Advantage Liverpool in the title race? – Football Weekly

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Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly.

And after incredible Saturday twists, turns, a million goals in injury time, it feels so wrong to begin with Manchester City-nil, Arsenal-not Not even a game for the purists.

Not really a game at all, but City had scored in the last 57 games at home.

So stopping that is quite a feat.

And Arsenal will be the happier.

Liverpool now two points clear after Mo Sala finally remembered where the goal is.

Alexis McAllister, brilliant all afternoon against his former club.

And then to the fun stuff.

Newcastle 3-1 down with 13 minutes left.

Win 4-3 against West Ham.

Fulham briefly 4-1 down at Sheffield United before getting a 3-0 draw.

Man United almost get a ludicrously undeserved injury time win at Brentford before Christopher Ire scores in the 99th minute.

While in a season where everyone is beating 11 man Burnley, Chelsea failed to beat 10 of them.

Villa and Spurs just win to keep the fight for fourth interesting, and poor old Seamus Coleman really should have tried something else at Bournemouth.

There simply isn't time for all of this, but we'll do our best to answer your questions.

And that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, Barry Glendenning, welcome.

Hi, Max.

Good morning, Nicki Bandini.

Good morning, Max.

And hello, Lars Sivitson.

Hello, Max.

So

very enthusiastic.

More high-pitched than I intended, but sure, let's continue on in that way.

High-grade

noise.

You don't know what noise you're going to make when you open your mouth.

Exciting place.

Exciting way to live.

Okay, then.

So the top of the league looks as follows.

Liverpool, 67 points.

Arsenal, 65.

Man City, 64.

All paid 29.

We will begin at the Etihad, hopefully for not very long.

Dave says, given the context, was that the single worst game of football in history?

I mean, Barry, it wasn't good.

I was just saying before the pod.

It sort of took me half an hour hour to work out that nothing was happening because I was just sat there going, oh, well, this is the game.

This is what happens.

You watch the football.

And then it just sort of dawned on me that nothing had happened.

And then nothing happened.

Yeah, it was shite.

I mean,

if it was a game between Fulham and Crystal Palace, we wouldn't even mention it.

You'd just sort of go, and Palace and Fulham drew 0-0 because we wouldn't have time.

But we were obliged to talk about it.

It wasn't tactically absorbing.

It wasn't, you know, a chess match.

I don't think even the biggest nerd would try to claim that was a good game of football.

But both managers

set out not to lose.

They didn't lose.

So they'll be happy enough.

And

one or both of them will perhaps rue their approach to this game come the end of the season.

But

for now, I think it's probably a better result for City.

They have the easier run in, and Pep will be confident they can win their remaining games.

And I'd say he'll be fairly confident Liverpool will drop points.

But

I'll be honest, Max, that's all I have to say about that game.

That's right.

I couldn't remember a chance in it.

Okay, Trossard was sort of put in and took a bad touch.

That's interesting you say that, Barry, about Pep being the happier Nikki, because in my mind, Arteta will be the happy.

You know, he went with a plan.

City had scored, you know for 57 straight games at home and so to stop that is is is something isn't it yeah just to pick up was it dave with the question about was that the worst game of football like i i feel like for those of us who grew up with some of our formative memories including the 1994 world cup final when there was no doors for 120 minutes or even i think the 1990 final was quite rubbish as well wasn't it so we've had some we've had a few down the years but it wasn't oh let me take you to cheltenham at home in the ldv vans in the mid mid-2000s.

Nothing is worse than that.

But anyway, it wasn't.

It wasn't.

It wasn't a particularly entertaining game of football.

I would agree that I think Arteta will be the happier of the two.

I mean, I think that's one of the things that

definitely like the online discourse is always ridiculous, and that's just something you get used to covering football.

But some of the sort of reactions to it, going, Oh, why didn't Arsenal show some more courage?

Why didn't Arsenal go for it?

Because last year, Arsenal lost four one to Man City.

John Bruham was saying about

on the last pod about so comfortable that that Erling Haaland was letting his hair down.

Before that, they lost 5-0 away to Man City.

Before that, it was 1-0.

Before that, it was 3-0.

Because Arsenal go to City every year and get Wallock.

So, of course, Arteta's the happier manager with this result.

They went there and got a point.

They've taken four points off Liverpool, four points off Man City.

If Arsenal don't win a league title this year, and I think they probably still won't, it won't be because of their results against the two.

direct rivals.

They got good results against the direct rivals.

That's interesting.

Nikki mentioned Haaland there, Lars.

What did you make of the Haaland?

It was a very sort of,

you know, after the game, they're desperately searching of things to say right people have to say something you can't just go well that was rubbish bye-bye like that would be a great way for Super Sunday to have finished.

I don't have the quote in front of me.

Was it Roy Keene said you know Haaland looked like a league two player?

It might not have been Roy Keene.

It was yeah.

Yeah

that was Roy Keene yeah.

Well, I mean Roy Keene you get what you pay for with him in the studio don't you like he's he's there to say things like that.

I think Haaland does more or less the stuff he usually does except he didn't get much service and the one chance that fell his way he couldn't sort his feet out and that is the thing that's unusual for him um

this is very often the case with him at city he's quite isolated they don't really play the kind of balls to him that he thrives on he tends to get chances to score either way because they're city and in this game arsenal were really really good at denying him service and i also want to kind of give a give a shout out as the young play people say to to gabriel and saliba for defending him really well like they got really physical with him they kind of stopped his runs at source very often or at least disturbed him so he wasn't able to get into the positions he wanted.

He never quite found a rhythm in the game.

And the thing that's unusual with Holland, I mean, really, this is not an untypical Holland performance, except he usually gets a chance or two and scores one or two of them.

And the unusual thing is that he's usually so mentally sharp, but when that one ball came to him at the far post at the corner, wasn't it?

He seemed like he was stuck in two minds.

It seemed like he sort of had a it's hard to analyze exactly what happened in the outside, but certainly he seemed indecisive about whether to smash it or try to play it back

in front of the gold mouth or something, and he just couldn't sort his feet out.

And that's the unusual thing.

Aside from that, I find it kind of funny that

we get this with Holland.

We get games where he doesn't do anything, but then he scores a goal, and then the discourse has the worst is that, oh, he's the best for.

And then we get games like this when he gets no service and doesn't score, and then he's a League Two player, according to very serious man Roy Keene.

So it's like, I don't know.

It's the same stuff we always have, really.

And I would make a joke, though, trying to think of what nation to insult here.

is i i haven't seen a norwegian receive such poor service since the last time i was at a restaurant in budapest i think i think that's appropriate yeah i had some pretty bad yeah the very grumpy way very grumpy waiters in budapest which is an obvious otherwise beautiful city i just want to pick up on on what lars is saying there and i know max you don't want to dwell too long on this game and i and i definitely understand that but i i think we can sort of say at the same time because it comes back to what you were asking before about who's happier between arteta and pet guardiola you can say at the same time that yes from a spectator point of view this was not an interesting game of of football.

Not much happened.

But it is still true that Arteta had a plan for this game and they executed it.

They executed it really well.

They came to

play a game that shut City down.

They had actually some really effective pressing up the pitch.

And in the end,

Yes, it's one of those things where I think we build our narratives of the result in football.

And if Haaland scores that goal, then we draw a different narrative of it.

But also, you could say that Arsenal catched it at 0-0.

And at the end of it, if Trossard plays the right ball across for Martinelli, they can win the game and get exactly the the result they wanted.

So I definitely think from the tactical side of things, I think Arteta got the game he wanted.

I would, of course, agree that from an entertainment point of view, as a spectacle, this was some hot garbage.

But I would sort of push back at the idea that this was almost like a lower bottom half of the...

team.

I mean, what it was was two incredibly well-structured, well-organized teams that tried really hard to work each other out without taking on too much risk themselves.

And neither were able to work each other out partially because the other team didn't want to risk anything.

And that's why we got this.

I mean, the big contrast is when City play Liverpool, we usually get really fun games because Klopp and Liverpool are completely prepared to leave loads of open spaces and just go for it because that's what they do.

And that opens everything up.

Whereas Arsenal are so well structured.

I mean, they've conceded the lowest XG in the league this season.

They're the best defense in the league because they're so well organized and so good off the ball.

And we just had two teams that couldn't work each other out.

There's like some nerdy stuff you can get into on this, right?

Like David Raya, through most of the season, plays less than half of his passes long.

In this game, he played something like 75% of them long.

That tells you what, exactly what Lars just said.

Arsenal weren't willing to take risks they would normally take.

And that's why you get a game like this.

Yeah, my only other thought, Baz, was I've got, I mean, it obviously happens in every game, but just the amount of pressure Anthony Taylor was under, like just the players hassling him constantly.

And I tweeted about this, just leave the bloke alone to do his job.

But actually, some people made an interesting point that he was trying to let the game flow, right?

And in this idea, we're going this big game, you let the game flow and it'll be better.

But actually, if he had, if he'd penalized someone early for a you know a tactical foul or something would actually have that made the game you know if he hadn't let the game flow would the game have flowed more i guess is the question yeah it's a good question and it's hard to know he clearly made a decision pre-match you know i'm going to keep the card in my pocket i don't want to have to send anyone off early

uh or i don't want to have to send anyone off i mean it it did lead to the uh highly amusing spectacle of Manchester City's players and manager being enraged by a team tactically fouling against them repeatedly on rotation.

I found that hilarious.

And yeah, I don't know if

it would have made any difference, but

and the players shouldn't

surround him and hassle him, but it's going to happen.

I don't know if it would have made a difference.

But it is interesting that he had clearly made this decision in his own head sorry just two other points of interest we decided we weren't going to spend much time talking about this and we're now on what 11 minutes i think uh

the lecture jack grealish got at the end of the game from pep guardiola where his eyes just like visibly glazed over and he clearly was unimpressed but couldn't do anything about it also i i believe Manchester City fans had a banner out protesting against increased ticket prices and it was sort of ironic that, you know, you're asking us to pay more to watch this shot.

Well, let's move on to Liverpool then.

They beat Brighton 2-1.

Neil Docking wrote in the Daily Star, I think, or tweeted, he's from the Daily Star.

Injury ravaged Liverpool, top of the league with kids and squad players filling in every week.

Five or six first-team players injured, not fully fit.

We really shouldn't take this for granted.

It's not normal.

They're two points clear, nine games to go.

The sixth time this season they've come from behind to win.

And I thought Alexis McAllister was brilliant in this game like his distribution first half seemed to be him playing inch perfect passes for Mosar to boot it over the bar but

no but he is brilliant and and he has been brilliant and I think it's really interesting that we're seeing now in the second half of the season him be brilliant in the slightly more advanced role that I think he was initially signed to play because for much much of the first half of the season he ended up playing as the deeper midfielder which he can do quite well as well but now with Endo is a more sort of regular starter in there you free him up to do more attacking things.

And he's so creative.

And

he's a really, really good player.

And I think that's a very good point that you start with.

I think we've kind of gotten used to seeing Kwanza and Bradley in that back four.

Like, I guess this is what Liverpool looks like now.

But I mean, it's extraordinary the job they're doing.

And that they time and time and time again come back from conceding first is really impressive.

I think they have they have really good depth.

I think it's still a thing where I don't think it's one I mean we're getting there with what their best 11 is, but I still think it's not 100% obvious when everyone's fit which 11 starts for this team.

But part of that is because sort of number 12, 3rd, well, maybe not number 12, I think the goalkeeper, but sort of, but even though Keller is playing really well, but the number 13, 14, and 15 in the squad is super strong as well.

Like, you have really good options in every part of the team, and Klopp is managing them very, very well.

And they've had to have those options because of all the injuries.

No,

it's a great achievement that they're there.

And maybe it's because we're so unaccustomed to having a three-horse race.

We're struggling to sort of partition up the chat time.

Are we talking too?

I feel like every week we're kind of accused of talking too much about one and less about the other.

It's hard to divide these three teams into equal amounts of chat time.

But Liverpool, incredibly impressive.

Did you see this as the Deserbi audition, Nikki?

Everyone was talking about that.

And I have to admit that, like, I like Roberto Deserbi, but I keep thinking to myself, if I was looking for an Italian manager specifically right now, Deserbi wouldn't be number one on that list.

I'd be looking at Simone Nzagi who I think is

playing at a,

I think he's doing more creative things at a club that's competing at a higher level still.

I like Deserve.

I'm not trying to knock him, but I think that

he still hasn't taken that step.

And maybe that's what you look for as someone waiting to take that step of leading a club into the Champions League and thriving as I would say into have, despite a disappointing result in the end this year.

I would enjoy seeing Deserve at Liverpool.

I think it would be a legacy that makes some sense if you want to keep playing exactly as Lars was talking about in the last segment where you've got two title rivals in City and Arsenal who are very focused on defending themselves.

Desertive doesn't do it that way, does he?

Desertive goes for, we'll score one more than you.

And I think that perhaps philosophically follows from Jurgen Klopp.

I'm not personally sure that's the direction I would go in, even though I like Brighton and what he's doing at Brighton.

Since the last pod, Javi Lonzo ruled himself out of

this job and other jobs, staying at Labour Coos until we think Real Madrid comes up, I think, Lars.

But what do you make of Ruben Amarin now the favourite?

Is that a good idea?

I find it slightly hard to judge because, again, I don't watch the Portuguese league every week.

We need to get, I don't know, Andy Brassel or something up in here to tell us about that.

But I do know that Ruben Amorim has had very good results with sporting, that he's someone who was very highly prized as a manager at a very young age.

I think the kind of I guess the sort of famous fact, the fun fact about him was that he was kind of poached,

He was poached from Braga,

having been in charge for very, very few games.

I mean, I'm trying to, I'm going to have to look this up on the fly because I don't remember it.

He'd been in charge of Braga for 13 games

as a manager and had really no managerial CV on the back of that.

He'd been four games in charge of Casapilla, who are a small team, 11 games in charge of Braga Bay, and then 13 games in charge of Braga when Sporting went, no,

this guy is clearly a genius.

And they paid like a huge

compensation thing to get him out of there.

So he is definitely someone who was identified by smart people who know football as at a very, very, very, very young age,

as a huge, you know, coaching talent and has had good results with sporting since.

And I've kind of always assumed he's going to turn up at a huge club at some point.

And whether he is a perfect fit for Liverpool, I couldn't really say anything beyond that.

And Basic, I mean, you fancied Brighton a little bit.

for this and they look they started really well and they still had you know even at a 2-1 they had a few chance few set pieces but probably as clop said the best that he has played against a diserbi team well it is because it's the first time he's beaten a deserby team uh it's two defeats two draws coming into this game i think deserbi's very first game in charge brighton was was it three or four all draw at um

and field where uh

oh what's his name who's now at um arsenal scored a hat-trick

Trossage.

Yes, Leander Trossard scored a hat-trick.

So, yeah, it definitely was Liverpool's best result against Brighton.

And I think apart from Brighton's very good start and what a shot by Danny Welbeck.

He really spanked that one, didn't he?

Liverpool dominated from more or less that point on, I think, or, you know, after the first 15 minutes, they were very much the better team.

probably I would say the score line flattered Brighton a bit.

It's sort of funny, isn't it, when you think about you just mentioned it, Bears, that game, game, three all, Liverpool, Brighton.

That's actually the only time before that Klopp has managed against Azede at Anfield.

So I do think when we talk about that record, a lot of it has been games played in Brighton.

But it's look at that team for Brighton from that day.

And the two best players for Brighton were Trossard scoring the hat-trick and Kevin McAllister.

And guess what?

They're now both playing for teams who are competing for the title.

Kevin McAllister.

Alexis McAllister.

Sorry, Kevin McAllister.

He played for Coventry in the 80s or something.

But that's his brother.

And also sounds a bit like Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone.

Anyway, that'll do for part one.

Part two will begin at St.

James's Park.

HiPod fans of America.

Max here.

Barry's here too.

Hello.

Football Weekly is supported by the Remarkable Paper Pro.

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Digital notebooks that give you everything you love about paper, but with the power of modern technology.

But there's something new and exciting.

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

a proper football journalist man exactly too much technology draws us in and shuts the world out this paper tablet doesn't.

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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

Now to sort of the bat shit Saturday, you know, the boxing day 1963 or whatever it was.

We'll start with Newcastle 4 West Ham 3.

Totally mad game, Lars.

West Ham looked totally safe at 3-1.

Newcastle players dropping the opening scene of, as producer Joel says, saving private Ryan Flavor.

And then somehow, Newcastle won it.

What happened?

Yeah, no, they very evidently turned it around.

It was a

mysterious development.

And I was feeling quite smug because

I thought West Ham were going to do it here.

It is very frustrating with West Ham.

West Ham are a baffling team to me at the moment because they did the thing that West Ham do now, which is to sit off and to not really press and just kind of invite teams to come at them.

And they've been doing it all season, and it doesn't seem to work that well because, again, looking at the very excellent FB ref website, they have the third highest XG against in the league this season.

Only Sheffield United and Luton have conceded a higher XG than West Ham this season.

The temptation is to sort of,

I feel like this is maybe beneath us, but I mean, it did, it did kind of, it was going well until Calvin Phillips came on.

It just just is, it does seem to be.

I mean, I'm not suggesting it is Calvin Phillips' fault, but this is turning into one of the more ill-fated lone spells in recent memory.

And I feel for him because he was tragic, isn't he?

I feel for him, and I really felt bad for him when he's being abused in the car park afterwards and stuff.

And he doesn't deserve any of this.

He's clearly trying very hard, but it doesn't seem to be working very well.

And for Newcastle, two goals by Harvey Barnes is not a small thing because Harvey Barnes was brought in at what what certainly I as a mere layman thought was a pretty hefty transfer fee for Harvey Barnes and like what's happening there and then he's been injured for a long time now he's back and scoring two two goals so that's a big thing yeah that's what happened I was about to say Lars you went straight for the uncharitable Calvin Phillips but didn't Newcastle's comeback also coincide with Harvey Barnes coming on yeah yeah no it did there's that but in a way Barry that the turning point was the penalty that Calvin Phillips gives away and Anthony Gordon actually won two penalties on very similar I tried Calvin.

I tried Steve's ducky.

You did.

And I feel for him as well.

And it was funny because the first penalty, I go, okay, that's a penalty.

You know, Gordon gets his body in front.

But there's something about the second penalty that makes me think it shouldn't be one, even though I think by any metric it is a foul.

But like it just feels wrong to me.

Yeah, but it is a foul.

And we've been here before, Max, on

what does and does not constitute a foul.

There isn't a grey area here.

And they're both fouls.

But sorry, there is.

But couldn't you say, you know, if Calvin Phillips is bringing his foot back,

if Gordon kicks his sort of, gets his foot in the way as Phillips' foot is in the air, then he's fouling Calvin Phillips.

But is it because he's grounded his foot that Calvin Phillips then swings his boot?

I don't know.

Am I the only person here who watches that?

I know Lars, you know, help me or help Barry.

Well, yeah, I don't love talking about refs, as you know, but I also thought I don't love that that incident ends up with an 80 chance of a goal to to the to the the opposing team like that feels very unfair on the defender and it is it is a thing though if you see a defender about to try to boot it out of the six yard box just try to stick a foot in you know whether you win possession or not just stick a foot in there so he kicks you and you might get a penalty out of it um gordon is incredibly clever at these things and and it certainly gordon seems to me to be just a a walking counter argument to the notion that English players don't have the sort of street smarts of their Latin counterparts.

You know, you hear this wheeled out time and time and again, that we're just not street smart enough.

Anthony Gordon is very, very street smart.

Let's put it that way.

Yeah.

Nikki, some brilliant goals in this game.

I mean, Harvey Barnes' winner is amazing.

Isaac's pass for Barnes Equalizer.

Paquetta's pass for Antonio.

It was just, yeah, I mean, it had, it had everything, if I'm allowed to use that clue to say.

There was a few brilliant goals every week, and I'm sure there's others we're going to get to.

But yeah, Harvey Barnes, I think it's just, it was, I don't think I can think of a much better 30-minute cameo than coming on and scoring those goals.

And, and especially the last one's just so well taken and so sort of, I don't know, you get into those ideas of

momentum in football that aren't real, but sometimes they feel very real.

And you just think, okay, he's going to score this, isn't he?

And he just does.

And it's really, really brilliantly taken goals and very, very,

I don't know, Roy of the Rovers, which I sometimes feel like.

I feel like Newcastle are the most Roy of the Rovers club in England.

They feel like that club club has

that vibe about them more than the rest do.

Also, it just reminds us seeing a player who's been out injured for a lot of the season for Newcastle come on and score two goals.

It's just, you know, I know Newcastle isn't the easiest team for neutrals to feel sorry for at the moment for very, very obvious reasons.

But you do look at that squad and all the injuries they've had and you wonder where they'd been, where they would have been if they had more of these guys fit.

And whatever the talk has been about Eddie Howe's future and all that, I kind of feel like this season is almost just a write-off due to the issues they've had.

And you go again in the summer.

Even in this game, so many injuries, right?

You know, Lascelles, Krauff, Liberamento, Alma Ron, Anthony Gordon now suspended because the ref realised it was his second yellow card, even though Gordon tried to sort of pretend that he hadn't been booked and then looked surprised when he went, me?

You can't.

And someone, I think Bob messaged us to say, Kurt Zuma grassed on him, which would also be a booking.

Grassing should be a booking in football.

Fraser says, Did Barry notice that West Ham had changed goalkeeping?

much a question.

My thoughts with Barry when Fabianski replaced Ariola at halftime.

Was this a cruel plan by David Moyes to confuse him?

Yeah, incredibly confusing game for Barry.

Ariola came off at half-time for Fabianski.

It's just worth it.

It's worth a shout for Mohammed Kudas, who he's a brilliant player.

What was that bit with the ballboy, Nikki?

I sort of...

Yeah, it seemed like he sort of scored and then wanted to use the ball boy's stool to celebrate, but

you're away from home.

So the ball boy just said, said no.

But yeah, it was an odd little...

that front three, Bowen, Paquette, and Kudus, is just really good, isn't it?

I mean, that's sort of proper top seven, six type of.

I mean, I'd certainly have, I'd have them over Chelsea's front three, I think.

I'd probably have them over United's front three.

I mean,

they're tremendous.

They're very, very good.

And West Ham are one of those teams who you feel like might have a...

an oversized say in the title race still because they've got to play both Liverpool and Man City.

In fact, the city is the last game of the season, I think.

So what, yeah, as Lars was saying before, a confusing team sometimes because that front three is so good and you can see what they can do, but then they also have this softness to them.

Um, also, of course, they've got a very intriguing tie against Bayer Lebakusen coming up.

So, yeah, there's going to be quite a lot of interesting West Ham games coming up, I think.

Um, and look, Calvin Phillips, we mentioned, Baz, as he was walking onto the bus, uh, you know, he swore back at the West Ham fans, which would is potentially inadvisable but understandable.

Uh, totally understandable, but he shouldn't have done it.

His head is clearly in the tumble dryer.

And it's interesting that the footage was posted on X and lots of people were clucking sanctimoniously about it.

More or less saying that, you know, if you're on the kind of money Calvin Phillips is on, then

there's no reason why you should

dish it out.

Yeah, you're fair game.

You should be abused.

Yes, you deserve to be abused and you shouldn't let it affect you because you're rich and i think what's interesting about that is a group of of grown adults almost certainly men

like

took time out of their day to congregate around the west ham team bus to watch other grown men get on the bus and single one of them out for abuse.

And

it's quite a tragic indictment if that's what you're doing for kicks on a bank holiday weekend.

But this is where we are.

It would be, I mean, it would be weirder if they just waited at the number 55 bus stop and rang someone.

What I want to see is I know footballers are, they don't get a lot of holidays.

So when they have time off, they typically go to the Maldives or something.

But in the offseason, I think we want to see more footballers following fans to their place of work and sort of observing whether they've had a good day and whether they've been able to execute their tasks to a high standard.

And if they've had a bad day,

whatever they do, whether they're attorneys or lorry drivers or whatever they do, just really stick it to them when they're trying to make their way home.

Just kind of have, I want to see, like, especially those who have really suffered from, like, have Harry Maguire and Callum Phillips and all these sort of kind of hanging around outside of people's offices to just abuse them as they're trying to go home from work.

Just to sort of flip that one on its head a little bit.

I think that'd be good to see.

So, Brammel Lane, Chevy United 3, Fulham, 3.

Nikki, the collective Yorkshire groan when the board went up and it said 14 minutes.

And you just, everybody knew they wouldn't hold on.

And you just thought, ah, the tragedy of it.

Yeah, I was, it was definitely one of those endings that felt inevitable.

And I mean, I've talked about Roy the Rover's goals before, but Moon Hooves' scissor kick to end.

It was absolutely sensational.

I don't know what to say for Shefford United.

I'm sorry for their fans because I'm not certain a win would have saved them, but they probably desperately need a little bit of joy right now.

And it doesn't feel like that's coming this season.

And they, I mean, they did go 4-1-up.

Matt goal disallowed for off-side, you know, an off-side that I was sort of concentrating on, but didn't quite catch.

But Kim does say on that finish, who would you take in your team, prime Ronaldo or current form Rodrigo?

Such a brilliant goal, and actually, like in this game, Baz, you know, Sheffield United did so well.

You saw McBurney and Brereton Diaz linking up really well.

You just thought, oh, there's something here.

McBurney and Bretton Didas played extremely well.

It's just too little, too late from Sheffield United.

And

if they couldn't win that game, you know, they were doomed anyway.

But

it was quite interesting that Chris Wilder didn't seem that fussed when that fourth goal was chalked off.

Because I think he thought, ah, this is in the bag with Grant.

After the game, he felt it.

I don't think it should have been.

i get technically it's the same phase of play but uh i i didn't think it should be chalked off you know

the yeah i'm not going to get into the nitty-gritty of it but yeah it's it's harsh but you know when your luck's out your lucks out speaking of not getting into the nitty-gritty that was how chris wilder fielded questions after he had belatedly become incensed about the fourth goal.

I'm not going to get involved in any controversy in terms of my opinion because it's already cost me.

He's still angry about Sandwich Gate, clearly.

I'm quite a hard-working Yorkshire lad that works hard for his money and I'm not prepared to give it to the FA or anyone else.

So I'll keep those thoughts locked in.

To Stanford Bridge, Chelsea 2, Burnley 2.

I mean, Lars,

if you're Potatino, you have to beat Burnley at home when they're playing with 10 men, don't you?

Yeah, you do.

And it's becoming, it's quite maddening, the whole Chelsea thing, because I do feel like we're kind of saying the same things about them every week, or certainly I'm saying the same things about them every week.

Obviously, there's really no excuse for conceding 18 shots at home to 10-man Burnley.

Like, no one's defending that.

That shouldn't happen.

And Pochettina was pretty clear after the game, you know, they weren't aggressive enough.

Burnley got into their final third too easy.

And inevitably,

should apologize to Burnley fans.

I mean, I've gone straight for Chelsea here.

I mean, we should praise them for showing a lot of spirit.

I mean, this is a team who are in a very, very bad position in the league.

I think most people think they'll get relegated.

And that thought must have crept into the squad as well.

Going down to 10 men at Stamford Bridge, you know, they didn't seem phased at all and they kept fighting and all that was very impressive.

But still, we're here with Chelsea again.

Chelsea had 33 shots in this game.

33.

Like,

not even with a great strike, but just with a normal striker up front, they would have won this game.

And this has been true so many times.

It must be driving everyone in the building completely crazy.

Now, they have to focus.

They can't keep saying this every week.

Like Pochettino mentioned before the game that, you know, according to the stats, they should be fourth, you know, which the XG bears that out.

They have the fourth best XG balance in the league.

Don't know if it's a good idea for Pochutino to say that, though, because I don't think that's going to be a popular take.

And here we have yet another game.

I haven't actually checked the XG, but I'm assuming it's more of the same.

Chelsea creating a bunch of chances, not taking them, and then conceding slightly silly goals and not getting the points they should get.

Cole Palmer's Penenka, Nikki.

At the risk of sounding like a very grumpy old man, I sort of feel Chelsea aren't playing well enough to have a player score a penenka and celebrate like that.

I was just like, come on, on, mate, you're mid-table.

Like, maybe that makes it better.

I don't know.

And I think it's a yes and no because I think Cole Palmer is playing that well.

I think it's just Cole Palmer.

And I keep thinking to myself, every time I watch Chelsea at the moment, I think to myself, he signed what, the last day of the transfer window.

If Cole Palmer doesn't sign, what does this look like?

Because he's brilliant and he's the one who I think actually is even outperforming his XG.

So just on his own.

It's the rest of the team that's the issue.

So I don't blame him for celebrating his moments, I guess.

Vincent Company was very angry.

Barry was sent off by Darren England after Asignon got sent off.

I mean, I've watched that again this morning.

I think that's such a harsh penalty.

Red, you know, second, yellow.

Like, just

not even a foul for me.

But once again, I'm ready to be schooled.

No, I agree with you.

I think it was very, very harsh.

Vince Company, not for the first time this season, got extremely mad.

And

then it was left to

the calm Craig Bellamy Craig Bellamy who

was the voice of reason but I think he was he was being from the Chris Wilder school insofar as he was going well it complaining about this is is above my pay grade and I I certainly don't want to get fined

but yeah you could you could tell he wasn't happy but he he kept his his thoughts to himself which is a Craig Bellamy we're perhaps not familiar with yeah it's interesting on Chelsea that they

we've spoken a lot about Conor Gallagher maybe having to sell him but also maybe having to sell Rhys James obviously had big fitness injury issues but when he's fit is one of the best probably the best right back in the country right and and to sell both of them so I wonder what Chelsea will look like next season doesn't feel great but you know what Chelsea like might win the league next season you know anyway let's go to Brentford Brentford one Manchester United man now we established yesterday Barry and I on the radio that obviously we all thought this was a smash and grab grab with Mason Mount scoring and the commentator saying the ultimate smash and grab because Man United were hopeless and Brentford should have scored 100.

And then Christopher Iyer equalized and someone from the flying squad texted in to explain that this is what's known as a pavement ambush.

So the smash and grab happens, right?

That's Mason Mount.

But the cops are lying in wait.

They know all about the smash and grab.

And Christopher Iyer is the Christopher Iyer is and Ivantonia are the cops who then get Mason Mount and Manchester United and throw them to the pavement and arrest them, saying we knew what you were up to all along.

You mentioned, Lars, you know, Chelsea conceded a lot of shots, you know, and like I'd like to go to you on Manchester United concede a lot of shots all the time, don't they?

Yeah, 31 in this game.

31 shots for Brentford in this game.

Just in time, Neil Mopai being one of the cops would be a befuddling sort of event.

He's the most convincing undercover.

He's undercover, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You don't at least expect him to be on the side of good.

No,

after United's win against Liverpool, that was such a strange thing because obviously it was a huge result in their season and beating Liverpool.

And the players showed a lot of gumption and passion and all of this.

But it was such a deranged game.

I just remember watching this, thinking this is one of the craziest things I've ever seen.

Because you have a midfield where sort of Scott McTominay makes runs into the box because that's the thing he does the best.

And Kobe Maynu also has some freedom to move forward.

So they kept against Liverpool.

There were so many situations where United have deployed the the doughnut formation.

There was just, there were players everywhere except for right in the middle.

There was just a big hole.

And I thought, surely they're not going to do that again because that's crazy.

And lo and behold, they seem to have done that again.

I mean,

I think it was the disallowed goal that Brentford scored.

It was such a great example of United actually pressing with quite a few players.

But then when Brentford gets through that press, the defense is sitting back and there's no one in midfield.

So there's just a massive gap.

And it's just the weirdest thing.

I don't understand how a team is setting up like this on purpose how does this keep happening do they think this will ever be successful it's very very weird uh but but this this appears it's happened for so long now that it must be a feature not a bug and i'm completely i really wish ten hog would explain to us what the thinking is with this i'm looking forward to jonathan wilson's inverting the donut yeah yeah absolutely um and actually bow you made the point that eric ten hog even eric ten hog

said that Man United didn't play very well, which is quite

the thing.

Well, he quite specifically said Brentford were the better side, which is

remarkable for him because we've seen United put in some staggeringly bad performances this season, and he will still come out, stand in front of a camera with a straight face and say, Oh, we were the better team, we deserve to win.

But not even he could

try and dress this up as anything other than

an abomination.

I mean, if they I, when they scored, when Mason Mound scored, i thought oh my god i cannot believe they're going to do this like how have brentford not won this game so i i'm so pleased brentford got at least a point but they deserved all three they were they hit the pole or hit the woodwork four times chance after chance after chance and uh it was

yeah very lucky point for maniu yeah honestly i think everyone very pleased for mason mount even though it was you know the robbery that we all knew about in the end uh um that to for him to score.

But also worth mentioning Ivan Tony's brilliant feat for the

bring the ball out of the sky and then like sort of beat a couple of players.

It was it did remind me, it was quite Harry Kane-like, I thought, in what he was doing in that sort of argument about who should be reserve Kane for England.

I think Tony has established himself in the last week or so for that, yes, last.

Is Tony big enough to have good feet for a big man?

Yeah, I think so.

He's six foot one.

Like, he's not actually massive.

Yeah.

He's a big six foot one.

Yeah, he's very good in the air for a slightly above average sized man.

Yeah.

No, that's you're right.

But that doesn't roll off the tongue.

Yeah.

Good, yeah.

Good feet for a slightly above average man.

I think the average height is sort of five foot eight in the UK.

So six one is probably a is probably a big man in relative terms.

But yeah, maybe we shouldn't

try and analyse it too

too much.

I don't know.

I feel like this is something we have time.

We should spend more time on this today.

Because there's nothing else to talk about in this episode.

Almost nothing happened over the weekend listen if we have time we'll get to your falconry story and we'll do that along with the rest of the premier league games in part three just reminding me that is my anecdote that's at risk here

Hi pod fans of America, Max here.

Barry's here too.

Hello.

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Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly.

So in the race for the top four, Spurs are still fifth, but they beat Luton 2-1.

Hyung Min Sun getting the goal late on.

It does feel, Barry, like Luton played very well every game and then lose by one goal late on.

Yeah, that's kind of it.

Or else they score a goal late on to earn themselves a point when perhaps they deserve more.

There was one incident in this game, I think

Luton were a goal up,

Spurs won possession,

and Kulasevsky played a ball through to Son,

who went round Kaminsky, then took a shot, it hit both posts, came out.

Werner's

follow-up was blocked by Isakabore, and then Papisar's follow-up to Werner's follow-up was cleared off the line

by somebody or other.

Absolute madness.

And there was more action in that 10 seconds than there was in the entirety of Arsenal Man's man sitting near Arsenal Gate.

I think we all want Luton to stay up because it would be just such a romantic story and they're a nice team.

They always seem to score.

They

often don't get what they deserve and then they go and lose at home to shite teams and that's what's who are down in the mire with them and that's probably what will end up costing them.

But another very, very good performance.

And even if they do go down, and I still think they've enough about them to stay up, they can go down with their heads held high, unlike

other teams who will go down with them, or might go down with them.

With their

heads held low.

I mean, I suppose can be forgiven for conceiving that early because Andros Townsend didn't cut inside for the first time in his career.

And actually, that own goal,

Nikki, is it's hilarious.

Like, when you see it first off, you're like, oh, it's just really quick.

There's nothing you could have done.

But then when you watch it again, he just runs onto the ball and then just kicks it in.

Just

I don't know.

I do.

I think we can feel sorry for

Luton without specifically thinking they should have got a result from this game because it would have been, it would have been very lucky to get a result from this game.

Tottenham could have scored about four or five different times.

And there was, Baz already mentioned the most sort of the most incredible of them, but there was also a clearance off the line later that was

99.9% of the ball across the the line.

I've never seen a ball more in the goal that wasn't in the goal.

Right, exactly.

So, so I think Tottenham more than deserved their win.

But, um,

but yes, Luton are a lot of fun, and you want fun teams to stay in the division, don't you?

So it's easy to want to root for them.

Tim Sherwood was watching that game on soccer Saturday, and

he was just so bamboozled by the fact that the ball hadn't been declared to have crossed the line.

He kept saying that, I don't know who the ref was, but his watch mustn't be working.

His watch has broken down.

That was in the goal.

His watch is broken.

I sort of have some sympathy for him, Lars.

It would have been such a robbery that if Luton had got something,

Neil Mopay would have

turned up outside the ground

with a baton, a riot shield, and some tear gas.

Which is really how I think mentally Neil Mopay turns up at most games anyway.

But Neil Mope was actually getting into it on X with Luke Littler.

Was he?

They were, yes, teenage dart sensation.

Luke Littler and Neil Mopay were sparring, were they?

Having beef on Twitter.

Good-natured beef.

After the Luke Littler's a Man Yu fan, obviously.

Right, yes.

I think Neil Mopay had...

There was a photo of Scott McTominay pulling his shirt off, and Neil Mope just went, this fan really wanted my shirt.

funny.

He's quite funny, I guess.

To the vitality, Bournemouth 2, Everton 1.

Oh, Baz,

your best, your favorite man, Seamus Coleman.

Oh, God, gutted for him.

I'm going to do everything in my power to try and blame Jordan Pickford for this.

I'm a big Jordan Pickford fan,

but

yeah, God.

I mean,

Everton are a shambles.

And once again, they're circling the plughole.

They may very well stay up.

They've gone behind 17 times this season and have not won a single one of those games.

They've lost 14 of them, drawn three.

That own goal from Seamus Coleman was just,

oh, God, I felt for him.

I don't think it was quite as bad as this Kabora is, but it was pretty good.

I don't know.

I don't know.

The ball is going at about a hundredth of the speed of that one.

At least Brennan Johnson put the ball in with pace for Kabora.

Seamus Coleman just stood.

I mean, you're right.

Pickford sort of jitters a bit, like Pickford does, but I don't think that was the right play from Seamus Coleman.

Yeah, but look, it certainly looks like if Everton stay up, it will not be due to anything they've done.

It will be entirely down to the rubbishness of three other teams.

And that seems to be the Everton way.

But it would be madness probably to sack Sean Dice.

But

no one ever seems to say, you know, what's going on here?

He's doing a terrible job.

And I think it might be down to the fact that in his post-match interviews, he always comports himself very well, speaks very well, and

the game he talks about isn't the game we've just seen.

I just, because then that's me being the resident XG nerd, by which I mean the person on the panel who has the FBRF website open on his laptop right now, now.

Their numbers are sort of roundabout mid-table, which I think, given everything they've gone through, suggests that a lot of the stuff underneath in their process, as they say, the smart people, is good.

It's just that they can't score.

I mean, they have forwards who are catastrophically underperforming

in front of goal.

And that has been a huge problem for them all season.

Now, this game, I don't think, is the best example of that, because in this game, they just...

weren't very good.

And I thought Sean Dais

said words to that effect after the game as well.

But throughout the season, the problem has been they're doing a lot of right things.

They're getting the ball wide, putting crosses in.

It's just Calatloon and Neto are just not scoring.

Yeah.

Well, Beto, not Neto, because it was Neto's mistake and Beto's goal.

Netto to Beto, yeah.

Yeah.

And like of all the rhyming goals, Mexico 86, Vasily Ratz powering the ball past Joel Batts is the peak of all of all rhyming goals.

Asinville beat Wolves 2-0.

Wolves actually started quite well, I thought, in this game,

Nikki.

But

you know, Musa Diaby is very good.

Said he's going to buy Esri Conser a watch, and actually, in the end, straightforward for Villa.

Yeah, Vida and other these teams, I think it's probably just goes for too many teams in the Premier League at certain point, but they bamboozle me a bit.

I'm never quite sure

where they are because they've had some very, very good results and they've had games where, like the Tottenham game, where they just don't show up.

But

it was a heated derby, and they were the best team.

Perfectly put.

Simple.

Did you like Mr.

DiRby afterwards offering Esri Concern a watch?

Barry?

I just obsession of footballers with watches.

I guess, you know, it's just another thing, isn't it?

Yeah, well,

they've all got so much money, I suppose.

You end up spaffing it on

Bling and watches.

I would be very reluctant.

I don't.

My watch, I think, cost...

80 Australian dollars.

And I can't get the back offer to replace the battery, so I no longer wear it.

But if, Max, you ever decide you want to buy me a watch,

just a bog standard digital G-Shock.

Right.

Are you a G-Shock?

It's not a Casio.

Yeah.

No, G-Shock.

It's the one I've had the longest.

I'm not very good at mining watches.

So if I had some sort of like £50,000 timepiece, I don't think I could ever wear it.

Aling Holland, big watch collector.

Like, not just because he's a wealthy man.

He's a bit of a watch nerd.

He's really interested in watches and the different types of them and the history and stuff like that yeah big watch enthusiast is there a chapter on that in your book is that when you went god i've got to pad this book out a bit

not the entire chapter it's not the entire chapter but it's a prominent part of one chapter yeah what does he like most and there was me thinking uh erling harland seemed quite a dull man

no

He's even he even said he he gave a really

interesting interview to a Norwegian language watch podcast, which I think can't have that many listeners, but he's just decided to, these are my people.

I want to talk to them.

And it's one of his best ever interviews.

And he does mention that he's been almost a little bit disappointed because he sometimes sees teammates have really cool watches and he asks them about them and they don't know anything about them.

They just have them because they're rich.

I mean, I presumably.

most watches just do the same.

I mean,

there must be someone who will tell me up for this, but you know, the process of time is interesting.

Time as a concept is interesting.

I don't want to get all Robbie Earnshaw here, but it is interesting.

That feels like something we could leave for an international break.

Having just introduced, I say, having just introduced Alan Holland's watch obsession into the conversation.

Who's getting fourth then, Lars?

Let's bring it back to some actual football.

I'm kind of interested.

Because they've all got to play.

They've all got to play.

Villa and Spurs have a big say in the title race, but

those three have a big say in the top four, right?

I'm inclined to say Spurs right now, which is not necessarily a slight on Villa, but Villa have a few few injuries that I think are a little bit bad for them, and the sort of trend hasn't been ideal.

I don't trust Spurs, really, but I trust them a little bit more than Villa right now.

And United, the theoretical chance they have,

it's really hard to watch that Breadford game and think that they're going to go on a winning run between now and the end of the season.

So, I'd be inclined to say Spurs, but not with any great conviction.

I think I also think it'll be Spurs.

I think it won't matter because I think England will get the fifth Champions League sport.

So, I think that it will go down to fifth.

Same as you, Lars.

But every time I watch Manchester United, I think to myself,

surely that's not a top five team, but they are sick.

And I don't really understand any of them.

They are garbage.

I'm convinced they're garbage.

And yet they are sick.

So I don't know how it's happened.

Finally, Forrest won.

Crystal Palace won.

Chris Wood's header, Barry.

I think might have been my favourite goal of the weekend.

It was a lovely pirouetto-y

header in a tight space, a perfect lob over the keeper.

It's not the best goal Chris would score this season, but it was arguably the best of the weekend.

Because there was, yeah, that one where he channeled his inner sort of Ronaldino.

Who's this guy?

And I watched highlights of this game.

That had been done by the in-house Crystal Palace media team.

And they described it as a glancing header, which

I think was criminally unfair and hopefully done with with tongue firmly ensconced in cheek.

So Forest have one place above the relegations though the level on points with Luton.

So I sort of whenever I see them I think they've got so much fun going forwards especially if it's spearheaded by Chris Wood who does score goals you know a lango and Hudson Adoy and Gibbs White.

I sort of think they always look like

quite good to me, you know, like they should be sick more than Manchester United.

Like when I see them, they are playing better football than Man united and initially when new no took over they were scoring quite a few goals uh but then in the last sort of the last month or so i mean they lost one nil to united one nil to liverpool lost one nil to brighton and then it's been one one against looten and one one against palettes so i guess we're kind of we're on the road to improvement here I suspect that there are three worse teams than them in the league, but not by an awful lot, I guess is what I say.

But I concur, that that attack they have is quite groovy and fun.

And I don't know, should should Nuno perhaps be getting a little bit more out of them?

Is that something that's

fair to suggest?

I don't know.

I feel like this is going to get edited out.

No, I don't know.

I think it's fair to suggest.

We don't have, you know, well, edited out because it's such a controversial view on who the Spiritos had.

No, no, no, just for boredom.

Because

I very clearly had no interesting things to say about nothing in forests.

You had run out of petrol.

You basically had run out of petrol.

There's no gas left.

Could someone say

Lars is just on a hill somewhere?

Could just somebody take a tank of some thoughts on Nottingham Forest?

Because just we need some Nottingham Forest info sent to Lars Sivardson and just thrust it into his anoint.

I'll stop where I was going with that.

Anyway,

Arsenal won the Women's League Cup 1-0 against Chelsea in extra time.

Quite a lot's been made of

Emma Hayes pushing Jonas Idervell after the game and Jonas Idevel yelling at one of the Chelsea players and

an argument over multi-ball or one ball.

I didn't know this was a debate you could have before the game.

Man, I don't know if anyone has any strong thoughts on it.

Obviously, Guardian Women's Football Weekly will cover it because Emma Hayes came out and said, you know, sort of talked about male aggression

on the sidelines.

I just think it's quite an interesting, what I think has been quite interesting, Nick, is how, and this is what social media does, how everyone is certain they know what's happened here when it was obviously quite far away, you know.

Yeah, I think that's one of those situations where perhaps I would defer to the reporters who were in the stadium about everything that gone on during the game, because obviously it was a long game, went to extra time.

There was a lot that would have gone on during the game.

What you see in that tiny snippet after the final whistle is not the whole story.

Obviously, yes, after the final whistle, you do see Emma Hayes gives Jonas a little shove, but I think there's almost certainly more to that story than you see in that moment.

It's kind of

it felt like a very sort of petty thing to become the story of the game in a game when Freedom Arnhem did collapse and there was genuine concern about the the health of someone it was kind of a scary moment in that game but i i think in the end it's in the end that that thing between the two of them boils down to they've had

a solid three-year quite entertaining or more than three years sorry but they've had a solid rivalry between the two of them uh the whole time that ideal's been there and it's been uh it's been one that for the most part emma hays has won but she lost this one yeah um now lars you've been out in the states i have uh you know doing some mls research

How was it?

Tell us all about it.

It's not really the only reason I went, but I was in America, so I decided I could scratch my MLs.

It is worth pointing out.

It is worth pointing out before the pod, Lars said, he had an incredible story.

I did not say that.

I said I had answers

how it was.

See, I have...

There are receipts.

Anyway, I went to America.

I had a good time.

I went to scratch my MLS itch first at FC Dallas versus the Vancouver Whitecaps.

You know, former Scotland prodigy, Ryan Gold, sort of pulling the strings for Vancouver White Caps.

That's where he's at.

And it was, and I also went to LAFC versus Nashville with Sam Servage up front for Nashville.

So, you know, star-studded stuff all around.

Now, MLS, I quite enjoy, and having seen it in the flesh now.

You know, the quality is the standard is getting better, but they still do some really goofy things occasionally, which is what I want from this league.

And for LAFC versus Nashville,

before the game, they had some Falconry.

Now, they have a typical pre-game sort of Falcon flight when Ollie the Falcon is released.

And in this case, it was notable Hollywood star Elizabeth Banks,

a fine actor, comedic actor in her own right, but also the director of Cocaine Bear, who released

Ollie the Falcon ahead of the game.

Ollie the Falcon then refused to come back.

The Falcon flew around a bit, but when it came down to get the Falcon to return, the Falcon did not want to return.

Now, these things are kind of, these events are quite tightly managed so after the falconry there was meant to be a light show as the players kind of came onto the pitch so when time went by and the falcon refused to return the light show just kind of kicked in with the falcon still at large so the lights went out and there was light show with the sort of ominous shadowy uh falcon still whooping about and and where i was sat the falcon came in quite low and kind of got very close to people's heads swooping down and flying around and and there was really you can't stop the thing once once the event event is rolling.

So the game eventually kicked off with this rather significant bird of prey still at large.

And there was great uncertainty as to whether the Falcon would maybe return at some point during the game.

That would have been very exciting.

Alas, that's not what happened.

They supposedly, this is what was put out.

The Falcon was tracked down to a nearby building because they had a GPS tracker on him and brought only the Falcon back to the stadium.

But of course, who knows, really?

was a black there was a dark i mean we live in an age of conspiracy where nothing can really be trusted there was a period of time in which ollie the falcon was at large is it the same is it the sort of a manchurian falcon who knows but uh that is what happened and i thought it was tremendous get the reserve falcon I like the idea of the falcon coming down, just, you know, embedding its talons in your shoulders and then just flying off with masks

into the Dallas sky.

I can't remember which city you were in at this time, but I'm just taking taking you away and that was it we never and we never saw him again and lars went on to live a very happy life in a giant nest with a falcon

max i don't think that's what falcons do when they take things up oh really okay i'm on expert uh yes barry i was just wondering if sam surridge scored for vancouver white caps because my abiding memory of sam surridge is just

being hopeless in front of goal when nottingham forest got promoted yeah so i i i i may have, this is me showing my poor.

Don't go to Lars on Nottingham Forest questions.

That's a promotory.

That's a promotory.

I was declared on the entire subject of Nottingham Forest.

No, I mean, LAFC won 5-0.

It was a triumphant experience for LAFC against Nashville on that occasion.

So he did not, Sam Surage, he did not look very effective

in this game.

But I just think the main takeaway from this is that we want more unexpected celebrities releasing animals ahead of football games.

I think we should have that.

It doesn't have to be a falcon.

It can be like a possum or a small bear.

I mean, we could just kind of

get people to do it.

And it would, yeah.

The Americans are showing the way here.

Here we are.

I'd like the idea of Dave Jones having to go, yes.

And before and just before Aston Villa take on wolves, here is Dave Benson Phillips to release the Wombat.

Anyway, that'll do for today.

Thank you, Nikki.

Thanks.

Cheers, Baz.

Thank you.

Cheers, Lars.

Thank you, Max.

For the weekly produced by Joel Grove, our executive producer is Danielle Stevens.

Midweek Premier League fixtures.

So we'll be back on Wednesday.

This is The Guardian.