Title Race Blown Wide Open & A Dark Day In Lisbon

The Rest Is Football

Goalhanger

Sports, Soccer, Football

4.4 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 19 February 2026

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Arsenal made unwanted history this weekend, becoming the first side in Premier League history to surrender a two-goal lead against a team starting the day in the relegation zone. Wolves fought back from 2–0 down to claim a crucial point, a result that has thrown the title race wide open. With Manchester City now just five points behind, with a game in hand, the question has to be asked: do Arsenal have the experience and resilience required to go all the way? Elsewhere in Europe, there were deeply troubling scenes during Benfica’s match involving Vinícius Júnior and Gianluca Prestianni. After scoring a superb goal, Vinícius Júnior was subjected to alleged racial abuse. The incident has once again raised urgent questions about racism in football and why meaningful progress remains so slow. Gary, Alan and Micah reflect on why this continues to happen in the modern game and also discuss the reaction after the match, including disappointing comments from José Mourinho that have sparked further debate. The Rest Is Football is powered by Fuse Energy. Sign up and use the referral code FOOTBALL and you could win a 1990 England shirt signed by the hosts of The Rest Is Football. Visit https://www.fuseenergy.com/football for terms and conditions Join The Players Lounge: The official fantasy football club of The Rest Is Football. It’s time to take on Gary, Alan and Micah for the chance to win monthly prizes and shoutouts on the pod. It’s FREE to join and as a member, you’ll get access to exclusive tips from Fantasy Football Hub including AI-powered team ratings, transfer tips, and expert team reveals to help you climb the table - plus access to our private Slack community. Sign up today at therestisfootball.com. https://therestisfootball.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=episode_description&utm_content=link_cta For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you by HubSpot. Did you know that most businesses only use 20% of their data?
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1:05.9	Coming up on today's show, can Arsenal deal with it psychologically?
1:10.7	They're going to have to recover pretty quickly because that second half and the really
1:14.6	did collapse was not very good at all.
1:16.6	Do you think Arsenal just need to like grow a pair here?
1:20.6	But get yourselves together and go, come on.
1:23.6	You've got a manager who wants to protect and a manager who wants to win.
1:26.6	If it doesn't win the league, you might not be at Arsenal.
1:29.2	I think it's going to go right to the end of the season.
1:31.5	I really do.
1:32.3	An amazing goal from an amazing player, yet we shouldn't be witnessing what we saw.
1:37.5	Marino let me down.
	...

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