Who is best placed to challenge Arsenal in the future?
The Game
The Times
3.2 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 9 March 2026
⏱️ 53 minutes
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Summary
FA Cup reaction and the future of Liverpool, Chelsea, Man City and Man Utd.
Port Vale provided a much needed FA Cup shock and Wrexham showed their enormous progress going very close against Chelsea.
Of the big six left in the cup - Chelsea, Liverpool and Man City, who is best placed to challenge Arsenal in the future?
Where are the strengths and weaknesses of each team? Bringing in Man Utd which of those managers - Slot, Carrick, Pep and Rosenior will still be in place next season?
A quick look back at a terrible night for Spurs as they lost at home to Crystal Palace, where now for Tottenham...could Igor Tudor even be gone before the international break? Who on earth would replace him?
Tom Clarke is joined by Gregor Robertson, Alyson rudd and James Gheerbrant
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the game football podcast from The Times and Sunday Times. |
| 0:08.5 | Well, thank goodness for Port Vale, A, the struggling League one side stunned Sunderland on a weekend |
| 0:13.4 | of FA Cup action which saw many of the big teams reach the quarterfinals, including |
| 0:17.8 | Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City. On today's show, we'll look at those three teams in detail as they prepare for the Champions League action. |
| 0:24.8 | Ask who is best placed to succeed in the next 18 months. |
| 0:28.0 | Ask, will there be any managerial change in the summer and pick a composite 11-2? |
| 0:32.5 | We'll also discuss the rest of the FA Cup action and Tottenham's defeat against Crystal Palace last Thursday |
| 0:37.5 | and plenty more as well. I'm Tom Clark and joining me today we have the Senior Sports Writer and Sunday Times columnist Alison Rudd, the football reporter and Times columnist James Gibran and the former footballer turned journalist Gregor Robertson. It's here as usual. James, nice to see you back in the studio with us. Hi, yeah. Good to be back. Excellent, excellent. bringing in the big guns towards the end of the season. |
| 0:57.0 | A fantastic weekend of football. Nice to see you back in the studio with us. Hi, yeah. Good to be back. Excellent, excellent. Bringing in the big guns towards the end of the season. |
| 0:57.0 | A fantastic weekend of football, wasn't it, Greg? |
| 1:10.3 | Good fun. Sure it was. Should we have a little whiz round of the FA Cup games? Pick out some moments. Pick out maybe our games of the weekend because I think there's a lot of contenders. Alison, I think you're making a strong case for Rex and Chelsea. |
| 1:12.6 | I am. How on earth did you know I was going to say that? |
| 1:10.9 | It's almost like we discussed it before with Katie with Stuyves. Alison, I think you're making a strong case for Rex and Chelsea. I am. |
| 1:12.6 | How on earth did you know I was going to say that? |
| 1:15.3 | It's almost like we discussed it before we started recording. |
| 1:20.3 | Yeah, no, it was fun, which is what you want from the FACC up. Absolutely, yeah. |
| 1:21.2 | But what I think I like most about it was because, you know, |
| 1:25.5 | broadcasters get obsessed about Ryan Reynolds |
| 1:27.7 | and the Hollywood angle. |
| 1:29.3 | Yes. |
| 1:29.7 | But actually it transcended that |
| 1:31.1 | and they weren't important at all. |
... |
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