Stottie

Salah plays right, Mitoma plays left. Ornstein?! Does that mean there's something in this. I do hope so.

I've just watched the extended highlights, in better res than the stream I watched, and you can see Isak stopping for a pullback just before Gordon fires it across the six yard line. Isak puts his hands to his face when he sees where the ball goes. More time playing together for them to get an understanding and that's a goal.

Here are some stats about our record last year when you combine the top five European leagues into one table. Fewest goals against: 5th xG: 8th xGA: 11th Expected goal difference per 90 mins : 6th (!) Points per game : 17th Most wins: 19th Most draws : joint 4th Fewest league defeats : joint 3rd (!) We also got to a domestic cup final, so can be considered a good cup team. https://fbref.com/en/comps/Big5/2022-2023/2022-2023-Big-5-European-Leagues-Stats

Today's stat of the day is that Gordon leads the league in being fouled. Nine times so far, once every fifteen minutes. Bruno is second. Gordon's been called for second most fouls too, but just five. Stats from fbref. Some fans make claims about Gordon's temperament, but he's in the wars all the time and mostly on the receiving end. I'm sure Liverpool will kick him and try to get into his head at the weekend, they did it before when he was at Everton. That season, 21-22, he ended up seventh most fouled player in the league in just 25 games' worth of minutes.

I reckon Chelsea will come to regret both Livramento and Hall.

Liverpool pundits have no right to demand rule changes for "right and wrong". They got one of the biggest refereeing/"rules of the game" gifts in the history of big matches, a penalty in the first minute of the CL final against Spurs. The ball hits Sissoko's knee from about one yard away, nowhere near the goal, bounces up to his hand, and the ref points to the spot because of "unnatural position" or other small print bollocks. No-one talked about "right and wrong" on that day. With 2023 rules, I doubt it would be given.

The bare minimum for decency here was for Greenwood to confess that it was him on the audio and admit he'd acted in an indefensible way. He could then state (hopefully accurately) that he'd had lots of counselling and was now appalled about how he acted. He could also urge other men to refrain from such behaviour, send the stongest possible message to incel types to not bully his partner or other women (including the Man U womens team and Lionesses) over this, and finally beg for forgiveness. From a PR perspective, he would probably need to frame it all as "DV" to get the conversation about him as far from "rape" as possible. Marriage guidance people will hear of DV all the time, the vast majority of which will not involve criminal investigations. That should not be raised as an issue. This would probably not get him back in the team, but at least some good or reparation would have come out of it. As it is, we are left with "no crime was committed!" as the loudest message and suspicion that he's just paid her off. This is appalling.

Came in here to admit to being far too emotionally involved in this game. It looks like everyone else is the same! Poetic justice would be a 1-0 off a penalty won by an Alexander Isak dive. Miggy or Gordon and they won't give it. Let's see how their fans fucking like it. We're the Champions League team now, like Ray Winstone, the new Daddy, and we're at home. We should get the decisions, not them.

I thought it before Saturday's game, but isn't Alvarez a step up on Gabriel Jesus? Jesus doesn't score from there. Arsenal have better wide forwards than Man City, but there is no contest down the middle. Liverpool's classic front three was goals out wide and a linking false nine in the middle, but I'm not sure that wins you the league any more.

Some berk at the Guardian said we could have finished with "nine players". I reckon some of it will be Liverpool bias in commentators willing our players to be sent off to even up the Mac Allister red.

Bruno F, Rashford, Garnacho, and Antony have hit 27 shots, only four on target. None of them have scored. Only two games, but my suspicion is they'll need Hojlund to hit the ground running. Their team lacks goals.

Yes, I find the "we Geordies are special" stuff cringeworthy. I'm a Geordie but I don't think I'm special. A cartoon version of working class Northerners is partly to blame for the rise of Lee Anderson and all his "I speak for ordinary people" bollocks. You don't speak for me pal. Yes, the club all looks very professional, which is reassuring if rather dull. There's no sign of a Balotelli setting off fireworks in his bathroom. I'm still halfway through episode 2, but do the kids who came up with the Joelinton Hawaiian shirts get a mention? A bit more quirky stuff like that would be nice to see.

Shit game for the neutral, but a contest where we were a lucky bounce or flash of inspiration from getting a point at the Etihad right up to the last whistle. Limiting them to one goal is a big achievement for where we're coming from. In non-away games last season, Man City got fewer xG than yesterday against only Dortmund and Inter in the CL, and a end of season dead rubber against Chelsea. Given how little control we had in midfield and how many physical challenges we seemed to lose, the lads at the back did well and Pope had little to do bar pick out that worldie. If we are to do as well this season, our defence will have to work as well again, and on that evidence it looked pretty good. On the non-defensive side, Joelinton wasn't himself, Miggy showed his limitations and Gordon had little LB (or Joelinton) support. We struggled to get on the ball, again losing physical challenges, and were sloppy with it when we did have it. We didn't win a single corner, so there's another route to goal cut of right there. That's the hardest fixture of the season out of the way, so let's move on and get back into it next week.

Not bad, we mostly contained them, but wow, what a moment of quality to take the lead. Gabriel Jesus doesn't finish that. On our side, Isak is isolated and we need to get him more involved higher up the pitch. Miggy struggling a bit and Joelinton not quite himself. The others have mostly been fine. If we keep plugging away, the odd chance will come, and against someone this good, you have to take them.

Bournemouth miss a sitter.

Could he have admitted guilt and been punished via a civil case, settled privately out of court, without her pressing criminal charges? Him admitting guilt would have created a space for the club to publically punish him, the thing which is necessary here given the public existence of what is incriminating evidence. Him playing or not would then come down to whether people want to forgive him like the victim has done in the criminal sense. I'm no expert on women's rights but the victim has every right to not press criminal charges. Rape trials can be highly traumatic for victims, and this one would be as high profile as they come. Anyway the above ship has sailed. The net result may still have been Greenwood not playing for Man U. In the above scenario however, the club wouldn't have had to pay him and would have had less incentive to embarrass themselves trying to "protect their investment" or whatever businesspeak is appropriate for how they have behaved.

What a mess. I think the PFA should be more prominent here. This is a player-created problem, not a club-created problem. The PFA should come out and encourage/defend clubs for dropping players for moral reasons. As things stand, the temptation for a club with someone they'll have to pay will be try and play him, as we have seen here with Manchester United. There needs to be a realization that standard employment rules protecting the player's right to be paid cannot apply here.

I didn't know Gilmour was ex-Chelsea. I do know that that throughball he hit to Undav for the goal at SJP was a peach. One of the best against us all season. If our owners are going to be friends with owners of any Top 6 side, Chelsea has to be the one. A conveyor belt of talent sent out onto the market.

With Hall at the training ground and seemingly done, I'm very confident now of us qualifying for CL. My main concern, that Tonali might struggle physically, has already evaporated. Opta's supercomputer has us falling back to 62 points, but I reckon will push on and beat Keegan's total of 78. If mid 80s points is enough to win the league, as happened for Leicester, we could be in with a decent shout. I'm sure we'll get 12 to 15 more goals, and the issue then shifts to whether the defence can maintain its 22/23 level. The injuries and transfer windows other teams are having should only give us confidence, and not scale back our hopes.

My first thought would have been JFK in the presser, but that's even better from Pards. The Lick asking the away end outside was also a classic moment.

Great vid. After Gordon, Barnes, and Livramento, another remarkably two footed player.

I wasn't expecting this to happen so fast. Wow, what a window. Chelsea are mental.

Thanks for pointing out the AFCON issue. Presumably a larger early bid would have got them Lavia, so they've messed up here. They've bought so many from Southampton before, so you would think they would have good ties with them.

Endo strikes me as the other one you'd buy if you were getting Lavia. The cheap and dependable fallback option to have in case your high-ceiling young gamble takes time to settle in. Doucoure will likely cost more than Tonali, which is also more than we paid for Bruno G. If folks are fewming on RAWK, its because their recruitment isn't what it used to be.

He looks great! Hope the club can pull this off.