Stottie

Along with his shot creating actions and unsuccessful tackle percentage, I trust Fbref is telling everyone about how to say Igor's name.

Chelsea are an extreme possession team, the type we do well against by winning high turnovers and hitting them on the counter. They are also playing Thurs-Sun, usually a recipe for teams struggling. Nico Jackson can do the turn and run in behind thing Watkins does, so we'll have to watch for that vulnerability, not just pace on the wings. Our team as a whole shouldn't be as knackered as we looked at Villa, our latest big test. Our second latest big test was the Carabao final where we beat easily the best team in the country. Isak has four in five vs. Chelsea, including two this season.

Did kind of okay, but needed to at least work the keeper when clean through first half and leave an outstretched trailing leg or get there a bit faster for the incident in the second. The one where he beat the defender for pace second half and then just kicked it out with his wrong foot might have been overlookable for a player up to speed and contributing, but felt incriminating for him as a player who is struggling. As a midfield, I thought we did okay today and the main issue was our final ball being very poor. Getting in behind but then hitting a cut backs straight to a defender etc. Our key pass man is usually Bruno, and he wasn't on it today either.

Decent point, which we fought back well to get and deserved. Possibly a little unlucky at the margins, deflected goal for them, Wieffer v. close to second yellow, six inches off Gordon penalty etc. On the other hand, 50p heed for them missed the best chance of the game. Bogey ground and the curse in the league remains.

Just for context, but fans of the most successful club of recent times, the only one to win four in a row, yes, Man City, still refer to poor results or unexpected events as "typical City". Their nonstop success has not stopped some fans looking on the negative side and half-expecting things to go wrong. For some football fans of some clubs, this condition seems incurable. For contrast, other fans of other clubs and pundits pandering to them have no problem in assuming they have already signed other clubs' prime assets, such as Alexander Isak.

Two things here. First is if Man City win the Cup, they are favourites, seventh gets Europa League. This means there's very little chance, my guess would be less than one in one hundred, we don't get at least Europa League. Which as Man U and Spurs are suggesting, is probably easier than to progress in than used to be and offers a way into the CL for the winner. Note that I want and expect CL, us collapsing under Eddie Howe would be very uncharacteristic. I am only bringing this up to soothe any last minute nerves from the players and fanbase. We won't be in the Conference League next season. We'll be in one of the two better competitions. Secondly, us being basically nailed on for top 7 means eighth will get Europe. Man City and Villa both have to play both Bournemouth and Fulham who are in contention for eighth. We have to play Brighton, who are the same. Anyone saying VIlla have easy fixtures is saying teams in genuine European contention are easy opposition.

Vardy and Jota were good finishers, but it doesn't look like it anymore. DCL is way below the line, which raises all kinds of alarms. Its easier to forgive Nico Jackson, because his pace/power will be creating some of the many opportunities he's had. Above the line, Wood and Welbeck are having great seasons in spite of their historic finishing abilities. Is the circle size minutes played?

I reckon we'll do it barring a collapse. A collapse is possible, but would be very uncharacteristic for us under Eddie Howe. This collapse would also have to come following a run where we've scored 18 goals in six games, four more than anyone else, 9 more than Forest, and 12 more than Chelsea. The no. 1 form team in the league is Wolves, who play Man City at home next. City also play Fulham away. I don't quite get the idea of them being a shoo-in based on who they play.

Missed most the first half, but witnessed the whole of the second. They killed us down the right again and again, and we should probably have reorganized to counter it. The Maatsen goal that opened the floodgates happened with Trippier suckered into midfield and AWOL from RB. We looked leggy and didn't get into it. We're still third though and have it all in our own hands. Time to regroup, hopefully with Eddie fit and well.

Bournemouth did it with cooperative refereeing, i.e., someone willing to keep the cards in the pocket. If we'd had a stricter ref or a homer in that game and the cards had started coming out around 30' or so with the score still at 1-1, we'd have made more of a game of it. As it was, Tyler Adams etc. just kicked us off the park. Bournemouth lead the league in fouls committed, so our lads should have seen seen it coming. fwiw, we're third lowest in fouls conceded and third highest in fouls against this season. We're not a dark arts team any more. The most fouled team is Villa. We are definitely vulnerable to counters/fast breaks and losing the ball in midfield but Liverpool and Man City demonstrated that better than Fulham did.

Harvey Barnes has six career goals and five assists in thirteen games vs. Villa, the most against any opponent. Isak is three in four against them.

We just destroyed Palace and their high line, and PSG made big hay on Villa's in that first half, so quietly confident about this one, especially with our form. The points cushion to them helps as well.

Don't mind the result because the game was mad, but it might have been different with Savage on my river. I cannot stand him. The criminal bit would be if Man U won this, got into the CL, and then got more money than us for the CL regardless of progress due to some coefficient bollox.

A wet Tuesday night in Aston. Time to test that age-old theory

We barely got a kick in the away fixture. Isak went off after twenty and we looked lost the whole game. 0.02 xG and needed Guehi to put it in for us. Nearly held on though for what would have been absolute daylight robbery. Recent form and SJP probably mean this one will play out differently though. I certainly hope it does!

13 league goals for us is one more than Maxi and level with HBA. Not bad for someone it's been argued we shouldn't have signed because it gave us two left wingers. I get the "PSR means you can only have one nice thing, not two nice things" argument, but look at the attacking options Villa have on their bench. The "its only Harvey Barnes" lot are as blind as Townsend saying he lacks goals. Barnes got 13 in the Leicester relegation season, one more than Liam Delap is on now. Young, that many in a season in a struggling team, and available for a relegation price makes it pretty much a no-brainer for whoever can get it over the line. Arsenal should probably sign him, but he mightn't be glamourous enough for them. He'd have to be badly advised and/or barking mad to go to Man U.

Four wins in a row and some helpful other results have things looking very good now. With the game in hand, its 100% in our hands, with no reason to question what the team can do. No Eddie today, but the lads still put the work in and did the business.

Our second top scorer now, 8 in about 12.5 games' of minutes. It was great anticipation for him to follow the first one in, something Isak didn't do, and then great strength and composure for the second.

I like Villa for the squad they've assembled and Emery. I wasn't talking about a Mackem-like subset of their fanbase, who do not deserve our attention. The self-styled bantzmeister behind the original bedsheets got featured in the paper and was basically just a claret and blue Mackem. We have our own arseholes, like Tony Blair, and they will only multiply the more successful we become.

Eight game form table. No real standout teams there. Man City looked like they couldn't be arsed on Sunday. They still have great players but are not playing as the team they were. The "its the KDB farewell tour" news did not motivate them either. 9 goals scored (joint fourth worst) in their last eight does not bode well for Chelsea, who needed Brentford to miss a couple of sitters to get a point. Villa improving, but still not convincing. Like Chelsea, if we avoid defeat to them, it will go a long way toward securing CL. Id actually quite like Villa to win the CL, they're likeable and there would be the bonus of them and Emery upstaging Liverpool.

Missed opportunity by Roblox or Cadbury Freddos.

Geordie boys... take the piss! Indeed!

Buy some players like Forest and they do you for PSR.

My other comment on today's games relates to Brighton giving up a second yellow when facing nine men. Like their game against Forest, they don't do bad and only seem to do atrocious.

Great win for Villa who kind of got away with one. Emery clearly had half a mind on PSG and nearly got punished for it. The rotated lads he played got it over the line, but that was very squeaky bum. Forest unlucky. Created many chances in the second half. Some decent ones for Anderson, but he didn't work the keeper. Its something he needs to work on if he wants to be an elite midfielder.