Paullow

As strong as team as possible hopefully, and if changes are needed, make them for Spurs away on Sunday. 3 points from these next two games will be very adequate.

Crazy how hard to beat we are becoming, and hard to breakdown, considering we are the only team in the league not to have conceded double figure goals thus far. 29 league games in 2022, 15W 8D 6L, the losses against Chelsea (89th minute winner), Everton (99th minute winner), Tottenham, Liverpool, Man City, and Liverpool again this season (98th minute winner), and the only teams to score more than one goal against us this calendar year are Tottenham, Man City (twice), and Liverpool, which is quite amazing. This Sunday 1 year ago, technically today now as it's the 17th, was Bruce's last game in charge. Surreal to think of how far we have come in such a short period of time. It's also incredible comparing us to the likes of Southampton. They were one of Bruce's 8 matches last season where we got the injury time 'winner' before conceding not long after, and then of course the whole Covid rearranged thing, but at the start of the year, they were comfortably in mid table, we had one win in our 19 matches, and now, only 10 months later, the clubs just seem a million miles from each other. https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/premier-league/12-january-2022/ Saw a stat that in their last 22 league matches they have won 3, drew 4, and last 15, 13 points.

Mbappe, Neymar, and Messi all start for PSG. I didn't realise PSG signed that Maddison looking Ruiz (who we were briefly linked to) from Napoli in the summer. He starts as well. Mbemba starts for OM.

We're the only team not to have conceded double figure goals now.

Who'll be happier with a point here?

We do like to concede a late away goal in tough away matches. Chelsea, Everton, and Liverpool all in the last 6 months or so. Would love a 0-0 at this stage.

Pretty much everyone on redcafe saying it was a pen. I've not seen it. https://www.redcafe.net/matches/manchester-united-vs-newcastle-united.469/page-11

I'm just watching Super Sunday (still can't believe we're not on) and following our score on the thread on here, but horrific error by Mings, heads i back, straight to Mount, and Chelsea lead early on.

Defo for me, I posted this on a boxing forum (Man Utd section), thinking I was posting on here (and wondering where it went) Quite happy to see Eriksen not involved today (illness). He'll likely have a stormer, but I've never really been sold on Fred.

Yeah, strange just a few months after joining permanently. Unless there's been a bit of a falling out, hasn't performed as well in training, but he wouldn't have left Villa's bench to join Newcastle's bench at this stage of his career / stage of our progression.

Quite an interesting set of fixtures today, 5 matches with a lot of higher stature clubs involved, and pretty much all of them playing each other. It's subjective, but if I was ranking them, I'd have Man Utd, Liverpool, and Arsenal as the biggest clubs in the country, with Chelsea and Man City boosted towards that level after their respective takeovers, investment, and recent success. I'd normally consider Spurs, Everton, Newcastle and Villa to be around the same size in stature, with Tottenham differentiating themselves in the past 15 years or so with their high league finishes, players, and new stadium, hence the 'big 6'. I'd then have Leeds and West Ham - West Ham joining in recent years with them filling their new stadium, and doing well in the league, and starting to spend a bit more of late. So of those 10/11 clubs, today we have: Liverpool vs Man City Man Utd vs Newcastle Aston Villa vs Chelsea Leeds vs Arsenal Edit - totally forgot that Tottenham played Everton yesterday, so the 10 biggest clubs (IMO) all playing each other over the weekend. Had Spurs or Everton been in the Europa League then all of them would have been today.

I wonder what Targett thinks? He wanted to leave Villa pretty much as soon as he lost his place, and is now featuring less and less here. I guess there will be more of a feeling of potentially being at the start of something special here, but Villa are fairly similar in stature, and they do have a lot going for them as well, with a consensus that it's the manager generally holding them back.

What's happened to Shildon this season? Last season they finished 5th and made the playoffs, but this season they have lost 8 of their 11 games, -11 GD, and just a couple of places above the relegation zone. You look at that table and see the other 5 recent former NL sides in positions 1, 2, 3, 6 and 9, and you just kind of automatically expect NL sides to do well. Have they lost key players / staff and had investment pulled or something?

'Le Classique' tonight at 7.45pm on BT Sport. It's surprisingly tight at the top of the French league, despite PSG taking 26 from 30 available, and Marseille can go joint top if they get a surprise win. Marseille lost for the first time last week at home to Ajaccio who were bottom of the league, and managed to win 1-2, despite only having 1 shot on target, ha.

Mackems ahead

WBA 2 up. Amazing what you can do when you remove a massive stench.

Match starts at 3am, so will be finished by 5am, and BT Sport will just come on air 30 minutes into the match. They're showing the UFC from midnight to 3.30am, but the card will almost certainly finish before 3am, more like 2.30am, but they'll allow themselves extra time to be on the safe side, and just show magazine type filler until 3.30.

Feels weird not wanting West Brom to lose all of a sudden . Would be nice if they could string a few wins together and actually have a playoff push. Boro a goal down early on.

I must admit I do like having 4 or 5 PL games on TV over the weekend, so can't really say too much, but the Europa / Conference thing does nothing for the traditional Saturday 3pm, especially if Sky pick not involving any of the Thursday night lot - there's twice as many Sunday 2pm matches this weekend.

To be fair, Leicester's last 3 TV games have provided 19 goals, even if they all ended up being one sided later on, and I was quite looking forward to this one, but yeah, Palace look happy with a point on the road again, and if they can nick a goal, that's a bonus (for them). I'd be quite happy to see it end in a draw.

It was much better when one of the PL and Championship TV matches were on at 12.30, and the other at 12.45 so that you could switch on to the other at half time. I guess if you were planning on watching the 12.45 match and the earlier one started frantically with all sorts going on, you may be tempted to stick (unless your team), but still like it better.

Wor Toney

BHA starting to get a foothold here. A couple of decent saves from the Brentford keeper.

Leicester vs Palace (tomorrow, 12.30) also looks good to me. Leicester are one of my favourite teams to watch - a lot of good attacking players, but also vulnerabilities at the back, which often makes for some exciting matches. There's been 39 goals in their 9 matches thus far, the 2nd only behind City, and most of Cities are one sided beatdowns. Hopefully Brentford can bounceback and get something tonight, and a big performance from Ivan.