Goals galore at Chelsea and Manchester United lead form table – Football Weekly

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Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly, Chelsea 4, Manchester City 4.

What a brilliant game in the pouring rain.

Cole Palmer nervously hammering an unstoppable penalty to tie things up in injury time.

And after getting no credit for winning 4-1 last time out, all the credit in this one.

Palmer was brilliant, as was Raheem Sterling.

Get them on that plane.

Gallagher, Enzo, Kaisedo looked good.

Hard to work out how good City were, but in terms of great adverts, one of the greatest.

Lots of other good stuff around in the Premier League.

Pablo Sarabia's touch in Wolves' glorious comeback at Molyneux.

Palace and Everton giving us a very unexpected five-goal thriller.

James Ward Prouse dropping the ball on his teammates' heads at will.

as the Hammers just see off Forest.

Fournemouth feet injury hit Newcastle.

Their last fit player, Kieran Trippier, tries to explain that to the travelling fans good wins for arsenal liverpool and villa another point for sheffield united we'll try and work out the 20 of refs that roberto de zerbi likes and somehow manchester united are the form team in the division fortunately after all that there'll be no time to discuss the cambridgeshire derby but there might be time for dogs and gary birtles plus your questions and that's today's guardian football weekly

on the panel today barry glen denning welcome Hi.

Hello, Lars Hividson.

Good morning, Max.

And hello, Robin Cowan.

Good morning, Max.

Let's start at Stamford Bridge there.

Michael says, has there ever been a purer form of Barclays than that?

Paul says, should the Premier League bring in next goal winner rule?

And Andy says, standard Chelsea Man City was fun, wasn't it, Barry question?

And after how much fun games in the pissing rain always are, should the Premier League ensure sprinklers are on throughout the games?

I mean, it was absolutely brilliant, that, Baz.

Yeah,

absolutely terrific game.

End to end.

Chelsea appeared, as you said in your intro, to be getting most of the credit, but Manchester City did more than contribute their part as well.

Thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyable game, played in a fine spirit.

It wasn't particularly dirty or anything.

And it's kind of weird that

Chelsea's best performances this season have all come against their fellow sides in the traditional big six.

They're unbeaten against Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham, and Man City.

But they've lost games against West Ham, Forest, Villa, and Brentford.

Newcastle away next.

You know, we probably have a big seven now, so we'll see how they get on against them.

That'll be interesting.

Then Brighton and Manchester United.

So you reckon this could be a quite critical point in Chelsea's season.

But the game itself was fantastic.

Some excellent goals, some brilliant performances.

Raheem Sterling in particular was really good.

Cole Palmer was good.

Rhys James was good.

A couple of Manchester City players players had not great games by their own usual high standards.

I'd say Ruben Diaz, Roderie wasn't great.

But all the talk has been about Sterling and, you know, why isn't he in the England squad?

He hasn't been picked for five in a row.

I think he was unavailable for the first two of those five.

But the question, as Gareth Southgate has said, is who do you leave out?

I suppose the obvious candidate on form at the moment is Marcus Rashford, but it seems unlikely that that will happen.

I mean, Jared Bowen was brilliant yesterday.

No reason to drop him.

Jack Grealish and Phil Forden are pretty much undroppable.

Madison is kind of establishing himself now.

And

is Ward Prouse in the English squad?

No, but he's knocking on the door, obviously.

And you presume Cole Palmer and Anthony Gordon are as well.

So yeah, if you put him in, you have to take someone out.

And I don't know who you would take out.

I mean, I feel because we have about four international break pods coming up soon, I might save that,

talk about this football match.

I mean, Cole Palmer was so good in this game, Robin.

And, you know, he had to wait.

It felt like about an hour, you know, just with that rain pouring on his face, waiting to take that penalty.

And it was,

it was so unstoppable, wasn't it?

Yeah, and it's a lot of pressure on him.

And especially he must have felt it against his old club.

It's a really interesting one, that, because I did not expect him

because they were saying on match of the day, like, oh, he left city to get more game time.

And I wasn't sure that was going to happen at Chelsea, you know, with the amount of players they have and in those positions.

But clearly, Pochettino really, really likes him.

He's been playing a huge part, and he's been great.

You know, I think, if possibly, it could have gone the way of sort of Dominic Solanke, who moved from Chelsea to Liverpool, didn't really play.

Yeah, no, he looks fantastic.

And God, he's, I mean, he's got balls on him.

Well, I'll tell you that, because

that is proper pressure, that proper pressure.

Yeah, it's funny.

Some penalties just,

you just think, oh, the goal is tiny and the keeper is massive.

But in that one, you're just like, well, it's just, there's no way anybody could save that.

And actually, it was interesting.

Match of the day two, Lara, sort of broke it down really well about how Palmer.

He's constantly looking to play an incisive pass, right?

You know, we talk about those players that try and pass through the lines, those kind of things.

And he is that.

He takes one on the half turn.

He's got great composure and he is always taking you in that direction yeah so so when that transfer happened there was some uh wailing and gnashing of teeth uh over the fact that we now have a sort of a a weird football accountancy uh system that kind of rewards teams for getting rid of their academy products which is a slightly odd situation but but i also think when you make that move there are upsize because i think sometimes when a player comes through the academy there's always the sense that they're like oh yeah it's the nice kid from the academy very good and you sort of they get they get minutes here and almost as a sort of, yeah, we got to have the guy in.

But when Copharmer moves to Chelsea for a pretty significant sum of money, the whole dynamic is different.

Suddenly, he's a guy who they look to and will be expecting things from.

I'm not sure what could have happened for him to attain that status at City anytime soon.

You could look at his performance yesterday and say he should have been playing more for City, but ahead of who?

You know, should he have been playing ahead of Foden or Bernardo Silva or like Grealish or Toku?

Like, it's a hard team to get in.

But at Chelsea, seems to really have added a spark to that team.

And

the

Bowlie splurge, as it should forever be referred to, has drawn some criticism, and some of it's fair.

They've gone very young, very quickly.

But the fun thing about signing a lot of these young players is that you don't know what you're going to get from them.

And that can be a negative thing, but it can also be a positive.

Sometimes some of them give you more than you expect more quickly.

Palmer was so exciting in this game and such a, you know, moving the ball forwards.

Now, I also think, Barry touched on it.

I suspect part of the reason Chelsea look happier playing against top sides is that

they want to press, you know, they want to attack, and they've got a lot of guys who are good at running with the ball and running into space.

And when they're able to do that, they are dangerous.

It's more a case of unlocking the sort of low blocks of the world, the bus parkers, they seem less comfortable with.

But this was just a tremendous, tremendous amount of fun overall.

I think maybe Cukorella was unlucky for that penalty.

I don't know.

There's both, both him and Haaland were pulling each other a bit, but we don't talk about decisions.

We've decided the Angela thrown on the pod until probably a bit later in this pod.

Thiago Silver, the fourth oldest goalscorer in Premier League history.

Behind who?

Here's a quiz.

Do you know the three, anybody?

Milner.

Is it always Milner?

No, it's not Milner.

No, Les.

Should I tell you?

Yes.

Okay.

This is not good content, Max.

It was a short quiz.

It was a short quiz.

We do have a lot to get to.

You're right.

Sherringham, 40 years.

Two 39-year-olds, Dean Windassen and Ryan Giggs.

Then what Sterling came back into it.

Palmer played that ball through and Guardiol messed it up a little bit.

And then you had that Haaland goal.

I mean, Dave Jones, I thought, on that sky, did it.

It was a good line.

I don't know if it's his line or someone else had said it, but of all the strikers who doesn't need one to go in off their backside, Erling Haaland.

Erling Haaland is the one.

Love.

So I thought this was backside as well, but Aling Haaland kind of disputes this.

So he was asked by the norwegian uh press by via play after the game that he was just said you've scored with a new part of your body today and he said no yet i've never scored with my balls before so that was a milestone for me right so

see he's claiming balls for that one though it did look a little bit more like hind quarter i have to say but uh holland is claiming balls had a message from dave saying it was um

a perineum that he scored with but you know that's not quite as good for the ex-pros to say he just needs one to go in off his perineum, doesn't he?

I would love to hear

love to help poor Mercy say that every week.

And then at the end, you know, you can understand why Ruben Diaz goes to ground, Robin, can't you?

Because he thinks Bros is going to shoot.

But then, because it's been raining,

he does the sole campbells

that keep going.

Before that, though, can I posit a Troy Townsend style mad sort of thing?

Please, absolutely, yeah.

I don't think deflected goals should count.

I don't like it.

No,

I don't disagree with you.

I know what you mean.

Do you think what should

happen?

You just

start

like goal kick.

Yeah, I don't know.

I just.

Goal kick.

Yeah, I just with at that point, I thought that was going to be the winner, like a Rodri deflected winner.

I just thought, oh no, that's just, you know, goalkeeper's wrong-footed.

I don't like it.

So, yeah, you can add that you know, it's a shot on target if it hits the bar.

In your brave new world, Frank Lampard's stats are going to take one hell.

I'm thinking alright with that.

I'm actually okay with that.

No, I know they're deeply unsatisfying.

They're sort of deeply like that.

This has been such a great game, and it shouldn't be decided by that.

You know, it's a sort of lazy foot from Thiago Silver.

So do we think that Chelsea are now, you know, in the space of two weeks from, I can't remember when they lost to Brentford and we're thinking, you know, this is a hilarious crisis.

They'll be good.

And now we're going, hang on, in two years, this is going to be the greatest football team that's ever existed.

Like, it did seem, Baz, like, that Enzo Caicedo-Gallagher triumvirate looked really good.

I think the only

problem they have at the moment is, you know, they've got good players, they've got a good manager, but there's a, you know, there are a lot of new players coming together there,

and

they show

a little bit of inexperience and game management, which we've mentioned mentioned before, is a problem for them, you know, conceding

first after dominating the early stages, then conceding either side of half-time,

and then towards the end, you know, they got away with it ultimately.

But

you'd think with a few more wiser heads, they might have been able to close the game out and win it reasonably comfortably.

But yeah, that wisdom will come in time.

And I thought City dropping points, Lars, is

good for the Premier League.

And I'm still convinced they're just going to run away with it because they win 20 in a row after January.

But they aren't running away with it yet.

Not quite.

I think you're exactly right.

I think this is something that happens with City occasionally, especially when there's been changes to the squad, is that Guardiola, it's almost like he needs a few months to look at it and just have his big Catalan brain ticking along to see what is the optimal composition of these dudes.

Like last season,

he had to discover the sort of Jon Stone's hybrid position that really no one had thought of could be a thing.

And that made it all click and then they were indestructible.

I do worry that again, more changes to the squad.

He's taking this first half to sort of look at things and then at some point it'll just fall into place and no one will ever stop them ever again.

That is the concern.

But of course for now, for fans of excitement, of which we are, you know, four, I hope,

it is it is good to see that we have a bunch of teams within touching distance of Safety.

They haven't been running away yet.

That's positive.

Long may it continue.

It still doesn't feel like a legitimate title race, Robin.

I mean, it obviously is currently, but it just doesn't.

You just feel they're lulling us.

No, yeah, it just kind of never does, really.

Even though Liverpool are on their tail, but it's just, and obviously they've done that before, but I guess even Pep Guardio likes to dangle a little carrot.

But then, as you say, it's usually in the new year.

Yeah, no, I'm not holding my breath, but you never know.

Can I lastly, before we leave them entirely, skip back to Chelsea?

Because we touched touched on it.

It's so fun to laugh at Chelsea, like because of the position they've had in English football for a while now.

Because we got the sort of brash Americans who come in and sort of, oh, why don't we have an all-star game and just say a lot of dumb things?

And then they sign all these players and it doesn't work.

Like, it's very funny.

It's good content.

I don't want to be the guy who sort of stops that, but they've actually been quite good for quite a while.

And I think it's really mostly finishing.

That's the reason they're not higher in the table.

Like, if you look at the, I hate to do this again, but like, if you look at the XG,

their expected goals, goal difference so far is the fourth best in the league.

Like,

they're right behind Arsenal and Liverpool in terms of XG so far.

And really, if they had any kind of forward who could put the ball in the net with some kind of regularity, I think they'd be completely fine.

And I think they will be fine.

Yeah, and Unkunku to come back as well, who could be that player.

And Jackson is scoring goals as well, I guess.

Moving on, Jamja says, can Spurs avoid the drop?

Now they only have two players left.

Ewan says, how comforted are you, Max, by the fact that Spurs are spursy again um two defeats in a row brilliant comeback very late from wolves barry molyneux absolutely bouncing and uh

richly deserved sadly for me

yeah they were vastly superior for most of the game and i think it would have been a travesty if they hadn't got anything from it they left it late Serabia's equalizer was absolutely fantastic.

I think certainly a goal of the month contender, if not goal of the season.

Sprinting onto that lofted pass from Kuna, taking it down with his right and spanking home a volley with his left all in one movement.

It was brilliant.

And then

they had their wits about them for the winner, and Spurs didn't.

They took a quick free kick.

Tommy Doyle took a quick free kick on the halfway line after Matt Doherty had fouled somewhat or other.

plays it wide.

Sarabia again with a beautiful touch into the path of Mario Lamina and

doesn't have a roof, but if it had, the roof would have come off Molyneux.

And

yeah, they deserved the win.

Ange was very morose after the game, but I don't think he can have any complaints.

Now, you know, they have injury issues, and he had to replace three of his back four, but they just weren't on it at all, really, at Molyneux.

And were quite...

They changed their approach as well.

They scored early and then just tried to protect that lead.

That's not really like them under Ange, Ange, and they were punished.

I wonder if they tried to do it.

Were they trying to play Lars, but they just, you know, if you don't have Madison and you don't have that very quick centre-back, it's just different.

Or did they suddenly go, hang on, Hoiberg and Dyer are here.

Let's go Conte style.

Let's go back.

I don't think they were trying to not play.

I think they were just not able to.

And I think there's a...

Missing the speed of Van der Veyne is obviously bad in the defensive sense, but I think taking Ujogi, Romero, and Van De Veyn out out of that back four, and suddenly you have a big problem getting your passing game going.

Like passing out from the back is,

you know, Eric Dyron, Ben Davis, and Royale out of position are not quite as good as that, as the first three I mentioned.

And the wolves were quite physical.

I thought Spurs didn't seem to enjoy that very much.

And because you couldn't really play out from the back with the kind of quality we've been used to seeing, it's like their whole sort of passing game didn't really get going.

And

Madison being absent obviously hurts in that regard as well.

And it was just a thoroughly undercooked performance in every way.

And I think if Angema's morose, I do wonder if he made

you know, he has his ideology that we like, and I'm a big fan of, but it's very, you need mobility on the field to play like that.

You need guys who can run, and you've lost too many of the guys who can run at the same time right now.

Yeah, and I mean, and I also like that, but in that 90th minute, and you've got a goal kick, can't you just say, lads, up you go?

I'm going to take 10 minutes just kicking the posts, pretending to,

you know, mud off the bottom of my boots and just hire up the field.

Look, Gary O'Neill, I wonder, Robin, is he underrated?

I sort of feel like there's just something about Gary O'Neill that he'll never really be rated.

And that is a total travesty because he's, you know, he's beaten City and Spurs at Molyneux already this season.

And he's been very unlucky in the last few weeks.

They deserved some luck, didn't they?

He's clearly a very good coach.

It's just

he's not that glamorous, is he?

You know, with the greatest of respect.

So.

Yes.

And I think we, as four very glamorous people, we can show that.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

Sitting here in my sweats.

But you know what?

When I've interviewed him before, he's very intelligent, astute.

And I think, you know, he displayed that on Monday night football, didn't he?

I think he kind of impressed everyone.

And the players like him.

They've got real clarity in what they do.

As you say, they've been on the end of some shocking decisions this season.

And he also did, he did really well with Bournemouth last season.

Fair play.

They wanted to change in direction.

He's probably got better players now with Wolves.

I mean,

they nearly didn't win this because they were so bad in front of Cole.

Like, they really should have been further ahead.

They missed so many chances.

And that's kind of been Wolves pre-Gary O'Neill.

But no, I think he's an excellent coach.

And yeah, maybe it's just having a name like Gary

kind of marks you down a bit, but it shouldn't.

It shouldn't.

I think he needs someone

to come in and teach his players how to take corners.

They were conspicuously dreadful at trying to clear the first man.

One thing I enjoyed about this game, actually, it was live on TNT Sports, and they came up with this very exciting wheeze to put body cams on Max Kilman and Brennan Johnson for the warm-ups, the pre-match warm-ups.

I imagine it is...

a project that will be binned very quickly because all it seemed to do was

conclusively prove that pre-match warm-ups are quite dull.

Well, do you know what?

It reminded me of Eye of the Beholder on the Amiga, or maybe Goldeneye if you were a console person, you know, where and it was so jerky and it was like that, like, I'm not an expert in the art of television, but one key is it's got to be nice to look at.

What you're looking at has to be sort of pleasant, and it was really unpleasant.

But in terms of whether it depends on whose idea it was,'cause it could be someone really high up the chain going, and they're like, Oh, Darren's had an idea.

And you know, oh, we never want him to come into the office, don't have an idea because you have to go with it because he's like a senior boss.

I don't know, love,

but it makes me think of because it's football and we're all obsessed with it, and there are certain things that we don't get to see, we tend to assume those things will be really interesting.

And I think that's a fallacy we've learned from all these behind-the-scenes documentaries.

It's like, yeah, it'll be great seeing what actually goes on in the training ground.

Like, what actually goes on in the training ground is like a lot of wealthy young men arriving in flashy cars, going, All right,

and like high-fiving, and like then they change, some of them have a massage, and then they run about a bit.

And it turns out, like, a 12-hour documentary series on this is actually really fucking boring.

And I think this is the same thing we get now with the body cams: it's like, no, they're just very athletic young men jogging about a bit to get their pulse going before the game.

We don't need to see this, it's not good content.

You make a really good point.

There's a sort of social media trend of the poor social media person at each club having to stand like by the gym door or the changing room door at training training and fist pump every player as they walk in and nobody wants like clearly presumably before they've got to this door there's someone else say oh by the way someone's filming beyond this door so just walk in and you know i don't know somebody wandering in in sort of giant track in a giant Dior track suit worth a million pounds and they just go all right all right Dave and he goes all right and then someone else walks in and you're like what why am I watching this this is total madness Lils can I just argue about asking about Pablo Serabier right he only came on for three minutes totally changed his game because his goal as Barry said was beautiful and his pass to uh lamina was beautiful as well like how has he ended up being a sort of a late substitute for wolves

It's deeply odd, and Wolves have a couple of guys like this who sort of have been at bigger clubs, and you wonder why exactly are you at Wolves?

And if you're at Wolves, why are you not better?

I guess Cunha is in the same bracket.

They've spent a lot of money on coming in from Atletica Madrid.

He's got something like 26 caps for Spain.

He's played

for Paris Saint-Germain.

He's like, why are you at Wolves?

What happened to you, friend?

And you wonder if that's sort of

the Georges Mendes influence, one imagines, that he will occasionally stare these sort of players in that direction.

They are a deeply strange team, Wolves, because they're...

With apologies to Gary O'Neill and all Wolves fans listening, I find them deeply underwhelming.

Like when I watch them, I'm very rarely excited.

But they also, when you go through the squads, there are a handful of players that's like, hang on, why are you?

What?

So, yeah,

a very strange team.

Maybe another one who just needs someone to finish more chances, and then they could rise up the table.

Who knows?

As someone who has in the past incurred the wrath of Willis fans on this podcast, I'd just like to wish you all the best for the next couple of days, Lars.

I'm just thinking, I didn't say exactly what you did now, did I, Barry?

Yes,

that were my thoughts.

That seemed mild.

Anyway, I don't think we need to go back to that.

It is, that'll be for part one.

We'll do the big three twos in just a second.

Coach, the energy out there felt different.

What changed for the team today?

It was the new game day scratchers from the California Lottery.

Play is everything.

Those games sent the team's energy through the roof.

Are you saying it was the off-field play that made the difference on the field?

Hey, a little play makes your day, and today it made the game.

That's all for now.

Coach, one more question.

Play the new Los Angeles Chargers, San Francisco 49ers, and Los Angeles Rams Scratchers from the California Lottery.

A little play can make your day.

Freeze play responsibly must be 18 years or older to purchase, play, or claim.

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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

Paisiano says, Will Ellis James and Barry Glendenning come for a swift pint at the Troxy Pre-Show?

I can treat one of them to a drink, but not both.

Yes, for the very few of you that listen to this before the show begins at the Troxy and have nothing to do tonight and were thinking about coming, you can get tickets on the door.

There's still a few left.

You can also go get tickets for the live stream, theguardian.com slash fwtour 23.

Gaz says, hi, Max.

It's Gaz, the Wolves fan from Telford, who I presume is very upset with Lars currently.

I'm going to the live show, Manchester.

I wondered, is there a dress code?

Can you let me know?

Should I arrive at a football shirt or smart casual?

Oh, it's suits and ties all around, isn't it?

Top hats only.

It's like Ascot.

It's like Royal Ascot.

Wear whatever you like.

Could we not say on this pod that it's fancy dress and see how many turn up in fancy dress?

It's a bit football banter.

It's a bit football tour banter, that, isn't it?

It's like bring your golf clubs, and then

there's no round of golf.

I'm just trying to get into the mood of this venture.

Let's go to Selhurst Park.

Dee Withers says, is it too early to put a pony on Everton to win the Everton Cup this year?

Premier League is beginning to look reassuringly familiar.

Just waiting for Villa to fall away.

Not sure that'll happen.

Man United to put a nano run together.

Chelsea spend a bit in January.

Then Everton piled through to seventh.

Yeah, they won 3-2 at Selhurst Park.

Massive win this, Robin.

What was an entertaining game that

I thought had nil-nil written all over it?

Well, yeah, the stats were there.

I think it's the fewest goals scored at Selhurst Park this season.

I don't think that's the first season that's happened either.

But, I mean, fair play to Everton.

One defeat in six.

I think we can conclusively say that Sean Dysch is an excellent football manager because that is a proper basket case club.

They still might get a massive points deduction, we're not sure, but he can clearly

unify a squad and get them playing with real clarity.

And I was just thinking, I really like their midfield.

It's good, isn't it?

It's Inanna, Decore, who pops up with crucial goals quite a lot of the time, Garner.

You know, it's really good, actually.

And yeah, just fair play to them.

And yeah, very un-Palis-like, un-Roy-like defending on some of these goals.

Although the third one I thought was very good from Everton, actually, very slick.

It was a slick move, wasn't it?

Had it been Man City, we'd be talking about it for ages.

But as Everton, we must gloss over it immediately.

That's my least favourite saying of all the football clichés, because the exact opposite is true.

The good teams score goals like that all the time.

We don't talk about it at all because it's so common.

We've talked a lot about, well, we haven't talked much about injuries because it's not interesting to talk about, but you have mentioned, Baz, the fact that Everton haven't had Dominic Carver Lewin.

It makes such a difference, especially under Dice.

They've got someone they can hoy it to.

Yeah.

They've, you know, he's played quite a few games in quick succession now.

He's managing to stay fit.

And it makes a massive difference to Everton, even if he doesn't score.

But there's always the worry that it's only a matter of time before he pulls a hammy or, you know, jars his knee or picks up a calf strain, whatever.

But as long as he's fit and firing, I mean,

one suspects at the moment, even without him, they would probably be okay.

But because Daish does finally seem to have turned things around there.

Is it far enough, sort of long enough ago?

I think it was mentioned on this poll when he got that awful knock to the face, but it looked so bad and he was out again.

I felt sorry for him that I didn't didn't really go to town on how much he looked like a hamster after it had happened.

But absolutely extraordinary when you see a picture of him

after that, when he got that knock.

But anyway, he's fit and he's good and he's playing well.

That yellow card, Robin, for Eze for the dive seemed very harsh.

Yeah, I think it was.

And he was asked afterwards whether that sort of stopped him going full flow.

And he said no, to be fair to him.

But yeah, I mean, Palace, I think you said this on the radio yesterday they've always had this with wilfrazaha who got a reputation as well but they've got the you know they've got eze they've got elise

these quick wingers i mean it probably maybe it wasn't enough for a penalty maybe it wasn't but to yellow card him

yeah what was harsh so it felt more of a penalty than the first one to me lars i don't really think No, it seems very, very harsh indeed.

But it's good to see him back.

And I love the fact that he signed a new contract because we do tend to do this, and I'm as guilty as anyone, when a player looks that exciting and is playing for one of the teams down the lower half of the table, you tend to immediately go, ooh, he should go somewhere bigger.

He should go to here.

He should go to be exciting to see.

But it's also very, very good to have a player who just sees, well, you know, I'm the men, man here now.

I'm starting every week.

I'm the focal point of the team.

This is good for my career to stay here for a bit longer.

So

good to see that.

I'm just enjoying the...

I don't want to leave.

I don't want to move on quite yet from the Sean Dice Everton Revolution.

I think it's so much fun.

And it's like, if football and tactics is like food, right?

You would have Pef Guardiola being the sort of Michelin star, sort of innovative thing that's sort of always sort of deconstructing stuff and turning everything into emotion.

And it's all very fancy and all very good.

And similar stuff about Deserbi and all his sort of standing on the ball and all this stuff.

But

sometimes you just want to see Sean Deich turn Abdullahi Dekoure into like the Mali and Ashley Barnes.

Like that, that is the football equivalent of like a greasy burger or something.

You just want to keep it simple.

You'd like a greasy Sean Deich and nothing more complicated than that for your weekend.

And I think it's great to see.

I'm a huge fan of it.

I enjoyed that analogy, Lars.

My favorite bit of this game was, I mentioned this to you yesterday on the radio, Barry, was Jonathan Pierce on Match of the Day finding, and he definitely finds VAR more troublesome than most of us, and we're all finding it quite troublesome.

But there was quite a long delay.

I think it was for Oddson Edward's goal, where the ball sort of where James Tarkovsky just decided to stop playing and it was taking so long that jonathan pierce he said you're sending spaceships to the outer colonies of the universe if such things exist and yet how long does it take to get two lines drawn on a football pitch i've got a magic marker here and i've just done it i love the idea that he we're sending spaceships to the outer colonies of the universe that we don't know exist i mean we do we know that the outer colonies exist i where are we at with this well if they if if they do i think we should send him there that's for sure That's how I felt after that bit of commentary.

Oh, no, I might.

No,

he's here to stay, if you ask me.

He is doing this on purpose, definitely.

He is like every week, I mean, this is on football cliche, it's like he's doing it to be picked up on football clichés every week, this guy.

Seriously.

I really like that.

But it is, of course, very deep and ironic that someone who, you know, had such a good time commentating Robot Wars,

can't really get his head around VAR.

I mean, that's one of life's great ironies.

Good point.

I'd like that.

Well, I would definitely, if Jonathan Pierce was sent to the space station, but it's not the International Space Station, that's the point.

It's the outer colonies of the universe.

No one is sending spaceships to the outer colonies.

Are they?

Maybe they are.

But presumably, if they are colonies, someone must have sent spaceships there by default.

Like, you can't have a colony if no one sent a ship there.

It's a good thing.

Pierce might know something we don't.

That's the thing.

It's true.

It'll be the next Fox Mulder.

Anyway, to the London Stadium.

I would not watch that.

I would would 100% watch it.

Yeah.

Jonathan Pierce and Gillian Anderson uncovering

the unexplained mysteries.

Let's go to the London Stadium.

Robin, you were there.

West Ham 3, Forest 2.

That must have been a fun one for you.

Yeah, I wasn't expecting it to be quite this fun.

But yes, the story in the end was James Ward Prouse and his pinpoint free kicks.

Yeah, I mean, West Ham deserved to win it.

It looked like they weren't going to.

Forrest did well to respond.

But

yeah,

it was fun.

And

I found it interesting after Steve Cooper said the defending for the corners wasn't down to strategy.

It was a lack of desire, which basically means I told these pricks where to stand

and they didn't do it.

I think that's what he meant, basically.

Yeah.

I mean, at what point is Gareth Southgate going to realise that he needs Raheem Sterling to get fouled so James Ward Prouse can put a free kick in for Cole Palmer to score a winning header in the final of the Euros?

Otherwise, we've we've got no chance.

But I suppose from Ward Proud, we all know Ward Prouse is brilliant at free kicks, Robin.

But watching him play in midfield,

how good is he as a midfielder?

Because I just find myself just sort of not really noticing him.

It doesn't mean he's not good.

That's my own failing.

He's perfectly sort of serviceable in midfield.

I don't need another person to tell me how good he is at free kicks.

I know how good he is as a midfielder.

Yeah, no, he's really good.

I think that that's a really important point you raised, that he's not just that.

That it's extremely important to have that in your locker.

And that's what that's what won West Ham the game, and that could win international games as well.

But he's also actually quite good in this field, especially in this West Hamid field.

I mentioned Everton's one.

So they've got Edson Alvarez, who's been excellent since coming in, basically doing that sort of Declan Rice role, Ward Prouse, Thomas Socek, and they've also got Paquetta, who's kind of got that little bit of stardust.

And I think with Ward Prouse, with those sort of players around him, no, he was excellent.

Can't remember him losing the ball, you know, keeping possession well.

Personally, I'd have him over Jordan Henderson for many reasons.

Anthony Elanga took his shirt off Barry in this game.

And just on the Ellis-James scale of

ripped torsos, where is Anthony Elanger?

I mean, clearly not at the James level.

Not as buff as James.

I noticed Robin also mentioned that he'd taken off his sports bra, which suggests he's nowhere near as buff as Ellis, and and he needs to wear a bra.

He struggled a little bit, didn't he?

Like, like the shirt came off very easily, and the sports bra is sort of because it's quite tight, isn't it?

It's actually harder to...

Do they wear those because you can attach little things to work out how many miles you've got?

I think it's the GPS, isn't it?

But yeah, so usually they don't bother with that.

But I was impressed that he wanted to take that off as well.

Obviously in vain in the end, because, yeah, there wasn't a winning goal.

No, that is true.

Anyway,

James Wood Proud, Jared Byron said, the best around, possibly the best there ever will be at free kicks, has 17 assists from Dead Ball since 2021, seven ahead of second place Aaron Cresswell.

So, you know, West Ham is where you need to be if you're

a big lump of a centre-forward.

Yeah.

We'll say this.

He was doing that, you know, at the end of the game.

And I know

this might sound a bit silly, but how many times have you seen...

you know, a team chasing a game and they get a corner and everyone's really excited and they don't beat the first man because maybe they're a bit tired.

You know, they've been doing that over and over again.

But he put in so many and he was still on the money.

You know, very much, as Barry said, not wolves can look on in envy.

Yeah.

Let's go to the vitality.

Bournemouth 2, Newcastle-Antony says, co-commentated from 5 Live yesterday, referred to Bournemouth pulling clear of the chasing pack.

Can the pod think of a more leisurely chasing pack in the history of sport?

Hello, they could have won by more here, Lars, couldn't they?

I mean, Nick Polk made a lot of saves, most of them regulation.

The one in injury time was amazing.

But I don't know if the story is this Bournemouth are coming together slowly or Newcastle are just completely knackered and there's only two of them left that can stand up.

I would quite like it to be Bournemouth coming together slowly because of the professional pride of Sid Lowe, of course, having shouted Irayola as a man to watch.

But also just because what Irayola wants them to be would be a fun thing to have in the Premier League.

I kind of want that to succeed.

And I guess if we're trying to find

really reaching here, because it's been like 12 games, but they have had a pretty tricky fixture list already.

Bournemouth, maybe like he's just come in, he's trying to change everything at the same time, and they've had a difficult fixture list.

So maybe that's part of why they've lost quite so many games.

Maybe it's possible for them to turn it around.

Maybe this is the start of something.

Certainly has bought him a bit of time between this and the Burnley result you'd expect.

But I, and of course, now they've got Sheffield United in the next one.

They should be capable of doing something against them.

I do tend to think that it was mostly about just one game too far for a depleted Newcastle squad who were just so far off their usual levels here.

And then

anyhow, I was pretty clear about it after the game.

I thought it was fair, like they weren't, they weren't as energetic and sharp off the ball as we're used to seeing them.

They weren't as crisp on the ball as we're used to seeing them.

They weren't very good at anything in this game.

And I suspect that's, as Kieran Trippier very eloquently put it, have you seen how many injuries we have?

Which seems to be the thing.

It's hard to feel sorry for arguably the richest club in the world, if not the richest,

for not having enough strength and debt, but their list of injuries is, you know, they have been absolutely decimated.

And the lack of match fitness of quite a few of the players who haven't featured much for them this season was quite obvious in the final half hour of the game where

that's when Bournemouth scored their goals and then it just turned into shooting practice for Bournemouth.

So it's a great result for Bournemouth.

I kind of expected them to win because Newcastle had so many

key players out for one reason or another.

They should have won more emphatically and would have if it wasn't for Nick Pope.

And I know you can only beat what's in front of you, but I wouldn't read too much into this result.

I mean, look, Tenale's out, obviously, for a long time.

Jacob Murphy, Danburn, Harvey Barnes, Elliott Anderson, Sven Botman, Gimmaresh were suspended.

Callum Wilson, Alexander Isak, Amaron got injured during this game.

I think they'd mean Mankio, Matt Target.

I mean, it's like a whole.

It's your whole squad.

What did you make, Robin, of Kieran Trippier, discussing it with the lads?

I quite liked it.

I liked it.

Do we think the

sort of inferring that

you're a bit entitled, you guys, you know, got Champions League this season, guys, you know, and yes, it's not been great today.

And yes, it is a very, very long way.

But just, yeah, calm yourselves.

I quite liked it.

He seemed like it wasn't a kind of aggressive, it was...

It was wholehearted, but I liked his vibe, Kieran Trippia.

No, I totally agree.

And

expectations change if you're a football fan, don't they?

You know, very quickly.

I didn't think that I would be expecting Tottenham to win the league two weeks ago, but I did and now I don't.

But

that can happen.

And I agree with you.

He was pretty measured.

And fans dish it out all the time.

And it's good sometimes when they have to take it.

Let's go to Anfield.

Liverpool 3, Brentford 0.

Could have been so different, Barry.

Ethan Pinnock missed an early chance.

Yeah, Ethan showed some rare signs of fallibility in attack and defence.

And maybe that was the difference.

I think the scoreline doesn't reflect Brentford's performance.

If you hadn't seen the game, you'd just presume Liverpool had swatted them aside.

That isn't the case.

But

they were just too good for them in the end.

But yeah, Brian Muemo missed a

glorious chance when he was put through in a one-on-one with Alison.

If he'd scored that, Brentford would have gone ahead.

And who knows?

And if Ethan had scored, it could have been a whole different ball game.

But

I don't think Brentford played particularly badly, but Liverpool were better than them, took their chances.

You're on first-name terms now with Ethan Pinnock.

Well, he wished me a happy birthday, didn't he?

That is

thanks to Robinson.

Darwin Nunes had two goals ruled out for offside at 0-0 last.

I mean, he needs a why always me t-shirt.

It's sort of getting to the next stage, isn't it?

Yeah, he's impressively chaotic.

Listen, I'm a Darwin believer.

I believe that Darwin will

come good, whether he'll be like one of the absolute elite strikers in the universe.

Not sure.

Maybe in the outer colonies.

Out there doing Robot Wars with Jonathan Pierce.

But

I think he's a very fun player.

I wonder how I'd feel about him if I was a Liverpool fan, because, of course, the missed chances are frustrating.

But I'm not a Liverpool fan.

I am a person who occasionally watches Liverpool, quite often watches liverpool and so for me having the added chaos of darwin is is an entirely positive experience jp and gillian anderson discovering him

exactly um he doesn't he has a real understanding with mo salah as well isn't he and that like that that is a good thing it's a good person to have a good understanding with especially if you're a liverpool centre forward and you know jotter makes a difference as well at 1-0 robin should endo have been sent off it was a bit like curtis jones bit like christian romero i wonder if they're both lying on the floor it just doesn't look as bad Yeah, I just didn't, I didn't quite get the kind of

you know, that you know, you make that noise.

Um, but we definitely did have that.

Uh, we'll get on to that later in the Arsenal game, you know, you kind of wince.

I didn't really get that on this one.

I did enjoy Klopp did went full Guardiola after this game and went, oh, Brentford are brilliant, aren't they?

Absolutely brilliant.

And after a 3-0 win, absolutely classic.

Thomas Frankshop said, I don't think it's a red card, but there are lots of other red cards, which I also don't think are red cards, so I do think it's a red card.

I am God.

A word on Simacas, I think, because when Robinson's out, Robertson was out for, you know, for a couple of months.

That is a key part of this now when you're a squad, isn't it?

If you've got someone to come in who we perhaps don't know how good they are or whatever, and he...

he looked really good in this game, I thought, and made a big difference.

And so all squads need that to happen.

Jürgen Klopp has criticised the decision to switch Liverpool's visit to Man City to a 12.30 kickoff.

Good.

More early kickoffs for Liverpool.

You don't like them, do you, Jürgen?

Here you go.

Eventually they'll just have all of them.

They'll start moving them earlier and earlier, won't they?

Well,

we've got an 8am on the 4G.

What have we done?

That's the only time we can get a pitch number for ADERGEN.

That's the only time we can do it.

It was originally, but even worse, it had been planned for 5.30.

And then a late kickoff was rejected by a safety advisory group following several incidents between the supporters of the two clubs, which is true.

They have happened.

The coaches have had stuff thrown at them and stuff.

So, you know, less time for people to get shit faced.

No one's ready for a 12.30.

Not even hooligans are ready for a 12.30 kickoff, are they?

But well done, Liverpool.

Well done, Arsenal as well.

They beat Burnley 3-1.

I'd argue the lads are the cenotaph.

They weren't

ready.

They were ready, yes.

Well, we need a voice note from you about Swella Brotherman.

Do we?

Oh, is she gone?

Is she gone?

I'm assuming she might be, maybe.

Who knows?

Well, I'll give you a voice note.

Surprised to see my dad there, but you know, he had a nice day.

He had a nice day out with the lads.

Arsenal 3, Burnley won.

Unlike Barry, the result looking more straightforward for Liverpool than it was, this actually was quite straightforward, even though Burnley equalised at one point in the game.

Yeah, I don't think it could have been more straightforward for Arsenal, really.

Burnley continued to struggle, continued to make mistakes, continue to defend badly.

And

they scored, but otherwise barely laid a glove on Arsenal in this game.

I think it's hard to see where they're going to get a win now.

You know,

Luton have got a couple of wins.

Sheffield United

are on a two-match unbeaten run.

You know, they could get marooned at the bottom.

Yeah.

The highlight was probably Zinchenko's karate kick.

Daniel's son finish, which I really enjoyed, which you were telling me yesterday is an illegal move in karate barry.

I was surprised to hear.

Yeah, Danny Caruso

should have been disqualified from that competition in the original Karate Kid.

Wow.

Changed history.

Changed the path of both his and his opponent's history.

And, you know, Mr.

Miyagi's.

You see, there are biased referees everywhere.

Where was the...

Where was he from?

Greater Manchester?

Don't see Mr.

Miyagi getting really pissed off with the VAR, going, I just want the referees here to make, you know, to make a decision.

I'm not miles away.

I don't know what a foul is these days yeah but the william saliba's head uh lars you know sometimes you sort of see corners and you think okay well sometimes the cross just goes to the man right but he didn't he did a sort of bean pole jump you know arms by his side standing jump that surely can't be how you score a goal like this seems so easy evidently was but again it's with with burnley like

So many goals they've conceded this season, but I do want to sit down and just go through every goal Burnley's conceded this season and just make a little check mark for just how many of them should have I mean it should have been a way of avoiding that because I feel like that is a high number I feel like I've watched a lot of Burnley highlights this season where they've conceded goals and you go hang on that should have been a way to you should do better than that and I do I think they're the they are a classic textbook case of the Norwich problem as far as I see they they were quite expensive and open and let's play nice football and stuff in the championship and then just doing the same thing in the Premier League is really difficult and they're not able to do it so far Well, all three of Arsis' goals came from crosses, two corners and a cross.

And

at the corners, Arsis players were just bullying Burnley and bullying James Trafford.

And

they should, you know, that shouldn't be happening, really.

It was, Trossard was the thousandth goal at the Emirates in all competitions for Arsenal.

They did tweet thousand goals with a picture of Trossard.

I think Tim Stillman went, it's not bad.

He's only been here since January.

We should really be talking about Leander Trossard a bit more, shouldn't we?

What's the best one?

Is it the Jack Will Shigal?

The first one that springs to mind is that Jack Will Shagal.

I think that was against Norwich, wasn't it?

Speaking of the Norwich problem, that lovely passing move.

But, you know, I don't know if you recall any others of the ninth.

So we're going to count down all the thousands.

Yeah, yeah, get Bruno Brooks in.

I thought the 439th one was the best.

Yeah, no, that really was excellent.

It was.

And Fabio Vieira, that was a red card that, you know, made us all go.

And did you like Arteta afterwards, Robin, saying, you know, being funny about VAR and saying, Let's have some humour, let's all be funny for a bit, everyone.

I think we all must have chewed our own fist off in sheer embarrassment.

It was so cringe.

It was like, oh, come on, Mikhail.

I mean, yeah, I know, yeah, this guy just, you know, I like him, but yeah, that was

cringe.

All right, that'll do.

I don't disagree.

That'll do for part two.

Part three, we're gonna old Trafford.

Coach, the energy out there felt different.

What changed for the team today?

It was the new game day, Scratchers, from the California Lottery.

Play is everything.

Those games sent the team's energy through the roof.

Are you saying it was the off-field play that made the difference on the field?

Hey, a little play makes your day, and today it made the game.

That's all for now.

Coach, one more question.

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Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly.

Man United won Luton-Nil.

Joachim says, What does it say about a half of football when the big highlight is Big Sam yawning in the stands?

So what do we think about Big Sam being lined up by Fergie to lead Man United to glory?

Man United are the formed team in the Premier League.

They've picked up more points over the last five games than any other team, winning four out of five.

Josh, United are six points off Arsenal.

Simple question: how?

They're seven points off the top of the league, Lars.

I mean, they've beaten Brentford, Wolves, Forest, Luton, Fulham, Sheffield United, and Burnley is how.

And all by a single goal, wasn't it?

Yeah, yes, exactly right.

And

out of those, Brentford can be nasty.

I mean, Wolves have got something about them, but they're all games a semi-competent United team should be winning, right?

There's nothing.

I'm not giving them a ton of credit for sneaking past these teams, I have to say.

I mean,

yeah, it's another crisis averted for another week, I suppose.

You get to the next weekend without everything catching fire and exploding.

But again, beating Luton at home shouldn't be this hard.

Alex says this week there's been pretty constant coverage of Newcastle and Spurs' injury problems.

They both lost this week on various bits of coverage I saw this weekend.

Their injury lists were literally listed on air.

We have done with Newcastle.

As a Man United fan, I'm obviously having a bit of a mixed season.

I've been baffled by how few people have considered our injury problems this season.

At several points, we've had our entire first choice back four out, as well as the midfield that we'd like to have in front of them.

I think at one point we had 12 out, okay, includes Sancho and Anthony, but that's still 10.

This isn't a what about request United enough issues to go round, but I'm intrigued why the panel thinks United's injury problems have been so absent from coverage and analysis.

Barry, why have they why have we not been discussing their injury issues?

Um, I don't know, I suppose it's because their injury issues weren't as apparent to me.

They're still putting out

what should be a pretty strong team, and those teams are struggling to get past opposition you would expect, as Lawrence described, a competent Manchester United side to be very comfortably.

I thought this was quite an emphatic 1-0 win.

Luton

didn't create much.

They had this.

employed the same tactics as they did against Liverpool, but didn't get away with it on this occasion.

They had one excellent opportunity where Onana had to save superbly from a Carlton Morris header, which Morris really should have scored.

I think it was a pretty comfortable United win.

But yeah, I'm veering away for the question.

I personally wasn't aware that United had this crisis.

I don't think they're anywhere near as

it's theirs, is anywhere near as bad as Newcastle's.

And they look sure missing has been a a key for them, I guess.

I mean, look, there is a cliche, Robin, that you know, if you win when you're really bad, like it could click.

Like, they are still in touch, Manchester United, aren't they?

And there is a, you know, there's a long way of this season to go.

We'll get the international break out of the way and then sort of see what happens.

But given how bad they've been in this run, to be the formed team is quite extraordinary.

You know, I saw that.

I thought that was a mistake.

I guess it's been peppered with in between the Champions League games where they've not been great as well and have lost some as well.

Yeah, they're odd.

I still, I'm not convinced.

Not convinced.

You know, as Lars has outlined the teams they've beaten, and unconvincingly so.

So, and yeah, just looking at that's an interesting one that the tweet brought up there.

It's still, I'm still looking at their starting 11.

Possibly, you wouldn't, you know, Rash was out of form, so you might want to rotate him, and perhaps he can't.

But otherwise, you know, you've got Brune Fernandez, Christian Erickson, Garnacho, Hoyland,

you know, the back four.

You know, Harry Maguire's actually been quite good.

Lindelof, Regulon, and then they brought on for Rand Mount Anthony and Marshall.

So

I think, you know, when Newcastle are lining up with a teenager and then having to bring him off for another teenager, I think it's, you know, maybe slightly different.

We are convinced, I think, by Aston Villa, though.

13th successive home win, a 40-year record, sixth successive home game, I think, where they've scored three or more.

They're three points off top, fifth in the table, Baz.

And in a really really good place, you know, they're in a great place.

Their squad are fit.

They're firing.

They are really exciting to watch.

And

we can lavish some more praise on Unai Emery.

Yeah, 13 Premier League wins at home in a row.

And their two next Premier League home games are against Manchester City and Arsenal, which is quite interesting.

And yeah, they were massively impressive against a Fulham team, I think, are incredibly meh

generally.

But John McGee was superb.

Ollie Watkins is fit and firing, although they didn't

miss a howler.

Amazing, wasn't it?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And

just the transformation in,

is it just over a year that Unai Emery has made to that team is just remarkable.

But they can still, you know, lose games you would expect them to win comfortably.

But Aston Villa fans must be having an absolute ball watching them win, you know, relentlessly game after game at Villa Par.

Yeah, and there just seems like a total understanding between these players.

Like that third, the Watkins goal, it was a counter-attack, but there was like three Villa players and about 10 Fulham players on this counter, as far as I can tell.

And they just waited and played it perfectly.

No, it just seems to be, it seems to be working really well.

And Una Emery have gotten together and he's found...

There seems to be like, I may have said this before, but there seems to be like a sweet spot for una emery because when you he's been at some at arsenal and at psg at the very biggest clubs it doesn't quite seem to work for him and i do he is notorious for being very meticulous in training very detailed focused having these very long video analysis sessions and i do wonder if we when you get to the very top echelon of the game you run into a few personalities and squads that are just not having that but when he's been at sevilla when he's been at villarial now when he's at astonville at teams that have the resources and the muscle to give you some pretty good players to play with, but you also maybe stay clear of the

biggest dickheads, basically.

And you can put them together into very, very capable sides.

And I think they're very, very well positioned to exploit any slip-ups from

the quote-unquote bigger teams.

And with a high likelihood that fifth will be enough for a Champions League spot, I think they have a real chance of that.

Interesting to see Yuri Tieleman start a game.

First start in the season in the Premier League for him.

I mean, that could be an added thing if they can find a spot for him in this system.

They could add something more because I think Addisbest is a very good player.

Yeah.

You mentioned their next two home games are interesting.

Their next game is away at Tottenham.

Given Villa's high line, is this game going to be played just

on a tiny strip on the halfway line?

And that's it.

Very, very exciting to see how that plays out.

Anthony Robinson's second-owned goal of the season.

The record is four.

He's got to get to.

Martin Skirtle and Lewis Dunk have both managed to get four own goals in the season.

Richard Dunn has a record of 10 own goals in total in the Premier League.

Just back to that Watkins missed header.

It was like he jumped past the ball, Robin.

Something totally...

The first time I saw it, I said, well, that must have been more difficult than I thought.

And then when you see it again, you're like, how has he done that?

Well, I don't want to criticise people for missing headers.

It's not my game, Max.

So

yeah, as being, I've discovered that I'm five foot and a half.

I thought I was one.

So I don't know where that half's gone.

Devastated.

It happens when you're aging, isn't it?

It's shrinking already.

Breaking news, everyone.

Cole Palmer, Esri Concern, Rico Lewis have been called up to the England squad in place of Lewis Dunk, James Madison, and Callum Wilson.

So there we are.

Palmer.

Obviously, listening to this pod before it's out, Gareth, to get Cole Palmer on that plane.

Presuming Raheem Sterling and James Will Prouse will be on by the end of the pod.

Brighton won, Shefford United one.

No win in six for Brighton.

Third straight draw at home.

Started so well, Baz.

That a dingra goal was sensational.

It was beautiful.

Absolutely beautiful goal.

And the alertness of Bonanote to dink that little back heel into his

return pass after he'd cut inside sort of slal and plast three

Sheffield United training cones.

And

just the finish, it will be a contender for goal of the season, you'd imagine.

It's a bit worrying for Brighton.

I I think that the Thursday Sunday thing is taking its toll they know Miller Estebanan Donk Ferguson I think are all injured in midweek and

Carl Matoma was rested yesterday I'm guessing he wasn't dropped because he when he came on he he was very influential as well but

Yeah, Brighton are struggling a bit.

They've only won two in 10 in all competitions and

as you say without a win in six in the league.

They wanted a penalty for handball from Jaden Bergor.

Match the day Wrighty and Shearer thought it was.

I was pleased it wasn't given.

In Europe, definitely would have been given, but I thought it was proximity and all those kind of things.

I just don't want any handball to ever be given again.

That's

the Rushton promise.

The best thing about this was Roberto Deserve apparently said after the game, I don't like 80% of English referees.

And I like the thought of all of our referees going, oh, he can't be talking about me.

It can't be me.

Yeah, well, presumably John Brooks, who refereed that game, is presumably in the 80%.

Although he did say, you know, the red card decision was correct.

It was definitely correct.

Mamouda Dahoo sort of stamping on Ben Osborne.

Yes, he says, I'm honest and clear.

I don't like 80% of English referees.

It's not a new thing.

I don't like them.

The behavior, I don't like their behaviour on the pitch.

I mean, I can't see what maybe the penalty lasts, but apart from that today.

You know, if we're going to go two-footed on Arteta, we can't just let Deserby have a pass because we like him better.

No, it's true.

I don't know why this didn't annoy me more because I'm usually team ref and I think we should leave them alone and leave them to do their jobs and talk about them a lot less than we do.

But there was something vaguely endearing about just how dismissive he was.

He's just got to just like 80% of them.

They're all terrible.

He does seem to be quite a fario character.

Not sure why I didn't find it quite as annoying, but I just kind of didn't.

And they had a chance to win it, Chef United, didn't they?

Was it Jayden Bogle?

Like, that's a massive chance later on, which would have been imagine getting two wins in a row.

But as you said, I'm beaten in two.

There is some hope.

Garrett says, can you discuss the Cambridge or Derby, please, Max?

James, can we have five minutes on the Cambridge or Derby?

Neil says, did you get to the posh match?

And did you wish you were still down under?

Nick, Peterborough, good, aren't they, Barry?

Et cetera, et cetera.

I would have talked about it had we won.

It was a midday kickoff.

We lost 5-0.

It was 0-0 after 32 minutes.

It was 3-0 after, I think, about 38 minutes.

It was a disappointing.

it was disappointing.

And I had that game and the Spurs game on.

And all those people that yell at me for liking two teams,

both early kickoffs.

Jet lagged, just slightly emotional jet lag.

A very sad morning, but well onto Peterborough.

You were, I would say, on balance, the better side.

Kim says, Lars was on the pod during Wallander Gate.

Is it Wallander or Wallander?

But did not react.

Could he explain himself from a fellow Scandinavian?

Probably wasn't paying attention.

Yeah, it is late.

Fair enough.

It does seem to happen sometimes when we get into the

QA section of the pod.

I sometimes zone out.

I've moved on to other things in my head.

You don't care about the listeners, is what I'm hearing.

Jim says, not a question, just some self-aggrandizing.

Over the past week, I've been competing in the Gay Games, the long-running LGBTQ Olympics in Guadalajara, Mexico on Friday.

My team, London Titans, clinched gold in the Division II competition.

Many congratulations, Jim.

Spencer in Washington, D.C.

says, Hi, Max and Barry.

I didn't think of sharing this until last week's pod, but indeed indeed, we have two dogs named Max and Barry, two pandemic pets.

Named in tribute to one of the bright spots, the Guardian Football Weekly pod of the over the lockdown.

Kept us saying when the world was upside down and football was played without fans.

Fittingly, Barry, the black lab, doesn't get off the sofa unless there's a meal.

Love you guys.

I'm glad I didn't say

fittingly, Barry smokes sweaty a day.

Oh, no.

Anyway, that's very sweet.

And I don't think I've ever felt more honoured, to be honest.

I'm wondering, does Barry, the Black Lab, enjoy a trip to the pub?

Yeah, probably.

Just, you know, there's his local.

There's Max, the dog, you know, all Pollyanna, banal and friendly, happy at everything.

Yeah,

does Max the dog just kind of have like one Pironi and sort of stay keep it sensible?

Whereas the Black Dog just kind of really goes for it.

But then bursts into life and starts slapping a chair.

Finally, Neil says, I bumped into Gary Bertles on Saturday night and asked him if he would mind having a photo for Max Rushdon.

He readily agreed.

Legend, there is a photo of Neil and a very smiley Gary Bertles.

I presume now we'll have to be discussed at the end of every podcast we do until the end of time.

But thank you, Gary.

Appreciate it.

And that will do for today.

Thank you, Robin.

Thanks, Max.

Thanks, Lars.

Thank you, Max.

Thanks, Baz.

Thank you.

Football Weekly is produced by Silas Gray.

Our executive producer is Daniel Stevens.

And Suella Braverman has been sacked, so there's no need for a voice note.

The statement says she's been great for the club.

We wish her the best, you know, in her next move.

And she's always welcome back in the 1922 committee or something along those lines.

See you at the live shows or whenever the next part.

This is The Guardian.