leffe186

Thought Southampton looked really good. The playoffs are going to be tough as nails.

Would be nice if it also stopped after the keeper’s had six seconds and only restarted when he cleared it.

Anyone complaining about English refs relative to those abroad should be made to look at that red card every time. It’s worse abroad, it really is. I think that might just be the worst straight red card I’ve ever seen: https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/s/8NwJElLIEz

Arteta is trying to be him in every way.

Also without at least four or five ludicrous bookings and the bribery.

Man City > Liverpool > Arsenal for me.

Yup. It’s all well and good if both teams are at it but when it’s like this you simply end up favouring one side.

Hang on, has he still not booked an Arsenal player?

It‘s been my gut instinct for years. Chelsea and Man City winning anything means nowt, so in the unlikely event that Spurs don’t win a given trophy let those two have it.

Cheers. As ever, it’s the inconsistency that’s maddening.

Was eating and missed it. What happened?

Liverpool and Man City have been doing it with effective impunity for years.

It’s ABA for me.

I guess one argument would be that the only reason the Brighton player played the ball was because of the two offside guys behind him.

Gross simply puts his foot between McAllister’s boot and the ball and gets kicked. Brighton free-kick, no?

Tbf almost every comment on here during their match was pointing out how consistent they’ve been and accurately predicting the future on that basis. Just not in the way Ten Haag wants.

Finally got to that just now. Terrible decision. Honestly, with some of the penalties yesterday the fact that we have been given just one all season blows my mind.

You’re looking at things the wrong way round I think - you can’t just say “The Top Six” without recognizing that they are all in very different positions. We have the lowest wage-to-turnover ratio of the entire Premier League and the new stadium means matchday income has increased enormously even without the CL. Chelsea missing out again would be disastrous for them. Villa missing out would be problematic financially because of their FFP, and they aren’t one of the Too Six. They’ve got a high wage bill relative to turnover which the CL would greatly help finance. Before the season there were some people seriously thinking Spurs might finish lower half of the table or worse with no Kane and a new manager. Most right-thinking Spurs fans were hoping to squeak into Europe. We’d have bitten your hand off for fifth. In the BBC’s pre-season predictions for the top four, nobody thought Spurs would be there, two people backed Villa, a few more Newcastle and a ton Man U. It was a great start but the squad was clearly not strong enough as shown by the fallout after Chelsea. As for mentally damaging - have you listened to Ange at all this season? He’s consistently maintained that he doesn’t really give all that much of a shit about league position, he just wants them to play well and grow - and the players have clearly bought into that. I don’t think anyone paying attention would disagree. I see the argument that Villa might not be ready for CL, but the financial implications of getting in massively outweigh that in their case.

Was just editing it to say that might sound a bit harsh. Villa are up against it with FFP or whatever it is now so they really really need the money the CL brings and missing out would be tough financially. We don’t. Then you add in the fact that we’re just in the first season of the rebuild and so we could stand to have one season out of the CL to allow the squad to develop, while they are further along. Not sure why you think the opposite.

I think this might be wrong in every possible way.

Off to Wimbledon vs Harrogate with some of our friends from America. I don’t think I’ve been to Plough Lane for 30 years and never been to the new one so this will be fun. Maybe.

It’s not surprising that you guys are 8th - only six teams have never been relegated and of course there’s Manchester City’s triumph against all odds. What is impressive is how badly Everton have done.

Fucking hell that’s shocking. Are there fewer refs taking the game up now (with the inevitable accompanying drop in quality)? I know that’s been the received wisdom for years but I just don’t know if it’s true. Edit: the comments are fun though

Didn’t realize Tamworth were doing so well again. Anyone know the story?

Arsenal players in particular would find any excuse not to play