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I'm guessing its meant to be "haven't beaten a team in the top seven away this season"

I just realised, if we'd made it to the League Cup final, which given we won the competition last season, you'd argue we had a decent shot at, than this coming game would have had to have been rearranged for a midweek evening game, which I imagine Northumbria Police wouldn't be best please about. Seems a bit of an oversight from the Premier League that

Oxford won their first penalty in 675 days and 92 games at the weekend. That has to be some sort of English record?

I don't want to lose Tonali, but Marmoush in an Eddie team

If we can sign him for circa £10m, and he's happy to be a backup, while we also sign a proper #1, I think i'd be fine with that, anything more and it'd say it was bad business, you shouldn't be spending £20m on a backup.

With Ramsey coming into his own and performing really well of late, and how good Miley has been when he's on the pitch, when everyone is fit, what would people say is our starting midfield three? Bruno - Tonali - Joelinton still? Ramsey - Bruno - Joelinton? Bruno - Tonali - Ramsey? I don't think Miley gets into the three just yet, but i'd have no qualms when he does play. I think you need to play Joelinton personally, he's the battering ram that keeps everything together, Bruno is Bruno, so its between Tonali and Ramsey, and i'm undecided about which way i'd go.

"Respect the ball" fucking hell

Liverpool loss tomorrow is better for us, a Tottenham loss is better for the laughs.

I feel like you can see him becoming more confident with each game. He was claiming a lot of crosses which was something we've not seen from him before, and it was the best i've seen him command his box too.

Eddie Howe 1-0 LinkedIn Liam That was such a good away performance, out of possession its the best i've seen from us. Everyone to a man was quality. Would say it was between Gordon, Thiaw and Willock for Man of the Match.

It just comes down to perceived effort, you can see that Elanga is giving everything he can when he's playing, and that with a bit of fine tuning there is a potential upside to his play style, like against Barcelona he had a really good game, and had the beating on Cancelo continually, but its just that final ball isn't landing, he's also still only 23, so has plenty of time to come good. Wissa on the other hand was the slot in a buy option and we paid a premium for it, and rather unluckily he got injured straight away and just hasn't recovered. Add in that when he does play he doesn't seem to press, there is a perceived lack of effort on his part. Personally I think every professional footballer will give their all on the pitch, and by all accounts he has a good attitude behind the scenes, but at 30, only scoring 2 goals in nearly a season is just a failure, especially when Osula is now starting ahead of him.

Think i'd go something like: Ramsdale - 6/10 - He was signed as a stop gap backup keeper, and has been a backup keeper. Has some glaring weaknesses in his game, but thats the reason he's coming in as a backup. He's had some solid performances, and some poor ones, but overall I would say he's been better than Pope this season. Though we need better than both. Thiaw - 8/10 - Had a few errors recently, but he's played something like 40 games in a row, so thats to be expected with that amount of load. Hes been our best defender this season, and for the price its been a qualified success of a signing. Elanga - 4/10 - He's been noticeably better recently, but given the outlay one assist just isnt really good enough. Though there are positive signs that hopefully this rating goes up over time. Wissa - 1/10 - Utter horror signing so far. There has been basically 0 redeeming features of his time here, the fact Osula is ahead of him, and looking better than him is telling. Ramsey - 6/10 - A slow start, but he's starting to look like the player we expected, he looks really comfortable on the ball, and after a period of settling in, hes looking like a really astute buy, and I wouldn't be surprised if this is an 8/10 come end of season. Woltemade - 4/10 - Hit the ground running, but overall our play style doesn't suite him, hopefully a pre-season, and some bulk work over the summer will make him the player we think he can be, as its clear he has some decent attributes. Overall - 4/10.

Sunday 22nd March looks like its going to be a great day to sit on the sofa: 1200 - Newcastle vs. Sunderland 1415 - Tottenham vs. Nottingham Forest 1630 - Man City vs. Arsenal - EFL cup final

Given our position in the league, I would somewhat rotate for this ahead of the 2nd leg against Barcelona and go with something like: Ramsdale Livramento Botman Burn A Murphy Willock Tonali Woltemade Murphy Wissa Barnes

Osula and Elanga arn't as good as last Isak and Murphy last year, but I would argue that this season Barnes has been better than Gordon last, in fact I would argue that Barnes was better than Gordon last season too.

It was our 48th game of the season, the most of any team in the top 5 leagues in Europe. Our schedule has been insane, i'm knackered by it and looking forward to the international break, fuck knows what the players and management are feeling like

Just a thought...

Unlucky Chelsea

If they do go down, given the stadium, the amount they've spend and there revenue, is it the biggest ever relegation? I say yes, I guess us in 2009 is close, and maybe Villa in 2016. It genuinely felt impossible for one of the "big 6" to get into this position, and it actually gives me a bit of hope that mother football can still bite back despite the utter determination of those 6 clubs to make it as much as a closed shop as possible. Remember when they where part of the Super League

What about the Oilers being 3rd. I get they have McDavid but thats bonkers

Big Willie to start please.

We've now beaten Man United the last 4 times we have played them at SJP. Prior to that run you'd have to go back 19 games for the same number of wins.