Can Chelsea secure a precious top eight spot against Conte, Lukaku & Co?
Straight Outta Cobham: The Athletic FC's Chelsea show
The Athletic
4.9 • 871 Ratings
🗓️ 26 January 2026
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
To Naples we go...
Matt Davies-Adams is joined by The Athletic's Luke Bosher and Simon Johnson to run the rule over Sunday's 3-1 win over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.
There's love for the sensational Steve-o, a word on João Pedro's recent revival, vintage VAR fodder and the obligatory Caicedo yellow.
Then - attention turns to the UCL, and Wednesday night's race for a top eight place as Liam Rosenior's side face Antonio Conte's Napoli. Can Chelsea get the win - and the goal difference boost - to book their place in the next round of the Champions League?!
Elsewhere, not such good news for Chelsea Women - comfortably beaten 2-0 by Arsenal at Stamford Bridge on Saturday to leave the Blues nine points behind leaders Manchester City. Cerys sends her report from the press box!
Plus - the latest on the (perhaps unexpected) return of Aarón Anselmino and why the wait for a shirt sponsor will go on...
We'll be back on Thursday to look back on the crucial Champions League showdown out in Naples - and look ahead to the visit of relegation-threatened West Ham in the Premier League on Saturday evening.
We’re asking you to fill out a quick survey about you and your podcast habits by going to theathletic.com/survey26. Three lucky entries will win $/£100 worth of Amazon vouchers too. So whether you’re a long-time listener or a new one, we want your feedback.
HOST: Matt Davies-Adams
WITH: Luke Bosher and Simon Johnson
PRODUCER: Lucy Oliva
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The Athletic FC |
| 0:03.3 | It's Chelsea |
| 0:06.5 | Chelsea, Chelsea, Chelsea looks to have been finally relinquished. a show about Chelsea FC from the Athletic. Coming up, Points of Palace, nerves in Naples, |
| 0:21.6 | and the WSL grip |
| 0:22.9 | looks to have been finally relinquished. |
| 0:25.4 | The highest rated show |
| 0:26.2 | on the Athletic Podcast Network. |
| 0:27.6 | Now twice a week, |
| 0:28.3 | thanks to its listeners. |
| 0:29.3 | This is straight out of common. |
| 0:35.3 | And it's Monday in the world of Chelsea FC and everywhere else, I suppose, and we are quite happy because we've got a good win to talk about in the Premier League and a really tasty-looking Champions League match to look ahead to as well. |
| 0:48.4 | It's me, Matt Davis-Adams. |
| 0:49.4 | I'm joined by two of the Athletics Chelsea experts. |
| 0:52.4 | Hello, Simon Johnson. |
| 0:53.8 | Hello. And we've got Luke Boshar back with this to you. Okay, Luke? Very well. Thanks, Matt. How are you? Yeah, not too bad, thank you. Not too bad. Hopefully a bit more audible than I was on Thursday's show at the very least. Let's get some admin done, shall we? You can find us on at X and Blue Sky at S.O Pod. You can email us SOC at theathletic.com. If you're not a subscriber to The Athletic and you want to be, just go to theathletic.com slash Chelsea Pod. If you want to keep those five-star reviews rolling in, we'd surely appreciate it, Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you get your pods. And you listen to us. Now we want to hear from you. We're asking |
| 1:30.0 | you to fill out a quick survey about you and your podcast habits by going to theathletic.com |
| 1:34.3 | slash survey 26. Three lucky entries will win 100 pounds worth of Amazon vouchers too. So whether |
| 1:40.4 | you're a long time listener or a new one, we want your feedback. Go to theathletic.com slash survey 26. |
| 1:46.5 | That's theathletic.com slash survey 26. |
| 1:49.4 | The link is also in our episode description. |
| 1:54.0 | Let's kick off with our premature educations, as we always do. |
| 1:57.9 | Luke, what you got for me this week? |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Athletic, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Athletic and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.