Arsenal’s perfect weekend and Liverpool thrown into crisis – Football Weekly

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Speaker 5 Hello, and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly. What a brilliant weekend for Arsenal.
Quietly going about winning the league while everyone else we think should be in the title race slips up.

Speaker 5 Liverpool's fourth Premier League defeat in a row, comprehensively outplayed by Brentford. Michael Coyote's long throw, surely the best since De Lap.

Speaker 5 Man City are beaten at Villa after spending quite a while on his right foot last week. We can now talk about Matthew Cash's left.
Sunderland a fourth. Fourth, Barry winning late at Chelsea.

Speaker 5 Bournemouth a second.

Speaker 5 There's a third winner row for Manchester United, while at the bottom, the misery continues for West Ham at Leeds and Wolves beaten late on by Burnley, who score an absolute beauty on the way to victory.

Speaker 5 First brilliant away form continues at Everton, while Newcastle consigned Fulham to another defeat. It's a big weekend for old strikers.

Speaker 5 We'll answer your questions, and that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

Speaker 5 On the panel today, Barry Glen Denning. Good morning.
Hello, Max. Welcome, Dan Bardell.

Speaker 8 Morning, Max.

Speaker 5 And hello, Sam Dalling.

Speaker 1 Hello, Max Rushton.

Speaker 5 Right, let's start at the G-Tech. It's hard to know where to start.
And, you know, lots of teams could say we should be first, but we'll start with Brentford's win over Liverpool.

Speaker 5 Sam, you were there on Saturday night. I thought Brentford were absolutely brilliant in this match.

Speaker 1 I'm glad you've started with the Brentford angle as well, well, because the easy thing to do would be to slate Liverpool. But yeah, they were fantastic, right? They were fully deserving of their win.

Speaker 1 Had Liverpool nicked something in the 17th minute of added time or whatever it was at the end of the second half, it would have been completely unjust. I mean, the kudos goes, right?

Speaker 1 The long throws, I know we've talked about them a lot. Michael Coyote, who, believe it or not, he didn't realise he had that aptitude until he was about 16.

Speaker 1 It was when he was playing in Syria D with Gazano. He was on Juventus' books.
They let him go. And it wasn't until he was 16 he realised he had this weapon.

Speaker 1 But he is also, and I think what we shouldn't lose sight of, is an absolutely brilliant right back.

Speaker 1 He was player of the match. He won all five of his duels, a couple of takes on, nicked possession off Liverpool seven times, three clearances, two fouls.

Speaker 1 And then I was at the West Ham game as well on Monday, which were a very different game. Brentford won that.
And I think he created six chances for an open play.

Speaker 1 And it's just yet another example of Brentford's absolutely brilliant recruitment. You know, a lot of us laughed when they signed Jordan Henderson in the centre of midfield.

Speaker 1 He hasn't looked out of place at all. I think Mikel Danscard is their number 10.
That pass for the Shada second goal. I know it was simple in terms of

Speaker 1 Liverpool probably should be defending better than that, but wow, what a pass. And then it's the striker, the chain of succession.
I mean, it's like some kind of royal lineage, isn't it?

Speaker 1 If you go back to Mope, Watkins, Tona, Vissa, Thiago now, who is an absolute bully, he gave Van Dijk a little bit of a, more than a little bit of a hard time, and he could see Arnie Slott, when that penalty was given

Speaker 1 immediately. In fact, when they were doing the VAR check, he knew it was going to be given, so he immediately turned and got three subs ready to come on, but he just didn't have an answer.

Speaker 1 Keith Andrews, the set-piece specialist, is looking very much at home as a manager.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I'm glad you brought up Coyote being a good footballer because there's a danger, Barry, of looking at like a Callum Giles short corner specialist or like a Sabutio corner kicker, where that's all they can do.

Speaker 5 But actually, he's a really good footballer as well. But his throw, it's so flat and he whips his arms so quickly.

Speaker 5 There are lots of long throws going around, but he is the standout in the Premier League, I think. Yeah, I don't think it's quite as flat as Rory DeLaps,

Speaker 5 who seemed to just arrow it straight towards the near post or towards the middle of the six-yard box. Coyote's does go up in the air, but

Speaker 5 it is a very potent weapon. Liverpool

Speaker 5 said after the game, I think Arnold Slott said after the game, that they had prepared for it, but they obviously didn't prepare for it adequately because they were undone by one.

Speaker 5 And they had a warning before the one that's that Brentford scored their opener from.

Speaker 5 And

Speaker 5 you would think when

Speaker 5 you know that the opposition have this weapon in their arsenal, you would try not to give away throwings in that dangerous area. But Liverpool did so repeatedly.

Speaker 5 Now, the one from which the first goal came from was a little bit unfortunate. Marmadashville tried to pick out Bradley with a pass.
Bradley miscontrolled it and the ball went out.

Speaker 5 But before that, Marmadashville had put the ball out in much the same area when he didn't need to. I also agree Coyote is, if you take away away the throw and he's still a terrific full black.

Speaker 5 He was all over the place yesterday. He was popping up on the left wing.
He was making maisy crossfield dribbles.

Speaker 5 Just, he was brilliant. Yeah, really good.

Speaker 5 And you're right as well, Sam, to talk about Jordan Henderson. I mean, I'm definitely in that bracket of somebody who should stand in a queue and apologise to him.
Not that I suspect he matters.

Speaker 5 I do wonder if Rory DeLap can still do that, that he could hire himself out, you know, just to go to training grounds and just lob in throw-ins and make quite a good living as a kind of long throw consultant person.

Speaker 5 Yes, Sam. Do you have intel on this?

Speaker 1 Do you have enough kudos in that queue? Because it's going to be a very, very long queue. Is it like when the queen passed away? Could you be David Beckham?

Speaker 1 Could you queue jump to go and apologise to Jordan Henderson? Are you at that stage in your career?

Speaker 5 I don't know. I don't know.

Speaker 5 If the ones that he really wants,

Speaker 5 I suppose it's probably the people that he's really annoyed with that he'd stop and talk to for a long time. I I don't think I was that critical of him in the first place, to be honest.

Speaker 5 I just get a nod and a walk past. Liverpool have now lost as many league games as they did in the whole of last season.
They've let in 14 in nine.

Speaker 5 It took them 16 games to concede that many last season. Exposed again,

Speaker 5 Dan, set pieces, hitting balls over the top, a high line. So many of their players look off it.
You know, we're getting towards sort of fully blown crisis, I would say.

Speaker 8 Yeah, it can't be far off, can it? That run of results. It's not just a run without winning, it's a run of defeats.
And you've just pointed out an armoury of things that are wrong.

Speaker 8 You just watch them defensively, and they're all over the place. And you watch them going forward, to be honest.
And I think they're all over the place in that regard as well.

Speaker 8 Each game now, I think he's got to settle on a right back. When things are going badly, he takes Conor Bradley off and moves Shabozlai there.

Speaker 8 I think he played there for like 10, 15 minutes and then was moved back in midfield because he wanted in midfield. There's too many changes in a game for me with Liverpool at the moment.

Speaker 8 When they were behind last season, which wasn't very often, they kind of had that way of playing that they almost knew they could keep it as it was and they'd get back into it.

Speaker 8 Now he just seems like he's just throwing so much mud at it and waiting for something to stick and nothing seems to be sticking at the moment.

Speaker 8 I think it was an interesting game for a number of reasons. And I'll credit Brentford as well.

Speaker 8 I thought Brentford were brilliant and I was one of the people that heavily criticised Jordan Henderson when he made the move that he made and then was in the England squad.

Speaker 8 I didn't think he should be, but he's been an absolutely brilliant pickup for Brentford.

Speaker 8 And there's a couple of other kind of ex-Liverpool players in that Brentford team as well, who I don't think will be feeling smug. But I thought Vander Berg was very, very good.

Speaker 8 Kelleher's probably in goal down the other end thinking, well, actually, when I used to come in for Allison, things were a lot more stable defensively.

Speaker 8 I think the last thing Liverpool needed right now was Marmadash Villey to come in goal and Alison to be injured because I think having a new goalkeeper amongst all the chaos already has added to the problems that Liverpool have.

Speaker 8 I mean, I was about to say, I don't know when they'll get out of it, but they've got Villa next week, so potentially they could get out of it next week because Villa love going to get teams out of

Speaker 8 bad runs. Hopefully that doesn't happen.
But Liverpool, I think you're right. I think it's bordering on a crisis and slot looks a little bit lost.

Speaker 5 Yeah, Dr. Villa.
It's not Dr. Tottenham.
No.

Speaker 5 They can do a job. Yeah, like Liverpool have Palace at home in the Carabao, then Villa at home.
Real Madrid at home in the Champions League, then Man City away.

Speaker 5 And Sam, I mean, you obviously watched, you know, when you're there, you can see like players' body language and

Speaker 5 how things are going and slightly better on the telly.

Speaker 5 And I sort of think, given how well Bournemouth are doing with a new back four and a keeper, how well Sunderland are doing with 14 new players, are we, and I'm, I am really conscious that what happened with Yogo Dotter will have a huge impact on this season.

Speaker 5 And so we always have to have that in our minds.

Speaker 5 But are we giving slot a bit of a pass with this kind of, well, these new signings need time to gel when you know Sunderland's new signings don't need time to gel?

Speaker 1 It's an interesting one. Oh, I was been thinking, am I going to say this? Are we at a stage and it's going to annoy people?

Speaker 1 Can we say that we are thinking about whether Slot just inherited a side that was primed and ready to win a title anyway?

Speaker 1 This is a proper test for him. And he didn't have any answers.
I mean, body language-wise, Salah, he scores a brilliant goal at the end.

Speaker 1 There's one in the first half where Gakpo plays him in and he gets this. He takes a touch.
A normal Salah would take a touch on his right, stop it dead, and get the shot away and score.

Speaker 1 And his touch touch is really heavy. And then, second half, he cuts inside from the right, and you just see, right, this is Mo Seller.
He's going to curl this in the top corner.

Speaker 1 And the shot goes into the away end. It is really awful.

Speaker 1 There's nothing I enjoy, and again, I'm going to annoy Liverpool fans here more than seeing an annoyed Virgil Van Dijk because he carries himself as this, like, I'm really calm, cool, and collected.

Speaker 1 Nothing fazes me. As Barry was saying last week, he's got a career in Hollywood afterwards when he's finished with football.

Speaker 1 But he just gets really annoyed and he's really moany and it is a lot of fun seeing him like that.

Speaker 1 And as Dan said, Vanderberg, David Heitner did an interview with him in The Guardian and actually Slot coached Vanderberg. I think it was Zvolla's youth team.

Speaker 1 And there was a chance meeting just after Schlott was appointed.

Speaker 1 They were in their hometown and he's having a coffee, Vanderberg, and he just gets a tap on the shoulder and it's Arnie Slott and he's saying, oh yeah, you know, good to see you.

Speaker 1 Are you looking forward to pre-season? Are you ready? And Vanderberg's, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll see you there, knowing that he has no intention of going back to Liverpool at all that season.

Speaker 1 So he's done brilliantly.

Speaker 1 Liverpool less. So I think it is a crisis.

Speaker 5 I mean, I suppose if Van Dijk can do annoyed as well as cool and calm, it shows he has range as an actor.

Speaker 5 You know, he can play the sort of rock role, but he can be a kind of skittish Rick Moranis in other movies. Tim Robinson came on with the second half for Simon Hooper.
as 35 points.

Speaker 5 He said, we're going to see a new trend of officiating teams bringing on finishers. Yeah, I like that with 10 minutes to go.

Speaker 5 You bring on Craig Pawson. But they're they're all bald, they're just all bald.
It was just amazing to see just so many, you know, bald men running onto the pitch at the same time.

Speaker 5 Anyway, let's go to Stamford Bridge. Chelsea one, Sunderland two.
Asher says, Will Barry be disappointed if Sunderland don't win the league? And Tusha with a good question: which would Baz prefer?

Speaker 5 Sunderland to win the Premier League and England to win the World Cup, or Sunderland not to win the Premier League and England to not win the World Cup?

Speaker 5 Uh, the latter option, I'll take.

Speaker 5 I don't think there's even the remotest possibility that Sunderland will win the Premier League, but they have got off to an incredibly good start. This was a fantastic win.

Speaker 5 Not massively surprising, I would say. I wouldn't say it was a massive shock that they won it.

Speaker 5 And

Speaker 5 we talk about various players needing to be given time to adapt to the Premier League. But of the Sunderland starting 11 on Saturday, seven of them were new signings.

Speaker 5 And of the 14 players who Sunderland players who played a part in this game against Chelsea,

Speaker 5 only two of them, Bertrand Troure and Granite Jacket, had previous Premier League experience.

Speaker 5 So

Speaker 5 and then in on their unused sub, I think Arthur Masuake was the only one with Premier League experience.

Speaker 5 You look at some of the signings they've gone in that Regis Labrie or and HR or recruitment department have brought in robin russ norty mcuiele

Speaker 5 noah siddiki granite jaka enzola fe

Speaker 5 who to be fair was there last season on loan chemstein talby who who scored the winner they've all just slotted into premier league life brilliantly and slotted into these guys are still getting to know each other so you'd hope they will get better and they're already very very good um

Speaker 5 So the hugely impressive job that Regis Labri is doing and obviously the worry now is that other teams will want him.

Speaker 5 So

Speaker 5 that I suppose that's life if you're a Sunderland fan or a Bournemouth fan or a Brighton fan.

Speaker 5 The big boys will all be monitoring your head coach and monitoring your players. But

Speaker 5 a tip of the hat as well to the travelling fans who made all the noise at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. Yeah, and they've all made noise.

Speaker 5 Yeah,

Speaker 5 went down, we scored.

Speaker 5 And actually, Dan, I don't know if you agree with this, but I just think if you're Chelsea and probably everyone in that stadium, and probably a lot of Sunday fans are just thinking, well, it's either going to be a draw or Chelsea are going to win.

Speaker 5 You know, that last goal, Chelsea are in the attack. They're like, there is no danger.
We don't have to worry about what's behind us.

Speaker 5 We've got to attack, attack, attack, and try and get a late winner. And so when this goal comes out of nowhere, and is it Gertrude who just, it's sort of, it's better than just whacking it.

Speaker 5 Like he sort of knows where he's kicking it. But Brian Brobby, which is a fun name to say, he held it up for like two and a half hours, didn't he? Just waiting, just waiting.
The finish is brilliant.

Speaker 5 It's such a brilliant goal.

Speaker 8 Yeah, I'm glad you said his name just before I was going to have to, just in case I got it wrong. But it's exceptional centre-forward play.

Speaker 8 Does feel like he holds it up for about a day, waiting for another Sunderland player to join him, but he just occupies that defence and lays it off.

Speaker 8 And it's actually a really, really calm, composed finish as well. And Sunderland probably deserved it.

Speaker 8 I would say I thought the distances between their players, they were so compact when they needed to be. They kind of all moved as one going forward.

Speaker 8 But when they needed to defend as well, they were all in the right place. And I think Xhaka's been the signing of the season.
We mentioned Henderson earlier.

Speaker 8 Just there's a few teams that have picked up midfielders with

Speaker 8 experience

Speaker 8 in the Premier League. And they've made the world of difference.
I don't think Sunderland are doing as well without a lieutenant like Granite Jacker in the middle of the park.

Speaker 8 I thought they'd be okay. I liked the look of their signings.

Speaker 8 I know it's often hard to knit it all together when you sign that volume of players, but they've obviously got a really, really good manager who's managed to do that.

Speaker 8 And to be where they are in the league at this stage, I think they're pretty much halfway there to the points total that you'd need to stay up. And I think Barry's being coy.

Speaker 8 Jonathan Wilson said that Chelsea were the favourites at the start of the season.

Speaker 8 If Sunderland are going to the title favourites and winning, then they've got to be in with a shout out of the title bass.

Speaker 5 But you say there, dan that you you like the look of sunderla's signings the thing is they signed 14 players i would say i hadn't heard of at least 10 of them so hats off to them just for identifying them recruiting them and then getting them like there hasn't been one bum signing yet that i've seen yeah mukalali's been incredible hasn't hasn't he like he's played he's played at a really high level played for some played for some big teams i was surprised to see that sunderland with the team that that managed to pull him in probably gutruder as well.

Speaker 8 He's played at a really high level, didn't work out at Leipzig. They've just made some really, really smart signings.

Speaker 8 And like I've said, it's hard for that to come together as easily as Sunderland have made it look.

Speaker 5 Wilson Isidore said, we're lucky to have Nordy Mucchiele in the team. He's a machine.
When we have a long throw in the box, we have to be ready. I'm the number nine.
I have to be ready in the box.

Speaker 5 The ball just bounced on me. Or maybe I was in the right position.
And Chelsea are odd, Sam. Like, Chelsea are odd.
They've just beaten, well, they've just beaten Liverpool. The hope is there.

Speaker 5 They are young.

Speaker 5 A lot of people say, maybe it's too simple to say, look, if they had an old, like, you know, we talk about Jacquer and Henderson, if they had someone old wandering around somewhere at centre-back or centre-mid, they'd be okay.

Speaker 5 But they can be brilliant, and they, I suppose, inconsistency happens if you're young.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and I think that's what Mareska will fall back on. You look at their side and

Speaker 1 almost certainly, well, maybe not almost certainly, because football is so unpredictable, but I do feel like at some point in the next year or two, maybe probably not this year, but that will click and they will suddenly not be young anymore.

Speaker 1 They will be people with a little bit of experience. And I think they are title winners with that squad of the future.
But

Speaker 1 they should be doing better. And does Rhys James get a bit of a free pass at right back? We all sort of herald him as being, whenever he's fit, he should be an automatic choice for England.

Speaker 1 I don't know. Sometimes he makes mistakes.
It was good to see Garnacho took his goal well. And I can't quite understand if he's any good or not with all that happened last year.

Speaker 1 I know the Manchester United fans loved him and then they turned on him.

Speaker 1 So it'd be interesting to see of all their signings he is the one that I really am intrigued to know which way it goes for him because it probably being at Manchester United is not a good way to be it's not a good place to be a young player and for us to decide if not that he cares what I think, but it well, what I'm trying to say is it'd be interesting to see where he goes.

Speaker 1 And as a Nick Hassel fan, I will say kudos to Sunderland, like fair play to them.

Speaker 1 I'm one We have these debates quite often, and I love the fact they got promoted because I like the derby.

Speaker 1 I love those days of getting on conspicuous yellow buses and having eggs chucked at your bus and not be able to leave the game until two hours later. But I'm also worried.

Speaker 1 I liked it when they were in the championship and we went there in the FA Cup and won comfortably. Not so sure about December.

Speaker 5 Sunday, the 14th of December, two o'clock. I think we can establish whether Sunderland are title contenders or not

Speaker 5 before Christmas. Their next eight games, Everton, Arsenal, Fulham.
So, you know, Everton, Fulham, that's six points. But Arsenal, Bournemouth, Liverpool, Man City, Newcastle, Brighton.

Speaker 5 We'll see what they're made of by the end of that run, I think. Yeah.
Let's go to Villa Park, Villa 1, Man City, 0. Third season in a row, Villa of Beaton City at home.
Dan, you were there.

Speaker 5 Some goal to win it as well.

Speaker 8 Yeah, a slightly fortunately worked set piece in the end. It transpires from Matty Cash's post-match interview.

Speaker 8 I was there waxing lyrical about it, thinking that it was something that they'd worked on on the training ground.

Speaker 8 And then Maticash gone and said that it didn't work quite as it was supposed to, but the ball ended up in the back of the net. So, who cares?

Speaker 8 Villa were brilliant. That's the best they've played this season.

Speaker 8 I said on Thursday when they lost to go-ahead Eagles, if they beat Manchester City on Sunday, realistically, nobody's going to remember them losing to go-ahead Eagles, and they should be comfortable in the Europa League anyway,

Speaker 8 in terms of finishing in the top eight. And Villa Parker's become a little bit of a bogey ground for Manchester City.
That's four years in a row. They've been there without winning now.

Speaker 8 One draw, three wins for Villa. Haaland scored one in four there.
He was pretty quiet. I thought Villa defended so, so well.
Esri Consa was magnificent.

Speaker 8 Bubaka Kamara is just a Rolls-Royce in that midfield. And actually, probably for the first time in a long time, I thought Amaduanana looked like a £50 million midfielder.

Speaker 8 made so many blocks and was so so crucial when so many headers offset pieces as well so just all around just a really really good performance from villa and that's four in a row in in the premier league for us now you know after the after the start that we had to be sat here at the end of october talking about being where i would kind of wanted us to be in the mix for that top six i'm i'm absolutely delighted and it's three years of uniemry now for villa as well that was his three-year anniversary this week He said afterwards that that game was kind of accumulation of three years of hard work.

Speaker 8 When he eventually does go, it's that kind of performance that I'll remember because Villa are just so good at Villa Park. Only one defeat in 13 months.
I think it is. It's just an incredible record.

Speaker 5 Power Torres did one brilliant clearance where he turned his right foot into a lob wedge. I don't know how he managed to

Speaker 5 get that over the bar. Sensational clearance.
It was unbelievable.

Speaker 5 I do not know how he did it. You could see, I think Concern was in the background with his head on his hands going, How have you done that?

Speaker 5 And then obviously, Haaland not only failed to score, but like he did, he did score and then get himself in the Phil Babs.

Speaker 5 And then the goal was disallowed, which is sort of, you know, that really added, you know, extra pain to the dull, sick pain that he would have had. Do you think Barry think Pep overthought that?

Speaker 5 You know, he didn't play a holy midfielder, sort of echoes of that Champions League final against Chelsea Renders playing there and didn't really work.

Speaker 5 No, um, they did flag this up on Match of the Day, and

Speaker 5 Reinders

Speaker 5 wasn't great in that position, it's not his natural position, And they did have three DMs on the bench. Uh so

Speaker 5 I don't Pep wasn't asked about it afterwards or not that I heard anyway so I don't know what what he had to say about it, if anything.

Speaker 5 Maybe they're over reliant on Erling Harland and when he fails to score, they fail to score. Uh that was the first time in thirteen games for club and country he didn't score a goal.

Speaker 5 Just on the the Matty Cash shot,'cause do do you remember that sensational pass he played to lukeinho and then his shot yesterday that he scored with i did notice like the ball's quite a bit behind his standing foot when he strikes it and i'm just wondering is this some new technique he's worked on or is it just that's where it happens to be where the ball is and uh i mean i don't know these guys are good right These guys are good.

Speaker 5 I think. I mean, I thought his first touch was brilliant to control it, but I I don't think he was thinking if I put this five inches behind my left foot.

Speaker 5 It was a bit of a swinger, I thought a brilliant finish, but a bit of a swinger.

Speaker 5 Quickly, Dan, um, so you know, the social media is awash with you know, Jaden Sancho flopped because he was came off the bench and then he was subbed again.

Speaker 5 But I actually thought he looked in the stuff that I watched, he looked quite good. And Emery afterwards said, Actually, that was always my plan.

Speaker 5 He played an hour on Thursday, he was never going to play more than half an hour, and he did in the end. How did he actually look to you?

Speaker 8 Yeah, I thought he was actually probably Vida's best player on Thursday night, and he came into a game which is quite often hard to hard to do it was it was an intense game and within 30 seconds he'd done some neat and tidy great work on the ball i knew as soon as he went off that there would be a storm made out of it because it's jade and sancho i learned this last season when we had rashford as well that certain players there'll be a storm over everything that happens and the plan would have been for sancho to come on in the second half and play 20 or so minutes like you said he came on early in the first half because emi wendier went off injured so when villa needed to make changes, the changer were kind of already prepared to protect what they had.

Speaker 8 I'm sure that was the position that Villa hoped they'd be in that stage of the game, 1-0 up. So, it's a mountain out of a molehill.
There's absolutely nothing in it.

Speaker 8 But I knew that in the age where everyone just wants clicks, that it's easier to make something out of it for certain outlets. But there's nothing in that at all.

Speaker 5 He did do a couple of decent things.

Speaker 5 My

Speaker 5 concern would be more of a Harvey Ellis, who doesn't seem to be making any kind of impression at Villa and wasn't even in the squad yesterday. I don't know if he was injured or just not picked.

Speaker 8 No, he wasn't. Emry said it was tactical.
He had to, basically, pretty much except for Tilliman's got a fully fit squad at the moment.

Speaker 8 So he said he, for tactical reasons, he decided not to put him on the bench because he obviously thought he wouldn't bring him into that type of game. It's been a bizarre situation.

Speaker 8 I think more will become clear in January because as soon as Harvey Elliott hits 10 appearances, I think he must be on three or four at the moment.

Speaker 8 Villa have to sign him for 35 million but emery certainly had a huge reluctance not to use him i think when villa have signed players previously permanently maybe a few times they they've took time to bed in and get used to what emery wants and that's particularly apparent in the in the attacking positions which is where harvey elliott plays but you know he's not he's not getting a sniff he hasn't he hasn't come on for for three four weeks and i suppose at least when he was on the liverpool bench he was he was coming on and impacting games for villa he he's nowhere near it at the moment so if we get to january and he hasn't triggered that that fee it'll be interesting to see what happens.

Speaker 5 Yeah, he's a super player, isn't he? Anyway, that'll do for part one. Uh, part two will begin at the Emirates.

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Speaker 5 Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly. So Arsenal are clear at the top, four points clear of the mass of teams below them.
And they beat Crystal Palace 1-0. Not a classic, Sam.

Speaker 5 You were there. I mean, we should start with Eze's finish because it's like

Speaker 5 Street Fighter 2.

Speaker 1 How you can, or I don't know was that when he's that was maybe that was something out of his fists, but he did a kind of spinning kick that was a bit like that It was a sort of incredible finish Yeah, the athleticism Arteta had spoken before about magic moments and he was asked afterwards like is that the kind of magic moment you were after and he said yeah very much so that's why we signed him and look naturally the spotlight was on Eze because of the history.

Speaker 1 Arteta said it was asked about whether it impacted him. He said no he's just very he's a relaxed character.
It doesn't. He wasn't very good in the game before that.

Speaker 1 And look, Arsenal weren't very good. We should give credit to Crystal Palace, who were brilliant.
They just squeezed all the space.

Speaker 1 Their sort of quite attacking 3-4-2-1 basically became a 5-4-1 for most of the game. And everywhere Eze turned, he had a couple of little moments.

Speaker 1 And everywhere any Arsenal player turned, they were just shut down. I think Eze got to the edge of the box once, and there Adam Wharton was sticking the tackle in.
But that's what Eze does, right?

Speaker 1 He's not a typical Arsenal signing in that. He doesn't necessarily fit into a system and do things efficiently.
He can float in and out of games and then just pop up with that finish.

Speaker 1 It came from a set piece, though, and I think it was Jurian Timber down on the right. He'd held off a couple of players in gold, and then is it

Speaker 1 Pino pulled him down?

Speaker 1 And Oli Voglasna turned towards the bench and sort of screamed and was annoyed because he knew it was almost Palace's first mistake and he knew how dangerous Arsenal are for from set pieces.

Speaker 1 And so they got that goal. That calmed a little, there was a lot of nerves actually walking into that ground because of what had happened the previous day with Liverpool.

Speaker 1 They didn't know Manchester City were losing at the time. And Arsenal fans are in these almost, there were some that are quite cocky and brash about it now almost saying, yeah, we can win the title.

Speaker 1 And then there's others who are like, no, no, no, it's way too early to say that. Please be quiet.
So it's interesting hearing those conversations going on. But they were definitely tension.

Speaker 1 They were better in the second half. They could have done with that second goal.
They nearly got it. I think they hit the bar with it.
Gabrielle hit the bar from a header.

Speaker 1 It was Eze and Rice that neat little free kick. Then Rice's follow-up was blocked.
Then Saka Kerr won wide. So it was a good day.
It wasn't a classic. 1-0 to the Arsenal.

Speaker 1 And George Graham was watching, and that seems to be how they're doing it. I think they had three of those already in nine games.
I think they had four, maybe five last year, but also seven one-alls.

Speaker 1 And if they can turn those one-alls in those close games into one-nils, it can very much be a successful season.

Speaker 1 A few worries because Rice went off. Martinelli, I think, was injured.
Saliba, who'd been a doubt,

Speaker 1 started the game and came off at halftime. He'd actually been given a bit of a hard time by Meteta as well.
And Saka hadn't trained all week. He'd been ill, but seemed to put in an okay shift as well.

Speaker 1 But yeah, good day for Arsenal.

Speaker 8 As I saw yesterday a stat where Arsenal only conceded one shot on target in the whole of October.

Speaker 5 No, there's only three games. I think it's only in the Premier League.

Speaker 5 I don't know if it includes two Champions League games, if it does, Olympiagos and Athletic, but I think it's just a Premier League. So West Ham at home, Fulham away, and Palace at home.

Speaker 5 And that one shot on target was that moment where Enketia and David Raya went for the ball at the same time. And I think Enketia might get the ball first, so it might be a header on target.

Speaker 5 But yes, I saw one Instagrammer who I don't know say, this isn't a shot on target. How dare they?

Speaker 5 But defensively, I mean, six clean sheets this season, three goals conceded, 72 shots faced, 19 shots on target faced, a total XG, I think, across the season of 5.3.

Speaker 5 I've stole these from match of the day, so I presume they're right. Unlike our stats department,

Speaker 5 they are top for all of them. And like, this is how you win the league, Barry.
It's not interesting, it's not fun, but I sort of, there feels like a sense with Arsenal.

Speaker 5 It's just like, can we just get it done? Let's just get it done, stop all the noise, and then we can just move on with our lives. That's the sense you kind of get.
Yeah, it's hard to escape.

Speaker 5 the fact that after this weekend, it was more or less a six-point weekend for Arsenal because they won, and and the three teams who were seen as their realistic title contenders, our fellow title contenders, all got beaten.

Speaker 5 So it's the equivalent of a six-point gain for Arsenal, really. Now, Bournemouth may well end up challenging for the title.
Sunderland may well end up challenging for the title.

Speaker 5 I'd give Bournemouth more of a chance than Sunderland, if I'm honest,

Speaker 5 because they're hugely impressive. But there was, you know, this was just a workmanlike performance from Arsenal.
Nothing special.

Speaker 5 Another clean sheet, another goal from a set piece, another three points in the bank, or bracket six in the bank. Next, what's, you know, move on next game, please.

Speaker 5 And if they win that 1-0 with a goal scored from a corner free kick, great.

Speaker 5 The one thing I've noticed is there are some Arsenal fans who seem to be getting annoyed with the fact that people point out, oh, they've scored from another set piece, but that's fine. It's allowed.

Speaker 5 it's a goal you know and there's if if you're good at them make hay with them they weren't in the ground they were singing set piece again ole ole

Speaker 5 yeah uh they've got quite an interesting they've got brighton in the carabao this week they go to burnley in the premier league and then slavia program in the champions league then sunderland away totnam at home by munich home chelsea away is an interesting november that they have before we do bournemouth who are second uh manchester united third win in a row they beat brighton 4-2.

Speaker 5 Brighton had one their last three games at Old Trafford.

Speaker 5 And rather than the sort of binary, are they bad? Are they good, Sam, I just think every win is significant. And there were lots of positives here.

Speaker 1 Yeah, plenty of them. Annoyingly so, because it felt, I mean, I'm of that generation of

Speaker 1 basically hating Manchester United. So last weekend, it felt really wrong to be willing them on.
to win at Anfield. And so it was very nice to be back in the status quo of wanting them to lose.

Speaker 1 But they didn't. and

Speaker 1 yeah they they were brilliant and they've matthias kunya i thought was excellent he's been their best player probably a couple of games that goal from outside the box lovely lovely finish um i think he scored more goals from outside the box than anyone in the league since the start of last season and buemo is just doing what we expected him to do and so they're starting to to come together really nicely even casemiro right and if you'd have said yeah what was it a year and a half ago I've talked about before on the podcast, but I went to Old Trafford with Newcastle and they sighted Casemiro and Ericsson midfield.

Speaker 1 And Cobby Mann, they were coupled down early, and Cobby Manu came off, and it just changed it.

Speaker 1 If you'd have said back then that we would be in a position now where actually Maynu is on the bench being kept out by Casemiro, I'd have said, you're absolutely off your rocker, basically, but he's doing a really good job.

Speaker 1 And Bruno Fernandez, I think that was his 300th Manchester United game. Like, he is just brilliant, quietly brilliant as well.
I mean, he's not quite on the pitches. He's quite yappy, but it

Speaker 1 doesn't quite get the kudos he deserves. Or maybe I'm misreading that.
I don't know. I don't know.

Speaker 5 It snuck up on me, 300 games.

Speaker 5 Life passes you by these days, doesn't it? The oldie that you get. And actually, Dan, yeah, I thought Sesco had a good game as well, Dan.

Speaker 5 You know, brought people into play, did part of the job he's been there to do.

Speaker 5 And him, if he's working well as a kind of pivot, in the same way that, you know, Newcastle have Voltamara with Pace Around, and if he is playing well with Cunha and Mbrumo, that is really actually quite exciting.

Speaker 8 Yeah, they haven't had that front three together many times this season. That might be the second or third time that the three of them have played together this season.

Speaker 8 And people might look at it and think, well, Sesco didn't score, but the two players that are playing off him scored. So it almost doesn't matter.
I thought he put in a...

Speaker 8 really, really strong number nine performance, Manchester United. Whereas before, I've looked at each individual unit and thought, can't see what they're doing here, not sure what's happening.

Speaker 8 Definitely that attacking front three, you look at it now and think that's a very good Premier League front three that's going to score a lot of goals probably.

Speaker 8 And I think actually beating Brighton is probably more of a sign of progress than when they beat Liverpool last week, Anfield, because they've had the odd flash where they've gone to big teams over the years and picked up surprise results.

Speaker 8 And Rio Ferdinand saying Manchester United are back. I actually think beating Brighton at home, a team they've really struggled to deal with at Old Trafford, is a a bigger sign of progress.

Speaker 5 Barry, do you think I thought Brighton were a bit unlucky with that third goal?

Speaker 5 Like, Luke Shaw pulls Router, he stops, and maybe he should play to the whistle because it's how long you're holding the shirt for VAR decides. But he's fouled, and then United Government score.

Speaker 5 I'm not saying it changes the game, but I would be annoyed if I were Fabian Herzler. Yeah,

Speaker 5 and I'd say he probably was annoyed because it doesn't take much to annoy him during the game.

Speaker 5 Like you say, you've got to play the whistle, and I'm not sure how var could look at that and decide it wasn't a foul if that's what well that is what they decided because it clearly was um i agree with you yeah good stat here on um uh costulas's goal james milner's assist for costulas's header biggest age gap between goal scorer and assist in the premier league 21 years and 146 days first time in premier league history that a player has assisted a teammate who wasn't born when the former made their Premier League debut.

Speaker 5 So

Speaker 5 Milner's debut was 2002, November. Costillas was born in May 2007.
It's like the idea of when he's born and he's being held there.

Speaker 5 And James Milner should wander up and go, oh, I'm going to assist you goal for you from a corner in 18 years' time. It was a brilliant header as well.
Yeah, lovely glancing header, wasn't it?

Speaker 5 Anyway, to the vitality, Bournemouth are second. And if you are a Bournemouth fan, maybe you should yell at us for not being higher up the running order.

Speaker 5 But another convincing win against Sean Dice in his first game as forest manager in the Premier League after they'd beaten Porto on Thursday. And look, so many strong performances, Sam.

Speaker 5 I mean, Tavernier, like, who must have wondered in the summer what's going on when everybody in the back line left and just left in there on his own.

Speaker 5 Alex Scott and Tyler Adams, brilliant in midfield. And it's, you know, it's just such a credit to Iriela to sort of rebuild this team again.

Speaker 1 It's remarkable, isn't it? Because their model, right, is that we're going to sell, we are a platform.

Speaker 1 And I think they say that to to place, you come flourish, and you can move on to an inverted commas bigger side. And

Speaker 1 I don't think they stand in the way.

Speaker 5 I think, I think, hang on, so I think, I think with Sabani going to PSG and Heyson going to Real Madrid, I don't think you need the inverted commas.

Speaker 1 No, I know, yeah, I did think that as I was saying it, but you know, everything is subjective, right? Well, not everything, but that could be subjective.

Speaker 1 But look, they didn't mean, I don't think they intended to sell 10 and bring in eight this summer. But like you say, I think it was the PSG one, right?

Speaker 1 They hadn't expected that, and they just couldn't stand in the way, and they shouldn't. So, yeah, Tavernia scores from the corner.

Speaker 1 It's just Eli Kruppi Jr., um, junior, because I think his dad played for Loriant and won the French Cup about 20 years ago. But what's that?

Speaker 1 He scored for the third time in a week, and he's only playing because Evan Ilson, and I'm just looking at my notes actually, and it's auto-corrected Evan Ilson to Venison, so that's why I paused briefly for the name and Unarla long-term injury.

Speaker 1 So, they just have this depth. And

Speaker 1 it's a remarkable story, as I said. The only slight caveat is the Irayola contract thing, right? It's running out.

Speaker 1 There's a sense that he might want to leave it until the end of the season and just see. He's very much in demand.
I don't think Bournemouth want to let it run that long.

Speaker 1 But we shouldn't talk too much about that because as it says it's credit to them.

Speaker 1 I genuinely thought that given who they lost, and I don't think it was an unfair thought at the time, that they would struggle this year and actually it's the team they were playing against on Sunday that are struggling very much and just so Sam I don't know if you're aware but Venison's father famously played for Newcastle and Liverpool and had a splendid hairstyle

Speaker 5 he really did yes Glasnard's contract up as well at the end of the season that'd be quite interesting if they're both on the market.

Speaker 5 Steve Parris was on the radio the other day saying they're trying to talk to him about, or they are talking to him, about a new contract. Bill Foley is over in Bournemouth to hold talks with Ireola.

Speaker 5 And one imagines Ireola can just pick any number he wants and

Speaker 5 give it to me. I mean,

Speaker 5 it's a nice position to be in. Yeah, I mentioned the centre midfields already, but like, does anyone have any strong thoughts on that? Because Alex Scott and Tyler Adams turned up.

Speaker 5 I remember you saying, Barry, they turned up and they were injured. I got injured very quickly and that was a real problem.
But actually, they look such a good partnership.

Speaker 5 And like Scott, I just had the better of England's best midfielder in the world, Elliot Anderson, at the moment. And I was just super impressed with them.

Speaker 5 Yeah, well, definitely when I think they both signed on the same day, and Adams came from Leeds, he was definitely long-term injured.

Speaker 5 I think he might have been out with a crusade or something, and I possibly both of them were injured, but I don't think either of them actually made their debut for Boram

Speaker 5 for quite a few months until after they'd signed, maybe even more than six months. But

Speaker 5 both massively impressive yesterday. But

Speaker 5 I don't think the job Riola is doing can be understood. It's just sensation, given the players they lost during the summer.

Speaker 5 And Kirk is so good for them last season and is struggling so badly with Liverpool this time. Meanwhile, Forrest, you know, they're still in the bottom three.
Sean Deische came up with some clichés.

Speaker 5 It's the old adage of after the Lord Mayor's show regards the fact that he turned up and they beat Porto, which must have been really annoying for Ange.

Speaker 5 We came to a side who are number one in the Premier League for physicality and they showed it. I don't think we can match that yet.

Speaker 5 So clever a bit of this team aren't fit enough, which is obviously what you have to say when you arrive as a manager. You know, it's not a guarantee Sean Dice arrives that they should be fine.

Speaker 5 It was such a talented squad, Dan, but they have to get the points.

Speaker 8 Yeah, he mentioned fitness. I imagine there might be a world-famous gaffers day coming for the Nottingham Forest players pretty soon off the back of that defeat.

Speaker 8 Bournemouth are just way ahead of Forest at the moment. Forest are almost going to have to go a little bit backwards backwards to come forwards.

Speaker 8 In fact, they have gone backwards to try and come forwards a couple of times now. They'll be fine under Sean Deesch.
I've got absolutely no concerns for them whatsoever.

Speaker 8 They can still aim and push towards a top-half finish and they can still make a run at the Europa League as well. They just needed to draw a line.

Speaker 8 And under what's happened, anyone going to Bournemouth at the moment, I think, is going to struggle, especially a team that's not been with their new manager that long.

Speaker 5 Yeah, just on that win against Porto, Liam says, Bednarak versus Vestigaard. Quiz question: Which one of these is playing for Porto? And did you know that? Barry, not a clue.

Speaker 5 It is Jan Bednarak.

Speaker 5 But yes, I didn't know that either. Anyway, that'll do for part two.
Part three,

Speaker 5 we'll go down to the bottom, talk about West Ham and Wolves.

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Speaker 5 Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly. So on Friday night, Leeds beat West Ham 2-1.

Speaker 5 West Ham's worst start to the season for 52 years. Mark Langdon said on Thursday, it already looked and felt like the end of a manager's tenure, but it's it's been four games.

Speaker 5 Nuno said afterwards, there is quality there, there is time, but nothing will happen if we don't change. We must change our attitude.
We must change the way we approach things.

Speaker 5 We must commit ourselves better, prepare better, work harder. All the things.
That is the reality. We don't expect things to change by themselves.

Speaker 5 Realizing we have time can be a mistake if we don't change things around quickly. So there, he literally said it, Sam.
They need to change. all the things.

Speaker 1 And he's right. They do.
It's proof that perhaps you shouldn't just, even if you're out of work, take every job that's offered to you because he looks so unhappy. It's like the Spurs days.

Speaker 1 I've said before, like when he was at Forest, it was nice to see him sort of with his shoulders relaxed and a bit of a spring in his step. And I don't get it.

Speaker 1 And I don't think he knows what he's doing just yet. And I was there on Monday night, right? And they were dreadful.
And tactically, so they started without a striker because Fulkrug's injured.

Speaker 1 And Potter's recruitment in the summer hasn't helped them because he insisted on Igor Giulio, who's played like one minute.

Speaker 1 He bought Hermanson from Leicester, who he spent time with, who's already been dropped. And he didn't want another forward.
And they signed Callum Wilson.

Speaker 1 So they're one-third down at halftime, and he makes three subs, of which all three are defenders. So he brings on wing backs and a centre-half.

Speaker 1 And I know there was international duty that came into it, so he was playing with the players he worked with.

Speaker 1 And then they're still one-third down, and he turns around, and he's got two Callums on the bench. One's got England caps and more than 100 Premier League goals.

Speaker 1 The other is is a 20-year-old wearing number 52 and he went for Callum Matthews and then

Speaker 1 the final sub was this midfielder. And then you fast forward to Friday and they're losing 2-0 and he turns to Callum Wilson after 25 minutes.
He still hasn't started him. He hasn't changed it up.

Speaker 1 He hasn't started a striker. So it's just like this confused thinking.
I'm not sure he's quite worked out what he wants to do with that squad, what he is doing.

Speaker 1 And it's pretty grim. I mean, I think West Ham fans are pretty worried.
And that midfield, we've got an issue here because

Speaker 1 how do we say they haven't got legs without upsetting Nadim and Nueva? Because I know you dad used that phrase last time and

Speaker 1 we got a very fair response from Nadim. But they're just slow, right? They've got legs, but they like

Speaker 1 Sucek is just not quite the player he once was, I don't think. And yeah, they're in real trouble.

Speaker 5 Yeah, Nuno approaching. Sad medieval night, gathering moss, faded Jedi, that old guy in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade saying, You have chosen wisely, you know.
Uh,

Speaker 5 you know, how quickly he goes from the ready-brett glow of the city ground. Um, look, we should say, look, great result for Leeds.
Ellen Road is huge then, Barry.

Speaker 5 The other promoted sides, you know, and it is, it's, it's just so refreshing that none of them are in the bottom three. It is, it's very refreshing.

Speaker 5 It's good for the league and it's worrying for the likes of Fulham, for the likes of Everton, as well as for the likes of West Ham and Wolves who

Speaker 5 might have got away with their many shortcomings in previous seasons because the teams that come up have been so bad or so poorly equipped to compete but there's no hiding places for these teams now.

Speaker 8 This is where teams like Leeds

Speaker 8 have got a massive advantage over teams like West Ham and Wolves because Ellen Road will provide the atmosphere and the platform that's needed to get results in the big games like it did the other night.

Speaker 8 Whereas, you know, playing at home for West Ham is a huge, huge problem. Playing at home for playing anywhere for Wolves at the moment is a huge, huge problem as well.

Speaker 8 It's that home support and kind of that home form that I think gives those teams a massive advantage over the likes of West Ham. West Ham are in absolutely massive, massive danger.

Speaker 1 And you wonder if there was a bit of complacency with the sides thinking with their recruitment, is everyone going to coming up going to be NAF?

Speaker 5 Because because an interesting stat is last year the newly promoted side who went down won 12 games across the season between them already the three that have come up have won 11 so they are just far far better than the teams that were promoted last year yeah and interestingly the teams that went down last year none of them are pulling up trees in the championship are they so that that's also an interesting point um wolves lost three two at home to burnley uh two wins in a row for burnley is absolute back-to-back wins absolutely massive for scott parker amazing injury time baz i mean that's a a lovely little finish from Larl Foster, but then De Bravka's save like 11 seconds later, it's amazing to change direction like that.

Speaker 5 Yeah, a low rasping shot from Santiago Bueno.

Speaker 5 And Debravka had been wrong-footed. He got down and kept it out with a strong hand with an iron wrist.
It was a sensational save.

Speaker 5 Wolves have now lost to all three promoted sides.

Speaker 5 They're winless in nine for the second season in a row at the start of the season. But last season, they ended up finishing 16th with 42 points.

Speaker 5 And last season, they only had three points after the first 10 games. So this is almost a replica of last season for them.

Speaker 5 But

Speaker 5 they shipped out three

Speaker 5 of their best players during the summer, as Wolves tend to do.

Speaker 5 And

Speaker 5 it could be argued maybe they got a little bit lucky last season

Speaker 5 in appointing Vitor Pereira,

Speaker 5 who's a very well-travelled journeyman manager that I don't think too many of us knew anything about, but he strung six or seven wins in a row together that kept him up.

Speaker 5 I don't know, do they sack him and then just reappoint him?

Speaker 5 Hope for a bounce. But it was slightly worrying to see him and Jorgen Strand Larson getting into it with some fans after the game.
Because it was weird that

Speaker 5 after they went 2-0 down yesterday, the Molyneux crowd was singing, You're not fit to wear the shirt. There was a conspicuous number of empty seats at Molyneux as well.

Speaker 5 And then

Speaker 5 they got two goals back.

Speaker 5 They had the better of the chances and they were on top until Burnley scored that late winner. And they could have equalised.
But yeah,

Speaker 5 Jorgen Strand Strand Larson and Pereira both got into it with some fans after it's not a very edifying look the opening goal here Dan Deanne Fleming is exceptional but I think this is goal of the season levels and people aren't talking about it enough maybe because it doesn't go in very fast or he doesn't absolutely leather it in the back of the net but that finish the pass and the finish is as good technically as anything we will see this season.

Speaker 5 I'm convinced of it.

Speaker 8 It was quite a nonchalant finish,

Speaker 8 I thought. I don't even know

Speaker 8 if he scored in the Premier League yet. I know he's obviously

Speaker 5 two of the week.

Speaker 8 So, you know, your first goal in the Premier League to finish like that is

Speaker 8 a bit of a statement finish. Bernie scored a very good goal last week as well from Range, didn't they? That was a joy to watch as well.

Speaker 8 Scott Parker's a very, very likable character. And I hope that Bernie can book the trend.
And to be honest, I hope Leeds and Sunderland can book that trend as well and stay up.

Speaker 8 They've won games that may

Speaker 8 the games they've lost in the main, they've been in them, but then they've kind of won the ones that you think that a team going to be down the bottom needs to win, the opposite of Wolves.

Speaker 8 To go there and get that three points, it maybe sends them on a trajectory to get back to backs in the Premier League as a newly promoted team is really hard because not many teams have done that over the last few years.

Speaker 8 But I was really, really pleased for them. Not just because it was Wolves, I was just pleased for Burnley and pleased for Scott Parker.

Speaker 8 It's a funny game because when Wolves were doing badly, the fans were booing and singing, you're not fit to wear the shirt.

Speaker 8 When they were doing okay, it was almost that the players were then turning to the fans and saying, You need to do more. It just seemed to keep changing, interchanging between those two things.

Speaker 5 That game, but maybe that Deanne Fleming finish will be my Ethan Pinnock moment, but I am saying that's the best goal I've seen this season. Just think it's absolutely world-class.

Speaker 5 Um, to Hill, the Hill Dickinson Stadium, then uh, Spurs, the first team who aren't Everton to win there.

Speaker 5 A wet old day on Merseyside, uh, they are top of the away table in form and 17th in the form table for playing at home, Spurs. Not pretty at all.

Speaker 5 Don't know how good they are, Barry, but they're third and

Speaker 5 3-0 and a clean sheet away from home. Cannot argue with it.
Yeah, I think they were a little lucky to get a clean sheet. It didn't feel like a 3-0,

Speaker 5 but they did deserve to win. Another set-piece goal or two set piece goals here.
Mickey Van De Venn scoring a brace. Papasara scored the third.

Speaker 5 I don't know what to make

Speaker 5 of Everton. I didn't have high hopes for them before the season started.

Speaker 5 But

Speaker 5 they're not playing dreadfully. They're just desperately short of a decent striker.

Speaker 5 Beto and Thierry and O'Barry can't really aren't doing the business for them,

Speaker 5 despite them getting a lot of service.

Speaker 5 Good service from the wingers in Jai and Grealish. Betto was a little unlucky.

Speaker 5 He had a good overhead kick saved by Vicario. That was really, really good save.
Yeah, brilliant save. Yeah, Everton have only won, I think, one in seven in all competitions,

Speaker 5 drawn two, lost four.

Speaker 5 I'd be a little bit concerned about them, but this was just their first defeat at the new stadium. And I think 3-0 flattered Spurs a bit.

Speaker 5 Actually, you know, at a different level, say Tottenham Hour missing a centre-forward in a way. You know, Colin Warney played this one, looked okay.
Got Matthias Tell, who looks okay.

Speaker 5 Solanke is injured. Richarlison is sort of odd, Dan.
So, you know, if you, and, you know, I don't know what,

Speaker 5 you know, if it's Solanke changes that side, I think, Dan. But I think if you're Spurs, it's interesting.
A lot of the noise around Spurs is, you know, actually, this isn't good enough.

Speaker 5 The football's boring.

Speaker 5 you know and they get to this position and they lose the next game and they're playing chelsea next week so everybody knows chelsea will win that but i think if you take a step back for thomas frank to have shoed up Tottenham at the back compared to last year and to dig in and be a bit ugly and win with set pieces,

Speaker 5 totally fine.

Speaker 8 Yeah, it's definite progress, isn't it? I mean, he would have struggled not to progress on finishing 17th in the Premier League, I would suggest with a club of Tottenham's size.

Speaker 8 But Tottenham fans have got to decide what they want.

Speaker 8 No one likes Andrews football particularly because they lost every week in the Premier League. Thomas Frank is at least providing wins.

Speaker 8 I know they're still struggling a little bit at home, like you said, but it's just effective football.

Speaker 8 And I think if you'd have offered Tottenham fans to be third, 27th of October, they'd have probably all been pleasantly surprised by that and probably all have taken it.

Speaker 8 But I don't know what's going on in North London because both those teams now it's just set pieces, set pieces, set pieces, isn't it?

Speaker 8 Tottenham almost out Arsenal at Arsenal this weekend by scoring two.

Speaker 5 Yeah, the Tottenham Way. Newcastle beat Fulham 2-1.

Speaker 5 It's a big last-minute winner for Gimmer Age. It's a big result for Newcastle, isn't it, Sam? Just the third win of the season.

Speaker 1 Yeah, massive. Like, it's a game that Newcastle need to be winning.

Speaker 1 And that's no disrespect to Fulham, but if they have aspirations of finishing in the Champions League again, they need to back up good performances in midweek in the Champions League.

Speaker 1 And I think of nine European sides or nine sides that played in Europe this week, only Newcastle and Arsenal managed to win both games. So this rotation idea and having a bit of a squad is becoming

Speaker 1 starting to bed in. Voltamada, who's playing far more than they'd anticipated because Johan Wiss has been injured.
Like, I've just fallen in love with him.

Speaker 5 Like, what a footballer.

Speaker 1 He's so counterintuitive because when you see him, you want to look up. But actually, he's similar to like Dirk Nowitzki.

Speaker 1 I know he loves his basketball because he's a massive man, but he's just kind of popping in freeze from deep. Like, it's a bit like watching

Speaker 1 the old school, right? It was Shearer winning headers with Bellamy and Dyer running off the pace. And the likes of Gordon and Langa and Murphy are doing that and Barnes off Voltamada.

Speaker 5 But it's along the ground.

Speaker 1 Like, I've barely seen him contest a header. He doesn't, when the ball comes along, he doesn't even jump with a centre-back.
He's just looking to lean in. He wants it at his feet.

Speaker 1 He's quite a brilliant footballer. Not sure what it is about his shirt.
People just seem to be tugging it constantly. They either desperately want it or they want to ruin it for everyone else.

Speaker 1 And I want to give some kudos to Jacob Murphy as well.

Speaker 1 who must have sat on the bench for a lot of this season and God, hang on a minute, what have I done wrong here? Because they've spent 55, 60 million on a bloke who's meant to replace me.

Speaker 1 And Murphy had 20 goal involvements in the Premier League last year. And Analanga, I think he will come good, but he's not really done out yet.

Speaker 1 I've seen, I don't want to criticise him too heavily because I know he was brilliant for Forrest, but I've seen a couple of times where he's been in good positions and he's just messed it up.

Speaker 1 And he should have scored against Villa on his debut two minutes into it. And if he scored that, maybe it's a different conversation.
Maybe it's about confidence.

Speaker 1 But yeah, Murphy is not a man who can strikes me as getting particularly angry. But I think he'd have been a little bit annoyed, and rightly so.

Speaker 1 But yeah, good win for Newcastle, and they've won two games without Tenali starting, which is a good sign.

Speaker 5 Barry, can I repeat my joke from yesterday regards Fulham? Is it worth repeating? I can't even remember it, to be honest.

Speaker 5 Would they have been better with Shirley Bassey at centre-back as opposed to Calvin Bassey? He had a bit of a mare, and you're slightly worried about Fulham.

Speaker 5 Yeah, well, for the reasons I said earlier, and I would put Everton in that mix as well. Fulham have now lost four in a row.
And whereas before

Speaker 5 they'd have been able to go, ah, we'll be fine because those three are definitely going down. They can't do that now.

Speaker 5 And there's still a chance Wolves and West Ham could turn things around.

Speaker 5 Well,

Speaker 5 West Ham, maybe not, but there's a chance Wolves could turn things around. But

Speaker 5 I don't think they're anywhere near as bad as West Ham are. I don't think anyone in the league is as bad as West Ham are.
But, yeah, I would be a little bit concerned for Fulham.

Speaker 1 After the game on Wednesday night, a Newcastle fan had a heart attack and sadly passed away. His name was Bob.
He was 95 years old. He'd been a season ticket holder for 50 years.

Speaker 1 So I just wanted to give him a shout out. Fortunately, he did see Newcastle winner cup.
He was there at Wembley in March.

Speaker 5 Well said, and worth butting in for that, of course.

Speaker 5 Just time for AOB. El Classico, Real Madrid, won 2-1 against Barcelona.
Dude Bellingham set up Mbappe's opener. Marcus Rashford set up the equaliser.
Bellingham scored the winner.

Speaker 5 Bellingham had one ruled out for offside. And Bappé had two ruled out for offside and missed a penalty.
Hearts beat Celtic 3-1. Lots of calls to go back to Ewan Murray's jazz bar.
We will soon.

Speaker 5 Eight points clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership. EFL pod tomorrow will cover the Sheffield Wednesday news.

Speaker 5 But absolutely, if you haven't seen it, go and look what they put on the big screen before kickoff. It was great.

Speaker 5 In old striker news, Jamie Curiton became the first player to score in the top 10 divisions.

Speaker 5 in England at the tender age of 50, which is some feat to have been good enough and bad enough or good enough enough to have played at all of those levels at all of those times.

Speaker 5 Jamie Vardi scored his first goal for Cremonese in a one- or draw with Atalanta and he did a backflip.

Speaker 5 And Adam says, are you aware, Barry, that you've been used in the alignment chart Phils page on Reddit as a good pundit, bad player?

Speaker 5 There's a kind of graph where you have great player, great pundit over one side and bad player, bad pundit at the bottom in like a grid.

Speaker 5 So they've got great player, great pundit Henri, good player, great pundit, Crouch, okay player, great pundit, Nada Manuha. Bad player, great pundit, Emma Hayes.
I don't know if Emma played.

Speaker 5 Good pundit, great player, Roy Keene. Good player, Jamie Carricker.
Okay player, Michael Richards, bad player, Barry Glendenning. But that's good to be a good pundit, bad player.

Speaker 5 Clearly, as Adam says, they haven't heard about your header. So

Speaker 5 and I won't read out the okay and bad pundits because, you know, we're lovers, not haters here. And that'll do for today.
Thanks, everybody. Thank you, Barry.

Speaker 5 thank you thanks dan thank you max cheers out thank you football weekly is produced by joel grove our executive producer is danielle stevens and we'll be back with an earfl pod tomorrow

Speaker 1 this is the guardian

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