Stottie

This must be a record signing for Brighton. If this being done is true, for Watford to agree this early, the fee must be more than we offered last summer. This also suggests we have moved onto another target, so I wonder who it is.

Isak looking very good at wide forward there. He was our best player at #10 in the league cup final. We normally don't play a #10 and have many who can play in a wide berth. With Isak and Wilson managing fewer minutes between them than Harry Kane, I think we need forward who is better than a stopgap at CF more than a big name wide forward. We could have 55 or more games to play next season. Buying the kind of dream midfielder, for me DMish but capable of deputising for Bruno, will push Joelinton down the pecking order, which is another reason to not buy an automatic starter at wide forward. Bruno out for a long period is the easiest way to derail a season, so we need an understudy. Anyone good enough to do it will be good enough for lots of game time at the expense of others. Add an attacking LB and a learner RCB and its job done with four players.

I like stats and post them quite often, but it's a joke isn't it. He didn't get an assist for our first against Spurs either. He forces a save and Murphy buries the rebound. Does anyone know if that's an assist in ice hockey? Lots of goals in that sport from rebounds. Football has stats for "big chances" and "key passes", so it must be capable of doing nuanced judgements, just not for assists. With assists being an oft-quoted, high-profile stat, its poor and only encourages folk to think stats are bollocks (they are not).

A goal resulting from where Isak receives the ball with that many defenders in place is Messi level. Maybe he'll never do it again, but wow, jaw dropping stuff.

Albert-esque!

I do not fear Liverpool, who are ropey at the back and ekeing out wins with set pieces. If you do fear them, note that they will not catch our goal difference with the single goal wins they are having.

Checking it now. Keegan and Ron Atkinson at Villa got more but not in a 38 game season. Redknapp's best at Spurs was 71. This was SBR's best total too. I might have missed someone though.

Linking for the info, not the video but wow, that's some stat. 4 wins and 1 draw to it. C'mon lads, do it for Eddie!

If he can work on his shooting, especially on body shape to keep more of them down, it'll be him, Bellingham and Rice every game for England and that could take them the final step to winning something. On combined expected goals and assists, Willock's up to 0.5 a game. That's Phil Foden, Alexis MacAllister, and yes, James Maddison level. That's on top of covering the entire pitch like he does. He just needs to finish better and turn more of those xG into G. Everything else seems to be there, discipline and (now) consistency included.

The one from the peachy ball in behind from Willock was a Mo Salah goal. Leave any space in behind and you'll need constant pressure on the ball to stop the through ball. The other option is to defend deep. A high line against that level of threat with no press is suicidal. The second by Joelinton was also a high line failure, this time to a ball over the top that was wonderfully controlled.

10 goals in 978 minutes in the league, less than 11 games. Wilson has 11 in 1400. Add them together and its third best after Haarland and Kane. Added together, they have played fewer minutes than Kane or Toney. Too much Wood. With games to come next season, we definitely need another option at CF. I suspect the main difference between us and Brighton is we've got a better keeper and better strikers.

Hilarious that the player Ashley bought as a punt has massively came good, but only after Ashley sold the club. He had a rare off game against Villa, but what a great reaction to it. Deffo MoM yesterday.

I've just voted 10. Can't see how it doesn't happen.

FUCKING HELL 5-0!

That's great data. The strength of the league goes up and down, so its probably best to use points per game alongside league position. Points per game will go down if the standard of the league goes up. Brighton, Brentford, ourselves, ... Liverpool in second last year will have had more points (92) than whichever or Arsenal and Man City grabs the title this season. That's Man City with Haarland as well.

The question has to be who would pay that for Mount. There can't be many suitors. Man U have their Bruno and don't need him. Us to an extent, Brighton, Villa and Brentford are all showing its not about big wages. Its making the league more interesting.

Some fun since we play Chelsea W1-D2-L14. Even Cabbageheed/Cap'n Steakbake never got that bad. I would look for data on our remaining opponents' managers, but they change that often that I don't know their names.

Arsenal losing two leads in two weeks after getting a CL winning DM in from Chelsea in the January window. Maybe they should have brought him on earlier to take the penalty.

All we need now is a PFM to declare "two nil up is the most dangerous scoreline".

Yes honking. I've just rewatched the highlights on my big telly, and the Villa chance within 30 seconds was Trippier heading an uncontested ball straight to the guy who played the throughball. They nearly scored and must have smelt blood there and then.

Twice in a week is Spursy. Big test of character for Arsenal here. They have to win this game. Making Liverpool look good is one thing, but West Ham is another.

They both play Brighton, which they won't be looking forward to.

I still think 65 with good GD will beat whoever finishes fifth, though I expect us to get more. In our eight remaining games, we play Arteta and Di Zerbi, both at home, plus six managers who started work in 2023. The longest serving is Dyche who joined Everton on Jan 30th. It's like a pub quiz question from hell to name them all. If we can't get 10 or 11 points from these eight games, we don't deserve it. Four of them are currently in the bottom five.

We could have done with a bigger presence in midfield like Declan Rice yesterday. Then again, so could have Arsenal in the second half at Anfield last week. Before the games, I wouldn't have thought us or them could be overrun that badly.

Yes. When you also see who has to play who, its still looking very good for us with points and GD on the board. It still looks like 65 points and good GD will beat fifth. I expect fourth to outperform this, I expect us to get 68 or more, but I still think whoever's 5th will get 65 or fewer. Just look at Brighton or Villa's fixtures.