Tottenham v Arsenal, plus Pochettino going stateside: Football Weekly Extra

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Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly.

Congratulations, we all got through what turned out to be quite a good international break, but the Premier League is back, game of the weekend.

The North London Derby Arsenal squad has been decimated by injury and suspension, which means they might be forced to play a midfield two with only 100 international caps between them.

A huge game for both sides, given Angie's stuttering start.

It's always a huge game for Eric Ten Hag.

Manchester United go to Nort Point Southampton for the early Saturday kickoff.

You can already see it.

We were by far the better side, he says, after a 1-0 defeat.

Everton also have no points and go to Urin Soak Cash Point, that is Villa Park.

Liverpool and Man City both have pleasant-looking games to continue their 100% records.

We'll do the rest of the games, including Chelsea's tricky trip to Bournemouth and Fulham one West Ham one.

As the latest immigrant to the United States, Will Maurizio Potticino eats his neighbour's cat, Brexit denies a League One coach a move to the Bernabau and Chelsea Women hire someone from the athletic as CEO.

Will the players get a series of long reads before every game?

As always, we'll answer your questions and that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, Barry Glendenning, welcome.

Thank you, Max, Your Honor today.

That was very good.

Oh, that's very kind of you you to say so.

I'd like to point out to that that was not a dig at the Aston Villa fans.

That was what we would have been talking about over the last couple of days.

Anyway, John Bruin, hello.

Hello.

Yeah, good intro.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Very good.

Oh, wow.

I don't normally get these sort of compliments.

Jonathan Vaduba, hello.

Hello, Max.

Fantastic intro.

Oh, stop it.

You guys, honestly.

All right, let's start then.

Downhill from there, yes.

It will be.

Yeah, the rest of it will be.

You don't have to listen to the rest of it.

Let's start with Spurs Arsenal then at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday.

The big story is, obviously, you know, I was flippant in the intro, but Arsenal are missing some key players.

Declan Rice suspended for kicking the ball away a tiny bit.

Martin Odegaard injured and out now for at least three weeks.

So he'll miss Spurs, Atalanta in the Champions League, and a trip to Man City as well.

Mickel Mourinho fractured his shoulder in his first training session.

Califiori's thought to be okay.

But that does, John, make this...

Arsenal could still...

Arsenal's still probably the favourites, but it does make it perhaps more interesting.

Outside Northampton Derby.

Anything can happen in a derby, except it normally sort of one team wins that's better than the other.

But,

okay, when Odegaard's injury, the news of it appeared, there was this like

primal scream that went across the world, wasn't there, from Arsenal fans.

This complete panic.

Because

I'm going to call it at this point.

Arsenal are in panic mode this season.

It's like they set themselves such high standards that they can't let them drop from last season because it was like they got so close last season and they also had that.

Remember towards the end of the season, I think there's a home game against Brentford, this swell of emotion, which is like, we can do this, we can do this, we can do this.

If only just Manchester City would slip up.

Well, the thing is, Manchester City don't slip up, do they?

And so you've got Odegaard's injury, which is treated like you know, some sort of assassination of a prince in the royal family.

And you've got

Decorises suspension, you know, which has happened two weeks ago.

They're only just calming down from that.

And then you've got other injuries.

And you've got the fact that they drew with Brighton,

this awful result.

And so they've got Tottenham.

But it is Tottenham.

So

that's when we insert the clause, isn't it?

Yeah.

It'd be interesting, Jonathan, to see how Arsenal do line up.

Obviously, you know, Partey and Jorginho is not a bad midfield base.

And I was trying to work out if I was missing someone.

Who do you put in for Odegaard?

Because you could bring Trossard in there, I guess.

You wouldn't really move Saka up, would you, or Martinelli?

Raheem Sterling, maybe?

I'd sort of forgotten he'd join, but I mean, they have options.

Yeah, they're just going to have to rely on a few other international players that can come in and step in and do a job.

I think it was like one of the biggest non-stories I think I've ever seen in football.

There was, I think, a Sky

Christian Fuchs who won the league with Leicester.

I don't know why he was commenting about it, was claiming he'll be dearly missed.

I almost thought he died for a minute at Monko.

The hysteric reaction around what's going on with him.

Yeah, he's out for a few weeks.

He'll be back soon.

There's not a massive problem, I don't think, really.

Like you said, it's Spurs.

They're going to go all out attacks, Spurs.

They're not going to sort of sit back and sit deep.

So I think it allows them to play somebody with a more attacking mindset in there.

You know, if Georgino is around, then he can obviously fill in as well and kind of sit.

I don't think it's a huge deal, really, as big a deal as it is.

I still think Arsenal will be favourites for the match.

But yeah, I don't know if it's an international break thing.

It just felt like such a big non-story.

The panic in the sort of news presenters' voices when they were sort of shouting it from the rooftops just found bizarre.

But maybe, as John sort of alludes to, that's the sort of situation at Arsenal at the moment.

Everyone's on edge.

Every game counts, as Michael Atessa would say.

And so maybe that sort of plays into it.

But yeah, I found it a massive non-story.

I mean, you might even play on the weekend, to be honest.

It wouldn't have surprised me if he's actually fit.

Yeah, I think he is definitely injured.

I mean, I do take that point.

I'm not just trying to do this for balance, but I suppose the point is, Barry, they want to win the league.

And to do that, they've already dropped two points.

If they didn't, if they dropped some points here, you know, they go to City next, don't they?

So, so, like, the the pressure is on.

The panic is on, the pressure is on.

Yeah, well, I I touched on the hysteria of Arsenal fans surrounding Odegaard's injury yesterday, um, with the calling for an end to international football because it's all international football's fault.

Um, but Tottenham aren't without injury issues of their own.

We don't know if Richarlison and Dominic Solanke

will be fit.

Uh, Mickey Van der Vend is a big loss for them if he's not fully fit or hasn't returned from injury.

Eves Basuma, I think.

There's question marks over his participation.

We'll find out more, I suppose, when the press conferences are held tomorrow.

So, you know, Arsenal don't have a monopoly on misfortune when it comes to injuries, that's for sure.

I suppose they're a little unfortunate that that Fabio Vere has been loaned out to Porto, but

they they've got plenty of good players ready to step in.

And,

you know, having a deep squad and having a squad that's able to cover for these shortcomings, that's all part of winning a title, I suppose, isn't it?

But

when you look at Manchester City's squad, their strength and depth is just ludicrous compared to everyone else.

I mean, and without continuing the hyperbole, John, it also feels pretty big for Tottenham, right?

Because if they win this game, their level on points with Arsenal, the start is okay.

If they lose, it's a pretty terrible start for And

a continuation of a bad end to last season.

Yeah, that's what I was going to say.

The end of last season was a.

I've got the feeling that Andre was glad it finished when it did, because it was, you know, it sort of

ground to a halt.

That's how people feel about this pod, John.

Yes, well, quite, yeah.

It ground to a halt.

And,

you know, there were recriminations over the

previous North London Derby, if you recall.

Well, not the North London Derby, but the North London rivalry.

Remember this stuff about people wanting Tottenham to lose to City, and that left this sort of you know,

a bit of bad blood between

Ange and some of the local reporters, and Ange and some of the fans.

And there was a bit of repair job done there.

And I think over the summer, people have thought, hey, hang on, actually, Totten did have a good season, but

that feel good factor relies on them starting as well as they did last season, and that hasn't been the case.

But should you win a North London derby then it comes back andre's the best bloke in the world on we go you know and i don't know if you've seen that there's this thing that arsenal will be wearing uh not red in this game have you seen this yeah the pgmol the first time since 1986 after the pgmol ruled that uh arsenal's kit featured too much white um i don't know why they didn't look i mean i don't know how does it have more white in it this season than previous years i mean since 1986 it feels like i've I can remember I've never been I've never struggled to differentiate.

I'd imagine Max there's the same amount of white but this is just further evidence of the big conspiracy

against ourselves.

I think they volunteered to wear uh red shorts and weren't allowed.

So um yeah, I don't know if they're going Lynx Africa or something else.

I was thinking about this this white kit.

I remember there was one with Paul Merson in that sort of era.

I've got this image of Paul Merson with curtains hair, you know, and the sort of long, long hair.

Maybe when he was doing the

booze mind thing, that shirt had a lot of white in it.

And like it it it fit it like it had white at the top and uh this is not great podcasting, I'm afraid, but like sort of around the top, around the around the neck area, a lot of white.

That you know, when they were playing against, you know, Sol Campbell or Stephanie Everson or whoever it was that those days, I'm sure that those colours would have got, but it just seems to me it's political correctness gone mad, isn't it?

The PJL.

I mean, well, do they want a piece of everything?

This seems

to wear too much right, you'll be arrested.

I just think they're quite easy kits to differentiate between.

Like, you know, I just don't think anybody watching the game or anyone playing would like look up and go, well, the trouble was I played, I put Gabrielle jesus clean through because i thought it was a totnam player like it's just it does seem odd and you know and like since 1986 in no between 1986 i don't want to sound like that you know alan partridge in 1986 no one died in 97 it like in how many how many years is that like no one's ever gone this is a kit this is a kit clash this is a real problem but anyway jonathan may know about this but this is this not the era of scanning yeah jonathan is yes yeah this is the footballers do this

See, footballers in the good old days, footballers never looked up.

That appears to be the logic of that particular.

When Bobby Charlton was spraying the ball out to

George Best, he never looked where he's passing the ball.

That appears to be the logic of scanning.

Is that correct?

Jonathan, do you know more about this than I do

as a resident football hipster?

Yeah, I mean, I know about scanning, but I don't know what it has to do with the kit.

Well, you'd be able to see the whites better, you see.

Because

presumably, the whites in the kit are out of the corner of your eye, you know, you're Eve Basuma, and suddenly

you pass the ball to Gabriel Jesus because you thought he was in your team.

But now that he's scanning, you know, does he need to do this?

I'm baffled.

I'm baffled by the whole thing.

I don't understand any of it, to be honest.

I'm sorry, Donathan.

I didn't want to put you in a position.

You know, you're not entertaining this dinosaur as we suddenly, you know.

No, even the kit cat, the kick click, the kick clash.

I don't, I don't, I don't, I agree with you.

I don't see...

I don't know what's going on at the moment with this game.

Too many non-stories.

Absolutely right.

Let's go to St.

Mary's, Southampton, Manchester United, the early game on Saturday.

As I said in the intro, we have two, you know, two of Football Weekly's most prominent Manchester United fans on the panel.

And every game is huge for Ten Hog, Jonathan, isn't it?

But

how do you see this one?

They have to win.

This is Manchester United we're talking about.

I feel like it's probably going to go the same way.

It usually goes with Ten Hag, which is

wide open chasm of a midfield and and

like you said in the intro really Ten Hag coming out after us and saying they played amazing after after a defeat.

So no, I think you you've got to hope that with the international break the chance for some players to set in.

I mean Manuel Lagate

played for Uruguay midweek.

I saw him start the game in that one and so you've got to wonder how sort of fatigue is going to play a part for certain players in the squad who come in.

The whole sort of premise of Ten Hag pre-international break was that those players will be back and that's where they're going to start improving once the new players get time to settle in.

Players like Ugat, Manchester United, I don't film it with any confidence in any game they play.

It could be Newport County as we saw last season.

It could be anyone.

So I don't really think they're in a position.

And that's the interesting thing about it.

There's all these sort of briefs coming out saying he needs time, he needs time, he needs time.

But at the same time, every single game they play,

there's almost nobody thinks they're going to win it or feels strongly that they're favourites.

It's like, I don't know how much time and how many players you need to bring in to get some sort of pattern of play and system, which Arnold Slot

seems to have in sort of three, four games in the Liverpool match, which we saw before the international break.

So it's a concerning time.

I mean, Southampton have sort of started in a...

in interesting fashion, really possession heavy.

I know there was a red card in their opening day, but I think they had 74% possession in that in that opening game you know since then they're sort of implementing their own their own style and that adapting to the Premier League under Russell Martin but can't I can't honestly can't see United winning any game at the moment I never see United in any match with confidence so that sort of maybe says a lot about their

current situation John I mean the the you know in the last game against Liverpool it was Casemiro was the sort of headline and also I don't know if Marcus Rashford had a shot in in this game maybe he did but you know the stories about sort of how little impact he is having having.

Um, it'd be quite interesting to see if those two play.

There's been a few stories, hasn't there, that they've tried to ship out Casemiro and no one will do that deal for some reason.

I'm interested, you've actually got a more pessimistic Manchester United fan than me on here, which

I think is a great achievement.

So, Jonathan, welcome.

Uh, um, and but I was going to say, um, Yugate, I was reading, uh,

said that he played against Venezuela

because he felt sick.

I thought, no, mate, you've just joined Man United.

That's not being sick.

That's what you've got now.

That's what you've got for your wages.

Let's turn it to Southampton, shall we?

Now, Manchester United's way into this game is the way that Southampton are playing in the league.

So you mentioned dinosaurs before.

I was listening to Sam Allardyce critique Southampton style of play.

It wasn't a positive outlook on it.

You know, this playing out from the back, because they were caught out a couple of times, weren't they,

against Brentford, or badly.

Well, I won't use the word that Sam used, but

Cojones would be one of the translations for it,

of the way that they play.

And as Jonathan says, Russell Martin isn't going to change that.

Russell Martin's going to ride that horse till the end of the season.

That's how Southampton are going to play.

Can Manchester United press

high up enough for Southampton to make those mistakes and score goals?

That's the question.

That's the question that will be asked of Marcus Rashford if he plays.

Are you going to chase back?

Are you going to make sure that they make those mistakes?

Because that's Manchester United's way to win this game.

At the moment, you can't expect them to win it playing creative, beautiful football.

If they get away from some areas, it'll be with a sneaks 1-0 win or something like that.

Barry, Cristiano Ronaldo has spoken to

Rio Ferdinand on his podcast about Ten Hag, saying, as a Manchester United coach, you cannot say that you're not going to fight to win the league or the Champions League.

Mentally, you can say maybe we don't have that potential, but I cannot say that.

We're going to try.

You have to try.

What I wish for Manchester United is that I wish for me to be the best team they can.

I love that club.

I'm not the kind of guy that forgot the past.

They need to rebuild everything, in my opinion.

Is this helpful?

Does it make any difference?

What do you think?

Well,

I have, first of all, thank you for warning me that a podcast in which Rio Ferdinand interviews Cristiano Cristiano Ronaldo is out there in the ether

and I should be doing everything in my power to avoid listening to it

because I, oh God,

it smacks of

is it really high performance?

Have you listened to it?

I haven't listened to it, I confess.

I don't know if it's, I don't know the.

Because if you had, my next question was going to be a sort of hollow Willoughby-esque, Willoughby-esque, are you okay?

I don't know what the premise of the podcast is.

You know, I very much hope it's not Rio Ferdinand asking Cristiano Ronaldo what he did yesterday.

But beyond that,

I don't mind.

A lot of press-ups is probably the answer to that question.

I would imagine Eric Tonhag is

interested in...

Cristiano Ronaldo's opinion on anything as I am or most sentient people would be.

I'd be honest, I kind of tuned out halfway through the quote.

No, why would Ericsson Hagg care what Cristiano Ronaldo thinks?

I don't know.

It's just some noise that he doesn't need, I imagine.

More noise, yeah.

I actually think, contrary to, unlike our Manchester United supporting brethren, I think this is a game they'll probably win quite easily.

But

yeah,

their two cheerleaders here have actually made me think, oh, well, maybe they won't.

In boring Manchester United PSR news, they're confident they will comply with the Premier League and UEFA's financial rules, despite posting £113.2 million net loss in their latest accounts.

The fifth consecutive year, United have made an annual loss.

The club, 115.5 million in the red in 21-22, and 42.1 million in 22-23.

I have no question unless anyone has any strong thoughts on this.

Is this because they've introduced or increased the price of disabled parking around Old Trafford?

Is that how they're managing to break even?

The leadership marginal gain in the big Sir Jim Ratcliffe revolution.

Let's pile the hurt on the disabled.

From the Manchester Union News, Manchester United will not U-turn on their price increase for disabled season ticket holders to park at Old Trafford.

They've increased the price of a blue badge for disabled season ticket holders by 20% for this season, which means it's now around £330 for a season instead of £276.

United have said that they have previously talked with disabled fans and campaign groups on the issue, and they said they were content with being treated like other fan groups.

However, the club are looking into potential concessions for parking for parents with disabled children.

Interesting, Man City and Aston Villa, have you turned on similar price increases after criticism?

There is a bad smell over United at the moment,

and there has been for a long time since the Glazers are there.

Big Sir Jim hasn't particularly turned that tide, has he?

Okay, they won the FA Cup.

I'll say this,

a friend of our family and left Manchester United after a significant amount of time working there.

And the word is he's delighted to be out of there.

So it's not going well so far.

There used to be a club there, is the old quote, isn't it?

About used to be a football club there, is the old quote.

You're often attached to these things.

Maybe Cristiano Ronaldo is right.

They probably need to rip it up and start again.

And that's probably what is taking place, but it's been done in that very corporate way of how do corporate people overturn things?

Is it they make nasty decisions that can hurt people's livelihoods and stuff like that?

Maybe the end result is that Manchester United becomes a club that doesn't lose a hundred you know, lose a lot of money and nearly falls foul of FFP.

But it looks for seems like it's a long way ahead for that to happen because one of the reasons that they lose money is that they spend a lot of money on players because they can't get the right players to play for the club.

Well, good luck to both of you.

Almost feel sympathetically like I want a Magister United win.

Can we talk about something nice now, please?

Yes.

Yeah, we can.

We'll do that at the start of part two, which is Everton's disastrous form.

HiPod fans of America, Max here.

Barry's here, too.

Hello.

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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Week.

Clea Andrews says, With Everton seemingly unable to hold onto a win and facing a tough visit to Villa Park, is Frank Lampard's start of seven games without a win looking achievable?

Yeah, so Everton go to Villa, they're rock bottom.

Jonathan, this is a really tough game for them, another one.

Yeah, it's a tough game, and it's obviously going to be played out in the background of John Texter's comments.

I don't know if they've been sort of reported on by yourself, Max, but the sort of takeover takeover that looms in the background and the very interesting comments of John Texter who's not yet the owner of Everton yeah he says nobody wakes up and thinks I get to buy Everton but if you decide football is what you want in your life and then somebody comes along and asks you if you want to become the owner of Everton it's like someone asking you if you want to be the president of the United States of course you do and he went on to say we don't want Everton to be bouncing around eighth place forever I mean he clearly hasn't watched Everton since we had to lose the Everton Cup title because they are certainly not bouncing around eighth forever at at the moment, are they?

They dream of bouncing around eight.

Well, I think the best part of

the quotes was the part where he starts questioning Sean Dice's ability to get the best out of South American players from Botofogo, which is part of the ownership group of Jon Texter at the Eagle Football.

Sort of questioning, can Sean Dice get the best out of Tiago Almada, which I found hilarious.

And he sort of says, I think there's a quote in there where he says something like, yeah,

I like the tall Irish centre-back, but what can he do with this Brazilian guy?

What can he do with this Brazilian guy?

You don't even own the club, he doesn't own the club yet, let alone asking Sean Dice.

Then he would say, I haven't, I haven't spoken to Sean Dice, though, myself, but which I found really funny.

Does that mean he's either going to take all the Botofogo players to Everton or he's going to ship Sean Dice to Botofogo?

What's his plan?

His plan is definitely not to read the sort of PR handbook of media training where you don't say anything until the takeover's done and instead start questioning the manager that you don't yet not yet in charge of.

But yeah, it's it's going to be a huge, huge game for Everton, of course.

They all are at the moment.

The sort of sense of panic that we talked about with Arsenal, where there's this hysteria about one injury when they've got a very good squad and spent hundreds of millions on different positions, I think that hysteria is more warranted for Everton, where this really is a season where...

everything can go wrong and it could be catastrophic for them in terms of their short to medium term future because if they if they are to go down you know everybody is quite quite familiar with the problems at Everton and although John Texter and the takeover you know that that maybe might alleviate the concerns and the problems

there is definitely a feeling on Murdoch with Everton fans I think that this is a really you know this is a really important season and I mean the last few have been as well but it's kind of spiraling out of control almost especially with the new stadium coming and the importance of that then the Bournemouth game as well the the way that sort of panned out so yeah it's it's a really big game I I do worry about Everton in terms of the squad.

I just think

it lacks the quality to stay up, I think.

And that is going to be an issue in terms of maybe do they need some reinforcements in january maybe they've got some players internally that can come in obviously iria irribnham's come in and there's there's others in the in the in the team but it really does have a bit of a championship feel about it and the eye was a little bit promising you know in glimpses so maybe that's something that can offer some hope fortune calvert lewin you know scoring a few goals but the only hope perhaps is maybe yastonville have wine island champions league that's that's starting and and that might distract them slightly maybe distract the team team news and things like that but yeah i do worry for everything and i can't see it sort of stopping anytime soon especially with that back four just on textor he owns stakes in Lyon as you said Botofogo in Brazil and Molenbeeque in Belgium through his holding company Eagle Football is planning to float on the New York Stock Exchange in the coming weeks it's understood he's planning to use his own money and that of quote several unknown partners to fund the Everton purchase before absorbing the club into Eagle football which is an ominous quote isn't it but you know they may all be wonderful people we have no idea um do you give them any hope baz not really It will be interesting to see how Everton's players bounce back from that Bournemouth fiasco.

I suppose it's up to Sean Dice to remind them: you know, you were actually playing really well for 87 minutes.

You were 2-0 up.

So, you know, try and focus on that rather than the fact that you

ended up being a laughing stock for losing 3-2.

It's Villa's first game since the

Arsenal Rivers of Pierre, or first home game since the Arsenal Rivers of Pis Fiasco and since they announced their Champions League ticket prices not sure that'll affect the mood much at Villa Park and Everton lost this fixture 4-0 last season and there is no reason to suppose that won't happen again yeah slightly interesting on Villa's home form after you know they won 15 in a row they've only won four of the 12 home Premier League games since then the Mirror reporting that they turned down 40 offers for John Duran in the summer 40 sort of think by offer 35, I'd be like, look, okay.

Just if you really want it.

Well, the thing is, Ollie Watkins is not firing.

I mean, it's early in the season, but Ollie Watkins is not playing well so far.

So, and Duran has played well when he's come on for Watkins.

So, maybe it might have been wise to refuse all those offers.

No, totally.

Totally.

He looks, he's, you know, he's impact super sub at the moment, yes, John.

So, so when people were bidding for Duran,

do you think the bidders said, Please, please tell me now?

Is there something I should know?

I don't even know that.

I know it's a Duran Duran song, but like, you know, exactly.

I could see that.

I could see that coming to mind.

The look of the

look on your face, this coy look on your face.

Like, you were so happy saying that as well.

I don't even have a full Duran Duran lyric.

Is it something I should know?

Is that one?

I was stuck on Rio.

Anyway,

if I can drag you away from Duran Duran lyrics to Liverpool, Nottingham Forest, John, from Everton's 0% record to Liverpool's 100% record and another very winnable game for them.

Yeah, Arne slot is the business, isn't it?

Well

we have to say apart from a rather shaky first half against Ipswich, it's all gone really rather well.

And I think we talked over the summer about how calm things felt at Liverpool, apart from fact they hadn't signed any players.

And that pretty much remained, didn't it, apart from buying a goalkeeper for next season.

Kiesa's come in, remember?

Chiesa's come in, hasn't he?

Chiesa, of course.

Sorry, yes.

And actually, I was talking yesterday in the office with our resident Liverpool sports, Greg Bukowski, about this.

And we were talking about how Chiesa is an intelligent deal because

if it works out,

if it works out, it hasn't cost you that much anyway.

And you could probably sell him back to Italy where the Italian clubs will want to buy him.

But he adds that little bit extra.

They have had

a really good summer.

The football is a bit more patient.

The players seem to be really enjoying it.

Ryan Gravenberch is playing really well and played really well in mid-week, I believe, for his country.

The word was when they got slot that they'd done real due diligence on the coach they were going to bring in.

Someone was relating to me that in certain coaching circles he was regarded as probably the best around and it seems that they've got that.

You know, there's a club that

it's careful planning.

They don't always make popular decisions, but American ownership has a chequered reputation in English football, shall we say.

But a lot of them have got it right, and I think Liverpool have got it most right.

Liverpool looked really strong this season.

And the thing is, last season they looked really strong, didn't they?

Until it all became a little bit too emotional when we knew that Jürgen Klopp was leaving.

They were in with a chance of the title till very late in the season.

Nothing's really changed in terms of the players.

Should they find a partner for Virgil Van Dijk?

They'd be the real deal.

Yeah, it's going really well.

I'm very impressed with Arne Slot.

He's such a calm individual.

And he's, you know, when clubs go for the opposite of what they had before, they seem to have achieved that, haven't they?

Because Jurgen was so emotional.

This guy is the opposite of that.

And yeah, I predict great things for Liverpool as much as that paints me.

Yeah, I mean, I suppose the only thing on the careful planning side is Van Dijk, Salah, and Trent being out of contract.

Van Dijk has said he wants to renew to take him up to the 26 World Cup.

Feels pretty obvious they should keep him.

He's in a defence that haven't conceded a goal yet this season.

No managers ever started with four clean sheets in a row in their first four games.

It's quite interesting, Barry, what he's doing up front, which is using Jotter in a kind of Famino way with Salah and Diaz.

I don't know what it means for Darwin Units, but Jotter is one of those incredibly talented, we don't talk about him enough type players.

Yeah, I suppose he is.

And now you've put me on the spot, I can't think of much to say about him.

Well, there you go.

You proved my point.

Many thanks.

We can carry on.

I mean, actually, Baz, I mean, Forrest, very under the radar, unbeaten.

We both relegated them at the start of this season.

It is still early days, but you know, they're quite high up in the stats for quick breaks.

I was reading.

I don't know what happened to me this morning.

I was reading a lot of statistics,

which I presume is how they'll play this season.

Jonathan, can I take you to the Etihad for Man City Brentford?

Brentford, two wins from three, the last team to win at the Etihad in any competition in November 2022.

Could they do it at the weekend?

No.

Okay.

Do you have anything to add?

No further questions.

I think, I mean, I suppose the one maybe red of light is an injury that went a little bit more under radar.

Nathan Hank, I think, went off in tears in the international break, and that is a concern for Man City.

They do have a good squad, but

it still weakens per year, I think, slightly.

Some of the players they lose, and I'm not sure they've

how they're going to sort of deal with that from the defensive side of things.

I know, well, they do have a good squad in fairness.

They do have a lot of players that can come in.

But at the same time, I think it is a blow for them.

And especially with the defensive balance that they have in the team.

But again, they're another side who have sort of adapted quite well to the season.

Haven't really had a massive dip.

Haaland is banging in hat-tricks left, right, and centre, so even if you do concede a few goals, that kind of is always a worry.

Brentford have started okay in fairness.

I thought Brentford would be a team that would struggle this season.

I thought Palace would have beaten them on the opening day, which never happened.

And Brentford has sort of continued to pick up some decent results.

Okay, they you know, the last game was South Southampton, so maybe maybe it's just the fact that they've had

a fairly decent sort of start.

Lost to Anfield, of course.

But no, they they've they've done more better than I thought they would.

Actually, Forrest, I think, will do better than them, so I I like Forrest's team.

I think they they look quite good.

They won't I doubt they'll get anything against Liverpool, but I think they'll be fine.

But I actually thought Brentford might be one who may struggle this year, but

no,

I can't see them getting anything against City, I'm afraid.

Now, John, John, given how keen you were to talk about scanning, in my incredibly boring stats, I looked at, I got to

ball carries.

And

look at Barry.

Shall I continue?

No, Jeremy Docker.

This is on the BBC sport website.

Jeremy Doku has progressed the ball upfield 747.8 meters via ball carries this season, almost 300 meters more than any other player, who is Jan Paul van Hecker.

Is that interesting?

I mean, that feels like a lot more than everyone else.

The only thing you'd say is that Manchester City are the team of supposedly quick passing interchanges.

And so, and yet it appears they have a soloist in their team for carrying the ball.

But it's that left-hand side.

Jack Grealich used to do when

remember when Jack used to play in the first team?

He still plays there for England, of course.

He did start the last city game, to be fair.

Yes, he did, yeah, and he's played a little bit better.

But Doku,

yeah, it's something you wouldn't expect from a Pep team, I suppose.

I mean, this is the thing about Doku.

What player do we expect Doku to be in two or three years after working with Pep Guardiola?

Will he still be that guy that carries on a sort of soloist who, you know, brings it, basically takes the ball to the byline, crosses it?

Or will he become that player who,

like Jack Grealish, became that sort of ball carrier who then

distributes it very quickly?

Grealish's strength

is that sort of quick shift of the one-twos that he did for England against Ireland.

You'd expect that Pep has a plan for Doku.

There is probably some

Elon Musk-style

plan on a whiteboard somewhere that he's going to convert Doku into the perfect player.

But it's almost like Doku is so good at carrying the ball that Pep is prepared to put up with it, which is interesting.

But then again, you see, the thing is, one of the problems with Pep Guardiola is that people always think they know how Pep Guardiola teams play, and they don't actually play that way because he's developing his team along the way.

He has that so many managers have one style of play that they stick to until it's over.

Pep can vary it, and so Doku is an extra element to that team.

And that's probably why they're so bloody good.

Yeah.

Or perhaps Doku just never scans.

So he's got to carry the ball because he's just not looking up at all.

I'm trying to think of players that would just look down and just, you know, just burrow into the Tony Daly.

Into the moon.

My heart says Tony Daly.

Yeah, that is classic.

Yeah, that is classic.

Yeah, you've nailed it.

Bit of Aaron Lennon.

Yeah,

young Aaron Lennon, definitely.

Just give him and let him go.

I mean, two wonderful players in my mind.

Brilliant.

I remember yelling in 06,

Beckham off.

Get Lennon on would have changed everything.

Well, he was.

He was good, wasn't he?

That the Portugal game.

You brought him on and

him and Argreaves, without who.

Oh, great memories.

Great memories.

I'll see your docku ball carries, Max, and raise you, Mark Fleckin' saves.

He has made

more saves than any other goalkeeper in the Premier League so far this season.

And I suspect if Brentford are to get anything from this game, he will need that.

That statistic will not change.

That's still a number of people.

It'll be the Brian Adams, right?

It'll be the wet, wet, wet of the Premier League.

Bournemouth, Chelsea, Baz,

potentially tricky for Chelsea.

One of those 8 p.m.

Saturday games, if you weren't sure of when the games were.

It's always an annoying time for a football match, if you ask me.

Yeah, I saw that this morning.

I was like, oh,

really?

You don't have to go, Barry.

I am.

And

that is, yeah.

I would say it's very tricky for Chelsea.

For all the nonsense that's going on and all the noise going on off the pitch, they are pretty good on it.

But Bourometer are a decent side as well.

It would not surprise me in the slightest if Bouromet got something from this game or even won it.

Chelsea, Jonathan, one of a handful of clubs being linked to Victor Gokarez.

He is a real talent.

He's at sporting at the moment.

And he was very good for Coventry.

Were you slightly surprised he didn't move in the summer?

A little because there is a large amount of interest in the modern transfer market.

When anyone sort of scores five to ten goals, suddenly it's time for their transfer, you know, for Britisho Romano sort of tweeting about him.

So I think that did surprise me slightly that there wasn't maybe more interest in him.

He is a real talent.

He's done fantastically in Portugal.

But I didn't see any sort of Chelsea rumours, which is a surprise given that Chelsea are linked with pretty much everyone else on planet Earth.

I mean, I thought Ossiman

would have been the one there.

I know that maybe it was something to do with the wave structure.

There was talks that maybe that's why it didn't work out.

Chelsea's kind of the way they want to structure their deals and the heavily incentivised contracts for players.

But I don't think they necessarily need to be looking at new players at the moment.

I think Chelsea have got enough players and they've been quite good to watch this season so far.

I think they look okay.

They have, if it all clicks there, they've got a really exciting team, I think.

Some of the players they've got are really, really good.

And if you take away, strip away all the sort of Clearlet Capital Todd Bowley noise, of which has ramped up again this week with the talk about maybe the sort of a split somewhere in the camp there

at the top end of the club.

If you take that all away and take away all that noise, I think Chelsea do have a really, really quite exciting squad boardmouth as barry says i do think they're a good side as well it was you know we were talking about everton just now and one of the ominous signs when we were just discussing everton for me was the fact that you look at bournemouth bench and there was about three or four players i think on boardmouth bench that would sort of walk into everton's first team which is never a good sign um for a club so but that you know for bournemouth that that says a lot about the quality they've amassed and they've quietly sort of gone about their business um accumulating some quite good young players um so i do think this will be although it is a little late kickoff, it's not exactly the best time.

And I think it will be quite an exciting game.

I think it'll be a good game to watch, and probably one of the more entertaining games of the weekend, in my opinion.

Let's rattle through the other fixtures.

Brighton Ips, which the first time they've met in the top flight since 1983, this Barry will be the 936th different Premier League fixture.

Would you like to know all the Premier League fixtures that have ever been?

Yes,

yes, I would.

Oh, I'm disappointed you in order.

The first game, oh, what was the...

I can remember the first Monday night football was Man City

QPR.

And Andy Sinton scored.

But that's the first Monday night one.

I can't remember what the first Saturday.

I think.

The first goal was Brian Dean Sheffield John.

Brian Dean.

Yeah, of course it was.

Anyway, really good opportunity for Brighton to continue their unbeaten run.

Ips, which have the fewest shots, fewest shots on target, lowest XG.

I mean, someone has to have those stats, John, but you probably don't want it to be you.

No, I mean, I've seen two of Ips, which is games of the season I would not have said that they were a low X GT but that shows what I know about XG against Fulham a couple of weeks ago some pretty promising signs from Liam DeLap uh scored a very good goal in that game ipswich i have to say this they're a team that you could fall in love with just with the way that they attack what's the what's the left back leaf davis isn't it uh

is a really good player to watch not the best defensively there's something of the trend Alexander Arnold about him.

They try their best to cover it up, but when he comes forward and when he links with players, he's a pleasure to watch.

He really is.

I wouldn't say a unique player, but you just think, yeah, that's why he's in the team.

That's why Kieran McKenna is willing to sacrifice the fact that this guy is not great defensively because he surges forward.

And they've got, you know, they've got Ogbeni in there, who's a head-down runner.

They're exciting team to watch.

when they got they they sort of

when I've seen them they build these crescendos there's sort of three or four minutes of them just sort of really going for it and then the problem is that they can't they have

they will lose energy but um there are players like um is it sam morsey is it is that one of the players uh he he looks like a player that's played down the lower leagues but you can tell he is loving life in the Premier League throwing himself around they're great team to watch I've really enjoyed watching them this season.

I hope for more of that.

But I do think Brighton is a pretty difficult fixture.

They've had a difficult fixture list so far.

If you think they've played Liverpool, they've played Manchester City.

Fulham, okay.

That was a draw.

Brighton are one of the best teams around.

You know, they're not going to panic, but watch them where you can, is what I would say.

Just want to send our best wishes to George Burley, who's announced he's undergoing treatment for cancer.

He says it's been a difficult time, but I'm feeling much brighter now.

I'm able to get to matches at Portman Road.

I'm enjoying watching the team playing back in the Premier League.

We're grateful to the club for the support they've shown me and my family.

We'd ask everyone's respectful of our privacy at this time.

Wolves play Newcastle.

Newcastle reportedly still interested in signing free agent Adrian Rabio, which I must say to the pod would be sensational news.

Baz there, director of football, has been chatting to the fans, hasn't he?

He had a sit-down with all the journalists who cover Newcastle during the international break and took questions for an hour or so.

I think the main takeout from that seems to have been: this is Paul Mitchell, relatively new sporting director.

He seems to have blamed Newcastle's lack of activity during the transfer window on everyone but himself.

He played, quote, a supporting role in a, quote, predetermined strategy.

So it wasn't my fault we didn't get Mark Gahey.

Wasn't my fault.

Wolves are a bit of a shambles.

They only took five points for the last 13

available last season.

Give Gary O'Neill a new

contract.

And now they've only taken one point from the first nine available this season.

And I think they could be in big trouble before too long.

Newcastle haven't been playing well either, but they're getting points on the board.

They've won two, drawn one.

despite quite a few of their key players not not performing.

So this is an interesting one, Atmol New, obviously.

I think Wolvers need to

start getting a few points.

And with apologies to Palace, Leicester, and Fulham, West Ham.

We're a bit tight for time, so we will review your games.

It's 2-1-1 draws, isn't it?

Yeah, you're probably right.

But, you know, we will promise to spend more time on the actual football match than looking ahead to it.

And we'll be back in a second with any other business.

HiPod fans of America.

Max here.

Barry's here, too.

Hello.

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A proper football journalist, mate.

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Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly.

I'm Aurizio Pochitino is the new manager of the US MNT.

The decision to join US soccer wasn't just about the football for me.

It's about the journey that this team and this country are on.

His first game in charge of the US will be at a home friendly against Panama in Austin, Texas on the 12th of October before going away to Mexico.

Tom Dart in the paper saying that since Greg Bahalta has laid a foundation by nurturing young talents such as Christian Pulisic, Western McKenney and Tim Ware towards their prime, Pochitino's task is clear and basic.

Get us any which way into the quarterfinals and preferably the semifinals of the World Cup we're co-hosting in less than two years.

Only this will deliver mainstream attention, global respect, huge television viewing figures and serious sponsorship dollars.

Seems, Jonathan, like a big ask to get the US to the semi-finals of the World Cup.

Big ask, and I did

sort of think it's maybe come across as slightly premature for Pochitina to be going into international management.

I thought he would have been coveted at several clubs, potentially, after what happened at Chelsea and

his career in general.

You know, someone who's got sort of a really good reputation about him, hasn't he, as a coach.

But then again, when you think about it, USA, from a manager's point of view, amazing facilities, you know, pretty much

the best quality you can get in that sense as an international team.

The World Cup's come in, so there's probably a lot for him to be excited about.

The squad's okay, has some talent.

From the US point of view, they're going to be wanting to go deep in that World Cup, but I'm not sure that's necessarily going to happen.

But I think maybe Pochettino looked at his career and thought maybe this is a good opportunity to maybe take a little bit of a backseat on things in terms of the day-to-day rigours of clubs like Chelsea and just maybe

chill and

watch some MLS and scout players in America who they do have some good young talents to be fair to them and that they've developed that will be ready for the World Cup yeah I did find it I found it a bit of a curious move from Pochetina there yeah no I don't disagree but I also think you're right if I

if I was I would happily go international manager you know after big you know the grind of 24 7 he's got buckets of money and now he just does it a bit it's like nice isn't it it's it's a nice cushy gig like once i think the most stressful thing about being the manager of the USA is having to deal with Claudio Reyna's parents being massive pains in the arse.

And once you put them in their place, you know, it's grand.

It's got a low bar.

They went out of the Copa American, the group, uh, stages under Berhalter.

It's a bit like when Jürgen Klinsman took over, isn't it, from Bob Bradley?

But the thing I'd worry about with Poch is he's very arm around the shoulder, day-to-day, hands-on, run the players into the ground in pre-season.

He's not going to have that sort of time with them.

He's only going to see them every few months during international breaks and whatnot.

But it's an interesting project, and

you know, even if he makes an absolute dog's breakfast of it, will his reputation as a club manager be in any way tarnished?

Probably not.

I was going to say that

when you look at where Poch has worked,

he went from from PSG

to Chelsea.

Now, both of those clubs are a highly political situation

behind the scenes.

I think you may find that the US Soccer Federation is just as political, which could be interesting.

Obviously,

I worked

in

the American market myself a few years back,

and there is a lot of politics goes on there.

Now,

one thing for Poch, I mean,

of course, he'll be working in tandem with Emma Hayes, of course.

Now, Emma Hayes has made herself quite a reputation already, and they do like that sort of big name to be in charge.

And I think, as Jonathan said, being in charge of the World Cup of the US, that is a big, big deal, and that's probably what attracted him to it.

And I was thinking, which was the coach back in 94?

Was it

Bora Miliatonovich?

Remember him?

The one with a great kit.

Wasn't it a great kit, the USA 94, US kit?

Yeah, and the Alexi Lalis sort of Spin Doctors look that he had.

Yeah, that was that was good.

I mean, they were

USA 94, great tournament, great tournament.

Yeah, great times.

Did Alexei Lalis look like the lead singer of the Spin Doctors, or did the Spin Doctors look like the

lead singer look like Alexey Lalis?

Who came first?

Lalis or the Spin Doctors?

Well, I think Two Princes.

I'm going to say Two Princes was 92 or 93.

93.

I think Alexi was playing in

Friday

Serie.

Once again, Jonathan is baffled.

What are these all kids?

Jonathan, if you've never heard the song Two Princes, you're a very lucky man.

As you can imagine, you can imagine.

I absolutely loved that song for quite a long time, John.

As you can imagine.

Absolutely.

Right in my wheelhouse, that one.

Anyway, good luck to Poch.

Commiserations to Andy Mangan, the stockport assistant coach, who's been out there moved to Real Madrid because of Brexit.

His application was rejected.

Acquiring a work permit to work in Spain can take up to nine months.

So, you know.

Didn't the opposite happen to Bournemouth's assistant who had to go back to Rayo Valicano last season?

Yeah, he's now the manager of Rayo Valocano because he was Irayola's assistant and, you know, bagman.

And then, yeah, they couldn't get the permit for him, and he had to go back.

So, yeah, Brexit.

You really sympathise with that bloke from Stockport, unless, of course, he's one of those people who wanted their country back and voted for.

In which case, ha ha ha.

We don't know, do we?

Finally, Chelsea have appointed a media expert with no experience of running a football club as the first chief executive officer of the women's team.

Aki Manda has been headhunted to run the WSL Champions from her position as General Manager of the Athletic.

She's due to start at Chelsea before the end of the year with a brief to ensure the club's on-field success is replicated off the field.

Despite winning a fifth WSL title, this is in The Guardian, by the way.

Chelsea failed to attract big crowds when their games were moved to Stamford Bridge, in contrast to Arsenal's success in filling the Emirates.

Chelsea women will be run separately from the men's operation.

We talked about this a few weeks ago with Susie and Tom.

It's quite an interesting move for women's football to just treat themselves as a sort of separate entity from the men's side.

They are, quote, being repositioned so that they sit alongside rather than beneath the men's team

with dedicated resources management, commercial leadership.

And I guess, you know, she's not managing the team.

It doesn't, it's sort of quite a nice headline, but it doesn't really matter, John, does it?

If you know, you've been a CEO of something.

She was an administrator, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So she's run a business before.

So, you know, and this is now, as we say, it's split into a separate business and being something of a media expert that appears to be as you say that the aim of the game is to increase the value of that club and I suppose you do that through a media profile I mean the thing about that is the Chelsea are by far and away the best women's club in the country really aren't they I mean you look at what Emma Hayes won there and have always been well funded.

It's funny actually when you talk about

Stampa Bridge, I've always thought

when I've watched the games at King's Meadow, it's a great atmosphere there for those Chelsea women's games.

So, you know, when they go to the bigger stage, I absolutely understand why they want to do that because they want to get a bigger audience to the game, and that's what it's all about, and that's what we're all behind.

But in those European games, when they want to, you know, frighten, they want to win, you'd much rather go to be that tightly packed King's Meadow and frighten your rivals and stuff like that.

So, big change in that club, of course.

The Chelsea organisation, as we know,

has it sold have they sold it back to themselves or something like that?

That's the the

Dung the Hotel.

It's it's one

you know, it's one of those manoeuvres, isn't it?

And

Jonathan alluded it to it before, you know, there is war at that club, um, and it is interesting to see it's possibly for the best that that the Chelsea women is separated from what's going on in the rest of the organisation, but we don't know.

We've got this civil war.

And you know what my theory is actually I mean it's a dumb theory on on it it's like chelsea felt they weren't they were out of the news for a few days because it was international break so they've just created some sort of succession style row just for the sake of it because they're now a content machine rather than a football club yeah i mean you might well be right um pray for anyone who has to cover chelsea as uh you know that is yes you know you get a couple of days off but no anyway

That feels like we've done a lot.

I enjoyed it tremendously.

Thanks, everybody.

Thank you, Barry.

Thanks, Max.

Thank you, Jonathan.

Thank you, Max.

Thank you, John.

Thanks for having me.

But the weekly is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Danielle Stevens.

We'll be back on Monday.

This is The Guardian.