Elma

I remember a Ceefax headline back in the early 90's, which said, "Sunderland to get Ball back for Grimsby". Always tickled me that.

Wouldn't Chelsea just need two wins and a draw in that scenario? If we beat Brighton and draw at Man U we'd be on 60 points, six ahead of Chelsea. We'd still need to beat Brentford to be absolutely sure. Man U would still be able to get to 61 too but I don't see them beating both Arsenal and Brighton.

Was going to post something similar so thanks for that ? One saving grace for Villa (despite three ACL's) is that Watkins has played virtually every minute. Isak has missed about eight games for us and we've had to play Bournemouth twice without a recognised striker.

We used to get loads when Beardsley played for us. Not since then though.

Could even be 3-4-3 in possession and 5-4-1 out of possession. Although I'm leaning towards 4-2-3-1.

Luton fans singing, "You Dirty Northern Bastard" to Ashley Young as he goes off. Bit harsh, seeing as he was born in Stevenage. Must be 500 yards north, if that.

None of their kits are perfect but either the red and white home or blue and white away would have been far better. It feels like they just kept going through their kits till they found the one that would clash the most.

Great for the neutral. Been switching between it and Chelsea v Spurs but kind of glad that one's over so I can focus on this one. More goals in it still I think.

Villa losing

Ruled out. Good spot from the ref that.

Wondering if another tier or at least half tier of height could be added to the East Stand with a new glass roof - the additional bit could be primarily glass and used for corporate (boxes) and/or media freeing up that space elsewhere for additional seating, alongside the additional capacity we'd get from the new Gallowgate/Milburn corner and the extra tier on the Gallowgate. Might be able to get close to 65,000?

Nowt against any of those really. Leeds the one I dislike the most but feel they'll add most to the Premier League and is as close as we'll get to a derby/short trip. Always had a bit of a soft spot for both WBA and to a lesser extent Norwich. Nowt against Southampton but a long trip. Hull also a short trip, but feel they'll be whipping boys and unlikely to make it anyway. In summary, WBA, Norwich, Leeds in that order for me.

If we get the £20m then I'd take that, as it could buy a £50-60m player under FFP. Anything less and I agree - it's not worth it bearing in mind they are our closest league competitors over the last two seasons and Ashworth will have lots of intel (which becomes less and less relevant the longer he's on gardening leave). Probably why we've set the fee at that level and I think they (both Man U and Ashworth) may have misjudged this. There's certainly no real incentive in us letting him go for under £10 million so if they weren't prepared to go even that high they've put themselves in a difficult position.

I live 7.5 miles from there. Not been that much rain this week and none today. Strange.

You must be younger than me. We won six in a row here once (think I was at four of them). Personally, considering our troubles in the capital at one time, I'd consider it one of our happier hunting grounds.

This is beautiful on three counts. We need City to win the cup. I can now whole-heatedly cheer for Coventry against Man Utd tomorrow. Seeing Chelsea dominate and lose a semi with a winnable final behind feels a little like payback for 2000.

My best mate is from Barrow. Was there before Xmas for their 1-1 draw with Notts County at Holker Street. Pete Wild (manager) has done a cracking job there after their board picked a couple of duds after Evatt went to Bolton. Hoping they finish the job and get into the play-offs against Bradford on Tuesday.

Agree - hence my question about whether they may have approached Niall and Biffa again. It seems like newcastleunited.com has been owned continuously since the late 90's so it was probably already in the stable and made sense to use that regardless.

Wonder if they approached Niall and Biffa? Doubt they would ever give it up. If memory serves the club tried to get NUFC.com years ago.

Bit of trivia - Henry Blofeld's father was a good school friend of Ian Flemming. Appreciate you've stated last decade, but go back a little further and we had 6-1 in an FA Cup replay in 2000, and 7-1 in the league in 1996. We've been on the other end of some down their place too. A mate of mine who supports Spurs says we're their modern day bogey team (it used to be Coventry apparently). Not sure I'd agree with that as they have a fair record against us - it's just when we win we often go big.

Don't think it looks too bad, and I prefer the sweep of the bottom of the white on the back to the square we had at the weekend and in the UCL this season. I understand the commercial reason for doing it too (pushing people towards a name and number) but from a purely aesthetic point of view, in my opinion you can't beat a striped back with a square black patch and white number, ala Juve in the 80s and what we had for a few years on the Asics kit. If executed properly, numbers and names could be supplied on the patch (probably be easier to apply) and it would keep the design open for those who prefer a plain, striped back.

Emil Krafth seems especially excited for the women in the official congratulations video…

As far as I understand it: If he gets a yellow he moves to 10 and gets a two game ban. He then has to keep under 15 until the end of the season to avoid a three game ban. However, he's not been sent off so any subsequent reds this season give him the appropriate ban for the offence, one game ban for two yellows, last man etc, or three if it's violent conduct. If he takes a second yellow in the game to convert it to a red, he gets an immediate one game ban as he's not been sent off so far this season. His yellow tally drops back to nine and he has to avoid 15 by season's end. However, if he got a subsequent red (either straight or two yellows) in the remaining games he'd get a two game ban (four if it's violent conduct), having been sent off already. So probably best to take the second yellow and convert to a red to reduce the immediate ban and keep his yellow tally down to nine ahead of the remaining six games, but it does increase the risk of a longer ban later if he were to get a red in the last six games.

In the (admittedly short) highlights clip I saw he made Almiron look two-footed but, fair play, he's having an impact in terms of goals and assists. Interesting that he started ahead of the much more experienced Jahanbakhsh.