Daniel Storey on The Totally Football Show: "They're going to win the league by 10 to 15 points. You look at Arsenal'...

Opening weekend of the new season on already with more rash assessments than a sking clinic when it plagues it down, it's the totally football show. But hello, if you're one of those joining us for the live experience us tonight being myself Colin Miller here in the studio, lovely to see you Colin. Lovely to be here James. Talks us through the shirt Colin. Yeah, so I'm wearing a walk and be described as a technique holler shirt which has which has been inspired by I should say the sort of early to mid 90s, Premier League goalkeeper tops which as many people of certain vintage world remember were slightly more experimental than they are today. But this is a tribute to them, a tribute for the Premier League being back and yeah I thought it was a good time to bring it on. Brilliant. Thank you so much Colin. In a rather more understated but no less pleasing Italian top, his Dunkin' Alexander. All right, Dunkin' Hello. All right, very well, lovely to see you again. And we've got our headphones on because joining us from the world of football is Daniel's story. All right, Daniel. Playing white t-shirt for me, all very boring and afraid. Don't get anything else the same. Wow, you're going to bring so many highlights from what's been a busy weekend for you in particular. You are for West Ham yesterday for what was the biggest crowd in the championship talking through the stuff? Yeah, they really pushed that before kick off. 60,000 people there to watch West Ham lose their opening championship game, home game of the season to Charlton. By the end it did feel like maybe they'd prefer 15,000 people in there to see it because everybody was incredibly angry in that. In that sort of way, the only West Ham fans can really do five minutes for the unscreening to see where they're sort of anyone who has the ball. So very enjoyable stuff. Plenty of angry fans are sort of of big, big sides because it was a remarkable opening weekend. Does this happen every season, Colin? Do I just forget the number of big sides coming out cropper? It feels very pronounced this weekend, doesn't it, Jim? I think that we saw Manchester United, obviously, in the early Saturday game, and it's quite they look really undercooked. And then you see Tottenham later in the day, and that takes it to the next level. They're really not ready. And then Aston Villa thought, well, we've been inspired by that. So our performance at Brighton, being four goals done in half an hour. I think there's just a lot of teams who aren't ready for a variety of reasons. Like a lot of teams are short in terms of their squad or short in terms of players who aren't there. But I think with the managerial of people this summer, that I think a lot of clubs just maybe haven't aren't anywhere near hitting their stride. I think a lot of them still look like they're in pre-season. But it certainly led to a lot of really interest in outcomes, I think, throughout the games and a lot of a lot of, I guess, surprising results. But I don't think any that were really surprising, based on the actual games themselves. I think holes one was deserved, and Brad Brentford and Brighton were excellent to the no-ones. None of us won. Oh, sorry, you're done, can you go? Well, if you want to put a raw number on that, who wouldn't? It's the first time since 21-22 that two of the big six have lost on the opening weekend. Is that right? And we've still got Chelsea to play tomorrow. Oh, yeah. It is relatively unusual. Nobody wants to make pronouncements about teams form until at least, I don't know what, 90 minutes of football or the gameplay. But it's really tempting when you see games like the whole Manian item one, all spurs away at Brentford. Daniel, is it not tempting to make some sweeping pronouncements? Yeah, it absolutely is. And what's the point of doing this, right? If you can't make several looks stupid in nine months' time. And, yeah, particularly in the case of Manian item spurs, they are clubs who in our preseason preview pods said really need to start quickly for different reasons to kind of show. Show that the rot has been removed with all the new signings in the case of spurs, which didn't look like it had. And to show that Michael Carrick can work as a permanent boss, rather than just an interim, I'm not Rubin Amerin. But I am wearing a t-shirt saying I'm just not Rubin Amerin. And that seems to have worked for the first four months. And they both got off to who if it starts doing it. And it kind of offered evidence that there's certainly, as well as there's certainly not really yet. And I don't really think there's any excuse for that. You know, you look at Brentford and Brighton, who are incredibly well-run clubs. And you think every month for the season, every game counts the same as every other. So if you can get a start, you can steal a march on bigger, richer, supposedly better clubs than you. Or power to you, that's how you should do it. Absolutely. Several quick runs through the results on match day one, Friday night, it all began with Chambers Arsenal, welcoming Coventry back to the Premier League with a four, sorry, 3-0, thumping Daniel was there. Biggest story that we can probably hull, preseason favorites for relegation, beating Manion, I did 2-0. All of the Glastner became the seventh forest manager in a road to lose on his debut. 1-0 forest loss to Leeds. Thanks to Anton Stacks, spectacular late winner. Glastner's former side palace, off to a similarly losing start, under Pierre Sarge, beaten 2-0 at Everton. In front of UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, how about that? Ibswitch, another promoted side, also got off to a win, 2-1 against a very pink Sunderland Saturday evening. New look spurs, tumbling in very familiar fashion, 3-0 at Brentford. Sunday, there was a stunning win for Brighton. 4-0, they triumphed against Aston Villa. City will 1-0 down to Bournemouth with about 5 minutes to go, but turned it around, thanks to assist from Late Sub Ryan Cherky. And then there was that Liverpool Newcastle game, Newcastle Liverpool, which twice saw the magpies in the lead, but Liverpool earning a point with a thumping penalty in the 99th minute from Dominic Slobber's line. I guess we'd Chelsea to play full of them on Monday. It is with events at St James's Park that we will begin. All right, so Newcastle 2, Liverpool, also 2. Pre-game, wonderful tributes to Kevin Keegan from both sets of supporters. Post-game, very much one set of fans with head-in-hands, thinking how do we let that slip? And they were, of course, the home supporters after Slobber's eyes, a mentally pretty special penalty had rescued a point for Liverpool. Newcastle 1st of all, we all saw this game. Given the pessimism of recent weeks, there was a lot for them to be positive, even proud about it, and that performance. Yeah, James, absolutely. I think that for Newcastle, the players leave in the club, obviously, the managerial change. This is probably the club who's having more upheaval than anyone else. The players they've brought in are largely certainly from a primary league point of view. They're unknowns, right? We're not really sure what their style of play is. Obviously, they're younger players that have come in from the air division, from the Bundesliga and Germany, and they might take a little bit of time to adapt. And I think we all thought that maybe this is going to be a real transitional season. I actually said on Friday, I thought Newcastle might be outside qualifiers for European football this year. What? I think the coaching change was one that they really needed, actually. I think last year it got pretty steel. I think we'd mentioned that quite a few times that they were predictable, that the same things kept happening to them, or by they would maybe make good stars to games, and it would teal off, and they wouldn't really find a way back. That kept happening over and over. Matthias Jaisler has come in, who, again, a bit of an unknown. But I think that those unknown quantities are actually helpful. I think those players in the coaching set up, that I think a lot of their opposition teams don't really know what Newcastle are, and that is actually a big positive for Newcastle. We saw the day that quite a lot of the players that had struggled last season were re-invigorated. We saw him verse one of them. No, I don't think so. I mean, look, from a Liverpool point of view, Florian Ferton Alexander, he's like obviously huge players this season. I mean, look, it's a tough game away to Newcastle, but I don't think either of them looked like they were anywhere near the form, that Liverpool thought when they brought them into the club. You were referring a little bit more to Whistler, and his tremendous performance out. Anthony Eilanger as well. Didn't score in the Premier League all season last year, and then within five minutes of this season, there you go. It was good. But Joe Willock, who didn't score at all during the Premier League last season, came on in the first three minutes, scored this season too. So it seems to be infectious. All right. So Newcastle for all their many departures, Daniel, a very rosy picture. It's certainly a different picture. I think the two themes of this weekend were teams that we know what to expect from for better or worse. So it's the same spurs. It was the same Liverpool. It was the same Brentford and Brighton, to an extent, born with how they played at City. And then there's a few teams who we have got actually no idea what to expect from. And I would put a villa in that camp, and I certainly had Newcastle in there. Yes, Lo has said he would play this kind of vertical, direct football. And it really works against Liverpool because they had the back four. They had nobody in front of that back four. And it made Van Dyke not really slow. I think Liverpool's fullbacks are awful, and defensively, they have been, since they joined the club, but they don't seem to have improved over preseason. They just get caught really high at the pitch. And so it worked perfectly for Newcastle. You saw that with the goal. A langer, love space to run into. Will a suly love space? Will a suly love being able to run into at a defence and then play passes? That's what he's really good at at Brentford. So it did feel like the perfect fixture for Newcastle in a way, with how Liverpool played. But yeah, they needed that. They needed to kind of dissuade some of the noise from inside the camp. Then they in Villa basically complete opposites. And they shed the squad and they changed. But with Villa, the fans are trying to sort of stay on the side with, and say it'll be fine because the manager, with Newcastle, we kind of see this sort of internal panic from supporters about what's happening. And so, yeah, they absolutely needed that. Okay. What a Liverpool need post this performance. I mean, they do. I don't know. It's exactly the same as last season. In that you had Jacquean for Canate, not exactly like for like, but so near in terms of what it offered, there's damage. I think Jacque is probably a better passer with the ball, but he's still got caught a couple of times. And then it's just exactly the same. It's if Ryan Gravenberg loses it, then Florian Verts and Dominic Schrobers will have to so little out of possession that you can just fly it against them. And suddenly you can have a three on two without really trying, or just with one of your wingies getting forward. As I say, the fullbacks really want to attack, but they're not good enough in attack to justify them being that high at the pitch. It's not Robert Sinatra. Chantan is under Arnold. So when they do lose the ball, again, and they're really poor defensively. So you get caught out. It just, it looks like a team to me that nine or 10 of the players are far more comfortable having the ball than not having the ball. And that's not good enough in the Premier League against teams that want to counterattack against you. I watched, you know, I watched my own team do that, Anfield last season under Sean Dish when they won 3-0 there. It just looks exactly like one of those performances. Oh, apart from the fact that Liverpool got really lucky and grabbed a point at the end. But I don't think if you've served anyone in that way, they'd be like, I'm more worried than I was at the start of the game. Never mind, we've got a point. Right. Well, South says, I don't know which is quicker. A langer on the counter or journalists disregarding their preseason narratives. I, for example, was excited by what Liverpool might be able to come up with this time around, but it's the same old, same old Duncan. Yeah, I had them out on my top four. I should, I should mention. You did, yeah, yeah, yeah. But that was, now, nine goals from seeded from countertax since the start of last season, which is more than any other team. Is that right? And two in a game for the first time since Errolis Bournemouth did it on the opening weekend of last season. So he knows how to exploit that problem. Now he's got to try and fix it. Right. How does he fix it, Connor? Well, one of the things he says he's not going to do is design a specialist sort of holding midfielder who can help stop those countertax in theory. So we kind of think, well, it's not really a professional issue, and we're going to keep pressing on with this. I think we found only Errolis. His success is at Bournemouth and a drive-by counter before it out. We're being with a club who could approach matches in a certain way, and almost like take opposition by surprise, even though he was there for quite a while. But it would be a case that like people weren't really used for the form of being so expressive and expansive of their play. I think with Liverpool, it's a little bit different, right? And the personnel, he's got are different. And it both Bournemouth and Ryle, it took a little bit of time for those methods to work. And if that's going to be the case with Liverpool, like, you can come under pressure pretty quickly. And I think we've got to look beyond him and what he's got as a squad. I know Daniel ran through a couple of them there, but at a full back, you've got issues, obviously, the midfielders. There's issues, but you look at the bench. I really don't see many options. They have bringing on. We know that they want to sign sort of fast, attacking direct wingers, right? And maybe they will get one or two in before the window closes. You kind of think through that team and that squad, there's holes. And I don't think it's a squad that's capable, not just of a title challenge, but even being really the top two or three at the minute. I think it's short of that. And I just, I don't know, there's something about this Liverpool team that we talked about before at Tunisak. And they're the guys that have to take that mantle, but I'm just not sure they work together. I'm not sure that they're comfortable in this team. It doesn't really seem to be that cohesion. And actually, the best player of the day, I thought that Liverpool's shirt was Cody Gack, but when the talk is that he might be moving to Tottenham, and we don't know if that's definitely going to happen, but there's interest there. And Liverpool would consider selling him in order to bring in different attacking players. Again, I'm not sure how much it adds up. Liverpool seems to lose one or two experience players every year, not properly replacing them. Well, it is only the first game, and it was a point, a piece. As you mentioned, Odeola did make a particularly slow start at Bournemouth, but then came so very good. Slightly different levels of patience, perhaps, at Anfield. But let's move on because there's so much to talk about from this opening weekend. Not least, what happened earlier on on Sunday afternoon, a game that Colin, you were watching. I think Daniel, you too, as Brighton faced Aston Villa, Villa who last season were wildly outperforming their numbers and responded to that by selling all their best players. How'd that work out for them? Daniel. So Villa, another one club, which I will before offering the hot take, and to follow Dunkin's very hasty boasting, I picked Villa. I said on the previous show, I think they look finished in the bottom half. Yes. And so I've kind of slightly invested in that opinion anyway, but they did start last season really, really slowly. And then Lord back, we know that. So that's a caveat. But this is the most undercut I've seen a team in their own half, that they start any Premier League season I can remember. They just looked like they'd woken up and assumed it was day one of pre-season, taking so much time on the ball, literally being pressed for two of the four goals in the first half. Brian could have scored seven in the first half easily, and it not been in any way non-reflective of the pattern of the match. I don't know what's happened in that dressing room at the moment, but we know that Oli Watkins wants to be to Saudi Arabia. We know that as Reconce has gone, we know that other players Villa wanted to sell, but they didn't really want to sell those two. And there is a real danger that an undercut squad without senior players takes quite a long time to get settled in. It doesn't help when Jar Gomez produces like an absolute Jonathan Wilgate of a debut, but condenses it into 40 minutes. So he is booked for waving an imaginary yellow card. He then commits a foul, which I think should have been the second yellow after about 10 minutes later. He then gets robbed on the edge of his own box and falls to the ground, trying to win a free kick, doesn't concede to go, and then kicks someone in the chest on the floor to get a straight red in the first 40 minutes. That, to me, is like Gomez is a good player. So that suggests he is absolutely not in the right frame of mind to play that game, but he's having to play because nobody else is there and nobody else is ready. So yeah, let Colin be nice about Brighton appropriately because they were brilliant. Okay, Liam, one reinforcement apparently on his way to Villa Park is Liam Goretska, formerly of Bayern, as for Brighton Colin, tell us all about them. Yeah, look, I thought they were really, really good. I mean, obviously it's easy to say that right when your four goals up in the 31 minutes. But I kind of think that was the reflection of how Brighton played. And yeah, look, of course Daniels mentioned it, but the Villa errors were pretty tragic. It has to be said, Paul Torres just passing when he was under pressure to the Brighton attacker in the box, and then for the third and fourth goals as well, the fourth in particular, the Joe Alguma is giving it away and they edge at the ball. He was doddling on it and Brighton were on him, and they points and they scored straight away. But that very much was Brighton through out the 90 minutes. And we kind of thought that there's teams who you don't want to play any up in there the weekend. I think Brentford or another one, but Brighton are in that sort of little group of clubs. I'd say that they're so well run. There's such a sort of seamless machine in a way that there's not really a transition period with them. They're always planning in advance. They're always planning for what players are going to leave before they do. So they come into the season and they just hit the grind running, right? And that was a good thing. I think Bradford, six points out of six in league one as well. So the theory holds incredible. And Jack and so were by the way, who scored two goals in this game. So that's within two minutes. Within two minutes. And I want to mention for that because this is sort of his moment. But he is a guy who's really versatile, who's clocked up 80 plus Premier League games. As I said, he plays in multiple positions. He scored 15 goals, I think in the league as well for Brighton, which isn't too sharp. And he's somebody that is one of those guys who's been who's been one of the consents of Brighton, but he's only 21. And he's sort of, he's never gets really linked to bigger clubs. But Brighton just seemed to have ways, not just of signing these players, but an earthing from their academy too. Yeah, at the end of the last season, Daniel, you were predicting huge things for him. This this time around. I think you said, Hinshaw would score 12 goals this season. Do you want to revise that upwards? He's already on two. Well, yeah, yeah, I mean, I think I said I'd kind of heard the whispers that Brighton were going to try and move into this advanced role. And look, there's an element of kind of total football to how Brighton try and do it anyway. So defensively fielders and centerbacks do often end up high at the pitch. But yeah, they basically think he can play higher and higher at the pitch. He's the only position he hadn't really played was strike, although he's done it as an emergency role. But he's finishing his excellent, his composure in the box is great. Yeah, I mean, I think I said 12 goals and an England call up. So yeah, I don't think he's far away from either of those to be honest. Excellent. I mean, we should point out Brighton didn't score for the last hour of the game. Are they in crisis? I mean, it's a sort of law of football that if a team races into an early lead, everyone's like, well, there's going to be 10, 11 goals scored by this team. That was a 40-second time in Premier League history that a team has scored four or more goals in the first half and then added none in the second half. Yeah, well, they'd also had a goal as draw on Thursday night. Against Tromsso in the Arctic Circle, that was in the conference league playoff. They've got the second leg back at theirs on Thursday, but already looking like they're firing on all cylinders are the C-gars. While all that was going on, Duncan, you and I were watching men's cities remarkable escape act against Bournemouth. What were your thoughts on that? Yeah, it was a strange kind of game. I mean, obviously, the big news pregame, whether or two things, was Erling Harlands had a hair cut, which biggest hair cut news in the Premier League since David Beckham pre-luster in 2000. I'm going to say, yes, he looked different, obviously. And then it was a total surprise, wasn't it? This was completely under wraps. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Although he did ring on the YouTube video. He rang Pep Goliola FaceTime to show him, which I thought that doesn't reflect who well I'm a rescuer. Is it like ringing up your old managers? They look at my hair, gaffer, but anyway, what my rescuer chose to do was put my gay midfield, which was about possibly a bigger shock. And it kind of did and didn't work. I mean, he actually ended up being one of the most influential players in the game. In the second half, he missed one absolute sitter, open goal, keeping nowhere, headed it wide, 0.777XG. But then got the equalizer of the six minutes to go, again, from across from the corner. And actually did it right. I mean, it's not a long-term solution. And it did feel slightly like my rescuer was like, guys, I need a central midfielder, but it seemed to work for much of the game. And then Vardio popped up in injury time to school the winner in a sort of very Vardio, you know, a bit like Halifuris, one of those sort of defenders who can actually finish like a striker. Indeed. Both the late city goals were set up by Ryan Shercude come on after the hour to a chorus of told you so's from city supporters, and said who was saying essentially that he needs to be starting. Yeah, I think Phil Foden didn't make a great case for himself on the year. They'll have lovely touch early on. And that'll be touch earlier on. Hero at sort of, yeah, that was, that was very nice, but that was about it. And Simeño didn't do that well on the left. I think he's better on the right, obviously Marshall by his former teammate is pretty well. So obviously, Doku will be back. They're hoping to sign other wide players as well. I think it was actually a good game for City in the sense that a draw wouldn't have been a disaster, but they actually played OK. I think it was easy to see them trailing for so long and be like, oh, City, the hangover continues, but they actually played pretty well. And one comes to be on XG. So yeah, I think it was against the team that can be pretty tough. I think it's a decent start. OK. Very good. Daniel, you went along on Friday to see Arsenal open their title defense or title attack as I believe it's been dubbed against Coventry. What were your big takeaways there briefly? Yeah, my big takeaways. They're going to win the league by 10 to 15 points. They just look at, you can't talk to my Liverpool's bench. Look at Arsenal Blanche, and it had five of the outfield of players they signed last summer. Everybody is fit basically by William Celeba. And Michael Artetto has chosen or wants now wants to choose to try and bring in those players some two years ago who had a bit of a sticky season that season in Hava, it's an Erdogan, the Kaya Sackett, who had started one Premier League game with each other since December 2024. Ended up in the first three goalscord of this new Premier League season, and that felt incredibly fitting and also incredibly terrifying for everyone who wants to be able to challenge Arsenal for this title. Because you look at the players are bringing off the bench, and they are as good as the first team, as the first team is of, I think, any other club in the Premier League. Yes, it was a promoted side, and it was at home, although Manchester United showed what you can do against a promoted team, but they were just really, really efficient. And I think that it looks as well like there's going to be a new issue over Declan Rice, where he's not asked to do quite so much of the roaming while Erdogan's in the team allow that midfield to look a little bit more balanced. Yes, it's really worrying for everybody else. They were so good. It was basically like, you know, you hadn't been to the Emirates for about four days. It just looked like last season all over again, but I should say, without any of the angst in the stands that was there between January and May. So you've also got this kind of, you know, there's champions branding everywhere. Every Arsenal fans got champions 26 on the back of the shirt. They're just sort of cheering the passes out from defence whereas before it was making the wints, just like a club completely at peace with itself, which is, yeah, to add to the list, scary for everyone else. The one wrinkle being the injury to Bruno Gilmouraich. What's the entity of that, do we know? Our Teta says it's not too bad, probably a week or two. Oh, back. All right then. Arsenal off to a flier. We'll hear about what the other promoted sides got up to, and they did rather better when we get onto such matches as Hull City to Man United Nill next. Hull City predicted by some to go down. They're already out. One pundit said, Duncan, what? What? No. One other pundit was worrying about them, potentially breaking Derby's points total. 2006, 2007. 2007 away. 2008. I might have been breaking 2006, I won't have any. Yeah, Derby's record safe. Hull aren't yet. Do you do need, you know, a few more wins? But the thing is that Hull have done this before, though. Yes, the first time. The Phil Brown days. That extraordinary beginning to the season they had, the end of it. One way at the moment, it's a spell. Yeah. All that, all that. But is there something about the way that they performed in this match, which suggests that this is not going to be just a... Although we should point, they did stay out that season. Very good point. Very good point. Just. Yeah. But all in all, you can have these promoted sides catching a big team by surprise, but the way they performed in this game looked absolutely sensational. I think it probably provides a blueprint of what it's going to be like all season for Hull. So last season, and I know this is kind of fueled all the skepticism over them, is that they kind of got promoted almost by accident in the sense that they defensively were dreadful. I can see the 66 goals, which is a 20th highest in the championship. But actually, the XG that they should have conceded was actually, it was a lot higher, it was 83, which was the second worst in the league. So they clearly had a lot of structural issues, but they played a completely different way, right? So, now that everyone's saying that they're going to finish bottom of the league, everyone's been saying that, and that's reflected in everything that we've seen ahead of the season. But if they're going to play like this, they're going to play without humility that they can just sit back, be reactive, play five at the back instead of four at the back, which was the way they set up last year. And they've signed a couple of players who've fitted into that. But they played with this structure that was just defensively so solid. The five of the back things interesting, because Jagirich says, the manager says that they specifically did that because they'd seen Man United having problems in preseason and, of course, last season. Bruno Hernandez came out and said they played a full preseason with the back four, and then went with the back five against us as if that's not allowed. But I think it is. But that is, it is true that that's what Man United lost against AC Milan. Obviously, Ruben Hammer, of course, who could play that system on successfully, as you've said. And also last year against Leeds, Adolf Trafford, when Leeds played that wing back. It's clearly something that's an issue. But I think the way Hall set up, it really suited the players, the signings everybody in Nobel Mende, who's a club record signing for 21 million. And I kind of had seen him a couple of times by it, Ryle, last year. And Ryle probably couldn't believe their luck to get a 21 million transfer form, because he'd only featured 26 times last year. He was sent off twice as well. He's quite a young defender. He's raw and he can make mistakes. But in this, he was very, very solid. He clearly fitted that back three, back five system, being on the left. He made 12 clearances in 64 minutes. So, obviously, he scored his goals well, but it was a real sort of like, backs to the wall performance for those three defenders that they just didn't allow any space. And the Louis Coil and Ryan Giles, two players who, the two wing backs, who pretty much have zero, primarily experienced like Giles, maybe played 10 or 11 games for Lutton, that year, a couple of seasons ago. But virtually, these are players who spent their whole career in championship league one, but they played with such energy. And that actually, it kind of came from before kickoff with the pre-match whole city announcer, who was, I don't think I've ever heard of PA. A 9-7 Vista enthusiastic ahead of a match, but it really worked up the crowd. It really worked up whole. And look, I mean, they got those two goals from set pieces. And that just allowed them to play the game that they wanted to play. And Manchester United weren't just, to me, didn't look much ready, much fit. There was just something completely awful for them. Did they want it, Colin? This has been a thorny question. Hull Zona says, his boys wanted it more. Microcaric reacted angry to the suggestions that desire was something lacking. It's hard to measure desire, but what you can measure is how early this season you spend the last 30 minutes with Harry McGuire up front. Right. And there's this game, what? Right. Harry McGuire, who uniquely was actually marking one of his own men for, did you see this? I think on the first, it's on the second of the whole goals. Yeah. There was also a point where the Eritelians had the ball, and he just took it off him. I mean, Telemens didn't play well, but McGuire was just like, I love this, thanks very much, and press forward, so yeah, it was wildly disappointed from United. I think that desire, I think I know what's such a, it's such a cliched way to say things. It is true in the sense that the key moments of the game, the whole players were reacting quicker, and they were cheering down in balls that, that were such energy and was such, with a level of effort that might not be normal, right, for a match to your season, because it was such an important game for them, where it wouldn't be for Manchester United in theory. And I don't want to go full-year in club, but championship teams are very used to playing at lunchtime, and I do think if you were a big 16, kicking off at 12-30 might be the worst lot. Interesting. That's just a theory. Okay. I'm sticking with it. Podrick offers a counterpoint. The whole game nowhere near as bad as being made out, clearly not great. This is from a United perspective, I think. But some things were fine and hull did nothing apart from two set pieces. Need to fix a few things, but it's not the 4-0 Brentford in 2022, Daniel. If one reaction from this game is that, someone at Manchester United realises that they need another central midfielder, pretty damn quickly, then it can be a good thing, because you can just run over them by getting in their faces. That midfielder, Telemann, is really good, but he needs John McGinn round him or Boba Carcamara round him. He doesn't just need one Andre Santos doing everything else. Right. It's Carlos Baleba, the answer. Yeah, well, that's the theory, right? That's a stylistic fit that Manchester United had been going for, that they've been missing. But that Casamero exit was that he obviously provided a huge goal-threat last season and a huge attacking threat, really. But that really left big holes in that midfield. Okay. And I think that was something that Amarim really struggled to correct. Right. His time there. Michael Carrick did, to an extent, but you could always see it within games that it wasn't issued. So, yeah, they've overhauled him in the midfield. This summer, I think Baleba will come in, and I think he should, in theory, make an impact. He didn't have a great year last year, but that's probably impacted by his own question whatsoever. It's future and form goes up and down. He's still quite young. I would say that from Manchester United, it's not just a Michael Carrick thing, although it is largely a Michael Carrick thing. It's the players they've been signing. They're all, they're not flashy players. They're not big neom players, maybe which has been the case in the past. So, hopefully that temperament, and I think this is a big reason behind Carrick's appointment was his temperament of not getting too low over results. And I think, to be honest, if you could say one thing about Ruben Amarim is that what he said after games, after defeats couldn't really have generated much of a positive feeling. So, I think just like put this behind you, you only have to prepare for the next game and you're good enough to go on and run the results. So, that's a theory for them. Okay. Where are you going to finish this season, Doug? 20. All right, then. Brentford beats Spurs, 3-0 Saturday evening in front of John Bon Jovi. Although pixie lot might have been the more appropriate audience member for Mamma Doe if you for a call. Yeah. Yeah. Because Mamma Doe is saying, Gary, what, what are signing the bees have made there? Yeah, I want to... Yeah, I'll jump in because I did say, again, in one of my... All right. A brief one, Colin, as we just heard you, but yes. Yes, Mamma Doe is saying, Gary, 40 million, Brentford's best signing, but him and Che Charles for Phil and who hasn't played yet, but I think those two will be the under the guys that will sort of their stock will rise throughout the campaign. But some guy was brilliant. Brilliant. All right, what did Duncan, what did you make of it? Of the game or... Yeah, the anything you want. The game was... I mean... Well, first of all, you wince when I mentioned John Bon Jovi. Yeah, and I just, it was surprising. It was surprising. I mean, was there a reason for his presence at the GTAC? I honestly don't know. I mean, it was a bit like when Silvestis to Lone Pop Top had a couple of good as some part games. And again, it was like, I'm not sure what's going on, but I'll go along with that. All right. Spurs didn't know what was going on either. I mean, it was just, it was like being plunged back into last season. You know, he almost had to rub your eyes and check it wasn't Eagle Tudor down there on the touchline. Because they... I mean, I, yes, they are still ravaged with injuries. Yes, their front three was not the one they would pick, and you know, Mikey Moore. But although Mikey, they had four shots on target, and Mikey Moore had three of them. So he did his bet. Other than score. But they just looked absolutely. I mean, it could have been four or five. And Brentford ended up with almost four XG in a game. Well, how, how good were the bees? Brilliant. I think, I mean, this time last year, to show the, the era of making sweeping judgment. So most people were like, Keith Andrews is not really going to be able to replace Thomas Frank. But he was arguably one of the managers. The season last year, and he looks like he's, you know, gone again. And they just stay, everyone knows their job. You know, Kela Ho and a cap, which any goalkeeper in a cap, you have to rate. Yeah, they, I think someone said earlier, Brentford, we're a team where everyone knows their role, everyone's happy with their role. Everyone's putting the same direction. And that takes you a long, long way in the Premier League. And Tottenham may be closer to that now, but they've got a long way to go. And this last week in the transfer window is going to be interesting. Right. So they need to spend a lot more money. Is that right? Daniel, what, what do they need to do now? Which, I think we said, we said in the previews last week, we said that the problem with spurs is that they need a star, because last season happened. And yet there's a fair chance that in some games, they have a central midfield combo of Tinali and Fernandez and central defensive combination of Anne Hacker and Cineci, all of whom are new to the club, none of whom have ever played with each other before. It's so, so hard to learn on the job to do that. I know that they haven't got you. So you get more training sessions, but actually being on the pitch together against high class opposition is really hard to do that on the job. And that's exactly what it looked like. So three of them started. Fernandez came on a half time anyway for Lucas Bergval, who was, you know, kind of show jargomas, how to play first half once he was dreadful. And they're just, yeah, again, the answer has to be, I know, we need some more players. We need some more forwards, because the forwards aren't good enough. But then that's just more new players, to address this somewhere nobody knows each other. And Roberto deservedly knows that he needs, you know, he isn't a broken man yet, and it was only one game. But I think everybody was shocked with the dysfunction within that team. And I just don't see how that dysfunction can get better quickly. They've got, they play at home to Newcastle next weekend. And that already feels like a really big game, because if they don't win that, or if they lose that, and if Newcastle, the team that they've gone through their own flux this season, are able to sort it out quicker with younger players, I just don't get it. You've got the highest paid manager in the world, right? In club football, we're told, being spending 250 million, and then seemingly the answer being, right, we need another 150 or another 200 million. Like, what if it doesn't work? Oh, my, my moosh. Savinio, the two players, supposedly, on the way from Man City, Daniel shaking his head in disbelief at this. I mean, Tonali, you mentioned the flux at Newcastle, one of the players who fluxed off as it was Tonali, who was there for spurs, and what kind of game did he have? So what's your reaction to the proposed moves for the city pair? But also, were you hearing Cody Gapo from Liverpool? Is that right? I mean, yeah, I mean, maybe. I mean, Savinio and my moosh are good players, but they're sort of seven out of ten players, and that's not, is that going to help spurs that much? I mean, to Daniel's point of minute ago, I mean, a spurs friend of mine texted after the game sat down and said, who was the last big money signing for spurs? Who was this success? And I, we were talking about it, he probably is son all those years ago. And that's a long time, and to Daniel's point, I think it's going to take a few months to get this squad into shape, and they could be mid to lower table again. I mean, what is it? They've won 79 points when they're the last 77 games. They used to lose in. The situation they were in on Saturday was far more use to that far more than they are winning games, and they need to break that habit quickly. I just think on that Savinio deal, like we've reported a total of 85 million points, and Manchester City fans probably don't really mind that he's leaving at all. Probably seen before more and more moosh, they just haven't met the expectations at all. Are they the guys that taught them are going to pin their hopes on the season for goals? I don't really understand those moves. I just don't get it because, yeah, there might be good players who might have high potential, but the financial package involved is so high for players who there's a fairly good chance they might not deliver the seasons. The Tottenham need those players to deliver. I'm kind of a bit lost for words on it. I mean, Marmouch had a very good end of 24-25, obviously scored the goal of the season in the penultimate game, and he was playing as sort of central at that point. I think he could be a good player, but we don't know. It hasn't had that for me. It wasn't very good at the World Cup. But can Tottenham afford not to sign anyone? Well, they are medically addicted to buying players, attacking players for quite a lot of money who are potentially really good in a system that's created to allow them to thrive. And they're all bashed into this system in which even the most optimistic Spurs van would say that the environment has not been and looks like it continues to be not running which those players thrive. And yet, the one thing that all those Spurs would say is that maybe if we get a high class number nine and just try and service him with a load of midfielders and wingers, maybe that'll work. Maybe it'll work with the ones we've got because we've tried everything out. So they're going out and buying Marmouch. She's a sort of a nine, but not really. He'll try and drift by Savinia, who's a winger. I just don't know. They've got lots of those players. Well, at the end of the day, they're going to get all these players and then someone's going to realise that Richard Alesson's still starting at the front and he's not good enough. And he hasn't been good enough for 18 months apart from the two or three games having now and then when Spurs need to avoid the absolute worst scenario which is going down. It's just, yeah, I don't get it at all. Dominic Selanky will come in and score three games in a row and then be out for two months with a muscle injury. Yeah, I mean, really, he talked about medically addicted to signing attackers, but they were scientifically addicted to having the two best XGO performance in Harry Kane and Sun for season on season that got them out of so many holes and they've both left and it's very hard to replace that. On the subject of Man City meanwhile, who are waving by bites to two more of their squad, that's a lot of players who've departed. And as yet, I think there's one signing on the way at the moment that you'll probably be able to give us more details on, but it does seem to be a pretty marked imbalance between the players that go heading out the door for a team with the ambitions or the teams with a, sorry, for a team with the ambition that City have been showing in recent seasons. Is there a shift going on at City and what they're looking to do? I think so, so Manchester City's sporting director or football director of football, whatever it's like, this is Pugaviana. He essentially leads their transfer business and he came in, I think, before last summer and some of the players he's brought in, have already been moved on to Gianni Rhiners was one, James Trafford was another one. They have a massive turnover of players in the last two years, but their score is quite small. Manchester City's, we're here in Slovenia and we're most obviously going as well. We think Bugatti, the Moroccan midfielder will be signed at great expense. There's obviously been a lot of talk right now and there's a Chelsea and that supposed deadline that Chelsea set that went past. We don't really know what's going to happen with that, but we do know from Manchester City's pattern of signing that they're willing to invest more heavily, both in terms of transfer fee, the other fees that are attached to those deals to get the players that they really want, who they think are starting 11 to start players. We saw that with some menu and more gay, pretty much every other club in the Premier League would have loved to sign in, but it's a city who could afford to do it. So they've obviously gone for a strategy of a smaller squad with a higher ceiling per player and I look at Tottenham squad and it's got like 30, 35 first team squad players in it, which is just far, far too many. I'm not even in Europe, so I don't really know how that's going to work. I actually think my one thing on Manchester City that I know we covered them earlier, but this part of me thinks, could they actually win the league this year? Because everyone's sort of written them off. Everyone's sort of thinking, well, you know, look at Pep Guardiola leaving, but Pep Guardiola struggled the past couple of years. Obviously there's a documentary. It's come out of his quotes, which seem very personal, very passionate, but not in the best environment I feel, but I just have a feeling that those players want to prove that it's not just Pep, it was them too. All right, Colin, you're on record as saying, man city can, aren't we going to win the league? I can, I can win the league. But of course I can. Yeah, but it's just in, city could win the league. I think though, I think those seedlings more tired than most people think. I mean, more hard than Chelsea, hard than Liverpool and hard in the United. So I do think they're in the conversation. All right. Well, they did get a win today, just on the subject of Brentford, a stat from Duncan Alexander, they generated more XG on Saturday against Spurs than Sweden did at the entire 2026 World Cup. Incredible. Right, that's enough about all of that. We're going to move on next to Ipswich. Totally extra came back on Saturday, Duncan. You were here as was I, and James Horncastve joined us for a look back, a bit of a tribute to the very great Franco Barrazi. James will be with us again on, well, it'll reach on Tuesday, I think, for the first Euro show of this new totally season, they'll be dialing in from Italy, where he witnessed John Stone's participating in Inter's Thumping Victory and the opening weekend of City of Fixers, and loads of other stuff will be talking about that, Liga, Liga, you know the drill, Continental Football Yo. Oh, Chewbellingham on the score sheet for Jose Maria News, Real Madrid. Huh. Now, far more exotically in East Anglia, Ipswich beat Sunderland Saturday afternoon, two, one, which means they've now won as many home games this season as they did in their last appearance in the top flight. What sort of did for them two years ago? Was that home for me? It was any Chelsea they managed to beat, but Barrazi, as we talked about, five foot nine. Yes. Ipswich is goalkeeper, Carol Sherpen, six foot nine. Six foot nine. So it's one footed in, as they say. Yeah. There's lots of people writing in about Ipswich. James, for example, says, really impressed with Ipswich, how Brentford and Brighton this weekend would love the guys thoughts on Ipswich win and Wally, I think that's early, early thoughts on what they saw. Did you see much of this game, Daniel? Yes. Yeah, I was about this morning, they were hard to describe this, but they played like a mid-table Premier League team. It wasn't the whole of everything needs to be whipped up into a storm, and we're going to run harder and faster, and better, and longer and stronger. It was a really composed performance. The game was fairly even, a draw would have been a fair result, I think. But Jack Clarke, ex-off, Sunderland's own parish, scored in the last minute to give it to Ipswich, that perfect start, which they do need after last time. I said in previous, I think that we better under O'Neill than they would have been under a McKenna. I think McKenna's a better coach, probably than O'Neill, but I think the fact that they had a fresh start, O'Neill can play pragmatically, can dig in when he needs to. Also massive for Emerson, getting the first goal, because there's a lot on his shoulders, very young shoulders, to lead that line, if Ipswich aren't going to get another physical striker in. And Julio and Cizzo was busy, really busy as well. I think Ipswich fans are hoping to get a different version of him. Last time he was there, it was as a loanee, and he's suddenly in and out of the team. He's now a sign permanent, so they think that they'll get better from him. He went off with an injury, so hopefully he's all right. Just a really composed performance from the team with quite a lot of new players in it, against the team who, at least last season, were a very established Premier League club in terms of form, particularly at the start of the season, some of the start to season brilliantly. So, yeah, good on it, switch. I really wish them well. The season really want them to stay up. Excellent. Donning and Forest lost at home to Leeds at the same time Saturday afternoon. That was courtesy of Anton Stack's free kick. Oh, excuse me, in the 88th minute, these teams will be facing each other again on Tuesday in the second round of the Carabyte Cup. Yeah, he used to have an on computer games that, and you'd be like, oh, that's just a code error, but there you go, far out. Any brief word on Leeds Forest, Daniel? I mean, again, it was a nil nil game that Leeds won later on. Forest did look slightly undercooked. They are going to have to make some changes at Wingback, because Nico Williams is brilliant, but I'm not sure he's a left wingback, although he's going to have to play there this season. So that means you really need an attacking right wingback and all around, there isn't quite that. So, yeah, few teething problems, but Leeds were good. Leeds were exactly what we thought there'd be, which is sane with Brentford, sane with Brighton, continuation of last season. So Daniel's point in the preview pod about Bournemouth only winning three games more than West Ham last season. These are sort of games that if Leeds can pick up wins, with no European football, they could finish quite out. No European football for now. Jordan says any advice for Leeds fan in America for getting away tickets in Europe next season? Well, certainly not too early to be making that kind of plan. Let's see Leeds off to an excellent start. Everton, two new winners against Crystal Palace. Wow, with Andy Burnham, aka the Prime Minister, watching on, what will he have seen? Well, he will have seen a match between two teams. I think are quite evenly matched to Everton and Crystal Palace this year, they both have not the deepest squads, it's fair to say. From what I've seen of this, when Palace could have taken the lead quite a few times, had the post twice. Jordan picked for the mid one, I'd stand and see of, I think there's quite a lot going on behind the scenes of Palace that would concern me from the point of view. They've obviously, they have got European football again this season. We think Ishmael Assar might be leaving the club, and then John for Leeds Matetta, he's sort of kicking up a little bit of fuss or eyeing his contract. A little bit of fuss, he's essentially taking them to, if not court, then a tribunal to say that his, last year of his contract, isn't actually legally valid, and thus he should be able to, what walks straight away, or would it be at the end of this campaign? No, it would be now, yeah. It would be right away, because there was an option to extend which the club exercised, and I think he feels that he might, I've had a say in that, I'm not sure. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, but as you say, you'd be concerned, as a Palace fan to see that. Yeah, and this is quite a bit of melodrama around him last season, as well, with the will he won't be joining, I think it was Milan and January and eight, then he sort of won back the fans and won in a conference league. But look, I would be concerned with Palace obviously, Pio Saj, then you coach, I think there might be a little bit of this quiet at the club, in general, at the moment. So yeah, they need to sort themselves out quite quickly. Everton and Guillain, I kind of always think, I look at their squad and just, I don't really have high hopes for it, but then Juice Brick Hall's got a really nice goal, and their second goal came from Elin and Jai again. He provided the assist, but those are players who can make the difference for a team who are just sort of always well organised. You know what you're going to get from Everton, and then you have those players in the final third. So yeah, I mean, it's good for them to get off the winning start, and David Moise, he just seems to be such a good fit for that club and that group of players. So yeah, I don't really think either of those teams are going to finish top half this year, but as we mentioned in earlier, if you can get a couple of wins together and potentially challenge European performances because the league's so tight and competitive. That is the issue with Everton, is that they were in a really good position to do that in sort of every march, and La Unbehold just stumbled over the line. And I think the fans, for the first time since his return, were getting a bit fed up with David Moise. And rightly so, but yeah, if they can, their squad does look a little bit strong, and I thought Hayden Hackney was good. But yeah, I think there's a lot of teams who I think probably need a couple more players between now and next week. And that's why it's exciting. Yeah, and there's a lot of football still to be played, and we should probably... 37 rounds. 37 rounds, so things are going to change. You mentioned how things changed between spring and the end of the season. So, you know, from now... Well, do you remember my ruling that players should not do knee slides until it's gone back to GMT from just the time? Exactly. To dryness. Yeah, there was a couple of awful across the Premier League in EFL this weekend. You could see them... You could see the player running like, don't do it. Oh, and then just planting their knee into the hard summer turf. It's not good. Yeah, this year more than ever. More than ever. Off to Stanford Bridge for you. Daniel, was that right? Craven Cottage. Craven Cottage. Yeah. Goodness, you've got the venue right. Well, it would have been a very long evening game. And then some minute... Yeah, and then some Karabakh Cup action at Hillsboro between Sheffield, Wednesday and Wolves on Tuesday. Is that right? Is that right? Why not? Why not indeed? All right, well, listen, thank you so much for being with us. Is there anything else about this opening weekend that bears saying? Well, it's not the opening weekend in the EFL, but it was a very memorable weekend for the EFL in several ways. Right. Well, it's magnificent sort of twisting with pike back here. Mule kick of a goal, you described that. Yeah, if you look at it, there's a really good angle from the crowd with someone's film there. And he does just like a disturbed horse. He just rams it in, that's an Andrews fair play. And then there was a crew player who hid behind the post. Yes. And then nipped out and on the goal, we'll see as modern keepers do just throw it out with a bit of backspin so he could peruse where he was going to pass it to and stole it and knocked it in. So, yeah, just wonderful stuff. Yeah, Daniel. Now, you add also from the EFL, Trammy is Bobby Falkiner, who's an outfield player who went, had to go in goal and kept a clean sheet in a one-all draw. So big shout out for that as well. Very, very nice. Very nice. Well, that all is excellent. And that's also where we'll come to the end of this totally football show. We return Monday, Tuesday with the Euro Show. Then, of course, on Thursday, we'll be previewing, while running up a bit of midweek action, but mainly previewing what's up in the second round, which you'll know that can found our early hot takes still further. The second round of the Premier League. For now, many thanks and safe travels to Daniel. Thanks to you as well, Duncan and Colin for being with us. And to you, wherever you've been following us, do hope you have a super start to your week and we'll catch you again soon on the totally football show.