TRon

Agreed. But there are still some games which are easier to win than others regardless of the order they are played in. I said even before the Arsenal game that the Leeds and Leicester games were the ones I was pretty confident about. Leeds has gone now, so Brighton at home has to be the other one now after Leicester. They are a better team than Leeds, but they don't have goalscorers, so maybe that should give us confidence of closing that one out. As long as we stop shipping cheap goals. As for what Liverpool or Man U do, I stopped caring weeks ago. Always thought Liverpool were capable of winning 8 or 9 games in a row. The arguments about VAR favouring the big 6 are immaterial now as well. It was always down to us winning a couple of games out of the last 5, and we have only ourselves to blame if we don't do it.

I don't think it was inevitable, I think if we play to our full potential we win. Allardyce isn't a good manager, he's just a spoiler. Up to us to find a way through the blocks, and even more importantly, to defend better against a team which struggles to score goals.

Horrible football never really helped us much against the top teams when Allardyce or Pardew were here. I just think we lacked a touch of quality in the final third. Not a coincidence that it was Isak who was instrumental in winning us two pens.

We played ok until the final third, but we didn't have a Gundogan to find the precision when it was needed to unlock Leeds packed defence. Never really tested their keeper even though we got the ball in and around the penalty areas plenty enough. Our set pieces were predictably powder puff as per usual. At least we didn't lose, that's about all you can take from this one.

I think that is a harder game than this one tbh. I was pinning my hopes on beating Leeds and Leicester as they are both poor teams. Brighton are a good side, and Chelsea might just decide stopping us from winning a CL place is all the motivation they need. I'm thinking it's touch and go now tbh.

What would count as one over us? Would a draw be considered that? From our POV a point would feel like a failure at the stage.

We'll not lose man. We'll fucking destroy them.

Anything's possible, but I would not be holding out much hope of Leicester stopping Liverpool or us tbh. They are definitely one of the two games I expect us to win along with Leeds, so I will assume Liverpool will win there as well. If they don't, Hallelujah.

They could well come a cropper in the game against Villa, I expect them to win their other two. Regardless, Howe won't be looking at their results, or how badly or well they are playing, he'll assume they win them all. So it comes down to us winning two of our remaining four, and the Leeds game will definitely be one of those games he won't accept less than a win.

Aye, the one big plus for me is that we owe them a couple of good derby hidings, and it's been long overdue.

It doesn't really, plenty have said they could easily win all their remaining games and that's what they are doing. They've got history for it as well, in general when you have a team with so many good players, they might well win them all. The only way to discount them is for us to win our games.

Haven't Liverpool won their last 6 in a row or something like that though? I did fancy them to win all of their remaining games but they do have a game against Villa to come, and that might be the one they come a cropper.

I think it would be pretty prevalent on here anyway.

This is one of those games which will need some patience. Leeds will be parking the bus, and another bus in front of that one now Big Sam is in charge. We can't afford to give away any daft goals like we've been doing recently, if they get something to hold onto they will bring a truck to park in front of the buses.

They play decent football as well, can only imagine that's because they've got half a dozen players from big clubs on loan. Won't do them much good if they come up, they'll all get recalled.

Lavia has a buy-back clause at Chelsea I think.

This is what I mean. I really don't want to get too excited about a player until I know that we are his number one destination. For all we didn't sign Paqueta, I always thought that was a deal we could do if we wanted. Rice feels like one of those which is still a year too early.

That's the other thing, is there any indication that he would be interested, given that just about every top club will want him?

Rice would be perfect, but is there any realistic chance that he comes here? I could see it in a year or two, just not convinced we can make those sort of moves right now.

It's actually a compliment to us that we almost matched them tbh, when you consider what they've spent compared to us in recent years. When we went to the Emirates, even though we came away with a draw, at times in the first half it felt like they were playing a different game. This time we more or less matched them for possession, but it's still a good benchmark on some areas we could improve. I don't see that as arse licking, just a spotlight on what we have to do to close the gap, and it's not that much of a gap these days.

We definitely needed Longstaff in there then.

Which they will. Actually, there is one game where they might not win, that's the game against Villa. Could definitely see their pace giving Liverpool CB's a hard time like they did against us.

It's all hindsight though. Everyone's saying how much we missed Longstaff, and there's probably some truth in it, but we won 6-1 against Spurs and 4-1 at Everton without him. Arsenal are title contenders for a reason, they played some really good stuff yesterday, I just think we need purples all over the pitch to match them blow for blow.

Aye fuck the home advantage as well, they still have to play the game with their shitter players. The fans aren't going to put the ball in the net.

I was against starting both together, but not for positional reasoning. I just like having one on the bench so if we need to come back from behind it gives me a bigger lift to see Wilson or Isak warming up than Gordon or Miggy.