Welcome to episode #235 of the Squeaky Bum Time podcast! Your host, Laurent Courtines, is here to provide a review after a Champions League midweek full of drama and disappointment, and ahead of a Premier League weekend full of quirks.

In this episode, we cover a wide range of topics related to the Premier League. We start by discussing the relegation battle and analyzing the xG per ninety, goalkeeping, and game state for the nine teams that are in contention. We hypothesize that Bournemouth, Southampton, and either Leicester or Forest will be the three relegated teams.

Moving on to the Premier League matches, we review the Liverpool vs Bournemouth, Manchester United vs Southampton, and Arsenal vs Fulham games. We give special attention to the players involved in each game, with shout outs for Philip Billing, Dango Oterra, and Rubén Sellés. We also focus on the performance of Arsenal and their front three, with particular praise for Leandro Trossard.

We then shift our attention to the current standings in the English Premier League and the upcoming Champions League fixtures. We break down the performance of various teams, such as Fulham, Crystal Palace, and Manchester City, analyzing their underlying numbers and recent matches. We discuss the lack of creativity from Manchester City and the potential implications of their upcoming game against Leipzig. Lastly, we cover the other Champions League fixtures and their current standings.

We also discuss Chelsea, Leicester City, and Everton, Brentford with respect to the Champions League and relegation battles. We provide updates on their recent matches and analyze their performances.

Lastly, we discuss the controversy around the BBC suspending Gary Linker for his remarks about immigrants, and the show of solidarity from the Match of the Day commentators by broadcasting a shortened episode. We also encourage viewers to support their local USL team, noting that tickets are relatively inexpensive and the atmosphere is enjoyable.

Join us for another exciting episode of the Squeaky Bum Time podcast!

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TIME STAMPS:

00:00 - Introduction

01:05 - The Uncertainty of Relegation

07:17 - Making Every Game Matter

10:33 - Liverpool's Unfortunate Penalty

14:27 - Liverpool's Funky Season and Bournemouth's Credit

19:14 - Arsenal's Successful Streak

24:54 - City vs. Leipzig

28:48 - Chelsea's Impressive Comeback

35:09 - Spurs and West Ham Struggles

39:23 - The World of Football Update

43:02 - Solidarity in Sports

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Keywords:

#PremierLeague #Liverpool #Bournemouth #ManchesterUnited #Arsenal #Fulham #Players #Performance #Standings #ChampionsLeague #RelegationBattle #Creativity #ManchesterCity #Leipzig #Chelsea #LeicesterCity #Everton #Brentford #Crestwell #OllieWatkins #Newcastle #Wolves #Isaac #ElmerRon #GaryLinker #AlanScheer #SanDiegoLoyal #BBC #MatchOfTheDay #USL #Tickets

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Join us for all this and more on the Squeaky Bum Time Podcast - the go-to source for everything Premier League. Don't miss a beat of the action as we bring you the latest news, analysis, and previews.

Hello, and welcome to the squeaky bum time podcast presented exclusively on the chop sports channel of the premier streaming network. We are recording this on Monday, March thirteenth. I am your host, the Wrong Fourteen. In this s episode, Casamiro sees red in red, city and arsenal hope serve and Liverpool slip again. But first, the relegation battle is bananas. Okay. We are actually going to do our housekeeping. Please like follow, share, subscribe. Like, follow, share, subscribe wherever you are. YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp, your favorite podcast player, anywhere you find things, please like share and subscribe to the show. And if you're new, this is a Premier League football show. We talk about Premier League soccer and how it connects. To other sports, specifically in the US, where I'm from. Okay. Let's get to it. Okay.

First, the permit the the allegation battle is insane. We're in an unpreduced unprecedented era. We've got nine teams at the bottom with five points separating them.å We only really know about two teams that we feel semi certain about and that would be Boyne Smith and Southampton who feel like relegation fodder but only because historically they would be, but they're not in any worse shape than any other team. So it's a really fascinating thing where we have three really big teams in Lester, West ham, and Everton sitting down there where you're just like they can't possibly go down. They can't possibly go down. They can't possibly go down. And yet they're there. We have leads that we really don't want to go down because we like the romance and nostalgia of it, even though they're allocation fodder. And then we have other teams in this group. So let's let's see. Let's go through it.

Palace on twenty seven, they haven't won a game since New Year's Eve. Wolfs who feel like they're in good better shape, they have a win and a draw in their last five. Along with three losses, so four points out of fifteen. We have forest who just have two draws which is we have everton who have a win, have two wins in a draw, which for them is really really good. That took them out of the relegation zone. And then we have this fundamental trust of Sean Daish and they have Homefield. Then we have Lester who we thought were fine on February eleventh they won four one and taught them, you know, like, these guys are fine. Let me proceed to just lose four in a row and we're awful in all those games. And we have West Ham who underlying numbers are the best team in this group. Their x g is plus two, which is shocking. They should not be anywhere near your they're more in line with Chelsea, to be frank. We have Bournemouth. Gary O'Neil has the team fighting. They just come off a win where they beat Liverpool.

LEADS. JUST HAD A Draw, they BAT four points of their last couple games. So they're playing a little better than just getting back Rodrigo and then Southampton, who we know just drew against United and beat Lester, but they are actually in one of the better forms of the bottom group. So nobody knows what's gonna happen. I think that's the key thing here. There's no way anyone knows which one of these teams that are all five points from each other from twelve down, Palace, wolves, forest, everton, Leicester City, West ham, Bournemouth, Elite, Nobody knows what will happen to them. We only think Let's But we only think we know. But let's go to something I like to do. I like to do the x g per ninety a gift. Based on that, the bottom three are Ormuth everton Palace. Now Palace have points, nodding and forest have points as well. So nodding and forest, I think a lot of those are early in wolves.

I like to think about goalkeeping. I really don't like Azuna. I really don't like melee for leads. Leads have a really good x g against, but we know the reason for that, and that's that they were behind in nearly every game. So they fall behind two goals and then play from behind.

So there's another kind of nerd thing called game state. And that kind of dictates how you play. If you're winning all the time and you don't keep attacking and you sit back and defend and you have good defenders, you'll likely have a you'll underperform your x g because you don't need to attack. You're fine. So that's why Liverpool was actually always a little bit better than Manchester City. And cities is always really high because they keep on attacking. So it depends on how your team is. If it x g hurts teams that defend and get leads early and then defend those leads. But if you're a high flying team that attacks all the time, you'll actually have a higher x g than expected because you're losing all the time, but then you keep on trying to play and play and play and play. So it's a little bit tricky. It's not an exact science, but it does give us a little bit of a sense of how teams are.

And what you'd expect like West Ham, we can we know they're in bad shape. They have an x g of thirty three goals, but have only scored twenty four. They're not scoring in front of goal, and they ask any West infant. They're not scoring in front of goal. There's one supreme outlier here and it is full of them. Full of them have a minus eleven x g with a plus one. So their third twelve gold difference. They are giving up way less than you'd expect and scoring way more than you'd expect. Their defense, it's smoke and mirrors for West ham. And you should actually think they might not win another game for the rest of the season.

Just to give you a sense of what I think is gonna happen. I think I've said it a million times. I think Bournemouth and Southampton and the fourth team is going to be I think it's gonna be between leads and forest. I mean, I love Steve Cooper, but that team's a little bit funky, and I believe Brendan Johnson got hurt this weekend. And then leads, I don't know what they're trying to be, and I'm not sure they know what they're trying to be. So I'm gonna go with them. Those are my two and then give a a little lament about how great promotion and delegation are.

If we look at American Sports where it's all about playoffs and all about, you know, winning the title and regular seasons don't matter. Degrading our regular seasons in nearly all American sports. In England, you have a top four race, which is really vital. It determines whether you're gonna play in Europe. So it it is an amount of status and money and all these things. So there's that top end in addition to winning the league, which is the hardest thing to do. And then at the bottom, we have this Moon Door trapdoor that gives competition at the bottom of the league.

So by foregoing playoffs and creating the anxiety and importance of games. We simply create the league to have jeopardy in it so that every game matters There are never any deadrubbers, deadrubber being like a dead letter office. There's never any games that don't matter. Every spot in this table from from Arsenal down to Southampton has a game that matters and it's all the way through. When I think about something like the NBA, which is dying to have any games matter at all, I wonder if they could just sort of ditch the playoffs and just try and make their regular season games more important or incorporate them or cut their season in half. Or whatever. We look at to the NFL all the time, and they're following down this path as well where they're putting more teams in playoffs and more teams So that regular seasons, even though there's only seventeen games, I think they'll always be okay, but ultimately, if you dilute your regular season, people start to notice and it doesn't matter. Anyway, the delegation battle is fantastic and I love it and you should pay attention to pick a horse even if you're like a top club teams fan if you're a city fan or you're an arsenal fan or whatever, pick a team at the bottom and root for them as much as you can because they're gonna need you.

Let's go through the scores. You ready? Here we go. The early game, born with one Liverpool Mill, Liverpool Yacket. Spurs get off the Shneide defeat Nottingham Forest, shocking at home, Spurs and Nottingham Forest away, a totally different thing. Lester City one, Chelsea three, a big away win, my my boy potter getting off the tonight. Ebertson, on an early amazing goal by McNeil, defeat Bradford really good for them. And the most exciting game of the day leads to Brighton two good goals all around. Brighton just only score bangers. That was fantastic.

And in the snow stress city limit Chelkristal Palace to nothing, but only score one goal, one nil, a penalty, two Holland, on Gunaga, win one nil on Sunday. West Ham one, Aston Villa one. West Ham, you gotta do better. Full of nil. Arsenal three, an extremely dominant performance from Arsenal. Just what Arsenal needed. Men united nil, Southampton nil. That game was bonkers. The most bonkers now nearly you'll see and Newcastle defeat wolves two one to bring up the week. Those were your scores.

Now, let us go to the games one at a time. First, in order of importance, Liverpool, lose, or lose to Bournemouth, one nil, on a Philip billing goal. He's one of my favorite players. I absolutely adore him. He's six foot seven. He runs like a deer. His hair looks like he has a sponge on it, and I just love him.

I thought that Bournemouth deserved this game, and I think Gary O'Neil coached his game in the season. He did not give up the farm and say, I'm just gonna sit deep and wait for my team to get killed. He took it to Liverpool. He exploited the weaknesses in the midfield. And, you know, in fact, between Harvey when Harvey Elliott and Bassettitch are together in the midfield, He went with the young legs. Fabeno, I watched him. He just didn't get around enough.

And over time, on the break, Bournemouth did their thing. They did their thing. You know, Liverpool did have five shots on target. You know, they they had their chances. I'm not to say that this was a, you know, romp. But I think Liverpool will feel like they were on top of this game, especially in the first twenty minutes where they were three or four saves. Won by Sala, Nora Nunez, Robertson, all off the line.

But then billing got their goal, and Liverpool sort of eased off in the second half they did get a penalty that Mo Sala missed on sixty nine, which was probably the talking point of the day having watched Mossada a lot. I have to say though, his run up was off, everything seemed off about it, and you kind of felt like he was gonna miss it was a little bit of little bit of an unfair an unfair penalty that V a R awarded, you know, a little bit of a handball that, yes, it's a handball. Yes, his arm is up. Get the sense my anecdotal feeling is the players react to bad penalties and they kinda know that it's fucked up. And it doesn't really work.

I do wanna give a shout out to one player who really kicked ass in this game, and that was Dango Oterra. He was dangerous. He ran like a deer. He's one of those classic tricky fast wingers who gets in front of the gold in front of the keeper and fires balls all over the place. He missed a great chance early, and that's when he kinda knew that Liver Pool, we're in for something. Also, another shout out needs to go out to Dominic Salanky, who is fantastic. Former Liverpool player He created a lot. He felt like he was causing lots of problems moving into space, creating issues for others to run into.

And I thought Bournemouth were were worth their goal. They they deserved this win. It probably was a draw from Liverpool's perspective. I think Clop would admit that they just weren't at it. And here you go, Liverpool. The ultimate you know, club right now that just can't get any consistency in their performances at all. You go from having a seven nil to having a one Nelligan tournament. Just these are the breaks. This is where Liverpool is right now. They can put in really bad performances.

And I think if any Liverpool fan was honest and look back even on all their great seasons, they had a bad season in them in that they've rolled their luck a lot. And still due to a lesser extent, Alison is by far the best keeper in the league. He saves them so many goals they get the rub of the green at home that makes them impervious. So they've been sort of hiding in plain sight some of the issues as a city fan who watched Liverpool all the time, even last season when they were incredible, you kinda would see them go through games or you're just like, this is not good, and then they'd find a way to win and get the games done. And you'd kinda get this sense that the narrative was like, oh, Liverpool, they just know how to win. And I just kept thinking the whole time, like, they're not there. If you remember, If you remember last season or the season before, can't remember which preview I did with Mike, I kinda was predicting a decline in Liverpool.

I just kinda saw it coming. I just thought they're old and they're not there in it. And now in this case, they're old and they're not there and they're getting bad luck. You know, they're not not getting those cracks on goal that we're going in. They've got a nine mil and a seven mil that are really boosting their underlying numbers. But if you take out Those two games, they've really had a hard time this season in getting the luck of the green. And listen, Liverpool will be fine. I think they'll probably be in for the top four they'll they'll squeak away in. I think they'll wake up when they kind of realize that six games to go, and they'll just go win them all and finish in the top four. I mean, even think about the season when they did get the top four.

Allison scores a goal when he comes up. I mean, there's so much luck that Liverpool lives on and they create it. I get it. But it is a little bit funky and, you know, it is just a weird season for them. I do wanna give another shout out though. Konate is really really good. And when Kenate and and and Ben Daika there, they're really, really good.

The goal of course came from Trent's side. He did get yanked in this game on sixty five. So it wasn't just me. When you're getting pulled for James Miller, you're doing something wrong. So I don't think he covered himself in glory. In defense, he kind of stood around. He's still upright. He still just loses track of runners. I mean, it's not new. It's not anything that we don't know about. It's just it's just a shame that that happens all the time.

Again, I wanna give Bournemouth a lot of credit. You know, going back to my first segment, we really get a sense of where the relegation battle is. It is intense. It is serious. It is growing and gonna be one of one for the ages. I think it's gonna need forty points. It might just need forty points to to to get a sense of of where things are. So that's Liverpool and Bournemouth.

And we go on to Manchester United who have a nil nil, but this is the most bananas nil nil you'll see. Kasimiro goes off early I've got a check. Goes off early on a red. Now, this is his second red card in four games. A little bit weird. Didn't get any red cards in real Madrid in five years. But then twice in it Premier League. I wonder if it's having to defend more, having not having real Madrid, have the referees fixing games for them? No. I know. That's Barcelona. That's a whole another story. But, yeah, the the the red came early vekhart had to come off and really, you know, United had to really battle and it made this game a lot more interesting than it deserved to be.

Really fun game, really up and down. Lots of crazy chances. Walker Peter's hit the post. Lot of fun shots, a lot of, you know, I think the old wall cut went in on goal by himself. A lot of crazy stuff happened in this game. And I think any United fan would be happy with this draw. And I think Southampton fans should feel like, oh, we we missed a chance. Although they'll take their point especially in the renegotiation zone going to old trafford and getting a point is massive. I mean, I'm not I'm not really killing them, but have to have a whole hour with up or down a man, to be up a man for his authentic. You'd expect a little bit more, but they have a hard time scoring goal. But This game was fun. I enjoyed it a lot.

I think I really like Ruben Sellis, the manager of Southampton, and I wonder if they hadn't if they didn't have the the the Nathan Jones experiment, maybe they'd be in a better spot. He looks good on the sideline. It seems to matter to him. He's engaged. He's pushing his team. He doesn't seem burned out. And maybe Bizuno is getting better. He made some decent saves, although did see him go wandering around. You feel like, you know, James Ward perhaps will win you a game once every three or four games. He's not a great defender. You can see him not get around. People go past them often. But I really like Latvia. So Southampton has something to them too.

This is more of a theme within this this episode. These allegation teams are really, really good. And you have to really, really, really be careful about playing them. They will beat you. It's not a fucking joke. They'll come after you. They'll put the hurt on you. And I think it really goes to show how good the good teams are in the Premier League. How good Arsenal has been, and we're gonna go to them right now. How good Arsenal has been to be where they are. Because playing these renegotiation teams, every team is tough in this league. Every team is tough and you could have sworn that Fulham at home was gonna be a great chance to battle with them, Arsenal, but Arsenal put together one of their better halves of the season and just played, pull them off the park.

I will say, Fulham without Pulenia is not Fulham. He's actually their most important player. He's leading the league in both tackles and interceptions, and he essentially creates a one man defense. He's the most energetic player in the Premier League and he and and Fulham have not won in the three games he hasn't been in. But Arsenal were fantastic in this Gabriela Early, Martin Ellie, and Odeguard on all assisted by the great and powerful Truss art. Who, if you were brighten head, you knew how good Truss art was. I didn't think that he would be starting and doing and being as important to Arsenal as he has been, but he now becomes the first player in the Premier League ever to score a hat trick of goals and assists in the same season.

If you remember the three three with Brighton, where he scored three goals in at anfield, which was an amazing display by him. Not much from Rich Rich. He took his three shots didn't really get much going. Pereira also did some good work, but ultimately this was an arsenal game and that they needed. A really easy nice win. I think I've been talking about it earlier. They needed an easy game. They needed an easy game desperately. And now the front three of Arsenal has more goals and PSG's fourth three. So, soccer, auto guard, Martin Ellie sorry. Yeah. Soccer, Odeguard Martinelli. Yeah. That's the one. Those are the three. They have ten goals as a trio, which is amazing. It just goes to show The great work our Ted has done.

The Andrew Trasard, he's twenty eight. So let's keep that in mind. Even though it's a great buy, he's not doesn't really fit profile out team. He's a little bit older. Zinchenko, again, also fantastic controlling these games. They just had an easy game they just had a game that they could just do whatever they needed to do. And Arsenal, again, tick the box. They win five games in a row for the third time this season. Really cruising and aside from that little blip they had a month ago, they really have been cruising. Those those Those late game winners really help them. And, yes, they only have a five point lead on city, but you do get the sense that'll be JSB champions. Of course, Once they lose, the narrative will flip and they're bottling it. But while they're not bottling it, arsenal are in really, really good shape.

I do wanna talk a little bit about Fulham, to be fair. Fulham have a little sniff of Roy Hodgkin's Roy Hodgkin's Crystal Palace team that got to about thirty five points early, and then got to forty, and then just collapsed in the second half of the season. They might be a candidate for that. It doesn't look like they're gonna get to Europe without Paulinia. They're not really doing much. Mitrovich has been carrying injuries and not scoring I'm not sure if Fulham has anything left to fight for except for their own pride, You know, we saw Rheem, our Abayos back in towson did a good job.

So we have a lot of our American friends. In Robinson, Jedi Robinson and and Tim Ream playing next to each other. But yeah, I mean, Fulham had a good season whether they can sustain where they are. I don't know. They're the luckiest team. They're the most highest outperforming team of their XG this season. So it's very likely that they will fall down to their level. So their underlying numbers are more like a delegation zone team than a top ten team, and Bradford are not. So I would expect Chelsea to probably pull up into eighth and full them to drop down into that tenth slot. I mean, they're not gonna go any further that. Fill them already on thirty nine. They're safe. They've already had a good season. But sometimes you you sort of fade in the second half. It's only twelve games to go. So they'll feel okay with where they are and what they're up to.

So we move on to my friends in Crystal Palace. And the Great and Powerful Manchester City. This was not a Great andpowerful game. This was a Great and boring game. I watched it. City controlled it. The narrative around it was that city just kinda hung on. They didn't really hang on. Palace didn't come to play and didn't do anything. Palace took no shots on target. This is the third game in a row without a shot on target. So maybe what Citi did isn't really a big deal.

But Citi played four defenders across the back. Four center backs, Ajay, Akanji, Diaz, and stones at right back. So they went to Palace and played four center backs as though they were you know, a delegation team. You can imagine that buildup was not as good as it could be. That Brian didn't play, at all except late in the second half, and Fulton got pulled off as well.

So not a lot of creativity coming from Citi. The moments that were good were from Jack. He sort of ran at the defense a few times, but didn't really get much going. Yeah. Holland missed two chances that earlier in the season he would have made. But, you know, Citi, bring on Alvarez to try and get the goal, and then eventually on a moment of smarts.

Citi played a ball in quickly and early to Gunnar gone. Alicie's got his back turned to him turns and sprints towards and in the box, Gunnarsson, hoping that a cutback or passes on, and he steps on Gunnarsson's foot penalty, Bingo, Bingo, Bingo, Bongo, on comes Holland, and he dispatches it and gets very, very excited for the penalty. So Citi tick over. Peppa is very excited about this. This is a very grindy grindy grindy game. So Citi will take it.

Gunigand created lots. Jack Reelish created lots. There was a lot of good stuff done, just nothing went in. And had there been some goals that went in. We might have, you know, it might have been a much easier sort of feeling.

I think the best chances came from Alvarez on sixty and Holland on on twenty eight. They both missed shots and shot off target. Chances that they really would put away, and those accounted for about half the x g they had. Point two on each So city dominate, get the win, they move on, and not really that big of a game. They do have to play Leipzig. This is one of the balances of the of the Champions League that is coming up as well. That's in the balance. Leipzig are not to be trifled with. No one Kukui, but it is at home.

These are the games that Citi have been waiting for, and they do make me nervous, especially Citi's not really in the sharpest of form. They haven't been all season. This Holland thing is real. They play a little bit slower. And when he's not scoring on every second touch and being more like a normal human being, you you get the sense that they they struggle to score goals. Especially now that Kevin De Bruin is in the funk. He's a little bit in the in the dog house with with with PeP. It's year eight of their relationship. I'm sure it'll be fine, but is a little bit in the press on that.

The other one would be Palace. What is going on with Palace? I know they had about a month without Zaha. He missed all of February, but he's been back for the March games. And he's not really gotten going yet. I don't think Vieira is really doing anything. He seems to just get draws and kind of listlessly moving Palace around, you'd expect them to have a go.

And after Citi scored their goal, they did start trying to attack city and had good chances. You wonder what would have happened if they tried to play the whole game? I think that Some of these teams that are negative or fearful and don't come after Citi from the start are doing themselves a disservice. You you can see it with Bournemouth who played against Liverpool and got after it. If you're gonna lose, you just lose by four who cares. Right? It doesn't really matter. So they took too long to get the machine going. You know, after the goal, Esa and Edison Edouard came on and they did fashion some chances. They took the last two shots at the game. And did have chances that I think city were worried about anytime Zaha got the ball and he was, you know, going one on one against John Stone's.

I'll tell you I was scared. So I I worry for city, right, for for for Southampton, right, for Palace right now. They are, you know, list list, again, only three. You have to go down but they're among that group of seven that are just like, can you just pull yourself together? Because I'm I'm starting to get worried a little bit. A little bit a little bit worried. Can I get worried? Am I allowed? Yeah.

So city do tomorrow play leipzig, probably the biggest game of the Champions League. And I'll I'll give a pop around to the Champions League just to give it a little bit of a a look see. I know I've been getting it wrong. I've been getting this schedule wrong the whole time. Every time I talk about it, I get it wrong. But tomorrow, We do have City versus Leipzig and Interverse Porto both poised Inter has a one nel lead on Porto and city art level on a one one on aggregate. Then on Wednesday, we have Napoli and Itrek Frankfurt and Rayam Madrid, first Liverpool Liverpool, Rayam Madrid, up five two on aggregate. Five two on aggregate. So crazy, crazy times. Where else are we going? We've got more things to cover. Let's let's go to Where else can we go? Let's go to see our friends at Chelsea.

Chelsea are back off the Schneid. They scored some good goals. They win three one versus Lester City. Vout fights get sent off late, but The the the the goals in this were really, really good. Choe Wells was incredible on a cross from Koolabali who sidesteped his defender on the at on the on wind side, passed it across chill while fires at home. Really good. Thai habits just at the end of the half was incredible. The ball from Fernandez over the top of the defense, and Havertz just nonchalantly pokes it in. And then Kova Chick, which is doesn't score goals, but when he does their bangers, He does an outside of the boot outside of the boot karate kick into the goal, three goals for Chelsea, all really, really classed. They were so difficult that actually Lester won the XG battle, but lost the game.

Daka scored early. Nice to see him playing. And then you know, they just couldn't get their goals. They couldn't get their machine going. Although, to be fair to Lester, they did have decent chances again James Madison. Pulling the strings, creating tons and tons of opportunities, same with anacho, both creating so much, but not really getting anything done.

Danny Ward, not great in this one. As he usually is, he's pretty poor, could have been at fault for the chill well shot. Didn't really see it coming his way. But Chelsea, we know they got past Baruza Dortman. We know that they are moving on We see a little green shoots of confidence growing in this team. I think it has something to do with playing the same players. Which I think is good. We know Fernandez Kova Chicks together is a nice group, and then Fofana and Kula Bali playing together. Cucarella playing. We've got a decent seemingly part of this team coming together. And I think Chelsea will feel good about where they are in the Champions League. I believe the draw will be on Thursday after after the Wednesday games or maybe it's Friday, and so we'll know who gets who in these Champions League draws, but things are moving along and getting very, very interesting, very, very quickly.

And then we go to our other friends in the in the relegation battle, so Lester is one. And we have everton verse Brentford. Brentford. Getting shut down by mighty Daishas everton. The goal by McNeil is incredible, really fast on the valley. Gets it done. Of course, Brentford dominated this game. They the the houdini, that is Daish, who loses every single game in XG, but then doesn't that somehow wins the game. Incredible stuff from the Great and Powerful Daish. They have a consistency now. We're always seeing the midfield of onana, gay, and decoré. And then we've got Michael Keene and Sarkowski so many burnley old boys. I don't even know what to do. Seamus Coleman, still getting it done, the madman, and then it will be Grey and White McNeil play up front.

I feel like there was some controversy here, but I don't remember what it was. I do remember Ivan Toni just getting boiled over and missing a guilty chance in this one that he just never was able to put together. I'm just gonna look at Will we miss one Rico Henry, miss one, and those are the two really big ones that were missed. Yeah, even Tony and Boemo and not not not too much to write home about in terms of getting goals. Although David Reya, The goalkeeper had a really nice shot at the end there and almost pulled it level. That would have been so everton to blow it, but you know, that's Bradford's first loss in their last twelve. They had been unbeaten in their last eleven. Lots of draws in there, but still for Bradford to be on beaten eleven is incredible. And then the great and powerful dice goes ninety nine goes ninety five minutes defending a one goal lead. How daish is that? That is like a daishy of daishy stone, more daishy than you can daishate yourself. So we're seeing the good stuff from there.

I think it's interesting that Connor Cody doesn't play anymore. I thought I always thought he was a better defender than Michael Keene, but maybe he's better in a three. I do I am concerned for him. He'll probably need to leave everton. I think he was on loan from wolves, so we'll wonder about what happens with Connor Cody kind of player that you kinda like, kinda would fit in any bottom ten team, would fit into someone like Palace or forest or or lesser city, lesser city and counter Cody feel like a match made in heaven. Really good player. Maybe he could fit into Taunton, but maybe after the Matt Daugherty experiment, no. They're not Spurs aren't taking anyone from wolves. Ever again.

Let's talk a little bit about Nottingham Forest and Tautenham. Not great. Not even ForEx. Again, when you're on the road and you suck every single fucking time, it's just brutal. Harry Caine scores an amazing header. Glances off it. It looked very simple in the moment, but then you look at it and you're like, wow, that is a really, really good header. Then Cairns owns another on a peak on a penalty that how do you get who who how do you how do you who drew the penalty? Oh, Rich Allison draws the foul from a pass from Hurricane. Nice stuff.

Really good from Cain, and then Sunny scores a goal. Deflected in that Richard Allison set up. Richard Allison, hard done by an off side call. That was a little bit weak. And as far as get the consultation goal from Joe Whirl who'd come on late. Yeah.

For for for for forest, you know, they do their thing with a run hard and he makes all five subs every game. I'm noticing that from Steve Cooper. He always uses all five, tries to run hard and defend as hard as he can, and then catch teams as they're sleeping, in that transition period when his team has fresh legs and yours doesn't. That's a move that I'm watching you, Steve. Steve Cooper. I know what you're up to. But Forest, you know, they they still have that problem of of not winning away and not only not winning away. Being awful and getting giving up goals for crazy. Now there's six, eight, and twelve. I still think nine wins is the magic numbers. That's nine more points. Nine wins and a few draws and you'll be safe. Nine wins was the number last season.

This is again our theme of the episode. All about the relegation battle spurs we know out of everything. This is all they're playing for, and they still are hanging into their top four spot. The lucky bastards just won't go away. But it is it is amazing to see spurs just like they won't die. They are they they play terribly. They don't like their coach. Conte is miserable. And yet they still continue to play on the strength of the great and powerful Harry Cain, his goals, and the know how just like I guess we're just gonna keep fighting and keep going and never give up and never stop. And it's amazing. What we're they're almost the opposite of what we're seeing in the other side of London.

West ham one, Aston Villa one, the great and powerful Ali Watkins gets a goal, and West ham kind of sputtering along, getting those draws, they really need to be getting wins out of those games and they're just unable to do it side Ben Ramos scored a penalty to level things up on twenty six, and then that was it. It didn't seem like there was much else going on in this game. You know, I don't know when Moiz has to go, but eventually he's gonna have to go. Right? I I don't know Westin fans. You know, it's just one of these things where it's just like, can somebody please score for this team? It's just bizarre. They can't get anything going. Danny Ng's in this one plays.

We see we get a glimpse, five minute glimpse of Maxwell Cornet, If you guys remember him from Burnley, it was so fun last season. Pacetto went off, miserable, didn't shake anyone's hands, didn't look at Moi's And, you know, yes, they want. They had a midweek game and they were in Greece, but it's not an excuse for a team is talented to spur as as West ham. They just are stuck in creating stuff and creating opportunities, but just not scoring goals. Again, Jared Bowen, just unable to replicate or get he's making a lot of things happen. But it's just not enough. They don't have anyone to finish these things.

Dani Inks, no shots, sideburne, took all the shots for everybody. Nine shots, a little bit greedy. Scored his one, but on a penalty. He was at least trying to get shots off. How Scamaka can't get a run. I don't even think he was in the lineup. Or he does not even playing.

They always looked better with Crestwell creating stuff, but now they're not even playing him. They're being defensive all the time. I'm not sure what they're supposed to do. So Check hasn't scored a goal since the War of eighteen twelve or some battle from Bohemia. Where he's from in Czechoslovakia. I don't know what Westheimer is supposed to do. And then, you know, our friends from from Villa They're just like plugging along.

You know, Ollie Watkins is their best player. He's a hard worker. I always wanted him for arsenal. He gets his goal. He's now gets six and five. Six and five? Yeah. Six goals and five five goals and six games. Excuse me. And he's really being their best player always full of running a very English striker and sort of freed from the shackles of Danny Ains freed from some of the shackles that he was on with with other players. And now that he's sort of opened things up and when Aymeric has seen that poendia and he work really well together. We have a really good strike partnership that we can see working together, and it's really making a difference. Just to give you a sense, Holly Watkins is, like, the number one striker for interception. So he's really charging out there making sure things happen and tackles. He's just a good, good, good player who doesn't stop working. He's a type of player that is a winning player in my opinion. So awesome stuff for him. Yeah. Let's see. Ali Watkins has just got tons and tons of goals. Just kicking ass. I love them. I love them. I love them. So that's where those teams are. And I think we're getting close to the end here of the show.

Just couple other notes that I wanted to touch on in terms of what's happening and keeping you abreast of the world of football. Oh, I have one more game. Newcastle defeated wolves. I did not watch this one, but it is interesting to see Isaac and Elmer Ron back in the game. Elmer Ron pulls this one out after after wolves bring it level on a deflected goal by twenty chin, a weird goal. God forbid, Wolf score a goal from a striker. Oh, they didn't. Oh, I'm surprised. But, yeah, tough loss for for for Lopetengue who's good, but it's good to see Newcastle get themselves back going and keep that top four battle going. There are four points behind spurs or five points behind spurs. We'll go through the table in a minute just to keep that race and conversation going. I did wanna talk about one thing that happened in football, The most venerable show in English football history, Match of the Day, been on since nineteen sixty three on the BBC.

It has historically been the only way you can watch highlights in England of any game from the three PM blackout window. And is lauded as a tradition like no other. It's sort of like your Boomer and TJ doing Sunday night football recap. It's that level of show except it sort of makes stars. And Gary Liniker, former England striker, Lester Tottenham, was the all time metering goals before Wayne Rooney and now I'm sure Hurricane will take over from him. For England goals, famously played in Barcelona, which was very cool for English players who never did that along with Mark Hughes. So he's now more famous for being the host of match of the day than he was as a player. But he's a normal level progressive on Twitter. Nothing crazy. Sort of a taxatory government very often.

It's in a controversy in the UK around taking on migrants. That are across Europe. There's tons of migrants coming from Africa, coming from east side, coming from Syria, coming from Turkey now. They have the earthquake. She's just a constant churn and the English government is very tory and very anti immigrant hence Brexit and some of the language that has been used towards these immigrants. Gary Leonard curves sort of tweeted, it sounds like nineteen thirty's Germany. So not saying they were Nazis, but saying they were Nazis.

The BBC is a government agency. It's it's the PBS, but for the National Television of England, and there was a controversy in which the BBC suspended him for the comments. Now, Why would that happen? The BBC has historically held up its journalistic integrity over the years. It has been under attack for it because as we are, as we have in the US, everything is political. So there have been a lot of political appointments within the BBC of folks that are would be considered conservative or whatever. It doesn't matter. I I'm not gonna play either side. Anyway, Gary Linica refused to apologize. He was suspended. And in solidarity with his decision, all of the folks who work on BBC's match of the day as front facing people stood with him. So so Alan Scheer, write all the commentators.

So match of the day was broadcast with no commentary and just twenty minute and just the seven minute highlights of the games. And so a show that normally takes an hour and a half with only shown for, I believe, twenty two minutes. This is a venerable show. It's on at ten o'clock on every Saturday and Sunday whenever their game's on. And they have the exclusive rights to show to be the highlight show of the Premier League. So that was a big controversy. It's it's has since been squashed, Gary Linicker is gonna be back on the air. But it would be the equivalent of of Charles Barkley getting kicked off the air by TNT for one Thursday night basketball show, and then all of the basketball world sort of being in solidarity and having no Shack, no Kenny, no Ernie, which probably would happen be fair. But then Jen just showing the game anyway with just just just highlights anyway. Interesting stuff, interesting difference in the way things are handled in sport and solidarity. I love that about the UK. That history of supporting coal miners, the history of supporting industrial action. We saw it with the Super League, how the supporters came out against it and really fought against it. So it is that as well.

I do have one more thing. Oh, it's over here. San Diego Loyal, my USL team. This is my team. We just started the season. I'll give an update every week now. One nil. Very turreted game against Detroit City FC in the fog at Terreira Stadium at University of San Diego. Pretty good game. We saw some new players come in, but San Diego loyal.

Check out URL. If you're in a URL town, look it up. All the games are on ESPN plus. You wanna not spend money and wanna have a good time and love football locally, go see your USL. They put on a great show, it's great football, and it's as good as anything you're gonna see, especially if it's live. Tickets for the USL are fifteen bucks, which is pretty cheap. To go to a football match. And we have the the San Diego loyal, the loyal, the the the deep end or whatever the hell we're called, They play in the drums all game and it's really enjoyable and worth going. Okay. That was the squeaky bum time podcast with LaRonde Corteens. We are the football wing of the chopped sports channel and presented exclusively by the premiere streaming network. We record on Mondays and Thursdays, so be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcast, so you'd never miss an episode. If you're listening on Apple, please rate and review the show so we can have more folks enjoy the show and please share on Facebook and all that stuff. Alright. Thanks. See you there too.