Manchester City trip up again as Arsenal shine at Sporting: Football Weekly

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Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly.

This must be nostalgic for Manchester City fans.

The older generation is telling their kids this is what it used to be like all the time, not just for a month, cruising at 3-0 up with 15 minutes to go.

At least they waited for everyone to turn over before capitulating against Fire and Order.

Different story in Lisbon, where Arsenal dismantled the Amarinla Sporting.

Could PSG finish outside the top 16?

Another defeat this time in Munich.

Meanwhile, there's five goals for Levikusen and six for a De Quetelera-inspired Atalanta on a night when all the Italian sides won.

And easy nights for Atleti and Barca.

Also, today, Mo Sala stops in the mix zone.

Shock.

West Ham win at Newcastle, also a shock.

Injury time drama between Hibbs and Aberdeen.

And might Barry be cast in Lost in Translation 2?

All that, plus your questions.

And that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, Barry Glendenning, welcome.

Hello.

Hello, Nikki Bandini.

Morning.

And hello, Archie Rin Tutt.

Baz's startled expression there about the Lost in Translation

is beautiful.

Yeah,

it's neither big nor serious, but it's nice.

And we'll get to that at the end.

Matt says, do Manchester City have a 14-day cooling off period for Pep's new contract?

Rich says, are we at the city have to stop playing the ball out from the back?

They need to realise what a tough league this is in compromise stage.

So, yeah, Man City 3 Fire Nord 3.

Man City 3-0 up in the 74th minute before conceding 3.

Here are some stats on that.

Pep has never managed a team that's lost a three-goal lead before.

City became the third English side ever to fail to win a Champions League game in which they had a three-goal lead after Arsenal Andalect in 2014 and Liverpool Sevilla in 2017.

The first team ever in Champions League history to be leading a match by three goals as late as the 75th minute and failed to go on and win.

City have now conceded two or more goals in six successive matches in all competitions for the first time since May 1963.

Barry, you bravely nominated to watch this game when there were perhaps more tempting prospects on offer.

What a choice.

What vision, Barry?

Yeah.

In my traditional role as a

pod martyr, I said, I'll just take whatever anyone else doesn't want.

And this was the one people didn't want.

And it turned out to be really, really good and quite funny towards the end.

City were in total control

against

what looked like quite limited opposition.

Fine order, only fourth in the Dutch top flight going into this game.

And we're 3-0 down after 75 minutes when

Harlan slid home City's third goal,

connecting with a cross from Mattheus Nunes.

The TNT commentator said what the rest of us were all thinking, and his quote was: And Fire Nord are well and truly beaten now.

So, you know,

I don't want to hang him or anything.

As I say, it's what we all thought.

He's going, 15 minutes left.

This is it.

You know, at least they've got a confidence-boosting win ahead of this trip to Anfield on Sunday.

But no,

Feynard came back,

capitalised on

another Josco Gardiol mistake to pull a goal back.

And you're going, yeah, well, you know, that can happen.

You're a bit worried about Josko Gardiol because he was responsible for two goals.

coughing up two goals against Spurs at the weekend and we we saw the roasting he got from Ben Doak when Croatia lost against Scotland during the international break.

And then

he was responsible, I think, as well for giving the ball away for the second goal.

And Ederson didn't help him out either, letting a pretty weak cross get between him and the post.

So Santiago Jimenez could chess the ball home.

And then the third goal was

Ederson came to get a ball from deep, didn't get it, and

brilliant cross from from Igor Paiso or Paxio to the far post and David Hanko headed home

city almost spared their own blushes towards the end when Jack Grealish hit the post but it was a total capitulation and it was so bad that I would argue it's almost worse than the defeats they've suffered recently.

And then Pep Guardiola appeared for his post-match interviews and his head was covered in scratches and his nose.

There was a cut cut on his nose, so I'm not sure what happened there.

Apparently, he did it himself, so he might need to think about cutting his nails.

So

I'm not going to say City are fully in crisis, but I think they will be if they lose against Liverpool at the weekend.

They don't often travel anywhere in fear, but I'd say their fans and possibly some of their players are worried that they could get absolutely battered at Anfield on Sunday.

If they win, all will be rosy in the garden again, But if they lose or get battered, then yeah, very much full-on crisis.

And now, six games without a win, five defeats and a draw.

But I think it's important to remember the three games before this bad run started,

they should have lost against Fulham and they

scraped wins against Wolves and Southampton.

So it's been going on for nine games now, this slump.

Yeah, I think Barry's right, Nikki.

This does feel worse because it was at the stage where i was like okay well this is done i've got other games to watch and it wasn't until someone in the whatsapp group said something i was like what what are you talking about i was like that can't have happened i flicked back it was 3-3 it's ludicrous yeah and i think everyone was doing that a bit last night last night was starting to feel like i would say across the board one of those slightly low drama champions league nights there were a lot of games that were blowouts there wasn't that many games that were feeling like they were they were really tight and this one sprung up out of nowhere and i i think it's it's a double whammy, isn't it?

Because one thing is the way it happened, which is obviously disastrous being three in the lap and then blowing it.

The other thing is, I just think that after five losses in a row, it's just kind of the game that was circled on the calendar of okay, but they'll win that one, they're going to win that one, and that'll fix things.

And they almost really needed to because it's Bastard.

The next game after that is Liverpool.

So, if you can't fix it here, where do you fix it?

And just to come back to Guardiola's post-game press appearance,

you don't want to speculate too much because obviously it's stuff we don't know, but it is really extreme to come out and have that pressure on your head and you're scratching your nose.

And he said he just cut himself on his nose.

But it just makes you think, what level of tension are you at that you're doing that?

And is that then transmitting to your team?

There's no calm here.

There's no calm at all if your manager's getting to that point.

You think about how much fun winning's meant to to be, and you think about the amount of winning that Pep Guardiola has done.

And then, when you see somebody who has done all of that, and the stress that is caused to him by not doing that, you think, mid-table is more fun, after all.

Because you don't put yourself under that pressure.

And I believe Pep Guardiola as well, that that is self-caused.

And given everything we know and hear about the intensity of this guy,

it's not that surprising to see it take a literal physical toll.

I just want to stress,

I think I phrased that really poorly.

It didn't want to make it sound like I doubted that you self-cause it's actually exactly that you self-caused it that bothers me.

Like, I think that's, that seems like you're, if you're at that level of tension, that's that's a bit of a scary level of tension.

There is that.

Having stood before Pep Guardiola in an interview before,

I can tell you that that comes across and

your heart does

skip a beat sometimes when you're thinking, okay,

what am I going to deal with here in terms of a reaction?

To City themselves,

I was just looking through their results this season and furthering what Barry was saying.

They've only really beaten one big team and that's Chelsea on the opening weekend.

They've drawn...

They've drawn with Arsenal.

They drew with Inter, Newcastle lost to Brighton.

I'm including Newcastle and Brighton in big teams there, so as to avoid offence.

Losing to Spurs twice as well.

And

yeah,

this has been coming.

And

YouTube comments can be pretty uncharitable at the best of times, but seeing somebody chirp that San Marino have won more games in November than Manchester City

really brought it home as to how bad things are for them.

Yeah.

I mean, I thought, I think, and people have touched on this this and we've touched on it already, but it seemed like, I know Guardio likes a small squad, Baz, but,

you know, they didn't replace Alvarez, right?

Who scored a couple of, you know, for athletic.

And like, even though nobody noticed him last season, he played more minutes than anyone else for City.

You know,

their squad

seems so ridiculous to go, it seems to thread.

You know, I thought they'd win the league as normal.

They still might.

But it does seem just...

That is interesting, the squad thing.

And the other thing is just what confidence does to footballers, even the best ones, right?

That is just the psychology of it.

It's so fascinating.

Yeah, well, Josko Garliol is a fine young player, but you can see he's a bag of nerves at the minute.

He can't do right for doing wrong.

And

you imagine,

you know, do you pick him to play against Liverpool

when he's making all these mistakes?

It's a bit of a gamble.

And if you don't pick him, who do you pick instead?

What?

Put Nathan Ake in it left back, maybe?

Obviously, they're missing Rodri.

Gundigan is not the player he was when he left City.

They're missing Ruben Diaz.

He's a big loss, I think, as well.

I mean, Pep got Pelters last.

Well, not Pelters, but he got some criticism for making three changes just before the 70-minute mark.

You know, brought on James McAtee, Kevin De Bruyne, and Simpson Pusey and took off Ford and Gundigan and Ake.

But, you know, they should be able to close the game out.

They're good players as well.

They are suffering from injuries and confidence has bottomed out and will get worse with each bad result.

And

I'd say Liverpool are rubbing their hands together now at the prospect of welcoming them to Anfield on Sunday.

And actually, Nikki,

they're not in the top eight.

They're 15th, right?

They've got Juve away and PSG away.

We'll get to PSG, who aren't great either, and Bruges at home.

But, like, they could lose the first two of those.

I mean, they could lose to Bruges for all we know.

Like, that PSG game could be enormous.

Like, for them to, even to not get in the top eight is a huge story, but could even fall out of the whole thing.

I think it's pretty unlikely with eight points they drop out of the whole thing.

I think, actually, they probably have enough points already not to drop out the whole thing.

But having said that, you just mentioned PSG, and I guess we're going to get to them at some point.

But they lost again this round, and they are currently not even in the top 24.

So for certain that game for PSG is going to start to be a game they have to win.

And the other thing with the 9-24, which bears repeating sometimes, is that is going to be seeded.

So if you end up in the bottom half of that, you play one of the teams from the top half.

So these things have got knock-on impacts for certain.

It does feel a bit like that's almost

down the line of things to worry about for City right now.

The thing to worry about with City right now is, I mean, it's melodramatic to say, will we ever win another football game?

Because of course they will.

But after five losses and a draw, I think from a psychological standpoint, you do start to feel like that a little bit.

When's it going to happen?

When are we going to turn this around?

I mean, of course it's going to happen at some point.

But whether it happened against Liverpool at the weekend, I'm pretty sceptical, at which point it would be seven games there to win.

That's a pretty catastrophic run for a club, not for a...

any other club necessarily, but for a club with city's expectations.

Yeah, that's really, really problem.

Yeah, and actually, Archie, we quite often talk about that that psychology of championship teams who've won week in, week out, coming up to the Premier League and having to get used to not winning every week and sort of maintaining the spirit and all those things.

There will be no one at the club who knows what's going on.

You know, like literally nobody there.

They'll all be, they'll just won't know what they've never experienced.

Pepper looked like Freddie Krueger in the sports match interview at Anfield.

Wow.

It's sometimes you see it when

teams who aren't used to it get into a relegation scrap and their players aren't used to scrapping.

It kind of reminds me of what happened to Leicester when they went down with what was, you know, the likes of James Madison and such, where you were thinking,

These players are more than good enough.

Why are they stuck in a relegation scrap?

So yeah, I agree with you on their having to get used to what is a very unfamiliar challenge.

Just a word on Fire Nords from their perspective.

Wow.

Brian Priske, their coach,

did a really good job at Sparta Prague before.

I was out there covering their game against Rangers, and he was talked to very highly there and had a bit of a difficult start at Fire Nords.

And in the last round, they lost to a Salzburg team that had previously lost to everyone else.

Um, so you're wondering, okay, how much good is there in this Final team?

But to have the resolve to come back and to really sniff out the opportunity where everyone has written them off, probably before the game, even as well, apart from Barry and the WhatsApp group, then it's

actually really quite impressive for them to complete this turnaround.

And I think it adds a little bit more credit to his reputation.

Yeah, and actually, if you're one of those Finnard fans that equalize with so where you are in the stadium and the fact that it's not one that just sort of comes out of nothing there's like he's going to get it past edison he's got it he's still got across it like peshaw wasn't it and you're just thinking there are so many moments like the build-up of this is happening this is happening then it happens absolutely brilliant i also i did like the drop yeah the um there's a you talked about the press conference i don't often watch them god Can't the journalists ask shorter questions?

You know, and maybe I'd ask very long questions.

But crack it, like there's this one guy, and there's an amazing guy called Boris who just went, any positives, Pep?

I mean, it was a longer question, but I was like, I don't think this is the time.

I did text one of my oldest friends is a Man City fan called Matt Wilson, who I messaged

glowingly after the Spurs game.

I just said, this must be nostalgic for you.

He did say back in the day, he would have dreamed of chucking away leads in the Champions League.

So, like, it is true.

You know,

they've progressed since the Brian Horton years.

Let's go to Sporting Arsenal, 5-1 win for Arsenal.

I suppose Sporting might be feeling a bit sad in a post-Amarim world, but they've got a 100% record in Primera Division.

They were unbeaten in the Champions League going into this game, and Nikki Arsenal blew sporting away in that first half.

Yeah, it felt like there was one of those almost like disconnects between

the feeling of the atmosphere and the fans and being up for this big occasion and things that definitely shouldn't have gone on, like fireworks going on over David Ryer's head, and then even the response and how loud it got when they pulled it back from 3-0 to 3-1 at the second half.

It felt like everyone sporting around the club was so up for this.

And then on the pitch, the team just wasn't ready for what was coming at them at all.

I think that

it was real,

really, really good performance from Arsenal and real reminder of quite what a difference Martin Odegaard makes in the team, which we've been getting to come back.

But the connections between him and

Saka and Timber down that right-hand side were just

really, really nice to watch.

They were really beautiful football.

And I think you could see how Sporting were trying to keep a particular eye on Odegaard.

And I think it was Marita kept going over to him and trying to follow him.

But the spaces that created for the other two, and in particular,

Timber at times, Arsenal, when everyone's there and it's all clicking, they know how to exploit that.

Yeah, totally.

And actually, Nikki, when...

You know, when you look at the city game and, you know, Final Pullman back in City Collapse, when Sporting scored that goal, you did think for maybe five ten minutes something could happen here and they were really good after that yeah sporting had chances in the second half sporting definitely had had a few i think it was noteworthy how little of the best of it went through yukarish after how much we've been talking about him recently what a talented footballer he is i think gabriel really did a fantastic job on him and of course did his celebration after scoring in the first half as well and um And I don't know, I was reading one article this morning saying maybe that was a call back to 2023 when, oh, I can't think whether it was, one of the sporting players did the Grenade Shaka celebration after knocking Arsenal out and whether it was that much of a callback or

if it was just an on-the-night moment from Gabrielle.

I don't know.

Footballers can be quite petty, so I think it's possible it really was a callback.

But yeah, I thought Gabrielle really did a great job on him all night, and it was notable that the one time he nearly did score Gikaraj was after Gabrielle goes off and he's got Kivior in in front of him instead.

So

excellent defending from Arsenal, which hasn't always been there this season.

We know they're capable of it,

as well as just some brilliant football going forward.

Martin Odegaard, it's an odd thing to say.

And I always think this so-and-so is underrated conversation is overdone and done with so many players.

But I did feel like when he went out, there was this great response of, well, they should be able to deal with it, which is always a thing you can say.

You should always expect the best teams to have depth and deal with things.

But at the same time, the very best players in the world are hard to replace.

And I think we maybe don't necessarily recognise them in that bracket when we could.

I think what you say there about Odegaard, I'd extend it to the fact that every team has a talisman.

And I think we sometimes get caught in conversations of, are they a one-man team?

And it's like, it's just a reality of top-level teams in football that they tend to have people who they look to more than others.

if you, if you look at Real Madrid, now they maybe have one too many.

You can see the balance of it, that it is important, and that's how top football clubs structure themselves.

I think for Arsenal,

this was a big result in terms of silencing some critics when it came to their away form.

You look at what's happened at Inter and Newcastle and Bournemouth, and even the draw at Chelsea to an extent, for them to go get such an emphatic win at a place where Manchester City were thrashed themselves last time is also quite a statement.

So, yeah, I think from an Arsenal point of view, also, and there's been this criticism over the style of play.

Some of the goals they were scoring last night were

really beautiful.

So yeah.

Worth pointing out that we did survive Monday's pod without our talisman, but boy, Barry, didn't

good that you're here.

I listened just to confirm that I am indeed indeed replaceable

and

i thought you did a fine job in my absence yeah it's like it's like rodvy well i can't see what he does but actually what does he do i've no idea but it turns out yeah i thought the way oddegaard and his balance and his move to win that penalty was was so good i mean you'll be pleased to know nikki that um normally we get you on on a wednesday or a thursday and we've been yelled at by loads of arsenal fans but we haven't this time because they were brilliant against forest but as you know as you speak on behalf of all arsenal fans now, those two results.

Yeah, you do.

Those two results, they seem to change it.

And actually, I think of all the people, you bring perspective to all these.

You are allowed to invite me on other days, by the way.

I'm willing to come on other days as well if you'd like.

No, no.

But like, it is true that those two results make such a difference, make it the whole place feel different, don't they?

Of course, of course.

And I think it sort of needs to be said in the context of that city game we were just talking about.

There's so many different contexts, right?

The Champions League is one thing.

Obviously, it's great for arsenal they've gone into the top eight right now when you look at the the premier league table yes liverpool are pulling away but city is still ahead of arsenal in the premier league table and i don't think any of those teams including city we've just been talking negatively about are incapable of changing that because there's still two-thirds of the season left and i think the fact that we've gone through this

these extremes of ups and downs already is is a reminder that none of the clubs in the world are immune to that and there's a lot of football left to be played.

Yeah, just to say, we'll talk about Mo Salah and the mixed zone and his contract after the uh on the pod tomorrow, uh, after Liverpool play Real Madrid.

Um, but that'll do for part one, part two, we'll begin with Bayern's victory over PSG.

Hi, pod fans of America.

Max here, Barry's here, too.

Hello.

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Remarkable, a brand name and an adjective, man.

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

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A proper football journalist, man.

Exactly.

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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

So buy on one PSG.

Archie, you had this on the main screen.

Was it worth it?

It was.

It was.

It was.

Look, it was not as an entertaining game as Barry got.

Bit jealous.

But no,

in all honesty, given where Bayern have been at,

which is dominating in the Bundesliga, and it doesn't look like anyone's going to lay a glove on them to the point that honorary president Ulli Hernes was saying, one thing I can promise is the title.

And Vincent Company was like, Oh, thanks, mate.

Really appreciate that.

And Harry Kane as well.

Harry Kane going, oh, please don't say that, mate.

So you have that, but the problem has been is that in the biggest games, they've not really chalked up enough wins.

And particularly in the Champions League against Barcelona, coming out on the losing side against Aston Villa as well.

So for them to get the win and to continue to show the intensity and energy that they they have under Vince and Company was a positive.

That said,

PSG did have their moments, but the thing is, is that such is the way that buy and play, they force you to

fit into such fine margins when it comes to the chances that they'll give you, that they come at such speed that you have to be so on it to take them,

which is a credit.

PSG did have a few good moments, except when Usman Dembele picked up his second yellow card and was sent off with around half an hour to go.

That.

Bit unlucky.

I'm a silly challenge, but unlucky.

A little bit, but

it's quite rash, I'd say.

And

you can understand where Isvan Korvac, the referee, was coming from.

But from a Bayern perspective, given there'd been question marks about the defence and Minjay Kim and Deopa Makano working well as a tag team.

And Vince and Company had been saying before this that sometimes defenders and goalkeepers need 10, 15 games to get the credit that forward players get.

And

that

they have really,

in the last few games, I think it is difficult for them to get the credit because the standard of the opposition they face is not as good as PSG.

But overall, I thought they did pretty well last night as well.

And the one question mark I have over Bayern is that for all of this dominance that they have on the ball, do they do enough with it going forward?

And that would be, I would say, my worry for them later in the competition when they're facing sides who are going to be perhaps a little bit more clinical in transition against them.

But for now, big result for Vince and Company and for Bayern to get back on track in the Champions League.

Archie is someone who watches more Harry Kane than most now.

I know where this is going.

Well, how's he going?

I mean, like, he broke another record, didn't he?

And one of his goals, like, he recreated, someone said he's recreated the Bundesliga symbol, like his legs legs are so high or something.

So he's what?

The what was the record that he got?

Third hat-trick of the season already.

I thought it was like

fastest of 50 Bundesliga goals.

Yeah, man.

I kind of lose count of them because there's so many.

Of course.

So it's ludicrous that, you know, or is it ludicrous that there is, you know, England should move on from him, he's a flat track bully, etc., etc.

Someone who's watching him all the time, what do you think?

I had one or two German reporters coming to me being like, what's this debate about Harry Kane in England about him not running enough?

And I understand why they say that,

those in Germany here, because

he does not shirk away from putting in a shift for buying.

No one does.

This is why they are so successful is actually defensively against the ball.

We talk so much about the attacking flair of Jamal Mussiala and Kingsley Comon.

But last night, the way that they hunt the ball down and win it back as a team, and Harry Kane is included in that.

And Harry Kane is picked out by Vince and Company for even when they are a few goals up, how he'll still be hairing down after a ball in their own half.

So it speaks maybe to more of an international structure problem, I think.

And

he's...

Harry Kane has said himself that, look, he doesn't really pay that much attention to the criticism and that he feels like he's in the best form of his life.

And to be fair, that goal you mentioned as well, like before I was thinking, oh, he's just tucked away another two penalties.

Well, you know, we can all do that.

Not everyone can do that.

Where Across comes in, and as you say,

the athletic ballet that he's able to

create there, not many people can do that and then nod the ball in.

And even if Thomas Muller was taking the piss out of him in the celebration, albeit Thomas Muller does that with everyone.

So it's not really it's not really anything special it is something that he has been so clinical in front of gold and actually Jamal Musialla even was doing an impression of him um recently when Jamal Mussiala scored a hat trick against Mainz in the cup he was like oh look I'm doing a Harry Kane here's the match ball ha ha ha um so yeah

if people are taking the mick out of you like that well they know that they know their they know their they know their jokes don't they look as good as the uh the the uh CBS lot

um

Barry how do you feel about

PSG sort of perhaps

the new format and what it does for a PSG capitulation?

Largely indifferent because this is a different PSG, a younger Galactico-free PSG to the one we all love to see crash and burn in previous years.

I'm surprised by how badly they're doing and there is a real danger, which we sort of flagged up three or four matches ago, I think, or maybe three matches ago, that

they could be a high-profile casualty in this early league format.

And that's the way it's going as things stand.

They

still have to play City, as we mentioned,

although that may not be as taxing and ordeal as it once was.

I haven't made a note of who their other two games are.

It's Salzburg and Stuttgartaway, both of whom currently at the moment also in that um non-qualifying section but yeah so they'll they'll be tough games and there is a very good chance they could go out um

but i think if they if that does happen to them um

people will make a much bigger deal of it than it actually is right okay uh let's move on like labakuzen five salzberg nil uh chris has said we reached peak handball madness with that penalty in laborkuzen Kusen that kill me now I mean if you haven't seen it it's it bounces off the player's knee or foot and it just hits his head and hits his elbow I cannot believe that we're in a state where that is a penalty but I'm literally yelling at nothing now not even a cloud it's just an air I'm just middle-aged man yelling at air honestly as soon as I saw as soon as I saw that penalty incident I was like oh Max is gonna love this

Very easy win for Labakus.

Florian Wurtz's second goal.

That's what I want to talk about.

He's got, I don't know if this is fair, Archie, when I say he's got sort of grace and scruffiness at the same time.

Like a sort of Berbatov-Claridge combine.

Where have you plucked Steve Claridge from?

Florian Vert.

He's the ultimate scruffy.

He's the ultimate scruffy footballer.

But I mean, Wertz may be operating at a slightly higher level.

But

I won't hear Steve Carridge criticised, please.

But do you know what I mean?

Like, he's so graceful, but he's also got a kind of it's scruffy at the same time.

I don't see the scruffiness as much as you.

Fine.

I think that he does have this way of maneuvering the ball in tight corridors of space that is really impressive.

And I don't know.

The most Steve Claridge-like thing I can think about him...

And this is an assumption on Steve Claridge's part, is

he's been

mocked a little bit in Germany because of this infamous TikTok

where

you're asked to rank things from one to ten and they're going through different types of potato.

Like, you know, where do you put fries?

Where do you put this?

And he put normal potatoes at number one above everything else.

Yeah, oh, good.

So

it's a good point, actually, isn't it, when you think about it?

Because without the potato, you can't have any of the formats of potato, can you?

I shouldn't have encouraged you on this.

I was like, I'm going to get back to that.

No, no, stupid.

The nonchalance that he has with his skill, I think is one of the things that enables him to be so good.

And he is the undoubted star of this team.

They have been underperforming overall in the Bundesliga, but understandably, I think, after what they achieved last season, and I think part of it has been them trying to get their heads around what exactly they achieved.

And then Similarly to what you're saying with Man City, when things go wrong, they're just not used to it.

Because when they scored first in 26 games last season, they won all 26 of them in the Bundesliga.

So how do you deal with adversity?

They're having to relearn that.

Their big game in the rest of 2024 comes next Tuesday away to Bayern in the DFB Cup, which could turn their season around and put a different slant on it and could also do the same for Bayern.

But yeah, Labour Cool has been struggling with some injuries recently, still don't look quite as good as they were last season.

Granite Jacques has been off form a little bit as well.

But Giabi Alonso is still finding his way, playing three central midfielders, which is something that he didn't really do last season.

Again, last night, but working out very well.

Lovely free kick from Alejandro Grimaldo as well.

He has a lovely left foot Salzberg, who are struggling actually quite a bit in the Austrian Bundesliga.

They're sixth right now, which is un-Salzberg-like.

I know they didn't win the league last season.

Sturm Graatz did.

But still,

yeah, Salzburg don't quite look like the side that maybe you would have thought Pep Linders, Joan Klopp's former assistant, would mold them into.

But I'm basing that mostly off Klopp's reputation rather than actually knowing what kind of a coach he was.

So, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

And Steve Claret, as producer Joel rightly points out, son of a greengrocer.

So he'd pick potatoes.

And that's the

football weekly ultras, we'll know.

He's very good at eating fruit.

I mean, absolutely.

I mean, elite, absolute elite level.

I don't know.

We'll get Florian Vertz to do it for the next live streamed streamed show.

Let's do the Italian teams, Nikki.

Where do you want to start?

Should we start with Milan's winner in Bratislava?

I mean, I loved that dummy from.

I mean, it wasn't a straightforward victory, and everyone else has found beating Sloven Bratislava quite easy, I think.

But that dummy from Tammy Abraham,

was it to set up Liao, that one?

It was so nice.

Yeah, yeah, for the second goal.

Yeah, it was a weird game.

Milan were not good in the first half.

Could have conceded before they scored through Christian Pielisik, then conceded a goal to Barshajian

to

make it one all, which was really a horrible goal to concede because the goal they'd already nearly conceded was very similar on the counter.

They really weren't, didn't look like a team learning lessons.

In the second half, yes,

some fun stuff.

As you said, the Tamiya Pran dummy, Tamiya Pram scored as well.

Liao, who had started on the bench, came off and I think his introduction was just that little injection of quality that put them above Slovan Bratislava.

But it was just not a particularly compelling performance, which is most of what Milan have been this season has been not very compelling performances.

It's so odd because they won the last round away to Real Madrid.

But other than that, they've been mostly not that great this season, but it's a good result.

It's going to keep them on track for, I would say, at least the playoff rounds now, and then that's probably what matters.

Yeah, I mean, actually, the constellation for Bratislava, Marcelli, absolutely

welling

was so good.

I felt a bit sorry for them, they were a bit naive, but I feel this is a game they could and probably should have got something from.

They were defending and then trying to hit Milan on the break.

As Nikki said, they should have gone ahead, but for a brilliant interception by Pavlovich after the keeper had been beaten by Strelic.

And then Strelic, just when it was 2-1 with this kamikaze back pass, he just didn't see Tammy Abraham lurking between him and the goalkeeper.

I'm not sure how he missed him, but you know, it was an early Christmas present for Tammy Abraham.

Couldn't believe his luck.

And then that brilliant left foot shot from Marcelli.

And they're back in the game.

There's a few minutes left.

And

Tolic gets sent off.

He

got penalised for a foul and booked.

And it wasn't a foul.

It was very...

It was a tackle that would have started a break, wouldn't it?

It was like a really...

It was like...

Yes,

it was a brilliant tackle.

And then he got a second yellow for, I think he made a rude gesture or said something to the ref.

So he got a second yellow, and that took any momentum they had out of away from them.

And that was pretty much it.

And our pal Guram Kashaya, their skipper, he got booked after the final whistle for a descent.

But

this was Sloven Bratislava's 13th game in this season's Champions League.

Yeah, so that, you know,

Real Madrid won it, playing 13 games last season, and they still have three left.

Well, I'm not going to criticise referees, but if Guram Kashir thinks he was wrong, I agree with Guram Kashir.

And he's one of those rare, he's a real brandisher, a real, you know, I'm going to sort of like puff my chest out.

And I just thought, you don't need to book him there.

I sort of think there should be an appeal if you show dissent when the decision that you are complaining about is incorrect.

There should be an appeal process because the injustice is just not

fair, isn't it?

Meanwhile, Nikki, Atalanta won 6-1 at Young Boys.

De Catalera was so good in this game.

What?

Set up two, set up three, scored two.

But as Abby writes, is Kalasinach the number nine Arsenal fans have been crying out for?

This is the moment where side Kalasinach is suddenly through one-on-one.

You're like, what's going on?

And then he just finished it, you know, like he was Lewandowski.

Can I say as well?

I was pre-watching some of the goals this morning just on the YouTube clips and I

maybe I missed it.

I need to go back.

I'm pretty sure this goal is just flat missed off the TNT highlights clip on YouTube.

I don't know if that's the anti-class natch propaganda in effect or if it's

just that there's literally too many goals as Atlanta team are scoring now and they physically can't fit them all into a video.

Yeah, a class natch with the third goal.

The whole team is just, they're so good, Max.

They're so, so good.

I really am excited to see where this run goes this season because they're playing such good football at the moment.

And you mentioned De Catalara who has

transformed under Gasfarini.

Of course, he had that miserable season at Milan where he just couldn't seem to fit at all and you just needed a a manager who was a bit more patient and was willing to fit around his talents rather than try and force a square peg into a round hole.

But I also just want to talk about Matteo Rategi, who, after all of

the conversations about how Italy couldn't find a number nine, of course, they found one who, at the time when he was called up to the Italian national team, had never lived in Italy and didn't speak perfect Italian because he

had lived his...

his whole life basically in Argentina, but qualified through his grandparents and now has come to Italy and had his first season at Genoa, which was sort of promising, but I still feel like when he signed for Atlanta this summer for, I think it was about 20 odd million euros, it was viewed as a okay, interesting, but not necessarily someone who was going to take over.

And I think

he's been so much better again this second season than what he was the first season.

He's gone above and beyond, I thought, his control, and I think it was the

fourth goal.

So his second goal, his control, his first touch and then finish on that was just so, so good.

I don't think he's ever going to be

my vision of the best number nine in the world because I think he hasn't got that way of physically dominating opponents that somebody's not unphysical, he's got something there, but he isn't, I don't know, he isn't in my mind, someone like a Victor Ossman, who, as well as being extraordinarily technical, can use his body in a way to dominate opponents.

But he's really looking like he could become a very, very, or already has become very, very effective penalty box striker for them and it's just again this ridiculous aslanta um project that keeps being able to roll with okay no schemaka no problem no uh coupe miners we'll let him best maybe our best player last season go to juventus no problem we'll just keep uh pulling out new players and and yeah playing even better than we did before yeah the scott magleish the argentinian born italian scott mcleash that none of you know who that is but he's a penalty box striker his dad Ritegui's dad, I was looking him up because I was interested in him.

His dad played hockey for Argentina.

Apparently, Arsenal are interested in him, not his dad.

They have to

sign Sean Curley as their number nine.

Into a top of the league, Nikki.

They beat RBLs league 1-0 and owned goal.

I mean, they created a lot more than this.

Haven't conceded a goal yet in the competition.

Yeah,

they're an odd picture right now, Inter, because they're clearly still

a brilliant football team and very possibly still the very best football team in Italy.

But there's something just not quite as impressive as it should be about them.

And I was thinking that again last night because they were a lot better than Leipzig, should have had this result out of sight instead in the second half.

There were a couple of moments where Leipzig could have equalised, and that doesn't reflect well on Inter, whose goal was an own goal from a cross, nice cross from DiMarco, but slightly coincidental, deflected in.

And so it doesn't quite feel as good as it should.

But then they've played five games in this champions league group they've taken four wins in a draw they've scored seven goals and they've conceded zero goals and so what more can you ask of them isn't even as i'm watching them going

just doesn't quite feel as good as it as it could it's as good as i think they can be they yeah they've they've well they haven't won all their games they've they haven't lost any of their games and they haven't conceded a goal and they've played city and arsenal in that right it's it's pretty it's pretty impressive baz barcelona beat breast 3-0 athleti beat Spartaprag 6-0.

What pearls can you give us from these two, please?

Well, the Atleti route of Sparta Prague

leaves Sparta Prague in 28th, position in the table, leaves Atleti in 13th.

I suppose the pick of the goals in this came from Julian Alvarez, who opened the scoring with incredible free kick that he won himself

with a marauding run up the middle.

And yeah, the goal, one of those three kicks where the keeper just doesn't move as

fizzes it into the top corner from distance and then his second which uh put

uh atletico 3-0 up was another marauding run from inside his own half played a give-and-go with uh giuliano simioni who i guess is is uh

the boss's son yes son uh and and then scored from a really tight angle at which point sparta prague pretty much gave up.

Anton Griezmann got a lovely goal with a shot in the turn from outside the area after coming on.

And then Correa got two,

which basically looked like he was practicing a drill against some training cones.

It was so easy for him.

Two of the easiest goals he'll ever get.

And then Barcelona Brest was

pretty straightforward win for Barcelona.

And Robert Lewandowski got two goals one of which was his hundredth Champions League goal and I suspect

there may be fallout from this game which will not be related to the actual game but CBS's banter-tastic coverage of it

which was I can't honestly I can't yeah look it's not for me to

cluck sanctimoniously about other people being juvenile and puerile

but yeah that that really didn't land it probably landed with some viewers but it was talk early

because breasts are funny yes uh if you haven't seen it that's basically barry's has described it pretty well there uh i think um anyway that'll do for uh part two uh part three we'll begin uh with uh west hands victory at st james's park and we'll get a fuller minute in there too

HiPod fans of America, Max here.

Barry's here too.

Hello.

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A proper football journalist, man.

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Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly.

As on Monday night, West Ham won 2-0 at Newcastle.

This is a huge result for Loboteg and I don't think anybody saw this coming, Burs.

No, because they beat Newcastle.

Newcastle have been playing the best football of the season going into this game.

They're obviously very good at home.

West Ham have not been good this season.

Their win against Manchester United was

gifted to them by a dreadful refereeing decision.

And

we don't really know how good or bad they are.

And this game doesn't really give much of an indication either because it was so easy for them.

Newcastle just didn't turn up.

They went into this game on the back of consecutive league wins against Forest and Arsenal and having dumped Chelsea out of the Carabao Cup.

But they were nowhere to be seen.

And it was a weird performance from Newcastle.

So many of their players underperformed or were nowhere near their best.

Anthony Gordon, Joe Willock, Fabian Shar just couldn't stop giving the ball away.

Bruno Himmarais was bad.

Lewis Hall, who we've all been raving about, had a bad game.

Lloyd Kelly came in.

I don't think he's played too often.

Was he injured or just not been picked?

I think he might have been injured, but

he wasn't particularly impressive either.

And it could scarcely have been a more straightforward win for West Ham who probably should have won by more.

Newcastle fans who want something to cling to can probably say that they probably should have had a penalty at 2-0 down when Mavra Panas brought down Callum Wilson but you know that's they they deserve to lose.

They were nowhere near what they're capable of.

Michael Antonio's shirt was ripped and he had to get it replaced according to Seb Hutchinson friend of the pod on comms, Michael Antonio has to have a specifically modified shirt to fit around his neck because it's just such a big neck that he needs a special bespoke shirt.

That's incredible, isn't it?

So I feel like he's just going to be trudging around up top for West Ham forever.

Now, I just can't remember a time.

The last time it wasn't him.

They keep bringing in people to replace him and they're not cutting the mustard, are they?

Sort of the last player to play up front before him was Frank McAvenney or Tony Cotty.

He's been doing it since then, hasn't he?

Yeah, West Ham fans Olaying passes at the end.

I'm not sure.

I'm not sure that's ever happened under West Ham in recent.

It's the West Ham way, isn't it?

Well, well done to Lopategui then.

Big win for them.

Small catty says, with Vicario injured, are you, Max, going to restart your campaign against Fraser Forster?

Presumably you've spent the last months while he's been on the bench crafting new and vicious insults that you'll now share with us.

Yeah, so the news that Vicario played 60 minutes against Man City for Spurs with a broken ankle.

The Italian Burt Troutman, he's not quite Troutman levels, but still, fair play for doing that.

But he's out long term, which I think is a real blow for Spurs.

And you'll see it, Archie, when Fulham hammer Tottenham next game, as we're all expecting, as that is the way for Spurs.

Can't remember what I had against Fravers Forster, but I very much hope he's absolutely brilliant for the next, however, many months.

Give us your Fulham thoughts.

Oh, yeah, you got hammered by wolves.

That was unexpected, But Pats didn't tell the whole story of the game.

We did, but I'm not going to talk about that

because that's not fun.

So sometimes you read out comments on the pod where it's like, you're not covering my team enough.

And I'm listening in and I'm like, oh, yeah.

What are these people talking about?

Until it happens to my team.

Oh, God.

Because Fulham Brenton.

Oh, really?

And you're like, we're going to talk about it.

I was like, oh, I'm looking forward to this.

And then you're the only one who's watched it.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yes, I remember.

I was like...

Who are you throwing under the bus?

Barry?

Who else?

Philippe and Lars, I think.

Barry, Philippe, and Lars.

Yeah, that was a shameful episode.

It was.

Look, the difference is I still found it funny.

But I just have to go back to that moment because it was a very important moment for us Fulham fans because Brentford are very chirpy and snippy towards us.

And to turn around a game against them like that, I was writhing on the floor in front of my TV in celebration as my mate was sadly there to see, having about half an hour before being saying, like, you know, I just don't really care about Fulham that much anymore.

You know, there's just something not there.

And then that happened.

But also, the extra joy in it was the chance that Brentford had to win it at 1-1.

in that crazy period before then, because it was Fabio Carvalho, a guy who left Fulham for Liverpool and then went to Brentford and is, as a result, under amongst Fulham fans, persona non grata.

So, an extra little bit of sweetness and the kind of victory that we thought has made our season lift off.

Yeah, and then the Wolves game happened.

So, yeah, but well, look, this is great news for people who like their match reports.

Three weeks on.

Three or four weeks after

slow news.

I think most of this might, yeah, I can't remember this game.

They're thinking, well, there we are.

Dead Deer says, is this the turning point in Norwich's season?

They hammered Wayne Rooney's Plymouth 6-1 yesterday.

I did watch the goals, but there were just so many I couldn't really keep up.

Steve says, how good was that fight back in CB5?

Yeah, Cambridge down to 10 men and 1-0 down against Bolton.

And Sully Kaikai scored in the 89th minute.

I didn't quite writhe on the floor, actually, but I was absolutely delighted.

And friends of the Euros

will be pleased to know that Ryan Loft started and

was quite like a tall centre-forward until he was sacrificed for a defender when we were

had a man sent off.

But some basty got on the pitch.

And Jim, says any time for a wee fit bar corner to cover injury time in Hibbs Aberdeen, including friend of the bot, Elliot Ross, wanting a Sinclair scale

mark for Esther Sockloo's overhead kick, but some game this baz.

Yes, Aberdeen travelled to Edinburgh to play Hibbs at Easter Road, knowing a win would draw them level with Celtic at the top of the table, albeit having played a game more.

They go a goal behind to a Joe Newell shot that takes a hideous deflection, and then it's all Hibbs until Aberdeen equalise and then go ahead, 2-1 up through goals from Jamie McGraw and Nikki Devlin.

Into added time we go with Aberdeen 2-1 up

and Nikki Cadden equalises in the second minute of extra time with an an incredible free kick.

It's 2-2.

Aberdeen goes 3-2 up in the fifth minute of added time.

A brilliant overhead kick, as you mentioned, from Esther Sockler.

I'm going to say 7.

Okay, maybe 8.1.

It was quite in the middle of the goal.

Okay, 7.6.

Yeah, so these are bonus, brilliant goals in added time.

And then Aberdeen think they've won, and Hibbs equalised through Rocky Bashiri in the, I think, seventh minute of added time scenes at Easter Road.

And just as an addendum, Dwight Gale and Junior Heyland both play for Hibbs.

And if you knew that, go and collect a prize.

That's amazing.

Yeah, so Aberdeen

they've only got one point from the last two games.

That means it's Celtic are now.

Two points clear with the game in hand at the top of the Scottish Premiership.

Finally, this is from Peter.

Dear Max and Barry, a question from Barry.

Does he realize he was on Japanese primetime television on Monday the 25th of November at 8.45 p.m.

See attached photo?

He was talking about Peter Crouch.

They had him dubbed into Japanese with an Irish accent.

I hope he got paid.

Love the show.

Pete Lyons.

I've lived in Japan for 23 years teaching English.

I'd really like to hear me talking Japanese with an Irish accent.

So there we are.

It's from the Peter Crouch documentary.

But there you are, Barry.

It's in the WhatsApp group if you want to look at it.

It's you

with a lot of Japanese writing just across everywhere.

But yeah, there you are.

You're big in Japan, Barry.

All right.

I'm delighted to hear it.

And as producer Joel says, it's like Homer's.

It's a lot like Homer Simpson finding out he looks like Mr.

Sparkle.

Anyway, it's a great picture.

You should tweak that out, Baz.

Or not, you should blue sky it.

That's where you are now.

And thanks for all your questions I'm still taking them on Twitter and Blue Sky I get fewer betting odds instant guaranteed wins on blue sky at this stage but you know it's early days isn't it that'll do for today producer Joel has now put in one of these crawling can we have some reviews the last time he did this was because the top review was like something really rude and so he just didn't like seeing it so maybe there's another one but yeah if you can review us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify

five stars and a nice comment please he says you can now comment on each episode on on Spotify which seems like a good way to get in touch with the show why not take a look there this this sounds like when I I get

a big shop delivered to my elderly neighbor and then I get an email from Asda not just asking me to review the delivery but each item that was in the delivery

And I'm going, really?

How about just write?

Because it's for your neighbour.

Can you write, didn't eat it, didn't eat it, didn't eat it.

I mean, some people do have a lot of time on their hands, but yeah, maybe you'd like to review every sentence.

Could you review this bunch of bananas when

these steaks?

They were pretty much everything I expected.

Max, for you to say, if you were to say some people have a lot of time on their hands when your podcast is what did you do yesterday?

Well, come on.

But I mean, do I have a lot of time on my hands?

I'll tell you this for nothing.

I don't have a lot of time on my hands.

And I'm going to have even less time on my hands in a month or two.

So what I do think is, what the fuck did I do with my life when I didn't have children?

Like, it's totally ridiculous.

Soccer, in the glory years of soccer AM, genuinely, for about five years, I worked a day and a half a week.

I'm embarrassed.

I'm embarrassed I didn't like get a law degree, an MBA or something.

I'm just, I'm ashamed of myself.

I don't know what I did.

What did you do?

Did you drink?

No, I didn't think so.

So I don't know.

It's sort of shameful.

I've nothing to show for it.

I could have been someone.

I could have done something.

It's too late now, isn't it?

You know, but that.

Yeah, life is full of regrets.

Anyway, what a way to end.

I hope you're all regretting something

as you're listening to this.

And that'll do for today.

Thanks, Archie.

Thanks, Max.

Thanks, Nikki.

Thanks.

Cheers, Baz.

Thank you.

Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Bill Maynard.

This is The Guardian.