Andy

Can we mathematically still win the league?

Aye. I had pneumonia in my early 30s, I was in really good nick and was training for the GNR at the time, running over 5 hours a week. It absolutely wiped the floor with me to the extent where walking upstairs felt like an incredible feat in the first few weeks. My lungs have never been the same since tbh.

They're a good team, to be fair, and have been in excellent form for a good while now. I think they'll beat City tbh. Most people questioned their loan signings in January, but they've turned out to be extremely astute.

It's not the in-game management so much that we would've missed, but the preparation beforehand, and his ability to fire the players up. He's clearly a great motivator and you are going to miss that big-time in a crunch game against a Villa team who were playing like it was their biggest game of the season. Not saying it would've changed the result, but I bet we would have put up more of a fight.

He was poor, but he always looks poor when we get overran and are stretched. To be at his best, we need players in and around him, and the wingers running beyond him. We completely failed to do that today for the most part.

Cunts had too much chocolate. Should be dropped at Easter every season.

I never felt we'd get anything here to begin with and said before Palace this was a free swing if we won that game. Didn't expect us to miss with our swing so much that we punched ourselves in the face, like.

Bruno has given as close to a 0/10 performance as I've ever seen. Don't think he's done anything right.

Our entire right hand side of the pitch has been abysmal today, Bruno included.

Too many players just not at it today. Emery said this was the most important game of the season for them beforehand, they've played like that, and we've not had an answer so far.

We need to get a grip on our right hand side, they've done literally nothing down our left. Watkins always seems to turn into prime R9 against Schar.

Goal aside, Schar and Trippier have been shocking. Miles off it.

Tonali was playing him miles on after clearing the ball.

I don't think people are pissing themselves, it's reasonable to be cautious about getting overly carried away when half of our remaining games are against the current top 7. We're in the box seat, but it's by no means a foregone conclusion.

Aye, it looks good at the moment but it can soon swing the other way with a couple of negative results or key injuries. We are capable of losing form. The benefit for us compared to 22/23 is that we've been in this position before and done it, with largely the same set of players. The other advantage we have is the traffic between us and 6th. I'd say we're favourites, but with a cautionary asterix to say that there's still a lot of work to be done.

I mean, you're right, but a centre back isn't expected to be challenging with his hands, so it's a bit different For me, the fact is it wasn't a clear and obvious error. The ref already saw that Pope led with his fist and caught the player, he therefore didn't give the penalty because he thought he touched the ball. There's no way from the replays that you can conclusively say he didn't touch the ball; if anything the ball clearly deviates from its trajectory, therefore the on field decision shouldn't be overturned.

29 goal involvements in his last 50 premier league games. Incredible from him, to be honest.

Them two, Tonali or Guehi for me.

Was pretty clear he touched the ball from the reverse angle, like. The VAR even paused it with his hand on the ball.

Just Joelinton. Last thing we want is him getting himself a daft ban for Villa.

It's absolutely ridiculous that the ref can look at that slow mo and give it. Pope blatantly touches the ball. Them repeating the replay at 1000x speed over and over to make it look more dangerous was scandalous too.

Great first half. Hope we keep at it in the second half and get a few more since it genuinely could come down to GD this season. As others have said, I'd have Joelinton off at half time to avoid the inevitable yellow.

Villa will drop points in the run in. The Palace game is far more important IMO, we need to win our home games. Pushing ourselves above Forest tomorrow would shift the pressure on to them massively.

It's absolutely no coincidence that since he has had a prolonged run in the team, we've been one of the form teams in the league and we've won a cup. Second best midfielder in the league behind Rodri IMO.

Great win, very comfortable in the end. Dig out 3 points on Wednesday and the Villa game is basically a free hit.