Lush Vlad

Usually when I’ve been affected on the overground. TFL/whatever the underground union is. Have not been striking.

I live a lot closer to London. But the strikes have meant Fulham and Arsenal away. We’ve had to drive. No fucking chance I’m driving there and back for this. So might have to start looking at accommodation a bit further out that is on a decent tube line.

I agree. I suppose my point I badly worded was that drawing too many can really hinder you. As it did for Mark Hughes at City. I know it’s a good base to build from being unbeaten. But if my quick maths are correct. 2 wins and 2 losses gets you more points than 4 draws. I wonder if we might go a bit more expansive in some games to try and force the issue a bit more or look at a slight tweak in formation. As it does feel like goals and creativity are starting to stutter a bit. I dunno. Just thinking out loud, really. Hard to criticise or say we should be changing too much when you look at where we are and how we are overachieving.

No, you don’t say?

What are we looking at needing points wise? Is it 70+ for the top 4, usually? Turn a few more of these draws into wins and I think that 65-70 points is achievable with 17 games left. Could even afford to lose a few more that way. I’m not comparing the managers or the teams in particular. Or that this would happen to Howe, of course. But I always remember when Hughes got sacked from City. He went on about how great their unbeaten runs were. But they drew too many games and they ended up lower top half, from memory. Always stuck in my mind about unbeaten runs and not losing not always being the be all and end all.

Great result for us that. Thought they’d batter Leeds.

If you have something to defend. I think we’ll struggle a bit. We have looked a bit clueless in attack and not particularly good at creating clear openings against teams that sit in. It will be even harder with Bruno missing. I think if we score early. Then we will win by a couple. But with our scoring record of late. The longer it goes on and stays level. The more I’ll worry.

Yeah. No way Leeds can hang on. Need another on the counter. I feel like something is coming from Man U’s left. Been a great battle and Ayling has had the better of it so far. But it just seems like Garnacho has been close to roasting him a couple of times. He looks lively.

Love that he plays off both feet. Shows some lovely touches. Then proceeds to pass it straight to a Man U player every time they have a chance to counter

Garnacho looks like he has something. Loves a dive, mind. Apart from the one time where he could have gone down when Meslier came flying out. But was honest and stayed up.

Tyler Adams is relentless. Must be a nightmare to play against.

Keeper error. It’s not like he got to it late and it’s only fingertips. With the ball going away from him into the corner. It‘s coming back towards him. Gets a full hand on it. We’d rightly be fuming if our keeper let that in.

Shocker from the keeper. For all that it was a nice hit.

Those flags look shit. I also hate it that they use that Elvis song. As it’s one of my favourites.

That could be due to England’s ultra rigid shape and defensive set up, mind Always impressed me for West Ham and usually does for England. But I think it is hard to shine for certain players in that system. All moot points, I reckon. Can’t see us being in for him and the quoted figures.

If allowed to push on. He is decent driving forward. He always had great numbers for yards carried and accurate long balls on the other 14 last season. To go with his impressive defensive stats. Can’t say I’ve paid as much attention to their Twitter this year. But I’d imagine the numbers are still similar. Not worth the money he would cost, I agree. But he is more than just an anchor man who mainly only passes it 5-10 yards.

Arguably better than when our fans sing Blaydon Races, these days

Fucking hell. Fully expecting that 0context matchday one with a tank to appear on a flag soon

I don’t like that it’s the Saudi national team kit. But at the same time. I also think it’s a beaut and one of our better ones of recent times.

Probably because I’ve never been looking. But I don’t ever remember seeing or hearing touts at SJP. London clubs, you can’t move for shady looking fuckers looking to ‘buy’ tickets.

Who's he trying to kid here? I've always liked Pep, as I was always a bit of a Barca fan boy. But there is no way he thought everything was above board with the money they were chucking about. They've been done before, when I think he was in charge and their commercial deals have never really added up. He's clearly not that daft. Although he did fail two drugs tests as a player (got off with one on some technicality). So maybe he is.

They have a few hard games coming up. Then after Chelsea, Spurs’ fixtures look pretty decent. Long old way to go yet.

Assuming City do the business today. I’m more worried about Brighton than Spurs. They look a serious side now, if they didn’t already before under Potter. I know there are still 17-18 games left to play. But I’m not sure Chelsea’s 10 signings will get it together in time. I also keep expecting Liverpool to turn the corner. But they seem to be picking up more injuries and getting worse. Top 6 looks like it should be well within our reach. Top 4 perhaps not. But it’s still outrageous how far we have come in a year.

The dive is really annoying. As he had escaped a yellow up until that point. Then went and did that. I know he was nailed on to get 10 yellows and a 2 game ban. But feels like that is coming a lot sooner than I thought. It does depend on who we’re playing and where. But we will really miss him when he’s not in the team.