The Daily Football Briefing

Arsenal fans seem a little nervous right now and I can understand that. Newcastle stand between them and a first cup final since 2020, and the Magpies are in fine form. But former Gunner Adrian Clarke is very optimistic… AC Milan looked dead and buried in Saudi Arabia, but Christian Pulisic led a heroic comeback to secure Super Coppa success against Internazionale. Greg O’Keefe was watching that f...

Liverpool were supposed to give Manchester United the spanking of a lifetime, but they only escaped with a draw because a last gasp opportunity fell to Harry Maguire. What went wrong, we ask James Pearce, while pivoting skilfully to ask Laurie Whitwell what went right for United.  And seriously, what is the deal with Dani Olmo? Can he leave Barcelona for free now? We asked Pol Ballus who patiently...

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. Chelse...

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 rat...

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 rea...

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 In...

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 Dial...

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...

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...

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, bu...

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 yo...

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 th...

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...

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 Vi...

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...

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 t...

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 vict...

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, bu...

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 Ma...

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 prefe...

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 w...

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 d...

It feels like a lifetime since we last enjoyed club football. Forgotten what was going on? Don’t worry. Give us ten minutes and we’ll bring you right up to speed.  We look at how Manchester City and Arsenal joined Chelsea in the UEFA Women’s Champions League quarter-finals. James Twomey joins us to discuss another injury setback for England and Chelsea defencer Reece James. And there’s just about...

That’s what we’re asking our Manchester City correspondent Sam Lee. Does this mean that…the other stuff is all resolved?  And what’s going on down in Croydon were Stormzy and Wilfried Zaha have bought a non league football club and they’ve just hired former Crystal Palace coach and caretaker manager Keith Millen? Matt Woosnam has been investigating.  Plus, all the scores from the Women’s Champions...

Well, that was a busy night. Wales gave one of their finest performances since 2016, beating Iceland 4-1 and gaining promotion to the top tier of the Nations League, but they’re down to Item 3 tonight because Pep Guardiola has signed a new contract with Manchester City and Tata Martino has left Inter Miami,  We’ve got all the scores from around the world, particularly in the Asian World Cup Qualif...