Liverpool close on title after derby delight against Everton: Football Weekly Extra

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Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly.

Liverpool take a big step to the title with a nervy win in the Merseyside Derby at Anfield.

Jotto with the only goal.

Should it have stood Louis Diaz in an offside position.

The ball's passed to him, but he's not interfering.

Cret call, bad law.

If you thought Tarkovsky connected well with that volley in the reverse fixture, that's nothing compared to how he caught Alexis McAllister in the first half.

A challenge from the 1980s.

In the race for fifth place, a big win for Villa at Brighton.

Jack Grealish gets a rare star and a rare goal for Man City.

While if Sandro Tanali meant that, then perhaps football is complete.

Also, today, the best team in the world, Bournemouth's bad run, continues.

Have Ipswich given themselves a glimmer of hope?

While, open brackets, yet more, closed brackets, heartbreak for Southampton, conceding a last-minute equaliser against Palace.

We'll look ahead to the weekend's games.

Jose's gone all cute dad and pretended to steal someone's nose or something like that.

We'll get German corrections to answer your questions.

And that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, Barry Glendenning, welcome.

Hi, Max.

Hello, Jonathan Wilson.

Morning, how are you doing?

I'm very well, thank you.

And welcome, Dan Bardell.

A very good morning to you, Max.

Mark says, how long before Trump imposes tariffs on foreign podcasts?

We don't know, but we love our US listeners, and hopefully, you don't have to charge, be charged, I don't know, or pay 20% or whatever it is to listen to this in the near future.

Let's start at Anfield.

Liverpool won Everton-0.

Really important win for Liverpool back to 12 points clear of Arsenal with eight games to go.

Did feel like a big step towards the title that they've already won, Barry.

Yeah, we've been saying for a long time that the title is a done deal, but I think if Liverpool had lost this game, it would have been their fifth consecutive poor performance or defeat and or

and

the gap would have been nine points Arsenal still have to go to Anfield so that theoretically could make the gap six maybe nervy times for Liverpool so this win you would imagine will steady any nerves I think they only need 13 points now from the last eight games to guarantee the title that's unlikely to be a problem for them I wouldn't say this was a straightforward win.

Everton came with a plan to just pack their defence and hoi long balls towards Beto, and it nearly worked because he had one goal ruled out for a very tight outside, and he hit the post with a shot that he should have scored with.

But ultimately, it was a fairly comfortable win for Liverpool, I think.

The goal, and there are two big moments in this game, Wilson, two big decisions, where sort of Paul Tierney, clearly wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to the match in the VAR room as far as I could tell.

The offside, the ball is passed to Louis Diaz.

He is in an offside position.

He doesn't make a move for the ball.

Tarkovsky plays it.

Now I understand people saying that it's the correct decision by the laws, but it seems so daft that that is the law of football because Tarkovsky, okay, he shouldn't be on the pitch, but he is there.

is so affected by the fact that Louis Diaz is in his vicinity.

He would do something different if there was no player near him.

Yeah, absolutely.

As to what the actual law is, I'm pretty baffled.

I seem to remember, Dan will probably remember this better than me, but wasn't it a not dissimilar incident with Tywen Mings a couple of years ago, after which I thought they changed the guidelines, so that was offside.

But everybody last night seemed to say, no, under the law, this is correct.

So maybe it is.

Certainly, there's a grey area there.

If you were writing the laws now, or if you're writing the laws as they ought to be, that should be offside because Diaz clearly gains an advantage.

Tokovsky can't know that he's not going to move for it.

He can't be certain he's offside.

He does the right thing in trying to clear it, but that then presents the ball back to Liverpool in a dangerous area and they score from it.

So it's sort of morally offside, but maybe not legally offside.

And Moy said their goal is offside.

There's no doubt about that.

It's a mistake by the linesman or VAR or the referee, whoever you want to say.

It's quite easy to read as well.

It's not a difficult one, if you ask me, but not surprised, that decision at Anfield, you don't get.

Whereas Arnold Slot did say, look, the rules were executed perfectly, but I feel frustration about the rule.

I mean, does anyone disagree with Wilson's summary summary of that, Dan, or do you agree?

I mean, VAR had an awful, awful night

last night, generally.

I would say you've said it in the lead with this question saying the ball has been passed to Louis Diaz.

The ball has been passed to Louis Diaz.

How can he not be involved in play?

That doesn't make sense, does it?

It's another ludicrous decision, but it is the rule.

So

Slot was probably right with what he said.

And then the other one is the Tarkovsky challenge on McAllister.

I've sort of run through the decades, Barry.

I've gone sort of 70s, 80s, that is viewed as a great challenge.

In the 90s, it would be given as a free kick, but proper football men would complain about it being given as a free kick.

2000s, 2010s, accepted as a foul.

2020s, definite red card.

Do you share that sort of view of how that challenge, getting the ball and then crunching your opponent, would be viewed?

Yeah, I think you've done it very well there, actually.

Everybody,

like absolutely everybody, including Duncan Ferguson, who was no stranger to a bad tackle himself and

died in the wool Evertonian.

Even Duncan, Big Dunk, agreed it should have been a straight red.

And the only two people who seemed to think it wasn't worthy of a red card were the referee Sam Barrett and Paul Tierney.

I can...

excuse Sam Barrett for not being quite sure in the heat of the moment.

It's baffling that Paul Tierney didn't see it as a red.

And

we do

know for a fact that Mike Dean has in the past, in his role

in Stockley Park, refused to get involved because he didn't want to undermine his mate.

And I think this is another clear indication that VAR and refs need to be completely separate entities.

Referees shouldn't be in charge of VAR.

The Premier league match center on x said the referees called of a yellow card for a reckless foul by tokowski was checked by the var with contact on the follow-through after tokowski had played the ball deemed to be reckless on the premier league website it states contact on foot only is typically considered reckless equals yellow card i don't know what that means high plus full plus forceful contact on ankle or above is considered dangerous equals red card Well, that is clearly, I mean, it depends how high Alexis McCannalis' ankles are, I guess, but

it seemed well above the ankle to me.

Anyway.

Sorry, Max, there was a third sort of contentious incident when Jordan Pickford leathered Darwin Nunes after the whistle had gone for Igri Boonen kick on Svozlai.

So Savozlai got the foul, then Pickford clattered Nunes, which I think was also a red card offence.

And I

think the reason he wasn't penalised at all was because the free kick had already been given for the previous foul by his teammate.

Now,

Pickford has previously knacked Virgil Van Dyke for the best part of a season with a foul that went unpunished because the ball had gone dead when he committed the foul or before he committed the foul.

And I thought at the time, again, there was a tweak so that...

in the rules

so that in future if jordan pickford did this again or anyone else, as he did last night, he could be punished for it.

But it seems, again, not to have been applied.

But yeah, last night, as Dan said, was not a good night for referees, really, or VARs.

Did anyone else notice that when

after the McAllister incident, Van Dijk went to speak to the referee and Pickford, who has already done what Barry said he's done, was telling Virgil Van Dijk to calm down?

I thought that the audacity of that having ended a season for Van Dijk previously, I thought that was absolutely outrageous from Jordan Pickford.

Wilson, what did you make of Liverpool's performance overall?

It doesn't really matter, does it?

They're not playing brilliantly at the moment, but they did enough.

Yeah, it was fine.

I think the second half they improved.

Yeah, in the context of recent performances, it was

another performance where they weren't at the top of their game.

And from the point of view of wishing we had a bit of a title race, you just wish that Arsenal hadn't chucked away so many cheat points earlier in the season.

I think if they were within six or seven rather than twelve, then Liverpool might still be anxious.

The more anxious they are, the more likely they are to drop points, and the more fun the end of the season could be.

And ideally, that game at Anfield, which, what, the third last game of the season,

Liverpool against Arsenal, you would have liked that to be almost a showdown.

As it is, it's entirely possible that the title will all be wrapped up by then.

It's got real

feelings of guard of honour.

Should they do a guard of honour?

There'll be lots of guard of honour chat, won't there, as Arsenal go to Anfield.

And I mean, it is interesting up to a point, I guess, that their top players down aren't totally firing.

You know, Salah isn't, Van Dyke isn't.

The way Van Dijk went challenged for Betto for that ball, it was sort of like a sort of how you can Street Fighter 2 kick, wasn't it?

I know we sort of flew past the ball like a computer game.

I mean, we had Street Fighter in that incident, and then we had a Mortal Kombat from James Tarkovska

as well, didn't we?

I thought Beto in the house.

I thought beto in the first half.

I thought he really ruffled Van Dijk.

I thought Van Dijk had a really difficult time against him.

Obviously, Betto had a goal disallowed.

He had another shot off the post.

I do wonder what would have happened in that game if Everton had have gone 1-0 up.

Because Liverpool weren't free-flowing.

They didn't play brilliantly.

I thought Curtis Jones did okay at right back, but a lot of the big players for Liverpool had off nights again.

Last night, Salah had a few quiet games in a row now.

I mean, is the contract talk getting to him finally?

I don't know, but

they just haven't been the Liverpool they were at the start of the season, but they're doing enough to kind of get through the majority of games and they will do more than enough to win the league.

And they've only lost once all season, which is which is absolutely phenomenal, isn't it?

Sort of winning it like Liz McColgan would win the 10,000 meters, you know, get a huge lead and then just sort of be exhausted, sort of sort of flapping.

Is that how McColgan went?

I think it is.

And, you know, be sort of flapping and tiring as, you know, the Ethiopians would be catching, but she had such a big lead, it didn't matter.

There's an analogy that will help everybody understand what has happened to Liverpool being really good and winning lots of games.

I think every time I come here, you do an analogy that goes completely over my head, and I don't know who the person is that you're talking about.

Let's go to the Amex Brighton-0, Aston Villa 3.

Really important win for Villa.

I mean, I thought, Dan, like, you probably deserved it at the end, but like that first half, like, both sides were going at it, penalty shouts, chances, and it didn't didn't seem obvious at that stage that Villa would sort of walk away 3-0 winners.

No,

it was a really good game.

I watched 90 minutes of that game last night, and it was a really fun game.

Obviously, I'm saying that as the supporter of the team that's won, but in the first half, it was close, it was end-to-end.

Both teams could have made something happen.

I think Villa getting that goal just after half-time, obviously, that's a really good time to score.

And it put it not Brighton back.

Obviously, they've had 120 minutes the weekend before against Nottingham Forest in in the FA Cup.

They're probably still a little bit gutted about going out of that.

And I thought Villa played in transition really, really well.

Tactically, I think Emery picked the right team.

We've got so many options now, but it really worked with Rashford playing as the number nine and him drifting to the left, and then the three number tens behind him.

All managers just keep finding space and drifting into the space that he vacated.

And all three goals came in similar fashions.

I thought, you know, given the context of the game, it was a huge game.

Obviously, the Merseyside Derby is the Merseyside Derby, but that was a huge game in the context of the Premier League and

the race for European qualification.

And I thought Villa handled it really well.

And Brighton had only lost six times before last night.

So to go there and win, I thought it was probably Villa's best away of results and arguably their best away performance of the season.

And Jonathan, an unbelievable January.

You know, to sign Asencio and Rashford, and Marlon as well scored then, but, you know, Asenio to have eight goals and one assist from ten games and having only started four games rashford three goals and four assists from eleven games having only started six I don't know if that's just sheer brilliance from their recruitment or a bit of luck but it's very rare that you bring two players in in January who do so much not at that level I think you've seen it occasionally with teams in the relegation scrap who sign four or five and it makes a big difference but to do that when you're sort of an upper mid-table you know knock on the door of the champions league side i think it's very very difficult i do feel slightly sorry for ascencio because nobody can have made as many sub-appearances as him, surely, in the whole history of the game.

He just, why can't he go to a game,

go to a team where he's like to start games?

But he's really good at coming off a bench and being dames and scoring.

That finish last night was an amazing finish.

Yeah, the precision of the finish was great.

The revival of Rashford is...

I mean, I think it's great, Barry, isn't it?

But it's quite incredible, really.

I'm never sure if a player means to bounce a ball over a keeper with that finish.

But, you know, who were we crediting yesterday, Martinelli, for that assist.

Maybe he's good enough to mean it.

But I did not see Rashford just being this good

when he moved.

Yeah,

I was reading somewhere yesterday.

I'm not sure where it was.

Are we over-egging the Rashford pudding?

Has he been as good as people are saying?

Or is he just achieving par now?

Rashford Parr having failed to make any kind of impression at Manchester United and apparently spat his dummy.

And I was wondering, but nah, he clearly is playing very, very well.

And

I do think he meant that finish.

But I'm in magnanimous mood this week.

I gave Martinelli the benefit of the doubt today.

I'm giving Rashford the benefit of the doubt.

And I would have given Tenale the benefit of the doubt until he actually said

he didn't mean to score.

We'll get to that later.

But yeah, I'm going to say he meant it.

I suppose, look, you've watched every minute probably of Rashford Dan since he got there.

And Asensio, so like, you know, give us your review.

Yeah, just two real high-level players.

I think, you know, we talk about the recruitment.

It's not the most inventive recruitment in the world, is it?

The two players that are very well known, but they've just come in and taken on board what Emory wants.

And I actually think what they've done is

Villa were quite stodgy, a bit bitty in the league this season, but these two high-quality players coming in, I think it's given the fans a bit of a bit of a lift.

I think it gave the players a bit of a lift.

I actually think it gave Urne Emery a bit of a lift as well.

I think he was getting very frustrated with Villa's inconsistencies before January.

And in the last month or so, or the last kind of month of games, it all just seems to have clicked for Villa now.

They've got this array of exciting options.

They've got a really, really deep squad.

If you look at some of the players that didn't even come on last night, the depth that Villa have now in every single department is right up there in terms of Premier League squads.

So, Villa bringing Inanna into the game, it was a £50 million signing.

They bring in Ascensia into games.

Sometimes Rashford's come off the bench.

Marlin's barely played, and you know, he's come on and scored last night.

Suddenly, everyone's become fit again at the same time, and that's come at the same time as having these exciting new players.

And finally, this season, Villa have just firmed up and started to learn how to keep clean sheets as well.

And I think the good thing is that at the moment, they're in multiple competitions still.

Emery will be able to rotate and he'll be able to keep everyone happy and he's picking the right teams for the right games.

I was slightly concerned with Mings not playing last night, but Torres just fitted him and was absolutely brilliant as well.

I'd put Villa's kind of new defensive steel on us down to Tyro Mings being in the team, but it was the same last night with Pau Torres there.

And they've got a couple of players that just completely fly under the radar.

But Bubakar Kamara.

He's one of the best sixes in Europe.

He's so, so good.

Villa are looking to get him tied down because he's only got a year and a half or two years left on his contract now.

And he'd improve a lot of real, real top-level teams.

Bubuka Kamari, he was probably man of the match last night without even having one of his best games.

So, Villa, that's how good he is.

What chance do you give Villa against PSG next week, Wilson?

I mean, I'd say PSG a favourite.

I think that's fairly obvious, but I mean, they've got a chance.

20% chance, maybe?

22%

chance?

22%.

So

less of a chance than Tenale's being a goal, which we'll get to

in a minute.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Less of a chance than he meant that as a shot.

That's a different stat entirely.

Yes.

No, no, no.

Good point.

Well made.

Thank you for correcting me.

You're welcome.

We're going to do the penalty.

The penalty was absolutely ludicrous.

The Jayco Ramsey, the Jacob Ramsey, but how is that not a penalty?

I don't understand.

So this is the one where he did a couple of step overs and then

was brought down by Jack Hinch.

Do we all think I mean, I sort of didn't mind it wasn't given, but maybe I well, maybe I just wasn't concentrating.

I certainly wasn't, I wasn't wearing villa spectacles.

What is the idea that his legs just gave way before he reached Hinch?

I mean, the match centre was quite confusing.

Again, I can't remember exactly what it said, but the match centre was on top form again with the written review of what happened.

I've not spoken to anyone who thinks that wasn't a penalty, although I have mainly spoken to Villa fans, so that might explain.

yeah you've spoken you've spoken to gordon cowans peter wynn

nigel kennedy nigel speake

nigel kennedy prince william prince william seasons yeah exactly

i mean did everyone else think it was a blatant penalty i mean when i was with barry i thought it was yeah yeah but it didn't matter ultimately but yeah i i was baffled again by no i don't care now um i better watch it again uh all right that'll do for part one.

Part two will begin at St.

James's Park.

HiPod fans of America.

Max here.

Barry's here too.

Hello.

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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

So Newcastle beat Brentford 2-1.

They might have Man City in their sight.

It's 50 points, fifth place, one behind City in fourth.

Let's start with the Sandra Tonali winner, which I did write if he meant it.

It's the greatest goal of all time, or perhaps the greatest goal from a tight angle.

And then he said afterwards, Barry, it was 70% cross, 30% shot, which means nothing, right?

That is a totally meaningless thing to say.

It's either a shot or a cross, isn't it?

Well, he said it was a little bit lucky.

Yeah.

At the final whistle, Thomas Frank went over to him and asked him, you know, did you mean that?

And

he looked a little, sort of smiled sheepishly.

So I don't think he meant to to shoot.

I did at the time, but if you're a player who does that, you shouldn't be modest or coy.

You should say, I meant to do that, whether you did or not.

I disagree on this idea that it's either a cross or a shot.

I think it's entirely legitimate to smash a ball into a dangerous area.

And you think if somebody's making a run across a near post, he gets a little touch, it's really dangerous as a cross.

If a keeper's drifted off his line or he's got his feet slightly caught

and it goes in, that's also good.

I think you tend to see that more with in-swinging crosses to the back post.

Yeah.

Yeah, if I arc this in, maybe it sort of just drifts in the far post.

Maybe somebody gets a touch on it.

I think somebody can be both a cross and a shot at the same time.

I think it's a false distinction.

I understand what you're saying with one of those in-swinging crosses to the far post.

Or perhaps if you are, you know, a bit closer to the goal or a bit less of an angle, you know, like if you're just smashing in the box.

But I think this is just too...

I agree with Barry.

Because the way it moved and the way he struck it, it did look like he meant it, you know, but I think you can't make the distinction from where he is personally.

No, I think you can.

And I think Eddie Howe said he'd seen him sort of practicing that.

So I don't think he's necessarily practicing the score, but he's sort of thinking, if I'm in this position, I'm not sure what's in the box, I've got defenders pursuing me.

If I can, and yeah, it's a difficult thing to do with the balls moving, he's moving, to catch it cleanly, and rather than doing what you instinctively do, which would be to sort of hook your foot around and try and get a round swing on it, but to just sort of smash smash it into that near post area, I think that's entirely legitimate as a cross shot.

It's unusual, but that's good that he's found something new to do in the game.

Wasn't Eddie Howe joking when he said I've seen him practice that?

Eddie Howe has never made a joke.

This is the start of his Edinburgh warm-up, isn't it?

The most

earnest manager in the Premier League.

He doesn't know the meaning of the word joke.

Existing on.

Hello, Cleveland.

Crosscombe Shots.

What are they all about?

Who remembers peanuts?

Joe Hart called it a throbby wobbler,

which I did enjoy

as a phrase, whether I agree with him that it's a throbby wobbler, because I thought it actually stayed quite straight.

I didn't think it was throbby or wobbly, personally.

But it could have gone either way this game.

I'd rather not dwell on Joe Hartby Wobbler.

You're probably right.

I think his point was that

it sort of, I mean, it clearly didn't.

I don't think it did, but it didn't dip as you'd expect.

I think it sort of slightly, I don't think it kind of, it sort of took off.

I think it just kept going at a trajectory you wouldn't expect.

So I know what he means.

It was a ball without

that natural arcing spin you'd expect from a cross.

So

I think that's what he meant.

And that's why I think...

I think that's why the keeper gets slightly low.

Okay.

Whereas if it stood a bit taller, he probably would have got proper hands to it.

Without labouring the point, for me, a sort of a throbby wobbler is what a knuckleball looks like.

You know, when it's like those newfangle footballs that are going all over the place.

But I think this was slightly knucky ball, knuckleball-y.

I don't think we've analysed a goal ever with this much detail.

Can I just add, I'm a big fan of Joel Harris as a ponder.

I think he's very, very good.

Yes, you know, I absolutely do.

Excellent.

And very good goalkeeper insight, which you don't often get.

Could have gone either way, though, Barry.

Ethan Pinnock hit the post, didn't he?

So close to another classic from him.

There were the Brentford penalty shouts as well.

Sounds like a terrible band, doesn't it?

Yeah, I thought Newcastle were a little bit lucky.

I think Brentford should have had two penalties.

The first for the Bruno shove on Michael Damsgaard and then later another Bruno challenge on Damsgaard again, neither given.

Thomas Frank said afterwards he thought the first one was a penalty and the second wasn't.

I would disagree with him.

I thought the second one was even more of a penalty than the first one, but I think both should have been given.

Ethan Pinnock, as you say, hit the post with a header.

And for quite a lot of this game, it looked as if Brentford's players had been sent out to play in their trainers.

They kept slipping and falling over.

There was an Ethan Pinnock slip that allowed Alexander Isaac through where Newcastle probably should have scored.

I think they did score, but it was ruled out.

But if Isaac had played harvey barnes in earlier they would have scored but um yeah i i it was a good win for newcastle but i do think they were a bit fortunate isaak missed a host of chances in the foot in the first half he missed so many so many chances obviously got got one just before half-time and i think him and jacob murphy are the deadliest duo in the Premier League this season in terms of linking up for goals.

I think I think that's right now, Jacob Murphy and Alexander Isak.

So that's an interesting tidbit there.

It is, yes.

Not a tidbit I predicted at the start of the season.

Although we don't have that category, do we?

Maybe we shouldn't introduce it next season.

Your tidbits of 2025, 2026.

Okay, absolutely.

Right.

Man City 2, Lester-Nil.

Real quick start from City,

Dan, and Jack Greedish scoring.

His first goal since December 2023.

He hadn't scored in 26, which tells you he hasn't played much, has it?

He said he was devastated not to play in the FA Cup quarterfinal.

Obviously, really moving as well.

He said, look, my little brother passed away 25 years ago today.

It's always a hard day for the family.

He was four years old when his brother Keelan died in April 2000, just nine months due to sudden infant death syndrome.

So

I suppose on that, which is the most important part of that, it's just a keen reminder that footballers have lives.

And whenever we're watching all these people run around doing whatever they're doing,

we we and

like it's we can't spend every single time thinking I wonder how they're all feeling about certain things.

But it is just a good reminder that

these are just human beings who have other things in their lives while they're playing this game.

Yeah, look, everyone analyses Jack Grealish, Jack Grealish's life, Jack Grealish is football.

He lives his life in that way.

But I know the Grealish family quite well, and they're a lovely, lovely family.

And Jack Grealish is included in that, that they couldn't do enough for people.

That acts of kindness that Jack and his family do.

I've never seen a footballer do so so much for people.

So I always like to see him do well, and I was chuffed that he scored last night.

A player like Jack Greedy should never be going 26 games without a goal, but he's had a lot of injuries over the last few years.

Every time he gets his rhythm back, he seems to get injured.

Spends a lot of time on the bench.

I've always thought he's a quite a rhythmic player, a player that needs to be playing every week.

If you're to see him at his best, and lo and behold, the season that did happen, he was a big part of Manchester City winning the treble.

I think he needs to leave in the summer i think he needs to go and rebuild his career somewhere else and i think him and city will part ways in the summer but just just just great to see him score last night interesting to see him play centrally as well he had a couple of good games for england at the start of the season playing as a as a central player as well he played centrally for man city last night i think he had another game last year as well where where he played central i just think that is his his best position he's he's such a fun footballer to watch on his day and i i just hope towards the end of the season now he can just kick start things for him because he has a tied league game in 2025.

And a player of Jack Greedish is quality that that shouldn't be happening.

Where do you see him, Wilson?

Where's the perfect place for Jack Grealish to go?

I mean, you'd like him to sort of become the player or return to being the player he was at Villa to have a bit more freedom than he's been given it.

See, I think actually,

in the treble season, he was really important to him.

I think he played really well that season, and maybe was the you know, I think people were so frustrated that he wasn't playing with the freedom that we'd seen him play with at Villa that that maybe his contribution to that was slightly underestimated.

So where does he go?

I mean the problem is all these players always end up at Tottenham and that's never good for anybody.

But but I mean it's it's hard to because of the age he is it's hard to see him going to a

I mean I I guess maybe somebody like Forrest would think

for a Champions League campaign if if Forrest qualified for that he gives them greater depth, he gives them you know extra quality.

Maybe he wouldn't cost that much because of his age because I think you know it it's fairly evident he's coming to the end at City.

So maybe he could sort of be a

quite different type of player to what

Forrest already have, but a useful option for them.

Quite nice to see him in the same team as Jota Silver since they sort of look the same and they could sort of...

Oh, that's true.

They could share an Alice band.

You know how they pass the captain's armband.

They could pass the captain's Alisband.

If one got booked, one got booked, one could pretend it was the other one.

Mistaken identity.

Like the Alessi twins in neighbours, they could both accidentally sleep with Paul Robinson.

All these things could happen, couldn't they?

I mean, such an array of sort of late 80s, early 90s references.

McColgan, the Alessi's.

What was the other one?

There was another utterly obscure.

How are we going to get new younger listeners?

How are we going to get them?

I mean, I've gone again.

I'm 39 and I'm gone.

Dan,

do some stuff for the kids in the next bit, if you would.

We're getting desperate here.

Barry, look, no, Harland.

My moose played down the middle.

He scored the second.

Obviously, it was got a helping hand from Hermanson, the Leicester goal.

But

he does, I think he's sort of taken to the Premier League really well, really quickly.

And I think it'll be quite interesting to see him have this run while Haaland is out.

Yeah,

he looks the real deal.

A lot of players who come to City take quite a long time to bed in.

He

hasn't.

I thought it was interesting last night.

City just repeatedly kept trying to score that textbook City goal where someone plays a weighted ball to the byline and someone else pulls it back across the penalty area and then

player number three shoots.

City just seemed to be doing that for the entire game and Leicester had no answers for them.

Yeah,

Marmouche looks like he'll be absolutely fine with City.

Oscar Bob was back, which was nice.

Pep was in the stands.

So Kevin Keegan was the technical area guy.

That was good.

Elm says, Lester City have kept two Premier League clean sheets since the World Cup.

Blimey.

Seven league games without scoring.

One win in 15, and that was against Spurs when they were peak Dr.

Tottenham.

Does seem now, Wilson, like, you know, replacing Steve Cooper with Rube Van Distroi was mad, even if Steve Cooper wasn't doing well.

There's two separate parts of that, though, aren't there?

So replacing Steve Cooper, I think, was not mad, given not necessarily his results or even how they were playing, but sort of the mood around the place.

Everything was so negative.

Replacing him with Rud Vaniseloy was clearly a desperate error that

they haven't been able to defend since.

I mean, even that first game when they got the win against West Ham, they were absolutely battered first half, got away with that.

They've looked doomed really since Cooper went, but

as I say, I don't think you can necessarily extrapolate from that that getting rid of Cooper was the wrong thing to do.

It was just appointing Vanisroy was the wrong thing to do.

But I mean,

there was a stat on Match for Day last night, wasn't there, that after 30 games, the combined points points total of the promoted sides is 47, I think it was, which is eight lower than it's ever been before after 30 games.

And that's a huge concern for all of football, that that golf is so vast.

That's why I sort of,

you know, and I don't say this because I don't like leads or Shepherd United, but I really hope Burnley go up because I just want to see what happens when a team who

has photo, you know, most teams who go up from a championship do so by attacking and playing good possession football, very progressive football.

Burnley, you're not doing that.

Their defence record is incredible this season.

And I think there's some dispute as to whether they're doing that with an eye on the Premier League or whether it's just because of the players they've got.

But I'd like to see how that functions in the Premier League.

That if you come up as a great defensive side, is that actually a better way of doing things than coming up as a free scoring side who then has to adjust how they play when they get to the higher level?

Man City fans staged a protest for the first nine minutes of this game.

Three fan groups called for supporters attending the game to remain in the concourse for the first nine minutes to represent how uh the now nine official resale partners following last week's deal with uh via gogo asked about it afterwards pep kind of backed the fans he said all i can say is that i and we need them we need the support because we're playing a lot but who am i to not agree with the people expressing themselves i can have my opinion but that is not relevant no no no he didn't come out and say i think the fans are right to protest but but you know he wants the fans in the stadium i don't know barry how you feel on the you know protests walking from pub to ground before game, not going into the ground before the ninth minute.

I didn't see how effective it was, but how effective do you think that may be?

A lot of fans didn't get the memo.

Most fans didn't get the memo.

It's kind of half hours like most fan protests, but I suppose we're talking about it.

Pep was talking about it, so it's better than nothing.

It's a huge problem fans have, though.

How do they protest?

I understand that the logic is, oh, you know, the way you protest is to vote with your feet and not turn up.

But the problem is that a lot of people going to games already are,

and this is going to sound like a dispouding term, I don't mean it as such, are tourist fans, people who don't go regularly, people who've paid an enormous amount for their ticket and for their flights and their hotel and transport and food and everything.

And I can understand why they're thinking, well, you know, I've ended up paying sort of 400 quid for this ticket.

I'm not going to give up a tenth of this to

make a point.

And

clubs actually seeming, I mean, I'm not saying this necessarily true of City, but I think other clubs' executives have been pretty explicit that they see the season ticket holders as a problem because they don't spend as much money as everybody else.

If a season tickets vacate the space, all you're doing is saying, oh, well, bring in the tourist fans.

And it's a massive problem football's got the pricing out of the regular fan.

And I think it's incredibly short-termist from the clubs that because clearly the experience you're then selling is much worse because you know the fans who generate atmosphere the fans who go every week the fans who make the club what it is are are being diluted by the tourists who are coming to see the you know the the sort of whole Premier League experience so yeah I mean you sort of need a way

you need to need to have a way where like both things can exist right and it's really interesting living in Australia and like seeing how much fans here care about their team right if you're a Liverpool fan you get out of bed at two in the morning you know every saturday or sunday night to watch your team like this is real commitment to a football club whoever it may be right and so if you do get the chance to then spend a lot of money to fly over to see one or two games that is a legitimate thing you are absolutely right pricing out people season ticket holders and people who live locally who bring the atmosphere and and you know it is their routine and their reason you know not their reason for being but a huge part of their right there must be a way of saying we love our season ticket holders this area is reserved reserved for tourists, right?

So that, like,

surely there's a way to do that, given how big TV revenue is and that gate receipts don't mean everything to big, big clubs.

Well, but they're meaning more and more because of PSR and because it looks like TV revenues have plateaued.

But I think a lot of clubs would rather not have season ticket holders.

So then what do we do?

And that's the problem.

They don't care what the season ticket holders think because they would rather they weren't there or weren't seasoned there as season ticket holders.

But as Wilson says, that's so

obviously short-termist and stupid.

Yeah, but football club owners are largely short-termist and stupid.

There is no comeback to that.

Yeah, it's a great shame, isn't it?

I mean, it's also what is Manchester City if it's not.

Yeah, how is the sort of the soul or the DNA or whatever analogy you want to use of Manchester City,

how is this club related to the club of

the

won the FA Cup in in 1904?

It's by fans passing on that to other fans, to other people in their family, to friends.

And there's something utterly tragic, I think, about institutions that have been going for 120, 150 years

being sort of torn apart by neoliberal economics, as they are.

Yeah, I agree.

Is there any way of fixing it?

No.

Okay.

That's on a positive note to move to Bournemouth, Ipswich, I guess.

I mean, I don't know how many tourists were there.

Perhaps that's a a good thing.

Bournemouth won, Ipswich two.

Look, we said yesterday, Dan, that Wolves win over West Ham meant the relegation places were decided.

Does this change anything?

I think this is the start of Ipswich's Leicester City arc, whereby they go on a tremendous run at the end of the season and then win the Premier League next season.

They've given themselves a glimmer.

I would say it's a great result for them going to Bournemouth.

I feared for them when they got pegged back and Bournemouth got one back because Ipswich have thrown away so many games this season.

And to be honest, I assumed the same thing would happen again, but they were resolute,

they saw it out.

You just do never know.

I think it's very, very unlikely.

I've been a little bit disappointed by Ipswich, because at the start of the season, I thought with Kiera and McKenna and the squad that they'd built, that they might have enough to do a little bit better, but that they let too many games, tight games, go just against them at the start of the season, and they've got progressively worse.

Big game

of the week, and if they can win again, maybe they give themselves a chance, but it's a tall order I think if they win at the weekend they definitely give themselves a chance they host Wolves if they win that six point gap you you've got to give them a chance I mean I think Ipswich will really must be really regretting going into this season without a proper goalkeeper because they've dropped so many points because of Mr.

Murich

when he was their first choice and that's could cost them their place in the Premier League.

Kieran McKenna said said the second goal was as good a goal as anyone has scored at Bournemouth against them this season.

Then I suddenly thought, have there been a better goal scored by an opposition at the Vitality?

And then I realised I couldn't remember any goal scored against Bournemouth at the Vitality.

I'm going to have to take Kieran.

I've remembered one.

Okay.

Salah.

Salah scored a lovely curler in the middle.

He did.

I think it was Bournemouth.

Yeah, yeah, I was like, okay, great goal.

Really good break, really good finish.

Was it better than this one?

I must admit, I made a noise, Wilson, with how hard Liam lappe hit that it was absolutely joyous well yeah i i think it's not a great goal but it's a goal that that sort of stirs something deep within just watching a man kick a ball really that was the joy of early earling holland was he just kicked the ball really hard and there's something about the nets at dortmund made it made a pleasant sort of chunking sound maybe it's because

i sort of first really watched him regularly during covert when the bundsu came back before the premier league came back and so in an empty stadium you heard that sort of chunk of the sort of metal bit at the bottom of the net lifting up and slapping down again.

Well, Dilap affected that, didn't he?

The net did go up and down.

But I was just so happy.

Just, yeah, you're absolutely right.

What was the noise?

I'd like to know what the noise was.

I said you made a noise.

What was the kind of noise?

Well, I just, because I think, I'm trying to think, at the time when I watched that goal, I was certainly looking after one, if not two, children.

So I've sort of got one eye on them, both on a play mat.

And then I've got the games probably on a laptop.

And there's probably,

there's a kid's entertainer called Blippy he's probably doing like he's probably like learning how to make

I don't know a cardboard journey looks so I know I know we said we wanted younger references but maybe maybe

have I gone too far anyway so I wasn't fully focused and then I just saw it and I was just like oh I think it was like a really guttural good noise like oh good noise as I said a huge rainstorm is starting hitting the shed just in case you can hear that too anyway what of what of Bournemouth Barry you know the greatest team in the world, as Barney called them, now no wins in seven, dropped to tenth.

What do we make of it?

Interestingly, they went on that brilliant run when they had all those injuries.

They now have fewer injuries, and now they're having a tougher time.

Yeah, they've gone off a cliff, haven't they?

They

taken one point from the last 15 available, I think.

Got knocked out of the cup.

Their drop in forms seems to have coincided with speculation linking Andy or Ireola with other jobs.

I don't know if the two are in any way connected, but that certainly seems to be the case.

It's a bit of a shame, really, because

I was rather hopeful of seeing them qualify for the Champions League because I think they do well in it, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen now.

I mean, it hasn't been a terrible decline.

I know they've drawn two and lost five of the last seven, which obviously is not good, but they haven't lost any of those by more than a single goal.

And they did play quite well in some of them.

I mean, did they lose against Spurs in the game?

They absolutely monstered them.

They drew 2-2, but yeah, I was at that game, and they were much the better side.

But they conceded two late goals against City in the Cup.

They were ahead of half-time.

They conceded two in the second half.

So I think it's probably just fatigue catching up with them.

But after that Spurs game, Ivaiola was very frustrated.

Just sort of saying his team lacks game craft.

They don't know how to get games over the line.

And

I mean, maybe, maybe there has been some disruption in the sort of morale of the squad with the talk around him, but he was angry enough after that game.

I think you couldn't really doubt his commitment.

I think he was very frustrated at what he saw as naivety from his side.

To be saying, Barry, they haven't fallen off a cliff.

They've sort of rolled down a hill.

Absiled.

Yeah, rolled down a hill in a bathtub.

Last of the summer wine style.

There was another one for the kids.

Let's go to St Mary's, Southampton One Palace One.

Ah, so close to their third win of the season.

And finally, taking over the Derby County points record heartbreak.

Very focused on this because I'm doing Spurs Southampton on Sunday.

And I was thinking, what on earth is it to write about in this game?

And I was thinking, well, at least I can write about Southampton's desperate struggle to surpass Derby.

And when they were wounded up after 90 minutes last night, I said, oh, there's absolutely nothing to write about.

So I was delighted that Palace equalised.

Wow, given as well that, you know, Spurs will have all eyes on Aitrek Frankfurt.

It's very possible.

And also, Spurs can give that to a team, can't they?

That that is where Southampton will get past Derby's

11 points.

Southampton's goal was beautiful, Dan.

I thought.

Lovely move, lovely header from the enormous Paul Onuachu.

Yeah, I mean, they're just hopeless, though, aren't they?

Southampton and Leicester.

Whenever I have to talk about them on a podcast, I get depressed and I don't support either team.

Just two miserable, miserable football clubs who've had miserable, miserable seasons.

A credit to the Southampton fans because I read the other day that they haven't had an attendance below 30,000 all season, which surprised me because you think people would have dropped off by now.

I mean, I think they do drop off by the end of most games, but to go there week after week, knowing you're probably not going to win.

I've done that in a season when Villa got relegated on 17 points, and Southampton, I don't think, will get 17 points.

So I can relate that to how miserable it is.

It just must be horrible.

But even last night, you're about to celebrate a win and you can't just sums it up, really, doesn't it?

Yeah.

I mean, that was...

The first time Crystal Pattis have conceded a goal away from home since Gabriel Jesus' hat-trick for Arsenal on the 18th of December in the Carabao Cup.

Matetta had his amazing contraption protecting his ear and he hit the bar.

And a nice moment for Matteus Franca.

Not someone I had heard of.

Is it Franca or Franca?

I think it's Franca.

He's Brazilian, isn't he?

Franca, yeah.

92nd minute, his first

Palace goal.

And then Ketty had a chance to win it late on.

But

yes, that'll do on that game.

Won't it?

That'll do for part two as well.

Part three, we'll look ahead to the weekend's game.

hi pod fans of america max here barry's here too hello football weekly is supported by the remarkable paper pro now if you're a regular listener to this show you'll have heard us talk before about the remarkable paper pro we already know that remarkable's the leader in the paper tablet category digital notebooks that give you everything you love about paper but with the power of modern technology but there's something new and exciting the remarkable paper pro move Remarkable, a brand name and an adjective, man.

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A proper football journalist, man.

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welcome to part three of the guardian football weekly uh so chelsea play spurs tonight um uh so you'll probably listen to this after that game has happened um but if not

I hope it's exciting for you.

Chelsea, the Guter Bredford Spurs, host to Southampton, as we've mentioned.

It's the Manchester Derby.

Barry,

where does this rank on exciting Manchester Derbies, do you think?

I wouldn't say it's exciting.

In a list of fixtures that is low on standout fixtures, I suppose Villa Forest is probably the best of them.

It's certainly interesting and United are at home.

They have shown signs of life.

I think what we're obliged to call the green shoots of recovery under Ruben Amarim.

They weren't there

in their game against Forest,

but they'll probably lose.

But you don't know with Manchester United.

They're funny.

They can raise their game against the better teams.

It's difficult to know how this will go.

It really is.

United could stink the place out.

City could stink the place out.

They could both play well.

I am fairly confident Amarim will do a decent job of whipping United into shape, but it's just how long it will take him is the question.

And will he be be given the chance yeah i suppose we've mentioned the games that are actually i mean iops which walls has something riding on it villa forest as well is interesting anything else palace brighton of course is a derby game anything else take your brentford chelsea's kind of yeah true awkward okay so actually it's not a bad fix to this wilson after all that i mean the problem is that this season's been been weird in that i think in many ways it's been quite a good season but the problem is that the top side is i mean maybe they're sort of slightly running out of steam, but it's been much better than everybody else.

And the bottom three have been much worse than everybody else.

The middle 16 have all been very competitive, and games between them have been quite fun.

But we do have a tendency to look at the top and the bottom of the table rather than at the race for eights.

We need to recalibrate, don't we?

Let's talk about Jose.

He appeared to grab rival manager Okan Buruk's nose amid wild scenes.

He appeared just as the Guardian copying.

At the end of Federbache's 2-1 Turkish Cup defeats to Bitter Rivals Galatasarai,

Video footage showed Mourinho appearing to, here we go again, to pinch Baruch's nose following the final whistle with the Galatasarai head coach falling to the pitch and holding his face in his hand.

He appeared to be left lying on his back.

I mean, it is, you know, dad going to the nose going, got your nose, got your nose, but just not quite as fun, isn't it, Barry?

But I think what you're suggesting is the video footage tends to suggest that he really did grab another manager's nose and that probably isn't on.

No, it's not on and I presume he will be retrospectively punished for it.

It's kind of a throwback to 2011 when he appears to stick his finger in Tito Villanova's eye.

I'd say he's grown though because I'd say that's the the nose thing's not as bad as the eye.

So he's grown as a human being since then.

Some self-improvement.

He's been listening to those podcasts, hasn't he?

You know, he's been self-empowering himself or whatever.

There's six points behind Galatasa.

This is a cup quarter final, isn't it?

Six points behind Galatasai in the league with eight games to go.

But Galatasai lost their first game of the season at the weekend to Pachiktas, who managed by...

Oh, good question.

Oh, Ollie?

Ollie Gonasalcio, yeah.

Ian Holloway.

Wow, that's impressive.

So, I mean,

I was at the Fenabace

Rangers game in the Europa League, the game in Istanbul.

And I'd sort of

come full circle on Mourinho.

I'm back on liking him.

He just doesn't give a shit anymore.

He's genuinely, he's very funny in press conferences.

So

the clip was quite widely shown on social media of,

it was the second question in the press conference, and it was from a Turkish gentleman.

He's the only man in the room wearing a suit.

He obviously has a degree of gravitas and self-importance.

And the question went on and on and on and on.

And Mourinho, about a minute in, just suddenly goes,

and then so goes

I'm really sorry I've just I've just been managing a game for 90 minutes we lost my head's all over the place I can't take on this is this much information and all this was you know the clip showed this but then Mourinho carries on and says maybe maybe we meet up when I've when I've got time so I can learn from you and he's obviously being sarcastic but fair play at this Turkish journalist he goes yeah you're free for lunch next Thursday and At the end of the press conference, they were arranging which restaurant to meet in for lunch on the Thursday.

So, you know,

they both end up coming out quite well.

But no, Mourinho was really funny, but he, I'm not sure I'd want him as a manager of my club because he didn't really seem that focused on Venabacha.

The fact that, I mean, they've got Dushantarich playing behind Edin Jeko.

You can't conceive how slow that is till you've seen it in action.

Like Rangers playing for the kids.

That doesn't help us.

Rangers looking like they're just a team full of billy wizards for another one for the kids.

But it's just astonishing how slow they were.

Anyway, sorry, I've drifted off.

But Mourinho was a lot of fun.

Yeah, go on.

Yeah, some quotes from Buruk, whose nose was pinched.

He says, there was nothing between me and Mourinho.

He pinched my nose from behind.

There was a slight scratch.

Of course, it wasn't a very nice or elegant thing to do.

We expect managers to behave more appropriately in such situations.

I won't exaggerate this issue, but it wasn't a classy move.

Done.

So there we are.

Sam says, High football weekly team.

Disappointed that no one picked up on Barry's splendid choice of words about Martinelli absolutely roasting Timothy Castagna, Tim Chestnuts.

Really good.

Very clever there.

In the words of the intentional assist talk that led up to it, do you think Barry meant it?

Cheers from Australia.

Of course he meant it.

And Hans George says, long time listener, etc.

Nice try saying

the cup hasn't lost its magic in German.

Unfortunately, the word you used for cup, Tasse, is reserved for coffee and teacups.

Der Pokal hat seinen sauber nach nicht feloren.

Regards Hans Georg.

Thank you, Hans, for correcting me on that.

and that'll do for today.

Thanks everybody.

Thanks Barry.

Thank you.

Can I wish this friend of mine Gavin the crane driver who I think some are you may have met?

Hi Gavin.

He's running a half marathon on Sunday and he wanted a shout out because he reckoned he'd be listening to this towards the end of his half marathon.

Now Gavin has set up his own WhatsApp group, includes all his friends and I'm going to say running a half marathon is not that big a deal.

The way he's going on about it, you would think he is going to conquer the Antarctic or doing one of those Kevin Sinfield, you know, 50, 100 mile runs in 50 days.

But he's, yeah, it's a half marathon and I've already sponsored him 20 quid.

So stop asking me for more money and good luck.

I would say, Barry, I agree with you that a half marathon isn't too much of a big deal.

I could probably do one if you sent me out now.

I'd be really sad by the end of it.

I mention Wilson could do it, probably does it.

I don't know undermine

what Gavin is doing, but

I want to say one in 78 minutes and 43 seconds.

So,

you know,

if he's taking longer than that, he's let himself down.

Wow, okay, that is quite fair.

I mean,

I was 19 at the time.

What I'm saying is, Barry, for you to say it's not too much, suggests that you should sort of go and do one.

I could train and do one.

It wouldn't be that big a deal.

I regularly walk 13 miles a day, you know.

Producer Joel says, yes, let's sign you up.

We'll sign barry up we'll raise money for something important and we'll sign you up to do it no i i set out just to belittle my friend gavin's achievement or if he achieves it indeed uh not to get myself roped into running a half marathon what i'm thinking is though gavin is really struggling here he's a mile 12 and the thought that we are getting you to commit to raise a lot of money for a great cause and all the football weekly audience will come on board can i do a bike ride or something instead because i hate running.

I hate running.

You just said about three minutes ago it's not that big a deal, and now you are trying to wheel out

marathon.

It could be really good for you.

Are you in?

No.

Okay, there we are.

Thanks, everybody.

Thanks.

Thanks, Dan.

Thank you.

Thanks, Wilson.

Cheers.

Thank you.

Thank you, Baz.

Thanks.

Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Phil Maynard.

We'll be back on Monday.

This is The Guardian.