The Daily Football Briefing has come to an end, but you can still get your daily dose of football news and analysis - albeit with less Iain Macintosh - from the award-winning Athletic FC. Here's the latest episode, covering the dramatic end to the Merseyside derby and yet another injury for Arsenal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Liverpool just had to beat Tottenham, but they absolutely blew them away at Anfield, running out 4-0 winners. James Pearce discusses their dominance, Jay Harris reflects on Tottenham’s timidity and the one thing we can agree on is that it’s been a really tough week for North London. Pol Ballus was watching Barcelona in the Copa del Rey, we’ve got Lisa Nandy from The Athletic FC and…erm…a bit of an announcement… Presenter: Iain Macintosh With: James Pearce, Jay Harris, Pol Ballus, Lisa Nandy Prod...
Any concerns that Newcastle would bottle their chance of a trip to Wembley proved extremely wide of the mark. They tore into Arsenal and thoroughly deserved their 2-0 victory. George Caulkin was there and he is happy, James McNicholas was there and he is rather less so. We had Beren Cross watching Leeds win again, Dermot Corrigan saw Real Madrid get a fright at Leganes and James Pearce joins us to discuss Liverpool’s transfer window. Listen here. Presenter: Iain Macintosh With: George Caulkin, J...
Manchester City’s spending has been the focus of much discussion over the last 24 hours. They bought four players in the window, but will they be enough to prevent Pep Guardiola’s empire from crumbling? Rory Smith thinks not And Real Madrid have complained very loudly about VAR “manipulating” the game against them. Thomas Hill Lopez Menchero is here to tell us if they have a point. Plus we’ve got news from all of the big games around Europe too. Presenter: Iain Macintosh With: Si Watts, Tomas Hi...
We’ve got a full deadline day round-up for you here with everything that was confirmed after 11pm, but before our bedtime at midnight. Deal of the day? Marco Asensio for Aston Villa? Or will it be Mathys Tel for Spurs? Chelsea were never really comfortable at Stamford Bridge, but they grabbed themselves a much needed victory against West Ham. Simon Johnson was there. And we’ve got another episode of Heavy Metal Football…statistics for you, including the answer to the question: Who’s always tryin...
Be honest. When Kai Havertz missed that first half sitter, you thought that Arsenal were going to lose, didn’t you? And why wouldn’t you? That’s how football works. It’s powered by narrativium. Except this time it wasn’t. Arsenal destroyed City and Havertz got one in the back of the net eventually. Amy Lawrence has the Arsenal angle, Sam Lee has City, but we’ve also got Carl Anka at Old Trafford, the theatre of pathos, we’ve got Jay Harris at the GTech where Spurs were impressive and if that’s n...
It’s mission accomplished for Tottenham and Manchester United, they’ve spared themselves a Europa League play-off. So have Rangers, which very few people expected. Jay Harris was in North London, Mark Critchely was in Bucharest, but they both made time for DFB. So did Seb Stafford Bloor because it looks like young Mathys Tel is on the move. But where to? And we’ve got a whole weekend of domestic football on the horizon, so we’ve picked out the most interesting games in the top five league. Prese...
Manchester City were 0-1 at home to Club Brugges, but they fought back to win 3-1 and claim their place in the play-offs. Sam Lee was there and he’s looking forward to their reward; a clash with Real Madrid or Bayern Munich. Paris St Germain didn’t just survive, they managed to bag a seeded place in the play-offs, Seb Stafford Bloor watched them and he was impressed. And Aston Villa’s 4-2 win over Celtic was overshadowed by David Ornstein’s news that Jhon Duran is set to move to Al Nasr in Saudi...
Yep, it’s the big one tonight. Eighteen games, all at once and heaven only knows what that massive Champions League table will look like at the end of it all. What does it all mean? Listen here for a full briefing. Plus, what’s going on with Borussia Dortmund, we speak to Seb Stafford Bloor. And are Brighton really about to sell Evan Ferguson? It appears so. Presenter: Iain Macintosh With: Phil Hay, Seb Stafford Bloor Producer: Si Watts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoi...
Ruben Amorim doesn’t seem to mince his words and his comments on Marcus Rashford this weekend were fascinating. We check in with the team from The Athletic FC podcast to find out what they mean. Plus, how did Leeds get on at Burnley? And we’ve got another installment of heavy metal football…statistics and how they suggest that Trent Alexander Arnold and Son Heung Min aren’t having such bad seasons after all. Presenter: Iain Macintosh With: Beren Cross Producer: Si Watts Learn more about your ad ...
The mood at Tottenham is pretty bleak right now. Defeat at home to Leicester was not what anyone was expecting. The fans are absolutely furious and understandably so. Jay Harris reports back for us. Laurie Whitwell was at the Manchester United game and he has our full sympathy for that. Jacob Tanswell tells us about a tired looking Aston Villa. And, after the first hat trick of his Real Madrid career, Dermot Corrigan tells us why he thinks that Kylian Mbappe has finally settled at Real Madrid. P...
Finally, there’s a smile on Ruben Amorim’s face. He thought, as indeed we all did, that Man Utd had chucked away a perfectly good win with an entirely preventable mistake. He was wrong, Bruno Fernandes saved the day and poor old Ranger, depleted by injuries, went home empty handed. Laurie Whitwell was there. Spurs could so easily have done the same. They dominated the first half in Hoffenheim, fell away completely in the second and scrambled out with a crucial 3-2 win. Seb Stafford Bloor was wat...
Manchester City aren’t out of it yet, but they were taught a lesson in Paris by a young side that have none of their predecessor’s traits. PSG fought as a team to come back from 0-2 down and, in many ways, this is sad because we can no longer laugh at them. We can laugh at Bayern, if that’s something you’d like to do. They were beaten by Feyenoord and may not get one of those nice automatic passes. Arsenal probably will do though, they beat Zagreb comfortably enough. We’ve got Sam Lee in Paris, ...
What a night of Champions League football. If you were smart enough to choose the Benfica - Barcelona game as your match of the night, well done. Pol Ballus was there and he’s still in shock. If you were watching some sort of Champions League highlights show, you may not have kept up with all the goals going in, there were 34 in total. James Pearce was at Anfield, Jacob Tanswell was in Monaco and Dermot Corrigan was in Madrid, we’ve got all the scores from elsewhere and if this was a busy night,...
Chelsea are back in business after five Premier League games without a win, but their 3-1 victory over Wolves wasn’t always convincing. Simon Johnson was at Stamford Bridge, he tells us more. And is this really the worst Manchester United team ever? We check in with the Talk of the Devils team to find out. And what’s going on with the Champions League again? Who’s playing who? Who’s going through? And what does it all mean? Presenter: Iain Macintosh With: Simon Johnson and the Talk of the Devils...
Did anyone expect David Moyes’ second coming to be quite this much fun? They tore Spurs to shreds in the first hour of their clash at Goodison Park, blotting their copybook only slightly by allowing Ange Postecoglu’s side to pull back two late goals. Jack Pitt Brooke was there. Paul Taylor was watching Nottingham Forest adjusting to a day of being overwhelming favourites. Carl Anka was at Old Trafford, presumably because he upset someone in the office. And Mark Carey was at Portman Road to see C...
Erling Haaland has committed the vast majority of his career to Manchester City by signing an extraordinary new contract that will keep him at the Etihad Stadium until the summer of 2034. Abi Paterson is joined by David Ornstein who broke the story exclusively on The Athletic. The Athletic's Senior Data Analyst shares his thoughts on how Manchester City will no look to build a team around him. Host: Abi Paterson Producer: Abi Paterson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoice...
With eight minutes to go at Old Trafford, the question of Manchester United’s relegation was pertinent and appropriate. They were losing to a broken team with just six points on the board. And then Amad Diallo, again, saved United. Laurie Whitwell tries to make sense of an extraordinary night. Elsewhere, Brighton won a league game for the first time since November 23, Ipswich don’t look good though. We’ve got some Spurs reaction from Jack Pitt Brooke, we’ve got Seb Stafford Bloor on a highly pri...
Arsenal shook off their fears and just about edged their way past Spurs at The Emirates. Amy Lawrence was there to watch it all and pass comment, Jay Harris was there to quite rightly defend the honour of Spurs’ keeper Antonin Kinsky. There was no dream return for David Moyes at Everton, his side were beaten at home by Aston Villa and, goodness me, he has a lot of work to do. George Caulkin saw Newcastle win AGAIN and Alexander Isak score AGAIN, twice in fact. But can they keep him? Isak, not Ge...
What a fantastic night of football for everyone apart from the people trying to put out a compact, results heavy, ten minute football podcast by 10.30pm. Liverpool (and Leicester fans) were given a real scare by Nottingham Forest, but they worked their socks off to come back and save a point. Chelsea saved a point at home to Bournemouth, Man City lost two at Brentford and Graham Potter’s West Ham won 3-2 with four shots and I don’t think Marco Silva will ever speak to him again. Plus we’ve got a...
They’re all very down in the dumps at Arsenal. A surprisingly high number of fans seem to have lost faith in Mikel Arteta. That seems a bit dramatic, doesn’t it? We check in on Amy Lawrence and Ian Stone Are Nottingham Forest title contenders? Matt Davies Adams certainly thinks so and our Liverpool correspondent James Pearce thinks the league leaders are in for a really tough game. Plus, we preview all of Tuesday’s big games around Europe. Presenter: Iain Macintosh With: Amy Lawrence, Ian Stone,...
The FA Cup takes a lot of stick, from me in particular, but Sunday offered two of the best sort of games. First non league Tamworth gave Tottenham a real test across 101 minutes of uncompromising football class war and then Arsenal and Man Utd went at each other in a game that had more needle than quality. Carl Anka and James McNicholas were at The Emirates, Jay Harris was in Tamworth, we’ve also got Seb Stafford Bloor on a rampant Bayer Leverkusen and Dermot Corrigan was watching the Classico t...
We all knew Sean Dyche was under significant pressure at Everton, but I don’t think anyone expected him to sacked just a few hours before kick off in the FA Cup third round tie against Peterborough. David Ornstein and Paddy Boyland fill us in on the details. What do we make of Graham Potter at West Ham? Phil Hay has his doubts. And we have some good news for Manchester United fans too, they certainly haven’t had much of that over the past few weeks. Presenter: Iain Macintosh With: David Ornstein...
Did anyone expect Spurs to play really mature, sensible football and beat Liverpool without conceding a goal? This was a very impressive display from them, though the referee’s decision not to dismiss Lucas Bergvall may have been more important than his dalliance with the tannoy… Julian Lopetegui has been put out of his misery at West Ham. The decision was finally reached on Wednesday after the poor man was made to take a morning training session. Roshane Thomas is here to tell us if it was the ...
Arsenal sent the xG meter past the three goals mark, but Newcastle were far more ruthless in front of goal and they have just secured a huge victory in the first leg of the League Cup semi-finals. Can Arsenal turn it around at St James Park? I don’t fancy their chances… What’s the latest on Julien Lopetegui? We speak to our West Ham man Roshane Thomas. And it’s the first Heavy Metal Football…statistics of the season. Are Brentford all they’re cracked up to be? The numbers shed some doubt… Presen...
Arsenal fans seem a little nervous right now and I can understand that. Newcastle stand between them and a first cup final since 2020, and the Magpies are in fine form. But former Gunner Adrian Clarke is very optimistic… AC Milan looked dead and buried in Saudi Arabia, but Christian Pulisic led a heroic comeback to secure Super Coppa success against Internazionale. Greg O’Keefe was watching that for us. We’re really going to have to start taking Nottingham Forest seriously. They are the real dea...
Liverpool were supposed to give Manchester United the spanking of a lifetime, but they only escaped with a draw because a last gasp opportunity fell to Harry Maguire. What went wrong, we ask James Pearce, while pivoting skilfully to ask Laurie Whitwell what went right for United. And seriously, what is the deal with Dani Olmo? Can he leave Barcelona for free now? We asked Pol Ballus who patiently explained…yes. Yes, he can. We’ve got all the big scores and stories from around Europe, including a...
The night started slowly in north London, but those who exercised patience reaped the rewards. Tottenham were 3-0 up against Manchester United, all but set for the Carabao Cup semi finals, when Fraser Forster decided to make the game a little more interesting with two terrible errors. Jay Harris has the story of the rest of the night. In Europe the Conference League league stage concluded. Chelsea were unsurprisingly top but there was still some fun to be had. Lucy Oliva was at Stamford Bridge t...
There were no surprise results in the League Cup, but there were some surprising moments. Crystal Palace led Arsenal for fifty minutes at The Emirates before succumbing to a Gabriel Jesus hat-trick, Southampton pushed Liverpool all the way in a closer-than-you-might-expect 2-1 defeat. But there was no surprise in Brentford losing away at Newcastle because for some reason Brentford seem to lose rather a lot of their away games. We’ve got an update on the Marcus Rashford situation, we’ve got most ...
Yep, those A22 guys are back with a new idea for ruining football. And it’s really quite something. Ninety six teams in four divisions that are split into multiple splinter divisions, all attempting to reach some sort of knock out round. I’ll level with you, I’m not a fan. There’s been a lot of news today. There’s the Mudryk banned substance story, there’s Marcus Rashford announcing that he’s ready for a new challenge, there’s the FIFA Best Awards, there’s Ronaldo running for President. No, not ...
