The Totally Football Show · The Athletic

Arsenal take control of the title race as Forest & West Ham boost survival hopes

March 5, 2026·1 hr·5 clips

Arsenal's 1-0 win at Brighton and Manchester City's 2-2 draw with Nottingham Forest leaves the Gunners seven points clear at the top.

The numbers are where the squinting starts. The panel runs through shifting relegation percentages after Tuesday's games, with Spurs, Forest, West Ham, Leeds, Crystal Palace, Brighton, and Sunderland all dragged into the calculator. Then the calculator gets laughed at. Leeds being above Spurs but still carrying the bigger drop risk gives the room exactly the kind of football logic it likes to prod. Someone suspects the machine has a bias. The super-computer in a Paul Gascoigne 1990 Spurs shirt becomes both joke and working theory, which feels reasonable enough in the moment. City still get proper attention. Mark is impressed less by spectacle than by Manchester City's control, especially after they were caught in transition. There is a caveat, of course. If City keep playing like that, the panel suggests, they will win more often than not, maybe even against Arsenal. Then the show shifts into Fulham against West Ham, and Duncan's first reaction is not about spreadsheets at all. It is simple goal appreciation. Somerville is treated as a player stepping up when it matters, with Bowen beside him as one of West Ham's main forward threats. Leno gets pulled into it too. His run toward a long ball, and his failure to deal with it, gives Bowen the opening, even if a few Spurs fans notice the old Arsenal connection. The panel does not linger on conspiracy or heritage. The cleaner verdict is that it was just bad play. The survival talk stays practical. West Ham's 1-0 win and the crowded relegation pack make the run-in feel less like a table and more like a nervous group chat. The mood stays brisk: tactical control, statistical oddness, goal-mouth mess, and one super-computer that nobody quite trusts.

As heard by us

A tidy Premier League check-in that pairs City's control with West Ham's win and relegation maths.

The piece keeps its footing with the football first: Manchester City controlling the Etihad, then West Ham's 1-0 win over Fulham and the table squeeze around relegation.

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Why you'd press play

For when you want Premier League heat and relegation maths without the fluff.

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