The Athletic Hi there, this is the Athletic FC podcast weekend preview and it is Match Day 35. Five. It's Adam Leventile back once again.

And with me to look ahead to the weekend is Tim Spears,

who's had one hell of a week.

You've been busy, haven't you?

Yeah, it's been good. Been on the title race this week. Arsenal Tuesday, Liverpool at Goodison Wednesday, and Man City at Brighton last night. And it's just two in the race now,

right? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Obviously, you know, mathematically it's just two in the race now, right? Yeah, I think so.

Yeah, obviously, you know, mathematically it's not all over.

But Liverpool were like, yeah, Liverpool were surprisingly sort of weak and passive and submissive.

It's this, you know, a bit of cliche, but Everton literally wanted to win that much more. You could physically see it. I think they won like 70% of jewels in the opening half an hour. It was, yeah, Liverpool looked completely gone to me. And I think the fans think they're gone. There wasn't like an air of defiance at full time. They just sort of sloped off in complete silence, like feeling this is done.

So, yeah, it was quite something to witness. Goodison Park was honestly one of the loudest games I've

ever been at. Okay, that's good. That's good to hear. Some good news finally for Everton.

Charlie Eccleshare on the show, great to have you with us. How are you? Very well, thank you.

Lovely to have you on the show. Do you agree with that? Is it just now there are two?

I think so, yeah. I mean, the fact that they're relying on two teams, both of whom have been a pretty formidable form over a prolonged period. I mean, we're talking

the whole of 2024, both of those teams, as had Liverpool, to be fair, but yeah, I can't see

both of both Arsenal and City imploding to the extent that Liverpool now need them to.

On top of the fact Liverpool need to win all of their games, which at the moment they don't necessarily look like doing. And Jay Harris is here as well. Looking forward to the

weekend, Jay. Yeah, definitely. I'm actually going to Goodison Park on Saturday evening. So there's

part of me that was, yeah, very excited by what happened in the Merseyside Derby. But it means for Everton are pretty much safe now, and I kind of wanted to go to Goodersen Park with a little bit of jeopardy around their position, because, like Tim's just alluded to, the atmosphere at Goodersen Park when they need to win games is unlike anything I've kind of witnessed before. So I'm sure it would still be a good game, but the stakes aren't quite as high as they would have been.

Okay, we shall see.

The fixture formation this weekend's pretty straightforward. It's a seven-threeer. Isn't it, Tim? Seven-three-er. You've added ER on the end of that. Oh, no. That's fine. That's fine. It's a seven-threater. Early kickoff on Saturday, just to lift Jürgen Klop's mood.

He's Liverpool against West Ham at the London Stadium. It's a seven three. Early kickoff on Saturday, just to lift Jürgen Klop's mood.

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