Liverpool go five points clear but can they sustain title push? – Football Weekly

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Hello, and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly.

Liverpool go five points clear at the top of the Premier League after a 4-0 win over formside Bournemouth.

Diogo Jotta running the show and Darwin Nunes spinning the wheel and landing on ice cool finishing for once.

About time to make them at least second favourites for the title.

A much needed win for Arsenal.

Who knew an almost full-strength gunners after a week in Dubai would be out of form, patched up, no holiday crystal palace?

Is this the end for Roy?

Brackett's disclaimer.

It's never the end for Roy.

Ivan Tony in Moving the Foam controversy Forrest have written to the PGMOL already.

Hopefully they'll respond with, it's vanished and we can't see it.

In Unexpected Things to Say, a wonderful winner from Neil Mope seals the points for Brentford.

And then great fun and injury time at Prammel Lane.

Red cards, penalties, subkeepers, non-penalties, as Shefford United and West Hand draw 2-2.

There's depressing racism in Italy and in the EFL.

Europeans finest circling around Newcastle for transfers.

More players having a sad time in Saudi and Pamer's birthplace.

All that, plus your questions.

And that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, Will Unwyn, welcome.

Hello, Max.

Hello, Barry Glendenning.

Hello, Max Rushkin.

And hello, Lars Sivitson.

Hi, Max.

Let's start on the south coast as Storm Isha battered Bournemouth and the Vitality, and so did Liverpool Barry.

Coppite says, why do the media insist the team that is top of the league have a dodgy defence and no chance of winning it when they've only lost one game, Druitt City, and have the best offensive record in the league?

I mean, he's right, isn't he?

We should be saying these guys are,

if not favourites, second favourites.

I wasn't aware that the media were saying these things about Liverpool's defence, were they?

Maybe they are.

It's passed me by if that's the case.

I mean, obviously they have injury issues in defence.

They're missing their two first choice left backs.

They were missing Trent Alexander Arnold yesterday at right back.

I thought they played well yesterday.

Colin Bradley made his Premier League debut at right back.

He's obviously not as good as Trent Alexander Arnold and he's he's different to Trent Alexander Arnold but I thought he played pretty well.

Diogo Jotta had to fill Mo Sala's

size fives or whatever they are and again

not as good as Salah different to Salah but he also ran the show and

scored two set up one.

Liverpool look like they may well

you know march on imperiously without Mo Sala while he's at the af

I think maybe the reason people aren't saying they're favourites for the league are because everyone expects Man City to go on their post-festive run of wins and Man City have really good players and loads and loads of strength and depth, strength and depth that Liverpool don't necessarily have.

And I suppose that's why people but yeah, I would say Liverpool are pretty second favourites.

I would fancy them to finish ahead of Arsenal come season's end.

I guess there were two questions, Lars.

How would they cope without Salah?

How would they cope without Trent Alexander Arnold?

Starting with the former, and Baz mentioned it.

Jotter was brilliant.

And he's good at all the bits of football, isn't he, without being sensational?

This is true, but I think what really marks him out in that front line, that they're really interesting group of forwards that Liverpool have with like a couple of different things you can club can kind of mix and match, as he has done very successfully.

I think what marks him out is he's quite efficient with his finishing, and he's got this sort of knack for goals, which is an easy thing to say after he's scored two really good finishes.

But even looking at numbers,

like looking at the very excellent FB ref website over the last 365 days, if you look at his other, the other forwards Liverpool have, like, Gapko has scored 0.4, two goals per game, non-penalty goals, Darwin have scored 0.49, DS has scored 0.29, so it's kind of half a goal per game and less.

Whereas Jota is at 0.78.

It's like 0.8 of a goal almost per 90s.

For a winger, it's pretty sensational.

So he just, when he's had injury problems, he's always been available for him.

But when he plays for Liverpool,

he does have this sort of clinical edge in the box, which is always good to have.

And I think it's especially important to have when Salah's missing.

So him coming back just that Salah's gone off to the AFCON, I think, is very, very good timing for Lupo.

Yeah.

And his second goal was great because the Bournemouth crowd sarcastically cheered a little too early.

Oh, shit.

You mentioned

Jota's efficiency.

I mean, Darwin Nunes, I guess, will is inefficient, but yesterday he was great.

And actually, both his goals, really different, but both brilliant.

Yeah, I think with the Jotter missed shot, it was very much the case thinking that he might be one of us playing five aside and that he would just stay on the ground having forward over.

So that's the end of that one.

Oh, no, he's a professional footballer.

Oh, no, he's really good.

Ah, bollocks.

We've lost.

Yeah, Yeah,

I've always been quite a big fan of Nunes.

I like these erratic players, these unpredictable people.

I think it adds to the team.

A lot of people, you know, football tactics are very

specific nowadays.

Everyone's expected to do a specific role

in certain areas of the pitch.

Whereas Darwin Nunes, I'm not sure specifically what his role is, and I don't think he does.

And that messes with opposition.

You can't predict what he's going to do from one minute to the next.

And you look at the positioning for the opener where he gets in a great bit of space, calm finish, nice and easy, great run for the second goal to get on the end of the cross.

Liverpool have done their homework and whatever the price tag is is irrelevant when you end up at a club like Liverpool.

They'll know the qualities he's got.

And he's shown them in patches.

And he's finishing might be a little bit erratic at times, but he's still young.

And those things come when you get a bit cooler and a bit calmer and more measured.

And he's showing that he has all those and it's up to Klopp now to get it out of him on a regular basis.

But I really like him.

I think he's got the physical and technical attributes.

As I say, he started on the left, he moved into the middle,

he can bring a bit of variety on those fronts.

And he's just

a good player and actually probably taken a nice bit of responsibility without Salah in the team that need goals.

And he's played the most games for Liverpool this season.

So Klopp clearly thinks he's pretty good at football, you know, considering what you've got in that squad.

Yeah, you just wouldn't want to play against him at all, would you?

Mosala is back in Liverpool where he's going to rehab his injury, and then he may go back to Afcon.

This is what the Egyptian FA have said for the semi-finals if Egypt were to make it that far.

They also didn't, as you mentioned, Barry, didn't have Trenton Alexander Arnold.

And actually, Danny Murphy was quite interesting on that day, too, last night.

Showing Alexis McAllister, even though he plays in a different position, was kind of doing that role.

His distribution was really excellent in this game, and that filled the Trent void.

He sort of Tom Brady'd a few balls through the middle and was playing those long diagonals.

And I suppose you have to factor in.

It was really windy yesterday, and it's difficult to do that at the best of times.

But playing football in high winds is hard.

It's really difficult.

And he made it look very, very easy.

I mean, for me, just playing football at all is very difficult.

Well, not if Beavers in Gold, Barry, but we don't know.

No, no, yes.

I mean, McAllister is a brilliant player, and

I said earlier Liverpool don't have the same strength and depth as Manchester City, and that is true.

No one has because of so many brilliant players.

But

Liverpool

had holes to fill yesterday, and while they, you know, square holes, round pegs, but it worked.

Yeah, and I think they have what Liverpool have are really really interesting options i've just mentioned it with the front line but it's true about the midfield as well i think

he wasn't i mean shobosly out is is is a oh he's probably like the most clearly nailed out of that midfield group but having to pick from well being able to pick from like curtis jones and like javiel is a really good player and you've got endo if you want to beef that up a bit gravenberg is incredible like i'm just listing midfielders at this point but like there are really it's a really interesting squad they've got this season and you do

maybe the reason and i think the initial sort of tweet you referenced is not i do think we don't talk about liverpool perhaps in quite the way we should talk about a team that's top of the league in in late january but there is also this kind of sense that there may be a weirdly

both top of the league and a work in progress because if if liverpool were playing a champions league final tomorrow i don't think it would be obvious what the 11 would be right like because there are so many different like constellations you can go with so it feels a little bit like rather than a settled 11 that looks amazing and and everyone knows what's going on klop is just kind of figuring out what works for what setting but then as we've seen they've done such a good job in various games changing things up changing the making little tweaks and bringing on substitutes so they have a really good sort of yeah they have they have a really good squad is get what i guess i just spent a lot of words saying and pablo says every player on liverpool starting 11 had facial hair today is this the closest to jürgen klop's image that we can hope for uh this is the work that mainly producer joel has been getting up to this morning.

Allison, standard normal beard moustache, Harvey Elliott moustache and trim chin strap, Darwin Nunes conquistador moustache, Curtis Jones goatee, Joe Gomez full beard, no moustache, McAllister stubble, jotter somewhere between thick stubble and light beard, Louis Diaz quite a thick chin strap, Van Dyke has a sort of soul patch on the chin, as does Connate and as does Connor Bradley, which shows Virgil's influence in the dressing room, presumably.

But yeah, a totally no clean-shaven player in the Liverpool starting 11.

So

well-noticed Pablo.

I have no questions on this, but I enjoyed it.

Do you think that's one for the Academy players that they don't, they can't get into the first team until

they can grow some proper facial hair?

That's what Connor Bradley's been waiting for.

He's just got, he's finally got that little bit of a bad one.

Lewis Miley would never get Lewis Miley would never get a run, would he?

Arsenal 5 Palace 0.

Then Fraser says, was it the set piece boffin or was it really the wisdom of Salt Bay?

Nico Jova, the set piece coach,

on comms, they were talking about how all they did in Dubai Lars was practice set pieces.

It's all they did, as I mentioned to Barry yesterday, did they take Crystal Palace's Chris Richards to Dubai?

with them to work on not quite marking Gabrielle as part of the holiday.

I don't know, but it's good to be good at set pieces.

I mean, that seems really obvious.

Yeah, no, absolutely.

No one should be too proud and haughty to put the work in to have good set piece routines.

I do tend to think that from Palace's perspective, that is a stinky way to lose this game.

You're missing some people.

You're going to the Emirates.

There's a bunch of different ways that game can go wrong for you.

And it's conceding two corners so that you're 2-0 down.

That's really, really dispiriting.

Well executed.

Maybe that's the key when they do these warm weather training camps.

Just do a lot less training.

Just work on set pieces somewhere where it's not quite so cold to stand around all the time.

I I mean, they did Will, who was it?

I think it was Match of the Day who sort of showed in really granular detail who's blocking who, who Erdoga's pulling his socks up.

I don't know if I need all that analysis.

I'm just quite happy seeing corners occasionally go in and occasionally not.

But it's quite interesting how much goes into it.

Oh, Lars, you have your hand raised.

I can come back to you.

Yeah, just after that, if I was Martin Odigo, I would just be doing increasingly bizarre things with my socks.

And like, I just started doing the worm or something like really, really

odd things on corners just to see what the people in Mesha the day make of it.

Get some MC hammer pants, go across the box, slide across the box.

You could pointedly roll one sock right down and pull the other one right, right up onto your shorts.

It would really distract the defender.

Maybe that's what Chris Richards is doing.

He was just looking at Odegaard messing with socks going, oh, hello.

Hello, maybe I've worked.

What does that mean?

Yeah, maybe I've worked this out and then by the time he's worked it out, he'll balls in the back of the net, unfortunately.

Yeah, I mean, because sometimes, Barry, I have a sort of oversimplistic view that just sometimes the corner is hit in such a way and everyone's running and then sometimes an attacker will just get the flight of the ball i mean there's obviously skill in heading the ball and there's real bravery in heading a ball and gabriel showed that but sometimes it's just where the ball goes i get what you say max but

if it's it's a lot easier if you're if you get a free run at it so if your teammates are blocking defenders and someone's standing right beside the keeper then your your job in reaching the ball and getting highest is is made that considerably easier.

So that is interesting.

I was just thinking about translating it to Sunday League, you know, like because everybody and Sunday no one knows what they're doing.

No one ever scores from a corner.

But really you get half of your attackers to just hold other defenders and not worry about attacking the ball.

It's a really good idea.

I mean you wonder like Arsenal really needed this Lars, this result, didn't they?

And it was a poor run, but I wonder if Palace is the the bigger part of this story.

Yeah'cause they are kind of creeping towards towards the relegation situation aren't they i mean it's still like five points above luten but that doesn't feel like enormously safe now lootened have a game in hand and

i don't know the thing that's slightly puzzling for me is that when roy came back in last season we were all a little bit surprised by how that went because they suddenly were much more attacking than they had been and it's like roy unleashed unleashed the hounds of palace and and that just seems not what we thought was going to happen and it worked really well and and that is definitely not happening this season like it feels very constrained what they're doing and i mean one thing that's been difficult for them and i don't know if this is a mitigating factor because it's obviously it's his job to figure this stuff out but michael elise and ibera eze has almost never been fit and available at the same time i'm sure that's something that's i looked it up it's only something like three games they've been able to start together which is crazy and that's obviously bad for them in terms of where their creativity is coming from Jordan Ayu is amazingly the most fouled player in the league so far.

This is one of the strangest stats I think I've come across in a long time, but clearly him just receiving the ball and falling over at some point is something that's helping them a lot.

Now he's not available.

Of weight Arsenal isn't the game where you sort of decide we can't do this anymore, I think.

But

they're not winning games.

They're really not.

And Roy seems to be struggling to find a way to stop that.

I think obviously you see the

fan.

which shows they're upset with the club.

Yeah, it said wasted potential on and off the pitch, weak decisions taking us backwards.

And there was a sort of sad shot of Roy looking sad, read it looked like he was reading the banner and looking sad.

They've been in the Premier League for 10 straight years.

They don't really ever seem to have made an impact.

The problem the fans have now is that you look at other clubs like Bournemouth make bold decisions when it comes to getting Areola.

Brighton gets Deserby.

They have a structure.

They have a plan.

Palace's plan seems to be: if they can get the best player in the championship, that's pretty good.

They don't have a striker that will ever score enough goals.

There's a lot of money being made out of 10 years in the Premier League, and to not have any to find a striker that might score 10 to 15 goals a season seems pretty inept.

And the recruitment seems quite boring at best, I would say.

And that's it.

And when you've got a problem, yeah, fine.

You've brought in Roy Hodgson to the end of the season to keep you up.

No issue with that.

That's fine.

But when it comes to the summer, you have to make a plan for the future.

And unfortunately, as much like Roy Hodgson, having a 75-year-old in the dugout this doesn't really imply long-term thinking because they had those months to think oh you know maybe maybe we could get Iraola or someone off that ilk or a younger coach and I'm sure Roy would have generously taken another position at the club and I think that's what frustrates fans that it doesn't really seem to have sort of modernized Selhurst Park is quite antiquated in you know Premier League terms it's you know

it doesn't seem to be any sort of natural indication of where 10 years of Premier League money is is being funnelled.

I presume, Barry, that Graham Potter was shoehorned in for the job.

He was even taking notes in the stand, but apparently, um, Palace have passed on Graham Potter because he used to manage Brighton, and because of that rivalry, they won't go there, which seems, I mean, I know it's, it can be quite an incendiary rivalry, but that seemed, I mean, whether Potter is the right man is a different question, but that seems an odd thing to do.

Do you do you think the writing is on the wall now for Roy?

Well, my prediction going into this weekend was that Palace would lose heavily, and I thought we would be discussing

Roy Hodgson's dismissal on this pod, or else you'd have to do a voice note, you know, later to add in

after when he was.

Can you do it, Barry?

I'm really, I'm really tired.

Ian is not sleeping.

I pass on voice note duties to you if Roy gets the bullet at you know midnight my time.

I will happily do that for you.

Yeah, I mean

I think he probably should go um the thing about pot then passing on potter because he used to manage brighton is quite interesting because

i know for palace and brighton fans that is an incendiary rivalry but it's one everyone else sort of looks at and just shrugs their shoulders and can't really get their head around it because they're not neighbours you know we we've spoken before why they are rivals whether or not palace fans would care that he used to manage brighton is for them to say i i honestly don't know there seems to be a bit of turmoil behind the scenes at Palace.

So you have three different American investors.

The main shareholders, John Texter, who apparently would like them to go on more flamboyant forays into the transfer market.

But Steve Parrish, who is the minority shareholder,

I think his stake in the club is now around 10%,

but he seems to run the club.

So

he decides who they they buy and he decides who manages the club.

And apparently

Parrish and Texter fell out quite recently over the American guys' takeover of Leon.

There was shares had to be shifted from

one holding company into another and Parrish didn't sanction.

It was all very boring, but apparently they're not seeing eye to eye at the moment.

And then you've these two other guys in the background, David Blitzer and Josh Harris, who have about 20% each, I think.

So,

yeah, there just seems to be questions over who is actually making the behind-the-scenes decisions, and that could buy Roy some time.

I also just think, very briefly, I can't imagine Roy Hardston will get them relegated.

And if you're the owners of Crystal Palace, you're probably looking at it right now thinking, that'll do.

Like,

first season in Aegis without Wilf Saha had some bad injuries, you know.

Okay, if we just stay up, we regroup in the summer, we go again.

Whereas I do think if they get rid of him, there's quite a few replacements out there who may well get Palace relegated somehow.

So it is one of those, from the owner's perspective, better the old devil you know.

But I totally get why the fans are not at all enthused with what they're paying to watch every week.

HiPod fans of America, Max here.

Barry's here too.

Hello.

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A proper football journalist, Mike.

Exactly.

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Well done, Martin.

Gabriel Martinelli, by the way.

He only scored two so far this season, so he needed to score.

And it was nice of Pallas to let him score the same goal twice.

Imagine if there'd been another 10 minutes injury time, he could have got another 10,

couldn't he?

All right, that'll do for part one.

Part two, we'll do the other two games, which were incredibly entertaining.

Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

It's a Brentford then.

They beat Forrest 3-2.

The pre-game hike for Ivan Tony was quite a lot, wasn't it?

It felt like

a returning WWE wrestler that had been in a ladder-induced coma or something hit by a chair six months ago and came out, you know, sort of jumped out of the Undertaker's coffin or something.

Brentford had lost five games in a row prior to this, when their lowest position in the Premier League since being promoted.

It is very impressive that Tony delivered under quite a lot of pressure, was made captain, scored a goal.

You know, did everything you could ask of him, really.

Yeah, he was captain, and there was, I think, something faintly ludicrous about him leading his team out with a big sponsor or ad for a gambling firm on the front of his shirt after the suspension he's been through.

He looked a bit rusty at times, but he got his goal, more of which Anon, I guess, helped set up another and was pretty impressive.

And Brentford looked to be sliding towards trouble and they will need him fit and firing, I think.

He seems to rub a lot of people up the wrong way with his comments about Brentford, with his

manner in which he's so non-committal about his future.

And many people seem to think, you know, he owes Brentford, but if they do sell him, they'll get a lot of money for him.

So, you know, there is that.

But I think they'd rather just have him than have a big pile of cash to invest on someone who may not be as good as him.

Because players of his caliber are few and far between in the January market.

But yeah, I was very

impressed with him.

And he will only improve, one imagines, if he stays fit.

Nigel says, is what Ivan Tony did to the magic spray, the equivalent of a traffic warden getting his crowns out to extend a double yellow line to justify giving a ticket?

Yes, moving the ball is one thing.

Lars, moving the foam is utterly tremendous, isn't it?

John says, one of the laws, Lars.

Is what Tony did actually against the laws of the game?

I've seen a lot of debate, but no one actually saying whether it was allowed allowed or not.

I must have a gander through my beloved laws of the game and see if there's any.

I don't know that there's anything.

I wonder.

That seems like something that would be a yellow card, just out of instinct, but just off the top of my head, I don't know.

What I do know is that it's definitely not inside VAR's remit.

So the sort of post-match wailing and gnashing of teeth is kind of a little bit misguided in there.

It seems like the kind of thing that ideally the referee should spot.

If he doesn't, then, you know, you've gotten away with it.

But I also feel it should be possible for the defenders, for the the wall, to go, oh, hang on, he's moved this a little bit.

Maybe we should adjust accordingly.

Is it Colin Hodson Adoy, who was just kind of hanging around on the outside of the wall, going, I wonder if there's something I should be doing here?

Seems like a very sort of, yeah,

yeah, that seems suboptimal from a defensive perspective.

It just seems like the footballing equivalent of Johnny Burstow being stumped in the ashes, where basically

you, as a professional sportsman, were something slightly foolish, i.e., Burstow wandered out of his grounds, Nottingham Forest, elite sportsmen at the highest level of professional football, have not spotted that a man has moved the ball slightly and adjusted.

And essentially, it's maybe against the spirit of the game, because I'm sure everyone cares about that when it comes to the Premier League and winning three points.

But actually, you're probably at fault for being a little bit naive at this level, that the goalkeeper for some reason has not moved the wall, the defenders haven't moved the wall.

They say

Hudson Adoy just sort of standing around, seeing what's happening, doing being a vibes man on the end of the wall.

Yeah, it's just it just seems like that.

You've just not,

you know, you should be betting.

This is your job to stop the ball getting in the net.

If the ball's moved half a yard, you should be able to see that.

He wasn't even on the end of the ball, he was about two yards away, and then he did just go, you know, he just sort of lazily swung a foot as if he was walking through the park and a ball came near him from another game and he tried to kick it back.

I'm like, it's not.

I would say, Max, if I'm walking through the park and a ball rolls my way, I give it my, I really focus focus on

trying to send it back from whence it came.

Then you shotter it.

Forrest have written to the PGMOL and the Premier League.

I believe if your letter is really well written, you get three points.

I want PGML to start writing to the clubs when they make every little mistake in the game.

It was like, well, the defender kicked that ball the wrong way.

It was like the stern letter from PGMOL incoming immediately.

Yeah, they're right.

They should write to whichever Brentford player it was, smacked it 20 yards in the air just before Danilo scored that brilliant volley to say.

Yes, that was not a good clearance.

Anyway, they've written to them

to ask for an explanation over the controversial free kick.

Gary Neville tweeted, clubs writing to the PGM well is embarrassing.

Liverpool and Arsenal started it, set the president of this nonsense.

Refs should be doing better and are under enormous pressure at the moment.

It's in clubs' interest to work with them to make them improve.

This public posturing is unnecessary.

I could probably agree with that.

I mean, back to the actual football.

Will Neil Mopay's winner was absolutely sensational like three and three for him it warms the heart like he is he is clearly such a talented player and like i i was worried that he wasn't anymore yeah at everton he did didn't look like he could you know hit a barnyard door of a banjo did he it was pretty worrying as a professional striker that you were so poor at finishing never in the not even in the right places to miss the chances generally from from my memories time at everton i'll just stop you i i think it's a barn a barn door did we say barn yard

doesn't have a door does it that's just the well barn yard you probably gate okay okay so carry on a barn door with a banjo yes i mean he's he's either way

the but

carry carry on

we've got to evolve these so yeah we've got to move on there's not many barns around anyway the farming industry is in crisis

but yeah and it was generally just didn't just looks off the pace i saw him a few times did see his only goal for everton as well so I was really pleased about that.

And that was a deflection

that he managed to cling on to.

But the goal, the chest down, maybe, maybe, maybe it was somewhere near his shoulder.

And so, there's another letter going into the into the referees from Nottingham Forest, just in case it might have been a handball on the off-chance.

But great control, great swivel.

You know,

when you're getting the ball to you back to goal like that, and putting it in, that's they're the goals you want to score, aren't they?

Everyone likes a good swivel, sort of one movement it's um no it's good to see it's a when when you are you know at the top level

you're all you're always going to be capable of these things but you've seen people get the the yips or everyone completely lose confidence and he seems you know he seems like quite a decent bloke mope from from things i know So it's, yeah, it's nice to see that he's scoring goals and seems much to be enjoying football because I guess when you're a striker not scoring, you must loathe being out on the pitch at times.

Yeah.

And it just seems strange, doesn't it?

Because not that goal, but other goals he scored last are just, he's just been in the right place.

And he clearly at Everton was just entirely in the wrong place.

Yeah, and I think just Brentford seemed to get the best out of a lot of players.

It's nice to see.

Do you know what wonder if you're Neil Mope?

You've scored that winner and you're Neil Mopei and you've had the last couple of years that he's had.

You know, slightly annoyed that everyone's kind of talking about Ivantoni after the game.

It's like, what?

Look at what I did.

He scored a free kick where he did something sneaky, where I did the swivel and volley.

I'm Mope.

Like, come on, give me some attention.

What about poor old Donino?

That's a good point.

That's some hit.

Did you see the Ben Me tweet as well?

No, what did he say?

Where

he scored and he said something like, oh, you know, everyone's been talking about a real goal scorer coming back to the team.

Here I am.

Great room for Brentford.

They needed it.

To Bramal Lane, Sheffield United 2, West Ham 2.

Injury time, Barry, was absolutely fantastic in this game yeah uh

superb um we had red cards we had uh penalty and not a penalty that possibly should have been given a penalty that was given and probably shouldn't have been given and uh david moes then in textbook moise style after the game uh

beginning his interview by saying he wasn't going to go complain about the officials and then going on to complain at great length about the officials

uh Sort of a non-moan moan

to put with a non-celebration celebration.

But I thought Sheffield United were

possibly unlucky not to get all three points out of this game.

And

they certainly deserved the point.

And I,

even if the penalty they got at the end was,

I don't think it should have been given.

Fabianski.

Sorry, Ariola.

Fabianski wasn't on the pitch fabianski hadn't

uh ariola

came off his line uh got an elbow in the face which led to him having a bloodied nose and uh ollie mcburney got a penalty for it i'm really not sure why phil says after a grueling shift like that a gentle warm down or full ice bath for lucas fabianski um uh yes i i'm i'm with you barry when i first saw it lars i thought that's a penalty in the sort of anana wolves game.

Keepers never get penalized for these things.

I'm glad to see a keeper has finally been penalized, but actually, I think that was slightly unfortunate.

Yeah, I kind of had the same journey, Max, as you did with that one.

I initially, like, well, he's come flying out with his fist there.

I mean, thank God someone's actually given a pen for that because keeper shouldn't be allowed to do it.

But you watched the replay, and you think, yeah, he has definitely been

a little unfortunate there.

But it's again, West Ham.

this is such a the whole West Ham situation sort of pivoting here, but the whole West Ham situation is so weird because they were not good in this game, but they managed to get themselves in the winning position that they shouldn't have given up.

And it just feels like

there seemed to be a significant amount of disgruntlement amongst a certain section of the West Ham fanbase, which I was completely understand watching their games, but at the same time, they are sixth, which is really good for West Ham.

The whole situation kind of boggles the brain

for me.

I can't figure out what's happening, which is bad for a podcast.

And they were missing several very important players yesterday.

You know, Paquette, Mohamed Kudas, Alvarez, Michael Antonio, Ben Rama to a lesser extent, all out.

And,

you know, a draw up Bramalein under those circumstances.

This isn't the worst result in the world.

Yeah.

They're sixth, and the five teams above them are all really quite good.

I mean, that's another point that's worth making.

It's like, that's probably as high as you could ever imagine they could get this season.

Will, what did you you make of the penalty that wasn't given?

Simon says, Jared Bowen, rugby tackled an injury time, but no penalty.

Madness.

The Chevalier United player was not even looking at the ball.

I'm not sure.

I felt like he was looking at the ball for some of the time, and I just couldn't.

I honestly could watch that forever and not know who was fouling who.

I would give it as a penalty, but it's not a hill I'm willing to die on.

It was, it's...

It didn't look much into it until he turned around and sort of was eye to eye with Bowen as he took him down.

It was one of those where you're sort of in the box, you're holding on to each other, this is what happens.

And for some reason he spun around to make it look a bit more obvious just to just to get the referee's interest going.

And especially obviously after what had happened at the other end, you think everyone's a bit on edge about what happens in the box because the Areola one really wasn't a penalty.

So

I, yeah, I wouldn't, I would have given it, but I'm not, it's not the worst mistake in history i would argue um but yeah don't don't don't look players in the eye as you take them down is my advice in future just be more subtle i thought the penalty west ham got was a little bit soft actually the uh gustavo hamer trip on well trip in virtual comments on danny ings i thought there was contact but it wasn't necessarily a foul so you know swings and roundabouts i think maybe he just felt that Jared Bowen needed a hug you know it had been a long game

nerves were being afraid but as we all know like even sometimes someone you want to give someone a hug you shouldn't keep eye contact while doing it it becomes it becomes much more awkward than it needs to be so

it's quite hard to it is hard to hug with eye contact isn't it you're right um i i mean the person who needed a hug was david moes when the penalty was given for chef united i mean he looked He looked haunted, like ashen-faced.

It was quite extraordinary to see a man who is quite grey anyway, go even greyer.

I just I think what I was trying to articulate very poorly earlier, so poorly in fact that it may not make the edit, is that if you just didn't know anything about what's happened this season and you watch this game just from a West Ham perspective and you watch their almost total inability to like get any passing moves going and

David Moyes looking haunted on the sideline and just scrappy and just nonsense happening at the end and Moyes complaining about the referee, you'd think they were like 16th or something.

And I completely get about the players not being available, but it just had such a like a lower half of the table vibe to the whole thing.

And then you look at the table and they're six.

It's an incredibly weird situation, but

that's where we are.

I spent not a lot of time, Barry, thinking about Rian Brewster.

I mean, he spent not a lot of time playing football in this match.

I don't really know what to make of him.

Was it Liverpool they signed him from?

And

big money, and he

didn't.

He's again, he seems to be one of those strikers

good enough for the championship not good enough for the premier league you know so decent championship player but

and and but then dominic solanke i think we all thought that was the case with him and he's come good this season it may prove to be a he may prove to be a one season wonder yeah i i like you max i have not really given rian brewster a second thought in a very long time until he clattered into emerson and and got sent off rian brewster's millions uh 23 and a half million of them from that's what he cost from Liverpool.

Will, do you think Ben Brereton Diaz is

slightly above the too good for the championship, not good enough for the Premier League?

I thought he took his goal brilliantly, actually.

That touch was great, but he missed another chance.

But I like him.

Yeah, I think it was the chance he missed was slightly worrying.

I mean, he's not played in the Premier League before, has he?

This is his chance.

So

unfortunately, I can't really offer any good analysis of him.

Was good in the championship, did nothing in the league.

So

let's see how he does.

That's the fun.

Brewster, we know, is probably not good enough for the Premier League.

So Ben Burris indeed, I saw, you know, bring a bit of jeopardy.

We could all decide.

We could keep focus on him because

the chance he missed, I'd be a bit more worried about because you threw on goal and he completely lacked composure.

But as I say, for the first one, he pounced.

That was the important thing.

Very much.

Ariola probably should have done better.

in getting the ball in a slightly different direction.

But yeah, no,

it was a a good finish and say in the right place.

Yeah, it was interesting James Woodprouse afterwards.

A, I really liked his penalty, culture and power from that penalty.

But compared to Moyes afterwards, Woodprouse was incredibly honest, saying we were not really very good and we've got to be better than that.

And it was just so refreshing.

It's always refreshing to hear somebody sort of be quite honest about what we've all just seen on the pitch.

So credit to him for that.

Asen Villa have rejected an offer from West Ham to sign John Duran on loan with an option to buy.

They're reportedly interested in Armando Brozia from Chelsea.

Although Danny Ings did play quite well in this game.

I mean, he hasn't scored

many or any, or he hasn't scored a lot of goals, but I thought he had a half-decent game.

He hasn't really played much, though.

You can't score if you're not on the pitch.

Yeah, he worked hard,

but it was a decent performance, but missing a goal.

I would imagine he will be annoyed he didn't score.

All right, that'll do for part two.

Brighton Wolves play tonight, of course, the final game of this extended Premier League two-week weekend.

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

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.

Let's start with those two racism stories.

In the AFL,

Casey Palmer, Coventry City player, he put a statement out on his social media saying, Disappointed to even have to come on here and write this.

Racism is a disgrace.

It has no place in the world, let alone football.

I'm black and proud.

I'm raising my three kids to be the exact same.

I'll be honest.

It feels like things will never change no matter how hard we try.

A couple of fans doing monkey chants don't define a fan base.

I appreciate all the love and support I've received.

Chevy Wednesday and Coventry City sent out a joint statement on this, actually, condemning

what happened.

Mike Mannion, similarly AC Milan keeper, he alerted the referee before leaving the pitch, Udinese, due to repeated racist chants from local fans, as reported by the Italian media, was followed by his teammates down the tunnel.

They came out again.

The game has restarted after less than 10 minutes.

Look, I think we have to listen to people who've experienced this, right?

And when we've talked about on this subject, we do.

We talked to Jordan and Troy and others who have experienced this, but more and more people seem to be walking off the pitch.

That doesn't seem like like a terrible idea to me.

Giannam Fentino has called for the implementation of an automatic forfeit of games for teams whose fans commit racist abuse.

He says, as well as the three-step process, match, stop, match, restop, match, abandon, we have to implement an automatic forfeit for the team whose fans have committed racism and caused the match to be abandoned, as well as worldwide stadium bans and criminal charges for racists.

And actually, we haven't done a pod on racism in quite a long time.

So it's something that we should, it's something we should do and and we will do um i don't know if anyone else has any strong thoughts on they want to say on this well it's it's just that you know what casey palmer says is correct that

a couple of idiots don't define a fan base this is the second act of you know sort of disgraceful act we've had at hiddlesburg this season and in the first one when some moron

who has since been given a suspended prison sentence, you know, held up his phone with a picture of Bradley Lowry on it,

kid who died, the Sunderland supporting kid who died from cancer a few years ago,

Jermaine Defoe's little mate.

He held up a picture of him to taunt Sunderland fans and

the rest of the Sheffield United fan or Sheffield Wednesday fan base

sort of had a go fund me whip around and donated tens of thousands of pounds to the Bradley Lowry Foundation.

So

is it fair to punish an entire fan base for the actions of a couple of idiots?

Probably not, but I think it's the only way that this problem is going to be solved.

Points, deductions, fines don't seem to work.

Points, deductions,

stadium bans, blah, blah, blah,

or playing behind closed doors.

I think that might focus the mind of some of the more Neanderthal supporters out there.

Yeah, no, I think the idea of

the home team

essentially forfeiting the game kind of makes sense, just because logically, the players are entitled to do their jobs in an environment in which they're not racially abused.

And it is the host, the club hosting the game's responsibility to ensure they have that environment.

And if they can't,

that team loses the game.

I mean, that makes perfect sense.

Elsewhere, a bit of transferred speculation, at least Bayern Munich are expected to test Newcastle's resolve with further bids for Kieran Trippia.

Someone did tweet, Charlie Baker told me on the radio on Saturday, it's Harry Kane just trying to organise a stag do, which did make me laugh a lot.

Newcastle indicated they'll reject any further offers for Trippier.

And they've got Liveramento, I guess, will.

And so you could think, well, if they can get some cash for Trippier, but he feels such, he feels like the heartbeat of that side.

And it is interesting, given what we thought would happen with Newcastle, and perhaps hadn't considered FFP or PSR in the Premier League that that

Newcastle would ever be in this position where they might have to sell before they buy, and they're looking at, you know, they don't want to sell Trippier or Callum Wilson, but people are sniffing around.

Well, I'd say the PSR stuff has made it quite frank with points deductions, and you know, it's spread over three years, so they'll be looking at next season with a bit of concern.

You think of the amount of transfers they've brought in where the costs will be spread over that period that they need to sell at some point, potentially.

I'd probably argue that Trippier's value, you know, due to his age, makes him not a particularly great candidate to sell.

And selling someone that's such an important player in your first team might be ill-advised at this stage.

But if those are the case of needs must,

it's an interesting sign of the future of investment in football.

I would argue that Newcastle haven't actually gone too far over the top in spending with the means they have.

So if they need to sell him, it would be quite problematic for them, I would argue, that

someone so know, irregular.

I know he's had a few issues with form this season, but if you're having to sort of ship him out in January just to get close to balloting in the books, it's not a not a great look.

And

you know, but if they could get a good deal for a 33-year-old, on the other hand, I think he's 33, apologies if he's younger.

Um, yeah, it would be it might make some sense, but I'd still be surprised from a footballing point of view to with Newcastle not doing particularly as well as they may have liked at the moment, to sell a keyplay when you can't replace him.

They might have lived Remento, but the strength in depth at Newcastle is not the best.

Um, Bayern Munich wouldn't have to do a medical, really, they just have to check if he was awake, given how exhausted we've established Kieran Trippier is and has been over the last few months.

Uh, while we're on Bayern Lars, uh, Matt says, should Harry Kane leave Munich if he wants to win trophies?

They lost at home to Verdebram and they're now seven points behind Bayer Leverkusen.

They do have a game in hand.

Um,

should Should Bayern be worried?

Leverkusen seems to be sticking the course.

Yeah, Harry Kane, the runaway top scorer in the league with 22 goals and 17,

he's found himself, Max, suddenly in a position where he, as an individual, is playing magnificently and scoring a lot of goals, but the team he's in is kind of not quite hitting their targets.

I mean, this

airily surprisingly for him.

I guess if you're a Bayern fan, you're still kind of hoping that squad depth and all these other things that usually catch up with someone will catch up up with Levikusen because I think the story here

are on track for a pretty good score.

Like they've won 13 out of 17 this season, you know, drawn two and lost two.

That's not horrible after 17 games, but Levikusen just aren't stopping.

They're undefeated and they're playing good football and they just seem to be making it happen.

It's extraordinary work by Xiaovi Alonso and the team there.

Archie sent me what he called the ideal win, which is from, I think, the third division in Germany.

Dresden-nil Sandhausen won.

Dresden had 72% possession, 27 goal attempts, nine on target, 14 off-target, four block shots, 22 free kicks, 13 corners.

Sandhausen had 28% possession, one goal attempt, one shot on goal, no shots off goal, no block shots, no corners, and they won 1-0.

Absolutely tremendous stuff.

Perhaps Jose just shipped up there quickly after Roma.

I'm Eric Laporte says he's unhappy in Saudi Arabia.

He said, many of us have also come here not only for football, many of us are happy with that, but I'm also looking for something beyond that.

It's not the economic part and such in terms of quality of life.

I expected something different because in the end here, you spend three hours a day in the car.

Riyadh is a waste of traffic, of time wasted in the car.

I suppose they probably didn't tell.

I mean, I didn't know that traffic was a, I mean, I could have guessed that traffic was bad occasionally in Riyadh, but I didn't know.

Do they not have advisors, these people?

Like, I don't understand this.

Did they just do they look at the tourism ads that the visit Saudi and they look at the numbers on the paper of the country and they go, ah, this seems great.

Like, presumably, with like really big life choices, you put some sort of research.

This Henderson thing, like, he reportedly discovered it was a bit hot and humid there when they played.

I get, I feel like it gets a bit hot in Saudi Arabia.

I feel like someone should have been able to tell him this.

Like, this whole situation is absurd to me.

Jack says, can you rank Ronaldo's comments from least to most illusional?

He said, To be honest, I think the Saudi league is not worse than the French league.

I think right now we're better.

He said, This year I did a fantastic season.

I was the best goal scorer.

Imagine beating animals, young lions, like Erling Haaland with the goals.

I am proud.

I'm 39 soon and I'm looking good.

I'd love to have the confidence, Barry, to just say I'm 45 soon and I'm looking good.

Yeah, I'm 51 soon and I

look like a sack of shit.

And I'm proud.

Well, I'm not proud to say it, but I'm confident to say it.

And no one will dispute me or take it up with me and go, No, Barry, you look felt and lean and muscular and not a day over 40.

You know, Cristiano Ronaldo does look good.

But look, I haven't seen any of the Saudi league, so I have no idea.

I believe the standard is appalling, but I'm not in a position to judge because

I haven't seen any of it and I don't have any real interest in watching it because I don't have time.

I've too much other football to watch.

But yeah,

I mean, the Aymer Laporte comments weren't as scathing as I had been led to believe they were.

You know,

maybe

is he stuck in the car for three hours because the traffic is terrible or because he lives really far away from the training ground?

I don't

My understanding is a lot of the players who live in Saudi Arabia or who play in the Saudi league live in Bahrain.

I'm not sure how far of a drive it is to get to the training ground.

I think you have to cross a quite long bridge.

But I'm sure the car Aymir Laporte is stuck in is quite a nice car.

He's got no aircraft.

It's a disaster.

Didn't think this through.

the sweat mark on his seatbelt when he gets out?

He's just like, oh dear.

In the WSL, Lauren James got a hat-trick for Chelsea and their 3-1-1 over Manchester United at the weekend.

Women's Fuber Weekly is out tomorrow.

So listen to that, please.

Pretty much all Manchester United out of the title race.

And Chelsea march on.

Richard says, if you want to

change to the usual and are doing any Fitbar corner, feel free to look up what was number one when Craig Gordon made his debut.

Craig Gordon plays 7,777 days after making his competitive debut on the 6th of October 2002.

21 years, 3 months, and 15 days ago.

Number one was a double A-side.

The Long and Winding Road, Suspicious Minds by Will Young and Gareth Gates.

I don't recall if they sang both songs together or they both recorded one of them.

I've forgotten that, but sort of the original pop idol, wasn't it?

They just knocked off

Pinks just like a pill off the top spot.

I mean, it is, we're being flippant, but it is quite an impressive achievement by Gordon because

he suffered a, I think he was at Sunderland and he suffered a really bad knee injury.

And he more or less retired, got a big insurance payout, and then I think he gave it back and decided to resume his career.

And

it was quite a brave decision to do that.

And no one was sure if he'd be able to

play through the pain, but he has done.

And

fair play to him.

On the last pod, I was trying to list reel off famous Bristolians for some reason.

And as far as I can tell, I didn't reel off anybody who was actually from Bristol when I did it.

Al says, Pam Ayers was born in Stanford in the Vale in Berkshire in 1947.

North Berkshire, including Abingdon, Wallingford, Didcot, Wantage, and Stanford in the Vale, has been administered by Oxfordshire since the 1974 local government reorganisation.

But Pam always considers herself as a native of Berkshire.

Best wishes, Al.

Not an email I expected you thought you'd write to us, but it's appreciated nonetheless.

Stephen, oh, dear, oh dear, oh dear, Nick Park is a proud Prestonian.

The studio he works at is based in Bristol.

Yellow card.

Neil says Max, Bristol, John Robbins, Ellis's partner.

And on the next series of Taskmaster, you expats forget quickly.

Clayton says, Carrie Grant, Stephen Merchant, all of massive attacks, some of Porter's head, Tricky, Ronnie Size, Russell Howard, Jade Allen, David Prowse.

you're welcome matt says is the recent central featuring of a rushton family in vera a tip of the hat to football weekly's frequent mentions i'd like to think so especially now di ashworth is back and ended the wilson ds healy beef do we think the writers of vera are uh are are listening to us barry i i don't know but i i saw the episode in question and i do have to say i every time i heard the word rushton

it i wouldn't say I bristled or anything.

It just

when I'm watching Vera, I don't want to be thinking about you.

You know, it's my download.

Did I commit a murder?

Was I a victim?

Was I the what happened to me?

I, did you, I can't remember off the top of my head, but I have seen the episode.

Was I a farmer?

They're always farmers, aren't they?

They're always in sort of like, you know,

there's a lot of draft in Vera.

No house is adequate to draft excluders.

Much like the Nottingham Forest Wall.

It's a big problem, isn't it?

Oh, well, I look forward to watching it.

Has Barry developed some kind of max PTSD?

Is what I'm worried about now.

This is sort of you scared.

I mean, we do spend a lot of time together.

Yes.

You know, so there's no need for any small talk.

That, you know,

this is our communication.

We don't spend a lot of time chatting when we're not doing this.

But it doesn't mean we don't love each other.

Yes, Will?

No.

Invera was the Rushton character killed by someone called Glenn Dinning.

Do we know her now?

It's gone too far.

Can't take anymore.

And Vera, Vera kept

wandering up to this sort of an old man called Wilson who's just recounting her with facts that she doesn't need, that nobody needs.

And eventually she just drops off to sleep.

Anyway, feels like a good time to finish it, doesn't it?

That'll do.

Thank you, Lars.

Thank you, Max.

Thank you, Barry.

Thanks, Max.

Thanks, Will.

Thank you very much, Max.

Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Max Sanderson.

This is The Guardian.