Max Rushden is joined by Barney Ronay, Jonathan Wilson and Dan Bardell for the Guardian Football Weekly after a weekend of Premier League drama. The panel discuss Manchester United's 4-4 draw with Aston Villa, in which United twice came back from two goals down, and whether the chaos could keep Michael Carrick in charge.
They also look at the pressure on Crystal Palace's Pierre Sage, Manchester City's third straight defeat at Nottingham Forest, Leeds' win over Tottenham and the FA Cup first round. Listeners will hear differing views on what the results say about these clubs, with the panellists debating tactics, managerial futures and referee decisions.
In this episode Max Rushden, Barney Ronay, Dan Bardell, Jonathan Wilson
This episode's transcript on the Manchester United and Aston Villa draw was made with HappyScribe's Teams transcription technology.
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Hello, and welcome to The Guardian Football Weekly. What fun at Old Trafford, United 2-0 down after 4 minutes. Michael Carrick definitely gone. 2-2 at halftime, maybe not. 4-2 down after 90 minutes, definitely gone. 4-4 full-time. Who knows, is Patrick Dorgu Carrick's Mark Robbins? Hopefully the panel are happier to answer more questions than Unai Emery. Then to the City ground: Manchester City's third defeat in a row, Forest's first goals at home of the season, and the ball definitely doesn't compromise when Liam Delap hits it that hard. Of all the dead men walking going into the weekend, PSR looks the deadest, a 3-1 defeat at home to Liverpool.
They weren't terrible, but Thomas Frank looms over Selhurst Park. Reggie LeBreeze got a good win at home to Chelsea, to Liz Sundland off the bottom. Brian Brobbey was great. In the title race, Diego Gomez is having his own private goal of the season competition, while Arsenal get another 1-0 that no one will remember. Spurs complained to the PGMOL about little Butterfly and fairest player in the league, Jaden Bogle's left studs. But should they really be complaining about their own performance at Leeds? Bournemouth win their 8th in a row, and there's Tiano Barry for the Golden Boot. The FA Cup first round is excellent. Well done Wynne Bourne, almost well done to Crae and Stafford, and well done the Fog.
And then there's Amar Dedich and the Bow and Arrow. Your questions, and that's today's Guardian Football Weekly. On the panel today, Jonathan Wilson, welcome.
Morning, how are you doing?
I'm very well. Hello, Barney, Ronnie.
Hello everyone.
And good morning, Dan Bardell.
Good morning. It was not fun at Old Trafford, just to interject on your introduction.
Yeah, let's start there. Manchester United 4, Aston Villa 4. And I have written, well, this was great fun. I understand, Dan, from your point of view, not fun. A hilarious start to the game, a ludicrous end to it. By the end, Barney, I'm not really sure where this leaves us, but I would like more of it.
It was amazing. I was thinking about it this morning. I saw two I began my weekend by watching the I went to the reissue of the Ken Russell film, "The Devils," which is just an absolutely deranged spectacle that they've restored. It's about the bubonic plague, the Catholic Inquisition in a tiny French village. It's wild, it's delirious, it's fetishizing of objects, people in total uproar, broken city walls, messianic imagery.
I also ended my weekend by watching Man United 4, Aston Villa 4. And there was a very interesting synergy between the two events. I mean, that Old Trafford crowd is amazing, isn't it? There's nothing that provides theater quite like that. Obviously, there's so much wrong here, and the team is just this kind of pop-up entity with a sad-looking manager in blue, damp blue wool. But I actually love it. I love the theater of this. I love the fact that nobody we always have to interpret what the crowd are cheering.
Well, they're cheering this, but not that. They want this, but they don't want that. They're sending different messages with what they wear and the banners. But basically, Old Trafford is like a rejection of so many things. It's sort of become this kind of statement of love of an abstract object, which is the club itself, which exists outside the club itself and the physical buildings and the people who populate it. Do you love the players or not love the players? Do you love them sometimes? It just feels like the opposite. It's an irrational, emotional spectacle that feels incredibly real in a time of kind of unreality.
And the staging of comebacks is a really unlikely not for Dan on this occasion, unlikely, unexpected thing that's become attached to it. And I just want this to carry on. I could watch that constantly. Gary Neville's worried about the players suffering emotional trauma from doing a lap of victory after a 4-4 draw. But this is exactly what they should be doing. They're earning their money. It's incredible theater. And it's a real shame we now have to have an international break and we can't just watch one of those games every day.
Yeah. Quite impressive, Wilson, for Manchester United to be two goals down three times in two games and not lose either of those games. I don't know if what does it shows they have some resilience, right? They have not down. Tools for Michael Carrick. But also, defensively, they are extraordinary. I mean, Villa 2, we'll get to them, Dan, don't worry. But Manchester United were defensively extraordinary in this game.
I mean, they did down Tools for part of the game. They then picked them up with gusto and vigor. I mean, I guess it makes some kind of sense. If you play your best football when you're 2-0 down, it makes sense to go two goals behind as early as possible in each half, right? Because then the fun bit for the crowd is the majority of the game. So look, it's not a long-term recipe for success, is it? How do you defend that badly twice?
It just doesn't make any sense at all. Maybe trying to confer sense on it is just the wrong policy. This is just a sort of wild, inexplicable thing. And it's loads of fun to watch. It's not going to get them into Europe or win any titles or anything. It might not even get them out of relegation trouble. It's one of those things that I remember when I did my history in Manchester United, looking back at the game where they lost 5-0 at Sellers Park in was it November or December of 1972?
When Crystal Palace were bottom of the table, which is starting to sound quite familiar, that Palace bottom of the table, United in the relegation zone, and then Palace hammer them. And that led to Franco Fowler being sacked, and Tommy Docherty was in the stand that day, insisted he was there in his capacity as Scotland manager, looking at Scottish players. But I mean, obviously, when you then get appointed Manchester United managing the following week, you have your suspicions. When I wrote that book, which was what, 10 years or so ago, so I said, how on earth could this happen? How could Manchester United be this bad?
How could they lose 5-0 at Sellers Park? How could they be in the relegation zone? And now it's happened. It sort of feels, well, yeah. I mean, maybe it's just a boiling frog thing that we got so conditioned to them being useless that it doesn't seem anything extraordinary that they're in the bottom. People are sort of breathless, like, oh, it's the first time they've been in the relegation zone after 10 games since 1988. And you sort of think, well, yeah, but they've been playing really badly. That's what you'd expect. But at the same time, they've had three rousing comebacks in two games in the space of a week.
So how are you meant to analyze that? It's like some sort of great sort of art project of sort of resisting interpretation. Interpretation is itself a patriarchal construct that we should reject.
Dan, you know that Villa have a terrible record at Old Trafford. So how many times in this game did you think Villa have won this?
A zero, as demonstrated. I've got proof. Barry was texting me through the game, and at not one point did I feel safe at all. Unfortunately, when look, Villa have got an awful record against Manchester United. Jonathan said they've won three times there since what was the year? Sorry, Jonathan.
I think it's three times since '56. I think it was the stat they flashed on the screen.
Yeah. I mean, my dog is very upset by this record, as you can probably hear in the background.
Well, of course. I apologize for that. I think that's what's going through his mind, yeah.
No, the dog is objecting to Wilson talking about his books. I agree with the dog.
This really isn't a podcast for him.
No, I mean, weren't we all objecting to that? Anyway, apologies. So look, when Villa had a bad record and Sir Alex Ferguson was manager, that was okay. I could deal with that. In the little over a decade since he left and Villa continuing to have an abhorrent record at Old Trafford, that I cannot deal with. Villa unfortunately managed to indulge Manchester United every time that they play them. Only thing they have been good at since Sir Alex Ferguson departed is when games become chaotic and they become end-to-end and they become a little bit like a basketball game.
Now, Villa somehow at 2-0 up managed to let that happen. And somehow, when they were 4-2 up with six minutes of stoppage time left to play, they managed to allow that to happen again. And look, when it got back to 4-4, Villa did one of the weirdest kickoff routines I have ever seen in my life, where they all decided to just charge up the pitch. And I thought Manchester United were going to score again and win the game 5-4. I just can't get my head around what happens to my football club when they set foot on that pitch. I mean, Unai Emery's lost his mind at the end.
I'm sure the fans have lost their mind in the crowd. I've lost my mind. The players have lost their mind. Everybody just loses their mind when Aston Villa have to take on Manchester United. And someone posted a reply to my post on X saying, only Aston Villa could lose a game twice. We didn't even lose the game, but it feels like we did lose the game twice. It is, I hate that fixture. I hope they get relegated just so I don't ever have to watch Villa play at Old Trafford again, or at least get a few years off from watching Aston Villa play at Old Trafford.
It is, I can't explain it.
I wonder for YouTube viewers will see that Barney has moved from the kitchen to another kitchen or maybe the study. I don't know where we.
Sort of living room area.
Right, the living room area.
I'm trying to, Max, you're drawing back the curtain on the magic of trying to find a better Wi-Fi connection. I was doing it for the people.
Oh, well, that's very good of you.
That was sort of, that felt very cinematic. You walking through your house, the microphone somehow not moving at all while Dan was going slowly mad in the background. It was.
Yeah. With a dog barking crazy. I mean, it's sort of not unlike trying to analyze that is a bit like the.
It's what people call performative. And now you understand what Manchester United means.
Yeah. Is it worth going through the goals? I don't know. Like, Barney, Sammy Lemmons doesn't look as good. I mean, that mistake at the World Cup. I don't know if that is just, you know, it shoots your confidence and then it's so hard to build it up. Obviously, he doesn't have a confident defense in front of him, you know, because like Dallow's foul is completely ridiculous for that penalty. And then, like, you know, the Lenny Yoro header is absolutely spectacular in, I'm not sure what he's trying to do. Like, it's sometimes you concede 4, but you can't concede 4 where they're all your fault.
Yeah, it's very hard to judge a goalkeeper, I think, really, when you're playing in a team that is irrational and which presents really we always tend to blame center backs for goals where they seem a little bit exposed and they're not able to do some one-on-one defending. But I don't think managers always see it like that if they're really into analyzing where these things start. I think it must be incredibly difficult to be a Manchester United goalkeeper because goalkeeping is all about judging really fine decision-making and predictable patterns and making instant choices that then expose either right or wrong in the moment.
And if the parts around you are irrational, strange, and engaged in weird seesawing matches that remind you of sort of Catholic witch burning in the 16th century, then it's also, he's new to the team and the players in front of him change a lot. So I think judging the goalkeeper is really the most sort of outcome-based thing we could do. Nobody knows if he's any good or not. And like the managers, they seem to be getting a series of unreliable goalkeepers. Maybe it's something else.
Yeah, yeah. But then, Wilson, who of the Man United squad can we actually analyze? You know, like, you'd sort of see this world where Joshua Zertseel go to Real Sociedad and score 25 goals next season. Like, it's so difficult to say. And I suppose the obvious question is, will Michael Carrick be there when we're back after the international?
Well, who knows? I mean, how on earth can I answer that question? Look, if they're basing it on the last two games, I guess they're given the benefit of the doubt that there have been comebacks. There is a sense, as you said, that the squad is still fighting for him. But it's entirely possible that they made a decision a week, 10 days ago, and they'll use an international break to bring in whether that's Eddie Hare, whether it's Yudhi Nagelsmann, whoever it is.
And that decision was already taken. Unless you're actually in the boardroom, how do you know?
They're just trying to line up a successor. That's all that's happening. And this is what happened before. The one time with Manchester United that I feel I'm in the hands of a slick, orderly, professional machine is when they have to hire a panic, panic hire a manager midway through a season. I suddenly feel things are predictable, that they've been here before, sit back, let us take control of this, international break coming up. They will have an alternative lined up. It's obvious that Michael Carrick was good at the thing he was hired for, which was to make sense of that team last year, one game a week.
Nobody really knows how you're going to play restore order. And he did the job he was hired for really well. But he's not at the same level as the people he's up against every week. It's really hard to be a Premier League manager. People are constantly studying what you do and reacting to it in game. And he's just not at that level. And he's managing three games a week. So he could say this is actually a success. He was hired for that one job. And he did it really well. But it's obvious that he's not the long-term prospect. And I suspect he will be replaced in this break.
It all depends on whether they manage to get the right bloke on the phone.
What did you make, Dan, of Unai Emery afterwards? He was with, I think, was it Patrick Davison's guy? And he was annoyed that the goal, the equalizer was, well, after the allotted amount of injury time or something like that. But he was in a bit of a snippy mood.
I mean, I can't blame him. I think he does have to take some responsibility himself. I didn't like the substitutions. I've personally felt like the substitutions were made with a view that the game was already won, which we know is never the case at Old Trafford. And people are going to be bored of me talking in that manner. I felt like he was just trying to say he walked off because the stoppage time was over and he knew the whistle was going to go. But I don't know whether something got lost in translation. But yeah, he's going to be absolutely devastated. It's the only ground, one of the only grounds he hasn't won at since he's become Aston Villa manager.
I think it's the only ground perhaps he hasn't won at in terms of managing Arsenal and Villa in the Premier League. He's slipped into the Villa mold of, we'll just go there and everything that can go wrong possibly will go wrong. But obviously, he's annoyed and pissed off after the game, as you'd expect. I'm more worried about what I saw on the pitch rather than what I heard from Emery after the game, to be honest.
Sure. Sure. And I guess with that, you've got Camara at 2-0. That challenge is so daft. You've got Suzuki flapping again and making a mistake. He's slightly nudged by Lammens there. It was the one positive thing that Lammens did in the game, I think. But yeah, there are mistakes from Villa as well in this game.
Yeah, I think Villa have lost the ball in dangerous areas more than any other team this season. They've lost the ball in their own half, I think, more than any other team this season. There's why. I find unforgivable, to be fair. And Suzuki has made a mistake last week against Fulham, and he's been brilliant up until that point. And I guess the true mark of where he was at as a goalkeeper and the first real test of him was going to be after he'd made a mistake.
And so far, he hasn't exactly passed that test with flying colors, albeit. He did actually make some good saves in the game as well. I think it's probably a foul, but I find it pretty futile for Villa to be in that position in the first place and try and complain about a foul on the goalkeeper from a set piece, because Villa should never have been under that amount of pressure at the end of the game. The game was won. The 90th minute, Villa were 4-2 up. And in all honesty, if I look at it logically, the why Villa defended at 2-0 was way worse than how they defended at 4-2.
Like Manchester United didn't really do anything until stoppage time. But we should just never allow ourselves to be in that position. So I can't sit here and claim referee bias or anything like that. We've lost the game because that's what we haven't lost the game. We've drawn the game in the way that we did because that's what I never as a draw felt more like a defeat in my entire life.
Yeah. I mean, I guess you're under threat to sue the PGMO.
Yes, sir.
That could happen. Unai Emery, Colin Miller writing, has managed eight matches as an away team at Old Trafford in English football. His team have had seven different leads: 1-0, 2-1, 1-0, 2-1, 2-0, 2-0, 4-2 against Mourinho, Solskjær, Ten Hag, Amorim, Carrick. Emery has not won any of those games. Maybe next time, eh? To the City ground then. Forest 3, City 1. City's third loss in a row. The Premier League would be quite pleased if they're nowhere near the top of the league when the sanctions hit. Now I, Barney, am a Liam Delap Truther.
I've spoken about this before. He is a walloper. And I mean that as a compliment because he's like Shira. There's no subtlety. It's just smack the thing. And when it works, God, it's joyous. Like both those finishes are just so delightful.
It's a bit harsh on Alan Shira, isn't it? This is a pretty good finish.
Do you think there was subtlety to Shira? I mean, he was a brilliant finisher, but he wasn't subtle. Like when he was through, he hammered it.
Well, Max, I've actually got Alan Shira here.
Alan, okay, great.
And he's going to come. No, I mean, yeah, Shira is brilliant. But I mean, it was subtle in a way in that he did wallop it. But the second one on his sort of weaker left foot into the top corner. I mean, if that's brute force, then just hook me up to Liam Delap's brute force for the rest of my life. Because yeah, it was really beautiful. You know, he can do that. He is a really, even though he hasn't really been scoring, he works really hard.
And he obviously helps other players in whatever team he's in because his running is a real distraction to any defense. And he sort of has a way of bouncing people off him. He's kind of, there's a bobby-ish, bobby-esque element there. But those two finishes were just totally Moorish. And that's how you'd want to score, isn't it? If you could just do that once in your life, like smash the ball in your left foot, it's like clangs what I'm going to call the stonchin in that way, bangs across the goal.
You've won the game. Oliver Glasner is running towards you in a really strange sort of high kicking and skinny-legged kind of run where he's just lost his mind. I mean, I think the commentator on the TV actually said that's the greatest moment of his career so far. And it probably is. And it was a really well-deserved win. They were really good and exposed the problems structurally in that Man City team, which it seemed mainly to be based around getting the midfield to work. It turns out buying lots of expensive midfielders, buying them all together in the team, doesn't always work.
Tell us about that midfield then, Wilson.
Maresca seems to have his obsession with Enzo Fernandez. I think you saw this at Chelsea as well. And look, Fernandez is a really high-level player, but he's not that physical. And so I think you saw times at Chelsea when you played him and Cole Palmer on the same side, they could get overwhelmed in midfield. And it's the same when he's playing with Ryan Cherki. Leaves a lot of work for Elliot Anderson to do. And you've got this paradox with Maresca's sides that because they play such a high line, they are vulnerable to players running at them directly or to balls in behind.
And so their passing tends to be quite cautious. And that's something that frustrated fans at Leicester, frustrated them at Chelsea. But actually, you've got exactly the same problem. If you've got lightweight players, you get bullied off the ball. And that was what happened. I mean, the first goals, I guess, is slightly different in that it's Gvardiol gets beaten to it by Joao Cunha. But then Cunha gets a run. There's nobody in his way. It's him, a line of defenders, and he goes straight between Diaz and Gay and scores. The second goal is exactly the same, except that the ball's won much earlier.
Schlager wins it and feeds it to Delap, who then runs 50 yards. You know the goal last week, the Morgan Rodgers goal for Chelsea against United?
Yeah.
And the way sort of Harry Maguire seemed to sort of run out of the way. I realized it was sort of a similar dynamic that Diaz had Schlager. So as Diaz is looking at it, he's got Schlager coming on his right. So he thinks, if I go to the ball, that ball's just getting slipped behind me and Schlager's in. So I've got to sort of half-cover Schlager. And Gay is performing the Lisandro Martinez role of not covering across because there's nobody on Gay's side. Gay is the one who's got to go to the ball, and he doesn't. And there's just this huge channel that Delap runs into.
And I've seen Forest now three times live this season. And the difference in Delap from the games against Arsenal and Brentford and after he scored that first goal is incredible. I mean, yeah, I take Barney's point. He works hard. He makes things difficult for defenders. And Glasser spoke about that after the Brentford game, that even though he, I mean, he sort of had one half chance that he skied, I think, at Brentford. I don't remember any other chances. But you could see that he was not confident in the ball.
In that first finish, I think he's basically just smashing it into the middle of a goal. And Donovan would dive out the way. Donovan has made mistakes recently. I don't think that's a mistake. In a one-on-one, you're sort of gambling. But from then on, Delap was a different player. He was so good leading the line, smashing into players. He and Gibbs White have a great understanding. There was two or three half chances before they got the third goal, his second goal. And he suddenly looked a proper player again. And you realize just how appalling the Chelsea project is.
And you see the same with Nicholas Jackson. A good player or a good young player who's suddenly dumped into an environment that's not set up for them, where there's no obvious developmental pathway, where too much is expected too soon, their confidence goes. And then they need to be nurtured back to their true form. And Jackson and Delap have got back or are getting back. There's a whole load of players. Chelsea's had four young players.
Well, it was a Mad Away Day weekend as well, wasn't it? He's probably had his best game. The recovering Chelsea players, there's an interesting.
Yeah, it's sort of my substack today. So thanks for putting me on the podcast.
Oh, where can we read that? Is there any kind of link or anything?
Oh, I'm sure we could put one in the show description.
Right.
I'm S tier. I pay for the full Wilson tier, £20,000. And then Wilson, I get him to, he rings me up and he reads me one of his books to sleep every single night. And yeah, it's a lot of money, but it's worth it. I was just thinking about Gay playing the Lisandro Martinez role. That is, of all the roles you could pick as a center back, that was the wrong role. That is definitely the wrong role to pick at the moment. I do wonder, Dan, it's not really a fair question because how are you going to know?
But do you think the uncertainty of the charges has any impact on footballers on a pitch? I don't know if there's none or because it is all fine margins, etc. But you know, you sort of seen quite a few City players just having being bad, you know, having individually bad games. And I don't know if that is, I am putting two and two and getting five. But I just wonder if collectively there is, you know, chat in the dressing room, chat in WhatsApp groups, whatever, where are you going to be in January, where are you going to go next year, etc., that may have had some impact on them losing three in a row.
I think it must have some impact. But then I would also say the warning signs were there before kind of the big news broke that they were guilty. They were conceding a lot of goals. They were having problems in transition. I think the difference has been over the last three games that, well, maybe not the last three because I think the Brighton win at City was very different. But certainly with my team Villa and Forest beating Manchester City, they have been punished for mistakes, structural problems that they've had. Whereas maybe in other games, they were just having enough going forward to get through that and come out the right end of it.
They, interestingly for this one, went back to the same team that struggled in transition against Villa, which I thought was a strange move. Jonathan's already spoke about the midfield problems. I think it's playing as day that you're asking Elliot Anderson to get through too much work. Mark Gayey, since the news has come out, in fairness, has fallen off a cliff. He's had some awful performances. He was awful again, I thought, did absolutely nothing for the second goal. And Forest identified that if they started with purpose, they would force mistakes out of Manchester City.
And that's exactly what happened. And unfortunately for City, Forest, I think, had a game like they haven't had this season where they took their chances, some unbelievable finishes from Liam Delap. That hasn't happened for Forest in the games previous. So I do think it's probably accumulation of things from Manchester City's point of view. But to answer your question, I struggle to see how it can't have some form of impact.
Yeah, it's a really interesting question, unanswered question that it's really hard for any of us to know. And at some point, we will find out because players will talk. But the effect of that on a dressing room is really extraordinary. There's no precedent for it. And it's impossible to know what. But I find it impossible to believe it won't have some effect on your levels away from the game, even in training, even when you're thinking about your future, just a sense of distraction in the background. I mean, I got in trouble a couple of weeks ago with lots of Man City fans who are angry that you'll be surprised to hear that I had written an article about Mark Gayey.
It just struck me that.
Yeah, it was an interesting piece.
Well, thanks, Max.
That's all right.
But the reason I wrote that is because where I live here, I live really near his church. And the people at his church come around to my house quite a lot knocking on the door and telling me about Jesus because it's an evangelical church. And that's part of their thing. And it's fine. They're nice people. I actually don't mind them interrupting me during the day to talk about Jesus. But it kind of lodged this thing in my head. I mean, Mark Gaye, he didn't want to play a game of the traitors when he was with England because he couldn't bring himself to do it because it involves deception, even in a kind of playful, consensual way.
And to him.
The James Acaster of the England squad.
Yeah, I would. People's religion is their own business. But it's also a proselytizing evangelical religion that says it's not your own business. It's actually a duty to go and tell people about this. So that's why he wears messages on his kit and does the kind of public praying thing. And that's fine. I'm secure enough in my total godless atheism to know it's not going to convert me. But those practices are also illegal in Abu Dhabi, which is where we now know was the direct entity topping up the sponsorship deals.
It just raises lots of interesting moral questions. If he can square that in his own mind and do a kind of a wall between those things and there's some logic that that's fine. But I think it's right to be interested when we're watching these players in public all the time in such close detail. It's fascinating to know what effect this has on them. And it's an unanswerable question. None of us know. They're so good at what they do and so good at compartmentalizing that maybe it's just completely fine. And once you're out there, you're in tunnel vision. I hope that it is fine and that it's not something because that could be quite a traumatic experience.
Like I don't see how those things really square. And I think it's a legitimate question to ask as well, particularly because we listen to players' advocacy and political views in every sphere. And if we're going to do that, I would like to know how things like that work really in practice.
Less importantly, this season, when he knocks on the door, is he woefully out of position? So you answer the door and he's just stood in the front garden. He's just not there on the doorstep where he has been like consistently year after year until this season. Anyway, that'll do for part one. Part two, we'll begin with PSR under pressure at Palace. Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly. FSA Award nominations open for 2026.
We are up for podcast of the year. So vote for us. Guardian's up for men's football media of the year. Lucy Ward for TV Radio Pundit. Guardian women's football weekly for women's football media of the year. Susie Rack for writer of the year. Seb Hutchinson and Robin Carman up for commentator of the year. So go to our social media and vote for us, please. Podcast is question six. Click football weekly and submit. Look, we talked about the month of the year.
None of us are fair in the individual awards. Lots of people who aren't on the pod today for individual awards, but none of us.
Hey, we win as a team. We lose as a team. And look, we talked about managers under pressure. And you'd imagine the most likely voice note, if it merits a voice note after we record, would be PSR, Dan, at Palace after that defeat to Liverpool?
Yeah, I feel sorry for him because I thought Crystal Palace were actually quite good, particularly in the first half, like quite easily could have gone ahead and get them done via a set pace. Just the story of their season, isn't it? It was always going to end in tears. I think you knew pretty early on that it wasn't going to work out for PSR at Crystal Palace. But I think the board have probably given him as much time as they possibly could. And you get to this juncture before the international break. And if you're where Crystal Palace are, you're always going to be vulnerable.
From a Palace perspective, I guess they've been here before many, many times where normally they would knock at Roy Hodgson's door. I'm not sure they're going to do that. I think they've knocked at Tony Pulis' door before, Neil Warnock at Alan Parjer. I imagine Sean Dyche is going to be where they're probably going to turn. But I think he'll count himself a little bit unfortunate because they've done well in the Europa League. But I don't think you can be where Palace are. And being in the Premier League is so important for a club like Crystal Palace or any club financially.
I don't think you can be where they are right now and not make the change. But I do think they've given him a decent crack.
Although, you know, the recruitment has not been great considering the players they lost. Thomas Frank is the favorite. Wilson, a good idea?
Yeah, probably. I mean, if a Joby did a benefit, it was obviously exceptional. I think we increasingly see that clubs like Brentford, Brighton, maybe Bournemouth, there's something about that ecosystem that gets the best out of the people there. So maybe it's not instantly transferable to Palace as another club of a similar stature on the periphery of London. But he would make more sense to me than Sean Dyche certainly. I can see the sort of the attraction of Dyche to try and tighten up that defense. But I just feel a bit sorry for PSR. I was at the Newcastle game where they were dreadful.
And he just sort of seemed sort of a pleasant man who'd bumbled into the wrong setting. That in the press conference, questions got gradually more aggressive. And it sort of culminated in somebody saying to him, I don't know if you remember that game, but it was a terrible first half, which nothing happened. And Palace maybe had sort of three half chances. And the second half, we can see twice in the first 10, 15 minutes. And it's something sort of, what did he say to the halftime, given they were so bad that first 10, 15 minutes of the second half? Rather than seeing this as being sort of quite a sort of a jive at him, just sort of answers in great detail, exactly the conversation, almost in real time.
It sort of took about 12 minutes to answer. Where he said, oh, yeah, we were talking about the height of the wingbacks and the way that Newcastle were trying to play those long diagonals to get in behind disaster. And they'd be sitting there going, ah, I mean, on the one hand, this is a good answer because it's completely taken the wind out of the sails of the aggression because everybody's now just really bored. And we can't, this is material that is mildly interesting on a sort of, oh, that's what they were thinking. But you can't, you know, there's no way of using it in a piece. It's too technical. It's too in-depth. But on the other hand, it's just, okay, this is a man who does not understand English football.
He is not kind of, he's not reading the room at all well. I mean, as I say, maybe it was a brilliant deflectionary tactic, but he hadn't shown any of that deflection in the earlier part of the press conference. So I think he's obviously a gifted coach. He did very well in Ligue 1 last season. But he's got this fundamental problem with that he keeps saying, oh, the way I defend is to have a ball. Well, Palace have got the fourth worst possession stats in the league. So that's a problem. Either the players aren't good enough to keep the ball, in which case they're going to concede goals, or the message isn't getting through and they're conceding goals.
Either way, they're conceding goals. And he doesn't really seem to have an alternative vision to put that right. And maybe those players could never put that right.
Meanwhile, Barney, Liverpool sometimes may be good, etc. I mean, they were good on the break here. Florian Wirtz scored. Nice assist for Isak. His little Isak's touch was great as well. They were, you know, they are inconsistent, but you can see there is good stuff there.
Yeah, anything that makes Florian Wirtz work and fit and do things and function in that team is good. And I'm really desperate for this Liverpool team to kind of work in some way, partly just for the sake of the league. Like somebody has to provide a counterpoint to Arsenal. And the way that Liverpool team's been constructed is interesting. You know, they've decided to go all in on sort of high technique players and on players who can create things in small spaces rather than kind of like systems attack and set pieces and transitions.
And that is an interesting counterpoint. I was looking at the table and thinking what's really missing here is there should be a two-hander going on. There should be two teams of contrasting styles at the top of the table. There should be Arsenal doing what Arsenal do very efficiently. And there should be someone pushing them who play a different way. There should be Newcastle 1996 playing a wilder. There should be some sort of dichotomy here. But there's something really missing. There's just a blank space of six points where that team is supposed to be, which is providing a contrast to the way Arsenal play and making the way they play more interesting, giving it more of an interesting counterpoint.
And I think that should be Liverpool because they are set up a different way, even though they have a manager now who's not, his tactics don't necessarily fit the players they've spent vast amounts of money on to play that. His system is not that. He wouldn't want Alexander Isak really if he was able to choose his ideal number nine. But he's playing with what he's got. And if he can make that work, they do have loads of talent in that squad if they can fit the players into the right spaces. Again, site problems in midfield.
But somebody has to fill that gap of points where there should be an interesting team of high technique players pushing Arsenal. And I just sort of want it to be Liverpool, I suppose, for non-Parisian reasons because it would make me feel good.
Could it be Brighton, Barney?
Yeah, 100%. But that's an entirely different prospect, isn't it? There's a lot of people there going into three quarters of a season trying to push for top of the table that they've never done it before. It would be great if it were them. They're just fantastic to watch, aren't you? Obviously, the goals are fantastic.
Gomez's goal is unbelievable.
It's a casual, nonchalant, left-footed half-volley that is perfectly placed and almost just destroys the net. That's a dream goal. That's me with the tennis ball one in every thousand times kicking a ball against a wall. And it doesn't get much better than that. And to pull that from the game is just sublime skill, isn't it? And I like the manager. I like the way he annoys people. He's a bit of a disruptor. The hug at the end is always slightly forced with his opposite number because he is a difficult, spiky, tricky person.
And that makes me think that he might actually really have something. Everyone wants them to continue. So yes, maybe they can fill that gap.
Just as a note of pedantry, I'm not sure if the Diego Gomez strike is a half-volley. I think it's, I think the ball is too high off the ground. I maybe have to watch it again. Whereas I would say Ray and Cherkies, which we didn't get to, which was a brilliant goal, was just on the cusp of half-volley. But I'm happy to open that to the floor as it feels precious to me.
I think I broadly agree with you, yeah. I'm not aware of all regulations, but what you're saying sounds correct. And if Jonathan agrees with you, I'm going to agree with you as well.
What would you describe that as if you're doing a matchup? Has he struck the bouncing ball with great first time?
I think you can hit the ball on the volley with it not being a volley at all. I believe, you know, it is just a, you know, it's a bouncing ball, yeah. I think so. That's where my definitions get slightly muddied because obviously a volley has to be a volley and a half-volley is on the bounce and this is just a strike, but it's not a strike on the ground.
If you want to go to micro level, the ball is always bouncing. The ball is never flat on the grass. Every single kick of the ball is a half-volley. I mean, how close, what margins, if you're saying the closer to the ground the more it is a half-volley.
Well, no, I don't want to be that, you know, when it's rolling on the ground, it's rolling on the ground for me. Even if he is tiny little microscopic bounce.
We have, things are either correct or not correct. Do you not believe in truth?
Well, Producer Joel says 20 minutes to go, six games in the FA Cup to get through. So just on the Tiago red card, Dan, it's really annoying. And maybe it is just a forearm smashed to the face. You're not allowed to do it. But he's provoked and he's not really trying to punch him in the face. And I sort of think, I'd love this idea of a, it's a straight red, but the ref goes, but he was really provoked, so it's a yellow. I don't know if that's a totally stupid idea.
And I'm sure there are some difficultly explained rules in the handbook, but I'm not sure how you would explain that in the FA handbook. It's the second time I've been on in recent weeks where you are advocating violence, Max. A few weeks ago, it was the Brentford headbutt the other week. Brentford and violence, you seem to be on board with from what I can gather from the last few.
Is that Yanel? I have a blind spot.
I think he's pretty unlucky here because. Your chairman gets up into him, sort of is deliberately getting you up in a provocative way. He just sort of shrugs him off and his hand happens to catch him in the mouth. So I don't know, maybe there's an angle that makes it look worse than that. But when I first saw it, it didn't occur to me it was anything. And then, oh, he split his lip. Well, maybe that's not good. But I think it's pretty harsh. You see far worse things on a football pitch that are not punished with cards. So I think he's a bit unlucky.
We'll get to the butterfly, Jaden Bogle, shortly. Arsenal won home nil. I mean, you're saying, Barney, you want an interesting fun team to be challenging this Arsenal team who are sort of doing enough. And they're going to win the league by just doing enough, aren't they?
Yeah, I mean, that's slightly framed in a way that suggests I'm saying Arsenal are not interesting and fun. I'm sure it is if you're an Arsenal fan. And they are an interesting team. I mean, they're a brilliant team, brilliant feat of coaching, all that kind of stuff. It's interesting, Noni Madueke is having a good few games. Another player who's escaped from the kind of exposed reactor core that is Chelsea slash Chernobyl, West London. And he's having a run in the team. I mean, there was a lot of talk about whether Arsenal would miss Bukayo Saka, which I thought was slightly overplayed.
If you've watched Bukayo Saka in the last year and a half, you probably think, yeah, they'd be all right. And it's nice to see him actually having a decisive effect on games. And also, Martin Ødegaard playing when is really important for them if they want to improve on last season. And he is playing quite well. There's a lot of will for him to be playing slightly better than he is, I think. But, you know, he's still getting back to what he was. And they're simply doing the thing they're supposed to do, which is win games, not concede goals. They haven't scored many and haven't scored many away from home.
And I wonder if that's a concern. I think Havertz has got three this season as their top scorer. They've done this before a lot. Goals shared around the team, which is not something that I have any problem with. I think it's a sign of a functioning team that will win things. But yeah, they roll on.
Perhaps uninteresting laws of the game news was the pull by Noble Mendy on Havertz when Havertz was in an offside position. And Farah Elam went to the screen or was told by VAR and then sort of in a good pantomime way announced to the crowd that there'd been a pull. It's a bit like sort of Louis Walsh in X Factor going, it's not good news, it's great news, you're coming to New York. But sort of made the Arsenal fans think that they were going to get a penalty and said, actually, but it was offside, so don't worry about it.
But then it turns out that VAR and he were wrong because if you are in an offside position, but you're fouled, the foul takes precedence. Anyway, it seems like it's not.
Well, but only in certain circumstances because the issue is whether they're challenging for the ball. So because the ball hadn't arrived, then it seems technically it should have been a penalty. But that seems just bonkers to me. That law is a nonsense law.
It is. The ball will never have arrived, will it? Because the pass is going to be from somewhere else, isn't it? You're going to be in the offside position before the ball's arrived, aren't you?
Zeno.
Anyway, yeah, it is a ridiculous law. And change it. Sunderland won Chelsea nil. Huge win for Sunderland this. Off the bottom of the table. They lost Granite Jacket early in the game. But Wilson, Brian Broby was sensational in this football match.
Yeah, he was. I mean, Sunderland have been odd this season in that they've been far too easy to play for. You can't say they've played well. I was up there on Thursday night for a Zagreb game where they were pretty dreadful. Two nil down at halftime. And yeah, in that game, they also hit the woodwork three times and had a goal ruled out for an hour offside. So it could have been different. I think that's been the sense all season that they haven't been far off. I think that's why there's still patience with Regista de Vries. But yeah, Broby was, I mean, his absence, he got a hamstring injury the last international break.
And he played two games before the weekend. I think this is the first game where he really looked fully fit again. But it makes a huge difference. Maybe the penalty is a little bit fortunate in that he's holding Colwill's shirt. But I think what makes a difference is he gets away from Colwill and Colwill then keeps holding him. So they're no longer jostling for the ball. And there's a sort of a little clip on the back of his thigh, which makes him clip his own ankle. So it's maybe a little bit fortunate. But it's a kind decision Sunderland have been getting this season. They've got it. And then I think they defended very well second half.
And they had plenty of other chances. They could have won it more than one nil. So a much-needed win and hopefully Bobby back.
Yeah. And what did you make of Chelsea, Wilson?
I mean, they've very hit and miss. I mean, basically, if they don't score in the first 10 minutes of a half, they don't score, do they? I don't really understand what's going on there. Something's gone on. Something's happening with the first 10 minutes of halves. Newcastle at Palace, Villa at Old Trafford. There's something happening. The start of games, start of halves. There is a weird thing this season. I don't understand it. Hopefully, somebody else will do the research and find out what it is and tell me. Then I can present it as my idea. But it is odd. But they just seem a little bit, it's a bit lightweight.
And, you know, they, look, Bobby can bully any defender, but they really were bullied. And it's the third time he's done it in three games.
Why would Chelsea buy Danny Welbeck and then not use him for the exact thing that they bought Danny Welbeck for when their center forward is out and then try this strange hybrid formation without a striker that clearly doesn't bring the best out of any of the players? I cannot understand for the life of me why you would buy like a focal point striker and then not play him when your main goal scorer is out. It makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever.
Because the person picking the team and trying to make it work is not the person buying the players. And they have inadequate communication. The whole project is that. It's weird because I think Danny Welbeck is actually a really good center forward. But you know, we don't have experience. We don't have game management. We don't have a kind of deep soul with them. Let's buy Jordan Henderson and Danny Welbeck because they have experience. It's one of the funniest things any team's ever done.
It's the most literal-minded way of trying to solve something. And yeah, then not to play Welbeck when you really, really lack a center forward is really odd. I agree. It doesn't make any sense. But clearly, that's part of the problem. It's really interesting to see someone who is a good systems manager trying to make something that just completely doesn't work and hasn't been assembled with any kind of logic fit a pattern. That in itself is quite interesting. But the thing it produces, not so much.
All right, that'll do for part two. Part three, we'll begin with Lee's victory over Spurs. Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly. So only Leeds' second Premier League win over Spurs in 14 attempts. Daniel Farkas' first win over them as a Premier League manager ended Leeds' five-game winless run and Spurs' three-game renaissance. And Barney, Leeds totally deserved this victory.
Yeah, they did. It was one of those games where Tottenham just didn't seem to start.
Exist. They just didn't exist.
Yeah, to exist as a thing. Like they were just there as kind of dressing. And it was about Leeds and the momentum of that team. And, you know, Leeds at home, Leeds away for Spurs is a really difficult game. And you need to be really emotionally engaged and ready to kind of do those sort of things like fighting and winning duels and all that stuff. And Spurs just didn't seem ready for it. It's not the kind of place where a carefully grooved, baiting the press systems game necessarily seems like the thing that you should be going there to do.
It's hard because you would judge these things in moments. And Spurs have shown signs of existing in recent weeks. But yeah, they were really not there. And it felt like just a matter of time before they lost. They were simply there to run around in a purple kit while the other team won.
Yeah. The controversial moment of this game was Jaden Bogle not getting sent off despite a four-minute VAR review when he trod on Matty's tails Achilles. Apparently, Spurs are going to make one of those pointless complaints to the PGMO. I don't really know what you achieve from doing it. It's just a waste of energy for everyone. Daniel Farkas called Bogle a butterfly, not an eagle in his lovely voice. And also said that Jaden Bogle was the fairest player in the whole league.
It's really worth keeping an eye on Jaden Bogle now to see if he can maintain that position. I'm not objective here, Wilson. I thought it probably was a red, but intent doesn't matter. But, you know, Spurs didn't deserve to win, so I'm not crying now.
Yeah, I mean, I think it's something that in an ideal world probably shouldn't be a red because I don't think there's any attempt. It's not even that he's out of control. He's not even attempting to make a challenge. He's just accidentally trod on his heel. But the way we've seen that interpreted recently is strict liability. If you do it, you get sent off. So I think it's obviously extremely unfortunate for Tell, especially if he's injured for a while. At some level, players put their feet on the ground. You can't really stop them. I really don't know what Bogle did wrong, except that tends to be a red card.
It's a little bit like the Balagan foul at the World Cup. So I guess maybe we've been spared sort of, you know, him getting sent off and then Donald Trump, frankly, has more important things to worry about having to ring the FA or the Premier League and get it sorted out.
So in this case, Donald Trump is now going to get Jaden Bogle suspended. Is that what he's going to do?
No, because he likes to see athletes being athletes and tossing for the ball. And he thinks football's gone soft. It's a man's game and he's very, very into that. If I were the person at the United States, it wouldn't be my priority, but, you know, it's not his only skewed priority, is it?
No, of course, of course. Tottenham have also submitted an official complaint to the Premier League following a video featuring ESPN Brazil reporter João Castelo Branco, who could be seen joining in with chants alongside Arsenal fans. Tottenham have stressed to the Premier League they no longer believe it's appropriate for him to cover the games for ESPN Brazil, which again seems, you know, classic big club behavior.
Are we saying people appearing on just general football media things with an obvious stated club affiliation is wrong?
Well, it appears to be what Tottenham are saying.
Display a partisan. Is that what we think?
I don't know. I remember the olden days where it was presumed that everyone that covered football.
The why my club's been written now, I don't wish to get involved in it.
Sorry, Dad. Who is your club again?
I don't like to mention it on the pod, Jonathan.
Anyway, just worry about your football team, I would suggest to Tottenham, but don't sue me. Bournemouth won two on eight, which they've run as amazing, Dan. They've won eight in a row. It was sort of incredible for anyone, isn't it?
Yeah, I mean, they've been gifted a few goals in recent weeks, which definitely helps. But it's gone parallel to when Iriola was appointed, got off to a bad start, no real panic, trusting what they're about and how they do things. And they just look again like a really well-oiled machine, Bournemouth. They've got plenty of players that are really fun to watch. They lose players. It doesn't seem to make a difference. That'll be somewhere again near where they finished last season because they're a brilliant, brilliant watch. And Marco Rosa is a good manager from what he's done previously in his career.
So yeah, brilliant, brilliant result for them again.
Yeah, I mean, you're right about the first goal. The longer it went on, you were like, this is only one thing that's going to happen here. You know, Walton is going to get caught on the ball.
I mean, he is not a Premier League goalkeeper.
You don't think so?
I looked at his career and he is a journeyman EFL goalkeeper at best. Like I'm unsure how he's found himself between the sticks at a Premier League club. I was a bad side without trying to be harsh, but that was incredibly harsh.
That is incredibly harsh, yeah. Is he one of the Waltons? Is that possibly, you know, which will mean nothing for the teenagers, of course?
It doesn't mean too much to me.
Was that Goodnight John Boy? I mean, Wilson's probably never watched the Waltons. Barney, I may have to come to you.
Your references are really off the hook. This is going to go absolutely going to blow up. People will love this.
Well, I imagine it will. But, you know, he's called Walton. I mean, it's pretty much the only way I could go, wasn't it? I mean, I could use one of those zeitgeist TV shows that I clearly watch, but, you know, I didn't. And there's nothing I can do about it now. Fulham won, Newcastle won. I mean, Jacob Murphy's goal is brilliant. Probably doesn't have Wilson to keep Scheister there for the international break getting a point here.
I mean, I think Newcastle were a little bit unlucky not to win this. I think they probably had the better of the game. I mean, I just don't think Ice has the problem anyway. The issue is the squad. People like Harvey Barnes or Willick, you know, they're perfectly good players, but they've been squad players for two or three years there, and now they're expected to be the people who lead them. And obviously, they're not what they were. They spent quite a lot of money in the summer. For some reason, they aren't playing any of these players.
Or very few of them. I mean, I think Nico Gonzalez has looked decent. Dedich, who obviously has had other issues this week. I think he sort of fitted in in a, I was going to say, fitted in in an under monster of a fussy way. You barely know he's there, which is what you want from a fullback.
Yeah. Well, I mean, Dedich is an incredible story where he Northumbria Police said he sparked a major incident when he was pursued by an armed response unit after being seen. They said the police, shortly after 1:55 p.m. on Wednesday, we received a report of two men carrying a bow and arrow while walking along a track by the reservoir on the military road in the Harlow Hill area. Officers attended and subsequently stopped a vehicle in the Dallas Hall area and seized bows and arrows. And apparently, you can legitimately carry a bow and arrow if you have good reason.
You're off to a barrier, he was telling me this on the radio, off to an archery contest, or you need your bow restrung. I like the bit of the story that Paul Dummitt and Newcastle's fourth keeper, and we wanted the use for the fourth keeper, were passing his house in what I presume is the kind of budget posh of football as a state, where, you know, the first team stars, which there aren't many now at Newcastle, are in the big houses, and then Paul Dummitt, your fourth keeper, and Amar Dedich are on this sort of other gated bit. Anyway, they went in to help Amar out, and he was found.
Well, the police didn't do anything. But, you know, good fun. It's all good fun running around the hills with a bow and arrow in your time off. We don't know if he's, I mean, could it be a scene from, he could be the next Robin Hood in Robin Hood Princess. Just another modern reference, Barney. Maid Marian blows in his ear, and he tries to split the apple perfectly. And then Brian Adams sings a beautiful song, and it's number one for 20 weeks. Do they still have the charts these days? Who knows?
Well, the Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. I mean, famously, there's an absurd scene where they go via Hadrian's Wall to get to Nottingham from the Crusades.
Yeah, well, they land, but I think they land, I think actually they land at Dover, and then they get to Hadrian's Wall, and then they're in Nottinghamshire.
This often happens with plenty of flights with the low-cost airlines. You'll find yourself in really strange transfers. It's perfectly normal to fan of them.
Sadly, of course, the Sycamore, which is such a feature of that film, is no more. Sycamore Gap.
Really? Oh, that was the Sycamore Gap?
So maybe Amar Dedich was dashing about trying to find the Sycamore and becoming pretty distraught when he realized it's now merely a stump with some saplings sticking out.
Maybe he was trying to get, you know, keep people safe from the sheriff of Nottingham, which in this role is Evangelos Marinakis. And actually, I think he'd be very good in that role when they remake the movie. Everton 3, Coventry 1 on Friday night. Tiano Barry scored twice. He has six goals. Only Haaland has more league goals so far. And he's very happy, isn't he, Dan? Dances around when he scores. I'm so delighted. He's a fun player to watch, and he seems to enjoy doing what he's doing.
He seems to be getting an odd goal catalogue this season. He's scored a variety of strange goals. So far this season, I've never seen another striker score. But I think he's simply just benefiting from the fact that he knows he's going to play every single week when fit because Everton don't have another striker. Last season, they would rotate him and Beto, and I don't think it was good for either of them. I don't think either of them ever really got any rhythm going at any point during the season. And I just think he's got off to a flyer because he's confident. He knows he's going to play it.
Everton in general, I think are kind of a club that they're best when their backs are up against the wall and their squad size is really, really small compared to the rest of the Premier League. But actually, I think it's working as a positive for the whole club and the direction they're going in at the moment.
If I got first round, it was pretty good, actually. Wimborne Town beat Crawley 2-0, 57 places between them. They took the lead after nine minutes when the property surveyor, Yang Sung Woo, curled in an absolutely brilliant goal. It wasn't the same as Liam Delap second for the strike, but it was like a right-footer into the top left-hand corner, into the staunchion, as you called it, Barney. Nicely, Vito Minone is in goal for Crawley. So well done to Wimborne. Their manager, Tim Stills, who broke Cambridge United hearts at Wembley in 2009, perhaps.
The fog in Knott's County, Ultringham, was absolutely, yes, Wilson.
Sorry, I'm disturbed by this. I let it go the first time. The stanchion or staunchion, as Barney called it in a tribute to Jimmy Hill, which I presume was intended to needle me. They don't have them, the modern nets.
No, I know. I understand the point.
The staunchion is an idea. It's just a concept.
You need a little complaint. I don't want to be part of it. I want to distance myself from this staunchion chat.
I understand.
I mean, it's the grass even grass now. It's full of nylon threads and kind of artificial. You're going to object to that as well.
Well, who knows if there were stanchions at Ultringham, Knott's County? Because it was so foggy, no one could see anything. Adam Summerson was on commentary for one broadcaster, and at one point he said, "He's put it wide, I think." It's hard to tell. I'm sorry. It's so hard to see up here. After Max Anders struck Knott's County's first penalty, and then he went, "No, it's in. I'm really sorry." That's how difficult it is for us to see here. I think Steve Bauer was doing for the BBC, and he was very professionally sort of giving it a beat and then listening to what the crowd was saying. If you haven't seen that, eight minutes of highlights.
Absolutely. In many ways, football's better when you can't see what's going on.
Yeah, that was the best penalty shootout ever. It was amazing. I'd like to see fog introduced as a kind of feature, like just dry ice the whole thing. Whenever there's a penalty, I suddenly was totally gripping. You're trying to pick up cues. You're not sure what's happening. It was great. Yeah.
I think mist generally is good for football because that game at the City Ground on Saturday night, it wasn't foggy in the sense you couldn't see it, but there was a sort of soft focus element to it. And the thing is, you can see when the players breathe, you can see great clarity because it's condensing sort of visibly in the air in front of them. It just reminded me of sort of mid-90s games at Roca Park. I sort of, I really enjoyed Saturday night. It's the most fun game I've been to this season. The crowds, right, crowds are often good at the City Ground, but the crowd was really noisy.
But just the mist, the mist gave it this sort of special feel.
James Belshaw, incidentally, who is the Knott's County keeper and a big fan of the pod, he messaged to say he was very excited for the final 35 seconds of AOB in part three. And we have delivered James elsewhere. Craig was so unlucky. I couldn't hold on against 10-man Stockport. And Stockport won an extra time, and Stafford were 2-0 up against Grimsey with an amazing long throw, which eventually the commentator would say, "Whoosh," as the throw went in.
I really enjoyed that. But there was lots of fun in the FA Cup first round. And that'll do for today. Thanks, everybody. Next Monday, we're doing a mid-season mailbag during the international break, answering all your questions. So we'd like some interesting one, please. Email us at footballweekly@theguardian.com or ask us on whatever social media you prefer. But thanks, everybody. Thank you, Dan.
Thank you, Max.
Cheers, Barney.
Cheers, everyone.
Thank you, Wilson.
Cheers, thank you.
The Guardian Football Weekly is produced by Tyler Papoula and Luke Barry. The executive producer is Joel Grove, and we'll be back tomorrow.
This is The Guardian.
Max Rushden is joined by Barney Ronay, Jonathan Wilson and Dan Bardell as Manchester United twice come back from two goals down to draw 4-4 with Aston Villa, while trouble looms for Pierre Sage. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/footballweeklypod. Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FootballWeeklyPodcast