The Athletic

Hello and welcome to the weekend preview on the Athletic Football podcast sponsored by Bet365.

I'm Dan Bardell, joined by my co-host, George Ellick, and alongside Bet365 Steve Freeth to

preview the best of the weekend's Premier League action, which of course include a mouthwatering

clash between Liverpool and Manchester City. Cannot wait for that one. But first, welcome, guys, George, on the record, plenty of times about Carlo Ancelotti's shortcomings as a manager, but he had a pretty decent night at Stanford Bridge on Wednesday. No, no, hello's, know, how you doing, how's your week going, how you feeling? No, Straight in. Just come straight in with daggers.

Into the tomfoolery.

Yeah, I mean, I've said many times when I've questioned Carlo Ancelotti's managerial prowess,

how good a gauge of a manager's talent the Champions League is.

And I would argue the fact that a defeat in these ties for Carl Ancelotti

could have spelt at the end of his tenure as Real Madrid boss, the fact that they've been

very, very poor in what is a very poor La League in this season, even if they do go on to win it.

And even in the game last night, you know, the XG shows that they scored three goals because of probably the best or if not one of the best players in world football at the moment in Karen Benzema. The XG was 0.97 and they scored three goals and they probably deserved to score more themselves. So I'm not going to change my stance on a manager who I think is grossly overrated on the back of one performance. And I also think over the course of two legs they probably deserve to go out against PSG so um you got me rattled there Dan but I'm I'm sticking to my guns it's quite ironic he was doing that at Stanford Bridge whilst Everton were toiling again at Turfmore Steve Ballandoor Benzema it's funny Dan I was was scratching around for the 25 to 1 on him a few weeks ago, and it's one of those where I missed the price, he was cut to 16. I thought, nah, I'm not going to bother back at him now. And of course, after last night, you look again, he's 5 to 1 around that mark as well. So I've been very fortunate to work with Graham Hunter over the years, and Big G has been waxing lyrically about Benzma for a number of years now.

And I thought, I'm not sure he's that good, Graham. And then clearly you watch him a little bit more and you can see why. Yeah, it's a great performance from a great striker last night. They did a bit on MNF on Monday night because they had Wayne Rooney in the in the studio

and they did a bit on strikers who are also brilliant creators and I think Benzimer is is that

striker where he can do everything I mean so he'll often not be much of a goal threat and

link play and often you know seeing him scored back to back hat tricks in the champions

league he is a talent who into his mid 30s looks like he's getting better and better and I think probably

being the most important player and the key player in the realm of jed side suits him down to a tee. Yeah, that first goal was magical. The fact that he played the throw ball through to Vinny Jr. in the first place and then it was him that got on the end of Vinny Jr.'s left foot he crossed. It was just a joy to watch and it, credit to him, the last two rounds of the Champions League, Benzema has been absolutely

sensational. Now just before we get

into the Premier League league remember you can sign up to the

athletic for just a pound a month for the first six months simply by visiting theathletic

dot com slash football pod game one a bit of friday night lights is newcastle v wolves ste. Steve, there was no doubt Newcastle were going to miss Keir and Trippia. There's been three defeats on the bounce for the Jordies. Are they safe? I guess they probably are, so they're almost on the beach in some respects. Yeah, I mean, they've had a run of four away games, Dan, haven't they? And, you know, after winning six out of seven games, you know, they've lost three on the trot by scoring just one goal. I think in previous weeks, admittedly, I've, you know, said that I hold my hands up. I thought Eddie Howe's done better than I thought he did. So I'm not here to criticize in there after three defeats. You know, they've got some nice games coming up as well.

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