Will Villa end their Man United hoodoo? Will Arsenal’s away day blues continue?

The Totally Football Show with James Richardson

The Athletic

Premier League, Champions League, Soccer,, World Cup, Sports

4.5 • 4.4K Ratings

🗓️ 18 December 2025

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Jimbo assembles Benji Lanyado, Jay Harris and Duncan Alexander for a feast of footballing chatter ahead of an enticing MD17 in the Premier League.

We begin with events in the three midweek League Cup quarter-final ties - which saw Chelsea, Manchester City and Newcastle progress to the semi's, soon to be joined by either Arsenal or Crystal Palace. There was Cherki's outrageous strike, Garnacho showing his class - and more injury woes for Eddie Howe to navigate.

Then it's full steam ahead with the weekend's PL action. How will Manchester United fare at form side Aston Villa after their bonkers 4-4 draw with Bournemouth on Monday night? Can the Gunners arrest their poor away form when they make the trip to take on Everton on Saturday evening? And will Tottenham v Liverpool live up to its chaotic and free-scoring reputation?!

We get ourselves tied in xG knots, discover shocking connections to supermodels - and rank elite bazaars.

Produced by Charlie Jones and Lucy Oliva.

RUNNING ORDER:

• PART 1a: Hellos, top tier Christmas presents - and a big Peter Odemwingie shirt update (00.45)

• PART 1b: League Cup QFs round up (07.15)

• PART 2a: Premier League MD17 fixtures rundown (19.10)

• PART 2b: Aston Villa v Manchester United preview (20.30)

• PART 3a: Manchester City v West Ham preview (31.00)

• PART 3b: Everton v Arsenal preview (33.10)

• PART 4a: PSG win the Intercontinental Cup, UWCL knockouts await & Celtic's plight (36.40)

• PART 4b: Tottenham v Liverpool preview (40.05)

• PART 4c: Brighton v Sunderland preview (48.15)

• PART 5a: The battle down at the bottom (51.15)

• PART 5b: Looking forward to AFCON (59.30)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The Athletic FC
0:03.3	Totally football show.
0:12.2	Today, Carabire Cup.
0:14.1	Jerky with all the trimmings for Manchester City as they make the semifinals.
0:17.5	Who else is through?
0:18.4	We round out the midweek news.
0:20.0	And look ahead to Premier League match day 17. Is this the weekend that Wolves finally get a win? Who is the top teenage goal scorer in the league this season? And will Helena Christensen soon be at Turf Moore? Plus, Afgon. Now that lots of players, Afgon to Morocco, how much are we looking forward to the Cup of Nations? All that and more in this totally football show.
0:41.9	Unbelievably, unbelievable this.
0:45.2	Thursday the 18th of December.
0:47.4	Hello.
0:48.9	Duncan Alexander's in the pot again.
0:50.6	Hey, Duncan.
0:51.3	Hello, James.
0:52.4	Lovely to see we had you here just yesterday. We did a special extra show.
0:56.5	Yeah. With that Asif Capadia. Yeah. And Sasha Gurinov. It'll be out with you Saturday, Jay.
1:03.2	Saturday. Sounds very excited. What's it about? What is it about? What is it about? El Niño.
1:10.2	Ah, yeah. Fernando Torres. Fernando Torres. Okay, that's Sasha. I thought it was going to be something I made. It's actually, Isaac Capaldi, a big Liverpool fan amongst his many other qualities. Jay Harris is with us. Hey, Jay. Hey, James, you're all good? I've kind of done this back to front, haven't I? But hello, good morning.
1:28.0	I appreciate you still saying hello to me. Yeah. And Benji Lanyardo, CEO of Pick Fair Tick, thank you. Hi, Jimbo. How are you? I'm all right, you know, sort of reflective this time of year. Wow. Do you sort of find yourself looking back at your camera on and thinking, what's the best shots I've taken this year
1:43.9	and wouldn't it be nice if...
1:46.4	That's one thing people are thinking. Do you sort of find yourself looking back at your camera roll and thinking, what's the best shots I've taken this year?
1:46.4	Wouldn't it be nice if... That's one thing people are thinking.
1:49.2	With regard to another,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Athletic, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Athletic and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.