Stottie

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.

Hugo Lolris in goal.

Six from nine points from the three away games then! I'm happy with that. We've been completely rinsed today, but it's better to have one of these every so often than draw all the time. Well played to Villa. As concerns, our midfield was pretty much nonexistent today. I didn't think a performance this bad was possible. We're supposed to be the energetic team incessantly buzzing about. The lack of pressure let them play easy balls into the channels all game long and show up our defenders. We're where we are on merit, so I'm sure Eddie and his staff will take notes and work on it. We have to play Brighton and this may be good practice because the tactical bods say there are similarities.

Having an all round mare today, even our usually dependables. That's a joke of a rule an offside player is allowed to counter press.

Quitely confident. I won't say more to not jinx anything. Howay the lads!

Probably more realistic than Liverpool to be fair. Just think of the expectation on him if he went to Liverpool. They expect him to single handedly turn things around in a team with lots of issues. For us, all he'd have to do is put a few tackles in, pass it to Bruno, and put fewer shots in the stands than Longstaff or Willock. Willock, JL7 and Longstaff all have terrific energy, but so does Bellingham.

I hope it is all of Man Us targets, all of Man City's targets, all of Arsenal's targets, ..... Our current lads have got us to third on merit, so many transfers from now on will be incremental ones, slight upgrades on what we already have, "not game changers". It'll be interesting to see how they do it. The noises about FFP may mean some currently popular players may need to be sold to free up wages. Wilson's 31 and has a poor injury record, so I'd spend money on a CF. I think another CF is much more important than an SS/AM like Maddison. Isak looks like he could play #10 if we want one.

After Arsenal's collapse at Liverpool, I'm quite confident for that game. I think we'll do them again. The media hype over Xhaka getting a reaction from the Liverpool crowd drowned out what should have been debate over why Arsenal conceded gazillions of xG to a midfield of Henderson, Fabinho and Curtis Jones/rusty Thiago. That is not a strong Liverpool team, yet Arsenal completely failed to see the game out a two goal lead. If Liverpool can do that to them, I'm sure we can.

For context with Spurs, their best eight game spell of the season was August-September, when they went 5-2-1. Since then they have lost pretty much every third game. They are currently four unbeaten, their second best spell of the season, but were well ropey against Brighton and threw away leads against both Everton and (rock bottom) Southampton. They're not exactly killing it. Our worst nine-game form of the season, which included three games without Bruno and Arsenal and Man City away, was 2-5-2 and would get us to 67. Spurs absolute best of 5-2-1 would get them to 70. We beat them on GD so they need to beat us on points. One more or fewer win either way and we finish above them. Slightly better than our absolute worst form of the season isn't a big ask given the way the team is playing. Over half our remaining games Chels, Spurs, Leic, Southampton, Leeds are against teams without a proper manager (!) We'll be fine and do it by four plus points, meaning its settled before the final day. We'll get more, but I still suspect 65 plus GD would be enough.

If the BTEC version is faster than the one you have already, I want a BTEC car.

It sounds like those bedsheets were the work of one self-proclaimed Archibishop of Bantebury arsehole. Personally I don't mind Villa. Emery's clearly done well there so credit to him. If they get Europa and the English media start taking it more seriously because of serial winner Unai Emery, then we all owe them a debt of gratitude. Anything that gets the focus away from commentators fawning over Liverpool getting a draw in a game with no meaning to them. We'll be a step up from the opposition Villa have been playing recently, so its a good test for them, a bit like our Arsenal home game last season. We're on a roll so I think we can be quietly confident of a result.

Its not as if Liverpool are in contention for anything. They'd look down their noses at Europa League and see it as a distraction.

They were up in that one 4-2 with ten minutes to go. In the game against City, they played for a draw and lost 1-0. Fergie tried to pass it off as Man U being unlucky in his second autobio, he deliberately brought it up, but it was bollocks.

That's Dick Van Dyke at center half. Chim chimiree, chim chimiree, chim chim chimiree

18 goals needed in 9 games to equal the Keegan Entertainers for goals scored.

The first one looked like a Carroll or Chopra penalty against us.

Great work from the big man, effectively scoring one goal (Harry Kane would claim it) and hitting the pass for the assist for the other. He's stepped up when we really need our players to do so. If anyone says anything about the first and "luck", Joelinton did a lot more to make it happen than Rashford did for the Botman OG that sealed the Carabao Cup final.

Brighton were robbed there. The Mitoma goal was a howler from the lino, who's not supposed to be flag happy, that VAR probably could not conclusively correct (assuming it would even want to). However, the second handball doesn't even conclusively hit a hand. It's VAR using guesswork to reverse a decision, just as Wilson's was. Both penalty shouts are pens. The Mitoma one includes a freeze frame with Hojberg's foot on top of Mitoma's, conclusive proof of contact. Dunk's shirt is visibly being held in both hands.

Biilling played under JT at Bournemouth so they'll know lots about him. They probably signed him as someone Eddie wanted. He'd be good cover for the Joes which would be wise as we start playing in Europe and the fixture mount up.

I'm a believer in the "on the beach" theory. However, all it means is that midtable teams are not at their best. It's also part of a bigger pattern of there being a good time to play someone. Anyone who played Villa before Emery got an easy ride. As did teams who played us during the Bruno suspension, which wasn't even off a league game. There's also the Thurs/Sun Europa League thing, which West Ham have taken into a relegation battle. My own fixture of doom would away at a promoted team on first day of the season. Full squad available, fully motivated, crowd massively up for it, media urging them on. Play the same fixture in late November and they'll probably be demoralized, three or four out to injury, their manager on Sack Watch, and the media expecting a bloodbath.

It reminded me of what Wayne Rooney etc. would do against us and you'd think "ferk it, they've got better players". We now have class in black and white again.