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The Athletic

Welcome to The Daily Football Briefing from The Athletic. It’s all the football news you need in ten minutes or less. Subscribe now and you’ll never miss another story.

The Daily Football Briefing

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

It was the best of Spurs, it was the worst of Spurs

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

Does the bell toll for O'Neil?

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

Brave PSG claw their way to 24th place

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

Manchester City embrace retro 90s zeitgeist by losing seven games in ten

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

Spurs escape from Glasgow with a point

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

Oh Pep

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

Bournemouth go SIXTH. What a world, eh?

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

The European Super League is back, but this time it’s really stupid.

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

Arsenal, Liverpool and Newcastle all make it to the final four

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

A thriller Thursday in Tottenham as Spurs edge Man Utd

On today's Briefing - it's the debate that everyone wants in on; should Cristiano Ronaldo start for Portugal on Friday?! We speak to Tim Spiers. 
Plus: What next for the USMNT? And: Bayern finally get their man! 
Post a comment on the app, send Iain an email (imacintosh@theathletic.com) or write a review on Apple.
Presenter: Iain Macintosh
With: Tim Spiers, Paul Tenorio and Seb Stafford-Bloor
Producer: Lucy Oliva

Will Ronaldo start? Well, yes. But should Ronaldo start?

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