Stottie

GTFI Isn't handball on a goalbound attempt normally a booking?

Just watching the analysis, but even if Clark lets him go through and he scores, there's a decent chance VAR calls it back for handball...FFS. (For anyone blaming Wilson the other day against Arsenal, Pukki went down very easily there and got the decision)

Well remembered. Click on the games and we were playing a back four of Carr, Cacapa, Taylor and N'Zogbia and Smith playing up front. It's lost somewhere in my own memory, but it won't have been pretty. https://www.transfermarkt.com/kevin-keegan/leistungsdatenDetail/trainer/453/verein_id/762/datum_zu/2008-01-16/datum_ab/2008-09-04 Under Bruce last season we gained 17 points from the first 11 games, then 11 points from 18 games, nigh on half the season, and finally 17 points from the last 9. I'm sure Eddie Howe could equal that 17 points from 11 games with some properly spent PIF money. A point a game the rest of the time, dour relegation-mixer form, will get us to 37. So in theory, not impossible with plenty of money on the table. One problem we have is the fixtures have set us up easy then hard, then easy starting before the window even closes, and finally hard right at the end. Bruce pissed away the early easy games this season, leaving Howe to play catchup in the hard ones with no chance to bring bodies in. The remaining easier fixtures are during or soon after the transfer window, meaning the new players must slot straight in and produce immediately. It's a tall order, but one I'm sure the club are already aware of. However, the point above about Bruce still stands. You can go half the season, nearly four full months, picking up 11 points from 18 games and it doesn't matter so long as you hit decent form some other time. I don't have high expectations of our squad, I'm not that stupid, but there is no fucking way those expectations are going to be lower under Eddie Howe and PIF than they were under the fat fucks we had as an owner and manager before.

I'm still on six. Dubs is back in and I think if you are offered 0-1 and Callum Wilson fouled from behind in the box after 70 minutes, you'd take that pre-game. The final result and media love-ins for Arsenal do not change that. A three game ban for violent conduct againt Lascelles would probably have helped, but we didn't get that break either. We're still bottom and desparate for points, but there is still time and opportunities to turn it around. It's going to take a lot of work, some of it by the consortium to get someone competent in to sign the players we definitely need. With the squad we have now, we are definitely going down.

Wilson is fine and Stuart Atwell is a c..t.

The expected result but a very disappointing performance, very disjointed. Defensively wasn't actually a shitshow, probably thanks to Dubs, and they had to score two worldies, but we had nothing in midfield. It was complete domination, from personnel and also worryingly from tactics. ASM back into running down blind alleys and Wilson feeding off scraps, so strong echoes of Bruceball. Two strong penalty shouts, but we can't rely on them, especially not with what some people think of our new owners. He must have known it already, but Eddie Howe and his team have a real job on their hands. The suspensions with force a change and I hope they can make it a positive one.

THATS A FUCKING PENALTY

Fletch and Macca twats now muted. 60 minutes is my bullshit limit.

Nice goal, but the CHs are playing him on. That's the key error.

We kept them mostly at arm's length, but were lucky to get away with the Auba miss. They were lucky in turn to not concede a penalty from the corner. I didn't expect us to have as little possession, or to see ASM running in blind alleys again as in Bruceball. Callum Wilson looks like he has them worried, but he's not getting the ball and the ref's giving him nowt when they foul him. There is definitely potential there though. Give it 10 or so and then see if Miggy can inject some energy.

Great work from Dubs, then Aubameyang misses with pretty much his first touch of the game.

I thought he got his hand outside it and pulled inward, almost dragging it down and in.

11 vs 14 here, them, the ref, and the two pricks on commentary willing the ball into our net.

I trust in Eddie! Come on!

Interesting game ahead. They won't know what to expect. There is only one reference point on our graph and that was after international duty with our manager in isolation in a hotel. On Understat, Arsenal are only twelfth on expected points. They are beating expected goals, as you'd expect great finishers like Aubameyang to do so, but are smashing expected goals against, second only to Mendy at Chelsea. Darlow is second only to the Palace keeper in letting in more than expected goals. Dubs usually lets in fewer, and did so massively in 19/20. In the more objective stats over on WhoScored, Arsenal have only averaged 46% possession, i.e., below Brentford, so you can forget about Wenger and ballhogging Arsenal teams of old passing rings round the opposition. They've only scored five times from open play, half as many as us (!!) who sit bottom of the only table that matters. They have scored six goals from set pieces, so that's the loudest alarm bell. Since we now have a management team who actually work and not some cabbage prick phoning it in until his big payday, we can at least know the lads will have worked on counteracting it. They have better players in what should be a settled system and should beat us, but I'm looking forward to seeing how things pan out and quietly optimistic. Praying that Dubs get the nod this time.

Every PL midfielder who played against Bruceball this season had all the time in the world to hit 70 yard wonderpasses to feet. Or even 30 yard ones, given the height of the Bruceball press. Anything down the sides only had to clear Matt Ritchie's heed.

Beaten by the Darlow error and the general run of the ball (own goal etc). Replay that ten times with Dubs and we win at least nine times. A huge improvement over Bruceball. I know that bastard used to talk about positives after dropped points, but they were actually there today. I feel much more confident now.

Jammy as feck but Darlow at fault again in the earlier phase.

Joelinton given a modicum of coaching and ferk me, he looks like Firminho. The rest of them passing to each other. We've worked half a dozen passes and then given it to Schar to advance at least 20 yards two? three?? times. ASM still a bit stuck in "I must do it myself" mode, but looking more productive already. I hope he gets an assist for that. Dubs saves the first one and probably plucks the cross for the second from the air, rather than watching it onto someone's heed. Replay that half ten times with Dubs in goal and we go in with a lead ten times out of ten. A huge improvement already. Also fun to watch! I'd forgotten what it was like.

Great corner, that's why you play Ritchie, but fuck, that's a bad error from Darlow. Great to see the coaches straight onto the monitors to see how it went in.

Wasn't Shelvey lampooned by the tabloids about six or seven years ago for putting an ad out for a live-in "cook", probably a sports nutritionist, on something like fifty grand a year? He said it was because he didn't know how to eat properly on his own. Top clubs famously have fixers to help players with all kinds of mundane daily activities. Stuff like getting a mobile phone. Diet will be hyper complex compared to some of the tasks done for them. As with ASM running into blind alleys when faced with no other option, Shelvey would be far more effective when there are runners ahead of the ball, not just a static forward's head to aim at.

The same lack of guidance and direction applies to most of our players, but we've only seen ASM centrally with few instructions and no-one to lay it off to. He was also playing #9 or false #9, not #10. He may be capable of much more. That said, he is not a pressing #10, so that would be an attacking lineup.

I think the idea of many clubs not selling to us is bollocks. The odd one or two might, but most of them won't have the wherewithal to miss out on fees for players with contracts running down. They may try to mess us around, but the consortium have enough money to not need to play negotiating games that drag things out. Unless there is a massive new manager bounce, our overwhelming priority is going to be getting good players for Howe's system in quickly. Not overpaying is unlikely to be a priority. I think generous offers should go in on Dec 31 on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. If they haven't decided within days, then we take our money to someone else because there are plenty of other clubs out there happy to take it. Obviously, we'll need a good DoF to do this properly.

This 100 times. It also meant that the consortium's first dealing with a manager was getting burnt by one with a ridiculously tasty contract. We do not know what dealings we had with the various candidates for the replacement, but it would be very understandable if relegation clauses and payoffs for underachievement were very heavy on their mind, possibly to an extent that put otherwise keen prospective managers off. All thanks to Steve fucking Bruce getting his payday. Newcastle fan my arse.

fwiw, my kids yearly did bleep-test shuttle runs, a standardized test of endurance, in elementary school in Japan. That's children who are 6 to 12 years old. I doubt our training under Bruce was even at that level. Shuttle runs are short-interval sprints, so highly relevant to football. It's a real shame Howe is facing an instant rearguard action, because there is wasted potential in the team. So far it has looked obvious that ASM cannot play in the middle, but the truth may be that he cannot play in the middle under a buffoon who simply tells him to "run". With the right coaching and time (we don't have) to adapt, he may be capable of the wide forward to CF or second striker transition we have seen others do. The further forward he plays, the fewer midfielders he's going to be surrounded with, the less important any loss of possession, and the less important his defensive contribution. Joelinton, Alimiron, Murphy etc. may also be capable of much more.