Ashley17

A back 5 with Dummett and Yedlin as wingbacks. Diame and Hayden in central midfield. Murphy, Kenedy and Muto as a front 3. Murphy because these are the only games he ever plays, Kenedy because he didn't start on Saturday. Could easily be Atsu or Perez in there but it barely matters. Similar set up to the Everton game where we used pacey forward players to exploit their overly zealous fullbacks. Think Rondon will get a rest here and Muto will get a run seeing as he's off soon. We'll essentially have a back 7 and Liverpool will have one eye on Arsenal 3 days later, so they might take it easy once it goes 2 or 3-0.

I'm leaning towards keeping him in until January just because he's less of a rotation risk. Same with Hazard. I don't have any Man City players at the moment which is asking for trouble but I'm relying on Salah and Hazard to outscore Sane and Sterling over the festive games. The worry with Auba is that Emery is playing one up front at the moment and that means he will probably rest him for a game in the coming game weeks. He played both him and Lacazette against Huddersfield and it just didn't work so Laca got pulled at half time. If he goes back to 4 at the back, which he might have to out of necessity due to injuries, that would mean Auba back out on the left potentially. My defenders keep getting sent off or injured so I've been having to manage that and don't want to risk -4 on an attacking player who might be a sub.

He's been an utter dick yet always so very respectful about us and Bobby in particular. For that reason I find it hard to hate him.

Arsenal are complaining because their 2nd leg has been moved to the Wednesday at 5pm so it doesn't clash with Chelsea on the Thursday. Both teams can't play at home at the same time and UEFA don't want it to clash with the Champions League games so it can't be a 7.45pm or whatever. Might be a very empty Emirates that night!

Craig Hope is the king of breaking bad news. Typically it's usually right though, unfortunately.

The subs were very odd today. I'd be against bringing on Manquillo at any time but to move Yedlin in to centre half was unusual. I guess Rafa wasn't worried about his opposite number beating him in the air and his pace to cover Traore would have been useful. Getting sent off there was senseless, even if they had scored there was loads of time left but there was a lot left to do between giving the ball away and sticking it away. Gah. I also didn't understand bringing Kenedy on when Ritchie is playing a left back. Surely you put Dummett on and push Ritchie to LW? Nobody would have complained at that I don't think with there being just a few minutes left. Atsu was good but like Rondon he was shagged by the end so I'm not surprised he was withdrawn. Diame was a total disaster on the ball as usual and Ki was ok but not as good as he has been. Rondon was excellent, unfortunately Perez is too used to playing with Joselu and doesn't get near enough to him for any flick ons. But generally, Rondon's hold up play gets us up the field and we're a better side with him in it. I don't think he's a particularly natural goal scorer but it doesn't matter who our striker is, we don't exactly make dozens of chances for them anyway. So if he's able to hold it up and not be an active hinderance he's well ahead of some of his colleagues. Lascelles was poor today, he's not comfortable in a three and certainly not on either side. I think him, Schar and Fernandez is probably our best bet in a three, though Clark is a reasonable option in certain games. I've rarely seen Lejeune in a three but I don't see it being a problem for him however it's not fair on the lad to throw him in just now having been out for so long. If Fernandez is out, I wouldn't be against Dummett coming in on the left side of the three and sticking with Ritchie as a left wing back next weekend. At least that way they can change during the game to a 4 without making a sub. I'm already dreading Manquillo, he just offers so little. At least he'll be on his natural side which, to be fair to him, we haven't really seen very much. Final word to the idiot Wolves fan who threw a bottle of beer down into the Newcastle fans during the celebrations on their first goal. It hit a kid of about 8 or 9 so I hope they're proud of themselves. Thankfully the bottle wasn't glass and it didn't hit him full on so he was fine but hopefully whoever threw it gets dealt with.

No Shelvey according to Hopey

Saiss and Shelvey on the same pitch might not end well.

Jimenez not starting for them. Not looking forward to Traore's pace against anybody.

Minhosa has confirmed on several occasions that the interest is legit and he's been saying it for months. I don't doubt there are potential bidders but the question is whether Ashley will really sell or if he's just stringing people along to get through January. Caulkin and co were adamant that if the bidder was named that was usually a sure sign it was bullshit, so I find it hard to believe all their current optimism about this. Supposed advisors contacting fans groups to call off the boycott also stinks of Bishop to be honest. It doesn't all add up to me and I think like the vast majority I won't believe anything until a new owner is stood on the pitch with a crane taking down the SD signs in the background.

Lee clearly furious he can't run a "not happening" tweet. Yet.

We were poor defending them against Bournemouth so we'll be in bother against Burnley's giants. It was the one thing we missed Lascelles for in my opinion.

I had been on Salah but he's got PSG on Wednesday and Everton away next Sunday. It's a big week and I can see him getting a rest, if not from the start then certainly an early withdrawal. Richarlison has a great fixture on paper but Everton aren't always brilliant at home, plus he's been carrying injuries recently. He got 20 minutes for Brazil so he's obviously going to play but again, he might not see out the whole game. That leaves me with Aguero by default, with Man City through in the Champions League Pep can gives Jesus a game there and Aguero can hopefully play the majority of the game here. West Ham managed to keep Chelsea out but Man City are a different prospect so you'd obviously expect them to win and win well.

Really enjoyable game, Bournemouth played reasonably well so it's nice to be able to say we won because were the better team rather than some sort of smash and grab scenario. There is a definite over reliance on Shelvey to create something but agree that it helped that Schar is a better passer of the ball than most of the team. His ball over the top for Perez just before half time was lovely and there were several other examples of him picking somebody out more than 5 yards away. It obviously helps that Ki came in and played really well, he barely gave the ball away and is a very intelligent footballer. A nice option to have. I would be interested to see Diame, Shelvey and Ki as a three in there at some point but probably away from home. That's a discussion for another day though, we know Rafa will rarely deviate from the norm. Rondon was absolutely outstanding, it's a long time since I've seen a centre forward of ours absolutely bully the opposition centre halves like that. His header was fantastic but his general hold up play and being able to not only win flick ons but generally direct them to another team mate is something we have lacked for a long time. We've seen bursts of what he can do but today it all came together and we look a different proposition with him as a focal point. Let's see if he can back it up or at the very least not come back from International duty with an injury. Fernandez looks better with every game that goes by, Dummett is rock solid but Dubravka is unbelievable at times. When you think of some of the goals Darlow and Elliot managed to concede last season before he arrived versus what we have now, what an absolute steal he was. I was worried when we tried to shut up shop, I thought we'd get too deep but to be fair it certainly stemmed things a little bit. Can only assume Diame got a knock because Paco shouted Atsu back during the second substitution and he was on a minute later but it helped us as Atsu was a willing runner, even if he did manage to be offside from a free kick when we were trying to waste time. It's nice to win the last game before the International break as I feel we never do, it's almost certainly not true but I feel like we've had our fair share of two weeks wallowing in our own misery over the years so it'll be a nice change. On this performance we'll not go down but as it stands this is very much the exception rather than the rule of our general performances this season so we've got to keep this level over the next few games, which are winnable. It's clear the league is still very shit outside of a handful of teams and there's about 12 teams all capable of beating each other but we'll have to make hay whilst the sun shines so to speak because December and January look like tough months, so hopefully there'll be plenty of points on the board by then.

They changed the rules this year so they can't win a prize unless they've played at least 3 gameweeks. So...they get nout for this shit anymore.

Thought it was BBC?

Hopefully Muto is available so we can try and get around their centre halves. Joselu isn't going to beat them in the air but they will come for a point and probably get it.

Obviously he's completely right but I do sometimes wonder what the current squad think about being constantly told they're not up to scratch.

Could be worse, I played Begovic (0 points) and have Fabianski as sub (11 points). Well played, me.

We were very fortunate to win, pulled some answers out of nowhere particularly on the picture round. It's an excellent quiz though, I don't know who writes the questions but they do a great job.

That quiz was fucking hard

It was Robin Cowan I believe

They just tweet stories from other outlets

I mean that literally can’t happen.

Anfield Express have been leaking the team news on a Friday so keep an eye out for it before you make your transfer decision.