The Daily Football Briefing

The night started slowly in north London, but those who exercised patience reaped the rewards. Tottenham were 3-0 up against Manchester United, all but set for the Carabao Cup semi finals, when Fraser Forster decided to make the game a little more interesting with two terrible errors. Jay Harris has the story of the rest of the night.  In Europe the Conference League league stage concluded. Chelsea were unsurprisingly top but there was still some fun to be had. Lucy Oliva was at Stamford Bridge to watch the Blues walk to their sixth victory of the campaign so far. And Everton’s takeover by The Freidkin Group finally went through. There is a new hope on the horizon on Merseyside. Paddy Boyland has all the details. Christmas reading here Host: Abi Paterson Producer: Tom Fuller Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There were no surprise results in the League Cup, but there were some surprising moments. Crystal Palace led Arsenal for fifty minutes at The Emirates before succumbing to a Gabriel Jesus hat-trick, Southampton pushed Liverpool all the way in a closer-than-you-might-expect 2-1 defeat. But there was no surprise in Brentford losing away at Newcastle because for some reason Brentford seem to lose rather a lot of their away games.  We’ve got an update on the Marcus Rashford situation, we’ve got most of the scores from Europe (Spain started late and played havoc with our deadlines) and we’ve got the last of the WCL Group Stage, it’s all here on the penultimate show of 2024.   Presenter: Iain Macintosh With: Jordan Campbell, Gregg Evans, Chris Waugh, Mark Critchley Producer: Tom Fuller Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yep, those A22 guys are back with a new idea for ruining football. And it’s really quite something. Ninety six teams in four divisions that are split into multiple splinter divisions, all attempting to reach some sort of knock out round. I’ll level with you, I’m not a fan.  There’s been a lot of news today. There’s the Mudryk banned substance story, there’s Marcus Rashford announcing that he’s ready for a new challenge, there’s the FIFA Best Awards, there’s Ronaldo running for President. No, not that one. The original one.  Plus, we’ve got the scores from the WCL and news of a rare not-draw for Juventus.  Presenter: Iain Macintosh With: Si Watts, Max Matthews Producer: Si Watts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fifteen years ago, Bournemouth were in the fourth division, or League Two in the parlance of the youth. Now they’re sixth in the Premier League and we’re almost at the halfway stage. Out there somewhere is a kid who started supporting them in 2009 and that kid must think that life is always like this. I don’t know whether to envy him or pity him. You can pity Lazio. They got done 6-0 at home by Internazionale. And you can pity Trabzonspor, who conceded a 98th minute winner to Galatasaray. Actually, Jose Mourinho will probably be more bothered by that one. We’ve also got the latest on Wolves and Southampton as they seek to find new managers. And we check in with the boys from the Talk of the Devils podcast as they look ahead to a very big cup tie this week.  Presenter: Iain Macintosh With: Jacob Tanswell, Laurie Whitwell, Ian Irving, Carl Anka and David Ornstein Producer: Si Watts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If I was Pep Guardiola’s friend, I honestly don’t know what I’d say to him. I’d probably just buy him a big drink and let him speak when he’s ready. City weren’t particularly good at the Etihad, but they had the better of a low quality tussle and, 1-0 up with two minutes left, they would have expected to win it. Listener, they did not win it. Carl Anka has been telling us for weeks about Amad Diallo. He was right.  But if Pep had a bad day, what word do we use for Russell Martin? His Southampton side were 3-0 down after 14 minutes and ended up losing 5-0. Can he survive the weekend? Gary O’Neil didn’t at Wolves. Plus we’ve got all the scores and all the stories from across Europe, including a very odd weekend in Spain and Bayern Munich’s first league defeat. It’s all in your special 15minute weekend round up edition.  Presenter: Iain Macintosh With: Carl Anka, Jay Harris, Matt Davis Adams and Si Watts Producer: Si Watts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

And they were very fortunate to do so. Jack Pitt Brooke was watching and he thinks Rangers should have been out of sight of Spurs long before they scrambled back into the game to rescue a point. He’s right too.  All of our reporters were in cold places for this episode. Carl Anka was shivering away in the Czech Republic watching Man Utd fight back for a crucial Europa League victory. But the -1 he experienced there was positively balmy compared to the -8 that greeted Lucy Oliva in Kazakhstan.  So we’ve got all of the scores and the standings and we’ve even got a nice preview of the weekend fixtures. Come on in.  Presenter: Iain Macintosh With: Jack Pitt Brooke, Carl Anka, Lucy Oliva Producer: Tom Fuller Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is Manchester City losing a game even news anymore? We think so and we’ve put it as our lead item because we think this one really means something. They’ve only got two games left, they haven’t hit double figures yet and they play PSG in their penultimate fixture. They may be in danger. Though the same could be said about PSG. Either way, Sam Lee is on hand to explain more.  We’ve got Art de Roche at the Emirates watching young Miles Lewis-Skelly in action, we’ve got Seb Stafford Bloor in Germany watching Borussia Dortmund dash themselves against the walls of Castle Barca, we’ve got all the scores from the Champions League (male and female) and the Championship. Don’t you even think of not listening.    Presenter: Iain Macintosh With: Sam Lee, Seb Stafford Bloor, Art de Roche Producer: Tom Fuller Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

But how long will it last? PSG are qualifying for an unseeded play-off place right now, but let’s look again in 24 hours, shall we? And they’ve still got to play Manchester City in January. I know, I know, but maybe they’ll have bought a new defensive midfielder by then. Elsewhere Liverpool won again. It really shouldn’t be possible to five points clear after six games of a 36 team group stage, but fair play, they found a way.  Didn’t watch the football last night? Don’t worry, we’ve got every game covered here, including the Championship where Leeds have snatched back top spot.  Presenter: Iain Macintosh With: James Pearce, Jacob Tanswell, Seb Stafford Bloor Producer: Tom Fuller Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was built up as “El Sackio”, so does West Ham’s win against Wolves spell the end of the road for Gary O’Neil? How upset are Tottenham fans with Sunday’s performance? Well, if Danny Kelly is anything to go by…very upset. And what’s going on with Mo Salah’s contract? Si Hughes joins us with an update.  It’s time for another big week of European football, but can you recall what’s going on? Can you even name the top three in the Champions League table? Fortunately, we’ve got you covered with a great big jazz-infused preview.  It’s all here, so click the button and listen now.  Presenter: Iain Macintosh With: Danny Kelly and Si Hughes  Producer: Si Watts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

They’re never dull, are they? But how much more of this are Tottenham’s fans going to take? Spurs started brilliantly, but blew a two goal lead to lose 4-3 to Chelsea at home. Jack Pitt Brooke was there. That means that Chelsea are the nearest team to Liverpool, who didn’t play this weekend, but still came out feeling that they’d won. Arsenal, you see, failed to beat Fulham. There’s no shame in that, of course, Fulham are a very decent side these days. Jordan Campbell explains what went wrong.  And you might have thought that Manchester United’s defeat at home to Nottingham Forest was the most embarrassing thing that could have happened to them. Nope, they saved that for Sunday morning. Laurie Whitwell tells us what happened.  We’ve got all the big scores from around Europe and we’ve got Paul Tenorio on LA Galaxy’s triumph. Listen here, follow there and tell your friends. This is the Daily Football Briefing.   Presenter: Iain Macintosh With: Jack Pitt Brooke, Jordan Campbell, Laurie Whitwell, Si Watts and Paul Tenorio Producer: Si Watts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I don’t get it. They’ve only won one of their last six games and that was a barnstorming 4-0 win in Manchester City’s back yard. What is wrong with them? Jay Harris was in Bournemouth, and what a great job Andoni Iraola has done there, he tries to make sense of this.  Producer Si watched Fulham pull off an impressive 3-1 win over Brighton, they are sixth now.  And me? I watched the FIFA Club World Cup Draw. It started at 6pm and it just carried on and on and on. It’s still going now. Gloria Estefan is about to draw out another team. I can’t stop watching. It may last forever. My wife left me. She took the kids. But I can’t switch off now. Not now. Not when I’ve come so far. Presenter: Iain Macintosh With: Jay Harris and Si Watts.  Producer: Si Watts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Well, that was a busy night. We’ve got James Pearce on Liverpool’s draw with Newcastle, James McNicholas saw Arsenal beat Man Utd, I watched Man City win for the first time in AGES, but I did that on my sofa. Same with Producer Si, he watched Everton batter Wolves. But before you think we’re some sort of cut price operation, it’s important that you know we had Jacob Tanswell in place for Aston Villa’s first win in AGES and Simon Johnson for Chelsea’s thrashing of an increasingly indefensible Southampton, so yeah, we’re still big time. Oh, and we’ve got all the scores from Europe too, including Real Madrid’s defeat to Athletic Club, a defeat in which Kylian Mbappe missed another penalty. Once again, you really do need this podcast.   Presenter: Iain Macintosh With: James Pearce, James McNicholas, Si Watts, Jacob Tanswell, Simon Johnson Producer: Si Watts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Leicester are back in business, they beat West Ham 3-1 and, while it wasn’t always comfortable, no-one at the club will care. They’re rising up the table at last. Rob Tanner was there for us.  Matt Woosnam was at Portman Road to see Crystal Palace win only their second game of the season. Are they back in business too? Has the storm passed? That’s pretty much what I asked him. Find out his answers here.  Pol Ballus saw Barcelona pick up a first La Liga win in an entire month, they whooped Mallorca 5-1. But it wasn’t as easy as the scoreline suggested. We’ve got all of that, we’ve got lots of other scores and a full preview of what’s on tonight because it is going to be a huge evening of Premier League action.  Presenter: Iain Macintosh With: Rob Tanner, Matt Woosnam and Pol Ballus  Producer: Si Watts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s been a quiet day, so we’ve gone back to an old friend, the rock and roll football…statistics section. Can you guess which team across Europe’s five leagues is most OVERperforming when it comes to goals above xG? I bet you can’t. We’ve got Seb Stafford Bloor in to tell us about this Jamie Gittens lad, we’ve got a preview of the night’s football and we even found room for a look at the FA Cup third round draw. By slashing and burning the community section. Sorry about that.  Presenter: Iain Macintosh With: Seb Stafford Bloor Producer: Si Watts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pep Guardiola, contrary to the opinion of many Liverpool fans, is unlikely to be sacked this morning, but he is looking down the barrel of a seven game run without a win. His Manchester City side were dominated at Anfield and the only good news for him is that the margin of defeat was kept at two goals. Sam Lee and James Pearce were there. Carl Anka was at Old Trafford to see a thunderous 4-0 victory for Manchester United over Everton. Hear what he thinks of Amad Diallo here. Spoiler alert: He thinks he’s really good at football. Liam Twomey is in as well as Chelsea go third. They would have been second if they were called AFC Chelsea. We’ve got all of that and all of the scores and stories from across the world. Listen now. Presenter: Iain Macintosh With: Sam Lee, James Pearce, Carl Anka, Liam Twomey, James Horncastle. Producer: Si Watts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before you unsubscribe, just look me in the eyes and tell me how you felt when Bodo/Glimt went 2-1 up. Come on, be honest. You thought it was all going wrong again, didn’t you? So did I. And I suspect that Carl Anka felt that way too. Instead, something very odd happened. United gathered themselves and came back stronger, and they should have secured a bigger margin of victory. As should Spurs, but I don’t think anyone was surprised to see them relinquish a 2-1 lead to Roma. It’s just what they do. They defy understanding. But Jay Harris will do his best for us.  And we’ve got all the Conference League updates too, Simon Johnson went to small town Germany for Chelsea’s visit to Heidenheim. It may have given Enzo Maresca a selection headache… Everything you need is here, giftwrapped and presented to you in the form of a ten minute audio file. It would be considered rude for you not to click and listen.  Presenter: Iain Macintosh With: Carl Anka, Jay Harris and Simon Johnson Producer: Steve Hankey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There have been a lot of caveats since the summer. “Let’s see Liverpool play someone good,” we said. They did. They won. “Let’s see how they react to defeat,” we said. They lost to Nottingham Forest. Then they won again. “All right,” we said, “Let’s see how they balance the Premier League and the Champions League, playing the best teams in the world without skipping a beat.” They just beat Real Madrid. Comfortably. If they beat Manchester City on Sunday, we’ll be all out of caveats. James Pearce was at Anfield for us. He’ll tell you how good they are.  Jacob Tanswell was at Villa Park where he saw Villa’s seventh game without a win. But he says, quite rightly I feel, that their 0-0 draw with Juventus was a positive result.  And I asked Producer Si to pick a game to watch. He chose…wisely. He got to watch Monaco and Benfica. We’ve got that and all the rest of the football all here in a tightly compressed audio file for your delectation.  Presenter: Iain Macintosh With: James Pearce, Jacob Tanswell and Si Watts  Producer: Si Watts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The only logical explanation for this lies at the feet of those reckless boffins at CERN. City didn’t lose a sixth game in a row, which is something, but they did lose a three goal lead in fifteen minutes at home to Feyenoord. Somehow that seems even worse. Sam Lee was there and he has a theory that doesn’t involve alternative realities leaking into our own, which is plausible I guess, but I prefer my version.  Elsewhere PSG are 26th and could be 29th tomorrow. Seb Stafford Bloor saw them lose again. Jordan Campbell watched Arsenal run riot and I channel-hopped and I’ll do my best to give you the rest of the round-up.  Listen now. This was very stressful to make. Don’t let the sweaty armpits and all those bellowed swear words count for nothing.  Presenter: Iain Macintosh With: Sam Lee, Seb Stafford-Bloor and Jordan Campbell Producer: Steve Hankey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Newcastle are having a funny old season. They started well enough against West Ham, but they managed to lose 2-0 at home. Chris Waugh was there.  And what’s going with Mo Salah? James Pearce spoke to him on Sunday. We spoke to James Pearce on Monday. Join us for the inside track here.  Plus, close your eyes and tell me the current top three of the Champions League…you can’t do it, can you? Don’t worry, after you’ve listened to the great big Champions League round-up, you’ll be just fine.  Listen now, follow now, review now, tell your friends now, it’s everything you need to know about the football in under ten minutes.  Presenter: Iain Macintosh With: Chris Waugh, James Pearce Producer: Si Watts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Erm…sorry about the whole Dr Tottingham stuff from Friday. I won’t do that again. But who saw that coming, eh? City are spiralling and Liverpool are stretching clear at the top. James Pearce saw them win again. New Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim made a fantastic start, it’s just a shame for him that his players peaked after 81 seconds. Laurie Whitwell was there for us.  In Europe, Barcelona dropped points and Real Madrid closed the gap. Seb Stafford Bloor watched Bayer Leverkusen hit five past Heidenheim, but unfortunately for them, Harry Kane had already put three past Augsburg. We’ve got all the big scores from all the big leagues. Give us fifteen minutes of your time and we’ll tell you everything you need to know. About the big leagues, that is. We’re not so good with ‘general life advice’. But hey, drop me an email (imacintosh@theathletic.com) or find me on Blue Sky and I’ll do my best.  Presenter: Iain Macintosh With: James Pearce, Laurie Whitwell, Seb-Stafford Bloor Producer: Si Watts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices