It’s a sad day in podland, and not just because Phil Brown has been relieved of his duties at Hull City.

On your brand new Football Weekly, we sing an ode to David Beckham, whose World Cup dream is over in the wake of a potentially career-ending achilles injury (although that cut under his eye looks fairly nasty too). James Richardson and a dangerously sleep-deprived Rob Smyth shed a tear.

Before we get to that, proper journalist Owen Gibson looks ahead to Chelsea’s Champions League clash with Internazionale. Plus, there’s all the usual gubbins about the Premier League title race – could it all come down to goal difference? – and the fight for fourth place. Can Tottenham Hotspur really hang on in the face of the crumbling challenge from Liverpool, Aston Villa, and Manchester City?

Finally, Sid Lowe tells us about a weekend of hat-tricks and theatrics in La Liga, and Rafa Honigstein rounds up all the action from the Bundesliga.

Have a listen and post your feedback below. We’re also on iTunes, Facebook and Twitter, and if you enjoy this type of thing, get your daily dose of fooball with our tea-time email, The Fiver.

James RichardsonBen GreenRaphael HonigsteinSid LoweOwen GibsonRob Smyth

In a line-up that’s every bit as unsurprising as the top four in the Premier League, James Richardson is joined in the pod by Barry Glendenning and Sean Ingle in another rip-roaring edition of Football Weekly.

The pod squad analyse Chelsea’s demolition of Arsenal, Liverpool’s bruising battle with Everton, and Tottenham Hotspur’s snoozefest with Aston Villa and ask: why are we getting another dose of the same old same old?

Also in the show – and lest we be accussed of Big Four-centricity – we discuss Hull City’s recent revival now that Phil Brown ditched the earpiece and the goatee.

Plus, we ponder whether Fabio Capello’s done the right thing in stripping John Terry of the England captaincy. And we get dewy-eyed about those Brat Pack movies of the 1980s.

Finally, our favourite Teuton Raphael Honigstein brings us news of a rift in the German national team and the latest from the Bundesliga; Sid Lowe brings us up to date with Spain’s La Liga; and Jimbo tells us about Lazio’s mounting woes in Serie A.

Have a listen and post your thoughts on the blog below. We’re also on iTunes, Facebook, and Twitter, and if you like this type of juvenile humour, get your daily dose with our tea-timely email, The Fiver.

James RichardsonBen GreenRaphael HonigsteinSean IngleBarry GlendenningSid Lowe

Harry Redknapp could not have envisaged such a taxing afternoon against a Hull City team in the relegation places and on their worst run of form of the season. This was a match that Tottenham had to have banked on taking three points from to sustain their challenge for a Champions League finish. Instead, they ran out of steam and luck, and Redknapp could find little to celebrate as he reached the milestone of 500 Premier League games as a manager.

Hull infuriated Spurs with some ­blatant timewasting but, despite the checks that this presented to the home team’s momentum, it did not explain their inability to break the dogged resistance of the away side. The real reason was the figure in the visitors’ goal. Boaz Myhill, the Wales international, made a clutch of outstanding saves, none better than the double stop from Wilson Palacios and Robbie Keane in the first half.

Phil Brown, the Hull manager, likened it to Jim Montgomery’s famous double save for Sunderland in the 1973 FA Cup final victory over Leeds United. Brown, a boyhood Sunderland fan, ought to know; he had been in attendance that day at Wembley. Redknapp, by contrast, was simply left to lament “one of those days”.

“It’s not as though we have come away and thought ‘We have not opened them up’,” he said. “Their keeper has just had an unbelievable day – he will never play like that again in his life. He made some miraculous saves. He was not entitled to make some of them.”

Brown said that the 5-1 home defeat to Tottenham at the beginning of the season was still fresh in his mind – “it was as though it was yesterday”. He was determined that his players would press and harry on this occasion and, as they refused to allow Tottenham to settle into a rhythm, so they earned plaudits. There were also elements of gamesmanship to their approach and it was difficult to remember any team playing for time so early in a match. The referee Martin Atkinson spoke to the Hull ­captain, Anthony Gardner, about it after 27 minutes and then booked Nick Barmby for time-wasting one minute later. “It’s OK adding injury time, but it’s killing the game,” said Redknapp. “The game never gets started. I want to see teams play.” Brown, however, was in no mood to ­apologise.

Myhill’s “Montgomery-esque” double save – he somehow managed to get Keane’s follow-up shot over the crossbar, after beating out Palacios’s low drive – was not his only work of a scrappy first half. Just before the interval, he denied Jermain Defoe one-on-one. He stood tall in the second half when, having saved from Luka Modric, he denied Keane at close quarters and, late on, he tipped away Modric’s rising drive and the substitute Peter Crouch’s close-range header.

Hull might have nicked it on the ­counter through Barmby or Stephen Hunt, although, as Brown acknowledged, it would have been a “massive nick”. ­Tottenham were left to curse the excellence of Myhill.

Premier LeagueTottenham HotspurHull CityDavid Hytnerguardian.co.uk