The Daily Football Briefing

Liverpool just had to beat Tottenham, but they absolutely blew them away at Anfield, running out 4-0 winners. James Pearce discusses their dominance, Jay Harris reflects on Tottenham’s timidity and the one thing we can agree on is that it’s been a really tough week for North London. 

Pol Ballus was watching Barcelona in the Copa del Rey, we’ve got Lisa Nandy from The Athletic FC and…erm…a bit of an announcement… 

Presenter: I...

Any concerns that Newcastle would bottle their chance of a trip to Wembley proved extremely wide of the mark. They tore into Arsenal and thoroughly deserved their 2-0 victory. George Caulkin was there and he is happy, James McNicholas was there and he is rather less so. 

We had Beren Cross watching Leeds win again, Dermot Corrigan saw Real Madrid get a fright at Leganes and James Pearce joins us to discuss Liverpool’s transfer w...

Manchester City’s spending has been the focus of much discussion over the last 24 hours. They bought four players in the window, but will they be enough to prevent Pep Guardiola’s empire from crumbling? Rory Smith thinks not 

And Real Madrid have complained very loudly about VAR “manipulating” the game against them. Thomas Hill Lopez Menchero is here to tell us if they have a point. 

Plus we’ve got news from all of the big ga...

We’ve got a full deadline day round-up for you here with everything that was confirmed after 11pm, but before our bedtime at midnight. Deal of the day? Marco Asensio for Aston Villa? Or will it be Mathys Tel for Spurs? 

Chelsea were never really comfortable at Stamford Bridge, but they grabbed themselves a much needed victory against West Ham. Simon Johnson was there. 

And we’ve got another episode of Heavy Metal Football…sta...

Be honest. When Kai Havertz missed that first half sitter, you thought that Arsenal were going to lose, didn’t you? And why wouldn’t you? That’s how football works. It’s powered by narrativium. Except this time it wasn’t. Arsenal destroyed City and Havertz got one in the back of the net eventually. 

Amy Lawrence has the Arsenal angle, Sam Lee has City, but we’ve also got Carl Anka at Old Trafford, the theatre of pathos, we’ve go...

It’s mission accomplished for Tottenham and Manchester United, they’ve spared themselves a Europa League play-off. So have Rangers, which very few people expected. Jay Harris was in North London, Mark Critchely was in Bucharest, but they both made time for DFB.  

So did Seb Stafford Bloor because it looks like young Mathys Tel is on the move. But where to?

And we’ve got a whole weekend of domestic football on the horizon, so ...

Manchester City were 0-1 at home to Club Brugges, but they fought back to win 3-1 and claim their place in the play-offs. Sam Lee was there and he’s looking forward to their reward; a clash with Real Madrid or Bayern Munich. 

Paris St Germain didn’t just survive, they managed to bag a seeded place in the play-offs, Seb Stafford Bloor watched them and he was impressed.

And Aston Villa’s 4-2 win over Celtic was overshadowed by ...

Yep, it’s the big one tonight. Eighteen games, all at once and heaven only knows what that massive Champions League table will look like at the end of it all. What does it all mean? Listen here for a full briefing.

Plus, what’s going on with Borussia Dortmund, we speak to Seb Stafford Bloor. And are Brighton really about to sell Evan Ferguson? It appears so.  

Presenter: Iain Macintosh

With: Phil Hay, Seb Stafford Bloor

Produc...

Ruben Amorim doesn’t seem to mince his words and his comments on Marcus Rashford this weekend were fascinating. We check in with the team from The Athletic FC podcast to find out what they mean. 

Plus, how did Leeds get on at Burnley?

And we’ve got another installment of heavy metal football…statistics and how they suggest that Trent Alexander Arnold and Son Heung Min aren’t having such bad seasons after all. 

Presenter: I...

The mood at Tottenham is pretty bleak right now. Defeat at home to Leicester was not what anyone was expecting. The fans are absolutely furious and understandably so. Jay Harris reports back for us.

Laurie Whitwell was at the Manchester United game and he has our full sympathy for that. Jacob Tanswell tells us about a tired looking Aston Villa. And, after the first hat trick of his Real Madrid career, Dermot Corrigan tells us wh...

Finally, there’s a smile on Ruben Amorim’s face. He thought, as indeed we all did, that Man Utd had chucked away a perfectly good win with an entirely preventable mistake. He was wrong, Bruno Fernandes saved the day and poor old Ranger, depleted by injuries, went home empty handed. Laurie Whitwell was there.

Spurs could so easily have done the same. They dominated the first half in Hoffenheim, fell away completely in the second...

Manchester City aren’t out of it yet, but they were taught a lesson in Paris by a young side that have none of their predecessor’s traits. PSG fought as a team to come back from 0-2 down and, in many ways, this is sad because we can no longer laugh at them.

We can laugh at Bayern, if that’s something you’d like to do. They were beaten by Feyenoord and may not get one of those nice automatic passes. Arsenal probably will do thou...

What a night of Champions League football. If you were smart enough to choose the Benfica - Barcelona game as your match of the night, well done. Pol Ballus was there and he’s still in shock. 

If you were watching some sort of Champions League highlights show, you may not have kept up with all the goals going in, there were 34 in total. James Pearce was at Anfield, Jacob Tanswell was in Monaco and Dermot Corrigan was in Madrid, ...

Chelsea are back in business after five Premier League games without a win, but their 3-1 victory over Wolves wasn’t always convincing. Simon Johnson was at Stamford Bridge, he tells us more. 

And is this really the worst Manchester United team ever? We check in with the Talk of the Devils team to find out. 

And what’s going on with the Champions League again? Who’s playing who? Who’s going through? And what does it all mean?...

Did anyone expect David Moyes’ second coming to be quite this much fun? They tore Spurs to shreds in the first hour of their clash at Goodison Park, blotting their copybook only slightly by allowing Ange Postecoglu’s side to pull back two late goals. Jack Pitt Brooke was there. 

Paul Taylor was watching Nottingham Forest adjusting to a day of being overwhelming favourites. Carl Anka was at Old Trafford, presumably because he ups...

Erling Haaland has committed the vast majority of his career to Manchester City by signing an extraordinary new contract that will keep him at the Etihad Stadium until the summer of 2034.

Abi Paterson is joined by David Ornstein who broke the story exclusively on The Athletic.

The Athletic's Senior Data Analyst shares his thoughts on how Manchester City will no look to build a team around him.

Host: Abi Paterson

Producer: Abi Paterson

With eight minutes to go at Old Trafford, the question of Manchester United’s relegation was pertinent and appropriate. They were losing to a broken team with just six points on the board. And then Amad Diallo, again, saved United. Laurie Whitwell tries to make sense of an extraordinary night. 

Elsewhere, Brighton won a league game for the first time since November 23, Ipswich don’t look good though. We’ve got some Spurs reactio...

Arsenal shook off their fears and just about edged their way past Spurs at The Emirates. Amy Lawrence was there to watch it all and pass comment, Jay Harris was there to quite rightly defend the honour of Spurs’ keeper Antonin Kinsky. 

There was no dream return for David Moyes at Everton, his side were beaten at home by Aston Villa and, goodness me, he has a lot of work to do. 

George Caulkin saw Newcastle win AGAIN and Alexa...

What a fantastic night of football for everyone apart from the people trying to put out a compact, results heavy, ten minute football podcast by 10.30pm. Liverpool (and Leicester fans) were given a real scare by Nottingham Forest, but they worked their socks off to come back and save a point. Chelsea saved a point at home to Bournemouth, Man City lost two at Brentford and Graham Potter’s West Ham won 3-2 with four shots and I don’t...