The Athletic.

Tottenham. Tottenham's advantage has gone, Chelsea Slipp at Forest while both Liverpool and Manchester United make ground.

January editions could be crucial, but the race for the top four is well and truly on.

I'm Ian Irving, and this is the Athletic Football Podcast. They are putting together the building blocks of what you expect modern football clubs to play

which tends to be play set or possession press high up the field, counter-press when you lose the ball,

and then break in numbers and running behind defences where possible.

He replaced a Champions League winning coach who many fans felt was brutally and unfairly sacked.

And that's not Graham Potter's fault, but it's part of the context here and it's making

his life harder.

Jow Felix is a name that we're starting off the year by talking about and I suspect it will be

bandied around for quite a lot longer.

Everyone at Sanford Bridges is keenly aware that they need a midfield succession plan.

Happy New Year and thank you for joining us on the Athletic Football Podcast with the Premier League now back in full swing. I'm joined by the athletics Carl Lanka

and lean to me as we focus on the race for the Champions League.

Hello gentlemen, Carl, I'll start with you because it was probably out of everyone,

the best weekend, the best starts starts the new year for the club at

you cover Manchester United and it was nice of Marcus Rashford to join us wasn't

it? Yep yep who among us hasn't slept through their alarm in the post Christmas New Year's grey area?

It's turned out to be quite a good couple of weeks for Manchester United players.

Eric Tenharg sent more than a dozen players

over to the World Cup and they all seem to have come back in Goodnick and in decent form.

And Manchester Night, while they are some obvious weaknesses in the squad in terms of personnel and quality,

...