Solanke’s magic stuns City and Arsenal go six points clear – Football Weekly

Summary

Football Weekly – Solanke’s Magic Stuns City and Arsenal Go Six Points Clear

The Guardian, February 2, 2026

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Main Theme

This episode, hosted by Max Rushden with Barry Glendenning, Barney Ronay, John Bruin, and Seb Hutchinson, dives into an extraordinary Premier League weekend. Key focuses include: Tottenham’s comeback against Manchester City, Solanke’s wonder goal, Arsenal’s dominant win and position at the top, Villa’s slip-ups, VAR and phases of play, and the revival of “90s football energy” throughout the league. As always, the panel brings wit, deep analysis, and a bit of nostalgic fun.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Spurs 2-2 Man City: An Emotional Rollercoaster

[01:11–15:58]

• Atmosphere & Halftime Turnaround:

  • At halftime, Spurs were booed off, described as playing “like it was Soccer Aid but with really minor celebrities.” (Ronay, [01:28])
  • The panel felt the game embodied old-school Premier League chaos and emotion: “It was like Christmas was actually good… the league, it was like the 90s.” (Ronay, [01:56])
  • “The Tottenham team managed to change the atmosphere in their favour at that stadium, which is one hell of an achievement.” (Bruin, [04:13])

• Solanke’s Magical Goal:

  • Described as “improvisation that Jimmy Greaves would have been proud of.” (Bruin, [04:17])
  • Memorable moment: The crowd’s synchronous gasp as the TV replay aired in the stadium – “It’s always one of the great noises when you're watching on telly… you can just hear the crowd swell behind the replay.” (Hutchinson, [06:47])

• City’s Struggles & “Bottling” Narrative:

  • Discussion on City’s form – “From a City point of view, that's one win in six. Are they the Bottlers?” (Rushden, [08:51])
  • Ronay dismisses the concept of “bottling” as an internet/media creation:

    “Bottling doesn’t exist, does it? None of these people are bottlers. The bottlers are people like us sitting here… but people like Ryan Cherki, he’s not Bottler. He’s probably so hard to play under that sort of glare.” (Ronay, [09:01])

• Nostalgic Vibes:

  • Multiple references to “the 90s being back,” with football feeling less robotic, more spontaneous.
  • Comic riff on Erling Haaland hugging the panel:

    “I really want Erling Haaland to hug me ideally. So from behind whispering things in my ear and we're laughing like ghosts...” (Ronay, [10:01])

• Thomas Frank’s Position:

  • Is this match Frank’s salvation? “It felt a bit more elemental than that… players in difficult circumstances having to come through for themselves.” (Bruin, [12:48])
  • Solanke’s quality as a true No. 9 praised as vital: “A grade A talent striker. Obviously injuries have sometimes affected that, but you saw the quality of leading the line.” (Bruin, [12:56])

2. Arsenal’s Big Weekend: Title Charge On

[15:58–27:36]

• Results:

  • Arsenal hammer Leeds (4-0) after being “winless in three.”
  • City and Villa both dropped points, sending Arsenal six clear.

• Arsenal’s Mentality:

  • Leeds away was built up as a “tricky assignment for the bottlers,” but the Gunners were “brilliant.” (Rushden, [00:13])
  • “One thing about Arsenal is that they do have that ability to tough it out against opposition. That’s one thing Mikel Arteta has been very successful at. There’s a lot of physical presence there.” (Bruin, [22:21])

• On Saka’s Injury and Madueke’s Rise:

  • “Drama added by Saka getting injured in the warm-up... Madueke is quite a capable deputy… That’s a hell of a win for Arsenal.”
  • Madueke’s ceiling:

    “They genuinely think he has nothing missing in his game… that he could be one of the best players in the world.” (Ronay, [26:53])

• Title Race Outlook:

  • “Can we say they’re nailed on for the title? No, I don’t think… if City are close with three-four games left, it’s still very much alive.” (Bruin, [23:16])
  • Debate on whether Arsenal’s standout contributor will be from defense/midfield (Gabriel, Rice) rather than attack.

3. Villa’s Disappointment and VAR Drama

[15:58–22:00]

• Villa Drop Points Again:

  • “If I was a Villa fan, I would just be staring at the league table and mentally adding six points… That is just a sort of gutting two games.” (Rushden, [15:58])
  • Uataro’s stanchion goal described as “a beauty” with a memorable reverse celebration:

    “His celebration was to just walk backwards from a standing start. He didn’t want to take his eyes off the [crowd].” (Ronay, [17:22])

• VAR & Phases of Play Debate:

  • Extended philosophical debate about how far VAR should look back in a phase of play:

    “What is a phase, then, Barney?” (Rushden, [20:27])

    • Ronay: “Did that ball going out actually exist or not? Does it matter if we’re not looking at it? It didn’t exist… It’s Schrodinger’s VAR.” ([21:00])

4. Man United 3-2 Fulham: Carrick’s Renaissance

[29:21–38:38]

• United’s Comeback:

  • “You get pegged back to all. What do you do next? You try and win the game… That feint by Bruno Fernandes and the finish by Sesko is what they paid an enormous amount of money for.” (Bruin, [29:28])

• Return of “90s” United:

  • Panel joke about the 1990s energy returning:

    “For one weekend only, the 90s are back. You’re riding a Vespa, you’ve got a pair of [trainers].” (Ronay, [32:05])

    • “Do you know what? I’m going to see Underworld on Thursday… it’s back.” (Bruin, [32:51])

• Carrick’s Simplicity vs. Amarim’s Complexity:

  • “We all knew this was going to happen… Carrick was going to come in and go on this amazing run.” (Hutchinson, [33:32])
  • Team selection made simple: “There’s a very obvious low-hanging fruit where you simplify… that does have a shelf life, but it also has obvious benefit.” (Ronay, [36:26])
  • On future sustainability: “Football managers are insane, obsessed with the game… He has to go into that mode next and then we’ll see if it’s sustainable.” (Ronay, [38:00])

5. Chelsea’s Comeback Over West Ham & Rossignol Debate

[38:41–47:41]

• Chelsea Win 3-2 After Going Down 0-2:

  • West Ham had “so many chances at 2-0 and at 2-2” but let it slip.
  • “That’s the type of game, when it goes against you, you begin to worry that relegation really is going to happen, don’t you?” (Bruin, [39:09])

• Liam Rossignol’s Management Style:

  • Media/online skepticism over his appointment: “Is his CV does it merit this opportunity? This is jobs for the boys.” (Rushden, [40:57])
  • Balanced with desire to see him succeed:

    “He’s someone that approaches the game differently, speaks differently… he’s just cracking on and getting on with it.” (Bruin, [40:12])

  • On British managers and club intervention on team selection: “If we have a British manager in the top job, they are just held to a different standard because it just feels so rare nowadays.” (Hutchinson, [41:28])

• Adama Traore’s “Royal Rumble” Moment*:

  • “He basically throws Cucurella out of the stadium and then Traore pushes him before he’s realized who he’s pushed. It’s like one of those moments, you know, where you punch the henchman… and then he just looks up and stares at you.” (Rushden & Ronay, [45:12–47:41])

6. Liverpool’s Attacking Fireworks

[49:17–52:33]

• Liverpool 4-1 Newcastle:

  • Ekitike’s “transgressive” toe-poke goal:

    “It felt wrong to do it because a) it's a toe poke and that's embarrassing... but it was brilliant because it caught the goalkeeper.” (Ronay, [49:43])

  • Praise for Florian Wirtz (brilliant, “build a team around him”):

    “He is the most talented player at that club… will watch it every week.” (Ronay, [50:14])

• Panel Ranking of Wirtz:

  • “I think he’s top, top.” (Ronay, [51:53])
  • “Top, top, top, top, top, to the power of four.” (Rushden/Ronay, [51:57–52:08])

7. Other Premier League Highlights and Notable Moments

[52:33–58:59]

• Forest 1-1 Palace: Nico Williams’s “Great Handball”:

  • “[It] was a handball of great handballs of our time.” (Rushden, [52:57])
  • Williams’ mistake seen as human and forgivable:

    “He knew what he’d done... It was a guy just really, really trying to do football. And I liked him.” (Ronay, [52:57])

• Wolves 0-2 Bournemouth:

  • New signing Ryan (from Vasco da Gama) electrifies the game:

    “Just every time he got the ball, just direct free running into the heart of the Wolves defense…” (Bruin, [56:33])

• Everton 1-1 Brighton:

  • Beto’s equalizer prompts David Moyes’s dance:

    “David Moyes dancing like David Pleat and then complaining afterward that you can’t leave your technical area… Free David Moyes, I say.” (Rushden, [58:41])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “It was like soccer aid but with really minor celebrities.” (Barney Ronay, [01:28])

• “It was actually good. And the league, it was like the 90s.” (Barney Ronay, [01:56])

• “I really want Erling Haaland to hug me, ideally. So from behind whispering things in my ear and we're laughing like ghosts...” (Barney Ronay, [10:01])

• “Bottling doesn’t exist, does it?... The bottlers are people like us sitting here.” (Barney Ronay, [09:01])

• "For one weekend only, the 90s are back. You're riding a Vespa, you've got a pair of..." (Barney Ronay, [32:05])

• “What is a phase? How long is a phase? Is it a set number of seconds? Without sounding too much like Barney on this, but I do believe that we need to break down...” (Seb Hutchinson, [19:35])

• “He basically throws Cucurella out of the stadium and then Traore pushes him before he’s realized who he’s pushed. It’s like one of those moments... you punch the henchman and then he just doesn't move at all.” (Max Rushden, [45:12])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:11] Spurs v City, halftime malaise, second-half transformation
• [06:47] Solanke’s goal and the crowd’s collective gasp
• [12:48] Thomas Frank at Spurs and Solanke’s impact
• [15:58] Arsenal & Villa, league table implications
• [19:07] Extended VAR/“phases of play” debate
• [22:21] Arsenal’s win at Leeds and title narrative
• [29:21] Man United 3-2 Fulham, Carrick’s managerial impact
• [38:41] Chelsea 3-2 West Ham, Rossignol debate
• [45:12] Adama Traore’s “Royal Rumble” moment
• [49:17] Liverpool 4-1 Newcastle, Ekitike toe-poke & Wirtz praise
• [52:33] Forest v Palace, Nico Williams handball
• [56:33] Wolves v Bournemouth, new Brazilian star
• [58:41] Everton v Brighton, Beto equalizer and Moyes dance

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Recurring Themes, Tone & Panel Banter

• Nostalgia and the “Return” of 90s Football:
  The episode is shot through with affection for energetic, chaotic, emotional games.
• Self-Referential Humor & Media Satire:
  The panel pokes fun at its own tendency to focus on Tottenham and the cyclical nature of media narratives (“Are we back? Is this the moment?”)
• Light-Hearted Critique of Modern Football:
  Whether on VAR, managerial fads, or transfer strategy, the debate is opinionated but playful.
• Memorable Character Interludes:
  Imagining being hugged by Haaland, Traore as a superhero henchman, and “phase of play” as Schrodinger’s cat.

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For Listeners Who Missed It

This episode is a lively, insightful, and funny deep-dive into an electrifying round of Premier League fixtures. With detailed breakdowns of big matches, standout goals, coaching plots, and the quirks of VAR, it’s essential listening for fans of English football and the Football Weekly style: knowledgeable, passionate, irreverent, and highly entertaining.

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Transcript

[A]

This is the Guardian.

[B]

Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly. A fun weekend of comebacks. Var and Adama Traore winning the Royal Rumble. We'll start at Spurs. What happened to Manchester city in the second half? Did Dr. Tottenham administer the wrong dose? An extraordinary finish from Dominic Solanke as Thomas Frank's job is saved. Once again, it was Arsenal's weekend at the top as Aston Villa dropped more points at home. A great chance to about var and phases of play. The Gunners themselves absolutely hammered Leeds. This was meant to be a tricky assignment for the bottlers, but they were brilliant. Two other crackers to discuss some pure DNA at Old Trafford doing it in injury time. Meanwhile, another win for Liam Rossigner as Chelsea come back from two goals down. Elsewhere, Liverpool turn it on against Newcastle. A handball even I thought should be given at the City ground. Bournemouth win at Wolves and David Moyes gets told off for celebrating. All that plus your questions. And that's today's Guardian Football Week. On the panel today. Barney, Ronnie, welcome.

[A]

Good morning, everyone.

[B]

Hello, John Bruin.

[C]

Hello, everyone.

[B]

And good morning, Seb Hutchinson.

[D]

Good morning, Max.

[B]

Let's start at the Tottenham hotspur Stadium. Tottenham 2, Manchester City 2. At half time, Tottenham were booed off. Gary Neville said they were playing like it was soccer aid. Barney was eerie. It was kind of dystopian. I couldn't like know it was so I couldn't work out what was happening. But it just didn't feel like a real football match.

[A]

Yeah, I mean it was like soccer aid but with really minor celebrities that you not really sure why they're there. Like, where's Tom Hiddleston? It felt like spurs were doing something that they just didn't want to do. It was hostage ball. It was. It was an act of. It was painful for them. They didn't want to be playing this game, but they had to. But the turnaround was extraordinary. I mean, this whole. The whole weekend was extraordinary. It was a really extraordinary weekend.

[C]

Let's.

[A]

Let's face it. And this was the apogee of it. It was like. You know when people talk about the Premier League normally, it's like there's that gu. Dave and he's saying it's the greatest league in the world. It's just what an amazing weekend. And you're sort of feeling there's something. Is it me? Why don't I feel it? And there are four people. They're discussing an offside decision on Var and you feel like the staging doesn't fit the show and you feel it must Be me. There's something wrong with me. I'm not understanding why this isn't good. And then Wilson will write an or similar, will write an article about why there's something really wrong with the Premier League and maybe you can write a counterargue saying, actually, I really like boring football and boring football's good. But this was actually the thing it was pretending to be. It was real. It was like Christmas was actually good. A child stared in wonder at the snow. An icy old man had his heart melted like in a John Lewis article. Sorry, back to Wilson again there. But it was actually good. And the league, it was like the 90s. It was. There were so many games that didn't feel like the kind of controlled robot ball that we've all been writing articles about for the last three months. Suddenly there was a seesawing thing. The spurs thing felt like a game of emotions. It was really quite uncontrolled. Teams are also playing 4, 4, 2. Blair's coming. You know, Blair is there. There's a third way. History's over, Britain is cool. But it did feel different. And there was. Spurs was completely transformed. It was an example of how the fine margins that we kind of hyper analyze in this game where there' people doing things in 90 minutes, endless variables can just spin on something totally small and you have to totally reenact the. I was thinking about how good City were and how the signings have settled and actually they've created this entirely new way of playing for that team and it's like a brilliant like pep. Garlio is wearing a hoodie and someone's doing a backwards somersault and laughing and it's fun. And they transformed the kind of ghost team of machines and robots into this joyful thing. And what does this mean about the 115 or similar charges? You know, that was the entire narrative. And then they just collapsed and spurs were happy and Thomas Frank is good and Blair's back. So that's how quickly the narrative can spin. Max, how do you explain that?

[B]

Well, I don't know how to explain it, but hopefully you can.

[C]

John, are you sure? That means it felt like the team swapped identities at halftime almost, didn't it? You've got the team bereft of soul and belief suddenly became Manchester City. Manchester City suddenly became the one man team again relying on Erling Haaland, who had, it has to be said, something a bit of a stinker. There was one point he was in this, in the spurs half and he was trying to dig out the ball. And he did look like the. The hoofing berserker that he was sometimes mocked as when he first arrived at English football, only to, in his first game show that he is just an unbelievable striker. And suddenly the City, you know, this smooth transition that people have talked about. Semeno, what a signing he's been. Guay, what a signing he's been. Oh, oh, dear. And Spurs. We've talked a lot recently about how clubs and teams have to harness the atmosphere. Well, somehow. Somehow the Tottenham team managed to change the atmosphere in their favor at that stadium, which is one hell of achievement. And suddenly, with all walkouts, Gary Neville describing it as a flat, as a pancake, suddenly it became White Hart Lane again. We were back in the 90s, we were back in the 60s, and suddenly Tottenham were scoring. I mean, that goal by Solanke, I mean improvisation that Jimmy Greaves would have been proud of, you know, just incredible and rousing and. I don't know if there's a Tottenham documentary planned for this season. I suspect not for good reason. It'd be very interesting. I'd love to know the halftime scenes, what Thomas Frank said to those players with Christy Romero with his head down the toilet, you know, unable to continue. And, you know, when Romero doesn't come out, you think, oh, well, they really are finished now. And then they produce that performance. I suppose the one thing we were missing was the Tottenham winner, which just would have raised the roof and made it the best Premier League weekend ever.

[B]

The Solanke goal. Seb is. There's an amazing.

[A]

There are two things.

[B]

There's one, there's this still image of him sort of contorted. You know, every. Every limb is bending in another direct other direction, and the ball is, like, just on his studs, and you're going, there's no way that is a goal. Like, you look at that still image, and also the sound of when it was replayed to the stadium, and that sort of ooh that you don't normally get was. It was just remarkable.

[D]

It's always one of the great noises when you're watching on telly, because you're watching a replay of the goal, and then you can just hear the crowd swell behind the replay. And you know that they've seen it at the same moment that you're seeing it at home, which is a nice synergy, really, for that connection. When you see a goal like that and you're commentating on it, you have that little moment because I was doing it away from the ground, and you have that little moment, you think, oh, I hope this hasn't come off. Rodri, you know, just sat there going, I hope this. You give it the big un and you think that's one of the greatest goals of the season, blah, blah, blah, blah. You see the first replay and it's Rodri's toe and you know Solanke's got nowhere near it. So you're waiting for that reverse angle to, to say it to you. Yeah, and there's also that thing of comparing it to the Giroud goal, knowing he's a former Arsenal and Chelsea player, also knowing that Solanke admitted that his family were Arsenal supporters. And all of this thing coming together to, to help Arsenal on this occasion. Whenever you are watching games like this, where you have a first half which has been spoken about already, where City were as much in control without actually being in control of the game, but they took their chances, they looked dangerous and you thought the game would get away from spurs, but somehow you come away from that second half thinking actually City were lucky not to lose the game. And we've spoken many times this season about the front and back. Donnarumer and Haaland being the two players that have kept City within range. And again, Donnarumma producing two amazing saves after spurs had that wave and that period of time where supporters from being down and out, feel like all of a sudden they have their club back in the space of probably about half an hour of football, in fact less than that time. It's why we get reminded every weekend why teams support well, why fans support teams that don't win that often. Because just for little moments, just for great goals to get yourself in two nils out.

[A]

Max looks upset at that moment.

[B]

No, no, no, no.

[D]

I enjoy the pain. I agree.

[B]

I totally agree. If it was that winning, then none of us would really like these things, Barney. From a City point of view, that's one winning six. Are they the Bottlers in this situation?

[A]

They really have spent a lot of money on new players, really good new players. It's slightly under the radar. There's this feeling they're slightly pop up. It's quite. Pep's done something quite punk here. He's re geared a team, but he's re geared it around really, really good players. But they are playing a slightly different system. They're doing it mid season. I don't. You know, I've said this before, bottling doesn't exist, does it? I mean, nobody bottles anything. None of these people are bottlers. It's impossible. The bottlers are people like us sitting here like, those are Bottlers, those people there. But people like Ryan Cherky, he's not Bottler. He's probably so hard to play under that sort of glare. Like the idea that you thinking about what people on the Internet are going to say or Roy Keane might roll his eyes if I don't score this chance is ridiculous. That's us just extrapolating meaning from things. So stop extrapolating meaning from things, Max. Now, they're not bottlers, but they are trying to build a team on the hoof and that's really difficult. And Heartland, I feel like has been through so many phases this season already, none of which really his fault. Like for a while he was the greatest center forward in the world maybe we've ever seen because he was scoring all the time and the play was funneling through him really well. And you saw none of his weaknesses. You just saw his strengths. Not that he really has weaknesses. It's just to do with patterns of play. And then he's now become a guy who basically just banters a lot during the game and hugs people and seems like a really nice guy. I really want Erling Haaland to hug me ideally. So from behind whispering things in my ear and we're laughing like ghosts and.

[B]

There'S a close up of us. You want to make a. You want to make do some.

[A]

Yeah, I'm making a pot.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay. And Erling Harland, he's much larger. His huge hands have come around me and together it's quite. It's phallic. Yeah, but that's okay. It's fine.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And Erling's laughing. I'm laughing. There's music playing. I don't know what the music. Maybe the music is something from the 90s. It's probably Republic are ready to go because the 90s are back.

[B]

I thought it could be robbed St. Jerome's Cubs back of unchained melody to. You know. So it was.

[A]

Well, that's probably cheaper. We could probably afford. Although Erling can afford these things and it's obviously important to him that this tableau happens as well. But he's become that guy who seems to be just existing outside of football. He almost looks like when players know they're leaving and they stop really caring. But he's not leaving. I'm not suggesting that. But City, you know, it's very hard to build a team on the hoof. And actually I think that we've confused. There's a problem like the Premier League, the standard's not high enough with the fact it's actually really high, but it's a really high median standard. So everyone you come up against has got brilliant players and you will be exposed. So Kevin will score that incredible goal at Old Trafford because even teams of Fulham's ilk, no offense, Fulham have players who are absolutely brilliant and in the 90s would have been playing for Arsenal or Man United and trying to win the league. So the standard's just really high and the teams are slightly pop up and thrown together so they have weaknesses and they can collapse in half a football or someone will find their weaknesses because they love analysis too. And it's given us this strangely open makeshift soccer aid with brilliant footballers feel.

[B]

John, does this mean from a Tottenham perspective you know the second half and you say, you know Van de Ben is holding Christian. Christian Moreau's hair while he's hurling up in a loo. And so they have to come out playing 442 with Archie Gray, Zhao Palina and Dragon, who's not played for time in a back four with the doggy who's of the only recognized he plays that position. Done it a fair bit this season. Is. Is this the salvaging of Thomas Frank, the. The. The latest one or is he still game by game basis?

[C]

Well, he's always talked, hasn't he, about how there were turning points in his time at Bromby and Brentford. Maybe this is it. But it's. It felt a bit more elemental than that, didn't it? It felt like players in difficult circumstances having to come through for themselves. I tell you what really made a difference was having a striker in Solanke. Yeah, I mean Tottenham have a lot of players. Solanke is a grade A talent striker. Obviously injuries have sometimes affected that, but you saw the quality of leading the line. You saw Xavi Simmons given freedom to run with the ball and you saw a different Tottenham. Now, whether that's the Tottenham that Thomas Frank sets up on a. On a Friday to play at the weekend, we don't know. But you know, his Brentford team could do this, his Brentford team could. The leash would suddenly go off and back in those times, Brentford were probably the most attacking team in the Premier League when he. When they wanted them to be. So maybe Thomas Frank has been too cautious with the players that he's got at Tottenham because he had a lot of injuries and so on and he's had a lot more football than he's been used to because he's been playing European football as well. Maybe you know, it's time to just, you know, let the geese fly and just go for it. And then this is how Ange won over the crowd, wasn't it? Just play Tottenham as Tottenham and see where you'd land with it. And Thomas Frank is capable of doing that. But he has looked as if the handbrake has been on. He also, you know, for a fairly dapper figure, has looked a bit care worn of late, really, hasn't he? You know, he's had the old effect of managing a Premier League club or being the president of the United States of America. Look where it's like you age, you know, 10 years in two weeks or whatever. But maybe when we see him next week they'll have something of a glow up because they've had a good week. And for once he's not having to talk about his future, because that was a great performance from Tottenham and it has certainly followed the Dortmund win. Well done, Thomas Frank. Not often we've said that this season.

[A]

Do you ever. Do you ever feel like we talk about Spurs a lot on this podcast? Yeah.

[B]

Well, I said this.

[A]

I know it's you, Max. I know it's you. No, but I'm an endless content machine.

[B]

But that's it. I'm so conscious that we do a lot and I keep saying we can't lead with them again and actually it turned out we hadn't led with them for 27 pods because I'm convinced they.

[A]

Did play the last game.

[B]

Yeah, they did. We went off air because we've lost Seb for the tape. He will hopefully return during the pod. We sort of think Tottenham just play all the time. They're this sort of odd thing where nothing's happening and everything is happening all the time.

[A]

They're a content machine, aren't they? They're just constant. Tottenham is always happening. Mickey Van de Ven is always doing a sensational run from the back. There's a problem with Xavi Simons. Why do I know so much about Daniel Levy? I don't know. Why do I care so much about the atmosphere in the spurs stadium? It's so important. It's everything. I need to write another article about it. Hang on, can I restart while I write an article about that? Tottenham is everything. Tottenham is life. It's all football. And yet they never actually do anything of any interest, ever. But I can't stop thinking until I love them. I'm obsessed with them.

[B]

It is worth pointing out that Solanke, that Thomas Frank probably got lucky with that first Solanke goal because he does boot Mark Gay. Although there's some debate about whether we want those goals to be given or not to be given. And if it was the other way around it would be a penalty. But anyway, there was a very big difference between the two Solanke goals. We should say, look, it was a great weekend for Arsenal, John because not only did City drop points, Villa drop points as well. They've lost their last two home games to Everton and Brentford. And if I was a Villa fan I would just be staring at the league table and mentally adding six points and thinking we should be just a point behind Arsenal. It's a really. That is just a sort of gutting two games I think.

[C]

I don't know about you chaps but I get a lot of complaints from Villa fans saying why don't you mention Aston Villa more this with Leeds a bit, didn't we? Why? Why? Why is there not enough leads? But it's this season, it's being Aston Villa. I mean when we've talked this season about how nobody is playing nice football, a Villa fan will say to you what about Aston Villa? And they have played good football. Let's say that Aston Villa have been very good this season but they're letting it slip a little bit, aren't they? And that was a game that really if. If the opponents have a man sent off in the first half. I don't know what the percentages of teams winning those games but it's pretty big. The Uataro goal was. Well, it was brilliant, wasn't it? You know, into the Stanction. A beauty. A beauty.

[A]

The best thing about that was that his celebration was to just walk backwards. He walked backwards from a standing start. He didn't want to take his eyes off the. And I thought why don't more players do that? Why don't you just fix on the moment? They always turn away, do something. Knee slide. He just walked backwards immediately. There's incredible athleticism. How can you do that? Can you do that, John?

[C]

I. I certainly cannot, Barney. No. And Tammy Abraham, his, you know, prodigal return and he was very popular player when he. When he got promotion such that a local reporter described him back then and this is a thing that's amused me and some friends of mine called him the. The ultimate Bagsman. But the ultimate Bagsman was denied. The ultimate Bagsman was denied.

[B]

He was denied the bag by the.

[C]

By var. And a very odd call down by the touch line which is. Was correct. But who was a referee?

[B]

It was Tim Robinson.

[C]

Tim Robinson, great Nottingham shirt, former England opener.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[C]

So. So the ultimate bagsman was denied by the. By a. A video assisted call. Uh, Tim Robinson, uh, referee, former Nottinghamshire and England opener, uh, was described. Use that very odd word, didn't he? Factual. So it was factually off the pitch. And then Villa had lots and lots of chances, couldn't take them. And with it, their chance of the title probably has gone. And I think it's fair to say that the rest of their season is. The major task in hand, apart from European ambitions, is to stay in the top four five, go back to the Champions League, which they're perfectly capable of. And they will still play nice football all season, I'm sure doing so.

[B]

Seb, onto this VAR decision for Villa. Do you think it was the right. Obviously the ball was out of play. I think we all think it was. It feels like it was the. That phase of play, but it was a long phase of play. You know, lots of questions, such as, you know, after Villa's goal was chalked off, should, how far back should VAR be allowed to look, says David. Could England be reinstated at the 1986 World Cup?

[A]

I'm.

[B]

I'm conflicted about whether I think. I mean, if I was a Brentford fan, I'd be furious if that's given. If I'm a Villa fan, I'm furious that it's not given.

[D]

I just think it's another one of those moments. If we didn't look at it, would anybody care? I just. I just find it really difficult. I think also when I watched, when I saw the incident, my first thought was, well, they probably need Hawkeye to come in if they're going to go this way. Because even when you look at pictures, are you 100% sure that the whole of the ball has gone past the line? I'm not a fan of it. And also we've been in this position where we have to decide how far back we go before we disallow goals. They talk about phases of play. What is a phase? What is a phase? How long is a phase? Is a set number of seconds without sounding too much like Barney on this, but I do believe that we need to break down.

[A]

It's actually infectious, so be careful.

[D]

Don'T get too close. The attacking phase of play.

[C]

Just a funny phase we're going through.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. What is a phase, then, Barney? It's a good question, Seb. What is a phase?

[A]

There was another interesting incident as well in this game, wasn't there, that everyone was nauseated by Matty Cash. It was really good because Kevin Sharda, he picked up a rhyming slang, didn't he? He picked up a Kevin Charter, a red carpet.

[B]

He picked up a kiddie.

[A]

And then everyone, everyone was naughty. We got the chance to assert that we are real, we are men or women, we're manly womenly men because we disapproved most of Matty Cash in that situation. But I did feel sad. I mean, the point is that happened because of var, because now whenever there's any contact or anything might happen, you have to demonstrate you're being watched. Everybody knows they're being watched and being watched changes things. So it's kind of, you know, like Seb said, would we have cared? It's Schrodinger's va, you know, did that ball going out actually exist or not? Does it matter if we're not looking at it? It didn't exist. But this, for example, players now have to act. They have to. That's why it's happening. Jamie CARRAGGHER, because of VAR, because you have to say, well, hang on, this might be called back. I need to make quite sure it's called back. I need to do a Matty Cash nauseate people wave my arms. Although to be fair, he was nearly kicked in the cock in that situation. It may have been like when you hit in cricket, you kind of go down because did that. Am I okay? Not sure. It may have been one of those. But I'd just like to put on record that I was most nauseated by Natty Cash noted.

[B]

I mean the best acting of the weekend was of course Nico Williams. We'll get to that. Anyway, let's, let's go to Ellen Road Leads Neil Arsenal 4. Look, Arsenal were winless in three John in the Premier League before this and this was all the talk of bottling and the fact that Elland Road was not the place they wanted to go and they just went, actually, we're really good at this.

[C]

Oh yeah. Great performance. Drama added by Saka getting injured in the warm up. But then of course, you know, Mado Ake is quite a capable deputy as he showed in that game and has shown quite a lot this season. That's a hell of a win for Arsenal. It's a hell of a weekend for Arsenal. Well done Arsenal. They were fantastic. Leeds were not quite able to raise their levels to the fight that we expected them because do you know, one thing about Arsenal is that they do have that ability to tough it out against opposition. That's one thing that Mikel Artisa has been very successful at. They're a hard team. There's a lot of physical presence there. And if your best chance of beating anybody is using physical presence, well, Arsenal probably have the strongest of anyone there. So brilliant result for them. An even better Sunday for them. Can we say, can we say they're nailed on for the title? No, I don't think.

[B]

You know what? I don't think you can. I think if, I think if City are close with three, four games left, it's still very much alive.

[C]

I really think that, listen, no one wins the title by default. Let's say that from a start because you know, there's this idea that Arsenal have been the best and strongest team in the division. There's no question about that and no one can question that. But their rivals are all struggling in, in certain senses in Manchester City hit those flat spots and. And the thing is Arsenal aren't going to win it with a record points total, which is something we've been spoiled by. But they have a lot to contend with to get over the line because it's been 22 years. They've a manager and they've got a group of players that apart from Gabriel Jesus, have not had that success before. So listen, they're having to find their way to this, to. To this title win. But you can't say they don't deserve to be where they are because they've been great all season just with a few wobbles, but wobbles we forgot because Liverpool and Manchester City were so good a part of winning a title.

[B]

Yeah, I totally agree with all of that. Interesting thing about Madaway Case. Like his delivery is every bit as good as Saka. Like in fact his corner is so good that no Arsenal player needs to attack it. You just have three Leeds players going for it and it still goes in.

[D]

It's the chaos of the Arsenal set piece. It's what it does to players. I mean some of the things that defensive sides have found themselves in, the positions they found themselves in this season, finding it so difficult to defend against something which we were told so often was a difficult situation to score from. It was given as awarded to Darlo as an own goal, then given back to Madueke. When you, when you, when you watch it in person, every part of you saying that's an own goal. But, but I suppose because of the trajectory of the ball, it's going to go in and he fumbles it over the line. But I, my only, my only feeling towards Darlo in this moment is that feeling of. He shouts for it, it's mine. He goes for the ball. But as he's going for the boy, clips Calvert Lewin's head and there's that slight deflection on his glove, means he just can't catch it. And these things happen so quickly. I know it's the Premier League and we know goalkeepers are supposed to be top class at that level, but we also know that goalkeepers at any level can be made to look very, very silly. And a ball in swinging at that pace, you go above one of the tallest players in your team. And in another day, he might have just said, you know what, Dominic? Just you head it away. But to go back to Mad Weike, when I was watching the Chelsea game and I saw Gittens start the game, I did think to myself, what is the process here with Chelsea? Because they bring in Jamie Gittins, they let Madwaque go, and at this moment in time, who is the better player? There's not that much difference as far as age is concerned either. So we're not talking about a sterling situation or a refresh. Madueke is a player who's not even in what we would call the prime of his career. So Arsenal looked at the opportunity and took it in an area of the pitch which has been said many times, where Arsenal are lacking a star, really, but they have so many options now to try and find a way through teams, and that might just be enough by the end of the season.

[B]

Isn't Saka a star?

[A]

Isn't Sacks? No, no, no, he's not.

[D]

Now he's a star boy. He's a star boy. That's different, you see, because he's a player who's. He's come through the Arsenal system. But we're talking about those. Those players that when you're looking at the end of the season, you're saying, who is in the team of the season? Who is going to be a player that we look back on and go, that was the defining player of that Premier League winning team. It's not going to be an attacking player for Arsenal. You can see that if they go on to win the title, it's going to be Gabriel or Rice. It's not going to be one of their forward line.

[A]

I was talking to someone about Madueke who had spoken to Arsenal's people before they signed him, and they genuinely think that he could be. That he has nothing. It's a weird thing to say. He scored in the League for about a year, but they Genuinely think he has nothing missing in his game and has the potential to be. Actually, no, I think it was one of the England people, that he could be one of the best players in the world because there's nothing missing. He has everything. He really can dribble, he can cross, he can shoot, he can do everything, he can run. And it's just a question of all those elements being put together and they think his ceiling is impossibly high and, and that's kind of just on, on the basic attributes, the data and all that kind of stuff.

[B]

I like to think all of our ceilings are impossibly high or perhaps possibly.

[A]

What's holding us down though, Max? What's stopping me from rising?

[B]

Nothing.

[A]

There's something. I don't know what it is.

[B]

Nothing's stopping you, Barney.

[A]

I'm down by the floor and my ceiling.

[B]

No, you're unstoppable. Be the best you you can be and we'll find out what that is.

[A]

It's not having a five hour routine, isn't it? I don't have any ice. I don't dunk my face in ice baths and meditate. You need to.

[B]

Do that in between part one and part two and we'll find out and we'll start part two at Old Trafford.

[E]

Lunch was great, but this traffic is awful. Can we stop at a bathroom? Are you alright? I keep having stomach issues after eating, like diarrhea, gas and bloating, abdominal pain and sometimes oily stools. Sound familiar? Those stomach issues may actually be a pancreas issue called exocrine pancreatic insufficiency or epi. Creon pancrelipase may help manage epi. Creon is a prescription medicine used to treat people who can't digest food normally because their pancreas doesn't make enough enzymes.

[F]

Creon may increase your chance of fibrosing colonopathy, a rare bowel disorder. Tell your doctor if you have a history of intestinal blockage or scarring or thickening of your bowel wall. If you are allergic to por. If you have gout, kidney problems or worsening of painful swollen joints. Call your doctor if you have any unusual or severe gastrointestinal symptoms or allergic reactions. Take Creon as directed by your doctor and always with food. Do not chew capsules as this may cause mouth irritation. Other side effects may include blood sugar changes, gas, dizziness, sore throat and cough. These are not all the side effects of Creon. Call 8639110 or visit creoninfo.com to learn more, that's C-E-O ninfo.com I'm asking my.

[E]

Doctor about EPI and if Creon could help.

[B]

Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly. Let's go to Old Trafford, then. Man United 3, Fulham 2. John, you must have enjoyed this.

[C]

Yeah. I mean, do you know what, when. When Kevin scores that brilliant goal. And as you know, I see a lot of Fulham and Fulham are late goal kings. Sometimes against them last couple of weeks, the scored late goals in, you know, 90 minutes. Harry Wilson and so on. They have that taste for the spectacular. Now, I thought the diff. And you thought, well, Fulham could probably win this game. But the difference in Manchester United is, and I hate to say this, they're playing like a Manchester United team is supposed to, which is you get pegged back to all. What do you do next? You try and win the game. And you win the game by that superb piece of that feint by Bruno Fernandes. And then the finish by Sesko is what they paid an enormous amount of money for. But his, that is like a classic. I mean, I always talk about, you know, the best ever Premier League striker is Alan Shearer. And that was almost like Alan Shearer finish, isn't it? Set himself up, use the defender as a shield.

[A]

Whack.

[C]

See you later. Let's go home. We've won the game and he is in this season. I think Wilson came up with this phrase, you know, of cyborg strikers. Sesko, a slow burner compared to Yokerez, is winning that battle. He obviously comes off the bench because it appears Michael Carrick prefers the, you know, the. The mobility, shall we say, of Acuna and Wemo, but, you know, that's the way to play yourself into the team. It was a brilliant goal. He's a young player. He's only 22. I see he's got the Manchester buzz cut. So he's starting to get into the Manchester scene. And yeah, a brilliant goal. One of those moments. Michael Carrick, whatever he's doing, keep on doing it. It's fun. Manchester United are fun again. And I've been on this pod a long time, almost wallowing in misery and just, you know, and funny. At the weekend, I was at Wolves and chatting to a guy involved with the club at United, just saying how what a nice guy Reuben Amarin was and all this. And the thing is, this nice guy just did not have it at Manchester United, did it? And as before, I wish him well, but it didn't work out. And Michael Carrick's shown how it's supposed to be done, how long it lasts, I don't know, but it's almost like a sample, simple thing of this is Man United. Please do it this way. That's what everyone would like you to do.

[A]

I just wanted to say, John, it's all right to just say that the 90s are back. It's fine. It's in forward scoring a goal. There's nobody marking him.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

But there's no. There's no grappling going on. He's just smashing the ball. The move that Bruno Fernandes did, that step over the ball, let it run. Run away from Calvin Bassey. That's. That's like. That's the 80s, that's the 70s. That's how Harry Wetknapp used to play on the wing. That. That doesn't happen. That can't happen. And then an instant cross. That. That was Kanchelskis. Like that for one weekend only. The 90s are back. You're riding a Vespa, you've got a pair of.

[B]

I'm off to see top loader later. This is so exciting.

[A]

That's going to be amazing. Max, they're really good. You'll like them.

[C]

Do you know what? I'm going to see Underworld on Thursday. So it's who I've. I saw in 1996. Today. Yeah, it's back.

[D]

And the other thing, it was a time when there were a lot more Kevins around, weren't there, in the Premier League?

[B]

Yeah, it was a brilliant goal you feel for fully. But look, three wins for Carrick, Seb, that's as many consecutive wins as Amram ever managed. And it took him 36 games and Carrick has done it in three. And a lot of people were saying, oh, well, this Fulham game is the tough one after City and Arsenal, because Fulham, you know, you're expected to win. You expect to have the ball and okay, look, they could easily have not won this game. And so. And it's an unanswerable question, but you just feel that had this been. Amarim and Fulham equalize, they don't win this game.

[D]

It's so. It's so predictable, though, isn't it? We all knew this was going to happen. We all knew there was going to be. Carrick was going to come in and go on this amazing run, even with the fixtures that they had, because it just seemed so simple what the solution was to fix Manchester United's issues this season. Whenever you watch them, whenever they seem to be doing something Something, right. Amarin would go against it and stick to his guns. Even when he stumbled across something that worked, he would go and change it back to stick to his guns. And I think Carrick just arrived. And it's that simplicity, isn't it? And everybody buys into it. The, the bigger picture is where are Manchester United going to go as far as competing for the big titles going forward? Because they're not in any other competition this season, bar the Premier League. And their sole quest at the moment is to qualify for the Champions League. And that's. They're in a fantastic position to do that. So that's why it feels there's not really much more to say about the situation. Because I think for Manchester United supporters, it's that joy of seeing their side win big games again. But also, you know, before they did beat Liverpool this season, they've had moments like that. They're looking for a consistency, they're looking for a run of games to suggest this is going somewhere bigger than just, you know, the big win, the late winner, the sort of things that they remember back in the 90s. But what also happened in the 90s was that they won titles. So it's the first step, isn't it? And we'll have to answer this question again. Actually, we'll probably answer this question every podcast going forward, but we'll, we'll try and answer this question again in. By August.

[B]

Yeah, that's the question, John, isn't it? I guess for United fans it is just. Let's just enjoy this and not every week say, so does Carrick now get it? You know, because that's what you, if they keep playing like this, you can just see, see that happening and there's. And it is, I suppose it is a difficult. I'm now, now I'm now asking the question, which is why can't he be the manager if he keeps winning games?

[C]

You know, this idea of repeating, you know, repeating your previous mistakes, a definition of madness. But, you know, football is supposed to be a bit mad. And Manchester United is a. And Manchester is, as I've said before, an anarchic place. Why not take that risk? Just because it didn't work out with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer United have made with the various, you know, relaunches done. They've gone for some blue chip big name manager and asked him to graft themselves into the United culture. It hasn't worked at any point. And ask United fans, there was a point during the Solskjaer time that it did feel Like Man United were back, to use the Rio Ferdinand vernacular. It didn't last for long. It might not last for Carrick. You have to accept also in football that sometimes managers are good for a little while and then they're not. The whole point is not everybody is Alex Ferguson. That's the whole point, isn't it? Just try and enjoy it for what it is. It's, it's, it's, it's fun.

[A]

The two Tens are back. The two Tens have come back. In that one statement. We're worried about his fur. I thought we were at Ocath. Thought we were back. Yeah, I thought the economy was still thriving. Basball. It's basball, isn't it? Carrick, it's Kasbal. It's. There's a situation where you, you just, there's a very obvious low hanging fruit where you simplify and you say, you know what, we're going to play the left back and left back. This bloke Kobimanu is really good at like moving the ball forward and playing the half term and we don't have someone who's doing, we're going to put him in there, we're going to play center forward, a couple of wingers and suddenly there's an improvement. And everyone says why weren't you doing that? And you pare things back and that does have a shelf life, but it also has obvious benefit. It's this kind of thing where you suddenly think, I could be a football manager because I could see that needed to happen. I'm Michael Ka. I'm going to buy a really good overcoat and I'm going to stand around just looking calm and people will say, give him the job. So he's done the first thing which is to make the obvious improvements. But then, and this is the Premier League, people are really smart, they react to what you've done and it generally takes three or four games. And we're suddenly saying, well, you know, what's wrong with Carrick? Why is he so calm? Why isn't he leaping up? Why isn't he? Where's the passion? Why is he playing such a simple formation? Like why is he playing the left back at left back? What's wrong? Why is he picking Cobby mane? What's wrong with him? We need some more complex system than this. We're data guys. So that phase will happen where you have to build on your simplicity and that will be a test of whether he is just an intelligent man doing the obvious things or whether he's a Football manager. Because football managers are insane, obsessed with the game. And if you watch a working football manager come on as a pundit on a show, suddenly you realize suddenly that these people are so immersed in the game that they are seeing patterns that you're just not seeing. They're understanding the reaction to those patterns. Because it's very different to sitting there, being shade given on a sofa saying, I'll just do this, to actually being up at 4 in the morning analyzing 400 games. So. So he has to go into that mode next and then we'll see if it's sustainable.

[B]

Worth saying that all the analysts on this pod do get up at 4 in the morning to watch 400 games. That's why this is such a great podcast. Let's go to Stamford Bridge. Chelsea 3, West Ham 2. Try and sound more convinced, Barney, with your next, if you would, John. Agony for west ham. This 2 nil up. The Somerville goal is brilliant. They had so many chances at 2 nil and then at 2, 2, even to Debo, before he gets sent off, has that chance that something seems impossible to miss. I felt for them so much in this game.

[C]

That's the type of game, when it goes against you, you begin to worry that relegation really is going to happen, don't you? Because they were excellent and Nuno was starting to. He slowly started to turn things around and he does everything slowly, of course. And then this was a. A fine performance and, you know, it had Chelsea and their fans at each other's throats and exactly where they wanted them to be. So 2 nil is a, you know, it's the most dangerous lead, isn't it? And then once that. Oh, wait, of course it is so dangerous, so dangerous. And then the problem is that they are a very fallible team. Chelsea have almost limitless supply of talent, as we know. Some of the talent you don't even know that they've got. But then Enzo Fernandez, who is, I suppose, a bit of a poster boy of that club, you know, bought during that first spell of the Chelsea regime where they were spending silly money, came in and scored that golfing. That's his 150th appearance. Brilliant. Brilliant win for Chelsea and the knives were out. So at 2 nil for Liam Ross Senior, do you know, am I allowed to say that I really like this guy and I really hope he does well, because it seems like an unpopular opinion and I don't understand why, because he's someone that approaches the game differently, speaks differently. Is it just the Premier League's innate conservatism that leads to this reaction of someone who, you know, is a young manager and speaks as people of his age do and, you know, he's just cracking on and getting on with it and speaks very intelligently. And I really like this guy and I really hope he's very successful. And as I said, that feels like an unpopular opinion and people were so quick to go for him.

[B]

I think some Chelsea fans are like, is his cv does it merit this opportunity? This is jobs for the boys. He's part of bluecoat. I think that's why it's been sort of seen negatively. I mean, I would say Seb, he's won six out of seven and they haven't been that convincing. And like, you need to be good, but you need fortune at the same time. And he. I feel he's had both. He made three changes half time. They were really good changes, unless you see it that he should have started them in the first place. But I. I agree with John. I'm. I will him to succeed, certainly.

[D]

Yeah. I think sometimes there's a mixture of things going on, aren't there? If. If there's a slight element of jealousy from some people because they're thinking, how did this. This guy get his opportunity ahead of maybe me or I tried to get the opportunity, I couldn't make it. If you're in that. In that world. But I think there's also been a lot of support from him as well, for him, because he has done that process in the coaching world whereby he's met a lot of people who are now obviously working in media. And he's of that age, of course, where a lot of people who. Working and breaking through media, not just in the traditional media, but also the new social media age. And so there are people who are very sympathetic. They know him, they know his approach, they know what he's like with players. With this scenario, though, he's also going to be held to a higher standard because simply put, if we have a British manager in the top job, they are just held to a different standard because it just feels so rare nowadays. We're almost part of us inside. We. We don't want them to succeed because it sort of shows that, well, why didn't more succeed? But we do want him to succeed at the same time, same time, so that there are more British managers in the top jobs in. In the league. I thought in this game it was interesting because there was a split of opinion of whether he, you know, was it the obvious substitutions to make they're the players you can bring on. It was a similar scenario with the Arsenal League cup game where he bought Garnacho on and he helped keep them in the tie. Or he's the obvious sub to bring on. But I think for the Chelsea manager's job at the moment, there is clearly an Enzo Maresca touched on it. An element of there are other people at the club who are telling you what you need to do in regards to managing players minutes and that is still playing out. Again, we can see that players are not completing games. When you think, why aren't they staying on the pitch? Why is this player coming off the bench? Why are they not starting? You looked at that side and Harto's starting at left back and thinking, well, just play Cucarea, why is he not playing? But that rotation, while it's partly Liam also there's something going on at that club whereby they're managing players. And I don't know if it's the bigger picture of. It's part of their whole project of making sure players keep their value high. So somebody like Harto is a young defender. It's asking a lot for him to start big games for Chelsea, but he's being put into that position because they need to keep his value high. Is that cynical to say that? I don't know, but it feels like that when you see their transfer activity and when you think if they could put their strongest side together, they would be a very good team. But it's just things just change too quickly for them and this game was a great example of that. And I actually watched this match with my father in law who is a West Ham season ticket holder. Oh, good reminder of the other side of the coin where he. If they'd been 30 down after half an hour, he'd have had a better evening, put it that way.

[B]

Yeah, but the fact that they gave him hope, the fact that they played.

[D]

Well for 45 minutes he was in pieces and he still is. He's staying around at ours for a bit and I can't even bring it. I did a West Ham forest the other week and there's a program with Thomas Sochek's face on it and he can't even look at it. He doesn't want to look at it until the next time they play again. And it's just these things get lost in the drama at the end just thinking, well, could somebody think of the side that's conceded as well? Because Nuno said after the game that but he was Definitely disappointed with the reaction of his players. And that one goal triggered them to almost completely fall apart. It felt. They just lost all confidence in the match. And it felt a matter of time before Chelsea were going to turn the game around. And the incident at the end. All I was going to say was when Barney was talking about being hugged by Haaland, I don't know about the impact of being hugged by Adama Traore.

[B]

Let'S put it that way.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Joachim says, if you were faced with an angry Adama Traore, how fast would you run? Barney is. It's absolutely brilliant moment where he. He basically throws Cucarella out of the stadium and then Traore pushes him before he's realized who he's pushed. It's one of those moments, you know, where you. You punch the henchman and then he just doesn't move at all. You punched him with everything you've got, and then he just looks up and stares at you. And this Traore just sort of moves towards Pedro and there's a reverse angle where you can see his eyes. It is. It's an amazing. It's sort of got everything you want from a fracar.

[A]

We learned a lot in that moment. We learned that Cucurella is. Is actually filled with helium. He. He weighs for nothing. That was an amazing moment, though, because he was trying to sort of play out. He knew in that second that he was going to be thrown over. So he thought, I know what, I'll go down. I'll go down easily here and he'll get sent off or something. So he made himself. Himself limp like a. Like a cat. When you pick it up by its scruff, it goes all limp. I don't know if you've done this, but in doing so, he. He became just an element with a, you know, negative weight in this vast grip of this kind of superhero hand. And yeah, it was like the Indiana Jones moment. Like what? Whether the history. He's trying to have a fistfight with a guy who's four times bigger than you, who is eventually shredded by a plane propeller, which is what I expected to happen there to Adama Shrari, which, to be fair, would probably put you out for a few weeks. It'd be Traore March playing propeller brackets. Really good. Shredded. But no, it was amazing to watch because I think the thing with Traore is everyone likes him. He's obviously like a really nice guy. He's a really gentle guy. He seems really nice, and he's obviously really talented. But I. There's been.

[C]

No.

[A]

I've been waiting for a moment of him. Where is the moment where I'm gonna really understand what this guy is? He still feels like he's all potential, and I don't really know what he is. Loads of clubs have signed him, but this was the moment. This is what he's there for. He's there to do this. And the whole thing was amazing. Cause also, the game was defined by Cuccurella flying forward to head that ball, and then defined again by him flying backwards, at which point you knew, that's it, you've entered the Cuccurella zone. Everyone's going to get angry. Someone gets sent off. We're wasting time here. And if you actually impose those two bits of film over each other, which I've done, I've spliced them together.

[B]

Oh, good.

[A]

They're an exact mirror. He flies forward and he flies backwards at exactly the same speed. It's. It's remarkable. It's like the Solanke. The Solanke move. It's incredible athleticism. And I think we need to know more.

[B]

I had a computer game once where, you know, players would just be injured, and one player said, you know, Mark McNabb out 28 weeks, diagnosis car crash, which is a great. You know, you can just see the doctor saying, I had a look, and I do believe you have a serious case of car crash. Elsewhere in Freedom of speech news, John West Ham, a band, a season ticket holder who held up a banner calling for the club's owners to sell up. Joshua woods said he was infuriated after receiving a letter accusing him of breaching ground regulations by taking from under his seat an oversized banner at last Saturday's home game against Sunderland. I mean, not a great look for the club producer, Joel, saying it would have sympathy if the banner was, like, 300 meters wide. But, you know, Barry on the radio yesterday was saying, if it was a massive banner saying I love Karen Brady and David Sullivan, would he be banned because it was too big?

[C]

Yeah. Well, thank you for the opportunity. Baroness Brady or something like that.

[B]

Walking out back.

[C]

Yeah, this thing. Yeah, the thing that everyone's noticed is the fact that it was oversized is the problem. You can have any banner in here. It's just. It's just got to fit these. These regulations. Not happy times at West Ham. Perhaps going to get even unhappier, but, you know, that's almost certain. Clubs have a certain state of being and that's one of. Certainly one of West Ham's.

[B]

Yeah. The West Ham way. Anyway, that'll do for part two. Part three. We'll do the rest of the Premier League. Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly at Liverpool 4, Newcastle 1. Lots of brilliant finishes in this game, Barney. I mean the Ekatike second. That toe poke is brilliant. And the verts one is also so special. I think the.

[A]

The Ektike toe poke was transgressive, wasn't it? It felt wrong to do it because a. It's a toe poke and that's embarrassing. It was his wrong foot. It's not what you. You're coached in the academy and people were really like outraged by the fact that he did it. But it was brilliant because it caught the goalkeeper. It was early. He wasn't expecting it. It was in the wrong moment in the stride pattern. It was also a kind of cagebally moment, which I quite like. That's the kind of thing you do in the playground. And it was really good. And I also thought it was great to see Wirtz playing so well because for all the problems, the guy is so young and he is the most talented player at that club. And if they can build a team around him. I'm not a Liverpool fan. Don't really care if they win the league or whatever. But I will watch it every week.

[B]

Yeah. Is that his wrong foot?

[A]

I thought Katiki was right footed.

[B]

I think this is.

[A]

No, but wrong foot in the angles.

[B]

Of where he let the ball run across.

[A]

You take another stride. I understand Poker the outside of your.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Max.

[B]

Of course Ronaldo. You know, Ronaldo did bring back the toe poke. You know, original Renault OT. Yeah. R9 Ronaldo in, you know, in the semi final, that World Cup, I think.

[C]

Against Turkey.

[B]

Yeah, against Turkey. Yeah. Run of a moment for Kanate. And also, you know, I do like John a ball going in agonizingly slowly and like you can just see Nick Pope. This is like, you know, Indiana Jones trying to get through the, you know, the port colors or whatever. And it's just the ball is going.

[A]

Retrieving his hat. Exactly.

[B]

And he just can't. Whereas Indy would have got it. Nick Pope just couldn't get this one.

[C]

Beautiful. Beautiful. Yeah. Everyone. Everyone loves those.

[D]

Is it.

[C]

Is it against some sort of code to say is Eddie Howe in a bit of trouble there? The. The doubts in his management, they seem to be circling a bit, don't they, about Newcastle? That's all I'm going to say on that. I mean big, big win for Liverpool. May I second my admiration for Florian Virtz. What a player. Brilliant to watch, isn't he? It's funny, isn't it? I suppose if you build your team around that player, will they just be good enough to say finish fourth but be the. Be the entertainers of the division? Or is he top, top so that you base your team around him and he's like a Kevin de Bruyne figure. We'll have to see.

[A]

Oh, I think he's top, top.

[D]

Okay.

[A]

I think he's really elite. Yeah, he.

[B]

I think he's going to be the business without going full Paul Merson. I would say he's top, top, top, top, top.

[A]

To the power of four. Whoa.

[C]

For obvious, obvious reasons. Liverpool is an entertainment franchise with him. That would be really good. And then finishing fourth would obviously be okay too. That'd be fine for, you know, but I'm happy with that. But I defer to Bonnie's judgment on that. He's perhaps not the. The physical specimen of a de Bruyne, but he's a very different player. Liverpool do do tick so much more nicely when he's at his best, don't they?

[B]

To the City Grounds Forest One Palace One did enjoy Sky Sports Premier League saying Nico Williams sees red for appearing to clear the ball off the goal line with his hand, which is very. Allegedly very nervous. Very nervous. In case the lawyers are watching. I suppose it is Forrest. It is Marinakis. But I think Barney, we do say that was a handball of the great. Of great handballs of our time.

[A]

Yeah. But I liked it. I think somehow in that moment I saw Nico Williams, I saw his. He wanted to just keep the ball out. He wasn't thinking about himself and he was so. He knew what he'd done and it was a really human moment. And I think if you're a fan, you forgive him for that. That. Because that guy just really, really wants to defend the goal. That's all he's thinking about. His body betrayed him and it's. I kind of felt like it would almost be nice to have an amnesty but obviously you can't. He's got to go off. And it wasn't a shameful error. It was a guy just really, really trying to do football. And. And I liked him.

[B]

Here's an idea, Barney is if you do that, you then have to go in goal. What about that?

[A]

But what does the goalkeeper do? Is he suddenly the left back?

[B]

Yes. Yeah, that's it. Yeah.

[A]

Well, I'd like to see it.

[B]

Yes. The matt sells goes to left back, back. And then we just see what happens? I'll send it to Ifab. They don't tend to listen to me on most things. Seb has returned. If you are watching on YouTube, you'll see he's now by his banisters. He's had a. He's had an Internet of it during this podcast.

[A]

You know what he's happened. He said, l' esprit de l'. Escalier.

[B]

Ah, come on, laugh.

[A]

That's a funny.

[B]

It's one of those. The Johnny Lewd gag that I didn't get is what he's saying.

[A]

It's a French phrase. It's. It's when you, you. You're going down the stairs after you've been at a party or been with people and you suddenly think, I should have said that. It's lispuncy. Is that what that is? That's why I should have said this. So you're literally embodying all the things you should have said on this podcast at the bottom of the stairs.

[B]

Right. Can I ask you about John Philippe Mateta? In a more prosaic question, AC Milan reportedly agreed there are sort of more medical checks over his knees, I think. And then palace will spend more money on Jorgenstrand last. And what do you think of this deal, Seb?

[D]

Well, we've said it a few times already. It feels like a really miserable time for Crystal palace, doesn't it? You don't really know what direction they're going in. You have the manager now almost saying it's going to be difficult to integrate new players into the team. Having been given a player at the start of the window, which he's trying to. Trying to incorporate into the team at the moment in Brendan Johnson and. And with Mateta. Maybe this sums it up, really, the fact that there's question marks over the medical. This is an issue he's had for the whole season. He's had. He's not been fully fit. That's meant he's not been at his best. Now he's one of those players who probably wants to get out of palace because he sees the situation they're in at the moment. I. I'm a bit sad to lose Mateta from the Premier League. He feels like one of those. He's gonna. You're gonna look back at him as, you know, people use this phrase, you know, Barclaysman. He's going to be looked back on the present era and that sort of player because not, you know, the cult figure, the player that people go, do you remember when Yakuba was in The Premier League and he was ripping it up. It's that he's that kind of player, Mateta. He's a player who would score a goal against anybody in the league. He'd score in big games but at the same time he'd miss easy chances. And it will be sad when he departs because those mid table teams, when they have players like that, they make the league better. And I'm saying mid table now for palace, it felt like a big point this weekend, a big turning point in that match for them to get something out of it because they're now looking at like the team that people. Teams below them feel they can catch and are they going to crumble away? They've got two home games against Burnley and Wolves on the horizon and they need to probably win both of those. You feel?

[B]

Yeah, you mentioned Wolves, John. You were at wolves. Neil Bournemouth 2. Just a word on that. How would you sum it all up?

[C]

Wolves came close to pulling it back to one all. And then on came Ryan, the new Bournemouth Brazilian signed from Vasco da Gama on Tuesday. And he was brilliant. It was brilliant to watch. He just set off on these. Clearly they haven't had time to coach him. Just every time he got the ball, just direct free running into the heart of the Wolves defense and eventually he supplies Alex Scott with a. With a winning goal. With his deciding goal, I should say Wolves. There's plenty of spirit there. You can see the fans are getting behind the team. Rob Edwards spoke afterwards saying I know we can get out of it. I don't know what he's thinking it is because they are going to get. We can turn things around. I was thinking, well, how to. What. What are you turning around? Because they're going down and everyone knows this and I suppose there's a few players playing to show that they are good enough for the Premier League. So I don't think Andre had a particularly good game. A player who I think is very, very good. Joe Gomez was a bit better. Hugo Bueno I think was. Wasn't he the cheapest fantasy league at one point? I think he's quite a decent player. Yeah. I think Ellis had him in his team and eventually they, they met I think on the TV program they used to do. But yeah, but he's actually quite a decent player and this is the thing as well. There's talent within all over that team but it's not fitted together. But Bournemouth are now such a young team team because you have junior group who scored a great goal. Adley that Kate has come in and it's like it's. The next generation of Bournemouth is already there, thankfully. Because I like the club very much, they're going to stay up this season, which might have been a bit of a concern for a while. And they could go on one of those streaks because Iriola teams, when they tick, look lovely. And particularly I've been talking about quality midfielders. You know, Scott, when he's purring is really good to watch.

[B]

Yeah, really good.

[A]

I agree.

[B]

Brian Whateverton, one injury time equalizer for Beto Q. David Moyes dancing like David Pleat and then complaining afterwards that you can't leave your technical area. He's spot on, isn't he? Like, let. Let David Moyes celebrate. You know, he's got a miserable face most of the time.

[D]

He.

[B]

When he's happy, let him be happy. Free David Moyes. I say. Sunderland Burnley is tonight on the subject of manager rants. If Moyes was a rant, you should go and listen to Ian Holloway's rant on Radio Berkshire. One of his players being suspended. 2 minutes, 20 seconds. It has peaks and troughs. It ramps at the end and then just right at this, absolute fury goes. Anyway, back to the football. Good stuff from Ollie. And six wins in a row from Cambridge United. This is extraordinary stuff. Well done for a 30 win at Oldham. And that'll do everybody. I've had a lovely time. Thank you, Seb, for running around your entire house to find Wi Fi.

[D]

Oh, I know. Can I. Can I mention about Arsenal's women?

[B]

Yes, please.

[D]

Winning the FIFA Champions Cup. The inaugural FIFA Champions Cup. Three, two, over Corinthians. Just one of those. A new FIFA tournament, but maybe one that's a bit overdue as far as the women are concerned.

[B]

Find out more about that on the Guardian. Women's Football Weekly. Of course. Thank you, John. Thank you for your time.

[C]

Lovely stuff. Thank you, Max.

[B]

Thank you, Barney. As the 90s are back, is it fabric or the Hacienda for you later.

[A]

Well, I was thinking maybe a bit of Nebworth, but the original Nebworth and.

[D]

Okay.

[A]

Hey, I'm running to the front. It's all gonna be fine, Max. Everything's fine. And history is over.

[B]

Lovely. Our Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove. Good luck, Joel. And our executive producer is Danielle Stevens. We'll be back on Wednesday.

[A]

This is the Guardian.

[E]

Lunch was great, but this traffic is awful. Um, can we stop at a bathroom? Are you alright? I keep having stomach issues after eating, like diarrhea gas and bloating. Abdominal pain and sometimes oily stools. Sound familiar? Those stomach issues may actually be a pancreas issue called exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, or epi. Creon pancrelipase may help manage epi. Creon is a prescription medicine used to treat people who can't digest food normally because their pancreas doesn't make enough enzymes.

[F]

Creon may increase your chance of fibrosing colonopathy, a rare bowel disorder. Tell your doctor if you have a history of intestinal blockage or scarring or thickening of your bowel wall, if you are allergic to pork or if you have gout, kidney problems or worsening of painful swollen joints. Call your doctor if you have any unusual or severe gastrointestinal symptoms or allergic reactions. Take Creon as directed by your doctor and always with food. Do not chew capsules as this may cause mouth irritation. Other side effects may include blood sugar changes, gas, dizziness, sore throat and cough. These are not all the side effects of Creon. Call 8639110 or visit creoninfo.com to learn more. More that's creoninfo. Com.

[E]

I'm asking my doctor about epi and if Creon could help.