City down and almost out in Paris as Arsenal march on – Football Weekly Extra

This is The Guardian.

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 is 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 yeah it's their most portable paper tablet yet it holds all your notes to-dos and documents but it's smaller than a paperback and an incredible 0.26 inches thin so it slips easily into a bag or jacket pocket perfect for working professionals whose jobs take them out of the office like maybe a football journalist barry although not like you

a proper football journalist mate exactly too much technology draws us in and shuts the world out.

This paper tablet doesn't.

It'll never beat or buzz to try and grab your attention, so you can devote your focus to what or who is in front of you.

It has a display that looks, feels, and even sounds like paper.

Think and work like a writer, not a texter.

And the battery performance is amazing.

No worries about running out of power before the end of extra time.

The Remarkable Paper Pro Move can keep going for up to two weeks.

And if you do need to recharge, you can go from naught to 90% in less than 45 minutes, Barry.

Fantastic.

Why not give it a go for nothing?

You can try Remarkable Paper Pro Move Move for a hundred days for free.

If it's not what you're looking for, get your money back.

Visit remarkable.com to learn more and get your paper tablet today.

Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly.

This isn't what PSG are meant to do.

They un-imploded at the Parc des Prince, goalless at half-time.

Man City go two up without really doing anything before a stunning comeback inspired by Jao Nevers and Bradley Barcolo and Osman Dembele.

City crumbled and once PSG scored they barely had a kick.

Another disaster and a season of disasters.

Meanwhile Celtic, a guaranteed a playoff spot, home to already out young boys.

It was starting to look classic Celtic, disallowed goal after disallowed goal and missed penalty before a huge slice of luck late on puts them through.

Elsewhere a stunning win for Fire Nord over Bayern wins for Inter and Milan while Rodrigo and Vinicius put one of those Real Madrid performances against Salzburg.

One game left now and it it feels like this new giant league is actually quite good.

Also, today, a Premier League preview, Norway putting the VAR genie back in the bottle.

Your questions, and that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, Barry Glendenning, welcome.

Hello.

Hello, Nikki Bandidi.

Morning.

And hello, Jonathan Faduba.

Good morning to you, Max.

Good morning to you.

And how very civil.

And joining us from Gardeno,

fresh from watching PSG form and City 2, it is Barney Ronnie.

How was that for you, Barney?

Yeah, it was an amazing game.

An unusually exciting game in the Park de France where things are often a bit cagey.

The second half collapse was really kind of an astonishing thing to see from City.

I said to someone at half-time, I'm quite missing Ange Post de Coglu.

Maybe he could just be in charge of both teams for the second half.

And it seems like City were listening.

What do you make of this city?

Because they looked totally, they just looked bereft city after PSG scored one.

Look, they had no chance.

Yeah, it was strange.

You could kind of feel it coming as well, even in the first half.

There was a lot of shouting on the pitch.

There was an interlude where Kevin De Bruyne kept shouting at Matthias Nunes.

He wasn't happy with the fact that Matthias Nunes kept booting the ball out of play and asking him to run at 200 miles to get his passes.

Guardiolu didn't look happy.

He was shouting at everyone.

And you kind of thought, this is either good.

They're either healing themselves through the power of men shouting at each other or there's something not quite up here and as it turned out the first bit of adversity they just collapsed it was astonishing to watch people kept saying they've just gone and uh paris could have scored seven goals last night it was amazing to watch it city have gone from being that team that i wrote about them being as close to invincible as you're likely to get the system works the players work everything works to something that's just so fragile now and i thought bonnie that one of the weirdest things was that 3-2 it just it never looked like city would like psg would be the only side that were going to score again at 3-2 which is so counterintuitive in that sort of match situation yeah it really did look like that they never looked like rescuing anything i mean it's um it's really easy to build a narrative into that and say there's something wrong with the soul of this team um i mean

rodri's the kerfuffle over rodri winning the ballon d'or like the greatest argument in his favor the greatest comeback is well look at what's happened to the team when when you take me out of it.

And I think they just have built something that was so thin by the end and so used to the same voices, the same patterns.

The squad is thin.

The players are aging and the same voice saying the same things.

And once you take that component path out, the preferred pain in the rest of the team is really astonishing.

Every single part has been diminished.

We're losing you, Barney.

We're losing you.

Barney is getting into the depths.

Maybe he's in the tunnel.

He's going in.

Get your train, Barney.

Thanks for coming on.

Appreciate your time, mate.

All right, cheers.

Take care.

See you right now.

Barney there at Garden North.

I mean, it's a busy station at the best of times, isn't it?

But good to get him.

What did you make of this, Barry?

Because we are so used to enjoying the PSG claps, and it was just Man City being PSG where PSG lives.

Yeah, it was a really good game, thoroughly enjoyable.

We obviously have to caveat any discussion about PSG

by saying this is not superstar PSG, this is a young up-and-coming PSG

assembled at considerable expense but with no particular

disruptive big name influences in the dressing room or ones that I'm aware of anyway.

And

they

look really good.

They

weren't particularly flustered when they went 2-0 down in the second half.

Came back and won pretty emphatically in the end.

Too many city players didn't perform.

Matthias Nunes, I think, isn't good enough.

Kevin De Bruyne, Savino, Matikovic, Bernardo Silva, Harland, apart from scoring his goal, did nothing, as is his wont.

Ederson didn't have a good game.

So that's a lot of city players who didn't perform.

And they are prone to these kind of collapses.

They've lost big leads of two goals or more against Fine Order Brentford PSG.

They'd have collapsed against, was it sporting as well?

So

it's kind of the city we've come to expect.

And

I was very impressed with PSG's comeback and their overall performance.

And it was inspired, Nikki, by just that flick from Barkola past Nunes, which was just an amazing bit of skill in the lead-up to their first goal.

Yeah,

Bradley Barkola was absolutely the one who felt like the initiator of

this moment, didn't he?

And yeah, it was a really wonderful flick, like you say.

It was strange because, again, like City, it's not like City were dominant from the outset, was it?

And perhaps

that's part of it.

The whole Toon Lup was always built on sand.

And as soon as you saw that, a flash of something different, something a little bit of swagger, not just a goal, but a bit of that confidence from PSG, it became very clear that City's confidence wasn't there at all.

I also loved his second, just for how long it took to go in.

And we could all see it was going in, but everyone was just there and no one could do anything about it.

And then Jael Neves, Jonathan, scored.

I'm still astonished that someone called Joe Neves doesn't and has never played for Wolves.

But there we are.

It's not a player I know a lot about, Jonathan, but I thought he actually...

The header was brilliant because it's so hard to control that when the ball's bouncing on that skiddy surface.

But he had a brilliant game.

Yeah, he had a fantastic game and he was all action and really epitomised PSG's comeback, to be honest.

There was a moment, I think, around the sort of 85th minute where it summed up the two sides and the trajectories they're on.

Where I think it was Joe Nevers and Bernardo Silver had a sort of a 50-50 tussle and

ended up with Bernardo Silva on the floor and kind of really not very happy with his countrymen.

And he was sort of

pointing at Nevez, and Nevez was sort of looking at him as if he was like, you know, you're the old guard, like step aside.

It was a kind of real Portuguese lusophone sort of moment where they just were staring at each other and kind of Silver was on the floor and it was like,

this is the end of city.

And Neve just sort of strolled back

for the free kick but yeah no i mean this psg side is an interesting one they're unbeaten in in liga you can say well league ain't these days is it up to you know what it was the broadcast deal has been a bit of a mess it's hard to even watch it now on tv these days in the uk because because of what's happened with the broadcast situation so it can be harder to gauge psg and the league in general but you know louis enrique has done a fantastic job there and i think that you know what they've what they've sort of done is they've they've bought players like desiree douet you know from rare and who's who's one of the best talents in France.

They've bought players like Barcola from Lyon, and they've bought players like Neves who are sort of hungry and they're upcoming, and they are talented, rather than the sort of old strategy, which was pay loads of money to players like Neymar and Messi and Lumbape.

And so they're a slightly more dynamic team and the confidence.

I mean, I love the Barcola's skill to beat Matias Nunes.

What worries me in the city is they're very...

They've become very easy to play against.

You know, even at 2-0 2-0 up, as Barry just alluded to, they kind of had this sense about them where they're just

so porous and easy to play.

Nunes, right, you know, this new experiment is Mateus Nunez a right back, doesn't really seem to work.

They're so open in behind, you know.

If you, if you sort of, it's quite easy to construct the way of getting in behind City.

It's literally like pass it to, you know, have a three-man sort of front, third-man runs and play it in behind them.

It just happened time after time after time.

And you do worry about.

I thought City would win this game, to be honest.

I thought, yeah, they've had their little rough patch now and that they're over it, but it's clear that they're not not over it at all, are they?

I I think it's worth worth saying, like this PSG rebuild

it's once again not like some oh we're just gonna tighten our belts and do it on the cheap.

I think they spent four hundred and fifty million euros last summer, another two hundred and something this summer, even do a fifty million euros on a teenager.

That they this is not like that because it's no longer messy and Neymar, like it's uh like it's something that's being done, oh, we're tightening our budget, they're still throwing it a heap of of money at it, but they have, as Jonathan said, concentrated more on French talent and young talent.

Although, again, even this transfer window, they've gone out and spent about $65.70 on Ferret Scalia, who young player, but not a domestic player.

It's still very much the project that it was.

It's just being done with a different emphasis, I would say, to what it was before.

Yeah, that's interesting.

Meanwhile, Nikki, on City.

I suppose it's just

impossible to know

because I think on Monday, I think Seb was on saying, I think they'll finish second.

And no one really disagreed.

You know,

they'd strung some results together.

They smashed Ipswich, and you sort of think other teams aren't consistent in the Premier League.

And yet when you see this, and as Jonathan says, you know, they're easy to play against, you wonder

are they becoming just kind of normal?

Like, they might win the league next year, but they might finish third, they might finish sixth, you know, that kind of team.

They're obviously bringing in loads of players.

Mahamush has come in.

That was confirmed this morning.

There's a guy from an Uzbek defender called Abkhudir Kuznanov.

They've annoyed Valad the Lid over some young defender as well called Juma Bar.

I don't expect you to know about all these players.

But I also don't even know how, if you're meant to predict what will happen to City.

But it's just,

the difference is, and Barney wrote this in his report, you suddenly can't take your eyes off what City are doing.

And for the last few years, it's sort of been a bit boring how good they've been.

They are right now not one of the very best teams in England.

But it's it's all relative, right?

They're still in the top half of the Premier League.

That makes you automatically one of the very best teams in England.

But they're not close with the football they're playing to a Liverpool, for instance.

And I think that was what we saw in this game.

Because, yes, they went 2-0 up, but we'd already had a goal disallowed at Nail Mill.

We'd had plenty of chance to PSG at Nilmill.

There was never a point in this game where, to me, they looked like they were actually in control of it, even though they were 2-0 up.

And I think that's a reflection of where they are right now.

Now, do I think that suddenly means that all these talented footballers aren't elite footballers?

No.

Do I think it's beyond fixing?

No.

But

it does really feel like the end of a chapter.

And it feels like it could just be that it's time the Pep needs to go and that's the simplest answer to it.

But it also...

could be something more nuanced than that.

But I don't think this is a passing moment.

I think we've got past the point of thinking this is something that they're just going to snap out of one day.

I think something fundamental fundamental has to happen to shake them out of this current mode they're in because

they're not swaggering, which is what city always were.

City were something

different.

They were intimidating.

They were so self-possessed that you felt like they were never going to slip up.

There's nothing of that left now.

That's completely burst.

And something needs to happen that's dramatic, I think, to get them

anywhere near back there.

And honestly, I don't think it's going to be as simple as some big dramatic change, even if it was as dramatic as saying goodbye to Guardiola.

I don't think it'll be as quick as that.

I think now there is a new order that needs to be

shaken up for that to happen.

And I think that, again, domestically right now, it's Liverpool in front of them.

European, it's hard to say who is the leading club in Europe right now.

It might be Liverpool there as well.

But I think there's now several clubs that I look at and think, well, you're just better football teams right now than Man City are.

And I don't think that's

a blip anymore.

I think that's just the current order of things and actually something that I think is really good about the Premier League and the the Champions League as well is that you know reputation counts for nothing now teams know like teams can smell blood elite teams can smell blood and there was a time when you played city and you just thought

you know we have no chance of winning this football match or if they go tuna luck well that's it and now there's just none of that like no team they play against you know all the way down to okay ipswich perhaps at the weekend but you know generally it is like everyone thinks they've got a hope, don't they?

Before we move on to Arsenal, I have a trivia question for you, man.

Ah, yes, there was a Spurs player at the Parc de Prance in the stands last night.

Can you tell me who?

A current Spurs player, yes.

Um,

it's always James Madison at the darts, isn't it?

Well, you know, it's always he says a he should be furious with him.

Who would be at

PSG Man City?

Right, is it is it he should I get it?

Is it obvious?

Uh,

Well, it's obvious if you know.

Fraser Forster.

Oh, no, hang on, hang on, hang on.

It will be someone who can't play Hoffenheim.

Destiny a doggy because he's best friends with Dunaruma.

I don't know.

It was Victor Wembanyama from the San Antonio Spurs.

who was in Paris for basketball matches.

Okay.

We would have been here for a very long time.

Let's go to the Emirates.

Arsenal 3, Dina Mozagrave, 0.

You'd have expected Arsenal to win this, Nikki, but I mean, the opening goal,

the cushion setup from Havertz and the finish from Rice is just so heavenly, isn't it?

Yeah, it was a lovely goal, and it came right at the start of the game, which

in some ways felt like it then killed the next...

45 minutes more of the game felt like not a lot happened after that for quite a long time so had that one goal to savor for a while um but yes, it was probably exactly the

start you want just in a game you expected to win, especially coming off the disappointment at the weekend of throwing two points away in the league.

A lovely goal to get things started, and

something that clearly Arsenal need and that Arteta talked about emphasizing now, trying to get more goals from midfield, trying to get Rice into his positions more to score those goals.

Could have had more than one in this game, and perhaps should have done.

Um, but yeah, it was a was a

very,

what's the word?

Professional.

It's got to be a better one, but I was.

No, I was thinking of a word for the goal itself.

I was going to say picturesque, which is not the word start to what became then a very routine, I think, night in the Champions League.

Yeah, I think so.

Just the way Rice,

just that shape, that shape when footballers sort of bend over the ball and just hit it across the ball.

And it's just so, it's just so a bit like Greedish's strike, actually, in the city game as well.

It was the same kind of hit, wasn't it?

At what point, Jonathan jonathan do arsenal throw their eggs in this basket do you think i mean i think they've thrown their eggs in this basket from from day one i would imagine the ambition is to go as far as possible they've done pretty well but i mean taking their eggs out of all the other baskets which i think they they'd spread their eggs around the baskets i'm now saying the champions league basket is the basket well a couple of the baskets have already been spread

yeah are you saying they're out of the title race max um

not necessarily not necessarily We might get to that in part three.

I don't know.

No,

I think they're in all the baskets except the Gaffey Cup.

I think the League Cup basket is pretty smashed as well, but others will disagree.

I'm not sure.

Bournemouth have just gone there and beaten Newcastle 4-1.

That's a good point.

Can I just stress it's the eggs in the basket are smashed.

The basket doesn't get smashed.

The eggs get smashed, don't they?

I mean, I suppose my question, if I was going to ask an image.

That's what the basket is made.

But the basket's not made of eggs, in which case,

it could be made of China.

Absolutely.

No one has a China basket.

The basket is made of wicker, and the eggs are the eggs.

And if you put them all in one basket, the danger is dropping that basket.

My point, Jonathan, which I don't know if it's worth even asking now, is

and of course they need to try and win every game, blah, blah, blah.

But actually, they shouldn't think they are, even if their league form is stuttering a tiny bit and they're out in the FA Cup and they're strongly carabout,

they are good enough to win this competition.

I'm not sure about that.

I'm not sure if they're good enough to win this competition.

No.

Once they go into the knockout stage, it's going to be a two-legged affair and

I don't think Arsenal really demonstrated last season that they, you know, they struggled against Porto and then lost to Bayern.

I don't think they've demonstrated in this group stage so far that they are going to beat any top teams.

I mean, I know they beat PSG, but PSG haven't had a fantastic campaign in the Champions League, apart from obviously the City game and a few others.

They haven't been amazing if you look at the league table.

So I don't think we've seen enough evidence so far to suggest Arsenal would be one of the favourites.

I know the group stage, they're high up in the table and everything, but

some of their games you could argue they've had

Dina Mazar Grab and teams like that are not necessarily the most challenging of matches.

So, no, I don't think I've seen enough to say that they would be favourites.

Who do you think are the favourites?

Because I'm struggling with that with this Champions League.

We've had this massive group with everyone in there together.

And

aside from Liverpool, I'm not really sure that anyone's come out of it really looking swaggering.

At the beginning of the season, I would have made a case for Inter, and I think they're in the conversation, but I don't think they're playing their best football at the moment at all.

So, yeah, I don't know who I'm pulling out of here.

Obviously Real Madrid are way down on where you would have expected them to be.

Barcelona, I suppose, have ended stronger, but they did concede four goals to Ben Vica.

I think a team like Inter, as they demonstrated

in the match between them, I think Inter would beat Arsenal, I think, personally,

in a two-legged game.

Okay.

Well, we've got lots of time to find out who's going to win.

Let's just wait until the end of May and we'll find out.

That'll do for part one, part two.

We'll begin with Celtics' victory over young boys.

HiPod 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.

Yeah, it's their most portable paper tablet yet.

It holds all your notes, to-dos, and documents, but it's smaller than a paperback and an incredible 0.26 inches thin, so it slips easily into a bag or jacket pocket.

Perfect for working professionals whose jobs take them out of the office.

Like maybe a football journalist, Barry.

Although not like you.

A proper football journalist, man.

Exactly.

Too much technology draws us in and shuts the world out.

This paper tablet doesn't.

It'll never beat or buzz to try and grab your attention, so you can devote your focus to what or who is in front of you.

It has a display that looks, feels, and even sounds like paper.

Think and work like a writer, not a texter.

And the battery performance is amazing.

No worries about running out of power before the end of extra time.

The remarkable paper pro move can keep going for up to two weeks.

And if you do need to recharge, you can go from naught to 90% in less than 45 minutes, Barry.

Fantastic.

Why not give it a go for nothing?

You can try Remarkable Paper Pro Move for 100 days for free.

If it's not what you're looking for, get your money back.

Visit remarkable.com to learn more and get your paper tablet today.

Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

Barcel Jim says, did we ever envisage we'd live in in a world where Celtic would make the Champions League knockout stage and there's a possibility that City won't?

Yes, Celtic beat young boys 1-0.

They looked cursed, Barry, didn't they?

Like, just so many disallowed goals that missed penalty, and you were thinking, God,

they've put themselves in such a brilliant position and they're not going to beat Youngboys, but eventually they did.

Yeah, they made very, very heavy weather this one

at home against the worst team in the competition who were on their third manager of the season.

It was a strange game.

I mean, Celtic completely dominated,

had

three goals ruled out in the first half for two for offside, one for Alan McGregor-Powell in the build-up.

Yeah, it was Furahashi who scored all three disallowed goals.

So I'm wondering, does he get the linesman's flag after the game, or does he get the referee's whistle as a memento?

Because I don't remember that happening before.

It probably has, but certainly not to my knowledge.

Brendan Rogers in his post-match interview said, you know, the important thing was that Celtic remained calm.

And I wouldn't necessarily agree with them because in the second half, the game started getting away from them a bit.

And Caspar Schmeichel, who signed a contract extension yesterday, he had to make some very good saves to keep Celtic in the game.

And they eventually won it with quite a late goal.

A brilliant, brilliant pass from Rio Hitata

into the path of Adam Ida, who'd just come on as a sub.

His effort was saved by the young boy's goalkeeper, but the ball clanked in off the shins of the unfortunate Loris Benetto,

Benito, the defender.

And then there was a little more drama when Maeda...

had a yellow card upgraded to a red for a kick on somebody or other that was sort of petulant and unnecessary.

He'll miss the next game against Villa, obviously, but it doesn't really matter.

And Celtics reward for this

first qualification for Champions League lockout stages in 12 years is looking like it's going to be a game against Barcelona or Real Madrid.

So

that'll be an interesting one.

That is the reward they want, isn't it?

I mean,

if you're in the Champions League and you're not a team that's always in the Champions League, maybe like that's the...

I mean, certainly for the fans,

I don't think there's many Celtic fans out there, and apologies to Celtic fans who you do believe this, who think they're going to win the whole competition.

So if you're not going there to win the whole competition, then what you want is to get to play some games against the really

the clubs in Europe that are defining the Champions League, don't you?

Isn't that what you're after?

I feel like that's what you're after.

And you want, you know, Parkhead at home, you know, first leg, first 20 minutes, the noise will be.

In fact, actually, the noise in this one at the end, when

Schmeichel sort of lands on the ball, like it's not a hard save, but he lands on the ball.

And then it's like a rugby match.

He like boots it into touch and is grinning.

It's like he knew it was over, and it was like this, this whole thing just erupted.

You missed the penalty save as well, Barry, in that.

Oh, yeah, sorry.

I forgot about that.

Yeah, Celtic also missed the penalty in that first half.

Greg Taylor was hauled down, and Aaron Engels took a really bad week penalty that was very easily saved.

Yeah, sorry about that.

No, that's okay.

He'd previously scored six penalties this season, but yeah, he missed that and you started to think, oh, maybe.

Yeah, but they play Villa next week.

Villa win gives Villa a good shout of getting into the top eight.

Celtic would need to win and a ludicrous set of results to get in.

But I think you're right, Nikki.

I think for Celtic to get into the knockouts, and I suppose it's hard in the first year of a new stage

to sort of work out how impressive an achievement this is.

But to get through to any, you know, even if it was a thousand teams qualify and nine hundred and ninety nine get to a knockout, even that, right, without wanting to patronise Celtic, is like they're in the thing, they're in the thing, the kind of draw that's happening on Friday.

Yeah, I don't know,

I think I've quite enjoyed this group stage, and I don't know if that's just because I because I watch football as a significant part of my living and I think that when you've watch a lot of the same format over and over again, it's just fun to have something new and different and work it out and ask me again I guess in five years if I think this is better but it has been fascinating that the permutations for the next round um vary throughout their possibility they could play for El Madrid or Barcelona I think it's a lot more complicated than that still because there's just a vast amount that can change in this final round because there's three points between eighth place and 24th place and then it goes to goal difference and so goal difference comes into it so a lot can can shuffle up in this next round um But I mean

we've just been talking about it in part one, but the fact that we've had City and Paris Saint-Germain as a game in round seven with everything on the line has felt has felt significant.

But I think it's been interesting as well, just seeing clubs like Celtic having a minimum eight games of good European football and now giving themselves a chance to maybe get a big

one of the really big giants in the knockout round.

Yeah, I tend to agree with you.

I don't know what you think, Jonathan.

And it's it is hard because it's just shiny and new.

But I was really skeptical because I'm skeptical of anything that FIFA or UEFA tell me is good.

Like, my instant reaction is, it can't be good.

I hate all of you.

And I have been proved wrong by this so far.

I think it's new and shiny and fun.

So from the novelty point of view, it's been enjoyable.

And the extra games, you know, I've got friends who...

they really think that it there's more sort of bigger games so more you know more games in the earlier stages that involve big teams So, from that point of view, I think, yeah, it's brought something new to the table.

The argument that it kind of makes the competition there's more at stake, I'm not sure if that will play out because what really I feel has happened is essentially all the unimportant games are now at the beginning of the competition rather than like at the end of the group stage.

Because people say, oh, well, the last few games used to be dead rubbers and everyone was qualified.

But I think now the earlier games, it's like the first three, four matches, they didn't really, they mattered, but it was kind of not really mattered they were kind of just played out well i suppose i suppose it's probably better to have dead rubbers early in the season when we're all awake exactly do you know what i mean like it's sort of that's a cleverer way round i don't know what you think baz i mean that some would potentially see you as a cynical man how have you found this well while the champions league in its original or most recent incarnation the group stages were quite predictable you would get good games obviously but you could fairly predictably or fairly confidently predict who would go through and there might be an odd exception each year uh i think

before this competition started i said at the very worst it will be similarly boring but at least boring in a different way but i found it quite good and i think it's it benefits say teams like celtic who get eight games to try and qualify instead of six.

I will probably incur the wrath of some Celtic fans by saying I think the draw was quite kind to them, but they have made the most of it and you can only beat what's in front of you or draw with what's in front of you or in the case of Barusi Dortmund lose 7-1 against what's in front of you.

But they have qualified with a game to spare and that's to be that is really commendable.

So I've enjoyed this group stage, yeah.

I suppose what is strange about it is, and you mentioned this, Nikki, you know, that PSG Man City struggling, Bayern, that we'll get get to now, also struggling.

So you sort of have teams like Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Juventus, Dortmund All mid-table, you know, PSG at risk of not going through, but probably go through, Man City, same.

And

that is an unexpected part of this that may not necessarily have happened.

But, I mean, I don't know how much of the final Bayern game you watched, but they had so many chances.

And it seems weird that they got absolutely hammered, but they did.

Yeah, Final are an odd one, aren't they?

Because they're only fourth in the Aerodovizzi, but I think they've scored more than all but three teams in this Champions League group, so seventeen goals.

Absolutely extraordinary Route One stuff on that opening Jimenez as well.

As direct as you can ask for, but a lovely goal.

Yeah, I I don't know.

I I think I just sort of like that everyone's all in this big muddle together, because there are.

Like there's there's been plenty of boring games in there and if you happen to cover Italian football and feel compelled to watch Juventus every round, you've certainly had plenty of

disappointing evenings watching football.

But

it just feels like because everyone's in there together, there's always something interesting happening every round.

You can always go and flick over and see something interesting going on.

Whereas when they're all siloed off into groups, some of the groups are just boring.

Some of them are just boring groups that you're trapped with.

I don't know if that's just psychological.

Again, I don't know if it's just the shiny newness of it, but

it feels like there's something to that, just having having everyone together in a big in a big muddle that's that's made it more compelling this time anyway yeah massive win for fire noid this uh jonathan i mean like fireworks at the end i mean so they like they were hopeful they they bought in the fireworks just in case what did you make of this game yeah fantastic win for fire nord but buying a strange team this season it's can't really gauge whether they're good team or not a good team and there's games where they sort of look really really excellent and the company and there's games like this where you know they go down with a bit of a whimper really, at final.

I mean, for the record, I do like this, I do like this new group stage.

I do enjoy it.

I just, I just want, you know, in terms of the whole, at what point do games become boring?

That's the question I was just wondering about.

But I think it

has given it a novelty.

And I think myself.

Nick, so it was, it was off the record.

You were off the record when you were first.

Well, I didn't get to finish my answer.

Oh, I'm sorry.

But yeah, no, I think I do enjoy it.

And I do like, I agree with what Nikki says about the kind of jeopardy of it and the sense everyone's in it together.

It's like a mishmash of teams.

But it does also a lot depend on the draw and who you get as well, I think, to a certain extent, because I'm not sure how many

good teams are going to get knocked out at this stage, to be honest.

So we're going to end up kind of not many.

You know, you look at, for example, Young Boys, the Celtic beat, they've had a terrible sick campaign, really, haven't they?

Lost pretty much, well, lost every game.

Teams like Bratislava as well haven't had the best of it.

So there are some poor teams in there, but it does add that sort of sense of jeopardy.

And, you know, maybe there's a little bit extra jeopardy.

And then we've got the playoff round to come, which should be quite interesting as well.

But

final having a really good, you know, campaign in it.

But Bayern, I'm just not sure what to make of them, to be honest.

Each game I watch them, I have a different opinion.

On Final, I remember watching the first Final

of the group stage.

They were at home to Baylevicus, and they just, I remember watching that game and thinking they look so like

this sounds going to sound so patronising, but probably it was patronising when I was thinking of it.

They just looked so blissfully naive.

They kept just going at Bayer Levikus, and he just kept smacking them back and absolutely smashed them in the end 4-0.

And at the time, I looked at it and thought what they've got, what up to 4-0 at home by Levakus?

And they've still got to play City in this group, they've still got to play Bayer Munich in this group.

This is a team that's going to have a very rough group stage.

But they've actually just kept doing it.

They just kept going at teams, the whole group stage, and completely defied what I would have guessed at in that stage.

So, yeah, they're definitely one of the teams that, because I think after when Bayer Munich lose 3-0, the story is Bayern Munich.

We probably haven't talked about that enough yet, funnily enough.

But I do think Fyanor would have been one of those quietly, really entertaining teams in this group because they have just played that kind of football from day one.

And even after it got them clobbered in the first round, they haven't backed off from it.

Yeah, Bayern are under a bit of pressure this season because the final is in the Lions arena.

So there are fans that want to be at that, obviously, and their players.

I didn't think they were that terrible in this game.

There was brilliant counterattacking performance from Feynor.

Great economy.

Three shots on target, three goals.

And they only had 20% possession.

Their goalkeeper was outstanding.

He made some brilliant saves.

One in particular from Harry Kane.

So

I wouldn't be huge.

I think the scoreline flatters Feynor a little bit.

Yeah, I don't disagree with that.

I mean, the second goal, the penalty, where Bayern are absolutely knocking at the door, and then this ridiculous counter and a darve challenge from

stupid from Guerrero yeah isn't it um to I think he'd only just come on the pitch as well yeah yeah like seconds previously yeah it was silly to the Italian clubs Nikki uh inter 1-1-0 in Prague uh Milan won one nil at home to Girona how very classically Italian

yes

uh yeah they were two not particularly exciting games of football.

Speaking of games you feel compelled to watch, yeah,

they were not brilliant either of them.

I think the results, nevertheless, really good results.

Inter really should have put that to bed much sooner against Spartaprague.

But in the end, the upshot is that they won again.

They've got 16 points from seven games.

They are very much on the

on the edge of confirming themselves as a top eight team and not having to do that playoffs.

And I think that was also Lautaro Martinez's 14th goal in the Champions League, which makes him equal with Adriano as their top ever scorer in the Champions League.

So there's a little something from a night.

Milan, it felt maybe more significant just because they're still a team very much still coming together under Conseil Sao as a manager.

So winning any game still feels a bit more meaningful for them, or as Inte, you'd expect it.

But Girona have been pretty poor in this group stage, and

so

perhaps still you would have expected a little bit more, especially with Leiao scoring before halftime.

You think they could have gone on and put that to bed a bit more comfortably than they did.

But in the end, another win puts them in the top eight as well.

And for how

disappointing Milan have been for most of this stage in Serie Are, they have not played particularly well in Serie A, the fact that they are on track right now to avoid a playoff is pretty surprising.

Yeah, I mean, Lautaro's finish is kind of unstoppable, isn't it?

It's strange because

you think that, you know, obviously keepers can get beaten at their near post, but I just think...

And I think there's a lot of luck in that.

It's a great hit.

But I don't know.

I felt there is nothing any keeper could do with that fit.

It was just a bizarre, it was a bizarre goal in a way.

It was a beautiful cross, but Latour does amazingly well to get that in somehow.

Nikki Milan, close to signing Kyle Walker, apparently.

Is that a good fit for Kyle Walker?

Is that good for Milan?

What do you think?

Certainly a position that they need some help at.

Fullback, I think that's been a problem for them.

I think we could say that the Emerson Royal signing has not worked out particularly great for them.

And I mean, even on the other side.

Who would have thought it?

Yes, yes even on the other side Teo Hernandez has had a very odd hot and cold season didn't seem like he was getting on at all well with with von Seka perhaps looking a little bit brighter now but yeah they've needed some some help at fullback so that makes more sense to me than the the rash of possibility that was also being floated around

the

situation is slightly complicated for Italian clubs with English players signing on British players now because

not in the EU anymore means that Italian clubs clubs have limits on the number of non-EU players they can sign.

It's complicated because

effectively there's dispensation to have one extra British player outside of your non-EU contingent.

So you can count one British player as not EU, but British.

And so it's a little bit less easy to keep track of.

But yes.

The short of it is they weren't going to get both of those without offloading.

And so, yes, it looks very much like Walker, which makes far more sense to me in terms of what they need as a squad.

On the plus side, though, at least you got your country back.

Thank you, Barry.

Yeah, we're all delighted.

Real Madrid 5, Salzburg 1.

We don't need to go through every goal, Barry, but Rodrigo, the second, the Bellingham to Rodrigo is just so nice.

I mean, the goals are the only thing I've seen from this game, and the standout moment was the Dude Bellingham backpass into the path of Rodrigo, took out two defenders, and he finished absolutely sublime.

and i may

a few more little flicks like that and i might start revising my opinion that job is the best of the bellinghams yeah but he remains at top of the pecking bellingham pecking order in my head for now yeah it was a brilliant moment just i couldn't work out if he'd slightly mishit the back heel or he intended to put that little bit of sort of drift on it so it went straight into rodrigo's path maybe these guys are so good that we should we should trust them bird camp dennis birdkamp was having some dinner for in his honor, and he was talking about he'd meant the Newcastle goal.

And I was like, Well,

I can't step up again and go,

Ricardo Fullers is better.

Well,

it's the same like the Latoro Martinez goal for inter.

If anyone else did it, you go, Oh, that was a bit lucky.

But when it's him, you go, Yeah, he meant that.

Yeah, sure.

I did think as well the Mads bid struck volley for

Salt.

Yeah, yeah, which is a great hit.

All I could think was that is really helping his after-dinner work, you know, in Austria and Denmark in about 25 years' time.

Shaktar beat Brest 2-0.

This, Jonathan, is a huge result for Shaktar, isn't it?

They have a very slim hope of getting through, but still a brilliant win.

Yeah, and it also sets up a good final game between Brest and Real Madrid.

I think that's going to be one of the key ones, maybe

of the final.

Meaning, neither team is going to get

knocked out of the

whole competition.

But in terms of the permutations for the playoffs and just the simple fact that breast are above real madrid in any kind of league table um is is unbelievable really to be honest uh the season that they've had to breastois there was a great result obviously but um the funny thing about the real madrid game if i could just mention it is anchilotti after the match came out and said it would be fine it would be good if manchester city get knocked out which i found quite uh undiplomatic you know usually managers are sort of you know play everything down don't say anything too controversial but he he did come out afterwards and say no it'd be pretty good if they get knocked out because obviously they're going to be a candidate to win the competition.

So I found that quite an interesting little post-match tidbit from

that game, the realm of your game, because you don't usually get managers sort of saying that kind of thing.

You're right, and it's so obvious.

They're all thinking it.

Like, there's not a manager in that competition who's not thinking it.

But, you know, well done, Carlo.

I mean, it's interesting, isn't it?

That, you know, like you say, Celtics Prize could be playing Barcelona.

Some team that finishes, you know, just out of the top eight may get Man City.

And that would be, they'd be like, well would you not want them though well I mean that's a good question that is a good question I'd relish playing Man City at the moment they're terrible yeah like to be sporting 2-1 you watch this Jonathan I said it's interesting that Sesco and Yokores both scored and there's so many rumours about either of these players

you know moving to the Premier League do Could you see either of them going?

In my sense, Yokores is like a cut above Sesco, but that might be unfair.

Yeah, it did seem like the game did sort of end up panning out into a kind of transfer room and mill showdown between the two forwards.

Jokeriz didn't actually start the game.

Sporting went with Conrad Harder, a young Danish player, but they had to bring him on because they were sort of struggling.

And he came on and took his goal fantastically well, to be honest.

He sort of receives it, goes down on his left foot and smashes it home.

Sesco got an early strike.

I'm not massively convinced by Sesco, but I think he does have some talent, some ability.

Got a rocket of a shot as well.

You know, he is a forward with potential, but I think that I think Yokarez is going to be the main one, maybe, but I think it's looking like it'll be the summer for either of them, to be honest.

It was a strange game, really.

Sporting seemed to have sort of changed formation post-Amerim, and they looked okay in parts.

Players like Quenda, I thought, look quite promising, but neither team was really amazing.

Neither team really, really grabbed this game by the scruff of the neck, to be honest.

And obviously it leaves Sporting just about in 23rd place, hanging in there, looking like they will just about make the playoff, but it's going to depend on the last game.

Whereas Leipzig have had a really poor campaign, and I'm quite surprised

how bad they've been this season, to be honest, in terms of

one win in the entire competition so far, which Leipzig usually known as a team with a lot of talent,

just not working for them this season in Champions League anyway.

They've been pretty disappointing.

Shout out to Josef Paulson as well, who scored the winner in that game.

He's one of those players, you kind of forget they play club football.

You just think they just get taken out of mothballs every time Denmark qualify for a Euros or a World Cup.

On Paulson, by the way, there was a brilliant part towards the end of the game where there was a ball played in and he was clearly off, he chases it and he's clearly offside.

But because he's trying to run the clock down,

he just slows down walking towards the ball.

It's like the 89th minute.

And obviously, you know in those situations, the linesman's waiting for the player to get on the ball before they flag.

But

he just slows down and he's just walking towards it.

No one can do anything while he's just walking towards the ball.

And as soon as he touches it, the lines will put his flag up.

It was a brilliant bit of time wasting.

He could have walked up to it and then just walked past it, couldn't he?

And then

he's not interfering.

You mentioned Amrium there.

Obviously, he's moved from sporting to Manchester United.

They play Rangers tonight in the Europa League.

He says he shouldn't have said that this was the worst Manchester United team ever.

Meanwhile, Dr.

Tottenham goes to Hoffenheim, but they've lost another 25 players to injury.

Sam says, hi, Max.

I was in Melbourne airport this week and I saw Andy's book placed amongst the true crime section.

Have the locals begun to turn on him?

Anyway, fortunately for you lot, there's no pod tomorrow.

So we can't do another entirely Man United Spurs-based pod.

Unless, of course, they have ridiculous results in the Premier League this weekend.

And there's every chance of that.

Dr.

Tottenham is making a house call to Leicester at the weekend, I think, is nice.

Well, I think it's no.

Invite Lester in for an appointment.

All right.

But look, we'll do a Premier League preview in just a second.

HiPod 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 is 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.

Yeah, it's their most portable paper tablet yet.

It holds all all your notes to-dos and documents but it's smaller than a paperback and an incredible 0.26 inches thin so it slips easily into a bag or jacket pocket perfect for working professionals whose jobs take them out of the office like maybe a football journalist barry although not like you

a proper football journalist man exactly too much technology draws us in and shuts the world out this paper tablet doesn't it'll never beat or buzz to try and grab your attention so you can devote your focus to what or who is in front of you it has a display that looks feels, and even sounds like paper.

Think and work like a writer, not a texter.

And the battery performance is amazing.

No worries about running out of power before the end of extra time.

The Remarkable Paper Pro Move can keep going for up to two weeks.

And if you do need to recharge, you can go from naught to 90% in less than 45 minutes, Barry.

Fantastic.

Why not give it a go for nothing?

You can try Remarkable Paper Pro Move for a hundred days for free.

If it's not what you're looking for, get your money back.

Visit remarkable.com to learn more and get your paper tablet today.

Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly.

So Premier League preview.

Should we start with Bournemouth Nottingham Forest?

Is this a title decider, Nikki?

What is this game?

Title decider might be stretching it a tiny bit given that Forest can't go ahead of Liverpool even if they win.

But it's certainly every Nottingham Forest game is an intriguing game now isn't it I think we've got to that point of the season where we're we're all fair

they're well beyond a point where you can dismiss what they're achieving but we're all fairly invested in seeing quite how far it can go and where they can finish up so it's definitely a um it's definitely a

a fun one to start the weekend with i think it's always well it's not actually starting the weekend is it's it's the same time as with other ones i was thinking it's the early kickoff and i got them wrong there's no early kickoff and that is devastating it's devastating news for people who happen to host radio shows from 9 till 11 on a Saturday morning unless there's no 12.30 kickoff and then it's 10 till 1.

Let's say it's a blow by the whoever sorts the fixture list.

But it is and it's

Bournemouth haven't lost a lot of games have they?

They haven't lost since November.

Yeah, not an easy one.

And, you know, we expect Barry Bournemouth will have the ball and Forrest won't.

And so

it is totally intriguing, I think.

It could be a really fun, entertaining game because Bournemouth's thing is their organised chaos, I think they call it.

And that involves getting loads of players up the pitch, trying to win the ball high up the pitch.

And that, I think, will kind of play into Forrest's hands a bit.

So, yeah, I'm expecting a really good game, and I have no idea which way it'll go.

I also don't know how Bournemouth are fixed injury-wise.

Will they have any players back?

But as as we know, they were missing 10 or 11 players last weekend.

Didn't bother them against Newcastle one bit.

And interestingly,

Jonathan,

maybe this is looking too far ahead with Forrest, but they're interested in Matthias Kunha.

They're interested in Johan Wisser.

Whether they're likely to do a Leicester from here, you know, have a great season, maybe not win the league, but, you know, have a great season and then sort of peter out a bit.

Or become a bit more, I don't know, Newcastle-y and be knocking at the European door every year.

I don't know what you'd think.

My gut instinct to what you've just said there is that they're, I think Forrest are here to stay.

But I think that is also too early to say and maybe a bit silly, really, knowing the Premier League and how it can pan out.

They are very well organised in what they're doing at the moment.

You know, you look at the transfers.

I even think just being in the conversation for Matthias Cunha

is a strong move.

You know, apparently they're willing to smash the transfer record, you know, the record payment for him,

you know, whereas he's linked strongly with Arsenal as well.

And I think if he had a choice, he'd probably end up at Arsenal.

But

even just the fact that they're in a conversation for him where other teams aren't, I think is a strong look.

You know, they've just tied down a couple of players to new contracts as well.

And

don't forget, they're also just pinched Arsenal's sporting director.

Edu is going to be joining them, and they're looking for this whole multi-club ownership model.

That's what apparently is what attracted Edu.

You know, this idea of building a multi-club model around Forest.

So, yeah, I think that this is maybe not going to be a flash in the pan necessarily.

The big challenge is going to be where do they finish this season?

Of course, if they do get into Europe and it's looking like maybe they will.

But I still think towards the end of the season, the consistency is going to be the question.

Can they really hold it together in those last games?

But if they were to hold it together and get into Europe, probably a good chance they keep a lot of the players.

You know, the likes of Hudson Adoy, Olaena, I think, is an interesting one because he's out of contract in the summer.

Can they sort of, have they got the clout to keep him?

Or is he going to look for something else?

I think those decisions are sort of going to determine where about, you know, where about if Forrester, the real deal sort of thing.

But the other part of the reason for saying that is because I don't get the sense that Nuno is going to sort of disappear anywhere having the experiences he's had with Spurs.

You know, whereas if you look at Bournemouth Iraola, the next big job is probably going to be

he's going to be looked at, isn't he, for the next sort of big Premier League job?

They've been talking about him with Spurs this week, haven't they?

Or when I say they, I basically mean Fabrizio Romano did some tweeting about it, which caused a stir, which is how these things happen sometimes.

But yeah,

that's been linked.

I said it two weeks ago.

You need a catchphrase, Faz, like, here we go.

You need your own here we go to get.

Yeah, I think the catchphrase, the catchphrase with every piece of transfer gossip you tweet, which is, I don't care.

I don't think it has the same buzz.

I'm not sure, Mary.

Since you're here, Nicky, let's do Arsenal.

They go to Wolves.

And as you speak for all Arsenal fans, we know that.

Where do you see Arsenal in the title right?

I mean, we need Arsenal to be in the title race because we need someone else to be in it.

You've picked the moment to come to me just as my dog has started woofing at the hammering next door so I'm sorry if that carries on what I'm trying to tell.

No, that's fine.

No, no, but any noise is good content.

How am I feeling about the title race?

I don't know.

I think I feel pretty unconvinced that anyone other than Liverpool is going to win this this season.

Sorry to the Forest fans as well but the way Liverpool are playing it seems very very likely that they're going to be able to see that through and throwing away the points against Feather again at the weekend for Arsenal doesn't make a very compelling case that they have it in them to challenge.

But I almost feel like that's been part of the problem for Arsenal, if I'm being totally honest.

I feel like

there's so much to go into, obviously, with the injuries, losing Saka and Odegaard for significant chunks of the season just is going to have an impact.

There's no way around it.

There's things that go beyond that, and you could talk about the tactics.

But I do feel like because Arsenal got so close last season, there has been this feeling right from the start of have to keep that going.

And then when Liverpool is doing as well, it feels like people were asking this question of, Oh, can Arsenal keep up?

Are they going to drop points?

Can they catch up to Liverpool almost way too soon?

And when I look at it's such a cliche, such a trope of managers to go, Oh, we're not looking at the league title, we're just playing for the next game, playing for the next game.

But I do think Arsenal stopped playing for the next game.

I think Arsenal stopped focusing on what the immediate job was in front of them and let themselves get too into their own heads about, are we keeping up?

Are we still doing?

Because in the end, the team is still very good, still producing very solid performances.

A lot of these games, they aren't winning.

You look at the expected goals afterwards and go, well, okay, if they just had a better striker.

And it's true, if they had a better number nine, I think the situation would look different.

But

some of that is just

good players not holding their nerve in certain key moments and finishing those chances.

Players who could finish those chances, even though they aren't Victor Ossiman or whoever else, I think they could have up front.

And I think that some of that is allowing themselves to get into this narrative that the media have got into about, oh, well, you've got to win this week or you'll never catch Liverpool.

You'll never catch Liverpool.

When really the healthier thing to do in always in these situations is

in a long league season, just focus on winning your game and see where you are at the end of it.

And I think that's sometimes been lost.

Take each game as it comes, is what you're saying.

It's a cliche, but it's true.

Spurs play Leicester, Fuller play Man United.

Huge games for those clubs.

Can they just both win 1-0 and be last in the running order on Monday?

That's all we ask for.

As a Manchester United fan,

Jonathan, it seemed like you just ducked out of the Zoom call just to just in case I spotted you and just think you weren't there anymore.

How are you feeling?

Is this the worst Man United ever?

Do you fear Fulham away?

And all those questions.

I said it previously.

It's starting to give me Leeds vibes 2002.

I think United, I mean...

I don't think anyone really wants to get into this.

How many times have we spoken about United?

But I think the situation is way worse than people realize.

There seems to be no money.

They're now selling the sort of the crown jewels in that sense, the key assets, players like Garnacho looking like they're going to leave because nobody else wants any of the sort of remaining 18 players that they actually want to get rid of that need to be sold.

So yeah, I think it's, I might be being dramatic, but I do think it's a really like

terrible situation the club's in.

I think and and I think the problem for United at the moment is they're caught between this idea that, I mean, I've seen people on Twitter saying Garnacho is not good enough for United and where they want to be and things like that.

And

where are United?

United are sort of

lower mid-table at the moment.

So it's not as if they're challenging for anything that Garnacho isn't good enough for currently.

I don't get

there's a real sort of discrepancy between what United are literally and what people think they are.

And I think that that gap affects how decisions are made in terms of transfers and things like that.

So

in terms of who the players they can can attract, I mean, I saw someone saying that they linked to Mbuemo, but

why would Mbuemo want to go to United at this moment in time?

Why would any sort of upcoming player want to go to United?

So, I really think that they're, unless it's just literally cost-cutting and Jim Ratcliffe is just trying to get rid of, it's cost-cutting for the sake of it, I do worry that the finance situation of 11 years of terrible spending has caught up to them and it's now going to maybe potentially result in them having to sell players they don't want to.

And that only that ends up in a spiral that really is dangerous for the club.

And I think, yeah, I look at it in quite a pessimistic way, maybe, but I really think they're in worse trouble than they

realise.

Meanwhile, Barry, Man City played Chelsea in a game where I fully predict and hope you say I can't call this one.

I think Chelsea have beat them, if I'm honest.

City, there were slight signs of a recovery, but

recently until last night, obviously.

But they've got some real tough run of games coming up.

This being the first or the second of them, Chelsea at home, Club Bruges, Arsenal away, then they've late Norient in the Cup.

Would you rule out Leighton Orient beating them at the minute?

Uh, they're at home for that one, uh, the Orient or the Olds.

Uh, Newcastle, Liverpool, Dr.

Tottenham, and Forest.

So, that's a tough, tough run of games for a city, and

we'll know what they're all about by the time that ends.

But I would fancy Chelsea to beat them quite comfortably, I'd say.

Elsewhere Norway are on the verge of abolishing VAR from their domestic league after clubs in the country's top two divisions formally recommended that it should be discontinued.

It's interesting this Jonathan because whenever you mention it you know whenever it's mentioned regards the Premier League everyone says well you know you can't put it back in the box and yet in Norway you can put it back in the box.

Yeah it's it's the decision still needs to be ratified so it's not not official yet I think it still needs to pass one or two more rounds of approval but it's looking potentially like it will happen.

In Norway, it's a bit of a unique situation.

Well, because,

well, it's not unique because the fans hate it, but it's also they've got Sweden next door where Sweden doesn't have VAR.

And so I think that also maybe colours the discussion a little bit in the sense that

there's a feeling like, well, if Sweden don't need it, why do we need it?

We can kind of get away with that not having it.

I think the biggest problem, I mean, Norwegian fans have been complaining about it since it started.

One of the biggest problems around it is just the simple lack of communication around goals and decisions and what happens and I think that's it's harder to implement.

You know the Premier League has a lot of money to sort of have a lot of people involved and you know there's obviously now with decisions to sort of start communicating decisions with the referee on field and things like that.

In Norway there's not A that

real need and necessity for it and urgency and B the finances and funds to really implement that and There's just no desire for it really.

So I think the fans have been extremely vocal.

There's been protests.

There was a game stocked last season with fans throwing tennis balls onto the pitch to protest against it.

There's been numerous protests against VAR from the fans and Norway's a real kind of match going,

you know, fan-led culture in terms of its football culture.

So I'm involved in a podcast that covers Scandinavian football.

And

I lived in Sweden and I love Swedish football.

And I don't think you really miss much without VAR, to be honest.

There's the odd decision that is terrible as usual.

But I think the fact that Sweden doesn't have a VAR is the real thing that drives it in Scandinavia in that sense.

It's not really missed in Sweden, that you don't really get calls for it.

And yeah, I think it's

waiting to see really in terms of Norway.

But the fans, it's clear that there's a real antipathy towards it.

Well, it sounds good to me.

I think I've gone full circle.

No, I don't think I've ever totally loved VAR.

I was indifferent for a long time, but it sounds great to

get rid of it.

Matthew says, to Detective Glenn Denning and his personal Watson, see the attached photo, courtesy of mid-journey, of what I hope is a realistic version of what we all imagine when we think about Scott Parker serving as wing commander in the RAF in 1943.

Strong show today, aside from Barry's ridiculous John Duran head-turned bit where he couldn't land the punchline.

Still waiting for the LA live show, he says.

Kind regards Matt in the aforementioned Los Angeles.

It doesn't look like Scott Parker.

That's the only issue with that with that

picture.

But no, I mean, it certainly looks like a...

Yeah, it's a raffish military man with a wax moustache, which is what I...

Who looks nothing like Scott Parker?

It looks like it could be from SAS Rogue Heroes, which is a drama on BBC, which I've hugely enjoyed.

Or maybe Memphis Belle.

Oh, what a movie that was.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Which is probably how somehow Cole Palmer got his celebration.

Anyway, as producer Joel says, a good example of AI not taking our jobs anytime soon.

But let's not get complacent, everybody.

All right, that'll do for today.

Thanks, everybody.

Thank you, Jonathan.

Thanks, Max.

Thanks, Nikki.

Thanks.

Thanks, Baz.

Thank you.

Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Phil Maynard.

This is The Guardian.