Liverpool take charge and the top-four fight heats up: Football Weekly

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Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly, the title race.

Are we in Procession Territory?

Liverpool Ease Past, the artist formerly known as Manchester City at the Etihad.

So Bozlai and Jones were great.

Salah again, surely a shoe-in for all the awards with another goal and an assist.

If anything the bigger result came at the Emirates on Saturday.

You're not winning anything if you're losing at home to West Ham.

The race for the top four slash five might be the most interesting thing going on now.

As we all predicted at the start of the season Marcus Rashford and Marco Asencio are the difference for Villa while Newcastle see off Forest.

Was Ashley Young penalised for diving because refs didn't get the chance to var the life out of him in the 2010s?

And then there's the bottom.

Southampton, Leicester and Ipswich all concede four.

They have different levels of bad, but the least bad Ipswich have only won three all season.

Also today we'll look at the Champions League and and Europa League draws.

Luca Modrick pings one in.

Indulge me on the all-new Cambridge United.

There's your questions, and that's today's Guardian Football Week Cleb.

On the panel today, Barry Glendenny, welcome.

Hi, Max.

Hello, Jonathan Wilson.

Morning, how are you doing?

I'm very well, thank you.

Welcome, Dan Bardell.

Hello.

Let's start the Etihad then.

Manchester City 0.

Liverpool 2.

Liverpool now 20 points ahead of City after this game.

11 points clear at the top of the league.

Clearly not a surprising result, Wilson.

Surprised at how straightforward it was?

If you thought it was straightforward?

No, I did think it was straightforward.

I mean,

you look at the stats and the stats show Liverpool had 34% possession.

They had eight chances to City 16.

I think the XG was 0.7 to 0.6 in Liverpool's favour.

But once they'd taken the lead after 14 minutes, I don't think anybody would have thought anything other than Liverpool win.

And that, I think, is how Liverpool have been this season.

It's their seventh 2-0 of a season.

And I think 2-0 is,

you know, for a team like Liverpool,

it's a scoreline of champions.

You win comfortably, you're not under pressure, but you don't overextend yourself.

And I think that capacity not to overextend themselves might be why Liverpool haven't suffered the injuries that some teams have.

That are very good at controlling games, controlling their own exertions.

I've spent my whole life thinking 2-0 was a dangerous scoreline, and here we are.

It's the scoreline of champions.

I wasn't.

And did you like how they set up with kind of Subbers Lion Jones?

I like the graphic saying, you know, it was 4-2-4.

It made me very nostalgic, but clearly it wasn't that.

Yeah, I did.

Well, yeah, it intrigued me.

I kind of, it's a bit of a blow to Darwin Nunez.

I think Gary Navaver said in the commentary, and I sort of thought as well that maybe this is a game to release Nunez, that because City pushed so high, Yeah, he is very good at running in behind, even if he's not very good at taking the chances once he gets there.

And he does charge about and

win the ball back and put defenders under pressure.

And City, I think, are susceptible to that.

But you can't deny that the way they played, that sort of 44-0,

did really work.

And the fact that Dia started on the left, moved in the middle, went back to the left.

Yeah, I think it took City a long time to work out what was going on.

Sobosly was very involved.

you know, deserved his goal, could easily have got another couple.

So, yeah, it absolutely did work.

I enjoyed the first goal dan nice uh set piece move arno slot afterwards was sort of hid the uh identity of the set piece coach so he wouldn't be piled on like it's the next level you know it's sort of like um

you know larry david buys the hospital wing but he puts his name on it and the other one next door is the anonymous one and everyone thinks larry david's an asshole and clearly austin mcphhe and nicholas yova in that spot now the secret set piece coach but did a wonderful job on this one yeah it's kind of like a weird banksy thing if there was to be be a mural,

no one would know who he is.

I don't know where I'm going with that, but that would be the first thing

that popped into my head.

I read after the game that actually Liverpool haven't been very prolific from set pieces at all this season.

When you think about the power of Van Dijk and Canate and some of the players that Liverpool have to deliver the football, quite surprising that they haven't been too involved in set-piece goals, but I thought it was a wonderfully constructed move, the lovely flick around the corner to Salah.

And even when Salah doesn't connect properly, it takes a deflection and still goes in.

It's just the way it's going for him at the moment.

Pretty much everything he hits goes in.

And Salah getting a goal and assist in the game, as you said at the top, is just normal now.

2-0 from what Jonathan says is quite normal.

And it's quite normal that Salah will get the goal and the assist in the game.

But set pieces being so important, and we end up talking about them every week on stuff like this.

It is quite interesting.

Actually, Liverpool have just relied on being a good football team rather than set pieces.

Whereas it feels like a lot of teams are actually quite relying on set pieces, and it's Liverpool that are running away with the league.

Meanwhile, Barry Manson, you're not relying on being a good football team at the moment.

No, they're not.

I think before we talk about City, I think Liverpool must be commended on emerging from the mid-season slump everyone was writing and talking about last week, which comprised of them beating wolves and drawing two very difficult games away from home.

So it's good that they've put that that behind them.

But

yeah, I mean, Wilson kind of summed it up there.

City had well over 60% possession, but never really looked that threatening.

Their wingers, Jeremy Dock, who I can't decide whether he had a good game or not.

He completed more dribbles than anyone else in the Premier League this season, but there was very little in the way of end product.

Over on the other side, what's your mind?

Savino,

he seemed to run into traffic any time he got the ball.

And City just could not break Liverpool down, you know, just watching the game live.

And then Troydini and Joe Hart sort of analysed it quite well on match of the day, just showing that there was this constant red wall in front of City's players.

And Kevin De Bruyne, who is normally tasked with, you know, picking the locks of those doors, he's just not playing well at the moment.

And the drop-off and the decline in his performances has been a bit sad to see, I have to say, because I'm a huge fan of his and he's one of the best players, I think, that's ever graced the Premier League.

But it looks like his best days might be behind him.

And City didn't really have any opportunities of no, it was an extremely comfortable day at the office for Liverpool.

Virgil Van Dijk and Ibrahim Canate barely broke sweat.

And

yeah, it was just, it was easy for them yeah i suppose from the city point of view wilson i guess there are a couple of things right we're waiting on the charges and what happens with those but but also starting to talk about the rebuild and how big it is sometimes you can bring in one or two players and actually transform a team right and i just don't know if that is the case with city or if there are if the problems are so are deeper than that

I mean, I think it does need a pretty much wholesale rebuild, but it doesn't mean you have to do it in one go, and you probably shouldn't do it in one go.

And to be honest, I'd argue that four players in January is too many.

Now, it doesn't look like Reyes is going to is going to play, so okay, it's three plus one.

Kisanov looks not quite ready for this level yet, but I guess maybe it's good to get him up to speed, and if they can still finish in the top five, then that's fine.

Nico Gonzalez, I was very skeptical of, but I think he's actually done much better than I was expecting.

And Mamouch looks like a proper player, so I guess the rest of the season is a case of developing that relationship between Mamouch and Holland.

And Holland not being there yesterday clearly did make a big difference.

But they probably still need three or four others because people like De Bruno, I think even Bernardo Silva looks old for his age.

It might be, you know, two months off, and he comes back refreshed.

And in a better team, maybe he starts to pick that up again.

Yeah, Phil Foden, I think, had a he's obviously not finished, he's not coming to the end, clearly, but he had a very slow start of a season, and there's only really been flickers since then.

You look at how many injuries they have at the back, the fact that John Stones Stones is injured so often now.

Is that a perpetual state, or can he get back to playing regularly?

I mean, he's always been a player, he seems to have struggled a lot with injuries.

Kyle Walker's now left on loan, so that needs dealing with.

Even Edison, I think, is not quite the goalkeeper he was.

So there's questions all over the place.

It does need quite a big rebuild.

That is quite a lot of work.

And if Guardiola is if his powers are waning, which I think there's some evidence maybe this season that they are, then

that's a big job for him to take on, and it might not be one that he's got the resources to

carry out.

I mean,

even if you take into account the fact he had that year, the year out after his four years at Barcelona, this is his 16th season managing at the very highest level.

And there's very few other coaches who've done more than 10.

So if he is feeling the strain,

it's normal, it's natural.

Yeah, he's already five years older than Johan Kreif was when he retired.

They can't have two months off because on the 19th of June

they're playing Wydad AC, the Moroccan second in the the Moroccan League in the Club World Cup, which we're all looking forward to.

That might be the 18th of June, UK time, 19th Australia.

I mean, who knows?

But, you know,

let's just forget it.

Who cares?

Everybody, yeah, I think so.

Title done then, Dan, isn't it?

I mean,

it's a bit annoying that it's this early, but

should we hand them the trophy now?

I think if I was a bookmaker, I'd probably start preparing myself to pay up at this point.

I think it might have even been over on Saturday, come five o'clock when Arsenal hadn't won, which obviously we're going to come on to.

I think that took away from the game yesterday

a little bit of touch.

I think there might have been a little bit more jeopardy in that game.

I agree with Barry, you know, the Liverpool form had been exaggerated slightly, but had Arsenal won as we all expected them to and Liverpool had kind of had a stodgy kind of few weeks.

It might have made Liverpool a little bit more tense, but as it was, they could just turn up at Manchester City and kind of shift through the gears when they needed to, sit in and, you know, ask Manchester City to break them down once they went ahead and Manchester City couldn't do that.

I just thought it was an easy, easy game.

I think Manchester City even looked like scoring and you know for the title race to feel over at the 24th of February that feels very very early.

I don't remember many title races being over by the 24th of February.

I don't know whether anyone else can think of one.

I mean if Wilson can't.

I'm not sure.

Oh well Nick says I just want to say a big thank you when you said Max on the last pod that you had a feeling the title race was still on.

I knew Arsenal would blow it and the Reds would do City.

Martin says, is it now possible to just replay Wilson's analysis on Arsenal from the last year without anybody noticing?

Before we go to Wilson on Arsenal, Barry, it's the decent thing to say well done to West Ham.

And they were brilliant at the Emirates.

Yeah, an awful lot has been made of the fact that Arsenal are missing

four first choice attacking players.

But what hasn't been mentioned much, or I haven't heard it mentioned or seen it mentioned, is is that West Ham are also missing four very important attacking players in Lucas Piceta Michel Antonia Nicholas Fulkrug maybe not as important and Crescencio Somerville so they were all out

and West Ham

just did a number on Arsenal here

Mikel Arteta was obviously very angry with with his team's performance and he did include himself in the collective when he was scathing with his criticism.

They got another red card, Miles Lewis Skelly.

I don't think he can have any complaints about this one.

And West Ham, I thought, were just superb in defence, superb in attack.

Aaron Wambasaka,

Jared Bone, Mohamed Kudas constantly causing Arsenal's defence problems.

And they were well worth their win, I think.

Yeah, I liked Kudas sort of showboating.

50 minutes in when they're like,

feels a bit early.

But, you know, it was fine.

And, you know, we can add Aaron Wambersaka to players who've left Man United and got good.

Might have taken him a little while, but there he is on that list.

Dan, injuries do make such a big difference.

Like, we've talked about it with other teams relentlessly this season.

If you're missing your front three, like, that makes you worse.

It doesn't mean you shouldn't find a way of beating West Ham, who weren't on a great run, but you can have sympathy for Arsenal.

Yeah, obviously, Jesus is out as well, so essentially they're missing their best four attacking players.

That will affect any team.

That will make a difference.

you look at manchester city yesterday one attacking player missing and and how it affected them not having a focal point so obviously it is going to play a part and i think it's almost worse for arsenal because whenever they don't win a game or whenever they don't score a goal the dialogue is going to turn to why haven't they bought a striker for the last x amount of transfer windows i thought it was an interesting call to go with marino as the centre forward in this one obviously it worked well towards the end of the game when he came on as an impact player against leices but i think from the start, I didn't think that was something that was ever going to work because when the game opened up against Leicester and they're kind of playing in transition, Marino is going to find himself making runs from similar areas than he would do from midfield.

So arriving kind of late into the box and being that centre forward.

And that worked late on in the Leicester game.

When you're playing from the start in a game where you're probably going to have a lot of possession, you're asking him to be the focal point.

I think that's a very different thing.

And I didn't expect that to work.

And I was surprised Arteta went for it and Arsenal didn't score ultimately.

So questions are going to be asked.

But you're right to kind of point out that they should have enough on the pitch to cause West Ham a few more problems.

I think that was the thing.

I didn't even really feel like Arsenal caused problems.

It wasn't like they were getting down the wing or crossing the ball in or creating chances and there was chances being missed.

There was just nothing really happening.

And I've watched Erdoga quite a lot this season and I know he had an injury at the start of the season, but I actually don't think he's been that good at all this season.

I would have expected a player like that, the captain, the kind of number 10, one of the star players to shoulder a bit more of the burden and take more responsibility.

And I think whilst players have been out, I don't actually think Erdegaard's done that at all.

Michael says, with the amount of red cards Arsenal have received this season, should Mikel Arteta focus a little less on the dark hearts and a bit more on the light hearts?

I mean, that plays into, Wilson, your sort of Arsenal.

Is it now a theorem?

Has it been proved?

I remember Arsene's being very upset.

I was never very clear what it was they were upset about.

I mean, they've they've had five red cards this season.

One of them has been overturned.

I think they were very lucky it was overturned.

I think the Lewis Skelly foul at Wolves on Mattori

was so late, it's violent conduct, not just a cynical foul.

So I thought they were really lucky to get away with that.

Anyway,

that's not relevant now, but they've dropped 10 points in those five games.

If they got those 10 points, there'd be a point behind Liverpool with a game in hand.

So that's their own ill-discipline has cost them.

And, you know, Arsenal fans will whine, oh, yeah, nobody else ever gets players sent off to getting a second yellow, kicking the ball away.

Yeah, there's two really easy ways to avoid getting a second yellow by kicking the ball away.

Number one, don't get a first yellow.

Number two, don't kick the ball away.

So that's just on them, just not learning.

And just

being kind of just stupid.

But they also just seem a team, a club

where they get down on themselves very quickly.

Whenever there's hardship, rather than saying, how do we get over this?

Oh, well, it's hard.

What can we do?

If you lose your four best forwards, it makes life tougher.

Clearly, it does.

But

what you then have to do is say, right, how are we going to set about winning games when we don't have our four best forwards?

And again, you might like to turn the clock back and think we probably should have signed a forward either in the summer or the previous summer.

Did we really need California and Marino, good players as they are, but was that really the priority?

That would be a question you should ask yourself.

If you are eventually, as they did, deciding to relieve some of the burden on Saka, who's been grotesquely overplayed for years now,

then was Sterling really the player to come in to do that?

And you'd have to say that was a bad decision as well.

So, those two decisions are on them, irrespective of the bad luck.

They've put themselves in a position where that bad luck could hurt them.

But then, how do you win a game when you haven't got a forward or haven't got a forward you trust?

You keep it tight, you're really good at set plays.

All right, Saka is one of the reasons why you're good at set plays because of his delivery, but Declan Rice is a good deliverable of the ball.

Keep it tight, try and score from a set play, and then you hope that in the way that Christopher Wray got them through games in 97-8,

that Mourinho can step up or somebody else can step up, and you look to win games 1-0.

But I think Dan's right, I think they went far too early with Mourinho.

What should be an option off a bench, what should be an interesting how do we turn this last 20-30 minutes with the score at 0-0 became a strategy from the start.

They look fat for me off, and they're just not a team you trust to,

as soon as a hurdle is put in front of them, they trip over it.

Now, it might be I've been unlucky with the Arsenal games I've been to this season, but should have beaten Fulham away, Drew, just ran out of ideas.

Drew at home to Sean Dice's Everton, 0-0, when they ran out of ideas.

Teamed up against Villa, and I just had eight ridiculous minutes in the second half, where they concede twice, and Tealam has hit the post, so they could easily have lost that game.

They've let so many soft points.

The game away at Brighton.

Okay, they get a slightly odd penalty penalty given against them,

but they just don't respond to it.

They sort of, as soon as there's a adversity, it's just, oh, what can we do?

And

it really wouldn't have taken much for to be in this title race.

I've just talked there, the red cards, those games, that's what, 16, 18 points.

They've just given up.

Not because they were the worst team, because they just were too careless, because they didn't have the hard edge that champions need, that Liverpool have.

Could you believe, Jonathan, that at the end of the game, they have a free free kick in the in a dangerous position and Raheem Sterling is sent up to take that free kick and it was just one of the strangest things I've ever seen because he's so devoid of confidence, so devoid of form.

I can't recall him ever scoring a free kick, maybe one in the past.

Again, I've come back to Erdoga.

Where's Erdegaard?

I think he was on the pitch when this happened.

I think he was standing next to it.

It was like,

who's going to take it?

I just can't understand why, you know, in the game state as is, why you would send Raheem Sterling tight that free kick.

It doesn't make any sense to me.

I was talking to Perry Groves in Talksport Towers yesterday, and he couldn't get a massive name drop.

Oh, yes.

Take that name off the floor.

Arsenal legend, Perry Groves.

Normally, we discuss antiques when we meet,

but he wasn't interested in talking about antiques because he wanted to discuss the fact that Riccardo California

Aaron Wam-Bissaca in the build-up to the goal.

Why didn't he foul him?

He couldn't understand it.

Why did he let him come in and cross the ball?

I think he also mentioned, you know, and Jonathan has mentioned, you know, try and score from set pieces.

Now, Declan Rice didn't play particularly well on Saturday, but why take him off before the hour mark when he's your best corner taker?

Because Zinchenko came on for him and didn't do much.

you know, wasn't any better, but at least Rice can take a good corner.

So just weird decision making.

But anyway.

I think the manager filters into that a little bit as well.

Like, he's such a control freak as a manager, but I do feel that when a game is getting away from Arsenal or it's not going the way that he thought it was going to go, he does try a lot of strange things that are very scattergun.

Zinchenko coming off a deck on Royce makes no sense for the reasons that you just said, Barry.

But they've done that in a few games.

I've seen games where they've been behind or they've been drawing.

And he couldn't obviously do this at the weekend because they haven't got any attackers.

But in previous games, he's just thrown on attacker after attacker and gone away completely from what makes them good and gone away from the shape that they usually play, things that they clearly can't have worked on in training.

And I think in this current situation with where they are, yes, the injuries play a part, but I do think they've only got themselves to blame in a lot of ways.

Yeah, look, they are, I mean, it's worth pointing out, the second best team in the league, right?

There are 18 teams that are worse than them.

But

I wonder if pressure begins on Arteta Wilson or how many years in.

He's clearly a good manager.

He's clearly turned Arsenal into a really good football team in relative terms.

Just not good enough to go the next step.

They're still in the Champions League.

We'll get to to the draw in a bit.

It's not been that kind to them.

But, like, they are close.

Yeah, I my criticism wouldn't really be directed at Arteta.

I think Arteta

I would probably blame him.

I don't know if he started it, but he certainly helped stir it up.

After the Newcastle game last season,

his complaints about the refereeing, I can't, what was the word that he used?

He claimed a different meaning in Spanish.

Desgracia.

Descracia, yeah.

That I thought was a bad intervention that sort of helped align the club with the conspiracy nonsense online.

And I think he has been trying to row back from that.

I mean, the Bournemouth game, for instance, when Saliba was sent off, he was very clear afterwards: no, it's a totally justified red card.

We can't argue about that.

And I think he has tried to be a bit more composed about that kind of thing.

And the Brighton penalty, he was pretty upset by.

But to an extent, I understand that.

Football has this habit of kind of a manager makes

one thing goes wrong, and oh, the manager has to be sacked because he hasn't been perfect.

I just don't think that is how the club should approach it.

I think Arteta has clearly made Arsenal better.

I think things aren't going right at the moment, but nobody's in a better position to understand why they're going wrong and to grasp how to put them right than Arteta.

So I think you give them at least one more year.

If they fail in the same way next season, then fair enough.

But the last two seasons,

although they have fritted away silly points, I mean, last season, the West Ham and Fulham games around Christmas, particularly,

they've got a high points tally and just been beaten by one of the best teams we've ever seen in England.

So you can't really blame him for that.

This season, I think, is much more culpable, but

they

have had the injuries.

All right, that'll do for part one.

Part two, we'll do the race for the Champions League spots.

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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

So, I guess, Sparry, from Nausian Forest in third on 47 points, if top five is going to get you Champions League, which we coefficient-wise looks like it will at the moment, how far do you go down the table to say they've got a shout?

Uh, go down to Brentford in 11th.

I think they have a shout.

Uh, there's seven points between them and Newcastle in fifth.

And I think the way Brentford are playing, I would give them

a more than sporting chance of making the top five.

Yeah, let's start with that game at St.

James's Park.

Sort of weird 4-3, Dan.

Rangecross Soft says, what do you think Eddie Howell said at half-time to turn his brilliant team into total crap?

Because it wasn't like they, obviously, like there's something about Newcastle at St.

James's Park where they can just blow a team away in 10 minutes.

But it wasn't like they just shut up shop in a sort of liver way.

They just had a terrible second half.

And I was listening to someone after the game says actually fans left a bit frustrated, even though they'd won a really, really vital game.

Yeah, it was such a bizarre game.

Obviously, when Forest go ahead, you kind of fear for Newcastle a little bit because generally through the season, we've talked about how good Forest are defensively, how good the goalkeeper is, the centre-back pairings, very good.

But actually, over the last month or so, I've let a few games get away from them for Forest.

And when they have conceded, and Newcastle obviously equalised very, very quickly.

The goals have come in gluts.

It happened at Bournemouth a month, a month or so ago, three weeks ago when that happened.

And it happened again at St.

James's Park, which I think is a worrying trend for Forrest.

And Newcastle did very well.

Obviously, when you've got one of the best centre-forwards there is, it's going to help.

And I thought ESAT was so good in that first half and so, so dangerous.

One of the most bizarre penalties as well that I think I've ever seen.

I'm still trying to work out what happened with that penalty.

Was it a Penenka?

Wasn't it a Panenka?

Should Sales have actually saved it when he didn't go down?

I can't work that one out.

No, I think he's really unlucky because it sort of would have been better if he just dived because then none of us would

think anything because he's sort of close and you know he's just got no weight to push.

He sort of turns.

He's as weak as a kitten.

There's just nothing there to hit the ball.

Yeah, it was great.

Yeah,

Newcastle took their foot off the gas, I think, in the second half.

It wasn't a collapse, but if there'd have been any form of stoppage time,

you'd have wagered that Newcastle might have been in trouble.

I mean, we'd already had the game after that was that was coming up ruined a little bit.

For there to only be three minutes of stoppage time was absolutely disgusting with a game set at 4-3.

I was hugely disappointed by that.

You don't often see three minutes.

You wanted 10.

You wanted 10.

I think for now,

four is the minimum, isn't it, that you expect in a football match to only have three.

It completely ruined the end of the game for me.

But whatever's happened, Newcastle, that is a huge result because that was a big game with Forrest being where they are and Newcastle being in and amongst it where they are.

You do kind of get the impression that Forrest may tumble down a little bit and Newcastle may rise up depending on how the Carabao Cup affects them.

Yeah, interesting.

Lewis Miley came in for Tenale Barry and actually had a brilliant game.

Yeah, well like he looks about 13 years old, but

it was very mature performance from him.

I kind of forgotten about him.

I've forgotten he was there and I think it was his first start for a year.

But he looked really calm and composed on the ball.

Very willing runner, good at popping passes around and obviously he's a local lad and a Newcastle fan so going to be a crowd favourite there and yeah this was a weird game Eddie Howe didn't really know what to make of it afterwards he was pleased they won he was very angry with the second half

I think it was a capitulation because Forrest scored two.

They missed three good chances.

Anthony Alanga had a miss where he tried to sort of hook it in with his foot foot when he should have headed it.

Murillo had a thumping header at a corner that he somehow put wide.

Then there was Morgan Gibbs White.

I think it was a cross, but with him you can't be sure that Nick Pope had to palm over the bar.

So Forrest did have the chances to get more than three and on another day they could have done that and the Newcastle crowd would have left very frustrated and angry.

But they got away with it.

Alexander Isak, the first Swedish player to get 50 goals in the Premier League.

Lundberg is on 48.

I mean, I say is.

He's unlikely to add to that.

To add to that, telling.

Seb Larson, 26, Kuniseski, 22, and Johan Elmander, 19.

He's not the highest scoring Scandinavian.

He's in fifth place

with that.

Can anyone name the top four?

Holland.

Yes.

Holland's second.

Second.

Iceland doesn't count as Scandinavia, does it?

it?

Iceland doesn't count.

Great question, this.

John Del Thomason didn't score any goals, did he?

That was who just popped into my head.

It can't be him.

Chef from the Moppen.

John Dal Thomason.

No.

So there's no other Swedes.

He'd be in the Swedish list, wouldn't he?

There's no other.

Oh, Solzha.

Must be two.

He's number one.

And then

you've got Haaland, and then you've got a Dane and a Norwegian ahead of him.

Or even Lee Nerton?

Egelosenstadt?

No.

The Dane is a midfielder.

Fjotoft?

No.

And Boomer.

No, he's a Cameroon.

No, he's Cameroon.

Yeah, honestly, I've gone all over the place.

Cameroon.

Cameroon.

Not in Scandinavia.

Famously not in Scandinavia.

Erickson.

Erickson, yeah.

In fourth place, Josh King, Johnny wouldn't have got for ages.

Anyway, I enjoyed that quiz.

To Villa Park, Villa 2, Chelsea 1.

I mean, look, we were on the radio yesterday, Dan, but it is worth reiterating.

If at the start of the season, you know, someone had just said to you, yeah, you'll beat Chelsea and Marcus Rashford will set up two for Marco Asencio, you wouldn't have gone, yeah, of course, that's going to happen.

Yeah, like absolute madness.

I said yesterday as well, that even if you'd have told me probably midway through January that that was going to happen, I wouldn't have felt that that was on the cards because Rashford looked like he may go abroad to try and resurrect his career.

It's probably worth saying, I've done quite a lot of these podcasts as well.

I think this is the first time Villa have won when I've done this show.

Normally, I'll come on and they haven't won, which is a pleasant feeling and a nice change.

Second half, Rashford just completely changed that game.

It wasn't necessarily Rashford providing assists for Ascensio that Villa planned when they made these transfers, but just watching these two high-quality, high-level players on the pitch, Rashford's come in, and considering the kind of amount of time he hasn't played any football for, he's looked sharp from the get-go, whether he's come off the bench or whether he starts like he did against Liverpool on Wednesday night.

He's looked really, really sharp.

And by the sounds of thing, he's done everything that's been asked of him behind the scenes.

And when you watch him as well, he's probably doing everything I would expect someone playing in that position to do as well from the left-hand side.

Villa have kind of flipped their system a little bit to accommodate Rashford.

So normally the width comes from the player playing on the right wing, but now they've flipped it.

So the width is coming from the player on the left wing and the fullback's not coming forward.

as much the player that normally creates the width.

So Villa have accommodating quite well when he's on the the pitch.

And he looks happy, and he looks like he's enjoying his football.

And he's so direct, and he, you know, it's really, really exciting to watch a player with that raw pace and power playing with a little bit of freedom and playing with a little bit of confidence.

And you do get the feeling that Urnai Emery has just made so many players at Villa better, players that have been there for a number of years and were perhaps toiling, that he can put his arm around Rashford and he can perhaps do the same.

Because one thing Emery is, he's an excellent coach and he's excellent at getting his ideas across the, there's no excuses at Villa, they're very well prepped for every game.

And he came on and villa won that game because marcus rashford came onto the pitch and asencio wilson i suppose what what are your fears about ascencio coming into the premier league the only one would be that sort of cliché about the physicality of it because he's such a he's such a delightful footballer and i don't think necessarily we should be worried about that no i mean there's been no signs of that you know his movement is is so good his touch is so good yeah i think he's i think he's been excellent it probably helps him as well that rashford's there that it's he's not under the radar but he's he's not neither is he sort of getting the full glare of publicity.

So, and the two of them seem already to have a very good understanding and relationship.

Evan says, Should Chelsea buy another seven keepers since none of this lot are any good?

I mean, it was a it was a terrible mistake from Jorgensen, wasn't it, Baz?

Yeah, Villa got lucky with that, he shouldn't have let it in, but it makes up for the penalty they didn't get for the Kukarella foul on Lamar Bogart, I suppose, earlier, when it was still 1-1.

Much has been made of the fact Chelsea don't have a decent goalkeeper.

I think think they do have one.

He plays for Bournemouth.

But I am aware he didn't pull up too many trees when he was in goal for Chelsea.

But maybe he'll get a recall and a start next season.

I don't know.

But yeah, that was a very unfortunate error for Jorgensen.

I always feel sorry for keepers when they drop clangers like that.

It's the life they have chosen.

Yeah, you're right.

Everton 2, Manchester United 2.

Craig says, how did Everton win 2-2 last week, but lose 2-2 this week?

Should we start with the last-minute penalty?

I sort of mentioned it in the intro, Wilson.

Do you think Ashley Young, because he's kind of like after Klinsman, he sort of feels like the English OG diver, or maybe that's Michael Owen.

I don't know, but the ref's got nostalgic because he does really, when you first see it, you think, I thought that's a massive dive.

Like, he's absolutely flung himself to the floor.

And then the big controversy is that VAR didn't show the ref the angle where you can see him being fouled by lots of Manchester United players.

Well look he he has dived, that is true, but also his shirt has been pulled twice.

I mean I'd entirely be in favour of that bigger penalty and the yellow card which I think would have been the second so it would have been a red card.

That I think is a legitimate thing to to do.

I agree.

But equally I almost think in the way VAR is these days you sort of

It's incumbent on a player to make obvious that a thing has happened.

And so you think of the counterexample of that, which would be, say, Evan Ferguson, the two games for Ireland, one against Finland and one against England, where he was fouled both times in the box and sort of just picked himself up and dusted himself down and got on with it.

Whereas you suspect, had he stayed down, had he demanded treatment, had he given the VAR time to check it, he would have got a penalty on both occasions.

So that's another unintended consequence of VAR that's very negative.

That it really encourages players to sort of

make sure that any contact

is very, very visible.

But yeah, I just don't, I can't, especially once the penalty's been given, I can't grasp how that's overturned.

And I think,

as far as possible, I try and avoid talking about referees in VAR, but I think this was a terrible weekend for VAR.

I think the Cooker AFL on Bogard, but also the Zabangy red card at Bournemouth, I think, was a terrible decision.

Well, I thought that was a red.

I thought that was a red.

Well, do you want to talk about it now?

Do you want you want to wait?

We can wait.

We can wait.

That's something to look forward to.

Yeah, isn't it?

That's a tease.

There was a really bad penalty not given in the

Leicester Brentford game as well.

Yeah, three really bad penalty decisions.

But this was the most egregious because the ref gave it and then overturned his own perfectly correct decision.

Yeah.

Unless there's another example, I mean, obviously players do this anyway, but, you know, it courage is even more sort of primary school.

Look what he did running up.

Look what he did, you you know tv monitor tv monitor look what he did um david says can i please request most of the coverage of everton united to be upon the amazing helms deep head tennis of betto's goal it was barry i i i've watched this so many times i counted all the headers i just loved every second and for it to end with an air kick then a miss hit it just had everything this goal

I don't think it was a miss hit, but we'll agree to disagree on that.

Yeah, Corner comes in, seven different headers, five of them by United players, none of whom headed it away from danger.

Then the miss hit by Decure and Betto.

I think he meant to hit it into the ground.

But, you know, whether he did or he didn't, he scored anyway.

That's spot five and four for him or four and three, whatever.

He's clearly

very confident.

He helped set up the Decoure goal.

And I thought Decouré, Drissa Ganaguer were brilliant in this game.

And United were unspeakably bad for 72 minutes.

Like as bad as they've been this season and they've plumbed some depths.

That is a low bar.

I think Everton sort of blunderbusts themselves in the foot by...

Well, the free kick came on the back of another free kick, which I don't think should have been given for a non-foul on Garnacho.

But anyway, it was given.

Gaping hole in the defensive wall, which Bruno Fernandez stepped up.

Thanks very much.

And that kind of flicked the switch for United.

And Everton were clinging on at the end, but then they got this penalty, which was subsequently not given.

So I think Everton were very unlucky not to take all three points, but they are slightly culpable.

I mean, it's a good hit from Magate, yes, Dan?

What I've liked about this game is that sometimes when a team comes back from 2-0 down, they come back to 2-2, and everyone talks about the fight and the spirit, and you know, what a great bunch of lads, and things like that.

There's been none of that at Manchester United coming back from 2-0 down.

I think everyone just pretty much agrees that they're still absolutely hopeless, even the Manchester United fans.

So I've quite enjoyed that, even though they've done well to get back to 2-2, it's just not been celebrated at all by anyone.

I mean, I think fans are already worried about Amrin Wilson and

how little has changed, or in fact, they've got worse.

But,

you know, I still don't know if, you know, like clearly, there is so much wrong.

You hope that he is given.

I don't know.

It's hard because you sort of need to give somebody years, but you need to give the right person years.

And maybe it can never be fixed.

Yeah, I mean, that is the problem.

It is a little bit like you set Hercules to work cleaning your G and stables.

And then 10 minutes later, you pop your head around the door and go, oh, still

looks quite dirty, Hercules.

And Hercules, yeah, I'm trying to divert these rivers through here.

And they're like, all right, okay, the danger is we just end up with a, with a wet, dirty stable rather than just a dirty stable.

And the truth is, until he's diverted that river, you just don't know whether that's going to be enough to clean the stable.

And

that's where United are now.

They're in the process of diverting that river.

It was the analogy that I was expecting, certainly.

But United staff have been warned they could face dismissal, of course, if caught leaking confidential information about the club.

I love the fact that the email warning United staff they could be dismissed for leaking information was leaked.

yeah follows a memo reminding employees of their obligations under data protection and confidentiality agreements the warning comes amid concerns over internal details being shared with the media as new co-owner sir jim ratcliffe aims to tighten operations behind the scenes i mean he hasn't i don't know if he's yet to say send me five things you did last week but you know it's he's not far away i mean apart from his he may have fired all the people that he wanted to get that email from anyway um but all sounds uh

fun and nice doesn't it up at old travel at the moment uh to Portman Road, Ipswich won Spurs 4, Spurs' third consecutive league victory.

They haven't managed that since December 2023.

Wilson, you were there.

Did you have a nice time?

Yeah, I did.

Yeah, it's a nice setup at Ipswich.

Food was good.

Pretty decent working facilities.

Everybody's very friendly.

And Ipswich are quite good going forward, but absolutely terrible at the back, which I guess you could probably say about Tottenham as well.

So

it was all good.

I mean, that first five minutes was sort of

Impswich could absolutely bad them here.

They had three really good chances.

Poor Archie Gray, who I think is a great player, but there are occasions where he just doesn't look like a centre-back, which is fair enough because he's not.

But Liam DeLap ripped him apart that first couple of minutes.

But then you see his quality on the ball with that button.

He was playing, he and Danso had switched over.

He was playing on the right, Danso on the left.

And

this was put to Postagogu afterwards.

Was that why you switched them so that Archie Gray could swing those balls out to Song?

And I've rarely seen a manager look so surprised and then go,

if you want to give me that credit, that's fine.

But I really wasn't thinking of it.

So yeah, fair play to Postagoglu for being honest about that.

But it was, yeah, the shape of that pass.

I mean, Ipswich made it easy.

Ben Godfrey had one of the worst performers you'll ever see from a fullback.

And Son looked

in favourable circumstances, he looked back to being pretty good again.

But yeah, Ben and Johnson twice not picked up in the box.

And,

yeah, it was just offensively, if such were nowhere near good enough.

And they're going to get relegated as a result.

They're learning more than two goals a game, and that is not good enough to stay up.

Yeah, I mean, look, it definitely showed, and we've talked about their injuries a lot, but being able to bring on,

you know, first-team players helps, doesn't it?

Because your team stays good if you change it in the 60th minute or the 70th minute.

Jed Spence Dan's having a very good time.

It took a long time for him to get into the side under Posta Koglu.

Even thoughts of

him sneaking into the England squad.

Is that a step too far or a possible?

Sort of seem to remember us having like 25 brilliant right backs, but I'm not sure if that's still the case.

I'd be a bit apprehensive about putting Spurs defenders in the England squad, but I've done such a small, small sample size as well.

They've kind of stumbled upon him, haven't they?

Because they've had so many injuries.

I think injuries aside, if there'd not been the level of injuries that they had, Jed Spence was nowhere near being a pick for Poster Coglu at Tottenham.

I did think it was interesting that he was selected at right back ahead of Pedro Porrow.

I don't know whether Pedro Porrow is carrying a knock, but whenever I've watched Tottenham, I've always thought that Porrow is one of their better players.

So to see him start...

It was just given Porrow a vest because he had another best 20 old game.

That makes sense then.

Because Jed Spence played most of his football this season at left back

from what I remember.

But he's been given a shirt and done a good job for Tottenham.

I just think Vicario makes a huge difference.

I I think he calms any nerves that are that are in the Tottenham defence.

He's made some good saves since he's come back in the team.

I'm not sure he calms all the nerves.

I'd just like to say that.

No, there's still nerves.

There's still nerves there, but maybe there's less nerves than when the other goalkeepers have been in goal.

I think they had four goalkeepers in goal at various stages this this season, Tottenham in Premier League games.

To have four keepers playing one season, it's no wonder that things have been a mess.

I just don't think that beating Manchester United Nips, which necessarily proves anything, proves that Spurs have have turned a corner and the next game is Manchester City at home and if they beat them, I'm not sure that proves anything either.

So

the game after that, that's when we'll know whether Spurs are back.

Ashes, last season it wasn't until mid-April and the season before it was almost May before

16th place hit 30 points.

That's been done already this season, pretty much two months early.

Is it basically game over for promoted teams now?

Or is this your mental quirk?

Yeah, and we'll get to Wolves winning in just a second, but they're now on 22 points, Barry.

So you've got Ipswich on 17, Leicester 17, Southampton 9.

Well, Southampton and Leicester are hopeless.

Absolutely hopeless.

Two of the worst teams I've seen in the Premier League.

Leicester fans are protesting.

They had a big protest last week.

They're not happy with the top, the fellow who owns the club and the director of football, who they say never gives them any information.

But anyway, that's by the by.

They're definitely gone.

You would give Ipswich some sort of chance if they could defend, but they can't.

So I think that is, I think it's done.

Yeah, the three of them down.

And Wolves are conspicuously better than the three of those.

Can I give you some stats?

Please.

So

I've looked into this promoted sides issue.

And

I've now got a spreadsheet.

This is very exciting for me.

I've never really used a spreadsheet before.

But

when the league went to 20 teams in 96.7, if you take a five-year rolling average from then of what the promote sides have got, the first five years, so up to 2000, 2001.

Can I just interrupt to say, I'm already bored?

Well,

yeah, but he's done the work, Barry.

Like, you can't.

It's his first spreadsheet.

I'm amazed this is your first spreadsheet.

I thought you had spreadsheet after spreadsheet about every single detective show.

Not necessarily, but, you know, about inverted fullbacks, et cetera.

But here we go.

It's your first spreadsheet.

So, you know, you

set yourself free.

Yes, Dan?

Can I poo-poo your spreadsheet by saying that they went to 20 teams in 95, 96?

Not 96, 97.

Well, I've calculated from 96, 7 for whatever.

No, no, no, that makes a difference, but yeah, it was 95, 96, I believe.

No, I know it's flawed.

I've even less interested.

You might remember my silent witness spreadsheet, which was never a spreadsheet.

I never said spreadsheet.

Other people imposed a spreadsheet upon me.

It was a document, it was not a spreadsheet.

Okay.

Anyway,

it's dropped from

in the the first five years of data I considered, which is up to 2000 to 2001, it's dropped from an average of 41.66 points down to 34.02 the end of last season.

Now, if you look at the three promoted teams this season, they've got a total of 17 plus 17 plus 9 is 43 points.

So even assuming that they add a third more to that, you're looking at under 20 points as an average.

So that's it was 22 points last season, the average.

So that's going to drop way below 34.02.

So what I'm saying is it's gone down by an average of 7.0 per season in the last 25 years, and it's continuing to fall.

So it is getting harder and harder for promoting sides.

That's what I'm saying.

Okay.

I mean, I think we all knew, I think we didn't need the evidence, but maybe it's good to have evidence in this day and age.

You know, what can we do to change that?

I mean, because like the Premier League is not going to give money down to the EFL or not as much as they need.

Well, it's not about parachute payments because because we've already got a situation where the three teams in contention for automatic promotion after Sunday and lost again at the weekend are all teams who are benefiting from parachute payments.

So there's a sort of mezzanine tier of clubs who are too big for the championship and too small for the Premier League.

And that's a problem.

Should there be a six-team mezzanine below the Premier League?

I'd be in favour of that.

Yeah.

Yeah, and they play each other, what, eight times a season?

And maybe the top team gets to play off against the bottom of the Premier League and the bottom team plays off against the top of the championship.

Who has the rights?

Does Sky have the rights to the mezzanine, or someone else has the mezzanine rights?

I don't know.

A few seasons ago, Bournemouth, Fulham, and I can't, was it Brentford?

I can't remember.

I don't think it was Brentford, actually.

Bournemouth, Fulham, and the other newly promoted name.

They all stayed up, didn't they?

What was different then?

Do you think?

Yeah, I mean, that is only the season before last.

Yeah, that is true.

I mean, what is different there is that Forrest massively breached FFP regulations.

Worth the risk, though.

Worth the risk.

Yeah, well, but I genuinely think that might be the best way to do it: to say, you know what, we're probably going to go down

unless we accept a sort of

we got more chance of staying off by taking a four-point penalty and breaching the regulations than by trying to do it and staying within the within the boundaries.

Interesting.

All right, that'll do for part two.

Part three, we'll begin at the vitality.

Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly's look.

Good win for Wolves.

Luke says, Am I imagining it?

Or did you preview Bournemouth Wolves on Thursday by Swiftly saying, and Bournemouth will win against Wolves?

I did.

And

more fool me.

And look, Wolves do look like they've improved under Pereira Barry.

They do, yeah.

I think the uncertainty around Matthias Kuna's future didn't really help.

They have had disciplinary issues as well, but they were really good in this game.

They deserved their win.

They scored one.

They missed two good chances.

Pedro Limo and Manetzi missed an absolute sitter.

I still don't know how he managed to put that glaring opportunity wide.

I think the ball might have hit his standing leg.

He missed kicked and it hit his standing leg and went wide.

But

well worth their win against away at a very good Bournemouth side.

Wilson alluded to the red card there.

I thought it was unlucky, but justified because intent isn't a factor.

Jonathan clearly disagrees.

So over to you, Jonathan.

So

had the ref sent him off on the field, I don't really have a problem with it.

But I think particularly with that type of foul, the ref in real time has a much better sense of whether he's just stretching for the ball and because his foot flicks the top of the ball that's why he hits the shin or whether it is really a dangerous lunge.

And so I thought the point Emaola made afterwards was correct, that you slow it down, it looks terrible because the studs go into the shin.

And the foot skimming off the top of the ball is not really an excuse if there's a real sort of aggressive intent.

But it's not going straight towards the player, it's coming in sideways.

And I just didn't think there was that much force behind it.

I thought it was a bit like the one Calvert Lewin got overturned on Appeal in the Cup last season, was it?

Um, against Palace, was that game?

That I just don't think if you hit a player mid-shin and there's not really any force in it, that that that should be an automatic red.

So look, it's not it's not a ghastly ghastly decision.

I just don't like the overturning of something where I think the referee on the field probably has a better sense than

somebody watching in a box.

It's all about the angles now, isn't it?

It's like VAR is supposed to eliminate these kind of debates and this kind of discussion, but we're now at the point where people are debating that the angle that the referee is shown and the angle of the footage because some angles look like it is a red card, some angles look like it isn't the same with the penalty

in the Everton games.

It's all just, I feel like it's just gone too far and it makes football a bit more rubbish.

But that's also why

the argument of, oh, yeah, they should make the decision within a minute or whatever.

It's like countdown.

It'd be panic stations.

Yeah.

Yeah, you have to view every angle because some angles show you a different

thing.

I mean, that's that's why I, you know, the Everton game, I just don't understand.

Why would you not show him the angle that seems most

to show it?

No, they hate him.

Whoever that ref is, they just hate that guy.

I mean, Uriola's saying from all these angles it wasn't a red, from this angle it was, made me think, well, then it is still a red card.

We've found the angle that shows it is, but we can agree to disagree.

Palace 1-2-0 at Fulham.

I think my favourite bit this game, Baz, was Mateta's, I mean, extraordinary feet.

Not just good feet for a big man, but like

what's better than good?

Great feet for a big man when he's slalen past all those players in the lead up to the second goal.

Yeah, because it was kind of a marauding run, but also a very, you know, some soft shoe shuffling in there as well, twinkle toes.

And great delivery, and the finish was superb.

Calvin Bassey might want to have a look.

He got sent skittering in the wrong direction by, what's it, Daniel Munoz, is it?

So, yeah, lovely finish from him.

And I must confess, I didn't think Palace would win this game, but it's a good win for them and I mean what they didn't win any of their first nine people were questioning Oliver Glasner but he's certainly getting a tune out of them now and I think the

resurgence of Will Hughes because he always seemed to be just on the fringes there at Palace I don't know if it was because of injuries or lack of form or just because there were better options but he he's really established himself as a crucial player in that that Palace lineup and as

Eze had a fun game, did that lovely back heel

for a goal that was offside.

And there was that bit where he was just standing there with Joachim Anderson, his former teammate, and like just sort of standing still and sort of like a bit like the Simpsons football.

And Anderson actually just put his finger to his wrist, like, look, come on, can we get on with this?

It was quite funny.

Two games to go.

Southampton Neil Brighton four and less than Neil Brentford for.

We've talked about the two sides at the bottom of the league.

So I suppose we can focus on Brighton and Brentford.

Which one do you want to take uh dan i'll take brentford because i watched 90 minutes of that game on friday night despite saying in the in the whatsapp group that i wasn't going to watch it and it wasn't something that i was interested in i i did watch it and actually really enjoyed the game i thought i thought brentford were were brilliant but leicester are just so easy to dispatch now i think this makes no sense given the points total in the in the premier league but I actually think Leicester might be worse than Southampton.

I know that makes no sense given the points totals, but Leicester are just absolutely horrific.

And I was watching Valve Face who was not very good the last time that Leicester were in the Premier League I think by the end of the game he just got fed up of being rubbish and just thought I'm just gonna start fouling everyone he played fouling football as a kid you felt like Valtface just just just turned into that Leicester honestly they are hopeless and they're gonna get completely what they deserve and get relegated this season because They've got a lot of the players that took them down last time,

such as Valface.

But then the good ones that were there then aren't there anymore and have been replaced by worse.

So it's not really a surprise to see Leicester getting steamrolled by a good Premier League side like Brentford.

I just thought that was one of the most abject performances I've seen all season from anyone.

Leicester are hopeless.

How do you think Valtfaz played?

I didn't quite catch it from that

review.

Not very good, but probably about as he did about as well as I did with geography earlier on in the show.

Yeah,

poor bloke.

And what about Brighton, Buzz?

Yeah, well, Brighton

had, you know, as comfortable a 4-0 win over Southampton as you'd expect.

They probably should have scored more.

And I think Southampton's manager basically summed up the game when afterwards he said there was an incredible difference between two teams.

A disaster, awful game, and we play really bad.

I'm not sure what else I can add to that.

We know Brighton are good.

We know they are capable of the occasional horror show.

But

yeah, they just swatted Southampton aside as you would expect them to.

Jack Inshelwood was very good.

He's a Brighton lad and

I don't think there's much you can read into this game because Southampton are terrible.

Rishi Sunak was the subject of a match of the day cutaway in this game, so it's

not the first sinking ship ship he's watched go down.

The Champions League draw was made on Thursday.

Liverpool PSG is one of quite a few highlights.

Real Madrid Athleti as well.

Biome unit by Leverkusen.

It's a great game.

Arsenal play PSV.

They will then play the winners of the Madrid Derby.

Villa play Club Brugge and then play the winners of Liverpool PSG.

So I think, Barry, it looks like a great last 16.

The last 16s always great.

I like the Villa Krubbrugger draw.

I don't.

Because I think that's a game both teams will be very confident of winning.

Hopefully, Villa can get past them.

But

the last 16 of the Champions League is always good, always,

and this is unlikely to be an exception.

Arsenal, that's a toughie they've got.

And Liverpool as well.

I kind of fancy PSG this year, but obviously they've got Liverpool and

that will be

and they well I like this incarnation of PSG.

Got some young kids, haven't they?

How do you say it was?

Yeah, I mean if Tyron Mings hadn't picked up the ball in the Gamings Club Brooker in the group stage, Villa would have been playing Bayern again.

So maybe

picking up the ball was the right thing to do.

But the thing that disappoints me or frustrates me a bit is how many of these games have already happened this season, whether domestically or

in the group stage.

And that feels like a bit of a flaw of the format that we're getting the same again.

But yeah, I mean, there's four or five really

intriguing, enticing ties.

I think I'm going to the Villa Booker game at Villa Park, so looking forward to that.

I've been to Villa Park for ages.

Go for a bear, Jonathan?

Should we go out for a bear?

Yeah, I have to.

Why not?

Yeah.

I've never actually met you, have I?

Despite doing God knows how many shows with you.

If you could bring that spreadsheet with you as well, I'd really appreciate it.

It'll be on my laptop.

I'd like a heart.

It's called a hard copy.

Hard copy.

A laminated copy.

Man United have got Riel Sociedad in the Europa League and Spurs have AZ Alkmar.

Those ties to be played, the week commencing, whatever it is.

Brian says, Moderic's looked tired, celebrating that thunderbastard of a strike, I thought.

I don't know if you have seen it or not, but he scored an absolute worst roll.

He brings it down on his chest, and then outside of the right foot, just sort of...

on the volley hits it in the top right-hand corner.

It's a total joy.

Michael says, how does Jonathan Wilson rate the last few weeks of Sunderland's season?

All but dropped out of the automatics after defeats to Leeds and Hull.

Now he seems to be going under the same youth fatigue issues that have played previous seasons in the run into the playoffs.

Yeah, I mean, the Leeds game was the first game this season where Sunday had been clearly second best.

Previously, there'd just been a sense that they didn't really take the chances and they gave away some soft goals, which is not good either.

But, you know, Leeds, although they were two late goals, they sort of waved the wave of pressure later on.

And I guess once that game was lost, there's a little bit of impetus gone out of it.

The hull game was not dissimilar to the Watford game, the Plymouth Plymouth game that against teams that sit deep against them for Sunday just lacks a little bit of spark.

And I think,

yeah, Chris Rigg looks quite tired now.

So

yeah, it's playoffs and then we see.

And I think the worry is the number of players he could conceivably leave at the end of the season if something don't go up.

I mean, ends of the phase, his loan, yeah, it's it's there's an obligation to buy if something goes up, but if something don't go up, I can't, he's too good to hang around.

Surely he's too good for for the championship.

Yeah, the inaugural year of the mezzanine.

Sunderland would be wonderful in that, wouldn't they?

James says, as a Bristol City fan, can Max tell me how excited we should be about the new Messi, also known as Josh Stokes?

Yeah, he scored two for us home to Stockport.

Yes, he'd be the only good player for us all season.

He's brilliant, and we won, and so did everyone else at the bottom, which is a bit of a pity.

So we're still bottom, but you never know, the small acorns of a great escape are growing.

And Dan says, I just wanted to say a quick thank you for taking my mind off an operation this week.

Don't worry.

This is not a vasectomy email.

My dad was operated on.

I had to find a way to while away the hours between the operation starting and finishing.

I did the natural thing and saved up a few episodes of Football Weekly to see me through.

Your voices are always reassuring to me.

In a moment of uncertainty, read Muniching myself.

They were truly precious to me.

So thank you.

The operation went well.

Fingers crossed for the recovery.

Great, delighted to hear it.

Also, my wife, who's Italian, has accidentally coined the word shipmanship as a slight misunderstanding of me saying shithousery.

Personally, I think think shitmanship is a far better word, and I would humbly request that you try and make it catch on.

If Philippe could say it a few times, I have no doubt the whole footballing world would adopt it.

We'll see what we can do, Dan.

But, you know, love to your dad.

Glad we filled up some hours, as that's sort of the intention of this.

And that'll do for today.

Thanks, Wilson.

Cheers.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dan.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Barry.

Thank you.

Football Weekly is produced by Silas Gray.

Our executive producer is Phil Maynard.

We'll be back on Wednesday.

This is The Guardian.