The Athletic

Hi, I'm Dan Bardell and welcome to the weekend preview on the Athletic Football Podcast, sponsored by Bet365.

On Fridays, we'll be here to preview the best of the weekend's Premier League action,

and I've got my co-host, George Ellick, and Bet365, Steve Freeth, alongside me to help.

How are you both? Start with you, George.

Yeah, I'm good. I'm good, busy week. Lots of Carabal Cup action, which was interesting. I won't mention it too much in front of Steve, but I don't know. It's, yeah, it's been a good week so far. Yeah, a few teams scoring six goals actually in the Carabal Cup, Steve, one of them, Aston Villa. West Brom, the other one's conceding six. Oh, the joy of six, eh? Yeah, exactly. Absolutely fantastic. I went to Stoke on Tuesday night. They're playing well, which is good to see. But yes, I think I'll recover from Arsenal, being there under 16s by six goals, Danielle Pell. Yeah, I think you'll be all right. I don't think of West Brom were ever massively concerned by the Carabal Cup this season. But I tell you what, though, George, West Ham, they're off to an absolute flyer in your man, Antonio. He's just picked up where he left off last season as well. It gets better every single season, doesn't it? Incredible. I wondered, you know, we're recording this on Thursday, and Garra Southgate releases England squads a couple of hours ago. And I know that Antonio is getting his Jamaican passport and is set to become a Jamaican international fairly soon. But I wonder if a call went in, just to say to actually changing your mind, because he's an incredible player. So many different strengths to the way that

he can run him behind. He can hold the ball up. He's a very intelligent footballer with the

quality to boot. So yeah, a great start for West Ham. I think David Moyes relishes

proving people wrong and he's certainly proving that, you know, you give him a half decent

Premier League squad and time to build around it. He's very adept to getting them performing above wrong and he's certainly proving that you know you give him half decent premier league squad

and time to build around it he's very adept at getting them performing above the level

that they probably should be playing at i mean it's too early i think to get carried away and start

talking about west ham as top four challenges let alone title challenges but they finished

sixth last season and they've carried on and probably improved on that yeah they've got the

Europa league which can bring its own problems to come, Steve. Because they haven't had much transfer activity, I'd kind of not forgotten about them, but they had kind of gone under the radar and I wasn't thinking about them as being the top six side this season, really? No, no, me neither. Dan, to be honest with you, I'd kind of written them off and thinking, well maybe maybe, you know, top half, top eight at best. I'm looking forward to my Dan Bardell cardboard cutout, a bit like Antonio's got as well. I've got that. If you're knocking around, Steve, I can happen to send one in the first two. I'm not surprised by that in the slightest, mate. But it's been a great start for the Hammers. and I really enjoyed watching that game. I thought it was brilliant as a neutral.

Great stuff. Monday Night football's always good anyway, but when you've got a great game to go in with it as well, it's even better. George, one of your men, I'd had a good day on Saturday as well, Rafinia. Yeah, I said on the first podcast that we did together that I thought he'd be the standout player

from those whose career was on the upper trajectory and he started very well. He missed an absolute

sitter late on against Manchester United in the opening game. It wouldn't have mattered,

but it would have got him off the mark. But certainly didn't miss with a brilliant strike against

Everton to get the point. He's started

the season. Well, I'm glad to see he's done so. And yeah, he's a player who's in, I think, pretty much every single person's fantasy football team. Anybody, anybody, anybody, well, you lad's missing a chick. He's the only player that gets many points. Yeah, he's a, he's a, he's a Brilliant talent and somebody who, yeah, I'm glad to see.

He's hit the ground running because many points. Yeah, he's a brilliant talent and somebody

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