A Dier finish for Manchester City in Monaco and a Premier League preview: Football Weekly Extra

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Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly.

Everyone now knows that Eric Dyer plays for Monaco.

A stray Nico Gonzalez boot meant the former Spurs centre-back could reprise his England-Columbia moment and slot home from the spot to deny City the win they should have really got.

Arsenal are pretty comfortable winners over Olympiar Cos, and Newcastle are very comfortable winners at Union Saint-Gerbois.

PSG went late in Barcelona.

There's that high line again.

Other things we already knew, like Yamin Lamal is a lot of fun, and Nuno Mendez is too.

The best of the rest sees Rasmus Hoyland looking like an elite centre-forward.

It's just incredible how many players get good when they leave Old Trafford.

We'll look ahead to a Premier League weekend, including Chelsea-Liverpool and good at Set Pieces Arsenal versus bad at defending Set Pieces West Ham.

We have confirmation of a raft of Turkish listeners.

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

On the panel today, Barry Glenn Denning.

Hello.

Hi Max.

From the Racing Post Mark Langdon joins us.

Welcome Mark.

Hi Max.

And hello Lars Sividson.

Hello Max.

Let's start then with Monaco 2, Manchester City 2.

I like the start of Will Unwin's match report.

Barry, it had been a subdued night in Monaco with Manchester City sleepwalking to victory until Nico Gonzalez kicked Eric Dyer in the face in a failed attempt to defend a free kick.

It's quite an accurate reflection, I think.

I mean, there's a bit of controversy.

Not everyone thinks that's a penalty, but it was quite the moment.

Yeah, I don't see how it could be anything other than a penalty.

And I'm surprised there was controversy.

Pep Cardiola seems to have been quite miffed about it.

But Erling Haaland, when asked after the game, what he thought, said, I didn't see what happened, but I suppose if you kick someone in the face, it's probably a penalty.

I'd be a subscriber to that view of Erlings.

Yeah, I don't think you can have any complaints.

I think I knew Merrick Dyer had gone to Monaco, but had forgotten and then was surprised to see him.

But he took his penalty very well.

I suppose, yes, Manchester City were sleeping, walking to victory.

They didn't play especially well against the team.

I think we all probably thought they'd beat fairly comfortably.

Phil Foden was probably the standout performer for them.

Well, him and Haaland.

I thought Haaland's second goal that header was terrific.

Foden's return to form is something for Manchester City fans to be cheerful about on a night when otherwise they didn't have a huge amount to be cheerful about.

Yeah, I suppose on the penalty Lars, the counter-argument is: okay, there's not a huge amount of contact.

I don't know how much there needs to be, if any.

And

is it that actually Eric Dyer fouls Nico Gonzalez by heading his foot?

Or is that not a legitimate thing?

Okay, fine.

Absolutely.

I feel like Erling Holan has stolen my lines here because I was basically going to say, well, if you kick someone in the head, there's always a chance that Jeffree is going to give a foul.

I think we had a comment from a listener who asked, are...

overhead kicks now banned which i think i think maybe that's a slightly more interesting place to go in it i know in this case it was a defender trying to clear it not an attacker but it does arise a question because of one of the goals Juventus scored.

I know I think we'll probably get to that game.

There are similarities, like in terms of where the boot is versus proximity to opposing heads.

So I think there's a question to be asked about where that leaves overhead kicks in the crowded field.

And I guess very often it leaves them being given as fouls.

We can all just agree, if you're a defender.

and an opponent is going for a header, don't go with your foot.

Like, there's just very little upside to that maneuver.

It doesn't make any sense.

And it was really really good stuff by Eric Dyer, actually.

Yeah, and it did.

Just watching him score a penalty mark made me think of England Columbia.

And then I watched that BBC montage.

It was one of the best montages after the game, you know, in 2018, where it just showed

all the penalty misses and all the sadness.

And then Dyer scoring and then Bobby Robson dancing and Butcher and Waddle doing that.

Anyway, I mean, it's not a question to you, Mark.

I just, I just really enjoyed enjoyed it.

I suspect, back to this game, and we should talk about Haaland, right?

Because as Barry said, the header is brilliant because he's got to generate so much pace and the first one is just one of those god his legs are so long and and another one of those conversations about seven touches in a half and two of them are goals yes um yeah he doesn't get involved in in the build-up and i think that uh pep guardieri has learnt to to live with that and is is trying different ways to kind of you know reinvent maybe what he wants to do on the pitch to to suit harland as well um at times and why would you not try to play to to harland's strengths when you've got somebody as good as they've got up front?

You know, I think we have seen them

even in the recent weeks since Dunnarum has come in, go longer and try to hit Haaland quicker and to be more direct at times.

And

we do take it for granted just how many goals he scores.

just because it's become the sort of the norm, much like how it was for Cristiano Ronaldo and for Messi when they were sort of scoring sort of two and threes most weeks.

But the header, particularly, is sensational.

I mean, he was up against three former Premier League defenders, the Monaco back three at Sally Sue, Eric Dyer, and Keiera, who was at West Ham briefly.

So

he was up against familiar foes, and probably not the biggest surprise that he managed to come out on top on that individual battle.

But I think for City, so sloppy at times.

This was exactly the same thing that happened against Brighton when they were in complete control, didn't go for the killer goal that would have put them to a head, felt they could just see it out and gave away a stupid penalty.

And

once again, just I think there is something there for City about them just feeling they can see games out rather than play to what I still think is their biggest strength, which is in the final third and Haaland.

So I think they would have been better trying to get the third goal rather than sort of sit on that 2-1.

Yeah, and Barry, every time you don't win a game or you sort of show fallibility, it just means that air of invincibility that they no longer have more and more teams think, actually,

this isn't, you know, they're just another team.

I don't think anyone's going to think that as long as they have Harland playing, as long as they're the players they do, and as long as Pep's in charge.

Although it did almost get to that stage, or maybe it did get to that stage last season when they had that massive wobble.

But I think it would be very naive to think of them as just another team.

I mean, they hit the post or the bar twice last night and not shots that skimmed the bar, like spanked off the bar.

So on another day, they could have won comfortably.

But

again,

and I'm getting bored listeners myself saying this,

these results at this early stage of the Champions League don't really matter.

It's not...

A bad performance or a very workmanlike performance is obviously a cause for concern, but the draw, they've got what four points from two games.

That's fine, it's not a problem.

I am one of them people that shouts at Barry when I'm listening to Greg.

Great.

Well, shout him at him now.

He just says every Champions League game, the result doesn't matter, and eventually it must matter because not all of them can qualify.

Eventually, at some point, they will matter, but at the moment, I don't think they do.

These points, you know, add up

as you go along.

I am aware of how this league system works.

Thank you, Barry.

Yeah, we're three points for a win one for a draw because psg won it from you know way back um last season there's this belief that oh you can as long as you finish in the top 24 like it doesn't matter but psg got breast in the um sort of in that playoff draw real madrid got manchester city and one of them teams went out and psg then had the kind you then had to play liverpool so they they won on penalties but they could quite easily have lost that game on penalties and people would have been saying that psg are bottlers and that you know there's load luis enrique might even be in charge you know that that's how kind of fine a line and fine margins you get in football i think you have to give yourself the best opportunity um you know to to qualify in the top eight um initially and yeah you it's going to be a bumfight for those those top eight spots because there's a lot of teams that will feel like oh well that draw doesn't matter um you know we can just finish in the top eight And we saw last year that they didn't.

Um, you know Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Man City, PSG all finished outside the top eight.

Bayer Munich

nearly went to Celtic as well.

So I think you want those two matches off.

And I think you really want to finish in the top eight and you know, drop in sloppy points.

Um, it could be costly in about three months' time.

Would the counter-argument to that not be that Liverpool finished top of the league last season, only dropped

three points

and ended up going out to the eventual winners in the last 16.

Yeah, but the counter-counter argument to that is that most of the other teams that so Arsenal finished very well in the league.

I can't remember the exact exact feature, but Barcelona was semi-finalists, Inter had done very well in the league, they were semi-finalists.

So I think PSG were the kind of anomaly from that.

And on the other side of that, where Liverpool were really unlucky, but most of the teams that finished high up in the league phase, you know, were then able to benefit from that it was just that the ones that won um did come from way back so i'm not saying that they i'm not saying it's desperately important but i think there is there is more importance maybe than barry thinks i would say yeah what a polite row this is and i suppose another thing lars is actually if you get if you win the first how many points do you need 11 or 16 i can't if you win the first five then you can rest players you know there is this whole thing about fatigue so you know i'm i don't yell at barry you know long term it's important for us to have a good working relationship i suppose But I don't know, where do you stand on the furious Glendenning-Langdon debate?

You know, I'm really enjoying this because I'm getting early World Cup vibes.

This reminds me of the discussion we have at every single international tournament when we're looking at permutations for the last round of the group stage and we're thinking, oh, if they finish there, they play then.

The point that's always made is that you will eventually have to play good teams if you want to win it.

And I guess this is true about the Champions League.

But I am probably a believer

in the idea that playing fewer good teams is more advantageous.

If you can get a good draw for as long as possible, that it will help you go further.

England fans would agree with that, I think.

So I am kind of slightly on the Langdon side of this divide of like actually finishing high in the league phase is quite a good idea.

And

at the risk of being a complete sycophant here, I'm going to give the moderator points here because I think,

Max, I think your point about wrestling players is a very good one.

I think it's an issue of the schedule, as we keep hearing all the time, is really punishing.

So if you can have an early sort of, you can get four wins on the board in this group stage, so you can just kind of cruise for the rest of it and just pick a reserve side for a couple of these games.

I think that's very helpful in terms of squad planning.

So I do think it does matter a little bit.

Sadly, the moderator can get no points in such a court, but I appreciate the sentiment.

Arsenal 2, Olympiakos, nil.

That's not a straightforward barry for Arsenal as the score suggests.

They had to, you know, Olympia Arcas had a few chances, but I suppose unlike City, it was a game they sleepwalked into winning and won.

Yeah,

I would say Martin Odegaard was not sleepwalking.

He was outstanding in this game from start to finish.

He was really, really good.

Yes, good point.

Good as I've seen him in a while.

So he's clearly shaken off that shoulder injury, which I was worried about, actually.

I thought.

that might be one that would just bother him incessantly until he was forced to have surgery or something.

But he seems to be okay to have made a full recovery.

He was so good.

He

was instrumental in setting up both goals.

He created two good chances that weren't converted.

He should have scored, but was denied by an excellent save by the Olympiakis keeper.

I would say it was fairly straightforward for them, but David Ray didn't have a huge amount to do, but he made one terrific save from Daniel Podence.

Mean either.

Victor Giokarez had an interesting game, I guess.

He didn't score.

He was very unlucky not to score

the goal Martinelli ended up, the opener that Martinelli ended up tipping over the line when his effort hit the post.

Yeah, he looks kind of out of place in that Arsenal team.

I'm not saying he is out of place.

He just looks...

He sticks out like a sore thumb.

Not necessarily in a bad way.

I presume the goals will come for him at some stage, but

the goal he didn't score where he just barged through two defenders onto a through ball from Odegaard

and then got his shot away.

It hit the keeper and was diverted onto the post.

Martinelli finished it off for him.

But I think Arsenal lead a player like that.

Yeah, are you saying sort of amidst all this sleek grace, he's a bit of rough?

Is that what you're doing?

Yeah, yeah, dirty bit of rough.

Just, I mean, it's funny because he looks so clean, you know.

He's a very tidy guy.

But no, but that was always going to be.

It's always going to be a little funny if you add a sort of almost almost like a battering ram number nine.

I mean, he's not, he's not Paul Warhurst, Walhurst, anything up there, but he is like someone who's quite a direct, you know, hard-running center-forward to a team that for so long have played with almost various iterations of a false nine.

I mean, the guy who's played up front for Arsenal under Arteta the last few years is, I mean, the identity has changed, but it's usually been someone who wonders, someone who comes short.

They're used to having coming, you know, come.

If you bring Harvards back in there, he's going to come short more and link up with the midfielders more, and he's going to look more like he fits into that.

But I actually think the fact that he's a little different is what I like about him at Arsenal, because he adds a completely different dimension.

Now, it might take a little bit of time for the players around him to get used to that, and it might take a little bit of time for them to spot all those runs.

But I actually think that the fact that he sticks out is could in the long term be a bit of an advantage.

And I suppose, you know, look at the debt.

They did have to to bring on some of their A-listers.

I mean, it's hard to decipher, such as their squad depth, Mark.

But, you know, to start with a good team and have Rye Saka Eze, Timber, Califiori, Moscara, and Wanieri on the bench is quite something.

They have got a squad that should be able to compete on every front.

And it probably be a benefit to Arteta.

You know, they can have strong domestic cup runs as well, just to make sure that everybody feels part of it.

That could be a slight issue.

you you sort of went through that bench there there'll be a lot of players that feel like they they're starters and that you know you know he's calling them finishers but you know that essentially they're substitutes and

while you can share around the minutes people want to play in in the big game so he um it's a it's a different approach to um you know arteta came through under sort of pep guardiola who is the opposite and says that you know he wants to work with a small squad i think as long as you're winning um everything is okay And the second that you don't, you know, people start questioning why is this player not playing?

Why is that player not starting?

And it can become a slight problem.

But I just wanted to shout out that Ray a save because

1-0, if it goes 1-0, who knows how that game turns out, it was fantastic.

And do you remember when he first arrived that there were a lot of people really angry that Aaron Ramsdale was about to be displaced as Arsenal's number one?

And you look at kind of where Ramsdale's career has gone since, and what Ray is doing at Arsenal.

And that, I think, shows that Arteta is capable of making really big decisions.

And, you know, he obviously wants a lot of players and competition for places.

It just can be a problem, I think, if you're not winning because everybody then starts to question whether you've got the right start in 11.

Thanks to Chris for pointing out that Mikel Arteta is going to hire some RAF pilots to talk to the squad.

He was talking, Barry, at something I'm sure you went to, the Lead Better, Live Live Better Summit 2025.

Maybe you might have been the keynote speaker.

He was chatting alongside legendary basketball coach Steve Kerr, and he said, he was asked about leadership.

And he said, the British fighter planes, I will get in touch with those guys, how they communicate, because that is life or death.

I'm sure they don't use 20 phrases or 20 words.

If there is one word, don't say, nah, the wind is coming this way.

Now you have to turn left because boom, dead.

So it will be one word.

I suppose you have to think of ways to get to i mean it's easy to mock isn't it i mean well they are they always outside of that technical area as well

i don't i don't know it is easy to i'm trying to think it's good can we mount a defense for bringing in fighter pilots to say

this this is good i feel contractually obliged to point out that that is something boderglimt uh do they have a former fighter pilot uh doing uh mental coaching with the team uh anyone who's read any long read about buderglimt in the last four years will tell you this: it's yeah, it has to be a part of all of those articles, and it is indeed part of all those articles, but it is stuff that seems to be working for them.

I think that's uh, I think instead of player names on the back of Arsenal shirts, they should have call signs like Maverick and Goose and Iceman and Biggles.

Who gets Biggles?

Yeah,

that would be um Declan Wright, or actually, Gayokres, his hair, he's got quite raffish, wing commander-ish hairstyle, doesn't he?

Yeah, that is is true.

If he could grow a moustache and he could be biggles.

Look, they are good, and they're defensively very good, and good defenses win things.

They could easily win something this year.

And then, you know, they may mock us because we do not bring a fighter pilot in before the pod to get us in the mood.

Maybe we should.

Maybe we should.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I don't know.

We don't want people.

We want people wasting words.

It fills up time.

It's good for us.

It's precisely what we don't need is one-word answers.

Onion Saint-Gerois, nil.

Newcastle United, four.

I mean, Newcastle won this very comfortably marked.

I mean, it's good.

I guess the most important thing is they scored some goals because they've been pretty goal-shy recently.

Probably an easier game than it could have been because Union have to

can't play their European games at home, so they were playing Andalect.

So maybe home advantage was negated there.

But I liked sort of the way that Newcastle attacked in the game.

And it was the first time that Voltamade,

Ilanga and Gordon had started together.

And you could see the idea behind it because if you defend high to negate the threat of Voltamada in the air then the wingers can run in behind and then if you drop deep you can put crosses into you know a giant forward so I think those combinations started

to really look slick and that hasn't always been the case so far from Newcastle and you know in midfield they're as strong as ever I thought Tenale was exceptional that the way that he sort of drives the team forward and a really good way to respond to what would have been a disappointing way

to lose that Premier League game on Sunday.

And as I was saying to Barry earlier, you know, these points are important.

And yeah, I think it was a big win for Newcastle, having lost on match day one.

Yeah, three goals and four starts for Baltimore de Lars.

And

you spoke about him already, about how he does have a good touch for a big man, and he does.

And so he can sort of, in a sort of buy-in way, I guess, you know, he can drop deep deep and link the play for two quick guys alongside him.

And he's also like good in the box.

So I don't know how much he knew about that finish, but I'll give him some credit.

I thought he sort of adjusted his feet quite well.

Instinctive finish, Max.

Instinctive finish.

It's really the two headers in the Premier League that's caught me by surprise because that's really not something he was doing very frequently in spite of his very large size last season.

But no, he is a very clever striker.

And it is something that, I mean, kept an obvious alert here if we're back to the call signs.

But, like, with Isaac going, Newcastle kind of needed a striker.

And I remember watching, I was going to watch 90 minutes of Newcastle playing Aston Villa earlier in the season, and it was extraordinary because they had to play Anthony Gordon up front in the middle, and they kept getting into crossing positions.

And there was just, it's really no point putting anything in there, is there?

And it is, it seems to be something football is defaulting back into the return of the big man, which I am delighted with.

I think we all are.

The big center forward is back, and

it's a tremendous thing to see.

Yeah, this week Karl Heinz Rumeneger, I don't know how much we should pay attention to him, probably not a lot, called Newcastle.

Well, he said he congratulated Stuttgart for finding, quote, an idiot who would pay that much money for Voltamana.

We certainly would not have done that.

Bayern the Furious because

he was the one that they'd lined up probably for sort of next summer and had assumed that that would be a succession planning kind of for when Harry Kane leaves.

And I don't think they were, and they're usually in a very powerful position with other German clubs and they get what they want in the Bundesliga.

And they wouldn't have been expecting Newcastle to have paid that much money.

But, you know, I think Eddie Howe said it best when he was just talking about what the market is, what the market is.

They were trying to get him this summer as well.

They just couldn't.

Stuttgart were holding out for a price that they just couldn't pay.

And I do wonder if it's sometimes that we, because we watch a lot of the Premier League, we consume a lot of media to do with the Premier League, we cover the Premier League, we kind of assume that the prices and the money that's being thrown around in this league is in any way normal.

Like the discrepancy between the financial situation in England and the rest of Europe, including a team like Bayern, is quite stark at this point.

So we see, ah, Newcastle have dropped 70 million on the striker.

And it's like, yeah, that seems like normal behavior.

Just any other place in the world.

It's very abnormal.

Like, these sort of sums do not exist in football in the same way they used to.

Two nice spots.

Sam Dalling, Podder, in the crowd, cheering Anthony Gordon's first penalty.

And Barry, our friend Sophian Bufal.

There he was.

You're Bufal, it's true.

Yeah, Sophian,

formerly of Southampton,

plays for Union.

There's a few good stories there, the Union lineup.

Kevin McAllister, brother of Alexis, Liverpool's Alexis, he was playing for them.

And their captain is a fellow called Christian Burgess.

During the first half on TNT, Adam Somerton was portraying him as this modern-day Dick Whittington who left Portsmouth to go and play for this down-on-its-luck Belgian side union.

But instead of having a bag on a stick and a cat, he packed, I think, seven bags into the back of his ODA five and off he went.

So he's the skipper.

Adam's story sent me a googling, so I found an article on the BBC.

He's a history graduate and a vegan.

He went to Burrough at one stage, and

Tony Mowbray, so I think made it a condition of signing him that he had to finish his degree, which seems like a very Tony Mowbray thing to do.

Hats off to him for that.

And then there was another fellow, Ross Sykes, who went to union from Accrington Stanley, and he's a boyhood Newcastle fan.

So so it was a massive deal for him to come on and get get some game time in the Champions League against Newcastle.

Interesting stuff and that'll do for part one.

Part two we'll begin with PSG's win at Barcelona.

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Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

So PSG left it late.

They beat Barcelona 2-1.

What a high line right at the end, Mark, from Barcelona.

So I'm watching that going, what are you doing?

Thinking of other ways to kind of talk about Barcelona when they're defending, but it is just such an obvious flaw in what they do.

Although it feels hypocritical because I love watching them play.

And one of the reasons they're so exciting going forward is because they put pressure so high up.

And to do that, the defenders have to sort of be on the halfway line or even beyond that at times.

But, you know, there is a gainstate situation there.

And I think once you're in injury time,

you know, don't leave yourself that vulnerable.

It happened last season against Inter where they

had the game one.

And I don't think you need to be so adventurous at those times as well.

It was a really interesting match.

I think one of the...

the improvements that the Champions League has made now is that you do get these sort of headline acts every single week.

And

that wasn't really the case in the last group stage.

It's just a shame so many players on both sides were injured,

particularly for PSG, Marquinhos at the back, Joe Neves in midfield, and then all of the front three

were missing.

And so it was an unusual front three for PSG.

Mayulu and Bai and Barcola sort of as the front three.

But they still had Lee and Gonzalo Ramos on the bench.

frightening depth really.

I think the Barcelona were the better side over the course of the 90 minutes.

The Lemin Yamal versus Nuno Mendez kind of battle on Barcelona's right was the highlight of the game.

I think that the referee Michael Olive was right not to send Nuno Mendez off.

I didn't think that the foul when he was already on the yellow card on the edge of the box was necessarily a yellow card, but I know Barcelona were angry that that wasn't given.

And it was a decisive moment really because Luis Enrique reacted to that by bringing on Lucas Hernandez, played him left back.

And I think that him and then Nuno Mendez were able to stifle Lemin Yamal, who I thought had been the best player on the pitch for an hour, but then slowly PSG just got a grip and a handle on it and then won it right at the end through Ramos.

So, you know, a big win for Paris-Anjaman, just in the context of proving that they can do it with so many players out, because last season, like, it felt like they had a nice run in terms of injuries.

Like, you knew what their starting 11 was every week, but they've proven they can do it other ways now.

Nice line from Sid writing about Nuno Mendez saying he was going past people like Carl Lewis at a sports day.

It's worth mentioning Rashford as well, Lars.

So I think six successive games he's had a goal or an assist.

Yeah, he's making contributions.

And this is,

I guess this is what they were hoping for from him.

And that I think a lot of people are hoping that he'll kind of find himself.

He's ended up in a situation which is which is kind of perfect.

Like he's getting plenty of minutes, but it's not like he has to play every single minute and be the guy who's

pulling the cart all the time.

And i think the expectations are probably a little bit lower than they were at united it's not the same spotlight on him at all times and it's uh it seems to be working in a in a in a pretty good way i i want to flag up that i'm continually baffled by the situation with gonzalo ramos who is

he comes on and scores the the winning goals but it is slightly odd that uh promising and talented that he may be that's any myoto is starting ahead of him and ramos feels like every time i'm watching psg he's coming on and and scoring goals.

Like, it's almost constant.

And you can look at like his

looking at his stats is maybe a little meaningless because he tends to be like a super sub for a team that dominates their games.

But he scores an extraordinary amount of goals for the amount of minutes that he's on the field.

But Luis Enriquez seems to like quite aggressively not fancy him.

I think

it's fair to say.

And it's quite odd.

It's quite odd that he didn't move in the summer.

And it remains a little odd, I think.

Maybe he's just happy being a finisher.

That's what he likes to be

in every way.

Speaking of finishes,

John, amongst others, came in with, it's an open goal, but we'll take it.

This Highland guy looks pretty good.

Maybe a Premier League team should take a punt.

Napoli 2 Sporting 1.

Both goals set up by Kevin De Bruyne.

We know Kevin De Bruyne is good, but we didn't really see Rasmus Holland be good for Manchester United.

But both, they're very different finishes.

They're very different goals, Barry.

But

they look like, if you'd never watched him or he'd never been in the Premier League, this guy, that guy's just a really good centre-forward.

Yeah, and if either of those opportunities had come to him at any point last season, you'd have bet the farm on him missing both of them.

And I suppose it's just indicative of what confidence can do for somebody.

And it helps that Kevin De Bruyne is providing the assists after the game Hoyland or his people, I'm not sure whether it was him or representatives put on social media that me scoring two goals with Kevin De Bruyne providing both assists was not on my 2025 bingo card.

We were discussing bingo for reasons I won't go into before the game or before we started recording this podcast.

I didn't have Rasmus Hoyland knowing what bingo is on my bingo card, I have to say.

Well, my name would have, Barry, because she'd have had two cards as we were discussing hers.

She used to play only for two people.

We do have bingo in Scandinavia, like it is a thing.

Okay, it's not as I thought it was a particularly English uh pursuit or pastime.

So, what's the Norwegian for bingo?

And is it just bingo?

Yeah, it's very much bingo.

Yeah, I assume the same.

I have again, I wonder about this, made me think:

is just leaving Man United the key to success and happiness in life?

And I wonder if this also applies to like members of staff and people who have just worked in the ticket office.

I swear we have obviously they famously used to have a lot of staff and now they have slightly fewer staff.

I guarantee you, people who have worked for Man United and have then moved on with their lives are listening to this pod right now.

They must be.

And I would like for them to write in:

has everything come together for you?

Like, have you had tremendous success in your professional and personal life almost immediately after no longer working for Man United?

Because it just seems to be very, very consistent.

Yeah, I'm just trying to think

who has left and gone on and played played incredibly well?

Of course, McTominay.

Anthony's done very well at Bettis, hasn't he?

Rashford is doing well at Barcelona.

You have Hoyland here.

Am I forgetting like hordes of them?

I put Lukaku in that bracket.

He's gone to Italy and won the league there after leaving United.

Yeah, I mean, it just sort of seems staggering.

Or maybe we just don't notice the ones that leave and aren't good because it sort of helps for this sort of amusement of

just Manchester United getting into every conversation.

So I'm I just thought they were really good goals.

The first one, the first touch is good.

Gets it out from his feet.

Looks like he's got he's quicker than he was at Man United, finishes well.

The second is a really brave header.

You'll spot on, Barry.

I just think there's no way he'd have scored those ones.

This time last year,

he wouldn't have got it out from under his feet.

He'd have tripped over his own feet.

To be fair to him, while his spell at United was anything but a success, he wasn't getting

much service when he was plowing a very lone and and forlorn furrow up front.

That is true.

Carabag 2, Copenhagen-0.

Lars, you volunteered to watch this one.

Tell us about it.

Yeah, The Horseman from Razar Bajan.

I did watch it, in the sense that it was on as I was tidying my apartment.

But it was

Carabag had the better of the first half.

It's kind of a weird playing surface.

It was like Copenhagen were more sloppy than you'd expect in possession.

Carabag were moving the ball a lot better.

FSA Co improved, I thought, in the second half, but they had more chances, but they couldn't find a way to score and eventually lost 2-0.

It was not massively eventful and life-changing for me, I have to say.

And on behalf of my Scandinavian brethren, I was a little bit disappointed that they couldn't get anything out of it, but that's two wins and two for Karabag.

You have to respect it.

Carabag are subscribing to the Langan view,

the preposterous Langanen view that winning games early in this competition is quite handy.

I don't buy it for a second.

You'll have the last laugh, Barry, when Carabag don't win the Champions League, won't you?

Bruce Dortmund for Athletic Bill Bow one.

What did you make of this, Mark?

I think from athletic have been one of, I think, the biggest sort of disappointment so far.

I've had a hard enough start, you know, playing Arsenal and then away to Bruce Dortmund.

But I, yeah, I expected more from them this season just overall.

I know that Nico Williams has been injured and

he's a very important player for the team.

But just,

you know, I don't think they should be losing 4-1 against the British Dortmund team.

That's definitely not

a strong version of Dortmund, not as good as the ones we've had before.

But Girassi is, I think, one of the most

weirdest players around because...

he just scores so many goals and it was a kind of um you know a flukey goal he got um last night as well but he's his sort of goal record is um just sensational.

But whenever I watch him, I

don't actually feel like he's that good.

And so he just

one of them players that just scores goals, and lots of them, you know, they'll go in any which way.

And this was one of those cases, but a good result for Dortmund.

Poor from Athletic.

Does anyone have any strong thoughts on Villarreal 2, Juventus 2 or Levakus and 1 PSV1, Barry?

We discussed overhead kicks earlier, and Federico Gatti scored an excellent one for Juventus.

Big centre half.

Not the kind of goal you would expect to see a big centre half scoring.

He didn't boot anyone in the head.

He just struck the ball.

So well done him.

Apart from that, I do not have any thoughts.

I mean, I guess the boot was head adjacent, but no one really stuck their head into it, I guess.

But

yeah,

it was a very good overhead kick, for sure.

I suppose how late can you put your head into the foot?

Like, if, you know, if Trevor...

This is the key.

Trevor Sinclair's gone gone up and he's taken it, you know, if a Barnsley defender was to run into his foot now,

it's unlikely the goal, you know, that would be chalked off.

But, you know, in the moment, could you have the presence of mind and the bravery to just head-butt any errant foot?

And therefore, the overhead kick would be disallowed.

Anyway, the Europa League and Europa Conference League tonight,

Celtic Braga, Forest, Midgeland, Villager to Final, Rangers go to Sturm, Gratz, Crystal Palace go to Dino Akiv, Aberdeen, Shaktar, Shamrock, Rovers, Sparta Prague, and Shelbourne versus Hacken.

So if anything dramatic happens, those will cover those on Monday.

As well as that, we'll cover the Premier League, and we'll look ahead to the weekend of fixtures in just a second.

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Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly.

So Chelsea, Liverpool, probably the game of the weekend.

And it is interesting now, Liverpool are on this, you know, this disastrous two-defeat run, Mark.

Yeah, I do think there's been an overreaction following those two defeats.

Players were arrested against Galatasarai.

It's not an easy place to go.

We're talking in cliches.

And the Palace game, like first half, Palace were definitely on top.

Second half, you know, I felt like Liverpool were the team that I wasn't surprised they got the equaliser and they were the ones that I felt were going to get a win.

And I think that...

Palace are a good side this year and they've just lost it right at the end.

I wouldn't be that concerned just yet.

I think that there is an issue with Wurtz just not settling in and accommodating him and being sort of one person down in midfield as a consequence has unbalanced them slightly.

But

I'd still say they're in a better spot than Chelsea, who didn't have much of a preseason.

I'm not sure if that's the reason for some of the injuries.

PSG spoke about earlier have got injuries as well, but they're not the only two teams in that situation.

But Chelsea have got a lot of defenders out through suspension or injury.

And that's not ideal when you're playing against that Liverpool front three.

And I spoke to a Chelsea season ticket holder yesterday who said he was still

behind Mareska.

But in his sort of friend group, there's definitely...

a turning

with some.

And so I think they've got within the next sort of next few Premier League games, they've got Liverpool and Tottenham.

If he loses both of those, I think he will sort of lose

a fair chunk more of those that are kind of on the fence at the moment.

I mean, come on, Mark.

When did Chelsea ever lose to Tom?

I mean, they're just never, ever.

No, no, that's a very fair point.

Gary Lineke,

maybe, but yeah, it's a long time.

Well, Delhi Alley as well.

But yeah, it doesn't happen very often.

The thing about Chelsea, Lars, is, you know, Liverpool have signed up for players, but you sort of have a vague idea of how they're going to,

you know, the starting 11.

Find myself

sort of impossible to know what Chelsea will do.

I mean, I know it's early in the season, it takes time for teams to settle, and Mark has mentioned all the injuries and suspensions, but they're just such an odd team.

Yeah, it does feel like they haven't quite congealed into a consistent 11 as consistent team.

That's that's that's true.

I still feel like we can be pretty sure.

I was about to start saying what I think the lineup will be, and I realized, no, we cannot be pretty sure.

Halfway through that, I was like, no, I don't, I don't got it.

Well, Pedro will be up front, I'm sure, and both Enzo and Caicedo will start, and probably Pedro Netto, I guess.

The thing with Chelsea as well right now,

they've had a man sent off in three of the last four games, which seems bad.

Like, this is very unhelpful if they're trying to get results.

And I think for this game in particular, now they have something like four center halves missing.

So there'll be probably a little bit makeshift at the back.

So against that Liverpool front line,

could we make it four and five?

I wonder.

It seems like a thing that could happen.

Who will play down the ledge?

I think Garnacho.

I'm trying to think who would be up against whoever Liverpool chooses right back and whether Sobaslai stays at right back.

I would like to see Estevao because he looks so exciting.

Like in the sort of

unending stream of talented guys in their late teens, early 20s that they've been buying since the blue Toadbow takeover.

Estevao is the one.

Obviously, Cole Palmer, obvious example, but of the more sort of left field ones, Estevao is the one that looks like, my God, like this, this guy could be an actual global superstar at some point.

He looks so incredibly exciting.

So I would like to see him as a neutral here, just have as many minutes as possible going forward.

Nuno goes to the Emirates, Barry.

You sort of touched on this, I think, yesterday, but

it will be interesting to see how West Ham defend corners and if Nuno has managed to do anything against a team that scores so many more goals from corners than anyone else.

Yeah,

West Ham will be provided with

as stern a test as you're going to get.

when it comes to defending corners against Arsenal.

It's very hard to see anything other than an Arsenal win in this game, but there is the possibility West Ham will have a bounce of sorts following the departure of Potter.

I think did they win there last season?

Yeah, relatively speaking, they've got a good record at the Emirates, you know, given the kind of the quality gap between the two teams.

And this is

the kind of rake Arsenal, well, last season's Arsenal obviously did tread on and get slapped in the face.

i don't think that will happen this weekend but i i wouldn't rule it out either and goes to st james's park with nottingham forest um

what have you made of the you know and ball two uh in the premier league mark yeah i mean it's not starting very well um it's not a big surprise um that it has started that well i mean to put a manager that's so different to the previous one in charge of a team with no preseason doesn't feel like um that the wisest decision um from mr maranakis didn't feel like it was um the strongest interview process either um yeah i think that people knew for a long time um that and was was going there and um it was um i think it's all a bit odd um really you know possikoga will want to get back into the premier league but

it just feels like a tricky one to take because nuno had done such a good job um playing such a different way to to to have that an immediate impact i think would be hard for a lot of managers and now they've got the sunderland game you felt like was the ideal opportunity to get the win they lose and then all of a sudden you've got to go to a newcastle team that's resurgent after their champions league win so i think it's um yeah it's a horrible horrible looking game for uh possit coggler i'd yeah i wouldn't i would

I think I'd be more surprised if he was still there at the end of the season than not.

I just don't see it working out, I have to say.

Is it this game last year, last, where Chris Wood turned into Ronaldo and and scored a hat-trick?

Was that the year before?

I feel like that could be any game in the last couple of years.

This Chris Wood thing doesn't make any sense to me, but it just keeps happening.

I'm getting, like, I don't mean to make light of this, but I keep getting like Tottenham PTSD from this start of Nothing Forest because I haven't watched any of the games in their entirety, so I'm not going to have too strident opinions on this Irish Boyle iteration, but.

They keep like not winning games, and I keep checking the stats, and it seems like they had a lot of shots and stuff, and then I see Anish interviews going, oh, yeah, I thought we had the better of that game.

And then I check the result, and they haven't won.

It was like, yeah, that's very familiar.

Like, I've had quite a lot of that.

Just sort of note of compassion to the Nottingham Forest fans who are like, yeah, you're not alone.

A lot of us have experienced this before.

I would argue in Andrew's favor, they really should have won that game against Sunderland.

Like, they had a lot of shots.

The Sunderland Keeper had a brilliant game.

They played well at Bettis as well, and

still concede two goals.

Yeah, it's funny that.

It's funny how that keeps happening.

Sunderland goes to All Trafford.

Barry, you are quietly confident or perhaps loudly confident going into this game?

I give Sunderland every chance of turning them over, definitely.

And if they do, it's going to be interesting.

Last game before an international break.

I would imagine if United lose at home, given their current run of form, to a newly promoted side, that will not go down well at all Trafford in the the stands or in the boardroom.

Hopefully, Sunderland can do a number on them just to see what happens next.

You know, you'd give any team in the Premier League a chance to beat Manchester United at the moment, and Sunderland have got off to a great start, so why not?

The early kickoff on Saturday is Tottenham's visit to Leeds, if I think or I'm beating at home, you know, the Ellen Road factor.

Mark, what's the Spurs sentiment over Thomas Frank start?

It seems like they get to this moment where it's all good, and then they've got a game that's really winnable, and they don't win it, and you just go, oh, God, and then they'll go again.

They felt nothing more predictable than pointless wolves sort of turning up at sort of Tottenham last week with an opportunity to narrow the gap on leaders Liverpool and really struggle for 90 minutes.

Leads are good at home.

We've seen that already.

And probably kicking themselves that they didn't beat Bournemouth last week.

From Tottenham's point of view, if you'd have asked me this question maybe 10 days ago, I would have been really positive.

But last couple of performances have been way short of the standards that were set in the,

admittedly, away games, actually, Man City and Brighton.

And because the attack's not flowing at all from open play, I do wonder whether they might actually be suited to playing away from home.

And maybe it didn't look like that on Tuesday in Norway.

But generally speaking...

I think there'd just be less pressure on them to try to create a big problem against Villarreal, against bournemouth and um also against wolf so um i i'm i'm staying patient with thomas frank but he will need at some stage to get the team clicking in in the final third yeah i mean i suppose part of that is you know is you need javi simmons to to be the create there just aren't that many creators right with the injuries to madison and kudosewski yeah i think that that that's fair and the reliance on kudos is um yeah it's too much really because that has been the tactic so far this season give it to him and hope that he can sort of dribble past everybody um and it's not a bad tactic when it works but it it's not really um sustainable it's just where does simmons play i think he doesn't look comfortable out on the left um but when you're easing him into the premier league as liverpool a fan with verts like playing somebody like that in the centre is also um you know i'm not sure he's fully up to speed yet with the premier league had his best 25 minutes playing centrally against Brighton, but I think that's very different when you're chasing the game in that situation rather than starting there.

So

I know he's one of Barry's favourite players.

I'm sure he will come good, but just a bit of patience required of him.

It's interesting, he doesn't move like Vertson.

They both have that sort of languid style.

The way they carry the ball, it's so beautiful.

But

no time.

Not a lot happens.

Yeah, quite a lot of the time.

Yeah, you're right.

No time on the ball.

Bournemouth, Fulham, Everton Palace, Wolves Brighton, Villa, Burnley, Brentford City.

Anything piqued your interest, Barry?

Well, Palace, we're on this very long, unbeaten run.

Could come to an end tonight, obviously, but going to Everton.

I remain unconvinced by Everton.

I think they've been getting a few results they haven't deserved.

Who do they play on Monday?

West Ham.

Thought that, yeah, they were bang average in that game.

But in Njai and Grealish, they have two really good wingers.

They just have no one to finish off all the crosses and good balls that they provide.

And that's an issue unless I suppose it's too early to judge Tier and O'Barry.

But

yeah, they need a striker who's firing, and they don't have one at the minute.

Okay, let's go to,

we'll obviously cover all those games on Monday to Turkey Corner.

Sadly for you, Mark, is not sort of a food-based part of the

team of the team.

You won't be surprised.

You will not be surprised to know.

I might get my teeth done while we're here.

And I could do with some Donami.

All the clichés.

Yeah, lovely.

We're all winners.

Corkieng, if I've pronounced it correctly, says, hi, on Wednesday, you're asking how many Turkish listeners you had.

To my knowledge, let's face it, it's not that extensive.

I'm the only one.

I found Football Weekly right after Galatasaro's 3-2-away win against Manchester United to check what the English media thinks.

And I've been an avid listener since.

Listening to the Liverpool game reactions of the pod was a full-circle moment for me as a fan.

I will have a nose job to breathe properly next week, not a vasectomy.

So, Barry's unimpressed words are more than welcome.

It's been 30 years since I had a big operation, so you can say I'm a bit excited.

Our first nose job on the party is very exciting.

So look, good luck with that.

Let us know how it goes.

But you're not alone.

We had a raft of Turkish listeners get in touch.

Chenk, presumably not Chenk Tosen, just says, hi, Max.

We're here as Turkish listeners.

Cheers.

Rizvan says, longtime listener of Football Weekly, lifetime Galatasarai supporter.

After hearing you wonder in today's episode, I can confirm you have at least one Turkish fan in me.

I can also confirm that the Galatasarai gold music is the melody of I Will Survive, but based on a Turkish version of the song song by Ajda Pican, who is considered Turkey's version of Madonna.

I appreciate Galatasarai being considered dark horses in the Champions League this year, considering last time we were in the Champions League and had Wilfred Zaham and Hakim Ziich.

You said the team had an expendables feel to it.

Big fan of the podcast.

Thanks for all you do.

Lots of people got in touch.

talking about I will survive.

Yannick saying, I just want to chime in on your take on Galatasarai's gold tune.

It is actually I Will Survive, specifically the version made by the Rotterdam pub Apre ski group called hermer's house band okay so we have some controversy here uh it is coincidentally the only the gold tune of fire nord at rotterdam celtavigo and i believe benfica have a nice week thanks for the nice podcast cheers yannick um novid says turkish listener here who lives in spain is a man united fan that's been listening since 2008 my favorite member of the pod is barren is the right hand you could have been original novid yeah you could have been original uh but you chose to follow the herd uh like the sheep that you are anyway thank you to everyone, to all our Turkish friends, and to everyone around the world.

Thanks for listening, and that'll do for today.

Thanks, everybody.

Thanks, Barry.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mark.

Thank you, Max.

Thank you, Lars.

Thank you, Max.

Public Weekly is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Phil Maynard.

We'll be back on Monday.

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