TRon

Don't believe it for one second.

I'm pleased for Everton. They have a bright Allardyce-esque future ahead of them under plucky scrapper Sean Dyche.

We didn't really lose that one either.

Nice to see Gallagher getting a starting slot thanks to Howe rating him.

I just assume that is down to strategically building the strongest team in the shortest time possible in a sustainable manner. I do think we needed at least another CM, but I can understand wanting to wait until we can bring in one who can really make the difference. I'm assuming we thought there's no point in bringing in players who aren't significantly better than Joelinton, Longstaff or Willock. Those lads have their faults, but they bring a lot to the table which would be hard to better when it comes to work rate and team ethic.

Yeah you could see his head wobble with the impact. Hope he's fine to play, but if he's not it's just another game.

6 for me. I think the signings are all great prospects, but really would like to have seen some ready to go proven talent coming in to consolidate our CL form. But that isn't necessarily realistic when we have longstanding Big Six teams going after the same players. We will have to be smart in our recruitment, and I feel we have been by snapping up future talent. I think Gordon will be a big hit personally, think he'll be a great fit for Eddie's blueprint. I'm also really happy to have got rid of Wood and avoided handing Shelvey and extended contract. Long term this will be important, even if it's not ideal right now.

I knew Eddie would say getting into the goal scoring positions is the main thing, you can miss chances, but if you keep getting on the end of them you can easily start scoring them on a run as well. For a young player it can make all the difference to your confidence.

It's amazing the difference it makes if you can get your head over it and shoot low. They weren't particularly fantastic strikes, but they were low and well hit. That's all it needs sometimes.

Yep, getting into the top 4 is massive. Some of those players we haven't been able to compete for against Chelsea or Arsenal will become realistic if we secure CL football. It will show we've arrived categorically.

It was his best 45 mins for a long time I thought, he was absolutely imperious in the first half.

It wasn't as it looked IMO, he just caught him late because he's not the quickest over a few yards. Used to see Cabaye make similar fouls for the same reason. It's not intentional, just when you are up against someone with pace it's easy to miss the tackle by a split second.

I was thinking along the same lines tbh, maybe they'll just drop back or break forward depending on the other's position.

I hope you're right. If there's one game left this season I want to win it's this one after the way they carried on at Anfield.

I actually thought Wilson did quite well from the hold up side of his game, he just doesn't look like he's going to find any space these days to actually get a strike on goal.

Well they aren't really are they? They're still a team full of high class internationals, we saw that when we were beating them at Anfield, then we could barely get the ball off them in the second half.

So who would play the holding role from Longstaff and Joelinton? I'm guessing probably Longstaff, but neither of them are really suited to it.

Tbf, we played our best football when he was on the pitch in the first half. Not sure the subs improved things much.

There's only one match which I'm really not happy about him missing, and that's against Liverpool. I've been looking forward to giving them payback all season for robbing us of our unbeaten run, but that is going to be exponentially harder without our best player in such a key position.

Basically this. It was nice to see him at the ground yesterday and joining in with the rest of the lads celebrations. Shows what a great place this can be to play your football, although that's tempered slightly knowing that he would happily have played here for the rest of his career under Bruce as well.

Well he was asked specifically about him,and how he came off the pitch with a big smile on his face, and Howe responded by saying basically about what a top lad he was .

I do wonder who these long term targets are if we are talking central midfielders.

Again, this just highlights how hard it is to go for the very best players, when other clubs who have been successful for much longer are in for the same players. It's not that we are doing anything wrong.

Chelsea and Arsenal spending close to £200m collectively on two central midfielders shows what we are up against. We've done brilliantly to be in the top 4 at this stage of the season, but we still can't compete if those clubs want the same players we do. That is the truth of where we are now. It's also why we are looking at players like Gordon or Gallagher, players who probably wouldn't be considered by those clubs. We are still playing catch up, and it's amazing that we are in there pitching at all this season, probably at least a year ahead of schedule.

That picture must be burned into the memberships retinas by now. Nothing encapsulated the Ashley years more accurately.