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This is The Guardian. Hello and welcome to The Guardian Football Weekly, a prime night of Premier League drama. Was this the night Arsenal won the title and unconvincing victory at Brighton, a deflected goal that should have been saved, and a C-Gull onslaught survived, plus drop points for City at the Etihad, see the gunners go seven clear at the top and ugly win the sign of champions, or a set up to what will be the most painful of title concessions. Forrests first goals and points at the Etihad in the Premier League keep them clear of the relegation zone on goal difference after some of them wins it for West Ham, and who knew William Asula had that in his locker. Michael Carrick is handed his first defeat as Man United coach on his return to time side against 10-man newcastle to shake up the race for Champions League football. And the car crash that will be spurs against Palace tonight. Oh Premier League, you do spoil us. We'll look ahead to the FA Cup this weekend. We'll lighten and strike twice for wolves against Liverpool. Will it be Mansfield to halt Arsenal's hunt for the quadruple and how many times will Hollywood be mentioned in the match between Rexham and Chelsea? We ask how much KSI paid for Daggerman Redbridge and ask exactly who KSI is, all that's plush your questions and that's today's Guardian Football Weekly. On the panel today, Barry Glenn Denning, good morning. Hi Robin, I had to Google KSI. I don't mind admitting it. We're going to ask you, you've already done your research, but that's why that's why you're, you know, you're paid the big bucks and you're the head honcho here. John Brewing, good morning. I got KSI mixed up with the shaman's LSI. Love sex intelligence. There's one for the teenagers out there. So on brand. And Johnny Lou, good morning to you. Again, you have your posse with you. Yeah, the kids are still roaming around. I think the first seven or eight times it was charming and now it's just intensely annoying. It's actually beginning to look like it's a staged event now, but hopefully it's not. It's not. Johnny was saying it's International Book Day and we're all very disappointed that his two kids aren't setting off for the day dressed as upside down pyramids, but they've gone down a more traditional romantic route, I think. Yeah, we need to gather the information how many have gone as one of Jonathan Wilson's books. I'm sure it's in the tens. We'll have to gather that in the census. Let's go to the football there. Manchester City 2, Nossigan Forest 2, and after a seven match winning run for Manchester City Barry, they're sort of vulnerabilities that we've seen occasionally this season, actually more on one occasion, creeping again. Yeah, it's a game they dominated and they didn't win. They looked vulnerable on the counter. They had 70% possession, 21 shots, but their performance once again, and this keeps happening them, dropped off in the second half. They've now dropped 13 points from winning positions, and it's really hurting them, and this could be a really decisive night in the title race. It could also be a really decisive night in the relegation battle, and I would take my hat off to Nossigan Forest for scoring two excellent goals, coming back from being behind twice. I'd argue, man, City maybe should have had a penalty, but a par from that. I think it was a completely fair result, and City aren't learning from the mistakes. I think it's fair to say. David has gotten touched saying, is it only a mentality issue when Arsenal dropped points or our City Week in Fragile now? And Nick says, held at home by struggles after being ahead twice, the second of manic corner, our Manchester City big-old bottleers brackets, am I doing this right? Johnny, we love to label a team bottleers, don't we? I'm not sure Manchester City do come under that category. What do you think? Yeah, I mean, there's a bit of a huge discourse about whether it's a bottle, what constitutes a bottle, what constitutes a choke, as if these are technical terms, and yet the whole time people have been waiting and watching like a hawk for Arsenal to slip up, and they've almost sort of forgotten the fact that City, all this season, have had this really consistent flaw, a problem that they've tried to sort out with personnel, with signings in January, but ultimately, Rodry isn't the Rodry he was, and once you know, this is the root of, I actually quite a lot of their problems, they're trying to solve it in lots of different ways, you know, he's started to put O'Reilly in midfields, and that hasn't really worked, and he was injured in any case. And so when, you know, Ali Anderson strides through their midfield, well, you know, you would expect a midfield to be, there isn't, and he gets the ball back, and the finish is great, and the first goal from Gibbs White, again, it's one of those, you know, it's a really good improvised finish, though, that clearly neither Diaz or Donna Ruma are expecting, but this is a recurring pattern, this is what happens to get spurs when they go up a 2-0 lead, you know, they were hanging on a little bit against Newcastle, you know, conceded quite against the run of play there, and then, you know, if you watch the leads game at the weekend, they're kind of hanging on, in that last 10-15 minutes, leaders throwing everything at them in a way that is really not, it's not becoming of a team that you would expect to win for a title, I know we're going to talk about Arsenal later and how they kind of got away with it a little bit last night, but this is not, I think people are still expecting the city that we got in the, you know, in the Imperial years, and it's not, I mean, a lot of the players, I mean, about half that team has not won the league before, I think we are dealing with a very different kind of city here, and that's why, you know, consistently all the way through, I've said, you know, Arsenal, I think Arsenal have got this, not because of, you know, they are great champions, or, you know, that they are unbeatable or anything like that, but because City just have so many flaws in them. Yeah, that's going to go down well, but we'll go down, so we'll talk about Arsenal a bit later that it won't be them to win the title themselves. Two fantastic goals from Nottingham Forest, and Manchester City felt they could have had a couple of penalties, there was a rogery, that one was kind of not sure about that one, personally, when he shot and was caught sort of after that. But on Forest, John, I mean, this was a big result, because Beatle Pereira, it's on OK in Europe, this was his first point since being appointed as Forest Boston, in particular, with West Ham, with a good result as well last night, this was very big for them. Beatle Pereira hasn't won a Premier League game yet this season, has he? That's the, so I think he's not actually got many points either, so Forest looked and have looked since Pereira's gone in like a team fighting for their lives, which over the various managers they've had this season hasn't always been the case. And I suppose if you look at the goals and the players that scored them, why are they in that position? I mean, Morgan Gibbs White is a high quality player, we know that, and Ellie Anderson is, you know, the heir apparent in England's midfield and it was a fantastic goal. You mentioned, Jonathan mentioned the word bottle, can I, I was reminded of this. Do we know, I'm sure you've gone over this, do we know the origins of this? I, it's something, yes, I do, yes, it's do with Cockney Rhyming. It's Cockney Rhyming slang, you know, a regular feature of garlic for weekly, but yeah, it is bottling grass, arse. So it means essentially, if you've lost your bottle, you've lost control of your bodily functions in the, in the intestines, shall we say, let's put it politely. And it's, so that's it. So if your bottle's gone, well, you could make an elevator mess. Are city bottling, no, I think they're playing to their potential, as Jonathan said, that there's quite a few players there that haven't been and done that before. Peck-Royle is talking afterwards about how they probably didn't give the ball enough to Erling Harland. I do think that was a penalty, by the way. And that's it. City have changed. City are relying on the big players, one of whom Rodry, understandably, is not the player he was before, because of the, he's still coming back from an ACL injury, and they're looking to Donner Room, and they're looking to Harland. And it's, it's a new scenario for them, and towards the end of games, they are vulnerable, and that's what Forest took advantage of, and we're able to get a hugely important point, and one that those teams around them would not have expected them to get, which, suppose, is a very important point. And they could have won it, yates with a head of wide, and then Marillo also had one off the line. He just looks like such a heroic defender, doesn't he? And that was, that was great positioning from him. Yeah, and I really enjoyed Sangari, who clearly, he was just so knackered, trying to run the ball out, when not even Forest runs on the couch, and he was just robbed. I mean, looked like, as I said on the group, I could have run faster than that in my third trimester, I was pretty certain of that. There's absolutely, it was incredible, but yeah, heroic, from Nottingham Forest, and John, before we move on, you were very taken with their mod physio, weren't you? Yeah, I mean, I've seen this guy before, but yeah, I mean, I mean, in Manchester, wait, I mean, where is the home of Mod, I suppose it's London, isn't it? But, that, the mod, all the physios have that hair, have that haircuts in Manchester. Well, Manchester, well, it's not me, I suppose, it's the Ian Browne, it's the, it's the, the Liam Galahe, it's the, the Noel Galahe at various points, it's that, that hairstyle, it's Paul Weller though, really, isn't it? It's that era, it's the true mod. But yeah, maybe there's a big mod scene in Nottingham, I don't know anything about, but I think that, I think actually there probably was one back in, but he's still living the dream. Yeah, our gentleman of a certain age who rocked that haircut, known somewhat unfairly as Wellens. Yeah. Well, it's one of those, I think it's one of those hairstyles that's unforgiving, if age starts to catch up with you, you know, there is a certain, the ageing Paul Weller hairstyle, if you're, if you're running out of hair, is it, is it one hell of a look, isn't it? It goes from that to sort of got Spengor and Erickson a little bit too quickly. Yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Meanwhile, on the South Downs, Arsenal overcame a pretty stern test to beat Bryson, make the gap seven points at the top. This was a one-nil win, Bakaosaka, ninth minute. I mean, it was, no, KF, it took a, it took a deflection, let's be fair to the brook, and it looked like he possibly could have kept it out. And yeah, quite a lot of beef here, Hurtson looked like he was spawning for a fight with anyone who would have him, and then afterwards he said, Brian, with the only team who tried to play football, I will never be that kind of manager who tries to win in that way. I mean, words said by a man who's just seen his team lose, never hear that Barry do from a coach who's team of just one. Yeah, I think he had a bit of a point, boss, when if you don't take anything from the game, you just, and you say things like that, you just sound like a sore loser, and he clearly was sore at losing, and Brighton should have done better. There's no denying that. This is not a criticism of Arsenal, this is just a description of what happened. They won by a single goal for the 10th time this season. They scored a slightly lucky goal early on, and then they didn't have another shot on target to the 88th minute, but they got three points. That's all they're after, and if they win the title, that will be fine. If they don't win the title, and their fans are being put through the ringer like this, there will almost certainly re-repercussions, and certain sections of the fan base will want our test out. But as Johnny said, it looks like Arsenal have got this covered. It wasn't a good game. I'd like if Belieber had scored that goal early, early doors, when David Rea presented him, gifted him the ball, he tried to scoop it over his head, and Gabrielle, who was outstanding all night, in the absence of William Celeba alongside, he headed it away. If that had gone in, that would have made things really interesting. But as it happened, the game never really got interesting. Brighton had a few chances, didn't score them, and they lost. And Herzler had a big moan afterwards, as I say, sounded like a sore loser. He is a sore loser. It's not uncommon for him to piss and moan on the touchline and get in the ear of the forward official and his opposite number. But there seems to be genuine enmity between him and Artecia. And when Artecia was told what he'd said, he just sort of went, well, I'd take those comments seriously, if you know, depends who says to me, he clearly has a little or no respect for Herzler. This child is in charge of this too. Yeah, he said, what a surprise when he was told about Herzler's complaints. And yeah, there were celebrations at the end, a sort of double celebration after they heard the score, the Arsenal fans that the Etihad as well. And I just have a horrible feeling that those scenes are going to come back and it will be a meme from these Arsenal fans. I just have a horrible feeling about that. We even talked about it yesterday, you know, Jordan Jarrett Bryan, he's a big Arsenal fan. He kind of wants more from this Arsenal team. And Johnny, I guess it's like, oh, if they win the title of the people going, or not like that, no, we don't need to win the title like that. That's not that, no, that doesn't count. Yeah, I mean, this is, it's obviously it's obviously discourse, but, you know, I guess it also is a question that strays into, you know, cultural, like philosophical, almost, you know, almost kind of political questions about what the point of sport is. I mean, the one point I do want to make, and you know, I think Arsenal obviously have their own mythology. They have a history of winning with style. They also have a history of losing with style very spectacularly. So I think they will, they will judge obviously that the end justifies the means. I mean, that the one thing I do, you know, want to say is that people keep going on about the product, right? People go people going on, what is this doing for the product? And I think, you know, as a journalist, obviously, you have to, you know, covering the league and you have to have a certain measure of context. If you're like, if you're a fan or a, you know, even a player, what, why would you give the tiniest shit about the product? Like what, of what concern is it? Whether the, you know, the Premier League is marketing itself, you know, positioning itself in a crowded marketplace for the, you know, the modern attention economy. I don't think that's any concern of yours. And so I think a lot of this, I've written kind of a column this morning about this, this whole declineism, footballing, declineism, you know, middle aged men just going the games gone. This isn't, this isn't the football I grew up with. When if you actually, if you look back at, you know, the long ball, set piece, heavy, cross heavy football of the, of the 80s, it actually kind of was the football you just statistically grew up with. But I think, I think that, that is all part of baiting Arsenal, I think. And Arsenal are very baitable. They are the most baitable club, I think, but possibly up there with Liverpool. And, you know, they need to make their peace with this, that the entire apparatus of football that is not Arsenal is really heavily invested in Arsenal cocking this up. Yeah, John, I mean that this is the thing, but isn't this being perpetuated a little bit by the, by coaches, you know, Anna Slot was saying his, his football heart is, you know, is broken and then he got hurt. So the saying they weren't playing football. I mean, is this, you know, are they, are they concerned about the products, do we think? What are they? Slots comments became a real hostage to fortune, didn't he? When they, his team then played like a drain at Molinu. It's like, well, you know, you could have a bit of a say in this. And let's just say if the LMA have an end of season, do, I don't wonder who sits next to Fabian Herzler. I get the impression he's not the most popular among his counterparts, don't you? I suspect a bit like the Arsenal fan that just wants to win the league. He doesn't really care about that. That's not, he's not here to make friends. And that the discipline record we knew about that when he came from some penalty. I think it was sent off four times in a season there and he came over promising to behave himself. A promise he hasn't kept. But with Arsenal, Jonathan talked about how they had this history of winning with style. Well, again, I'm going to do it. Obviously, if you're of a different age, Batman and Barry's age, then you remember a different Arsenal that won with a distinct lack of style, though it was a style in itself. I remember the Arsenal team of the famous back five or whatever was a fascination in France. They couldn't believe this team that would just turn up and just bore themselves through your AFA cups and all the rest of it because they were just in a cup winners cup, but just how good can you be at defending? How stronger these guys are doing the job? And that's what this current Arsenal are. I mean, listen, I don't ever use XG other than to make a point, right? Okay, because I'm not really an XG type of guy, but I did see that their XG for the first half was 0.01. Now, if that's not making a statistical point, I don't know what is. But I don't know how that counts because Sacka did take on that shot that could have sort of gone in and did. But I mean, the Brooklyn made a hell of a mess of it. That, that, listen, I suppose there's a few things. Arsenal fans, if they win the league, they will celebrate wildly. It will be one hell of a night. It'll be one hell of a summer. The rest of us are going to have to put up with it. Well, whatever, that's okay. That's fine. But I suppose one thing is that playing with style offers you a bit of a fig leaf at times, doesn't it? Because at least we played with style at least. And if you only play to win and you don't win, that's when the brick bats come, that's when the criticism comes. And that's what I suppose the tight rope that Arsenal walking playing, that style of football. But it's, you know, to go back to old man cliches, grinding out a win away from home on earth cold Wednesday night. That's how titles have won anyway. Can I just ask if England go to the World Cup and because Sacka and Decton Rice are taking corners for England and England adopt the Arsenal approach to set pieces, will all the people currently criticising Arsenal be fully on board with England doing this if it starts to prove effective? I made this exact point in my column this morning, the 2018 team set pieces and whatever. But that's not how people decide their opinions. No, we'll be handing back the trophy to Trump. The England team that won the 2003 World Cup are regarded as probably the dullest team to win the Rugby World Cup. But, you know, the streets were filled with celebrations and wildness, even for those that weren't actually big rugby fans. So, you know, success is okay. But if you don't do it with style and you fall short, that's when the criticism comes, I suppose. And that's maybe a tightrope. England are good after work. Right, that'll do for part one. In part two, we'll do the rest of last night's action. Welcome back to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly Aston Villa 1, Chelsea 4, so two wins in nine now in the Premier League for Aston Villa. And it was sort of a story of a malfunctioning off-side trap from a Villa perspective. And Jal Pedro with a hat trick, a really instinctive finisher. And there was quite a big moment, wasn't there, Barry, in this game when Oli Watkins thought he'd made it to one. He was just a whisker off-side. And then Jal Pedro, just before the break, managed to, well, he was a whisker on-side. I mean, you could say that that turned the game, but I think Aston Villa just looked ragged again. Yeah, this was their heaviest home to feet in two years. I think it could have been a lot heavier for one flatter them. A little they're really missing John McGuin, Yuri Tilliman's and Bubi Carcamara. Huge loss for them and with those guys injured. But they're still well placed to finish in the top four, but they they need to get going again because it's just one win in seven for them. I think there are last two matches this season against Liverpool in Man City. They could be really tough encounters, but you know, I'm very, it's quite philosophical after the game. You know, it's admitted they were well beaten, admitted they were in a bit of a rush and you know, you can't bother to make that because it's quite obvious to everyone who's following their progress. But they need to just look at where they are in the table and try and regroup and get on with things. But this was all about Chelsea, I suppose, and all about Fowl Pedro, who's been a brilliant signing for them. And I think at the start of the season, people were wondering, oh, who'd be Chelsea's first choice? Strike or him or Liam Delap? There's no question about who's first choice now. No, absolutely. Yeah, you know, you know, you know, I'm very sanguit about this is, you know, still in their hands, they can wrestle this back, keep despite this poor run. But I think Barrymex is a really good point about Shell Pedro, Johnny, because I feel like we don't, I feel like I certainly haven't appreciated just how good he is because Chelsea, you kind of, there are a bit of a banter club in terms of their transfers, but he's, I mean, his instinct, his, his movement, he's just very intelligent player. Yeah, I mean, the Scatican, this carpet bombing of signings, which is, it's almost kind of overwhelming to take in. But obviously some of them are going to, you know, occasionally one of them is just going to come really good. Cole Palmer was an example of that. Oh, wow, he's actually really good at Esteveau as well. Pedro, I think it wasn't entirely clear whether he was going to, whether they signed him as a nine or a 10 initially. I think he ended up playing 10 a lot because, because of Palmer's injury. But he, if you, if you watch him play, he gets into real, what I call real number nine positions. The way he anticipates the, the through ball, just to be able to get that half yard on the defender, who's also obviously anticipating the through ball. He's quick, but he doesn't, you know, he doesn't rely on his speed. He's strong. We don't rely on, on physicality. And, and he's finishing this season has been like, absolutely elite. I mean, this is, this is a guy who, yeah, who we weren't sure whether whether he was going to make that leap from Brighton. And, you know, six months on, they've, Chelsea have spatially solved a problem that they've been trying to solve ever since Diego Costa left. That, that number nine position has been a real huge problem for them. You know, it was, it was a Nicholas Jackson problem. It's a Liam Delac probably, and it's probably, you know, within 12 months, he's probably going to be on loan at forest within, within the year. So, Pedro has just, has, has managed to make that, that issue go away through, through sheer, relentless excellence. But it's probably worth giving Alejandro Karenachio his flowers for this game as well, because he was brilliant. He had a massive cash on toast. But when he puts in a performance like that, it's almost infuriating. I'd say, if you're a Chelsea fan, because he doesn't so infrequently, you go, well, why don't you do this more often? You don't expect it every game, but he was outstanding last night as well. No, you're right. It just, yeah, it seems to be sort of one in every six or seven. That's the problem with gone at show. But yeah, clearly, I mean, still still a long way to, you know, he's still very, very young, and yeah, can certainly improve that consistency. So, Aston Villa made him fourth, Chelsea and Liverpool behind them on two points, and they are, and Manchester United in third, after a very entertaining game at St James's Park, Newcastle 2, Manchester United 1, Jacob Ramsey sent off for a second bookable offense after a dive sort of, but it looked like he wasn't really asking for anything, and then he was given a yellow card, but despite that, Newcastle managed to get through this game. And I know Barney Rone has alluded to this, but Michael Carrick, looking more like a detective in a gritty crime drama set on the coast by the day. Perhaps his best friend's daughter has gone missing, and he owes him a favour, even when Manchester United equalised it. He's still had that look, that thousand yard stare. And so John Carrick out, first defeat now under his judge. Here's where the decline begins. Here's where we all, you know, with, you know, he's where we reach for the criticism of Jim Ratcliffe, Jason Wilcox out, what a disgrace. One of the reasons Manchester United lost it is because they were trying to win at the end, which they left themselves open for the shooters to score that fantastic goal, and it was a fantastic goal. Remember, actually, he scored very early in the season a late goal for Newcastle against Liverpool, and then was overshadowed by Ungamower's late goal in an early season classic that we had. What a finish, by the way, brilliant goal. Michael Carrick, of course, remained impassive in the style of a detective in a Midwestern, you know, US town, you know. And took the defeat really well. There was no Amerim style, histrionics afterwards of digging out the players or anything like that. I suppose Michael Richards made a good point, which is that United are asked to play over twice in a week, and sagged a little bit with having to do that. Casamiro, you have to suspect probably isn't capable of playing two games in a week these days, picking up a couple of injuries. But let's actually credit Newcastle for the grit. Karen Trippier, a manager's dream, I mean, Karen Tripp is one of those players that you watch. He's either hurting himself, hurting someone else, or he's down, or he's talking, or he's at it, you know, that's his game, and I think he sent a seal away for that goal. But before that, he was saying that he was injured and that he's carved or something had given out, and just he's all action. I remember watching him for players as a youth player, and that was what he was like then. He's just always in the action, and a few Newcastle players have felt that a player who is obviously a key to them staying up, and key to their establishment that he was time up for him. But he's one of those players, a bit like, say, Shane was Coleman for Everton and Ireland, that you know, put him into a game, and he'll do that job for you. He is a warrior and a dam burn, of course, is the classic of that, and Newcastle dug it out, credit to them. It's something that they've not done enough this season. You could see the relief on Eddie and Jason's face, afterwards, you know, they were trying to remain calm, and when the final whistle came, there was just this great big gleam from Jason Tindall, he can only gleam, I suppose. It was, yeah, but, you know, Manchester United, I should say, because it, of course, is, of course, Newcastle United, have a poor record at St James's. It's one of those places, and it always seems to be played at night that game, and it's always a big stormy occasion, and that they fall foul there. And if there's anyone, aside from Sunderland that Newcastle enjoy beating, it is what they call Manu. So there you go, credit to them, great win, brilliant goal. Yeah, I mean, they did deserve it, didn't they? I mean, they started really well, and then you thought, oh, maybe, maybe that it won't be their night because of the red card, but Anthony Gordon's got a penalty after Britain and his brought him down, and then yes, that, that goal from William Asula. I mean, the step overs looked like he was trying to step over a particularly tall style in a field, but the finish was there. The finish was there. He managed to get over it. Tony, what I do want to say about United and Carrick is that when, like, when Carrick took over, there was a lot of, a lot of stories coming out about how much more fun his training sessions were. The anonymous sources, anonymous dressing room sources, were going to the sun and say, look, Ruben made us do tactics. He would stop the sessions incessantly to move people around and do tactics, and Carrick doesn't make us do that. Carrick, his training sessions are short of their, they're really intense. They're like 60 to 75 minutes long, and they're much, much more intense, and he doesn't make us do boring tactics. And I find it interesting now a few weeks on, the, they, this, this really intense training sessions that last about 60 to 75 minutes have, have led to them conceding a lot of goals after the 60th to 75th minutes. So that was, you know, they could see that there was a late goal against Arsenal. There was 85th to 90th to think it's full of them now 90th against, I guess, half of the, half of the goals that they conceded on to Carrick have been after the 80th minute. They're in, they're in, they're in, they're in, they're in, they're in totally uncharted territories. What would hang on? This game lost 90 minutes. What are we doing? I'm knackered. I don't, I haven't, we haven't, we haven't trained for this. But, you know, I think, I think, personally, that's, that's why I think Carrick maybe hasn't, like, he's obviously done a lot of work on, on, on culture and tactics and, and, and basically getting the vibes right, getting the dressing room back on side. He's not done, it doesn't seem to have done a lot of work on the longer term strategy, which suggests to me that there may be no longer term strategy that maybe he doesn't want it, maybe he doesn't, maybe he's not really looking beyond these few weeks because what, what he seems to be doing, how he's training these players, is exactly what you do. If you, if you're looking for a little short term burst of energy, but you're not thinking too much about, about how it's going to pan out in the longer run. Hmm, I mean, you couldn't blame him really, given, given what's going on there. But, yeah, so yeah, a bit of a blow for Man United's European push, Newcastle, I mean, realistically, I have nothing to play for on the league and I'll go up to 12th, but, but a, but a great night for them onto full of nil West Ham United one huge win this for West Ham United, Summerville with the, the winner, eight goals in 13 in 2026 now. And it seems Barry that new know as a sort of, I don't know, a kind of striker whisperer sort of he's working his magic that he, that he managed with Chris Woods on Summerville now. Well, I mean, if West Ham need anything, it's a striker whisperer that could have done one with one about 20 years ago. And, yeah, if, if that is his gift, then hold on to for dear life, West Ham. I mean, they must have got a great boost when they saw the full of team. She and Harry Wilson wasn't in it. That's, that would have definitely put a spring in the collective West Ham step. He was out with a foot injury, apparently. I thought it deserves this win, to be honest, full of more great West Ham or Craig courageous in that they weren't prepared to settle for a draw that they tried to get the win and eventually they got the win and they had to rely on a sort of comedy mix up between Bert Leno and Calvin Bassi to get their goal, but it was a well-taken goal with Jared Bone at team up Summerville to score into a sort of empty net. And this is, I mean, Spurs fans will be watching this game with their heads in their hands. This is a terrible result for Spurs. It's a brilliant result for West Ham. I, for one, I'm delighted because I can't be the only person who thinks it would be absolutely hilarious if Spurs got relegated. Yeah, we have had word from our noble leader who's back in Australia who just simply said Spurs of fucks. So yeah, more on that matter. He also, he also takes to me to tell me to buy a Euro millions ticket. So he might be planning on just fleeing. He's trying to get a war chest together. Yeah, we could join you on your post England World Cup victory. Oh, right. Exile. But yes, back to, back to this game. I mean, it could have gone either way, couldn't it? They both had penalty shouts turned down. Well, actually, it was given Fullham's one, but it was, it was overturned by Var. Players like Juan Bessacca and Dioff, and who, you know, spent most of the season basically being condemned as not good enough. You know, we looked at this West Ham team and said, like, they are knocks in terms of individual quality good enough to stay up. But that's, you know, that's not always how it works. You know, the, the, the signing of cash to Jarnos has given them a lot of energy. I think it's given them a new dimension. Some of them is is turning into their, you know, Carlos Tevez. They're like 2007 Carlos Tevez. And I, you know, I thought they got, like, the goal looked like this kind of almost random freakish piece of, of, uh, quasi football. But if you, if you, if you look at what, what actually happens, Jared Bowen, it's a, it's a long ball from Fernandes and Bowen chases it down. And he's chasing down, like, it's basically a lost course, because obviously Leno's going to get that as a defender in the way. There's, there's, why are you chasing this down? But it's the perfect metaphor for, for, for the West Ham mission. You are constantly chasing down this, this entirely hopeless cause. And Bowen is the perfect guy to do it as well. The guy who will chase down that cause all night. And it, and, you know, just, just every so often, it pays off and he wins the ball and, and some of it puts it away. And I just thought that was a really telling symbolic moment of what it is to play for West Ham, to support West Ham, to, to just follow this, do this, this walking zombie corpse, uh, all the way through to the end. Uh, and I, I can't, I can't, honest, I can't believe they'll stay up, which is exactly, I think while they'll stay up. West Ham remaining the bottom three, but now level on points with forest on 28. So a bona fide relegation fight we have, which we haven't really had in the last couple of seasons. Now on to tonight's game. Oh, when you don't have skin in the game, this is going to be absolutely glorious. Spurs against palace, Macy says, our Spurs actually are social experiments on how much the human psyche can endure. And yeah, I mean, that's a good, good question. And, um, I mean, the, the introduction I feel of Igor Tudor has really, um, elevated the Spurs, uh, social experiments as well. I mean, he's rode a little bit back on the criticism of every single aspect of his squad, um, ahead of this one. Um, he says, it's me sending a message to everyone that I do. No, except the situation. We move on. We had a good, but short period to prepare for the next game. And I've seen the guys react really well. John, you're at Tudor's press conference yesterday. You're, your impressions of the man. Well, uh, uh, people, people say he's aggressive, but I'd say he's more passive aggressive. In a fairly, he, he's actually quite good company in a way. And you could, I, I, and you know, sort of seeing up, you know, how much pressure do you get? Are you feeling at the moment? And he said, oh, well, uh, seven. And I was like, well, seven out of ten. He's like, oh, never said how many it's out of and all this. So he's slightly playful with it. He, he's, he's over. Um, I think I got the impression that someone had told him not to completely keep digging out the players in the fashion he did. But he still did say that this is probably the biggest problems that he's ever had when he's gone into rest of the club. So, you know, the players were talking to each other and it seems to suggest that that's a good thing. Um, it's, it's, he's in such a difficult position. Well, wild and crazy rumours that this is his final game in charge, which I think is absolutely crazy. And if that does happen, that's actually, that's not actually ego chewed as fault. That's the people that run Tottenham's fault. If that happens, they've made a completely wrong choice. He's just like, well, we eventually will have to work out and find the solution. At no point did he say, I've got the solution to this. Uh, he spent a lot of time talking about the players that were injured, which probably tells you that he, he holds out hope that some of them might return. Um, just, just spurs it at the heart of spurs. And I find this, there's been such a complacency at that club. There's been such a complacency that this was the club that wanted to be met a member of the super league that just thought by hiring big name managers that could become part of remain part of the elite. And then, uh, you know, they actually win a trophy. Uh, but, but, but it seems to pay, uh, I've sacked the manager, but then just thought, okay, can we can just reset as a top six club again? And, you know, back we go, but that can't just happen. And it hasn't happened. And players they have are not fit for what they're supposed to be doing. And even the better players are either too young in the case of say Bergval in Archie Gray or, um, or flawed in the case of, uh, Romero and Mickey van der Ven. It's just, it's a mess. Uh, and it's a, it's a lesson to everybody that you just can't try and get away with it. And that seems to be what they've done. And then at the heart of the club, we had the change of Daniel Levy. And then we don't even know, I think as someone was saying you're the day that the people that actually own the club aren't even on the, the director's list or anything like that. It's just a complete mess. And it's of their own making. And if you're a Tottenham fan, you're paying all that money, you're just looking at it going, how did we get in this mess? Egor Tudel cannot be held responsible for the state that Tottenham are in at the moment. And I think he knows that, and he think he knows that eventually he'll get a bonus if they stay up, but I don't think he'll be staying next season. You know, no, no one's clamoring for Egor to stay probably least for all the players, you know, but anyway, that game against Palace, yet massive. I mean, who would have thought that Spurs v. Crystal Palace will be the game of the season that we all want to watch? But it feels like it does in it. It feels like, it feels like, yeah, I can't, I can't miss this wonder. Can I cancel all plans tonight? Yeah, all right, I'm staying in for that one. Well, because also Palace have all of a Glastner who seems to be on a knife edge the whole time as well. But Johnny, your perspective as the as the Spurs fan here, how has it come to this? I mean, how much do you agree with John? I agree with pretty much all of it. I mean, with the, I guess a little bit of a little bit of a company in Gallows humour, lots of anyone got a spare to to QPR away on the group chats next season. I don't honestly like, I think it would be marvelous, absolutely fantastic if Spurs had a season in the championship. And I, as part of, you know, kind of research for this, I was looking at West Ham's 2002 three season because I think, you know, that they were pretty much the, like the best team. It's certainly in terms of points. I think they went down with 42 points, but also in terms of in terms of quality, you know, and you look at a squad that has, you know, Freddie Canute and Jermaine DeFoe and Joe Cole and Michael Carrick and Trevor Sinclair and Lee Bowie and you think, how, how did you go down? And I think people will look at this Spurs team and look at the quality idea. I think how, how did you do it? How did you end up with 12 points from 19 games? And they're going to, like, if they carry on their trajectory on this, this, they've been relegation forms since about November, like and well relegated as well, not even close. It's got to the point where they actually have to turn things around now. I think they can't rely on West Ham dropping points and forest dropping points. They have to, I think they have to believe that they're going to probably need four or five wins to keep themselves up. Otherwise, that's going to be it for them. And if that doesn't, if that doesn't induce a sort of sense of a mission and resolve that is going to keep them, I don't know what is, to be honest, because there's just nothing happening there. The patient, the patient is basically dead on the slab. And it's, it's, it's, um, it's like defibrillation time. It's, it's clear. And you're plugging the wires together. Oh, it's just too delicious, isn't it? Yeah, put, put the kids to bed early, open up, Lincoln, Lincoln city against Tottenham is going to be a league game next season, a league game between Lincoln and Tottenham. It will be Friday night on Sky Sports, the FL and I will be watching. Yeah, wonderful stuff, everyone. Uh, that'll do part two in part three or preview the FA Cup and talk KSI becoming a shareholder at Dagonham Redbridge. Along to part three of the Guardian football weekly. So yes, the FA Cup returns this weekend. Wolves against Liverpool again at mulling you on Friday. And then on Saturday, we have Mansfield against Arsenal, Rex and against Chelsea, Newcastle against Manchester City. Barry, any, any of those really tickle your fancies? Quite a few interesting ties there. Yeah, I've had a feeling for a long time that Rex and are either going to win the FA Cup or get promoted to the Premier League this season. So they're at home to Chelsea Saturday night. Obviously we'll have all the Hollywood nonsense. Given how good they were last night, I would not be at all surprised if Chelsea were an absolute dog's breakfast on Saturday at the race course. They should win. No idea what kind of team Liam Rossini will pick, but that is obviously an interesting tie, given the Rex and story. I presume everyone wants Mansfield to be to Arsenal because it's a classic giant Taylor Fair. And they're at home, but Arsenal's whatever team they put out should be more than good enough to beat them, but you never know. Yeah, the Wolves Liverpool wants a bit meh. I don't really care who wins that. I mean, Wolves should be going all out to try and win the FA Cup, but they probably won't win this, you know, because they probably won't be good enough to win it, but who knows? I'm going to that one, Barry, so I'm glad you really teed it up for me. I think it's obviously the least interesting of all. I'm sorry, I forgot about Newcastle Man City, that's Newcastle should be going all out to try and win the FA Cup as well. I was thinking the results this week meant that Rob Edwards won rest players for the relegation. What was his decision over resting players for the Premier League, because Wolves are probably cooked by now. I mean, they were funny enough when I was at Tottenham, a few that the sort of club reports is there. We're trying to work out how many points Wolves can get because they were now considered a threat to Tottenham in their relegation. Well, you mentioned Rexum. I don't know, did we do this story about how Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mc as we have to call him these days are going to be doing that and it's probably not good news for you this Robin. Doing their football commentary debut during Rexum's match with Swansea on Sky. You can listen to them, commentating. They've asked for the bleat button because they're wild and crazy guys. I mean, you can imagine my thoughts on this. I probably don't have any voice. This is another game's gone moment, isn't it? I for one hope they totally mess this up and are awful, obviously, in my interests. It might be really good. I think it could be good, and I think this might be where it's going, actually. TNT had, they kind of dabbled with it in the women's FA Cup. They had comedian, Maisie Adam, and I think her podcast, Paul Susie Ruffel, doing a little bit of the commentary, or it might be on Sky, actually. So yeah, these experiments are there. TNT had Noel Gallagher, didn't they? When City got good by sport in Lisbon and Noel didn't say word in the second half, it was great listening, actually. So the Saturday ties look fairly good. Sunday ties, Fulham against Southampton, Port Vale against Sunderland, great for Port Vale after they beat Bristol City in midweek. This feels like a big opportunity for Sunderland, actually, buried to make the quarterfinals of the competition. It is a big opportunity, and it's also, I'm looking at it and thinking it's one they could very well lose. Obviously, the people's choice will be Port Vale to win that, they're at home. I guess Regis Lebril gave a chance to fringe players, although he doesn't really have much of a choice at the moment, because Sunderland, quite a few people out injured, but that's right for an upset, but Sunderland should win it. I'm drawing Leeds Norwiches, clearly the least interesting of all the ties, I think, but it's a Daniel Farak derby there, so that's the main talking point there, isn't it? Sam Byram Dobby, I think a few. John Newsom. I thought Leeds and Norwich would be a world-trodden path. Robert Snodgrass. Good stuff, good knowledge. Yeah, on Monday, West Ham against Brentford. I mean, neither side of me left. Is it another of those Friday to Monday deals as well? It's like a really shit nation's league. I don't know. We're talking about Rex. It's not for me. I don't find it interesting, but I'm not going to shit talk here. The FA Cup, I plan other stuff on my FA Cup weekend, because it just holds very little interest for me, but that's just me. Well, occasionally it's gone from Thursday to Tuesday, I think, sometimes. So yeah, just be grateful that it's just the four-day spread this time around. It's a disgrace. Well, talking of a disgrace, KSI. Well, that's a bit harsh, that's a bit harsh, isn't it? So he's taken over and dagging him. His money is from YouTube subscribers, so 17 million he's got. Look, I mean, I watched him, I remember watching him, like 10, 12 years ago, watching him. He played FIFA. That's how he got famous. He played FIFA on his YouTube channel, and he was very entertaining. You could watch him play FIFA, and he would just scream and shout and just circulate, and people flock to him. Young people liked to watch this guy go nuts playing FIFA. And then came the rap career, the music, like career, the business investments. This energy drink, this prime energy drink, that's him. There was the boxing. He's symptomatic of this era where if you can get people's eyeballs, that is basically the currency of the world these days. Everything from politics to sport, to the media, your metric is how many people can you get to look at you. And if you're good at that, if you're skilled and undoubtedly he's a genius at that kind of stuff, then you're qualified to do anything. Somehow, you can be a football commentator, you can be a football owner, you can box, you can make drinks to sell us. The world will just reward you in endless ways. And so, I don't condone, no, I do condemn this, because I think it's a really morally redundant world that we've created. But that is what he is. He's the guy who can play this world and who embodies it better than anyone else. And just the doors will swing open, because everyone is after that essential currency. How do we get young people? How do we get young people to watch this thing? And everyone is trying to crack this code, and he's cracked it. And he has the keys. Producer Joel has asked, how do we get those eyeballs? I will tell you, Barry, live streaming your job. They're going to come in their millions. Are we going for a run today? Yeah. Yeah. Um, those aren't too enthusiastic. I'm not enthusiastic. I hate it. It's really unpleasant. And people keep telling me, oh, you learn to love it. No, it's not. I just hate it every time. It's not too long today, though. It's only, I think it's only four and a half miles, that it only, you know, in order to come as well. Yeah, that's a nice short one these days. Yeah, I think it's very impressive, though, Barry. And even more impressive, we've just learned the totaliser over is over 44 grand at the time we're awarding. I mean, it's quite incredible. The pressure on this man. The generosity, but it's not generosity. It's vindictiveness. And I, I can see through these people with their generosity and every penny of that 44 grand is going to towards sick children. And I begrudge them every penny of it. I should be getting at least half. Give me that drip. If you want to, if you want to contribute, just search Barry Glenn Denning on just giving. And that'll do for today. Thank you very much, Barry. And in, well, I won't say enjoy it. Enjoy the run. I will indeed. Yes. Thank you. Thank you so much, Johnny. Cheers, Robin. And thank you to John. Thanks for having me, Robin. Our hero returns on Monday, Max will be back alive from his shed in Melbourne, probably. I thought I was thinking you were all my good work for cheerily. But I don't like to talk about, but somehow manage to mention every week without fear. Yeah, no, absolutely. You hate to talk about it. And Max hates to talk about how little sleep he gets as a father of two. I'm sure that won't be mentioned as he returns to his shed in Melbourne, yeah, probably on about three hours sleep. And he has had a very long flight, which is a wonderful solitude. Football Bleakley is produced by Tio Papula and Jesse Howard. And our executive producer is Joel Grove.
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