Stottie

I don't want to get sucked into this discussion, but our average attendance and the number of times our games are televised should be enough to justify any small discrepancy in our favour regarding wages vs. Brighton and Huddersfield. We may have a smaller commercial revenue but that is because someone plastered Sports Direct all over the place and didn't pay for it.

We've got a good bunch, that's for sure. You could also put this in the Rafa thread, because coaching is a huge aspect, but one thing that has been disappointing this season is our set pieces, for and against. We've conceded loads from them, again against Bournemouth, and not really threatened in spite of Lascelles and Fernandez being good targets and Ritchie and Shelvey being good strikers of the ball. For all our striker troubles, we've scored eight times from open play, which is only one fewer than Tottenham (!) Unlike them, we missed the one pen we got and have done little with set pieces. As it happens, our games feature joint most corners by both teams, so all the more reason to improve at them. https://www.windrawwin.com/statistics/corners/england-premier-league/

Still three. They have points on the board and a gap at the moment, but I can see Brighton being sucked back in later in the season. They were poor against us and are putting up horrible shot/open play numbers. Fewest shots and second most conceded.

Spoke too soon.

Comical dive from Shaqiri still gets a freekick.

Saw that stat earlier, certainly did not feel like they had more of the ball. They must have counted the 8 minutes or so when their player was down and they were passing a ball around. I'm sure I read on here that possession is measured by how many passes are made by each team rather than time in possession of the ball, which seems a weird metric. So I wouldn't say it's massively indicative of actual possession of the ball, it just means we made less passes in our possession. I think it was Michael Cox who mentioned it earlier this season on the Totally Football podcast, and then one of the Opta guys was on later the same week and confirmed it. It came as a surprise to Jimbo and everyone else. My guess is the biggest distortion will be a game with a high press team versus a no press one. The high press team will force the other teams' keeper and back four to keep moving the ball, i.e., more passes, but its own keeper or center halves will be able to linger on it, waiting for something to happen. With the stat as calculated, your center half standing with the ball for for six or seven seconds will register 0% "possession".

Ki's looking like the tidy and eminently useful player he used to look on MOTD Swansea highlights.

I'm voted five but the last two games have got me down to three.

Well in. I was bricking it at the end there, but only because we only had six points. I suspect we did better there than that felt due to our form so far. They've got better players than us, but they only really looked like scoring from a set piece. Our defensive work there still needs work, but it's otherwise sound. We created a lot of chances today and scored what was ultimately the winner with what was the clearest demonstration of skill in the 90 minutes. What a satisfying goal that was. Rondon MOTM.

Hang on lads!

HT. Should be 3-1 on chances/hand in unnatural position penna, but we're still ahead and nearly scored an Arsenal goal! Keep it up lads.

Perez man. Well wide.

Bastards.

Yedlin got a penna given against him for less.

What a goal!

Luuk de Jong got more power in that header than any shot I can remember him hitting for us.

Our 2-1 loss to City was also to a contender for goal of the season. If you like the "how do you score from there?" Papiss Cisse type wonder hits.

They're dull and unlikable, but the more scrutiny there is of Zaha going down, the better for everyone else. There isn't going to be whole lot else for pundits to talk about.

It was obvious if you saw the whole game, but the heatmap on whoscored shows him further up the pitch than Shelvey had been. There might have been a shift elsewhere to cover it, but I didn't notice one from the tv pictures.

Assuming they lose away at Chelsea today, 8 points and minus more than six goal difference after 11 games would have had Palace second bottom last year above only 17/18 Palace. Its enough for 14th at the moment.

If the alternative is the bigger clubs pushing for a huge chunk of the TV money like in La Liga, we would be better off telling them to do one and form their own league. Feel free to snipe at them, but Tottenham are well run, so is excluding them sending a message? Is it just an indication of how much of a closed shop they want? You either need current success through megabucks or to be established through unforgotten former glories to be in.

Burnley conceded four again. This is a poor league this time and if we go down, we'll deserve it.

Get in. A bit of luck at last. Not the worst team we've faced, but we managed to score and beat them. Ki MOTM for me.

It might be delayed, but Whoscored has Ki with a 93% pass success rate. Its working better than hit and hope.

Mad scramble from corner and nearly two. Then Watford break and go close.