Stottie

The boy's from Tenerife, but he ain't on the beach! Well in son. Chuffed for you.

Pace vs. Manquillo, only one winner there.

Looks like handball to me. What an incredible game and good luck to Spurs going forward. The PFMs will probably give it the "Pep effed up again" narrative, but with margins like that, you can't say very much.

I'm another who didn't realize it was a Friday. I've seen the first half and we played well. Them not attacking our left side at all was a bit of a mystery. Most of their play is just meaningless buzzing about midfield in front of our back three. Aside from West Ham, who did us good twice, and Brighton, who we've only played once, we've got something from every team up to seventh. 20 points from our last 12 games now, fifth best in the league and more than Tottenham and Chelsea.

I hope City win. I lived in Manchester for a bit and used to go to Maine Road. That aside, Liverpool have too many celebrity fans and ex-players as pundits. Blatant dives from Salah do not help either. If it were City vs. Tottenham, I'd want Tottenham to win, because like Leicester, they are closer to a normal club and therefore can be cheered on as an underdog. Like Man U, Liverpool are a glamour club in the most glamorous league and a decent chunk of their spending power is not linked to anything they have achieved on a football pitch in the past twenty years or current matchgoing fanbase. Man U would outspend other teams even before Ferguson and buy the best players, Bryan Robson, Paul Ince etc. even when they were finishing ninth and tenth. It mightn't be oil money, but Liverpool and Man U still operate with a big advantage, on top of the advantage every EPL club now has versus clubs in other European leagues. If City could draw one and still win on GD, I'd fancy them, but the gap is two points and that tips it into Liverpool's favour.

There were two incidents, one probably too close to the shot for handball, but the second one he 50p-heed heads it onto his own hand. That's self-inflicted and I think that has to be a penalty.

Weren't three of the shots tricklers from outside the box by Ki? They're never going to go in. Better finishing and we'd have taken a lead that would have changed their approach and possibly opened them up for more, but we weren't good enough to make it happen. This week stands as a reminder of where we are. We can be completely, 100% completely, shut down by a genuinely good side like Arsenal, and can do so-so well against lower half clubs but still not have the talent to put games away. If you are emotionally invested in the team, there is some entertainment in there somewhere, but the feeling has to be that the people who have walked away from it all are the clever ones.

A disappointing result that reflects the meh level of the team. We are too dependent on too few things that can go right. It's a given that our midfield will not step up and score, for example. You'd have to be mad to expect that to happen. The penalty was all too predictable. I predicted it myself at half time. It happened because Yedlin is error prone and hasn't been replaced due to the shoestring approach of the club. His attacking play in the first half had been good, so it was a shame for him. He's just not a very good defender. I hope Lejeune is an inflammation and not another tear. It was him that missed our best chance, but that was more a reflection on what the others managed to create. This game was there to be won and the distance we came up short leaves a bad taste.

Poor bugger, hope it's not a bad one.

I reckon you can place it when that close in.

Never knew Lejeune hadn't scored for us. Not far off there.

Another opposing player bricking it against Almiron. Rondon's done fine for me. The second chance was a scuff and too close to the keeper but I suspect the header was more difficult than it looked. Just got to keep plugging away. Better watch them feet when Zaha is doing the twinkle toes in the box too. It's like he's made of elastic.

Yep, the officials have done well. One for the little things in football thread, but they did let us take a free kick for offside against Palace five yards inside their half.

A break in play. Arsenal feels like a long time ago. Two good chances for Rondon, and I hope he keeps plugging away.

Some good stuff so far. Their keeper looks a bit dodgy. We score but given offside.

Same lineup as Everton home? I'd take a game like that again.

Cardiff stitched up there, probably worse than us with the Viduka goal those years ago against Pompey was it? Still since it's Colin though, that's well entertaining. You can stick your Brexit up your arse!

Pickford not getting a card of either colour for the rugby tackle suggests the ref did not even know the rules, let alone make an error of judgement.

Ritchie has to be the most substituted player in the Rafa era and he would certainly have deserved it today. Complete genius from Rafa to leave him on.

FERK ME!

Bollocks

Lost our way this second half.

Dunno what the beach is like at Bournemouth but there's loads of plastic crap on this pitch.

11 vs 12 this.