Transcript of The Preview - Man City vs Chelsea

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Hello, I'm Michael Bailey. Welcome to the preview on the Athletic FC, focusing this week on Manchester City versus Chelsea, before setting you up for the big fixtures elsewhere. Checking in with some of the club podcasts across our network. Joining me today are the Athletic's football writer, Tim Spears, and football data writer, Tom Harris. Morning, guys. How are we all? Everyone okay? Tim, you're good?

Hey, I'm great, Michael.

How are you?

Very well. Thank you very much. Tip top. Tom, you?

Yeah, really good, thank you. Still a bit frazzled, to be honest, from all the permutations and midweek from a Champions League, but back to something a little bit more simple now in the Premier League.

Anything we're looking forward to in particular this weekend? How about you, Tim?

Bournemouth v. Nottingham Forest. Who'd have thought it? It's a shame it's not on telly, to be honest. To be fair, you can't really blame the TV companies for not predicting that this one should be like 4: 30 on a Sunday. But yeah, if I was going to watch a game, which obviously I can't because that would be illegal and not attending, then it would be Bournemouth v. Forest, I think.

The good news is we'll be talking about that in a bit. How about you, Tom?

Yeah, I agree. I think as well as it being a top of the table clash, it's also quite an interesting clash of styles as well. I think that's going to be really good to see. Obviously, City Chelsea as well, a standout game, which we'll be talking about today. There's Leipzig, Leverkusen in Bundesliga, but yeah, probably those two that we mentioned before.

Tom's got a busy weekend of football set ahead. For us, let's get stuck in to Manchester City against Chelsea. We will start with Manchester City, who looked to have got back in the groove beating Ipswich 6-0 last weekend, but they were beaten 4-2 by Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on Wednesday night and in rather dramatic fashion. Let's hear from the athletics Manchester City writer Sam Lee, who was in Paris covering the match. Free kick taken by Bettina.

And there's the chance that they got ahead.

It's a quite astonishing comeback for Paris Saint-Germain. From 2-0 down, they lead 3-2. I think the issue with City's defeat at PSG was they looked exactly as bad as they had done in all those defeats before the end of last year when they won one match in 13, they had problems with pace in midfield. The players looked leggy. Players like Kovacic Nico Lewis, Mateus, Nunez, underperforming, Savino not having a great end product. This is exactly what happened. Psg had been really struggling themselves, really under pressure. They were two-nil down.

And yet they just have to get stronger and stronger, and they scored with their last kick of the game to make it 4-2. It's a goal and it's victory for Paris Saint-Germain. They were 2-0 down and potentially dead and buried, but they've come back with one of their greatest comebacks in a European match.

That game could have gone on for half an hour. City would never have got back into it. They would have just conceded more. Then you look at the fixtures coming up. Chelsea, Arsenal, New Castle, Liverpool, Spurs, Forest away. That takes not until March. It might be hyperbolic right in the aftermath of that PSG game to say that it's hard to see them winning any of those matches. But to be honest, that is something I have felt for a long time, even when they beat West Ham 4-1, even when they beat Ipswich 6-0. I was concerned about those games, and I I didn't think that City had actually turned the corner and got out of that poor run.

Now, maybe I'm wrong, but all the evidence on Wednesday night suggests that they haven't got out of it and that things need to change.

But the big issue is clearly in midfield. They were better.

They were quicker, faster.

They win the duels with the ball.

They have one moment in the middle, and we could not cope with that.

If City gets something done in the market in midfield, and if that signing comes in and does well straight away, of course, then things will start to improve. But I think until then, it's damaged limitations. Basically, because the old issues from the end of last year, they're still there. Tom, you described it as a basketball game in your postmatch briefing. How did Manchester City set up and how did Paris Saint-Germain exploit them?

Yeah, it was very familiar, to be honest, particularly off a ball, which obviously has been the big problem through this poor run that they've had. They like to try and press high in a 4-2-4 shape, which is essentially a 4-4-2, but you're asking the wide players to push up high as well. The aim of that is to block off that pass from the center back into the center of midfield. But City haven't been good enough at making that pass difficult. They're often spread out a bit too wide. They're easy to move about and create that space to get the pass through. There was a few examples at Leicester, actually, of third-man runs just getting through and players not tracking. De Bruyne let Soumaré go on a couple of occasions. It just makes that front four really easy to play through. Then once you do play through that, you're bearing down on the midfield, too, with Bernardo Silva, Teo Kovacic, Gilkai Gündoan, Riko Lewis can be in there sometimes. They just don't win their jewels nearly often enough. It's really weak at the structural level. You can see why Pet wants to do it because it leaves to four most dangerous players upfield if they win the ball back.

But it's too risky, particularly without a reliable dual winner in the middle who can bail them out. In that first half in Paris, they were quite passive, I think, to try and combat that. They had just 36% the ball, which is their lowest first half possession on the PAC Guardiola. They dropped into a bit more of a compact shape, and they actually look quite threatening on the counter on a number of occasions, but that's not how City wants to play. I think it's too easy to bait them into pressing high and then unlocking those spaces and finding those 1v1s, which Paris Saint-Germain exploited all throughout the second half.

It's really interesting you used the word weak in terms of their structure. I mean, you could probably say the same, Tim, in terms of their mentality, because that's the ninth time they've been leading a match this season and not actually won it, which is remarkable. I mean, this Pep Guardiola side, they used to be mentality monsters, didn't they? Now there seems to be that weakness in how they handle a match. You look at the squad I wonder who's got the character, I guess, to get them over the line when they need to right now.

Yeah, absolutely. They struggle sometimes to even just put their foot on the ball and calm a game down. I think we saw that again against PSG midweek, which is bonkers, really, considering how City managed to control all types of games against all types of opponents for quite a few years now. I do think the midfield is clearly the key area physically with all those players, the wrong side of 30, Kovacic, Bernardo, Gündoan, De Bruyne. They do have a lot of experience in there and the mentality should be strong enough. But I think it is more of a physical thing rather than a mental thing. You have to look at Pep for that. I think he had a rare blind spot in the summer in terms of how he'd failed to rebuild the squad. In the past, he's been very good at letting players go just as their prime is finishing, I guess, like David Silva or Guardo or Gündoën, ironically. Whereas you look at what he did in the summer, he kept Walker, which obviously turned out to be a mistake, kept De Bruyne, but kept him as the main man when fit, which I think is possibly an error as well, and then brought You know, Kunde went back.

I thought it might be a financial issue, to be honest, but you look at what they're doing this month and spending 140 million already with more to come, and it's clearly not that. I think Pep has just dropped the ball in the summer and they're still playing catch-up now and may have to for at least the rest of the season.

Yeah, playing catch-up. They had been doing a reasonably good fist of it, I suppose, in the Premier League recently. Tom, three wins in the last four Premier League games, and they're actually only two points behind Chelsea, who are fourth. So if they beat them this weekend, they obviously go above them. I feel like we've asked you this question for probably about four months now. But tactically, in terms of their shape and what they can do against Chelsea to make sure that they avoid what happened in Paris, what What do you see them doing?

I don't think they'll do anything different, to be honest. I think Pep's been persisting with it, particularly this 4-2-4 I'm talking about before. They do look a little bit better when they try and be a bit more compact, but I think Pep's almost stubbornly waiting for the game when the attacking quality actually does tell and wins the game anyway, despite the structural issues, but that's just not happening. To be honest, I think Chelsea are in quite a good place to exploit what City are trying to do at the moment. When they build up, they're one of the only teams, really, who use a 3, 1, 6. They just have Caïsado in the middle and then they have six players across the back line. When you've got players like Palmer, who's really good at dropping into space and receiving the ball, Jackson as well for all of his issues in front of goal recently, he's one of the best at picking it up on the halfway line and just driving through the midfield. They've got some good 1v1 wingers who can take on the fullbacks. They've looked a bit suspect in recent weeks. I think Maresca will be looking forward to it, to be honest.

Now, I'm quite looking forward to seeing what he does to exploit the system.

We'll be talking about Chelsea in a bit. These next few fixtures, Tim, Sam did mention them for Manchester City in the Premier League. It's Chelsea at home, Arsenal away, Newcastle at home, Liverpool at home, Tottenham away, Nottingham Forest away.

Yeah. Unfortunately for City, and good news for Chelsea, is that there's almost a direct correlation between City either winning or losing when looking at the standard of opposition that they play in their matches. They basically beat the rubbish teams and lose to the good teams. Since the opening day of the season when they beat Chelsea, the only teams they've beaten of note in any competition really are Nottingham Forest and Fulham. If you look at their since August, they beat Watford in the Caribou Cup, they beat Soltford in the FA Cup. In the Champions League, they've only beaten Slava and Bratislava in Sparta, Prague. In the Premier League, they've beaten the four worst teams in the league, which are Wolf, Salampton, Leicester, and Ipswich. West Ham are the only other team. Apart from that, that one-nil win against Forest a little while back and then beaten Fullum, I think, back in October, they just can't beat teams that are of a decent standard. Time and again, their deficiencies have been showing up by good teams like PSG and Liverpool and Juventus. It's going to take more than one player to fix that. Obviously, they are bringing in a few this month, but there are clearly deficiencies that are being consistently showing up-time and time again, which bodes well for Chelsea this weekend.

Doesn't it, Jess? We should have a little look over their business they've done, Tom, because they have been busy, Manchester City. It's a combined total of €75 million on defenders, Vitor Reysh, who's 19 years old. And please tell me if I'm pronouncing these wrong. Abdukadeer Kusnov, who is 20 years old. Then there's also €70 million on forward Omamamush. In terms of the defenders, Tom, are they for the future, looking at their ages, or do you expect them to get involved pretty quickly?

Yeah, I believe it will be Heysh in a Brazilian Portuguese, but we'll list it with Ries for now. Thank you. Yeah, I think he is definitely the more long term option of the two. He's only played around 1,500 minutes of first-tier football in in his professional career. I wrote a piece on the Athletic recently where I spoke to some of his former coaches, and they all spoke glowingly, really, about his mentality, his leadership, his calmness. When you look at him play, he's a very tall, slender defender. He reminds me of John Stones a little bit, whereas I think Kouzunov is more the Ruben Dias. He's more aggressive. He's more last-ditch. He'll put his body on the line. I think that is what City need a little bit more of right now. I think when Dias not in this team, things are even worse because they don't have that player who can bail them out at the last minute. Diia is one of the best at that in terms of blocks and interceptions and being aggressive. The thing I'd say about Kouzunov is that he can be over He's a bit aggressive at times, so we'll have to see how that goes.

But I think it'd be nice just to see somebody charging into midfield and trying to do something about it because not many players have been able to do that for City this season. He might play right back. He's got that potential as well. He's got the recovery pace and the strength to defend the transitions that City has been struggling with. He will help for now. It'll get better in the future. But yeah, I don't think he's going to come in and solve everything because there are still issues with him being quite a young defender as well.

That sounds like he might be quite fun as well. Yeah, and in terms of Oma and Mamush Tom as well, do you see him having more of a significant role? I'm quite excited about seeing him in the Premier League, if I'm honest.

Yeah, I think he'll definitely help with some of the transition additional attacks because I think City had a few opportunities against PSG, but they were just when they're moving the ball at speed. I think De Bruyne over hit a few passes. Nunes was a bit off it as well. I think Sivina is probably one of the best players at attacking open space that City have. I think Mahmoud will definitely help with that, but obviously, they don't get a lot of opportunities to do that because a lot of the teams will play deeper against them. So that's a real question, I think. But he's one of the most informed attackers in Europe at the moment. He's got 15 goals, nine assists in the Bundesliga in just over 16 full games. So he's basically to over a goal or assist a game. He can play that striker role, so he can be something different to Haaland if required. He can also play off him. The one concern is that he's running a little bit hot at the moment, but I think the fundamentals are there and he does seem versatile enough to help across the front line.

Expensive signing, but I think it will be useful.

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Chelsea returns to winning ways on Monday after five Premier League games without a victory. They beat Wolves 3-1 at Stamford Bridge. I'm sorry, Tim. I mean, it wasn't the most convincing performance, but winning ugly for a team as young as Chelsea, strikes me as probably quite a good thing, quite a good learning curve.

Definitely, they'd been on a pretty, not alarming run, but just in a bit of a slump. Yeah, I mean, it was ugly. I wouldn't read too much into it, personally. I remember when Everton beat Wolves 4-0 before Christmas and people thinking, Oh, maybe Everton will finally sorted things out. I was like, no. Wolves were absolutely abysmal. Beating them convincingly is not necessarily a sign of things to come. I would say the same with Chelsea. It was Wolves' worst performance under Vitor Pereira. They were very passive and submissive. I wouldn't even say Chelsea took full advantage, really. They just stuttered to a fairly straightforward victory. But yeah, I'm hearing and reading about Chelsea having problems all over the pitch at the moment in terms of the goalkeeper and obviously the issues in defense and having to bring Chalabar back and problems in midfield and they're looking to sign a new winger. I mean, it's only a few weeks ago that they were being labeled as everyone's second favor for the title. As ever with Chelsea, I think there's a slight overreaction to a few results. There aren't too many players that are playing consistently well for them at the moment.

I think they just need to play their way out of this slump and a victory against Man City would certainly help and give him a real big boost for the next few weeks to come.

I guess that's the interesting thing, though, isn't it, Tim? Because if we were having this conversation at the start of the season, we probably would have expected a more erratic Chelsea. I don't think anyone expected them to have gone and done so well over the first half of the season. Maybe this isn't the slump. Maybe this is the equilibrium kicking in, and maybe they're just not quite as good as they were over the first half of the season.

Yeah. I think most people would have said that at the time. I think if you followed the Chelsea writers closely at the Athletic, they weren't saying, Chelsea are on for the title here. They were pleading with caution. Chelsea, the youngest team in the league, one of the youngest teams we've ever seen in the Premier League, certainly from one of the big six clubs. There was inevitably going to be that inconsistency. I think Palmer's form and Jackson's form maybe produced results which were a little bit better than we would have expected. So, yeah, maybe returning a bit to the norm now as much as there is such a thing called normal at Chelsea.

Well, yeah, quite. Tom, you've hinted a little bit about this earlier, but you could maybe look at Chelsea's form and think that teams had figured out how to deal with what ends Maresca is trying to do with them. Can you see him trying to evolve what they're doing and react to that?

Yeah, I think Maresca is one of the most active managers in the league in terms of changing things around, but the base system always remains broadly the same. They always build up an That 3, 1, 6-ish shape that we spoke about before. So managers do know what to expect. But there are always little tweaks to try and catch people off guard. Neto started on the left against Wolves, which was the first time, I believe, he's done that. In the Chelsea shirt, we've Mala Gusto, the right-back pushing on into the front line against Arsenal. Kukreya has done that. James played on the opposite side, I think, in that game. Lavi and Caïsado have been a defensive midfield pair against Fernandez has come in. Pam has been played out wide. Lots of things going lots of little changes that he makes to find these marginal gains. But I think, yeah, Maresca's system is set up to dominate games and increase the chances of winning, but not necessarily guaranteed that you do win them because you do need moments of quality, you do need clinical finishing. It's a system that sets up the opportunity to do that, but sometimes it does rely on momentum, it relies on the opposition, it relies on players like Jackson and Palmer just finding their moments to win games.

I don't think Maresca is going to change what he's doing because generally he's doing all right. The underlying numbers are good. It's only Arsenal and Liverpool have a better expected goal difference than them this season, which is always a good indicator of how well a team are creating and conceding chances. I think it will be more of the same, but we're just going to be looking out for these little tweaks that he likes to make week by week.

Tim, you hinted at some of these issues at Chelsea. There's a couple I want to ask you about. Firstly, Trevor Schalabard, what did you make of that situation? Because I feel a bit for the defender himself, I suppose. But he was the man of the match and by all accounts is now expecting to be a fully integrated part of this Chelsea, well, 11, I suppose, not even squad.

I mean, yeah, I guess we'll see how long it lasts, really. You feel for the player. You feel for Palace as well, really. Obviously, he's fully integrated into their team. I wouldn't read too much into his man of the match performance against a sterile wolves attack on Monday night. This weekend, obviously, represents a far bigger test for Chalibat and whoever is alongside him. I mean, It is just nuts, the transfer policy. It defies all football conventions. In the summer, Chalibar, not given a squad number and, I guess, banned from training with the first team. Had to use a different building and taken off the preseason tour, sent on loan. You think Chelsea career over, really. Now he's back in his first choice, five months later. I don't even know how that works. Then on the flip side, you've got Renato Vega, who signed in the summer, young 21-year-old Portuguese player, played 18 times in all competitions, proved himself a pretty useful utility player in defense and fullback in midfield, broken into the Portugal team. He's playing every minute for Portugal already, and he's on loan to Juventus now. To make it make sense. I don't know how that works.

It's just a very football manager way of running a football club. There's The solution is to buy players at every turn. We see the wingers in the squad, Sancho, Neto, Maduake, JauwFelix, they're all pretty new to it, albeit Maduake played a bit last season. But other than that, they're all brand new. Now they're looking at Garnacho, apparently, or looking at bringing wingers in. They haven't even bought Sancho yet via the obligation that they've got to buy him, and you already doubt that he's got a future at the club. It's just insane. It makes no sense. You've just got to laugh at and roll with it, but it won't make any sense.

The other situation, Tim, is Robert Sanchez in goal. There are mistakes. There have been mistakes. I guess some people would look at that being the weakness in their 11 in terms of trying to reach the top four. I suppose from my point, I'm not necessarily convinced they've got a better goalkeeper, even though they've got about eight goalkeepers. But other people will know more about that than me. Maybe you do.

No, that's another puzzling thing, really. For all their willingness to spend every turn and They have this large turnover of players in every window. Goalkeeper is probably the main position they need to upgrade. I think a lot of people would have said that in the summer, actually. I don't think you're saying that with hindsight. Sánchez is prone to errors. Another one against Wolves on Monday night, not convincing from set pieces, not convincing when playing out from the back. So, yeah, it's a strange one to persist with him and put your faith in him when it's pretty clear that he's got weaknesses that he hasn't been able to eradicate yet. You You've got Spurs bringing in Kinski and making an immediate improvement in an area that they needed to. I guess you wonder why Chelsea don't appear to be looking to do the same. You're correct if I'm wrong, but I've not seen them linked with any Keepers this month. So, yeah, again, make it make sense, Michael.

I guess it's just not very sexy. That's what goes to my mind. Poor goalkeepers. That's what I think. But as you said, others will probably know better. I tell you what, let's check in with someone who would certainly know better. That is the athletics Chelsea writer, Simon Johnson, on why Chelsea have to believe they can exploit Manchester City's defensive issues.

Chelsea have to see this as an opportunity.

Clearly, they can see goals more than we are used to seeing for Man City. It's only a few weeks ago, they were 2-0 up at Brentford and conceded twice late on to drop two points.

How bold are Chelsea going to be?

That's the question. Maresca, it's a big occasion for him, of course.

His first return as a head coach, so he'll want to go back and show what he can do.

But Chelsea have also not...

They're impressive for away record, has taken a little bit of a hit the last few trips they've had. Both teams have got a lot to prove. The only problem, really, is that the goals have dried up somewhat for Chelsea's forwards. Nani Medweke's goal on Monday was only his third in 19 Premier League appearances. Pedro Neto and Jaden Sancho, they have just three goals between them from a combined 35 Premier League appearances. Tom, are Chelsea too reliant on Cole Palmer, Nicolas Jackson? I mean, Jackson is struggling to find the net at the moment as well.

Yeah, but a lot of teams rely on their main striker for goals. I don't think it It's an issue you need to Chelsea. I do think that Jackson, I will stick up for him because I do think he's very useful from a pressing perspective. He's one of the most active pressers in Europe, really. I think he's really powerful when he can run through the midfield, as I mentioned earlier. I think his goals have always come in burst, really. I mean, Chelsea, obviously, they would have been scouting him for a long time, but he went on a run of eight goals and six for Villa Real towards the end of the season, and then Chelsea suddenly appeared and signed him. He's been scoring in burst throughout his Chelsea career as well. I think he's still getting the chances there will come a time when he'll start scoring them again. I think Chelsea as a whole will look better for that. Yeah, Cole Palmer, he's technically the best player on the team. You want to look for him for inspiration, and it can't happen all the time. I think with the amount of money that Chelsea have invested into her tack, I think you do have to look at the other players and say, Look, these two need a little bit of help sometimes.

Yeah, and I suppose a little bit of help from the existing players. When you got players like Christopher and Kunku that Maresca doesn't appear to have faith in and is utilizing, then that just puts extra pressure on those who are starting regularly and relied on.

Yeah, it does speak the mess that Tim was talking about in terms of, How do you keep this squad happy? I don't know what's really going on with Nkuncu because he was electric. In the Bundesliga, he has impressed on the occasions that he's played for Chelsea, but maybe it is to do with that pressing I was talking about. Maybe Jackson is preferred in that aspect of the game. I do think that Jackson does sometimes, some of his finishing does look to be dictated by how tired he is in the game. There have been some moments where he's been a little bit loose where it's looked as if he's done and he needs some support in that respect. I don't know. It's a very unique situation with the fact that they play in the Conference League and basically give all the players that don't play minutes in that competition. I wonder what would happen if they were playing in the Champions League, how they would manage this squad.

If you haven't already listened, make sure you check out Tuesday's episode of The Athletic FC, where Ayo is joined by Liam Toomey and Phil Hay to discuss whether after spending more than a billion pounds, Chelsea really need any more signings, which does lead us on to some predictions. Tim, do you want to go first? What do you think is going to happen? Manchester City against Chelsea.

I feel like Chelsea is probably well set up to exploit city weaknesses in terms of driving through those yorning gaps that they send to leave. I think maybe an away win 2-1 to Chelsea.

Tom.

Yeah, to be honest, hearing what Simon was saying about Chelsea's away form has led me to just saying the city will get something from this game. I don't think it'll win it, and I think it'll high scoring, so I'll go for a 2-2.

Let's look at what's going on elsewhere then. Fulham hosts Manchester United on Sunday. Lots of speculation around Alejandro Garnacho's future, as discussed here by Lory Whitwell and Andy Mitten on our Manchester United podcast, Talk of the Devils, after their dramatic Europa League win over Ranges on Thursday night at Old Trafford. I don't Garnacho leaving will be popular, but I don't think that every United fan would be protesting either. There is such a thing as selling a player at the right time. I don't know, hand on heart, how good Alejandro Garnacho will be.

I do know that he's one of the rare Manchester United transfer success stories, given how little he cost and how effective he has been so far.

Wouldn't you like to find out at Old Trafford, though, rather than somewhere else? Yeah, I would. I used the word before confusing.

I think a lot of fans are confused.

This is why it's a crossroads moment. Basically, if they sell him and bring in a win back and reshape the squad for Ruben Ammering, you're going with Ruben Ammering, aren't you?

There's no doubt. It's an interesting one, Tom, because is it United possibly needing the money and the pure profit on someone like Garnacho, or is it just that Garnacho doesn't really work in what Ruben Ammarim is trying to build and the system that he likes to operate in?

Yeah, potentially. I do think that Garnacho is caught between two positions in this that Amarim likes to play. I think Garnacho is at his best when he can be that direct winger that he is. I mean, only Bukhara Saka had more touches in the box than him last season across Europe's top five league. He likes to be in those advanced positions. He likes to drive into the penalty area, likes to make those runs. There's a feeling that has to be tamed a little bit if he's playing at wing-back because obviously he's got more defensive responsibility in that respect. Then it's just a question of whether he's technically trustworthy enough to play in the number 10 role, the wide number 10s that play in that system. Has he got the ability to operate in tight spaces? Is he good enough creatively? It feels that he's caught between those two positions. But Yeah, just like they alluded to on the talk of the Devils there, it's throughout this United malaise we've seen over the last 15 years, they have sold players who don't fit the current system, only to then go on abandon the current system. I think they need to be careful of doing that.

I think this would, as they said, be a massive vote of confidence for Ammarin, particularly because Garnaccio is probably one of the most well-liked players at United at the moment.

After losing 3-2 to Everton at Goodison Park last weekend, Tottenham bounced back in the Europa League. They won 3-2 themselves against Hoffenheim on Thursday night. They host Leicester on Sunday. James Madison and Son Hyungmin were back among the goals in midweek 2. They are going to be without Dominic Solanky, though. He's the latest player on the treatment table, although goodness knows how big this treatment table is at the moment. They got to win this game, haven't they, Tim? Anjiposter Koglu needs to win this game. They're 15th in the Premier League.

Yeah, but then you ask how big the treatment table is. It needs to fit 10 grown men on it at the moment, fully grown men. You could basically put a team out, Vincario would be in goal, Van der Ven, Romero and a dogie at the back. Saar on Bissuma in midfield, and then you got Johnson, Odebeer, Timo Werner, and now Solanke, all out. They could still put out a decent team, but the problem they've got right now is they're playing a lot of games, as everyone is, in a really busy month, and some of them just look absolutely gone. Like Kulisievski has been their best player this season, but he's basically having to play every minute. Most of his players will go through him because he's their most creative player. Yeah, he looks knackered. Dragusin, their only senior recognized centre-back, way out of form now and definitely needs to be taken out the team, but he can't be taken out the team because there's literally no one else. All their senior players started against Hoffenheim. Youngsters are really stepping up. Archie gray has been a bit of a revelation Lucas Burgvall looks like a hell of a player.

Mikey Moore is back from injury now and he's making a contribution, again, very exciting future. But as for the present, of course, they need to win, particularly given Leicester's woeful form, if they were to come to Tottenham and get a result. It'll be interesting to see the reaction. The fans had a wobble with Foster Coughlu. There was those scenes at Bournemouth away before Christmas, which were pretty ugly. Then they've had a couple of home defeats recently where the fans have really stuck with them. I Which probably speaks to fans being confused about who to point the finger of blame at. The bigger picture with Spurs, as always, really, they need help from above. They desperately need reinforcements, and Foster Coughlu is saying this week they might not get any. So, yeah, Daniel Levy needs to help fund a squad that's competitive. You know, where have we heard that before?

Let's move on to what many would say is the other highlight fixture of this weekend as Bournemouth play Nottingham Forest. As you mentioned at the very top of this show, Tim, who would have thunk it at the start of the season? Bournemouth are unbeaten in the last 10, and no side has picked up more points over the last 10 games than Nottingham Forest with 25. Tom, first of all, where do you see this one going?

It's quite a difficult one to predict because as we also mentioned, it is a clash of styles. I think what Bournemouth are so good at is what we saw against New Castle, where they sit off and they get into a good defensive shape. They make those inceptions in the middle of the park. I think Ryan Christie and Lewis Cook have been two of the best players in Europe for that this season. Then they transition But Forest are not going to give them the chance to do that because they don't play out from the back. I think Matt Sels has launched over 70% of his goal kicks this season, so they don't mess about in that regard. I think it's going to be quite interesting to see how Bournemouth adapt to that. Obviously, they have quite a lot of grit under Anthony Hiraula. We've seen that throughout his time there. We saw it in his Riva Icana team as well. I think they'll still be in the game, but they're not going to be able to do the things that they do the best. Probably a draw, I think, which will be probably a fair result for these two teams who are both really doing very well at the moment.

Dimitri? Yeah, I guess for Forest, the concern would be the way that they conceded those goals against Southampton. I don't know if that was complacency, but yeah, they were hanging on at the end, and that will be a concern to Nuno. But before then, they'd held off Liverpool so admirably, and before then, they'd had five clean sheets in a row in all competitions. They're pretty much, I think, the hardest team to play against in the league, certainly Certainly right now, certainly in terms of breaking down a defense. That's the key. They have their formula. Forest will look to control the game without the ball, and they do that pretty much better than anybody. I would back them to avoid defeat and maybe get a sneaky little counter attack-based victory.

League leaders Liverpool, they host Ipswich on Saturday. Liverpool made it seven wins from seven in the Champions League on Tuesday. They beat Lille 2-1 at Anfield. Let's check in with James Piers speaking on talk on about Harvey Elliott's recent performances. To do what he's done against Brentford and then against Lille in terms of earning the manager's trust, I think that's big for Elliott.

He still hasn't started, has he, in either the Premier League or the Champions League so far this season.

So when that happens and you're 21 and you've been on the scene as long as Harvey Elliott has and you got 130 senior Liverpool appearances on your belt, there's bound to be speculation.

But I asked him after the game at Brentford about that.

He It was absolutely emphatic. He said, this is my club. I absolutely love being here and I'm going to stay and fight and prove that I deserve to have a bigger role.

And yeah, much more effective than bold words, bold deeds. He certainly did that with the way that he's impacted the last two games. Liverpool extended their lead at the top to six points after Arsenal dropped points at home to Aston Villa last weekend. Michal Arteta's side head to Wolves on Saturday. Let's hear from James McNicolas speaking on Handbreak Off. After Arsenal's 3-0 victory over Dina Mohs Zagreb in the Champions League, where Ethan Waineri returned and Sean after coming off the bench to replace Rahim Sterling. Before Christmas, there were a number of games, weren't there, where Sterling didn't even get off the bench. We had a lot more depth and options at that particular moment in time. But it was night and day watching him and then Wanaeri. You felt like Ethan, he can sense that opportunity that's there for him.

It was interesting listening to Arteta after the game, speaking about how he's learning that position.

I think he recognizes, maybe a bit like Miles, this isn't his natural game. It's not the game he's played for the majority of his career to this point, but it's where the opportunity exists right now and he's seising it. It does really feel like keeping Wanaere fit will be key while Bukayo Saka is still absent. Tim, how are you feeling about this one? Do you expect Mateus Kunya to feature? There's a lot of speculation around his future at the moment, Wolves.

I'd be very worried if he didn't feature and if that was a sign of things to come. He didn't look at all bothered against Chelsea on Monday night. He has been a bit ill recently, but Yeah, his body language was not the best. There's a lot going on behind the scenes with Kunya in terms of not signing a new contract. They've been in discussions for some time. He's not out of contract for two and a half years. That's not the issue. It's more they were going to give him a pay rise, and then I guess there's issues There are certain clauses, should wolves be relegated. There are also issues in terms of Arsenal and Nottingham Forest, believed to be interested in him, which would be the ultimate, I can't swear, kicking the teeth for wolves to sell their best players in Nottingham Forest. Yeah, Then there's other things going on. He composed his first tweet since May the other night to call a local journalist a liar for tweeting that he'd gone straight down the tunnel at Stamford Bridge on Monday. Yeah, it's a delicate situation. He's a temperamental guy anyway. But if he wants to move this month, I'd be amazed if he was to get it.

Wolves are 17th and they need their best players. It's irrelevant how much money might be put at their door. If it's 70 million quid, whatever. It's not worth it. I don't trust Wolves to buy good enough players to replace him, certainly at this stage of the season in the January window. So, look, if he wants to play for Arsenal next season, then the perfect thing for him to do would be to give a man-of-a-match display on Saturday, a hat-trick, 3-0, help keep Wolves in the Premier League, and then he can do whatever he wants in the summer, to be honest.

That's a nicer note to end on than the still remaining pain in your heart over Nuno that I heard there. With that, we will leave it. We are done. A big thank you to Tim, Tom, all the production crew, and to you guys for listening. The Athletic FC will be back on Monday. Until then, enjoy the weekend football.

You've been listening to the Athletic FC podcast. The producers were Guy Clark, Mike Stavrou, and Jay Beal.

The executive producer was Ailé Morehead. To listen to other great athletic podcasts for free, search for The Athletic on Apple, Spotify, and all the usual places. The Athletic FC podcast is an athletic media company production.

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