Arsenal top at Christmas and a big win for Luton – Football Weekly podcast

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Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly on Christmas Eve.

It's your one hour off from family duties.

Use it wisely or listen to this.

Stalemate at the top as Liverpool and Arsenal draw one one apiece Mosala surging towards the gunners goal late on with every member of Liverpool's 25 and coaching side running up to his right he gives it to Alexander Arnold who smacks the bar what might have been Dominic Solanke ruins Nuno's first day at Forest bad news for them as everyone else below them picks up points three of them for Andros and his chicken feet over still tired Newcastle and a win too for Burnley that Fulham dream was quite short-lived Shefford United must be cursing after an excellent point at Villa which could have been more while Everton must be wondering how they left Spurs with nothing and his men now fourth after three wins in a row.

And then there's Manchester United, their worst start since 1930, all while City became world champions.

We'll do all that, answer your questions, and that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, bringing the Christmas cheer.

Barry Glendenning, welcome.

Ho, ho, ho.

John Bruin, hello.

Hello.

Will unwinn, hello.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

There we are.

There's some enthusiasm for you.

Let's start at Anfield.

Liverpool won.

Arsenal won.

A win for either side would have put them top at Christmas.

So a great result for Manchester City, really.

A fair result, John?

Yes, yes, I think so.

I think so.

Both teams went at it, didn't they?

At various points of the game.

And I suppose in that, there was an air of them being frantic to keep away from Manchester City.

I always think,

I think with these, you know, Manchester City are away, you know, missed a couple of matches because of off in Saudi Arabia.

It often plays into these teams' hands, doesn't it?

Because they're sat at home and watching their rivals slip up and City can just ride back in and cruise back into the title race.

And there was this edge of that Arsenal and Liverpool were playing a title battle that didn't involve City.

And we're really rather enjoying that fact, but have this idea that, yeah, yeah, they're going to be back soon, aren't they?

And

Arsenal started well, obviously, good goal by Gabrielle.

And then you've got to say Zinchenko ouch.

I mean, he was rather left exposed.

It does show you the problem of playing a midfielder, essentially, at left back.

There are benefits to that, of course.

But I think the world and his wife knew what Mo was going to do there, didn't we?

And then the second half was, as I say, use that word again, frantic, frantic.

Really, both teams going at each other.

Not a lot of chances, apart from that one chance, Trent.

And you sent us a video of, you know, of the mighty ducks.

And it was like that.

Where they're all just charging, and it's like, and the whole of Anfield is just like, yes, this is gonna, oh, no.

And it just,

and it hit a bobble, didn't it?

To be fair to Trent, as a result of that game and Jürgen Klopp's rather unfortunate clash with Simicas and Saka or Saka.

Saka's taking a blame for that.

I think that's a little unfair.

But anyway, as a result, I think we're going to see Trent playing right back again because Liverpool running out of fullbacks rather unfortunately.

That is an absolute freak accident, isn't it?

But I tell you what, I would not like to run into Jürgen Klopp.

We're running full pelt, even though full pelt for me probably isn't that fast.

I mean, that, Barry, that

chance of Trent Alexander Arnold, it's such a weird bit of action, isn't it?

Because you're sort of watching, going, How are the whole Liverpool team?

I mean, it was only three.

It was Elliot, Gravenburt, and him, but it just looked so weird.

Well, it was five, wasn't it?

Because you'd salah on the ball.

There was a man to his left and then three to his right.

And then Declan Rice was there like Jon Snow at the Battle of the Bastards with, you know, all these

entire army of

Bolton Ramsey, Ramsey Bolton's army bearing down on him.

And he just pulls his sword out.

You know, Declan Rice is a very, very good player, but there's only so much he can do.

And

Liverpool should have scored that opportunity.

I'm going to be charitable and say the ball took a little bobble before

Trent Alexander Arnold struck it and

you back him to score that chance nine times out of ten.

So I think it was a very evenly matched game.

I think the draw was a fair result but I also think Arsenal probably got away with it a little bit when you take that into account.

take the the penalty Liverpool didn't get into account,

which which at the time I didn't think was a particularly egregious decision.

And then having seen it a few more times and going, what on earth?

Why wasn't that given?

I don't understand it.

And, you know, Arsenal's record at Anfield is not good.

Mikel Arteta was playing in their midfield the last time they won there.

And I'd say he'd love to have been playing there yesterday.

But,

yeah, really enjoyable game,

fair result, and as you say, a good result for Man City.

Yeah, Chris says, if Machia Teta gets so angry about refereeing decisions, why wasn't he really angry about the Odegaard hand ball?

Dr.

Reddy says, as an Arsenal fan and fully paid up member of the if that's a hand ball, the game's gone club.

Can someone explain how Odegaard wasn't penalized for that handball in the box?

It wasn't intentional, but it was a clear hand ball.

Hashtag Merry Christmas.

I wonder if that evens out, Will.

I think about the Trent chance is bigger than Martinelli's, but they're two big chances in the game, aren't they?

And then there's that handball, and then Trent Alexander Arnold does push Havertz over, sort of, I think, quite blatantly.

So I don't know, you know, at the end of the game, everyone can say, well, you know, we all got away with a bit in this match.

The beauty of decisions balancing out like they would have done pre-var, this sort of very simplistic way of looking at football.

No, we need to overanalyse every split second of any potential foul offsides.

No, the glory, get it back to it all balances out in the end.

Yeah, I mean, but you know it was quite even on every level as we've said it was an even result and you know it would have been probably slightly unfair for some of those decisions to go against the individuals I think it was a handball

the defence from the officials was that he was trying to put his hand down to balance himself which would have meant that

it didn't count as a handball but at the same time

it's very odd because his hand never actually reached the floor.

So, I mean, if that's how you balance yourself, you know, maybe during Christmas, potentially, once you, after you've had a few, you try and balance yourself, but you don't actually reach the floor needing to prop yourself up.

Unless he can float, of course.

Unless Edegard is sort of, yeah, you know,

that made me think, how many permutations of what is considered a natural position must there be?

Because

I'd never considered that one, had you?

You know, oh, a natural position is you falling to the floor and a ball might hit you.

I mean, David Ellery must have run through millions of these possible scenarios for the natural position.

I think it's him in front of Kalina, just sort of, you know, there in Jim Kit going, natural position, natural position, and natural positions moving on.

Kalina goes, yes, yes, no, no.

They're on Zoom together.

Yeah, just.

It's like the stop motion from, you know, Ardmann Studios.

They just have a little plastic model and they...

move the arm a millimeter to the left, then another millimeter, then another millimetre.

Either approve or disapprove of each position.

That could be the Christmas special for Howard Webb and Michael Owens show.

That's really nice.

Or an animation version.

I mean,

I don't know if this is a silly question, Will, but watching those two, who gives you the most confidence that they will, you know, they're both obviously in the title race.

The title race is actually really interesting this season, and like one of these two could easily win it.

But which of those two do you think gives you the most confidence that they will?

I would still say Liverpool

because I think there's more goals in that team.

And that is what I generally base my views on.

More goals equals more wins equals more points.

And they have it.

Whereas I think Arsenal, with their collection of attackers, you know, Havertz is never going to be prolific.

Jesus doesn't look like it at the moment.

So I think with Mo Sala up there, you know, doing his bit by

showing Zinchenko up to be the central midfielder he is, is.

I think they've got a bit more about them.

And especially with Trent Alexander Arnold turning up all over the place, just creating,

you know, starting attacks from anywhere he wants, from right back, from centre midfield, from left wing.

I just think Liverpool have got a little bit more of an attack.

And I also think the Europa League is slightly less taxing on

the body and mind.

And if it comes down to it, that could make a little difference if Liverpool are still in the title race come March or April.

I mean, it's interesting, actually, on Trent Alexander Arnold, that there are all these players, they're all so good, they're all like the best humans to play football, putting him in the top 1%, and yet pretty much everything comes down to him whenever you talk about Liverpool.

Yeah, he is so important, isn't he?

He is

a friend of mine last night comparing him to Stephen Gerrard.

He's essentially become that, you know, he is the, well, they do say he's the, this is the fact fact that Liverpool fans think he's the scouter in our team, which does forget Curtis Jones, but there you go.

I think this about Liverpool is that Jürgen Klopp is pulling what they used to know as the old Anfield kidology.

And I think Jürgen Klopp thinks his team have got a chance of winning the league.

But he's putting on this whole thing of like, oh, no, we're a team in development, you see.

Oh, yeah,

we just have to see how the team progresses.

It's a process and all this type of thing.

But you can see the determination within Klopp, the competitiveness within him, that thinks City are a bit off it at the moment.

We don't know how long that will last for.

But Liverpool have a chance.

And I think you could see in his behaviour on the touchline and his behaviour post-match, Sky Interviewer, he asked him who the name of the VAR was, and he said, I don't know.

And he just says, I don't know.

Good name.

And then walked off.

There's this.

I don't know whether it's rage over Liverpool just being a bit off it or

this determination, but I think there's something in between that.

I think Klopp thinks that his team can do it.

I'd agree with Will.

I think they're probably better equipped than Arsenal, though I do think Arsenal are better equipped than last season.

So both of them could go close.

It all comes back to City, doesn't it?

What's Pep going to serve up post

January?

Let's go to the City Ground.

Forest 2, Bournemouth 3.

Great game.

Ben says, has Solanke gone too early for a clamour?

It was Nuno Espirito Santo's first game in charge, but another win for Sid Lowe's Bournemouth.

We'll get to the refereeing decisions in a second, but two of those head, those two headers, rather, Barry, of the hat-trick was just sensational, weren't they?

Yeah, wonderful headers.

Reminded me of Danny Walbeck's from the night before or the night before, whichever Christmas.

I'm already mixed up in my days.

But

beautifully placed.

headers and clearly the work of a man who's surfing

a wave of confidence that he's never had before in his career.

He's always been a very frustrating player.

Solanki, no one doubts his work rate, but he just wasn't posting the numbers.

I think his previous best tally is six, and he's already up to 11 or 12 now this season.

And I suspect...

There may well be a clamour, as you say, for his services in January.

And I think he'd probably be better off staying put where he is.

He has a good interview with him in the Times yesterday, where he was sort of explaining what we were all wondering about Bournemouth.

You know, why aren't they as good as Sid said they would be?

And he just said that basically, Andoni Ariola's training sessions were so complicated that

the players were too thick to get their head around them.

But, you know, it took a while for the penny to drop.

And now they're all doing what they were supposed to be doing automatically.

And then,

interestingly, there's a fellow John Mackenzie who writes for the Athletic, he's sort of a tactics egghead, and he watches games and then writes these articles about them.

And I just

watches football on just a completely different plane to the one I do.

And I see this chaos and

his analytical mind, I don't know how he does it but he had already identified the problem and and dominic selanke more or less confirmed exactly what he'd said it's all to do with pressing and timing and triggers and lots of other stuff i don't really get but um

yeah that interview's worth worth seeking out but yeah solanke's having a dream season and you know well he started at chelsea and then he went to liverpool liverpool sold him to bournemouth and he's changing hands for huge sums of money and everyone thought,

he's not going to cut the mustard, but he's having a great season.

I remember going to Solanke's debut for Chelsea.

It was a Champions League.

When Chelsea had a Champions League, and I used to roll over opposition and have the time to bring on a young player to, you know, to make his debut.

And I remember this last night and thought, hang on, when was that?

Because it felt reasonably recently.

It was in 2014.

Wow.

So he must have been 17 or so when he brought him on.

And I remember there was a big, you know, well, there was a clamour behind the Chelsea scenes about, you know, this guy is going to be the striker of the future.

So I looked at that thinking, how old is this guy?

Because he could have been anything from 22 to 30.

It turns out he's 26.

But yeah.

But yes, the thing is...

As Barry says, the raw materials have always been there.

That was a great striking performance.

And it's good to see.

I'm really glad to see that he's got there after all this time.

Yeah, I mean, the first one, he's on the run and controls that header.

It felt like a Sherringham header, you know, really clever

dev header.

The second, there's no pace on the ball.

My understanding of the clamour question is an England question, not who's going to get him in January.

Either way, a shout for Guatara's amazing goal line clearance at 2-2, right?

From Gibbs White, which is an amazing piece of defending.

And now, let's get to the red card, Willie Bolly's second yellow for kicking the ball and then being trodden on by adam smith um would you like to um unpick it for us

not much to unpick to be fair

i don't understand what the referee saw the ball goes in exactly the direction you expect it to go if he'd won the ball and so that's fine and then it's quite clear that he gets stepped on and that therefore the Bournemouth player did not get the ball.

And if the ball was already quite a long way away, really, by the time that the studs made contact with the ankle.

But it was very quick to decide that somewhere along the line, Bolly had committed an offence, which I don't understand.

Do you think that like VAR has sort of changed the way that everyone views challenges like that?

That you can get the ball and not be in total control and then take the player and think of Romero and Curtis Jones.

But this is obviously very different to that.

And I suppose the interesting question is, can you sometimes catch someone after a challenge and not be out of control?

Because it, you know, he might have caught Smith if he'd been a bit later or a bit earlier to it, rather.

And it still would have felt like actually, that's not a foul.

The idea, it must have been that he was somewhere reckless.

I just don't see it.

He wins the ball, it goes away, and that's fine.

He was in full control.

He don't think he really knew exactly where the man was.

The man's in this peripheral vision to his right, and he's there, you know, far earlier than him.

And it's just the speed with the decisions made where actually probably you take a step back and think all that's happened and you know it's 25th minute of the game

or thereabouts it's very early on it's going to have a massive impact and every red card in the Premier League statistically works out to 0.7 goals to the opponent so it's a big it's a big moment it's a big decision and

to do it knowing you don't have the backup of VAR as well, which he knows, to do it so quickly and so poorly i find very odd and then

i mean all these decisions balance out as we've discussed previously

if you are going to have 32 cameras in a football ground that could have i mean you'd need one angle at about five seconds to pick that one up like what is the point in not having it for the second booking it's just so ludicrous yeah yeah why is var not allowed to rule on yellow cards var appears to do everything else apart from yellow cards what probably probably slowed down the game wouldn't it too much?

Yeah, that's right, that's right.

Gonna keep the flow.

Yeah,

I mean, that is the totally daft thing, isn't it?

That VAR slows the game down so much that there are moments like this, a second yellow.

Also, those sort of really ridiculous ones where somebody boots it out for a goal kick and then a corner's given.

And like within half a second, you can tell.

And obviously, we don't want VAR to be...

involved more, but then you're going, well, if you're taking 25 minutes for this handball, like just tell him.

Tell him.

Well, I don't know why

var

doesn't say to the ref look i'm not allowed to intervene here but if i was i really wouldn't give him that red card but but but barry howard is listening howard is listening but that is the zidan headbutt right i mean that's yeah that's the zidan headbutt yeah absolutely yeah yeah yeah yeah obviously obviously they've var can intervene with cases of mistaken identity And so could Forrest have just sort of had a word with the full fish and said, I mean, he must have thought someone else has committed a foul somewhere else on the pitch, and he's mistaken that, you know, he actually thinks it was Willie Bolly and tried to get him catched on the ball.

And actually, like, Adam Smith, right, should get booked because

he's bought that, right?

And obviously, you know, he's not the only player to dive, but he's trodden on someone and then gone down like he's been hacked.

It's sort of clever play, but he should get done.

Um, I know she's our mate, but Robin Cowan is a brilliant commentator, is what I thought from watching Match the Day.

A terrible result for Forrest, given the other results at the bottom.

And we'll do those in part two, starting with Luton's victory over Newcastle.

Hi, Pod fans of America.

Max here.

Barry's here, too.

Hello.

Football Weekly is supported by the Remarkable Paper Pro.

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Remarkable, a brand name and an adjective, man.

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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

And now I've edited myself in after recording because Troy didn't send us a voice note about loot in Newcastle.

And then, so I said he hadn't, and now he has so this audio quality is slightly poorer than my normal audio quality

but we begin Luton's 1-0 win over Newcastle with Troy's voice note and then it'll be back to me as I was recording about an hour ago cheers yes Max glad to make a small contribution to this week's Guardian pod your roving reporter from Kenilworth Road whenever you need me 1-0 as we all know a really emotional game for obvious reasons you know, a lot of support and love for Tom Lockier.

Newcastle fans unveiled a beautiful banner as well, message for support.

So, yeah, there was loads going on.

Fourth minute, standing ovation.

Luton were on the kind of attack from the off, to be honest.

And they, there's my first, to be honest.

I didn't think I would voice record, to be honest, but I have just done it.

They scored a goal from Andres Townsend Senior, the number 30 on the Luton wing, who who found some great space in the box from a corner kick and a flick on from Ross Barkley to score from a header.

Here's some stats for you.

I bet you never thought you'd get these from me either.

His first headed goal, his only ever-headed goal, was also in December back in 2010.

Not that I was counting the hours, the minutes, the weeks, the years, and everything else that you count, but maybe I was.

But yeah, a great header finding space on the back post.

There was something about this game that kind of like this was going to be the day that Luton were going to get their first clean sheet, we're going to, you know, beat a top side at home and we're going to carry all that wave of emotion that has existed for the week into this game.

And they did.

And it was thoroughly deserved.

Newcastle scored through Isak.

Boy, that looked close.

I've watched it back on the TV.

Boy, that looked close.

But it was a victory for determination and everything that was the manager, Mr.

Edwards, has put into this team.

And when Newcastle look back in it, they'll be disappointed because they never really got any gears going in this game.

And apart from that disallowed goal and then a great save from a Callum Wilson header in the first half when he should have done better.

Luton were amazing.

Ross Barkley hit the bar.

Jordan Brown hit the bar through some rasping strikes.

It was a little bit nervous for seven minute stoppage time.

I think I've gone over this minute, but I'm sure you'll cut me out.

Merry Christmas, everybody.

Take care and we'll see you in the new year.

Think about Barry, if you'd said five years ago Ross Barkley would set up Andros Townsend for a 1-0 winning goal in the Premier League for Luton, I'd really looked at you strangely.

Yeah,

and they have been a pair of sensational signings for Luton.

And Troy has told us about Andros' struggles to actually get a club.

And he thought maybe that was it.

His career was over because he, you know, out of sight, out of mind.

He'd spent a year or more on the sidelines.

But

Rob Edwards took a punt on him, let him train with them, liked what he saw, give him a short-term contract, which I will be very surprised if it's not extended.

I think it expires in January.

And him and Barclay have been a revelation for Luton.

It's taken Andros a while to get up to speed fitness-wise, which is obviously understandable.

What a pair of signings they've been.

And I have to say, I wasn't hugely surprised by this result.

I think Luton rode their luck a bit.

They were obviously shattered in the last 25 minutes of this game, but they managed to hold out against the Newcastle side, which we're obliged to say are also shattered.

But Newcastle's away form is diabolically bad.

They've lost four in a row away, I think, in the league and lost five of their last six in all competitions.

Newcastle fans are remaining patient with Eddie Howe, but I'm having seen Sunderland's defeat yesterday and how the Michael Beale regime has got off to a pretty disastrous start,

I would love to see what would happen if Sunderland knocked Newcastle out of the cup.

But I don't think it will happen.

You never know.

Yeah, yeah.

Coventry won 3-0 at the standing in the light, didn't they?

In the championship.

Tom says, Barkley for England.

Not a question, more of a demand.

Another clamour, John.

And he's looking so good, isn't he, Ross Barkley?

That's another one from 2014, isn't it?

Yeah, yeah, that was...

Remember, yeah, head of the World Cup.

Oh,

we need one of those players that's going to beat players.

Let's get Ross Barkley in.

Maybe Gareth should, yeah.

I mean, the thing about Ross Barkley is it's fair to say that he had

a mid-career drift and he perhaps wasn't as focused on the game as he might have been.

But players come to the end of their careers and they have the ability of Ross Barkley.

And

if you remember, Everton, he was regarded as the rightful heir of Wayne Rooney and his talents

yeah yeah yeah yeah now he's knuckled down and he is playing great football and

in I mean Luton games tend to be something of a of a war a morass and Barkley just has that extra bit of class that extra bit of timing on the ball and uh again it's good to see someone like that like Andros actually you know back and and performing in the Premier League you two might know the answer to this.

Why does it say on the back of Andros

Townsend Senior?

Yes, he's a son called Andros.

So he's sort of getting ready for Andros.

So there's three generations of Townsend's.

Wow.

That's excellent.

The other thing I was going to say, actually,

I mean, there are three generations of quite a lot of people, I think.

You know,

but Andros football as footballers.

No, no, no.

There's three generations of Bruins, believe it or not.

Yeah.

I was going to say,

Barry makes a point about Newcastle, and someone drew my attention to this.

Remember when Eddie was manager of Bournemouth, and they would go through these slightly bad runs, and they would have a lot of injuries, and players lose form.

Maybe

the intensity with which he trains and asks of his players is maybe catching up with them.

Obviously, they have the Champions League, which is a huge step up for them and turned out to be both thrilling and a disappointment.

I don't think there are many questions over Eddie Howe till at least the end of the season.

I think they've got full buy-in from the owners.

The fans do still love him, but I do think, yes, doubts might creep in.

And if Sutherland do win, well, let's see then.

Yeah, that's a good point.

Yeah, Alan Shearer wasn't happy with Newcastle's effort on Match of the Day.

Perhaps he'll ask for that letter back.

On Tom Lockyer,

has he actually read it?

That's a good question.

On Tom Lockier, I mean, Rob Edwards said, no coaching badges prepare you for how to handle something, something like this.

And it is great, actually, Will, to see someone showing real heartfelt, not just sort of chest-pumping bullshit emotion, but real genuine emotion in public and not be ashamed to do it.

And I just think Rob Edwards has handled this as well as anybody could this last week.

I mean, from the first moment, he was very impressive, gets on the pitch and tells everyone to get away because you can understand, obviously, the players concerned on both sides.

You want to be there for your teammate, but it doesn't help anyone in these very serious situations.

You've got to let medical staff have as much space and

without the gaze of even more people on them.

And that was very quick of thought in such circumstances.

It shows that he has a wider perspective

on life, I would say.

And yeah, since then, he's spoken very well.

everyone at Lucina spoke very well of the medics, the fans, Philip Billings come in for a lot of praise and rightly so.

And it has been, you know, done exceptionally well on every level.

And as you say, Rob Edwards, these are people you work with every day, very close with.

And I think in football, it's different to most working environments.

And you are relying on your teammate to be there for you.

And you're there for your teammates.

And you do have a strong bond generally in dressing rooms.

And it shows that.

you know when one of you has a bad situation whether it's an acl or you know in tom Locky's case, a cardiac arrest, that it does impact players and to be there and to understand, you know, what not just

Edwards himself is going through, but Lockheer and also the Luton squad has been, you know,

interest to see and they've fronted up when they don't have to.

You can't go into your shell a lot of time when these series incidents take place, but he's been very good and very open.

And I think everyone from top to bottom at Luton and Bournemouth deserve a lot of credit for the week that's been.

And then to put it together on the pitch on Saturday, when obviously they've harnessed the emotion, but Aldosin can always go the other way where you get a bit too up for it and

you can tie a very early on and

overexert and

not be focused on the match because of everything around it.

But

it's been a good end of a bad week for Luton.

To Craven Cottage, Fulham-Nil Burnley, two.

John, you were there.

I mean, brilliant win for for Burnley.

It had to soak up a lot of pressure, but two

fantastic goals.

Well, actually, they had to soak up a half of pressure in which Fulham were dominant.

And

I saw Burnley early season at Brentford, and I did think, oh, were they playing the same as them, where they soaked up pressure and then couldn't create anything else?

But I did see actually a marked improvement in them.

And yeah, those goals were beautiful.

And the thing is, there'd actually been

a bit of a warning shot before that.

Is it Am Dooney that fired a shot wide?

It seemed like it was whistling in.

And then Odeburg's goal, a real beauty.

And Sander Burge, Bern Lano will be disappointed with that, you might say.

Yeah, I really enjoyed Burnley's performance.

James Trafford was excellent in the first half in goals.

Plenty of what you'd almost say traditional Burnley-style blockings

when Fulham were throwing themselves at it and Bernie players were throwing themselves at the ball.

And I was delighted for Big Vin actually,

not least because of his post-match press conference performance.

And I'll tell you about this.

Now, obviously, the story of the day is Rebecca Welsh, the first ever Premier League woman referee.

Part of my job was to get quotes on the first ever Premier League woman referee.

Marco Silver is asked, okay, what do you think about the referee?

He gives us two words.

I've got to fill 450.

And he says,

normal performance, gets up, leaves the room.

Okay.

Now, I think that means that.

Which in a way is good, right?

In a way, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I was going to say, yeah, I think he approved of the performance.

So Marco Silver has been booked an awful lot by referees this season.

So the fact he wasn't booked by the referee probably showed.

But

thank the Lord for Vincent Company, gentleman and scholar, who delivered, you know, about 150 to 200 words of absolute gold.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Vincent Company, in which he talked about it, you know, how he was so glad to be there.

And one day that won't be such a special thing, but there always has to be a first.

Fantastic.

You know, I've been critical of Company.

I felt that he hasn't learned his lesson

this season, but yeah, Bernie looked at a better outfit.

Fulham clearly missed Willian

and Rael Jimenez.

Amazing that we can say that now that a team misses Rael Jimenez, but there we go.

That's one of the good news stories of the season.

But yeah, all credit to Burnley.

And yeah, all credit, of course, to Ms.

Welsh.

Yeah, absolutely.

It's been a quick ride since she got into the EFL.

2021 was her first game in League Two, I think.

But yeah, you are right.

Like all those cliches you say you can't be what you can't see are absolutely true.

And it is brilliant.

And she had a good game and well done.

Sorry, just one other little word.

Rebecca Welsh obviously became the first ref to or female ref in the Premier League yesterday.

And on Boxing Day,

although I am obliged to paraphrase and call it Stephen's Day for our Irish listeners,

Sam Allison will become the first black referee to ref a Premier League game since Uriah Rennie 15 years ago.

Which game is that?

Do we know?

Sheffield United Luton.

Well, I will be at that as well.

It's insane.

It's insane that it's been so long, isn't it?

I mean,

total madness.

It is a good thing, but it sort of feels unbelievable.

Uriah Rennie is one of those referees that was really well remembered by players you find.

You know, hard but fair is the

reputation he had.

I don't think that.

I remember he refed a Cambridge game.

He was by far the most famous person on the pitch.

Everyone was just very excited.

It was Uriah Rennie.

Had absolutely tremendous thighs.

Anyway, to Villa Park, Aston Villa won.

Sheffield United one i mean it's a terrible saturday for sheffield united after a brilliant point will

which could have been more at 15 wins in a row villa because they lose ground at the bottom if they could have just held on for one more minute it would have been a it would have been a smash and grab but like it's great to see all these three sides actually like pushing and and this has to be go down as a good point for them speaking earlier of the future of England's midfield sort of circa 2014 and Friday night I was actually at stockpiling Knotts County where we saw the future of England midfield circa 2012, which was John Bostock playing for Knotts County, and Nick Powell came on for Stockport County.

So, you know,

for all football manager fans, it was what a night it was.

I was watching Cambridge beat Exeter, and Tom Carroll was in the centre midfield for Exeter, who I once, I think, on the pod described as the next jabby Alonso.

So nice ball player, good player.

He looked really good.

He came off the bench.

Great.

Anyway, yes, the point for Sheffield United, Will.

Good point for both sides in the end, yes.

Yeah, Sheffield United have actually massively improved under Wilder.

I was quite open, so it won't make much difference who they bring in.

But he does seem to have brought a lot more of organisation, a bit more grit and fight to Sheffield United because

you go to Villa Park after their home run and you think they'd probably just roll over.

But no,

they were very good and

weren't even settling for the point.

You know, felt they were still going, you know, late on to get that goal and managed to get it from Cameron Archer.

But, you know, say Villa made a strong stuff and the game seemed to, injury time went on and on and on for them.

And they managed to get the equalizer through Zaniolo, which is good for him.

Maybe it's a sign that it's been a long, long first half of the season for Villa.

you know a few lessons to be learned from games like that and i still think she's not going to go down obviously

John will find that out on Boxing Day.

But it shows the competitive nature of the Premier League,

which is good, which sometimes I feel have sort of been lost this season.

Shows that anyone can beat anyone.

It shows that anyone rather can draw with anyone.

That's the tagline for the Premier League.

That's how they sell the TV rights.

Give us eight billion pounds.

Anyone can draw with anyone.

Will Liverpool draw with Arsenal on the weekend?

Of course they will.

That cross, John, from Douglas Louise's Douglas Louise is so good, but you'll wonder wonder if Fotheringham

needs to come.

I mean, I don't know if that's too much.

Is that too r nasty to him in the 97th minute?

Yeah, he'd had a good game as well, hadn't he?

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

A word on Cameron Archer's finish.

Nice, wasn't it?

Really?

Shuffle of the feet.

I mean,

I saw him score a goal for

Villa at Chelsea and just thought, what a finisher he is.

And then they sell him.

He did actually

an actually reasonable celebration, celebration against his old club, like a big smile.

He didn't hide the fact he was delighted to score.

I think he's a real talent.

Maybe he's one of those players that is just a really neat finisher, but I was glad to see him score that.

Uni Emery, when he's adoed, is just so good to watch, isn't he?

You know, when they cut to him on the sideline, I mean, there is the look of Steve Coogan as if he's got downwind of something he doesn't like.

You know, that sort of

expression is this sort of

character actor performance that Coogan's put in.

And he just looked so annoyed at various decisions, and then obviously the concession of the goal, and then the fact that there wasn't another 85 minutes played at the end of the game, which, you know, which, I mean, the game went on forever and ever.

And having watched the city game before that, it was like this night of football

will never end.

But

it seems to me

matches at this time of year do go a bit crazy with stuff like that, don't they?

I don't know what it is, but or maybe it's just maybe it's just the magic of the Premier League.

The magic of the Premier League plus the magic of Christmas equals just total madness.

Just total madness.

Yeah.

The Hallmark Premier League.

Exactly.

By Channel 5.

And that'll do for part two.

Part three will begin at the Tottenham Ottspur Stadium.

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Max here.

Barry's here too.

Hello.

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welcome to part three of the guardian football weekly so tottenh everton 2-1 good weekend for them given that uh no one above them won so they're now four three points behind villa and liverpool four points uh behind the leaders arsenal a couple of points ahead of city who do have have a game in hand.

Will,

or anyone, does anyone know?

I'll start with you, Will, how Spurs managed to win this game.

They're at home.

That always helps.

Yeah, Everton have been so good recently.

I've seen them quite a few times.

I was at Burnley last week where

they're just such an efficient machine under Daesh.

They know what they're doing.

Everyone knows what they're doing.

And they've not conceded in four, won four straight games, no goals conceded.

It was quite a it's quite impressive that Spurs managed to get two against them.

I don't know, it's you know, those odd moments of quality always help, but

I think you just have to mark the odd one down.

You know, in a league where every team can draw against the other, they were very unlucky not to come out of it with a point, um, Everton.

But Spurs have finally recovered to and worked out a way to play competently without Madison, and that's going to help them going forward for the next few weeks until he gets back.

But I think Everton, considering the state they were in when the point seduction came in, it's a great position to be in now.

And even if it was a loss for them, that Daish is showing actually he is a very good manager.

Even if it occasionally looks quite simplistic, he knows what he's doing and he'll take one on the chin from Saturday.

Yeah, I thought they played really well, John.

And like Dan Juma, like that,

at first he, I think Dyer blocks one chance, and then Vicario makes a great save, and then there's that one right at the end, and it is millimetres, isn't it?

Yeah, Everton, go away to Tottenham and almost dominate them.

That's almost like a reverse of what you'd expect from Angeball, isn't it, really?

Well, I think that having read a few people who sort of were there,

actually, Tottenham really had quite a lot of it early on.

Obviously, they went to when they went too up, but the chances were Everton.

So when you watch a cut-down version of it, it looks more dominant, perhaps.

But I did think Everton were the better team from what I saw.

I saw this question.

I hope I'm not jumping ahead.

Andre Gomez.

I'd forgotten about this guy.

Another face of 2014, possibly.

But,

you know.

What a hit that was.

What a hit, yeah.

And he seemed to be everywhere when he came.

You know, it was like...

I forgot about him because he was quite a good player, wasn't he?

He was at Barcelona.

He was reasonably popular at Everton, I think.

Then,

again, I had to look.

He was on loan last season.

And then,

yeah, I mean, that's the thing with the Everton.

One of the reasons Everton are in so much trouble is they bought all these players.

And it is possible they still own all these players.

And we've just kept unearthing him.

It's like, oh, oh, we've got this guy.

All right, well, we'll get him in there.

He doesn't seem the most Daishian type of player.

But he looked quite decent there.

And yeah, a good goal.

Well, good to welcome him back anyway.

Yeah.

On Vicario, Barry, he does.

I mean, you know, a new keeper is massively important.

And you sort of feel like if that Dan Juma shot had hit the bar and a nana was underneath it, his knee would have just been a bit further back, wouldn't it?

You know, like, maybe he needed a bit of

a hip the top of his head and bounced it.

Yeah, yeah.

But

he's been so crucial for Tottenham, actually, Vicario.

He's made some brilliant saves at moments in this game.

He's been an excellent signing for someone who was relatively unknown, certainly in the UK.

Well, he was certainly unknown to me because I'd never heard of him before he went to spurs and he's been one of the signings of the season doesn't make too many headlines but he's just incredibly competent does everything you'd expect of him and a little bit more doesn't seem to have many mistakes in him and uh

yeah great signing

and like from a total perspective will

No one thinks they're in the title race, but they are really close.

And they're winning, you know, they had that bad run.

They now win three in a row.

They're missing a lot of important players yesterday, like not just Madison and Vanderven has been out for a while, but Basuma and a doggie were out.

Like, if they can win games against formed teams when they have that many players missing, and they'll miss a lot, Afcon, they miss Sarah and Basuma, and Sun goes the Asia Cup.

But are they in it?

Are they in the mix?

No, obviously not.

Clearly not.

Okay.

You're getting a bit giddy here, aren't you?

No, I'm not getting giddy.

okay i am getting a bit giddy

but i i don't think anyone is brilliant and i think like you were saying about klop he really thinks they could yeah yeah i think i feel the same with emery and i feel the same with and i think they're all looking at this and going look we need a lot of luck with injuries etc but no one is totally on it we obviously need city to keep screwing up but i think all those i think arteta's a bit more bullish i think arteta he's sort of

in the title race last year they can't say oh we're just developing but i think emery Plop, and Ange are all sitting there thinking, with a bit of luck, we could be in this.

And actually, Tottenham don't play anyone in the top seven until March.

So that is quite interesting.

Actually, that's really good analysis, Max.

Well done.

Thanks.

I could be a panelist on a post-profit.

You could, you could, yeah, you could.

That was really good.

Sorry, Will.

I think Spurs would need to add

two very good players in January, which is always very hard.

Yeah.

They've got the squad for it.

Where?

In the playing staff, John.

No, but

I think they'd need an extra winger for a bit more options going forward.

And I think they need a central midfielder.

I think central midfield has been a few issues, obviously due to injury and whatnot.

But I think with, especially, say, with Sarah and Basuma, you'd need someone in there that could cover that, but also take them forward.

I don't think Lacelso

probably going to be the man long term.

I think that would be the area.

you know, Ollie Skip came in at the weekend, and he's not going to be a top-four regular, I would argue, for his career.

So, I think Central Field and a bit more options outwide.

If Benton Coor gets fit, he's an absolutely delightful footballer.

Anyway, anyway, we shall see.

Let's go to the London Stadium then.

I don't know, but it's a you know, Manchester.

Sorry, John.

Do you want a Christmasy United Schite?

I mean, why not?

I mean, before we get okay, before we get to United, Barry, that pass from paquetta is the just the best bit of this weekend

um there were a few nice passes uh

around about i i noticed a few players playing lovely little through balls and balls up over the top with the outside of their left boot which is always my favorite kind of pass but yeah dwight mcneil did one i think didn't he and obviously yeah um i can't remember exactly who off the top of my head but uh piquetta is something else i mean i'm i'm I remain perplexed about it.

I vaguely remember a time when he was up to his neck in allegations about illegal gambling and there was a big suspension coming down the pipe for him and it never materialised.

And I'm glad because he's a joy to watch.

I think he's now provided West Ham's last six assists in five games.

And he can see a pass where other players just can't.

But I still think

the ball over the top to Jared Bowen, Bowen had a lot of work to do.

And the way he took the ball down, and we've seen him do this before this season, took the ball down, just killed it stone dead with his first touch, and then had a little bit of luck with the Inanna factor

where Inanna in the space of a split second morphed into his holographic self.

And maybe I'm being a bit unkind there.

It was just a sensational goal and a good result for West Ham, obviously.

Not a surprising result.

And we're going to have to, you know, dwell on how terrible Manchester United are, aren't we?

Even though they had 12 players unavailable through injury, illness, and being, you know, in the bad books, exiled.

What a fucking shit show that is at Old Trafford.

Just from the...

the top down.

And,

you know, they're now being pilloried because their food approval rating is

the one star.

Jonathan Wilson wrote a piece on this game yesterday.

I got, I think, two LOLs, two lols and a couple of involuntary titters out of it.

And I texted him.

I went, oh, I really, really enjoyed that

piece of manu.

It made me laugh.

And, you know, me texting praise to Wilson is not a common occurrence.

And he just, his reply was, thanks, but they make it so easy.

Well, he is there for the laughs, as we established earlier this week.

Our friend Autumn Florick saying, How does Barry feel about having the same number of goals in the Premier League this season as Anthony Rasmus Hoyland and Mason Mount combined?

And John says, as West Ham strolled past United today, I was thinking United would probably be no worse off now if they just stuck with Moyes.

It would be fascinating in an alternate world to just play that out.

You don't sound like you want to, John.

I mean, maybe if we can go back in time, there are more important things to do

than that.

Again, we're back to 2014,

which was

the end of

most of those games I actually attended.

And oh dear, and it's getting to this point where you've got players like Kobe Maynu and Willie Cambuela, and they're being exposed to playing in a struggling team that's just doing nothing.

And you've got players that,

I mean, okay, look at Anthony.

Manchester United signed him, paid £80 million for him.

Kudos, who scored a perfectly good goal for West Ham.

Freely Vable from Ajax, has been for a couple of years.

He's one of those players that's like, we've known about his talent.

Why didn't Manchester United get him?

A player like Rasmus Hoyland, again, a very talented player.

There's no doubt about that.

We've seen signs of that in the Champions League.

He looks so quick, so eager.

Yet Manchester United don't play to his strengths.

There are a group of Manchester United fans that don't want it to be about the manager and say that we can't keep changing managers.

The problem is, if you keep having bad managers, then you aren't going to have to keep changing managers.

That's the problem.

Now,

obviously, we go back to the Glazers and all the structure of this, but someone has to take the

blame for what is going on at the moment on the field.

And that does fall to the manager.

One day a Manchester United manager will come in and be able to sustain the club better for more than a season.

And it will appear like a miracle at this point.

So maybe we're looking to Christmas at this point.

Maybe Big Sir Jim's move, which was supposed to happen on Friday, don't happen yesterday and maybe happen today.

You know, we've been waiting for that for years, may change things.

But I'm boring myself talking about Manchester United.

I've had enough of them.

I find it quite soothing.

Sean says, how much would it take for Barry to willingly eat a plate of undercooked chicken wings?

Yes, this is, as we referred to, Manchester United, have been told some major improvements are needed.

I mean, that could go in any direction, but to ensure food sold at Old Trafford is safe to eat.

And still not their biggest issue on the wings.

Very good.

I was going to say, my memory of Manchester United was when you get a pie before the game,

you could put it in your pocket, yeah,

and at our time, you'd still burn your mouth on it.

That was my...

That was the...

Not anymore.

Not anymore, no.

Yes, the Red Devils admitted a small amount of undercooked meat was inadvertently served during a non-match day event uh yeah the way it was being reported on the news yesterday i was on talk sport yesterday and they went you know many and i've been cooking serving raw chicken as if it was on the menu like

i'll have a pot roll and a

chicken tartar yeah but i i think i think the event in question was actually

pertaining to

food hygiene and catering or something like that.

Yeah, really good.

But it quite funny because I think it was Mike Keegan from the Daily Mail who broke this story.

And just the lengths fans will go to to defend their

super.

How dare you report that we were serving raw chicken at all travel?

What about the raw chicken they serve at Sellhurst Park?

What about little Asanya back at

Chottenham?

So good.

You mentioned Sellhurst Park.

They drew Palestine one all with Brighton.

I hasten to add, they do not serve Roy Chester at South Park.

Just so good.

Before Steve Parrish gets the lawyers.

Yeah.

It feels like months ago that game, but a point isn't amazing for either team.

Lovely header from Danny Welbeck.

That interestingly, sorry, just

the Palace game, that's the fifth one-all draw in a row.

Those sides have played in this in this the hottest rivalry ever that turns out to be you can draw with anybody

exactly

That's the point.

Yeah, Will's Chelsea today on Christmas Eve.

No one should be made to work on Christmas Eve, of course.

Let's see, the FIFA Club World Cup.

City

beat Fluminensi 4-0.

Will, you are City.

I mean,

it's interesting, this expanded Club World Cup.

And I think, had it been going for 100 years, I'd probably quite like it.

But at the moment, I really just

can't get into this, I'm afraid.

But, you know, are you proud?

Are you excited?

Just to repeat, I was at Stockport County v.

Knott's County

on Friday night instead of watching this match.

Um, I appreciate it.

It was a bit earlier.

I was quite looking forward to it because I'd read it

in the style of you know, looking forward to seeing Bournemouth because I'd read something interesting about them.

I'd read

something interesting about Fluminenze and the manner in which they play.

And

the suggestion was they're like the Harlem Globetrotters of World Club football, and then they conceded a comedy goal inside 34 seconds, and that was kind of that, really.

Although I said the Harlem Globetrotters might occasionally concede early and then dance about and you know win late, but they didn't in this game.

Couple for Alvarez.

He's only 23.

He's already won 14 major trophies.

Seems greedy.

Give Harry Kane one for fuck's sake.

He's won everything that he can, I think, hasn't he?

You know, he's gonna have to drop down to win the LDV to complete the set or something.

I'm sure City's charges will mean that.

Yeah, there you go.

You'll be fine.

This event,

I did the minute by minute by this and I was watching it reasonably closely.

It was the city fans I was paying attention because it appeared that Saudi Arabia

has its own set of city fans.

So the commentary was oh you can hear the city fans singing and I was thinking that is not a stockport accent.

That is not a stockport accent.

And they had their own sort of city song.

It's like city, city.

But it wasn't the one that I used to hear at Main Road.

It was, and then it sounded a bit more like the Fluminense

fans would sing.

But then, towards the end, when City had were 3-0 up, I did hear We're Not Really Here in Stockport accent.

So there were actual

City fans who had been there.

It's obviously been that weekend of Saudi sport,

you know, including Connor McGregor meets Cristiano Ronaldo.

Look out for that, everybody

that is a documentary I really would want to watch like one man ignoring the other while the other chews his ear off but yeah I mean I suppose this was Saudi sports big coming out party wasn't it this weekend you'd have to say from the club world championship and the boxing let's just say we've got to look forward to a lot more of this over the next 12 years.

Is that fair to say?

Yeah, I think so.

Felipe Mello went at it with Carl Walker at full time, apparently because Jack Grealish was shouting Olay during the game.

Something he has denied.

That's quite funny.

I've already seen on social media idiots saying that I started a mess, said Mello.

I know how to lose.

When you lose, it's time to keep quiet.

I was very upset because I dreamed a lot about this competition, but I'm very proud.

When the game ended, Grealish went after Martinelli.

He chose a little guy.

He has no balls to face a big one.

Greedish was passing close to Martinelli, and I saw them talking forehead to forehead.

So I went after him.

I pushed him.

Walker pushed me too.

I went to defend a teammate.

I defended my institution.

I will do this forever.

No one will disrespect my institution or its athletes.

No one will come and humiliate my friends or my club.

I didn't want to mess.

Grealich was disrespectful towards the Fuminensi institution, and I will never let that happen.

It's like Barry at the Guardian, isn't it?

Barry out there.

When someone has a go at George Monbio, Barry's like, oi, you lay off him.

Well, this is the same

Keeper of the Faith, Filippo Mello, who's sending off Cos Brazil the World Cup in 2010

when they lost to Holland.

Stupid foul off.

Yeah, I'd say Jack Groulish picked up the right target there, don't you?

Yes, anyway.

Well done, Manchester City.

Finally, Jack says, hi, Max.

I just listened to today's Football Weekly.

It was me you met in Fortune Street Park all those years ago, but I play the trumpet.

I thought I'd met someone with a cello who played the Football Weekly theme.

We made plans for my band to play My Humps by the Black Eyed Peas at the live show, but it never came to fruition.

The offer is still there, if it's of interest.

Hope you're well and happy Christmas.

So, there we are.

Uh, we could still can't remember the My Humps years, it feels like a long time ago.

And Dan says, My birthday is on Christmas Eve.

Could I possibly get an Irish birthday greeting from Barry?

Merry Christmas to all the Football Weekly family.

Uh, Barry, can you oblige for Dan?

Happy birthday, Dan.

Horrible time of year to have a birthday because presumably you only get one present for the price, you know, the price of two.

Um, and yeah, I don't envy you.

But Christmas baby, and you're not called Noel.

What's going on there?

And that'll do for today.

Thank you, Will.

Thank you very much.

Thanks, John.

Cheers.

Thanks, Barry.

Thank you, Max.

Football Weekly is produced by Silas Gray.

Our executive producer is Max Sardison.

This is the Guardian.