Stottie

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.

Kane is just an eight (nine?) season wonder. Even with Caicedo and Paqueta, I wouldn't be surprised if Anthony Gordon is still the go-to answer to "name an overpriced footballer?"

Probably three or four. Son and Maddison the obvious ones. Maybe their LB too. If Bruno and Tonali fully click, a door opener AM like Maddison over the energy of Joelinton would be the go to. I wonder how much FFP was a factor in us not buying him. With all the money flying round, I reckon Maddison (and Barnes) were the big bargains out there this window. However many Spurs players it is, they'd all need to be Eddiefied, of course.

The whole thing is a joke. Breaking the transfer record on a promising DM! Not a Shearer or a Rooney. If Poch whips Chelsea into shape, they're going to need door openers because half the league will set up in a low block against them. Chelsea with Caicedo will still lack goals. They're spending a fuckton but still look several players short. NUFC meanwhile mull over whether we need cover at RCB. A level one or two problem on a scale of one to ten. Liverpool were prepared to pay the same fee, so the joke is on them too. In their defence, they are at least a high scoring team that needs to tighten it up at the back. A DM is their pressing need. They've revealed how deep their pockets are and how high the ceiling is, so this has pulled their pants down without filling that hole in their midfield.

"Intriguing" perhaps for fans of the Sky Six but pretty shit game with little creativity and it can't have been much more than 1.0 xG per team. Given all the attackers in Liverpool's lineup, that's piss poor. Against Sanchez as well, who's dodgy. Jackson was lively but skied his best chance. Chelsea's other good chance fell to Chilwell. If I were playing them, I'd take that. They were unlucky to lose Nkunku, but I cannot see goals in that team.

Offside, but Christ, Sanchez looks shite. The rest of them aren't much good either.

The biggest risk with Wilson's contract expiring would have been him going to a CL team. We're already in the CL(!) Unless he or his missus pushes for London, there is little reason for him to go. He's unlikely to be main man at a (n English) CL team due to his age and injury record. He looks too ambitious to just go to Saudi for payday just yet. Based on the above, I reckon he'd sign another contract with us. The wily veteran striker it's great to have in your squad can be the one we have already. Another year and our FFP situation will improve as more money comes in and deadwood contracts expire.

Today's fun with stats, Wilson as a sub vs. Erling Haaland all games, this season and last. 5 goals in 249 minutes, 1.8 a game!

Those shirts were probably the players' idea, but I must admit I'm not a fan of distractions to a game. Minutes of silence or stuff about the Queen or fans clapping on 13 minutes or anything. Just concentrate on the game and trying to win it. The nurse's and junior doctors' strikes should tell you how vacuous gestures like clapping for the NHS can be. I quite like is taking the knee, because that's over in seconds and racism continues to be a problem at football matches, especially on the continent. Armbands and laces too are fine. They do not affect the atmosphere. After Mings went down, it seemed to kill the atmosphere for the rest of the first half. It took the rugby tackle on Miggy to get going again. It would be understandable if the injured player was one of ours, but he's one of theirs. I like a home crowd to focus on getting behind the team and not on acting as model fans of football.

Great performance! After a summer of madness, that big stick people used to beat him, the fee we paid, is looking very wimpy now. Other teams are paying 100M for a DM!