leffe186

This. Schar nicks the ball, the other guy just pulls out and Schar holds his foot up then flings himself sideways.

Speaking of the game, I rewatched it late last night. Having those refs who don’t want to book players is all well and good, and seems even-handed on the face of it, but when one team is systematically spoiling and fouling from the front as part of their gameplan then you just end up favouring them dramatically. Watch Jordan Ayew. Every single thing he did when he didn’t have the ball but was somewhere near it was a foul. It was amazing. Anyway, job done, the fact that we played Monday and Friday and came away with 6pts is ace and now we can take it easy for 10 days or whatever it is.

It’s a bit bizarre because putting the football stuff aside all he’s doing is just being a normal - albeit clever and witty - bloke. The fact it stands out so much is a bit glaring. Just look at Neville’s mildly hysterical laughter when they were chatting after the game last night.

Right now you could argue that with Bentancur back Maddison might not be the biggest issue. The drop-off after Son, the keeper and the centre-backs is arguably greater. Remains to be seen how fully Bentancur has recovered from his horrible injury though.

They’re Ok: I like them, I like them, I like them, I like them, I la-la-like them.

I do think it’s a mark of how strong the Premier League is that a side in sixth with three losses and very inexperienced in the CL can acquit itself so well against such strong opposition. Man U’s comedy failings notwithstanding, English teams seem to be collectively even better than they have been relative to other top sides. The injuries are obviously going to be a problem, and it was always going to be a test. Without Europe we’ve been able to nurse a clearly injured Son and Maddison through most of every game. IIRC Isak and Wilson have been injury-prone for many years (is this right?) and it wouldn’t be a surprise if the high-energy pressing game is taking its toll on them. Feels like this might be a very busy January for us both. We’re in desperate need of cover in a couple of positions and it looks like you will be too. The one issue we do have without Europe and the League Cup is that our backups are not getting many minutes.

(He has shite He has shite He has shite shoes on his feet.) (He has shite He has shite He has shite shoes on his feet)

Sunderland have effectively pushed an extra player forward to press and it’s been working…but it often leaves them one-on-one at the back. It’s led to an open and exciting game, but Leicester should have buried it just then.

And they really, really should have equalized there.

Good response from Sunderland this.

Leicester look far too good for this league tbh.

Wow. So close.

Oh yeah, one key change in the Premier League at that time was Abramovich. Suddenly there was a fucking ton of Russian oil money being pumped in, and Levy (among other chairmen) had to decide how to compete.

The key transition year for us was 2004. Santini Jol came in, Arnesen started as Director of Football (before Chelsea nicked him) and we cleared house on the pitch. A load of young players came in, then another load of young players. It was all about building from then.

yeah sorry, wasn’t clear enough - I was just looking at that cycle of new manager/team and transition periods.

Hope you don’t mean me here, because I’m woke as fuck

Yeah sorry, just meant the manager and the squad rebuild. Hence Emery and Arteta. Was really an excuse to make a dig at Arsenal, which should always be part of a football fan’s toolkit.

Just meant Howe was two years ahead of Ange really. Like CD says, we have had the infrastructure in place for a while.

Yeah, if it’s any consolation it’s irritating for us too. As The Fighting Cock podcast boys said, it’s like “fuck off, he’s ours, you can’t have him”. It’s faintly absurd because at its root it’s just because he’s a clever bloke who’s lived a relatively normal life. That’s apparently revolutionary. All joking aside, you can see the issues. The nice thing is that Ange was clearly pissed with how we played in the second half. He’s been lucky to pick up the reins of a squad that had just enough players with the characteristics to make his system work, plenty of youth and adaptability, a couple of genuinely top class players already there and a couple of genuinely top class players coming in. And a really nice fixture list, which makes a huge difference at this stage. It’s exciting for all kinds of reasons, not least of which is the knowledge that it should get much better when he’s had a couple of transfer windows. We obviously need some luck - there’s half a dozen positions where there’s essentially no adequate replacements. It’s so early in his tenure. But we know that. That’s why it’s funny watching other fans chiding us for thinking we’re in a title race, for being lucky, for having easy games, even for having fun FFS. Villa are a year ahead, you guys are two years ahead, Arsenal are *counts on fingers* four years ahead of us in transitioning to a new manager and set-up. And yet, here we are. It’s particularly hilarious seeing the copium from Arsenal fans. They were so excited about their rebuild, about finally stepping out of Wenger’s shadow, about finally throwing enough money at the wall that it stuck, and finally getting a world-class kid through the youth programme to build around. And finally finishing ahead of us after six years. And overnight…this. It’s probably not gonna last - we’re still building the foundations. If the luck continues though and if we get January right, then we’re so well-placed for the CL. And when we’re good, we’re very very good, which is OK for now.

Someone mentioned this the other day - it actually makes far more sense to have managers doing the analysis.

Thank you for the warning not to get carried away. I will try to rein myself in and not pretend I am in a title race.

We’re usually in Europe too. You’re probably correct. We’re mopey bottlers who only win the easy games and if you take our best player away we’re not very good. Our defence is suspect, Richarlison is piss poor and we’re going to fall to pieces after the January transfer window. We just ride our luck game after game and the wheels are inevitably going to fall off. Quite enjoyable though. Looking forward to Ange getting a couple of transfer windows and a full pre-season. Everything else is gravy.

Yeah, that’s part of it I think. It’s even more than two teams if you factor in the Black Country which is a continuous conurbation with Birmingham and brings in Walsall, West Brom and arguably Wolves. Might be a combination of geography and culture. Birmingham and the Black Country are very much a collection of towns with separate identities. It has also been significantly more multicultural than most British cities for decades, with a large population from the Indian subcontinent that has historically been separated from football somewhat. I worked near Aston and briefly shacked up in Erdington. I will always remember one of my staff talking about Villa and marvelling at how highly he thought of them. It was at the Martin O’Neill time - think maybe towards the beginning? This kid clearly thought of them as one of the rightful top two or three teams in England. He was too young for Ron Saunders - maybe he grew up with the Ron Atkinson team? I really had to bite my tongue on more than one occasion - he wasn’t alone. I mean, I do remember the Ron Saunders years but I hadn’t thought of Villa in that absolute top echelon for years and years. @brummie will be the man to ask.

Enjoying watching Celtic. They’re playing lovely football, and as a bonus you can see the Hearts players losing their rags as Celtic just knock it about. Couple of tasty old-school tackles.

Brilliant Celtic goal.