals have come where he plays on the right, where he comes infield and joins in. Yeah, a bit of a surprise that in such a big game, he sort of shook it up and moved him, really. But yeah, no, it...
It was interesting for the rest of us following it. It was City going one down, but in the end, the inevitable obviously happened. Pep showing classic signs of stress there around half-time, but a lot happier at the final whistle. We'll find out who they get in the playoff round on Friday. It's either Real Madrid or Bayern Munich. Ooh.
Ooh. I'd just like to issue a correction. Oh, yeah. I just re-watched PSG's first goal and it was not a pigeon's wing assist from Desiree. That was the second one, was it? No, he used a different part of his foot. He used the outside of his right foot. But it's kind of over his head. It's still really cool. Basically, the corner comes in from the right. He's sort of facing away from goal and he uses the outside of his right foot to flick the ball over his head.
head to the back post, but not a pigeon's wing. Not a pigeon's wing. Something else. An exterior du pied, which just means outside of the foot. Listen, why not check it out for yourself? Yeah, it's probably easier. And while you're at it, have a look at Red Bull. Salzburg's final goal in their final Champions League game. That was a good one. What were Arsenal's goals?
like and what was Girona's like tell us about Girona's goal Girona Arsenal oh look Neto basically came in for his first start so he's the oldest debutant for Arsenal in 110 years he's 35 Neto and He didn't convince, I have to say. First touch he had was about 30 yards out from goal. He slipped over under pressure and almost gifted a goal to, I think it was Dan Zuma. Then Dan Zuma did score.
Really poor from Arsenal. The back line was disjointed. They played a through ball in behind Thomas Partey, who was dozing at right back. It's another sort of... minor mistake from him in that position. Denshima runs on and he cannot believe his luck because Neto for... for I don't know what reason, thinks he can come out and intercept the through ball. He finds himself in no man's land, 30 yards out. He makes a dive for the ball. Which is absolutely bizarre because if he...
Thank goodness he didn't save it because he then gets sent off. And also probably, you know, I think Arsenal have had enough of sendings off. So...
So, yeah, that would have been a complete disaster. As it happened, it was a really easy finish for Dan Schumer. So that was a bit of a nightmare. First goal, by the way, that Arsenal conceded in open play in this season's Champions League. Is that right? Wow. Yeah, so they've been... ridiculously solid um best expected goals against record in the competition 5.9 across those eight games so also are really super solid but um
Yeah, then it became the Warnieri show. Obviously, Partey got a cheapish penalty, but it was probably fair. Jorginho tucks it away. Warnieri whips this beautiful, now fast-becoming trademark left foot. sort of curler into the bottom corner. Brilliant from him. And then the rest of the game wasn't that exciting. We did have a disallowed goal for Girona and also a missed penalty from Raheem Sterling.
Was that intended to give him a bit of a boost? Yeah, I call it a sort of pep-up penalty. But I don't think you should be giving out pep-up penalties when you've got a one-dog push. It wasn't a pep-up penalty that he took, though, was it? No, it was a confidence.
penalty that he took. Arsenal shouldn't have done this. They had Oedegaard on the pitch, had Kai Havertz on the pitch, had much better penalty takers. Up until that spot kick, excluding shootouts, Raheem Sterling has scored two from seven. He should never take a penalty again with a record of two from seven. So now it's two from eight. It was a really good save in fairness, but it wasn't a great pen. And yeah, so that sort of...
is another knock really for Raheem, who had started the game well. He'd look really bright. But the longer the match went on, unfortunately, the more cul-de-sacs he ran down and it became another frustrating performance from him. So, yeah, not a great night for Sterling or Neto. I also got the job done. Adrian, as a grizzled former professional, do you think... Should I be offended by that? No, it's a compliment. Do you think...
Pep-up penalties work or do you think the player who gets the Pep-up penalty knows it is an act of pity and therefore in some way deeply undermines them? Yeah, I think probably the latter. But then you take what pep up you can get once you dispatch it, don't you? But yeah, it does add. a bit of pressure, doesn't it? Yeah, well, it worked for Kai, didn't it? It worked for Kai Havertz last year. He went on and delivered. But yeah, I take your point completely there.
They shouldn't have messed around with it because if that goal had stood for Girona, Arsenal would draw that game. And they then potentially face Real Madrid by Munich Man City in the last 16. So, yes, a good job. Good job Arsenal held on. Instead, they will be up against, Cech's notes, either Feyenoord or Juventus or Milan or PSV. Can you say either ahead of four teams? I don't think you can. One of then, listener, one of those four sides. Tom? Just quickly on pep-up penalties.
It reminded me of the time when Diego Forlan was struggling for goals at Manchester United and was playing in a game that they were winning quite comfortably and United won a penalty and a lot of the players wanted to let him take the penalty to get the monkey off his back.
of having not scored. He said no. And Roy Keane said no. This is nonsense. This guy's an international footballer. He doesn't need our charity. Let, you know, Rude Van Nistelrooy take it or whatever. There you go. I mean, very Roy Keane, to be honest. Very Roy Keane. David Reier. wasn't fit to play according to Mikel Arteta, who would know. We don't know if he's going to be around for...
Sunday's big game. He better be. He will be. He will be? I think there should now be a complete ban on managers very obviously lying about the fitness of players ahead of James. It's ridiculous. Okay. I mean, is it worth what possible psychological advantage you get over Manchester City when they, with that small sliver of doubt that it'll be David Ryrandoll and not Neto? I mean, Neto didn't have a great, didn't cover himself in glory, obviously, but it's not like your player...
playing like a horse in goal or a child. He's still a proper goalkeeper. Where's that come from? I just think it's a bit pathetic when managers are like, oh, I don't know if he'll be fit. Obviously, he'll be fit. Clearly, you will get your...
first choice goalkeeper fit because he does not have a long-term injury. There's a sliver of possibility that he wasn't well and that illness might continue. He did take him the whole way there. I don't think the intention was to leave him out completely. I think he obviously has got something. Are you part of the cover-up?
I know nothing. UEFA are apparently considering horse goalkeepers for next season's league phase, but it's been kept under up so far. Luciano Gauchy famously wanted to field a team of horses and I for one would have... Tuned in for that. Arsenal managed to avoid the playoffs then with that victory. And that's a good thing. And it's also what Aston Villa pulled off. And we'll hear how next.
Hi, it's Alexa Weibel from New York Times Cooking. We've got tons of easy weeknight recipes and I'm gonna make two of my favorites for you today. For my five ingredient creamy miso pasta, you just take your starchy pasta water. Whisk it together with a little bit of miso and butter until it's creamy. Add your noodles and a little bit of cheese. Mmm. It's like a grown-up box of mac and cheese. An easy weeknight recipe that feels like a restaurant-quality dish.
Next up, I'm making my vegetarian mushroom shawarma pitas. This recipe is just built for efficiency. You toss your mushrooms and red onion in your spices, throw them in the oven. By the time they're done, your sauce is ready, you've chopped your cabbage, and you're ready to assemble. It feels crazy that something that tastes this complex and looks this colorful and beautiful is actually really easy to make and takes just 20 minutes of active time. It's just delicious.
New York Times cooking has you covered with easy dishes for busy weeknights. Find these recipes and more at nytcooking.com. Smells so good. 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 Pearce, Oli K and the very best football writers around.
The law of football kind of dictates that there will be one more chance for Celtic. Oh, there might be a chance for Villa. It's Watkins. Schmeichel couldn't stop him. It's Rodgers! It's all over. And he has his hat-trick. Morgan Rodgers there with his hat-trick. First ever professional hat-trick on a night which began with a lot of talk about other Villa strikers. But Rodgers the key man and a 4-2 win.
for Aston Villa over Celtic. We weren't watching, but the Athletics' Jacob Tanswell was and he joins us now. Jacob, thanks for joining us. So, Villa, after the sluggish performance a week ago at Monaco, this was a much more lively affair. It was, and the whole evening was very lively before kick-off, with the transfer speculation about Villa's two strikers, and then... the fantastic start to the game with Rodgers scoring inside the first five minutes at the quickest in Champions League history.
players scored two goals in the first half minutes of a game. They started off really well and they started very well against West Ham in the Premier League on the weekend and then a familiar theme took off where they made... games very hard for themselves. Salvatore scored two goals, you know, quickly like Villa did. But they got through it and finishing in the top eight represents a fantastic achievement for Villa, especially in their first season in the Champions League.
Morgan Rodgers scoring those three goals and with the performance he made, is that why Villa feel comfortable about letting someone like John Durant go? I think there's a feeling among them. emery staff and villa that rogers is far more important and influential than duran is in the attacking structure because duran's got fantastic quality supreme technique but he's been a moment player really throughout his time at villa where rogers playing in that number
roll just off Ollie Watkins, sometimes off the left coming inside in the pockets. A lot of the game plan and a lot of Emery's build-up is centred around getting the ball in between the lines and allowing Rodgers' fantastic ball carrying to run at. opposition defences and he's steadily increasing his goal output now I think towards especially early on in his time at Villa the end product was lacking which is natural for a young player but now he's showing
And he's putting up the goal-scoring numbers and goal-involvement numbers that show he's a very, very exciting talent for England and for his club as well. You could say the same about Duran, though. I think a lot of us are wondering, why would Villa let Duran go? Yeah, I feel that...
Duran has just ridiculous potential. You say moments player at the moment, but that's not his fault. He's just been given for very fleeting game time. He's delivered nine times out of 10. What is the thinking here that they would prefer to sell Duran? The guy whose value will only surely increase ahead of Watkins, who will never be worth 60 plus million at any other stage in his career. For me, it would make more sense for...
for Watkins to be sold if Villa have to let one of the two go. What's the thinking here? I think there's a multitude of reasons, really. I think, firstly, you've got to consider off the field. There's been a lot of...
uh events with with duran he's an eccentric character but there's been a lot of difficulties in in practicing the patience and the discipline that emory wants off the field you know there's been so many stories about his little discipline you know turn up late for meetings his training
blows everyone away in training with his technique but his attitude and discipline off the pitch has been found to be wanting and ultimately the reason why they prefer Durant's sale is obviously they'll get more money for him right now but also there's just too many unknowns with him there's people saying that
Although Duran's got this supreme talent, you're not quite sure what he's going to do from a pressing point of view. You're not sure if he's going to press at the right points, if he's going to adhere to pressing triggers. You're not sure if he's going to... be as influential as Ollie Watkins in the build-up. So although Duran's probably got higher seeding than Watkins, you know, he's younger, of course. He's not the known quantity. He's not the all-run player.
that can give to Villa's structure what he can. And, you know, Villa are setting players. They're in a period where they're trying to regenerate the squad, but they want a known quantity. And there's a feeling that even if Watkins left and Duran was the number nine, at some point Duran would push to leave again.
And you can't have a situation where you've already sold Watkins and maybe in the summer or a year down the line, Duran wants to leave as well. So I think they're going for the tried and trusted, but...
Duran's going to hopefully be a fantastic player, but the question for Villa is whether he can get his mentality to fulfil his potential. So if reports are true that Arsenal have bid for Oli Watkins, then they should just forget about it and move on? Because they're not going to sell both, surely?
No, they'll be very unlikely, but Villa and Monci have always made it clear publicly and privately that they have to... accept the right offer for any player they're not going to refuse to rule out any player leaving any window because they haven't they're not afraid to sell players but it would take a lot of money for for Watkins to leave especially after you know Duran's going to leave as well
What's a bit of a curious move from Duran's perspective, of course, at that stage of his career to up and head to Neymar land? I mean, it would be a real shame. because he's such an exciting player and we're only just getting to know him as a footballer. And he's done so many incredible things this season. As Jacob says, he's obviously a bit of a character as well. But I suppose from his perspective, he probably thinks, well...
I'm already a superstar in my homeland. I'm already the shining light of Colombian football, despite the fact I spend half my time as a footballer sitting on the bench at Villa. So...
Moving to Saudi Arabia is not going to cost me in terms of my international profile. I'm going to earn a lot more money. I'm going to get regular football and maybe I'll give it a couple of years and then come back and join a European heavyweight. But it is, I mean, it's always dismaying when a player of that age... you know heads off
in pursuit of the Saudi dollar, and you kind of hope that somehow that's not what happens. Unless you're a fan of Al Nasser. Well, of course. Who apparently are having a medical withdrawal today, Thursdays, we record... In London. In London, is it? Somewhere around. How many have we actually seen come back from Saturday? I'd say Tom's point that that might be a play that...
that more and more players take, which is you go to Saudi to earn the money for two or three years and then you come back. Jordan Henderson. Jordan Henderson, famously. Other than Big Jord. And Neymar. Neymar, who rescinded his contract with...
Al-Hilal, just the last few days, actually, and is rejoining Santos. Having lit up Saudi football in his brief time there. Seven games, one goal. It's been a great value for money for transfer, really lifted the profile of all concerned. But I just think for the...
For Neymar and for Henderson, who were players at the end of their career, you don't, or towards the end of their career, you can begrudge them the moral kind of dimension of moving to Saudi Arabia. But, you know, older players in their 30s go on and get in a final payday.
is pretty established, whether that's China, whether it's Turkey, whether it's Major League Soccer, whether it's the Premier League until about 2008. That's what older players do, and that's fine. For someone like Duran, as it was for, say, Amrit Laporte, who went in the peak of his career...
There was a kid who went from Celta Vigo, Gabi Vega, who I think got a lot of criticism in Spain for going to Saudi at 22. It will be interesting to see whether those players can come back or whether they are kind of... forgotten by the European clubs and if so that makes it a real shame for Duran as Tom was saying because it does feel as though he's not really achieved anything yet in football. It seems a bit early to go for the payoff. It does indeed, Rory. Speaking of payoffs, Villas...
for making it through to the final eight is going to be a clash with either Dortmund or Bruges or Sporting or Atalanta. I've done either thing again. One of, listener. You can do the either thing. Can you do either? I think so, yeah. It doesn't offend my... That is at all. Surely it's a binary choice. Anyway, one of Dortmund, Bruges, Sporting, or Atalanta. Happy now in the last 16. How do you feel about that, Jacob? They were all crowded around the radio or devices at the end of the game.
It felt a bit old-fashioned in the way. They all go looking at someone's phone and checking the score. But I think every single opponent they face in the last 16 is going to be a difficult one for Villa. But they... No, they're not going to be the favourites to progress into the quarterfinals, but what they do feel is that, especially with one of the games at Villa Park, they feel they're really, really strong.
they've won every game or they're unbeaten at Villa Park in this league phase and they feel they can really be in the tie and by the time they play at Villa Park against one of those teams they'll feel confident of getting through and I think they use that as a real big superpower for them. It's also a big boost to their Premier League.
chances perhaps because i think i'm right in saying that since september they haven't managed to win a single premier league fixture played after a champions league midweek so not having those playoff games already be a help speaking of which what do you think the impact of playing last night in that well vigorous encounter
with Celtic is for their West Midlands derby at the weekend when they visit Wolves, Jacob? Well, they used to play having a busy schedule. You know, the Conference League was pretty taxing last year and ultimately they were running off fume for the last three months of the season. But...
Emery has got this way of seeing things from a different outlook. He says that he wants more games. He says less trading, more games is better for him because he's able to actually practice things in games. I think there's been a few times, if you want to talk about Duran, where they've not had time on the training field.
to practice the Watkins and Duran fitting them into the same structure. So he thought, you know, we've got 25 minutes left of this game. Let's see if we can practice on the field. So although fatigues are inevitably going to come into play. I think he'll look at the Wolves game and see it as a really good opportunity to obviously get three more points, but practice more things, see if there's maybe a few tweaks they can do.
But I think it'll be a really good game. And Wolves have been difficult for Willem the last couple of fixtures against them because... I know it's a different manager now, but they've had real difficulty in breaking down a low block and they're very vulnerable to transitions as well. So it should be an interesting game. Saturday, 5.30 that match. We'll talk about the rest of the...
Premier League Match Day 24 fixtures a little bit later on for now though. Jacob, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Jacob Tansfield. Before we get on to the rest of the Premier League, what are the other Champions League stories that we should touch on? Liverpool perhaps, but on a much changed side. and got beaten 3-2 at PSV, but they still end up league stage winners. They'll get PSG, Brest, or Monaco, or Benfica when the last 16 rolls around. Yeah, it was one of those games that...
Obviously, Arna Slott looked at and thought, OK, this is a chance for me to rest my first team, which I think pretty much every Liverpool fan would have agreed with. A useful break. They avoid the first knockout round. They get a couple of weeks off. That's good. But... I feel not equalising might be a little bit of a source of regret if they end up getting PSG, because I think if they'd equalised PSV would have been the option, not PSG, and one letter can make a lot of difference. So, so true.
I thought one and two being paired makes no difference. No, no, no, not in terms of where Liverpool finish, but in terms of the teams that they could possibly face. Aren't they exactly the same? No, if they'd... PSV were only in there because they won. Oh, I see what I see. PSV would have dropped down. Got you. It's not the clearest thing, but you know what it is going to be? 12.45 tomorrow, live streaming on our YouTube channel at the Toadie Football Show.
And you can hear us making it all crystal clear. Just quickly to touch on what the Italian sides did. Italy currently, along with England, occupying one of those top two spots that will give an extra Champions League. side next season. But Spain have closed the gap on them quite considerably. Spain currently in third spot in that association coefficient league table. Inter with the only Italian winners midweek.
Bologna, who are already out, ended up drawing away at Sporting. Inter absolutely hammered Monaco, thanks to Lartana Martinez. But Milan... who were in the top eight, managed to fall all the way down to 13th after they got beaten 2-1 away at Dinamo Zagreb. Juventus, meanwhile, was the most disastrous of all, at home to Benfica.
losing 2-0 their record in the Champions League defensively until this match been pretty strong but goal scoring has been a real issue in their last six games in the competition only three goals scored they look particularly lost last night even with Vlaovic back in the team and the home crowd were not forgiving and Thiago Motta who was heralded as the man who was finally going to get Juve back to their rightful position on top of the table
and I think has the full commitment of the club behind him, but beginning to be a sense of... If Arsenal were to draw one of Juve or AC Milan, which would be the most preferable then? I think from a viewing point of view... because they're a lot more fun to watch. But I also think they're a lot more dangerous. They can have nights like last night, but they can also go to the Bernabeu and beat Real Madrid. They can win the Super Cup.
And there's a fair chance that they're going to pick up another striker in the next day or two before Monday night. But I think, yeah, when they're on their game with Liao and that, they are a real handful. And also not sometimes. You just don't know. Yes, there you go. Oh, Atalanta didn't win, but they were terrific away at Barcelona. What I saw of this in amongst other things.
as they generally are. So I look forward to seeing them in the knockout stages. Who are they going to be up against? Oh, Rory. Yeah, they're in the Dortmund, Bruges, Sporting Lisbon kind of... camp for the for the knockouts they're unlucky to even have to play a knockout and then I think they go on to play Lille or Aston Villa and although that might be wrong no can confirm is that right yeah
And then I think they don't want to play Lille or Aston Villa, which means that, I mean, I would say that with due respect to Villa, and obviously Lille have been great in the Champions League, Atalanta are the team with the most European pedigree in that. in that little section, given Dortmund's travails. They're a real threat. We saw that in the Europa League last year. In a knockout tie, they are capable of beating absolutely anybody and beating them really well.
So Atalanta are a bit of a kind of a wild card in this Champions League, I think. If they get through all of those games, and here I'm conjecturing. That's what we're here for, James. They'll be facing either Barcelona or Liverpool in the quarterfinals.
Barcelona again. I'd pay to watch that. And they took Liverpool to pieces last year in the Europa League. Atalanta are the sort of team that no one will mention in the kind of, oh, you don't want to face Real Madrid, you don't want to face Manchester City in those terms. But there won't be anybody in Europe thinking, oh, I hope we get Atalanta. That'll be an easy passage through. Rory, if you were the DS of a top Euro side...
And it was an open draw and all sorts of other things that plainly are not the case. Which is the one team that you would not want to face in the next round of football? I would genuinely say Atalanta because I think you don't... More than your rails, your man cities. Yeah, because this is now cynical, cowardly sporting directoring. But...
I think if you get knocked out by Bayern or Real or Liverpool or City, there's a degree of falling gracefully. You get the glamour tie, you get the sense of a powerhouse meeting or whatever. Whereas if you get beaten by Atalanta, there will always be that perception that you probably should have won.
So I would say Atalanta are the worst team to face. Okay. Yeah, that's fair. Very nice. That's all we're going to say about the Champions League, I think. We've got loads of other things to discuss and not too much time to do it in. There's Match League 24 of the Premier League season with... Arsenal, Man City and so much more and we'll get on to that next.
Those who notice when the team of Galacticos, with a packed European and domestic schedule, might be about to underestimate the well-rested, well-drilled mid-table team. Build the bet you want with a completely free ACCA or betbuilder on Betfair. Play different. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC Podcast Network.
Adrian, as if the midweek wasn't exciting enough, Monday night you took in Burnley Leeds in the championship, which has been widely described as the worst game of ever. Worst gift of ever. Yeah. Why was it so bad? Give us some numbers. Oh, I don't... Well, here's some for you then. 0-0 was the final score. There was only one shot on target in the match. That came from Leeds in the 87th minute.
You posted, it's a truly terrible negative football match. Yeah, it was just, it just nothing happened in it. It was, it was dreadful. And it was such a letdown because they can both play really good football. Burnley can play. Can play some lovely football. They're nil-nilling or one-nilling their way to promotion at the moment. But they are capable and leads absolutely are. But you fear.
of losing this match overrode everything as far as the two coaches were concerned. It was a really, really bad advert for the championship. And I think these are the two best teams outside of the Premier League and neither looked. Anywhere near ready to finish above 19th next season, should they were to make it. Leeds are currently top of the championship, two points ahead of Sheffield United. Burnley lie a point behind the blades in third. Six of their last ten.
home games have finished nil nil daniel's story actually raising the the question of whether at which point their campaign which is so far seen in 29 matches, nine goals conceded, whether that could one day rival the great Chelsea unbeatable record of just 15 in a Premier League. Putting to the great Sean Dyche here at Burnley.
He'll be getting misty-eyed at that kind of... I'm sure he will. Duncan Alexander, it's funny you say that, because he then replied saying, well, if they were to produce a season as defensively strong as Chelsea and... If at the same time David Moyes keeps Everton up, where does that leave Sean Dyche?
Redundant. I mean, redundant, yeah. Yeah. But also having, you know, set in place foundations for great defensive achievements to come. Very generous of you. Nice twist. Premier League, Manchester 24 gets underway Saturday lunchtime with...
Nottingham Forest against Brighton. At 3 o'clock on Saturday, take your pick from Newcastle, Fulham, Everton, Leicester, Ipswich, Saints and Bournemouth Liverpool. Or don't, because none of them are on telly. At 5.30, though, you can tune in to that West Midlands derby. Wolves against Villa. Sunday at 2. And United Crystal Palace, again, not televised, but Brentford Spurs is. At 4.30, it's Arsenal-Man City. And then on Monday night, Chelsea-West Ham. A lot of derbies there.
is the first question that springs to mind when you hear those fixtures, Rory Smith. Can Bournemouth continue their string of results against the big sides this weekend against Liverpool and thus throw the title race wide open?
I think that's like the 1B question to me. The bigger question to me is, is Bournemouth Liverpool... a more appetising game than Arsenal Manchester City and I think it might be because I think Bournemouth absolutely can beat Liverpool they are the form team in the lead they put four past Newcastle they put five past
the indomitable obdurate Nottingham Forest. They don't appear to need any senior players to be amazing. Andonio Raiola is rapidly becoming the second hottest coach in Europe behind Xabi Alonso. And it is a real test for Liverpool. If Liverpool can get out of the vitality with a win, I think that's a real marker for their championship credentials. If they get away with a draw, I think they'd probably be quite happy. And if they get beaten, as you say, it gives Arsenal this massive...
In fact, Arsenal and Manchester City this massive chance on Sunday to close the gap. Bournemouth have scored nine goals in their last two games. 4-1 at Newcastle, 5-0 at home to Forest without a centre-forward. I mean, there are multiple incredible... aspects to what they're doing, but the fact that they're hitting this particular purple patch at a time when all the players they sign to score goals are on the treatment tables is incredible. Justin Cliver, what nomenclature would we assign him?
He's been playing as a number 10 in the last couple of games. They played Dango Watara up front against Forest. He got the hat-trick, first hat-trick of his senior career. He's a winger. I mean, you've got players like Antoine Semenyo who are... He's a wide player but with a real nose for goal. So, you know, you do have...
players who know how to score goals, but you don't have Evan Nielsen, you don't have Enes Unal, so you don't have the players who are supposed to score goals. It's a big old match to be... being played at three o'clock on a Saturday. These are the two teams who have produced the most shots following high turnovers this season. So it's... Press v. Press. Big time, yeah. And I've written a piece on looking ahead to this game on the Premier League, so I don't know if it's out yet, but...
The numbers that Bournemouth produced at Anfield are staggering, considering they lost 3-0. Liverpool picked them off. They were brilliant on the day Liverpool were out, beating the press, and all three goals were basically full length of the pitch, quick breakaways. Outside of those goals, Bournemouth were stunningly good. No team against Liverpool all season has had more shots against them.
than they had that day, 19. No team has had more shots inside the box than Bournemouth managed against Liverpool, 12. Joint first for shots on target, six. No one's had more corners than Bournemouth forced at Anfield, nine. And only one team has had more touches in the box against Liverpool than Bournemouth, who had 32, and that's Arsenal at the Emirates. So...
They've proven in that game, even though they got beaten, that they can cause Liverpool a world of problems. So it's going to be a fascinating game. They're obviously top of the mini league. Between the top seven, Bournemouth. Are they top of that, Bournemouth? Yeah, so I looked at the mini league. I've played nine, which is more than anybody else.
as well, which is significant, given that they're chasing top five, and they've had a lot of tough fixtures already. Yeah, they've got 15 points from those nine games, won four, drawn three, lost two, scored 17 goals. in those nine games. The table reads this, Bournemouth top, Liverpool second, then City, Newcastle, Chelsea, Arsenal have only had one win from six against the top seven. Lots of draws.
And Nottingham Forest, the bottom of that little mini league. So they can absolutely do it here. They can unsettle anyone. You know, the pressing game is ridiculous. The athleticism is crazy. And what I love about them is when they win the ball. Bang! They're at you, aren't they? There's not just one player running at the heart of the defence. It's two, three, four players flying forward trying to hurt the opposition.
This promises to be one of the games of the season. It'll probably be 0-0 now. But I think it has potential to be brilliant to watch. I look forward to listening to it on the radio. As indeed Arsenal and Man City will no doubt be doing. Between them they might have a fire stick.
Perhaps. Perish the thought. Perhaps. I don't think either club is big on bending rules, Rory. No, that's true. Perish the thought. Sunday, 4.30 is when they take the field and another of these top seven against each other. Clashes. Arsenal, we've heard about Man City too, but I guess my question is, after that run they've had of, what, four wins in the last five in the Premier League, but maybe some shaky moments elsewhere, exactly how back are Man City?
do we think? I suspect not actually very back in that they're beating the teams you would expect them to beat and generally quite convincingly. I mean, they, you know, they look like the old city a little bit against Ipswich, but... They were playing Ipswich. Albeit, having said that, an Ipswich team who hadn't yet been thrashed to quite that extent this season. But I think that the vulnerabilities that City have and that have been...
undermining them throughout the slump that they may or may not be putting themselves out of, are all still there. They're still very vulnerable on the counter-attack. Mateus Nunes is not and probably never will be a right back. I mean, on the... The Bruges goal last night, the guy who makes it.
almost made Nunes disappear in a puff of smoke with a wiggle of the head. And you feel terrible for him because he was signed to be a kind of ball-carrying, Morgan Rodgers-style central midfielder. Guardiola very quickly disappeared.
He decided he couldn't be trusted to do that, tried using him as a winger, then realised they didn't like him as a winger either, is now putting him at full-back. And every time he plays, he has an absolute nightmare. And I, yeah, I just feel with City that there are moments when they do...
City things, De Bruyne or Foden do De Bruyne and Foden things or Haaland scores a goal or Guardiol pops up and scores or something but then when they're being attacked, I mean again the Bruges goal last night, there were times when Bruges turned over the ball and
Just the space, that inability to snuff out opposition counterattacks, which just makes you think that every time the level... goes up you know in the coming weeks and i guess depending on how city's new recruits bed in city are going to struggle to raise their game accordingly
Well, they're winless in their last three against Arsenal. Will Arteta be licking his lips at the thoughts of unleashing the Gunners against that side? I think he should be. Yeah, I do. I think that he should absolutely be relishing this game. I think the players should. They let Manchester City off the hook, really, even though they had 10 men at the Etihad. 10 men. That was a game that Arsenal...
Deserved to win, really. Featured a rare controversial red card for us. Yeah, it doesn't happen too often, doesn't it? There's a little bit of payback there. Obviously, we had the stay humble nonsense at the end from Erling Haaland, which won't have been forgotten.
gotten by Arteta. Do you think there'll be a bit of needle to this game? I absolutely think there'll be some needle. You remember Miles Lewis-Skelly also got booked without coming onto the pitch or before he'd got onto the pitch which was... Disciplines Miles Lewis-Skelly who in the last few days... has had his red card rescinded or at least the suspension
suspended or struck off so he will be available for this game he will and it'll be really interesting to see whether he plays because he's not put a foot wrong but Ricciardo Calafuri has come in and been brilliant scored obviously at Wolves was good in the game in Girona as well. So that's an interesting selection dilemma. You've also got the right wing dilemma with Juan Airy. Will he go with him or will he go with a Martinelli?
Thinking about Mateus Nunez on the right back, I would probably rather have Martinelli on the left where he can stop, start and maybe go, you make runs in behind him. Nunez is quick. But defensively, as you say, he doesn't make great decisions. So I would be tempted to go with Martinelli and maybe Wanieri on the right. We'll have to wait and see. But no, this is a huge game. Arsenal need to be aggressive. They need to force turnovers.
City is very vulnerable the way they set up because they basically have kind of five up front when they have the ball. And they often place two of their midfielders in between their centre-backs. And one of those is Kovacic, who's not quick. if you can win the ball and then go bang There's a lovely little hole there for teams to exploit. Korpama should have exploited that in the game at the weekend. So that's something Arsenal can hurt City with. I'm a little bit worried about City's long balls.
which sounds silly to say given how many short passes they make, but they're really good at isolating Haaland and going bang with one long pass. They do that more and more, aren't they? Yeah, and Arsenal have been caught out by it a little bit this season. And it's not just to Haaland that they go long. They'll go long to Guardiola or Nunez as well, as we saw at the weekend. So, yeah, City long balls, Arsenal turnovers. I think that's how they can hurt each other.
Good Lord. 4.30 on Sunday afternoon, that game. We've been banging on for a while, listeners, so quickly to round up the rest of the matches. As I say, there's loads of derbies. Wolves, Aston Villa, Brentford facing another team. lost four straight matches in the Premier League. Tottenham. Can Anjipas Koglu avoid becoming the first manager to lose five straight matches in the league for Tottenham since...
Aussie Odiles? Yes. The other Aussie. Yeah. As Duncan Alexander famously equipped. And the other derby, Chelsea West Ham on Monday night, which is Graham Potter back at Stamford Bridge.
Take you on a Chelsea side that's won only one of their last seven in the Premier League. Rory, what else is grabbing your attention? Is it Forest Brighton? Is it... one of those derbies is it oh my goodness that huge game down at the bottom with Ipswich taking on Southampton or perhaps none of that maybe it's Man United Crystal Palace because you are quite
You know, quite left field in your selections. It's probably not Man United, Crystal Palace. I think that Brentford Spurs is fascinating just because I was shocked to discover recently that Tottenham are 15th in the Premier League. And I don't know how long they can retain their manager while that remains the case. So it feels like obviously there are two kind of big events this weekend. It's Bournemouth, Liverpool, City against Arsenal.
That Spurs game, I think, is genuinely significant. And of course, James, the Milan derby. The Milan derby, indeed so. Everton-Leicester. Everton-Leicester. Everton-Leicester's big, isn't it? That's 16th against 17th. Yeah. Six points between. Yeah, but it could be three if Leicester City were to go there and win. Obviously, they went to Tottenham and won, which should have given them a huge lift. So, yeah, you know, are Everton back?
Or was that a little bit of a false storm with their recent win? And can Leicester under Ruud van Nistrooy put a run together? It didn't look like they could, but this is the kind of fixture maybe that Everton wouldn't like because... they have to take the game to Leicester. And of course, we all know what Jamie Vardy is like on those breakaways. So I can potentially see Leicester winning this game and that would make things really interesting.
wouldn't it though? But Everton back-to-back wins. Real back-to-the-wall win away at Brighton last weekend and look like they're potentially putting a little bit of momentum together but a lot of injury problems. I think they finished the game with 10 minutes. Men at Brighton last weekend might not have a centre-forward or rather might not have Dominic Calvert-Lewin. Dwight McNeil might need surgery. So, yeah, it looks like they're... When you look at the table, there are very obviously...
There's a six-point gap now between Everton in 16th and Leicester in 17th. Everton have also got a game in hand, albeit it's against Liverpool. But you feel like it's going to be three from four and looking at... how far off safety Southampton are. It's going to be two from three. I think if Everton can get another couple of wins on the board relatively quickly, they'll start to think that they can stop.
pulling away from trouble a little bit more. But, yeah, the injury situation is unhelpful. OK. And the game which kicks the weekend off, Nottingham Forest against Brighton. Nottingham Forest, who have struggled. with South Coast sides in the last two hours of football against Bournemouth last weekend and previously against Southampton. They are 7-0 down. And here's another stat. They've been...
The first scorers in so many games, 18 of their 23 games this season, and that's behind their terrific record in their top three spot. But if they concede, as we again saw last weekend... They have real issues. When they've gone 1-0 down, they've lost four of those five matches, admittedly against opponents of the calibre of Arsenal, Man City, Aston Villa, Fulham and Bournemouth. Brighton, by the way, have only won two of their last 11 in the Premier League.
Quietly. Yeah, although two of those came in the last three matches. Oh, that's a better framing. Both away from home at Ipswich and... manchester united although is winning at manchester united an impressive feat anymore arguably not as much as it once was what does anything mean well i guess we'll get one or two clues to that this Saturday and Sunday so do join us when we reassemble on Sunday night post Arsenal Man City
to come up with some conclusions about where we are after 24 rounds of the Premier League. Many thanks, though, for being with us today. Thanks again as well to Rory Smith and to Tom Williams, Andrew Adrian Clarke and to Jacob Tanswell.
and producer charlie have yourself a great weekend we'll be with you kind of around monday morning for now from all of us here it's goodbye You've been listening to The Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network, your essential destination for the 2024-25 football season. For more great football podcasts like this one, including The Athletic FC, The Daily Football Briefing and our six dedicated club podcasts, search for The Athletic on Apple, Spotify and all the usual places.
The Totally Football Show is an Athletic Media Company production. The Athletic FC Podcast Network. It's the final week of the transfer window, and that sound you can hear is David Ornstein's phone blowing up.
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