Arsenal meet Villa again, Cherki's on fire + the Cherries are in crisis

The Totally Football Show with James Richardson

The Athletic

Sports, Soccer,

4.6 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 29 December 2025

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Jimbo presents the last Totally Football Show of 2025 in the company of Daniel Storey, Tom Williams and Seb Stafford-Bloor.

It will be 1st v 3rd on Tuesday as Arsenal host an Aston Villa side buzzing after an 11th win in a row against Chelsea at the weekend. Unai Emery’s side go level on points with the Gunners with a victory.

Man City have notched together 8 wins in a row themselves, the latest secured by Rayan Cherki at Forest. What impact is the Frenchman having on Pep’s approach?

Another week, another Dominic Calvert-Lewin goal. And another defeat for Bournemouth. With Semenyo on his way out the door, how bad could things get for Andoni Iraola?

Jay Harris joins us from Morocco where Nigeria show why they should and shouldn’t be considered strong favourites at AFCON.

Plus there’s Ruben Amorim’s back four, Rudi Voller’s dancing and the annual West Ham striker search.

Produced by Charlie Jones

RUNNING ORDER:

• PART 1: What we’ll see in 2026 (02.00)

• PART 2a: Chelsea 1-2 Aston Villa (09.30)

• PART 2b: Arsenal 2-1 Brighton (17.00)

• PART 2c: Nottingham Forest 1-2 Man City (23.00)

• PART 3a: Sunderland 1-1 Leeds (36.00)

• PART 3b: Brentford 4-1 Bournemouth (41.00)

• PART 3c: West Ham 0-1 Fulham (46.00)

• PART 3d: Man United 1-0 Newcastle + Liverpool 2-1 Wolves (50.00)

• PART 4: AFCON latest with Jay Harris (56.00)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The Athletic FC.
0:09.6	Totally football show.
0:11.1	Today, Premier League.
0:13.1	Aston Villa have Emery Christmas,
0:15.6	with lots of Ollie at the bridge.
0:17.0	Next, who no heads down, Emery Lane.
0:19.5	Tuesday at the Emirates.
0:20.5	We've got all the midweek talking points from Arsenal to Dominic Can't Stop doing goals
0:25.3	to whether Ryan Cherokee is the heir to KDB.
0:28.3	Hey, Orion Air.
0:29.6	Plus, there's the latest from Morocco as the Cup of Nations rolls on
0:32.8	and big thoughts on what that new year holds.
0:35.6	It's the Toadie Football Show.
0:43.5	I'm in a lot. big thoughts on what that new year holds. It's the Totally Football Show. Monday the 29th of December 2025,
0:48.5	joining us for what is our final show of this year.
0:51.5	Daniel's story.
0:52.5	Hey Daniel.
0:53.7	Hello, James. Fest of greetings again to you. Well very much to you as well.
0:58.9	Joya Noel to Tom Williams, who's literally in Paris. Hey Tom. Hi James. A very joia
1:05.2	Noel to you as well. Season's greetings of the season. Magnificent. Magnificent. That's the most thorough Christmas greeting I've had in this entire festive period.
1:14.3	Seb Stufferblower me, while, is twiddling his thumbs in the middle of the Winter
1:18.8	Pals in Hamburg.
	...

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