Cronky

He's actually improved over the course of the season. I thought he did really well against Sterling, and one or two other City players. They were starting to get irritated with him.

That won't happen. If he comes back, it'll be to a club of around our size.

I'm still not convinced about Rashford. He has his moments, but he does run up too many blind alleys and wastes good possession.

He's not a stereotypical South American player, in that his chief asset is his work-rate rather than technique. The pass he made for the fourth goal was great, but generally his passing his average at best. Fully deserves his place in the side, of course.

I just felt that a few people seemed to be flirting again with the idea that taking the risk of relegation was a price worth paying for getting rid of Ashley. For me, that is Brexiteer-style thinking, where the only things that are going to change are what you want to change. A team in the Championship is arguably a less attractive proposition for a buyer, particularly one who has the money to look at other options. There is no guarantee that we would be taken over by a better owner than Ashley, and clubs of around our size can spend a lot of time floating around the lower divisions before they recover - Leeds, Sheffield Wednesday etc Right now, avoiding relegation is the priority.

Put some proper teeth into FFP. Make it enforceable. Premiership clubs should have to agree to abide by UEFA's decision, and not take things to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which strikes me as a completely pointless institution with no proper expertise or accountability. Narrow the TV revenue gap between the Champions League and the rest of the Premiership, and between the Premiership and the other divisions. The current situation pressures owners to take too many risks to stay in / reach the CL or the Premiership.

Bad idea right now. We're likely to be still fighting relegation, and it's a distraction to the players. The protest wouldn't be happening if the team was doing well, so even if the players are not the intended target, it's giving them the message that they're not good enough.

Usual problems with keeping possession under pressure, and an inability to pressure opponents. Not enough players getting into the opposition penalty area. We really missed Willock. All rather embarrassing at the end. We lost our heads a bit after the second goal and tried to force things.

There's a gap between the Independent's headline and what Arteta actually said. My impression was that Willock is likely to go out on loan again.

Nicky Butt's body language had a way of telegraphing what he was going to do next. So he ended up making the pass that would have worked half a second before, but which was no longer on.

Like I said, the technology has its limitations, but you get a more accurate decision than relying on the human eye in a split second. VAR was never going to be perfect.

Good to see Longstaff and Dubravka coming back into form. Murphy looks like he's found his role too. Moving forward, Longstaff and Shelvey both lack pace and look liable to lose the ball in dangerous positions down the centre. Ideally, we should only play one of them.

Well, within the limitations of the technology, yes, offsides are a matter of fact. I don't get the fuss about decisions when a player is only fractionally offside. If you're going to use technology, then that's offside. Keep it simple.

I'd like to hear a ref like Peter Walton come on to explain the reasoning behind the decision. The pundits don't seem to know enough about how the rules are being interpreted to help us here. It does seem that a lack of intention doesn't completely exonerate a player if they're not properly in control of the challenge. Overall, there's sufficient doubt about the incident to make it not worthy of a red. It was unusual became the leading foot came downwards on to the opponent's leg, although that seemed to be the result of Balbuena's standing foot slipping on the turf. I was opposed to VAR being used for anything but matters of fact like whether the ball crossed the goal line and offsides. But now that it's here, we may as well try and make it work better. As Walton said yesterday, refs are in areas which they've never had to explore before, and it'll take some time before it's all straightened out.

We've not got an easy run-in, but one more win would be enough. That would leave Fulham needing 4 wins out of 5, and West Brom 5 wins out of 6.

It was interesting to hear Peter Walton's analysis of the decision, and a good counterbalance to the remarkable ignorance of the laws displayed by these professional pundits who are paid handsomely for their so-called expertise. FFS, is it too much to ask for these guys to spend a bit of time keeping on top of their subject? It's tough when it's your own side, but I'm not convinced that it would have been a goal pre-VAR either, assuming the ref had seen it. Even if the handball had appeared accidental, I think most refs wouldn't have given it - partly out of erring on the side of caution, given the importance of the decision, and partly from an instinct that goals shouldn't be scored when a handball precedes it in that way.

It's no accident that he gets on the end of so many chances. He uses his brain. If you watch the goal again, you can see him make a kind of instinctive calculation about where the ball is going to end up after the aerial challenge. His thinking is a split second ahead of the opposition.

How it's still 1-0 I don't know. Murphy's doing well. He's improving every game. If we can keep it to one, we might just sneak something in the last 15 minutes. Got to hope.

Well, what this episode has shown is that the Premiership, combined with pressure from politicians, UEFA and fans groups, have actually been stronger than the breakaway clubs. It seems to me that, added to the long-term risk that a breakaway wouldn't work out, there's the short term issue of the difficulties in getting the thing actually off the ground. What's going to change?

I can't see the point of trying to punish them. A disrepute-type charge is a bit vague, and they'll argue that they didn't actually leave the Premiership. Besides, it won't act as a deterrent. The deterrent is already in place in terms of the current humiliation.

Barnes is falling into the classic trap of using analogies as a substitute for analysis. He draws a comparison with Sky in 1992, and implies there's no difference. The very important difference is that the Premiership was not created as a perpetual closed shop. There were elements of unfairness about it, of course, but the outrage that was generated by the ESL is rooted in the fact that it was completely anti-competitive in its concept. Barnes goes on about the shortcomings of the game in other areas, as though somehow that puts the big six on the same moral footing as everyone else. Nobody's perfect, we all look after Number 1, but there are degrees of hypocrisy, selfishness and dishonesty which are important. The way these clubs have the nerve to still go on about how they were trying to set the game's finances on a secure footing is quite nauseating.

It's failed because for the first time the response to the threat has been 'go ahead and face the consequences', rather than 'what can we do to stop you doing this?' It's turned out that the combined power of UEFA, the Premiership, the fans and politicians has been more than enough to stop it in its tracks. I'd rather have constructive measures now, rather than some specific 'punishment'. The gaps in revenue between the CL clubs and the rest of the Premiership, and between the Premiership and the other divisions, are both too great. It puts pressure on owners to take financial risks in order to reach or stay in the CL and the Premiership. That's why so many clubs are in debt, despite the abundance of money. That needs looking at. And give FFP some teeth.

I don't know if this has been posted before. It's an interesting insight into the level of debt which these clubs are trying to sustain. Whatever they might say about trying to save the game, they are really trying to save themselves. https://www.football.london/tottenham-hotspur-fc/news/daniel-levy-tottenham-stadium-debt-19804839 I can't see that the rest of the Premiership have any option but to fight it tooth and nail. Yes, the Premiership will be diminished if the six clubs leave, but it will be diminshed in status anyway, because it won't have access to the top European competition. Creating a closed shop inevitably leaves the remainder looking second-rate.

What has become apparent to me today is that some of these big clubs are in big financial trouble after Covid and the uncertainty surrounding who is going to make the CL next season. West Ham and Leicester could easily push Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs out. Someone on the radio mentioned that one English club is £1 billion in debt. There's a touch of desperation about this, and it may well be more of a gamble than a well-thought out, legally-watertight plan. FIFA have been quiet, and I wonder if they're hoping that they will be on board. If you remember a few months ago, the tactic these clubs used was to try and bribe the clubs in the lower divisions to break ranks with the other Premiership clubs. FIFA can be corrupted, and if they offer to support the game in other countries in return for FIFA's support, they may be hopeful of getting some outcome.

Previously, when there's been talk of a breakaway league, I've been very nervous, but this time I feel different. Mainly because I think the breakaway clubs would be making a mistake, and the remaining league would have the better product long-term. The mentality feels a bit like the one behind Brexit or Scottish independence - they think that the only thing that's going to change is what they want to change ie the money coming in. I can't see the long-term attraction of what would amount to be an exhibition league, divorced from any connection with other leagues or international football, and the history behind it. And clubs like Arsenal and Liverpool, who are used to success, would currently be at the bottom of this new competition. Is that what their fans want? I watched the last 15 minutes of Arsenal v Fulham. Okay, Real Madrid and Juventus would offer a higher standard of play, but if Real and Juve end up away from the top of the new league, who would be bothered to watch what would effectively be a friendly game? The Arsenal game was riveting, because Fulham are desperate to avoid relegation, Arsenal are chasing a European place, and of course my team have an interest in the result too. That sort of situation isn't going to happen in an EPL. So let this new league see how they can stand on their own two feet, with no access to international football or any other competition in the game. The rest of us can then form another competition worthy of the name.