Stottie

Great goal. Villa six shots, only two on target, both from distance, but two goals. Sometimes its just your day.

Nice hit, but Spurs keeper looks like a 12 year old playing in a full size goal and not covering much of the frame.

We have compounding problems. The wingers would be better with Tino and Hall behind them, Gordon in particular who also has Joelinton on his side. Elanga is still settling in. It would have been nice for him to slot straight in and produce, but that's not happened. Forest had least possession in the league, so its a big change for him. Add in late acquisitions in the window, unfavourable fixtures so far, and a not-uncommon-for-us slow start and we are where we are. Better finishing, from Gordon, Murph, Joe, or Barnes and we'd have four-five more points and fewer folk talking about "not creating chances". Brighton threatened a lot, every time Minteh got the ball for example, but created few chances against us yesterday on their own park. Arsenal still rely on creating chances at corners.

4 of his last 11 have been against us, in thirty-odd games. Add in green strip, playing at the Amex, a slightly soft ref giving them a fair bit (van Hecke stood on Joelinton etc.), and we get the dreaded result. We have established starters in many positions, but Elanga vs. Murphy is very close and unless Howe wants Murphy for Benfica, I think he could have picked him yesterday as the rested player. Joelinton was a harder call, given the injuries Ramsey and Miley are coming off. We were much better second half, partly for our own personnel and secondly theirs seemingly running out of steam. Brighton this season have been averaging less possession than us, 47% at kickoff, so they are transitioning away from the team they were. It was 52.3% last season and 60% under di Zerbi. Getting points off us may seem like a constant, but how they are doing it is not.

Urgh, Amex, green strip, Welbeck .... Way better second half without an unfit Joe and a struggling Elanga who constantly lost the ball. Brilliant from Woltemade again, and lots of near misses, crosses just out of reach, that Bruno block, the fairly strong penna shout. Didn't deserve to lose in the end. Games coming thick and fast so just have to pick ourselves up and go again.

WOLTEMESSI!

Does Ange still get to do a post-match interview?

Stop! Hammer time!

Only five in open play last season for Brighton. I think he has that many so far for Chelsea if you include the CWC. On today's evidence, the hot streak looks over. I suspect the Ekitike might have been on a hot streak too and don't expect him to continue scoring at the same rate unless they create tap-ins for him like the one in the league cup.

Football gods not smiling on Ange. Oh dear. What a shame. Never mind.

Strong team for us. It's noteworthy because we do have some bench options now, and are playing in a game we'd like and expect to win in CL on Tuesday. These combine to make a new situation for us. Brighton is also one of our furthest away trips, if we are micromanaging fatigue.

2-0. A bit crisp packet hands from Sels. First was Neco Williams getting skinned like a 1970s full back.

The Benfica game being on Tuesday not Wednesday makes it more likely we'll keep something back in this one. Someone's minutes will be managed. Since we last won at Brighton, its been three defeats but five draws, which means a majority of the time we do get something out of this fixture. I just imagined it as defeat after defeat. Opta have it down as a draw. Eddie's record vs. Brighton was very good at Bournemouth, so he has more wins against them than against any other club as a manager. Hope it rubs off on us starting from today.

A bit dim, but probably better than the usual "Saudis" snipey shite printed about us in the Guardian. Adam Clery's just done a video about England and says Harry Kane has been revitalized by playing with proper wingers/wide forwards in Saka and Gordon, not one of England's many #10s or wannabe #10s getting in his way and another of them plugging a hole at LW and achieving bugger all. Since we play with flying wingers, a Kane/Sheringham type 10ish 9 makes sense for us too. Isak himself was essentially a panic buy when Wilson got injured at the start of that season. The circumstances of his purchase were not dissimilar to Woltemade's and weren't more of a planned, tactics-driven decision or commitment to a certain style of play. My strong suspicion is that Woltemade was bought because the club knew they would also get Wissa, making it rather pointless to view Woltemade and his skillset in isolation. The linked article does not mention Wissa once.

Big Frank coming out with quality content that's reeling in the eScousers. Kipperfelt! On the floor laughing here.

They're two up now, a fine chipped throughball from Paqueta to Martinelli. Japan's defence stopped but he was onside. Since the assist, Bruno's done a backheel pass and one of them ones where he rolls it with his studs. He's in full samba mode.

Brazil have just scored with another beautiful throughball from Bruno.

That free header in the second half was a bad miss. Worse than Gordon's when he was playing CF.

I won't comment on games I didn't see, or on how many Isak might score for Liverpool, but there is no way he is captain material. It is a braindead choice. The captain is supposed to be the set-high-standards, zero-tolerance-for-moping, and run-through-a-brick-wall guy. The captain is also your communicator with the referee and between the players and the manager. Ideally, he/she should be in the thick of the action, not getting ten touches a half on the periphery of the game like Isak does. Its hard to run through a brick wall when you are not even fit after going on strike to get a big money transfer.

Isak doesn't score that in a million years. Total beast mode.

17 accurate passes out of 17 attempts today vs. a low block.

We've not been good but we're up against 12 today.

A win, any win, will do. A bit grim having BDB and Joelinton on Gordon's side. We might need Big Wolte to feed him from central instead to get him properly involved. Hopefully Elanga can click on the other side. Trippier's still our most creative fullback and Bruno often drifts right.

Just Newcastle fans or actual Geordies? I don't walk around in a toon top, but I'm a Geordie and I'd talk to a toon fan. I live in the mountains, not Tokyo. Tokyo-based fans put on a good show when the Toon came in summer last year. I went to the Saitama game and they'd made some cool flags. I sat behind a young Japanese couple who both had Champo season Lascelles shirts on. They said they loved his "passion".

Are Liverpool fans still claiming they've had the "best transfer window of all time"? They might have jumped the gun on that one.