The Pragmatic Rebellion: Tactical Realism and the Death of the Premier League Blowout

The Athletic F-C Totally football show today, full moon at Molinu and a walls team transformed which will choose those remarkable last minute win by Wanderers, the Gomez, the Gomez, the defending like garden nomes and werewolves could yet finish. Plus, sure, I guess the rest of the Tuesday action too, ever since heading for Europe, Sunderland reaching 40 points. There's also talk of the Premier League's biggest ever blowouts. Tuesday we did get drama from Luka 9, but what's happened to all the 9-0s? That and much more in this totally football show. Wednesday the 4th of March, listener. And in the Tony's studio today, fact-checkings Duncan Alexander. Hello. Hello. And downbeat Tim Spears. How's it going, James? Pretty good, Tim. That's right, listener. It's a special. They couldn't, could they addition of totally football show before? They couldn't, could they? Referred to beating Derby's infamous record. Come on. Come on. But now, Tim, now, five days back to back wins against top five teams. Yeah, I did study the fixtures last night. Did I have a tight schedule? All right, so Duncan, is it on? You've got 11 points to make up. You've got one, two, three, four, eight more games for them to play. 24 points, that's up the grabs. Yeah. If they win all the remaining fixtures, they reach 40 points. The hallowed total. I mean, they're probably not going to do it. But all season, our friends, the underlying numbers, have said that wolves are not even one of the three worst teams in the Premier League. Who are the three worst teams just to leap in there? As it stands, it is. Should we guess? Go for it. Jay? Well, I'm going to obviously take the easy option to say Burnley. Burnley, by some distance, yeah. I think, I think Sonlander down there. Sonlander the second, yeah. Sonlander who, this week, reach 40 points. Wolves are now in the bottom three on the extra table. But only by a single point. Who did you just displaced? Well, they are basically one point on XG behind Spurs and West Ham. So, if you're looking for... We've both those teams still to play. Yeah. So, in XG and in real life. They've taken 14 points since Christmas. So, all this derby track can get in the bend permanently. Right. Yeah, we're going for Villa's title next. I think they maybe got 17 and 15 and 16. Okay. Well, you're also going for Burnley. You are now only three points ahead. Yeah. The wrong chance that Wolves won't even finish the season bottom of the table. Well, we played Burnley on the last day. So, that's... That's going to be the big 19th match. That's actually going to be a fun game. Because if, you know, if the acts have... Every Wolves game. Yeah. But like, you know, they can celebrate a season well done. There's no bad teams in this Premier League, apart from maybe Spurs. Hmm. Amazing night, Tim. Amazing night. Robert Plant in Tears. Well, see in Tears, I think. Well, the camera cut to him after the winning goal. Yeah. And his eyes were glistening... They looked recently wiped. I would say. That's confirmed, is it? I think so. Yeah, it was... You know, Villa on Friday night was a crazy good night. We weren't expecting it to be tops. But it probably was, to be honest. Just a mad match. I had Logan Royce. You are not a serious football team. Quoting my head. Because, you know, it didn't have a shot until the 77th minute. And then... That was the only shot you had? Yeah, at that point. And then trying to put the ball in the corner in the 93rd minute. And then somehow, with Andre with his first goal for Wolves, which is, you know... Right. Sorry. That heavily deflected. So then win it in the 95th minute. And Robert was just jumping into the South Bank. And it's... Wow. You go again on Friday night? Yeah. Liverpool again on Friday. Yeah. And Wolves actually made a few changes for this match. Rested four. So it was a week on team, really. So it could be four-one on Friday. That's in the FA Cup this round. We'll be touching on that. And lots of other things. But first of all, it's... Get the results from Tuesday, which was a busy one. In the Premier League, Wolves beating Liverpool two goals to one. That's their second win in a row, as mentioned, against the top five team. Having previously only won one game all season. It's also the fifth time this campaign that Liverpool have lost to a goal in stoppage time. Which is a Premier League record. Wolves, and are just three points behind Bernie, who lost on Tuesday, 2-0 at Everton. Everton's first home win since December. That moves. The top is just two points behind Chelsea in sixth. Chelsea played Wednesday night at Villa. Everton, meanwhile, are also only one point behind Brentford, who had a goalless draw at former, followed by a dust up in the tunnel. Also on Tuesdays, Sunderland won 1-0 at Leeds. The Blackouts reaching the 40-point mark. No wins in four matches now for Leeds. And Wednesday's results could pull them right back into the relegation mix. Lots of other things happened on Tuesday from Barcelona to Brazil. We'll get on to some of those later, but first up more from Molinue. This is the tightly football show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. What are the odds in extraordinary goal? Tuesday night. Firstly, because it saw Walsh Beat Liverpool, secondly, because it was a Walsh player not named Gomez, who scored it, although Tim... Well, it was heavily deflected off Joe Gomez. Joe Gomez. And Manny Famous is never scored at the right hand. It's not right. Good Lord. Scenes in the 94th minute, Rob Edwards, taking off down the touch line, as I'm sure Walsh fans all over the country were doing. I didn't have a touch line to run down, but just a small in-room to do a lap off. But yeah, it's the second match in a row. He's done that. He did it after the Villa match on Friday day. And there's been some sort of chastified. Whether we should have been booked, because David Moy has got booked. But apparently the difference with David Moy's celebration from a few weeks ago was he entered the playing area. Well, yeah. You can go as far as you want, as long as you're not on the pitch. So you could do a lap of the pitch in theory. You could go down to the corner flag and celebrate with them there, but it's longer than you think. There's a lead shot, but the other side. To a Vinny Jr. Duncan, you enjoyed the first goal. Yeah, I enjoyed Walsh reacting one nail to the championship. Just good solid. Just solid banter from a beleaguered fan base. So now having a nice time. Yeah, enjoying sort of causing carnies to other team seasons. It was last night at first in Villa, Nail of Paul. Sort of like a rogue. In a Formula One race in the first corner, you get like a backmark. Just like flowering into everyone and just causing carnies. Or a riderless nag in some horse race. Yeah. Yeah. Is that you took my Walsh's ownership there, just sort of, you know. That was my clever parallel. Yeah, parallel. So well done. Yeah, having born the slings and arrows, etc. With great spirit, finally getting these rewards, because there's not just these two results here. You've also got the draw with Lee leading us, not the fact to end all this. What has Rob Edwards done, apart from running up and down a touch line? It is pretty annoying to refer that it's sort of, you know, taken this long. Andre and Jagamis were outstanding in midfield last night. I thought that was the key to where Wolves won the match. You know, they've both been in Brazil's team until recently. But playing dreadfully for most of the season. So it's kind of, it's kind of where's this been. And it was really interesting. I mean, what he's done, he's made it simple. He's, he has been experimenting with formations and tactics. But I think he's, he's probably realized the limitations of the team. Because, you know, as you said, the first shot was seven-seventh minute last night. It's not like they're trying to play a lot of football. They're XG combined for these three home games that we're talking about is 1.93. So they're not creating, you know, host of chances. But he's realized elementations and made things a bit simpler. He also, interestingly, after the match last night, was sort of talking about motivation. And suggesting it's been an issue, which I think is, is probably fair enough. Okay. So he's kind of been trying to get the players to channel what is your individual motivation for the rest of season. And he was quite explicit about it. That can be playing for a move. That can be, you know, trying to get in a, in a woke-up squad. That can be just playing for yourself, for pride, for your families. So he's kind of been asking everyone, you know, screen linked in. It's very linked in. Or a teacher. Oh, he's, he's beautiful. Your author, six form, or maybe you're going to get an apprenticeship. So what's your individual motivation in my history class? Yeah. One, one manager. Yeah. Yeah. He's working. Yeah. I think he's been on the high-performance podcast, which sort of speaks to his sort of management style. And he, and he's a dream, I think, for everyone, probably not. Yeah. He's, you know, sort of universally positive. And he's been trying really, really hard to foster that sort of positivity and getting the fans together and the club and whatever, and the players. And he's, and he's had no results to sort of jump off the back off. But now they're finally stringing a run together. You know, we'll see where they go with it. Like I said, they're not playing especially brilliant football and dominated matches, but they're finding a way to win. It's interesting, isn't because obviously a few seasons ago, he had a similar sort of end to the campaign with Lootor. I know that Lootor win a decent position and then really fell off. But everyone was like, this guy's the man to take them straight back up. And that obviously didn't happen. So he feels quite a streaky manager. But yeah, I mean, I think it's a really fun end to the season for Worlds. And I think it means Friday's really important for them because why not just, you know, just throw everything at the cup? You looked at the remaining fixtures. What leaps out of you? Well, the athletic photographic out last week, saying sort of the easiest and hardest runs that all teams have got. And what was the second in that list? In terms of hardest fixtures. Easiest. Because one query I had having looked at this run of results, Arsenal, Villa and Liverpool was, hang on, is it actually those kind of games that will be a better place to win because of being able to sit deep, et cetera? I didn't feel like, especially like Jay Gomez, like I said, was pretty outstanding last night. We haven't seen that for a while. And it's no coincidence that Villa at home on a Friday night where most of the country who's watching the match last night is watching that match. And last night, the second half, you know, it's the only game on. And it's a high profile game. You know what I mean? So they know that everyone's watching. But yeah, they're on Monday night football and then it's league game. Yeah, Brent for the way. Brent for the way. Really, okay. The toughest match they've got left now for the rest of the day. Yeah, they play no one on the top side. Well, it's April. They play West Ham away, then Leeds away, then Tottenham at home. I mean, the King. West Ham games pick. The Kingmakers or Doommongers or whatever you want to call it. I think they're going to have a huge say in their relegation battle. Yeah, but we've always, you know, we've always, as Duncan and I know you've said a few times, we've known that walls are not this bad. And really, they should be. They should be pretty close to the relegation line, probably. You know, all things told. And the results have not been that bad. They have been thrashed for a while. Four nils, your biggest defeat. Yeah, which I think is. That was back the opening day. Yeah, so it's, it's, you know, performances have not been too bad. It's just the results have been consistently, you know, defeats and draws. Right. Can I just say one thing that made me laugh about the game last night? I don't know if you agree with this. But after you scored, after wall scored, it felt like they just had no idea whether to sit back or get another goal. And I think that's why Beligard gives it the ball the way because there are a couple of occasions you go, Boeno did it first down the left where he turns back, passes it backwards. And I think Salah or somebody intercepted it and Liverpool countered then. And then Beligard does it where he has the option, I think, to hit it long. Turns backward, plays that pass, Salah intercepts. So it's this sense of, I guess, a little bit of nervousness, which is completely understandable. Like, oh my god, first shot of the game. We've gone one new up. How do we hold on to this? And I think that's why there was a little bit of erraticness all of a sudden. A couple of contributors of that, I thought, because it wasn't like they were piling on the pressure. You know, they were just sort of giving walls the ball back and then walls are like, I, well, we don't really want it. Yeah. You know. That led to Mo Salah, that instant you mentioned, Jay, led to Mo Salah scoring his first goal since November. Yeah, I actually think it's a really clever goal from him as well. And I think the walls defender, Critchey, does absolutely everything right in terms of making Salah go towards his right foot, which is supposedly his weaker foot. And then Salah just hits it with the outside of his left boot. Like, it's a very, very clever finish. But as much as Salah deserves praise for that, there's like quite a pivotal moment a few minutes later where he's on the counter. I think he's got Ecotica on the left. Sobslind, someone else on the right. And he underhits the pass. And if Liverpool scored then, you know, it would have been game over. And even Van Dyke has a header as well just before I'm on just schools. Yeah, it was really, really bizarre. It's from a corner which was Liverpool's best route to goal to be honest. I thought, you know, quite damning on sort of their open play. But yeah, Critchey's chance is about to chest it in from a yard out open goal. And Cody Gapo in sort of the melee, I guess, sticks his boots out and diverts the ball upwards and onto the front. Yeah, that's probably because Gapo. So I don't watch Liverpool a lot, but I'm very aware of the sort of narrative around Gapo that they don't think he should be starting. And that's probably that sheer desperation of, I want to just try and kickstart the end of my season. And I only watched the final 20 minutes of this game and Ingemo is quite something to watch. And I can understand if you've got this 17 year old who's just skipping pass challenges like no other. Because I think he's set up Van Dyck's header as well with the left footed cross. I can't understand why Gapo does desperate things like that. Yeah, and forcing a quite incredible save from Jose Sarr, actually, Ingemo. Yeah. Where the ball goes through one ball's play as legs and then diverts off mascara. And it's all, this all happens really quickly. Sarr has to really get down very quickly and just tips it onto the post. It's a really good save. It's a classic Jose Sarr, isn't it? They're both the most brilliant and hapless goalkeeper often in the same game. Yeah. Do you think you should have saved, Sallas? Yeah, I do think that. I do think that. Can't hold out now, though. Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. But the Ingemo's stuff's interesting because there was a lot of stick for Gapo last night. And I thought Sallas was bang average again for most of the 90 minutes. And Friday's club game probably represents an ideal opportunity for Ingemo to survive. Just playing like a team who don't believe in the game plan and players are terrified of being the one that makes the mistake and just abdicating responsibility all the time. Everyone in support, I was watching a football team, knows when their team was going through that sort of process. You see, it was spurs at the moment. And yeah, it's just, they're in, you know, we know that top five will get your Champions League, but that could be a very costly defeat. I mean, we come on to everything in a bit, but there are only five points behind Liverpool now. I'm also top of it, Sallas. Yeah. I was about to say. That should be an instant red card alone. It's the second biggest, second most controversial change of hair that we've seen of late in. We've seen of late in football team spurs. Yeah. I thought better than Beckham's corn rose, but not as good as Rios, I think. OK. I was going to ask, because I mentioned a stat about Liverpool losing five games thanks to goals in the 90th minute or after this season. And that's a record. Which is funny, given the way Liverpool start the season with a series of 90s. So true. So is it rotten like this run, or is there something that they're consistently doing that is leading to this? Miller pointing out that they tend to be piling on looking for late equalizers and then winners. And leaving themselves exposed to the back. Greg Evans mentioning one common feature of three of the previous four such defeats, which is that Konate has been taken off by slot in his pursuit of a late winner. And certainly he'd been replaced by Kayser. Shortly after the opening goal of Mollon you yesterday. What do you think? Is slot, slots, how culpable is he in this? Yeah, it's probably just a little bit of desperation when you know things are not going the way that you want to and you roll the dice. But unfortunately, that's what happens when you're a bit too risky in your approach. I mean, it also just speaks, they just don't defend very well. I mean, that first goal last night Van Dyke gets really easy brushed off the ball by Eric Dare. And then he spins and plays a pass through to Rodrigo Gomez and Konate. Looks like he's got it covered to me. And if he goes in with a sliding tackle, he should block it. But he just sort of tries to lean into Rodrigo Gomez. It's very sort of weird defender. It's quite strange that he scores with his right foot. Whereas when I first saw it, I thought, he must think that with his left. But he somehow does it with his right, even though Konate is closer to his right foot if you get what I mean by that. It's quite strange. Do you get confused by which premises which? Okay. They are. They are the first... What are they called on the training ground? I just guess just by the first names. Yeah, they've all got... They've all got... They're none of them are just Gomez as in a name. They've all got something else going on. Tottie Gomez. You know, when they're called in the register out at the beginning of training. Oh, there's Gomez here. Steve Madley wrote a piece about this. She's on the athletic, would you believe, pointing out that this is the first instance of a Premier League team with four players on the same side, sharing a surname. They'd never even been three before to put that in perspective. I did point out two Steve for that piece, that Brentford. Their first season in the Premier League had three players with the first name, Mads. Mads. Mads Bidstrip, Mads Bex Oronson, and Mads Russ Liff. That was a little bit confusing. You have to be mad to work with them. Wow. I can't tell you how many times I heard that. Well, they go again on Friday night at Mollinu in the FA Cup 5th round. Oh, it's nice to see as well in the 18th minute. Wolves and Liverpool fans uniting for a tribute to Diogo Jota. Yeah, they were loud and proud tributes from both sets of fans for a quiet period. It was really nice. Well, more action to come on Wednesday, relevant to Liverpool's quest for the top five. Chelsea will be facing Ashton Villa, probably the key game of that set of fixtures will be reporting back to you on Thursday morning. Should you wish, but next up, let's get onto some more of Tuesday's events. This is the Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. The Athletic is the only place you can read articles by Daniel Taylor, Amy Lawrence, Phil Hey, James PS, Oli K, and the very best football writers around. There's a big chance. It's going to be on the goalkeeper. The angle's tied. But he's done it. Also on Tuesday in football, Port Vale, the Bristol City 1-0 to reach the FA Cup 5th round. The first time they managed that in 30 years. This was a fourth-ranked game, of course, postponed because of one waterlogged pitch. Port Vale are the bottom side in League 1, and they're also the lowest ranked team. They're the lowest ranked team left in the FA Cup. They will be hosting Sunderland on Sunday. Meanwhile, in Europe, it was rim on tarot time and the couple they'll ray. Barcelona, a few weeks back, had gone down 4-0. A way to Athletico Madrid in their semi-final first leg. Tuesday night, they needed an incredible comeback and they came close. They went 3-0 up with 20 minutes to go, but couldn't quite get a fourth over the line. It's, I'd let you go through to the final, winning 4-3 on aggregate. They'll face either Real Sotiadal or Athletic Club de Bilbao. They play Wednesday night with La Rial 1-0 up from the first leg. Barcelona comforted probably by the fact that their Liga rivals Real Madrid on Monday night lost the Getafe. A lot of concern. They're not in Bappy in that game once again for Real Madrid. But the concerns over his knee situation. And no Rodrigo in that as well. The Bappy thing, there's concerns as well about whether his World Cup of France's prospects might be impacted. Of course, we'll be following that story. Thoughts with you if you chose on Tuesday night to follow the Copra Italia semi-final in Italy instead. This saw Combo taking on Inter. There was one shot on target with a home side who ended with an XG of 1. Inter's XG was 0.07. There are no way Sidiad leaders resting a bunch of players though ahead of their Derby clash with the team in second place currently in Sidiad. Milan, this weekend. Less James Bond, more James Bond. Because of Combo. Yeah. I mean, it's 10 years. It's 10 years. No, no. The other semi-final will see Lancio host Atalanta on Wednesday night, first leg of that. Meanwhile in Brazil. Felipe Luis got sacked as Flamengo manager this week. In itself, you're thinking not so surprising. However, Luis, the former Chelsea left back had made Flamengo. The top team in South America. A lot of us enjoyed his, well, he witnessed his Flamengo side beating Chelsea 3-1. Remember in the club World Cup last summer? He had led them to seven titles in his 100 matches in charge, which averages atrophy every 14 games. I don't think there's ever been anything quite like that. And they won 9-0 the night before. They had just beaten Madurera. 8-0 in the Rio Jain. They can't be another Cadioca in the semi-final of that. It was the day before. I think so, yeah. Extraordinary. There's clearly a big story behind this. You know who can tell us. The recently demostatio Jack Lang. That was the other hairstyle change I was referring to to him. And he'll be joining us actually on Thursday, when Thursday is totally football shows. So I can't wait to find out what the Felipe Luis back-series, Jack, if you're listening. You could get reading up on that. Duncan, you want to use Deni? Elected to follow Everton's clash with Burnley at the Hill Dickinson. How was it? It was a game, a football that happened. And yeah, it was obviously an important game for Everton. Because their home form has gone very team a new stadium. But yeah, it was just comfortable, really. Burnley's recent revival wasn't really visible. Everton got particularly good record against Burnley, historically, and yeah, it just carried on. Okay, they've also got a really good kickoff routine. Yeah, that was probably the best bit of the game to burst. So it's like pass back, flicked up, and then just hit very, very high. So did they do that from kickoff? Yeah. Well, then there's such transsetters that Brentford did it at halftime. So it caught on quick. Really? So they hit really, really high, kind of like in a rugby... Yeah, it's basically up and under. Up and under, right? I mean, we've seen obviously, it's very popular with French things like PSG, but kicking right for the corner, just again, a rugby thing. I guess it's also a bit like a punt in American football as well. I mean, it kind of worked because the ball dropped down, Burnley cleared it and went straight to an Everton player. So I mean, some people don't like it. I think it's a bit of variety. It's better than just doing what every other team in the country does, which is passed straight back to the goalkeeper. Defenders have to try and block off the runner, and then the goalkeeper then hits it forward. You're cutting out the goalkeeper. You're cutting out the middle man, basically. David Moise cutting edge. As usual, other treats for Everton fans included James Darkowski's first goal of the season. I understand that's his first of the season. However, he got that. Ken and Jusby Hall has been on a bit of a run. That's his sixth. Dwight McNeill following his failed move to Palace, looking back to his best. Yeah, Paddy Boyle has done a nice piece on only athletics morning about, because I think one of probably the saddest trunks for Asagas of the last few years is that he was basically almost signed and sealed at Palace, and it fell through. And his partner went on social media and sort of explained how upsetting the whole thing was. And in what I can only describe as a very David Moise style manoeuvre, he apparently said to McNeill in training that he's just got to get on with it. But McNeill has got on with it. Well, apparently, he came in for the Newcastle game, did well. And did well again last night. And I think from being a figure that the Everton fans were sort of falling out of love with a bit, they're kind of behind him now. I think he'll probably still move on in the summer. But with the injuries that they've had, I think he's a decent option. We got to remember, he's still pretty young. And he was a very valued prospect at one point. Indeed. James Garner as well, having praised heaped on him, had the most touches, the most tackles, and created the most chances of any player, although the bar not necessarily that high in that game, not sure. No, I mean, Everton completed 505 of their 579 passes, which isn't that Everton. But it was just the most kind of run of the mill, one of the 380 games of the Premier League this season. But as we mentioned in a little while back, Everton, if they can start picking up some home wins, their awayforms great. They've got an outside chance of getting to the top 5. And Moys has done that. Outside chance of getting to the top 5. How many points, Duncan? They're five points behind Liverpool. So... There's a lot of teams trying to get into that top 5. But Moys has done it before when the 2004-05 and Liverpool won the Champions League. Everton came fourth that year. Do you know who they play on the final of their season? Spurs. Away. So, I mean, that could be win to stay out for spurs, when to get into the Champions League, Everton. Out of league. And it's absolutely pomp. Well, they're currently one point behind Brentford. And what would be a conference league spot? So there's every chance of a continental campaign. But many thanks for that. Jay, meantime, on Tuesday, you were following Bournemouth Brentford, which saw no goals. What was the post-match brawl? I'm still trying to work that out. But I think... To put it simply, Henderson was kicking off at full time. But I actually want to take you back a little bit earlier when he gets subbed off because he was raging. And I won't repeat exactly what the camera's picked up. But there was a lot of swearing. And he said something along the lines of every time it's me that's subbed. And that was picked up by the television cameras. So that was Eddie's manager? Wasn't Eddie's manager... Wait, it probably was that Keith Andrews. He was off the pitch. Right. So he's probably still around the halfway line when this happens. So he's not on the touchline saying that to Keith Andrews. But surely wasn't the Brentford staff that he was... No, it looks like he was kicking off at Bournemouth staff. But I'm saying he was clearly already angry and sensed that he'd come off for Yohau Yohau Yoke. And I think, you know, Henderson, he's 35. Brentford, you know, have a policy of bringing through young players in Yohau Yohau Yoke. He's still a young player, but he's played loads of games with Brentford. So it was within reason to make that substitution, especially if you're looking for a bit more energy and impetus to go and win the game. And I don't think Brentford played particularly well. But yeah, when the full-time whistle goes, Henderson is sort of separated by Ethan Pinnock, one of Brentford's substitutes and a few other people from, I think, Bournemouth's assistant coach Sean Cooper. But no idea what happened, but something must have been said because he reacted really angrily. I know Keith Andrews was asked about him. He said he had no idea. Because you can also see towards the end, Keith Andrews getting involved. Did it pass the brawl thresholds? No, I don't think it did. All right, a piece about this, a few... Thank goodness, Tim. Nice to go. All right. After the huge fines for West Ham and Chelsea, three hundred grand each for there, for that was termed a brawl. Right. And that would add more brawl elements. I think someone has to get hurt, probably, or... For it to be a brawl. Or thrown around. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think the industry standard would be the Manchester United Arsenal one in 1991, where both teams were docked to points because it was so bad. Yeah. But not quite a battle, which I think was top of my list. So Chelsea Spurs, that's a battle. Yeah, and then... Why is that a battle battle? Just because of them. Just because of them. Sustained. Sustained as opposed to one fight point. And breaking out of different... Yes. Exactly. I remember Dan Belley, who's I, he gouged, but you gouged someone's I, so... Yeah. To what extent is your whole kind of view on the parameters of brawl battle, etc? Effected by having witnessed the ice hockey Olympic final between America and Canada and some real battle and brawling. Yeah, they... I mean, they would call our brawls, you know, tickles, really. I don't... I can't remember the last time I saw... There was an inter... I think it was a Valencia game, which involved players running around and kicking each other and then running it all as fast as they can. Yeah, that really... Well, that's the Maradona at Barcelona again. Oh, yeah, yeah. Was it athletic club? To Bilbao, I think so, yeah. Well, it nearly happened in the Wars Liverpool game when I was at Santiago, when I pulled down a Eccatee and Van Dyke, I think, clattered Andre of obviously. Right, yeah. Yeah, that got tasty. Yeah, yeah, it did, yeah. But I think... Yeah. Former Frankfurt was more of handbags, I was sorry, that's in the handbags sort of mold. Oh, right. Should say that... I think at the end of the season, Brent, when we look back on this, is a valuable point, because they didn't play particularly well. Right. Cherry's twice went close to scoring and were outraged that they weren't awarded a penalty when Tavenir was brought down by Coyote, it was, I think. So brought down. Was he brought down? Yeah, I think he was. The cross is coming in from the right hand side and Coyote and Tavenir running into the box. And Coyote is looking at the ball, but you can see that I think it's his left foot kicks Tavenir's sort of like Achilles, the back of his leg, as he goes to hit the ball. And Tavenir makes contact and he hits the post, but Coyote making that contact clearly impacts his action and how smoothly he hits the ball without that, he probably scores. But nothing was given by VR. And then maybe a few minutes later, Tavenir hits the woodwork again. And then you've got this bizarre situation, I think he was in the final minutes of the game where Alcrupe has this shot and it is deflected wide by Aenus, who now, but otherwise it was going right in the bottom corner. So Brentford, I think a little bit lucky to escape, because I think they maybe had one or two shots on target but offered very little. OK, they stayed. When was the weekend for Coyote? It was a bit chaotic. So there are four points for nice two games, is decent. Brentford stays seventh in the table. If seventh gets you Europe, you've got one, two, three, four teams within four points. I think whatever happens, whether Brentford get European football or not, they might argue differently because of where they currently are. It's been a fantastic season for them. Considering the people that they lost in the summer, the fact that they went reasonably far in the carabell cup and they're in the fifth round of the FA Cup and they've got West Ham United. It's very plausible they'll get through to the next round. I think I certainly didn't predict it when you consider everything that happened in the summer, the changes. So it would be amazing if they got into Europe. It'd be the first time in the club's history that they do that. I'll be there, whoever they play in the Europa conference. You go along. Well, I'd like to think so. Maybe a reality is different. It would be incredible, but if it doesn't happen and they fall short, I think they should still look back on the season and think lots of people predicted. They maybe not get relegated, but 15, 16, 17. They made a mockery of those suggestions. What was the best finish under Thomas Frank? They finished, I think, ninth in the 22-23 season and I think they had 59 points maybe. I think they finished a point behind Brighton and a point, two points behind Dustin Villas. They were really, really unlucky. But that's the year when Tony scored 20 goals in the Premier League and then was banned for the final few games. Right. Right. Not saying that Tony's banned is why they didn't qualify for Europe. Well, impacted it. Certainly. Certainly see how that would have been the case. Very good. Leads, Sunderland also happened on Tuesday. We'll get onto that next. You're listening to The Totally Football Show with James Richards and now with you four times a week. Keep up to date with us on Insta and enjoy us in glorious Technicolor on YouTube at The Totally Show. It's March the 4th as we record this listener on this day in 1995. Man United beat Ibswitch 9-0 at Old Trafford. Inces in here's Cole with his back to go. They didn't make any difference. Into the nets. Off the woodwork. Doesn't matter how they end up in there. Which united nine. Which was at the time the biggest win in Premier League history, which at the time only amounted to what? Three seasons. So yeah, not that impressive. But still, no one's ever gone beyond the nine-0. We've had three since. Two of them involving rough hearth and hootles Southampton. And then more recently Scott Parker's Bournemouth. They lost to the Amfield nine-0. August 2022. When's the next one, Duncan? Where's our nine-nils this season? Well, the one before the Manchester United one was Liverpool beating Palace nine-0 at Amfield. So we've had two. If you count that at Amfield, we've had two involving Harzenhootle. We've had two Old Trafford. So there's the sort of nexus of possibility. I mean, I think my favourite is Leicesters because it's the way I would obviously. Southampton and they're the only team I've seen of those matches where they knew that 10-0 would have been something spectacular. And Johnny Evans missed a really good chance with about five minutes to go. Jamie Vardy absolutely berates him because he knew. Obviously, there hasn't been a team to go in 10 in the top flight since the most hated day of all. Boxing day 1963, so it would be good to... Don't even mention that. I've upset myself even. That day belongs in infamy. I was looking at the numbers earlier. I don't know how unusual this is. I'm sure Duncan will tell me. But there's only been one five-nil this season. Who was that? That was Arsenal-B leads. Okay. And there's only been four instances of a team scoring five goals. There's only so many corners you can win, though. Liverpool, five-two, Westam, Man City's five-fourth full-arm and Chelsea winning five-one at Westam. So that only four instances of five goals feels like not very many? Yeah, that is lower than normal. But is there a reason for that or is it just one of those seasons very competitive? Yeah, but season five goals. It feels that way. Well, yeah. Yeah, we've reached a point where every team in the Premier League, even Wolves at the bottom, are pretty good at football. Which is kind of what people wanted, right? I wanted a competitive Premier League and this is kind of what you get. Quite a nine-nil, though. It's been a while. They feel a bit distasteful, I'd say. I don't think anyone's watched a nine-nil in left and gone. I really, that was what football was about. No, but had it gone to 10-nil. They would have left going. Oh, yeah. Good Lord, we were there. That's the thing. All right, well, falling nine goals short on Tuesday night were Sunderland in their one-nil victory away at Erlen Road. Still pretty impressive stuff, given how much of a fortress that ground had become of late and leads recent form. Although, as I say that, when you check the numbers, it's actually not that good for leads. They've only had two wins in the last 12 matches. It's the way you want to look at it. They've only lost four or 16. Right. It's like a glass. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I actually thought this was one of Sunderland's best results this season, because they're missing half the team. Robin Roves was a late withdrawal with hamstring injury. Apparently, he pulled his hamstring while making a good save in training. Oh. But shouldn't be able to do too long. And then they're also missing Brian Brobiet front, who sort of holds the ball at well for them. Granted, Jacques was rested, because he's still coming back from injury. And then they're missing Mookie Ali and Ren Aldo at the back. And they played that way, because they knew that a lot of the good players were out. So they, I mean, they had 15% possession in the first 10 minutes. And eventually, just ground leads down and then got a dodgy, slightly dodgy penalty. And then that was it, really. Yeah. I'm smiling because you're reminding me of something really random when you mentioned Robin Roves injury. But a couple of years ago, when I was covering Brentford, they're goalkeeper Tomashtra Kosher. Man who fell off the church. Yeah. No, I was just thinking like Robin Roves injury. They're goalkeeper. I think it was only second choice at the time. But goalkeeper Tomashtra Kosher suffered an injury in training, ankle ligament injury. So he's out for a while, saving the penalty. Fair enough. So the penalty from Christopher Io, their center back. So it's such a bizarre situation to end up in. But you're saying Robin Roves just reminded me of that quirky incident. 100%. There you go. That was their only shot on target at the match. That penalty from Habib Jaira. It was terrible. It was bad. It was really bad. It was so bad that the keeper dived too far. Yes. Because the direction was bad, but also the pace was bad. So because it should hit him and rebound back. Right. But because it's so slow, he sort of tips it into the net. And the crowd actually cheer. Because they see a save. But because it all happens in slow motion, he then sort of pushes it into the net. It's really, really bad and indicative of a terrible football match. Good lord. Although I did enjoy Luke in 9's yellow card. Okay. That was another treat. So what happened there, Duncan? So the two balls, basically. And oh, 9, he's obviously the captain, but it was a big hero of Sunland in the championship and Lee won the era, but hasn't had many opportunities in the Premier League. Drafted in as Tim was saying, Sunland down some bare bones. So this season, I don't know if you would agree with me. Refs have been a lot more leaning about two balls in the pitch. If they see a ball, because obviously with the multiple system, there's a lot of times when the ball, often it's the crowd, up to no good, chucking the ball on, but generally just bounces onto the edge of the pitch. And I've seen plenty of games where the ref kind of spots it, but it kind of goes, well, that's not really interfere in the play, and waits for someone just to run past and knock out and doesn't stop the game. What I mean, it was basically player through ball into the middle of the where the game was going on. And that kind of felt like an elevation that I've not seen. And I kind of respect. So he was booked and you felt rightly. I mean, I think he's absolutely hilarious. Leater on the attack. And he basically boots the ball towards... Exactly what he's doing, if you think so. Yeah, if you look at the footage, the fact he's kicking it into the middle of the pitch, he's running from like the sideline back towards the centre of the pitch. So he's kicking it further towards the middle of the pitch. He sort of looks up to see where the player is before he does it anyways. I've seen people do it on Sunday League, which is what I find it funny, because it never gets punished there. So I've just found it hilarious that he actually has been punished. Fair play. But he did resuscitate a dog on the beach. We got to remember. Okay, let's hear about that story. I was saying he's a bad guy. No, no, but like I think we need to sort of balance the good and bad in Luke 9. He was struggling. Not so much Luke 9 is K9. Well, very much. He was in strolling along Seaburn Beach a couple of years ago. Where's that? Near Sunderland. And saw an elderly Labrador in distress. Okay. And it was dragged out. And he did see it. He'd been dragged out to see. Well, no, it was pulled out of the house. Oh, he was right. Yeah. He rushed in and carried it onto the beach. Yeah. And yeah. How did he resuscitate it? A classic, you know. Baywatchesk. Well, yeah, because. I mean, was it just pumping it up and down on the chest? I think so. Yeah, I don't think he went. I don't think he did, you know. Mathemat. Oh, quite tricky. I don't know. Big. Anyway. Anyway, he's rescued a dog. Bay's also kicked an extra football onto the picture at Elham Road. Indeed. It is only the fifth time in the Premier League this season that a team has been victorious with only one shot on target. Sunderland have had two of those, by the way, because they also did against Newcastle United in December. Leads, though. Tim, you were mentioning the positive side of their recent record, but they are now only six points clear of West Ham in 18th spot. And that could be only three points by Thursday morning. Yeah. Thomas Frank. Not Thomas Frank. What's his name? Daniel Farca. Oh. It was quite sort of philosophical about after the match. We've come close to sort of getting a win and a draw in our last few matches and that would probably be enough to keep us up next. We'd have had the champagne last night if things were going slightly differently. And yeah, they had a sort of narrow offside goal at Nile Nile. And if that goes in, you know. It's a different match. But yeah, it is two defeats in our home. One Nile. It's also the second home match in a row where they had a first half stoppage that Leads fans were not very happy about. After the incident with the stoppage for Ramadan on the weekend in Man City. This time, with Sunderland having barely touched the ball in the opening 90 minutes, their new keeper, Elborg just went down for no reason. He was almost smiling, actually. And the team went over to the dugout and had a big chat, you know, in the time-honored fashion. And we're much better after that. And the Leads fans were furious. Not sure how you get around that. I'm hearing talk of a player having to be subbed off for a minute. Or do I leave the field for you? There'd be a mandatory time that you have to be off the field to receive German. It's one of the worst examples I've seen. It was very good. Yeah, it was just so awesome. It was a wick and game a few weeks ago where the wick and keeper Will Norris did it, I think, four times in the second half, which feels excessive. But maybe the hamstring was just feeling a little bit tight. Maybe in that scenario, you just say, if you do that, the captain has to come off for a minute. Or you kick three balls onto the pitch and say, you know, it's like a sort of power play thing. How ironic listeners are thinking is that they're discussing people wasting time trying to get into an allotted amount. But here we are. We've kind of reached the end then. Unless there's anything else about Leeds, Sunderland. We're done to the black cats for reaching the 40 point mark. And we'll wait to see what Wednesday night's games do to everybody who played on Tuesday and their current positions. A lot of intrigue to come. We'll be running that up on Thursday morning in our next totally football show and looking forward, of course, to the FA Cup fifth round for now. Many, many thanks to Tim, to Jay, to Duncan, to Grayson and Charlie and the Booth. And you listener, another totally awaits on Thursday, if you'd like to join us for that for now. From all of us here, it's goodbye. You've been listening to the Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. For other great podcasts, just like this one, including the Athletic FC and our dedicated club podcasts, search for the Athletic in all the usual places. We're also at the Totally Show on Insta and at the Totally Show on YouTube. The Totally Football Show is an Athletic Media Company production. The Athletic FC.