Paullow

But after GW6, there will be no European matches until mid Feb, so plenty of time for everyone, bar Tonali, to return. Yes, with our intense style of play and fixture list, there will likely be more injuries, but that may well be the same in future years and you'd always want the team to do as best they can.

I guess a bit like Spurs vs Brighton late on last season, but the match thread will be interesting tomorrow with some saying 'gerrin Milan have scored', and others saying 'FFS Dortmund'

I'd actually 'take a loss' if it could guarantee Milan didn't win against Dortmund, just to ensure the last game has something riding on it - a shame that other match wasn't on at 5.45pm. Can't really see beyond a routine 2 goal defeat, yes that's the spirit etc., and would expect Milan to win at home and that would be a real dampened to be out completely after GW5, when we were tipping the group after GW2.

It's crazy how things can change so quickly. A few weeks ago when they went a goal up vs Chelsea, and seemingly had a second before Son's was ruled out, they were flying, looking like 29 points from 33, but suddenly lose that, lose Van de Ven and Maddison through injury, Romero and Udogie through suspension, lose their follow up match to Wolves, and pick up a few more injuries and suspensions in between. They have taken the lead in the last three matches and look like losing all 3 and going from outside title challengers and clear top 4 faves (especially with no Europe / League Cup) to all of a sudden being in a 3 or 4 way battle for 4th at best.

Thought that might have happened. Spurs stretched and Villa a lot more options off the bench to turn things in their favour. Hopefully Spurs can at least equalise.

I'm kind of leaning more towards hoping Spurs win now. I hope they at least take the lead, and then if Villa do equalise later on then it would be absolutely fine, but I think Villa will probably be faves for 4th if they do win here.

Current top 3 in the 8th tier is Stockton, Hebburn, and Consett, although they have played more games than some and Consett could get passed by a few. Good win for Newton Aycliffe to pull away from the drop zone a bit. A shame North Shields were demoted, but would be good to get as many teams as possible in this league to give it more of a local feel, more interest, and keep travel times down for the clubs as much as possible.

Aye, a few notable absentees in Maddison, Ven de Ven, Romero, and Bissouma out, and the replacements are generally not really top 10 standard. Villa very slight faves now at some places, it's pretty much the same as us vs Chelsea yesterday, us starting off slight faves, but then with the line ups / money coming in, the opponent coming in, both in and around 6/4 - if Villa were at home then Spurs would probably be nearer 4/1 with Villa's record at VP and their injuries.

Yeah, really good 'Super Sunday' today. It's great just chilling out on the Sunday with two really intriguing matches to look forward to and not need move from the couch. Hoping for Everton to win - it is more interesting with the recent developments and Luton winning yesterday, but they will more than likely to stay up, and I'd rather those points came against a rival than against the likes of Brentford, Palace, Wolves etc. Like many, hoping Spurs and Villa draw. I think if there had to be a winner then I'd rather Spurs won. I'd probably rather finish below Spurs than Villa (if had to finish below one) as it would feel less disappointing, but also with Villa's home record, an away win against Spurs (despite Spurs missing a few) would be a real statement, a platform to push on further, and it would have a few similarities to us winning 2-1 at Spurs last year after game week 12, where finishing top 4 was beginning to look like an actually possibility.

Newcastle United, Sheffield United, Man City, Chelsea, Everton, Wolves, Nottingham Forest.

Should be. It said channel 533, but not sure if that's outraged. It's defo on Sky.

Yep, 3 winner take all matches (although I guess some could get in via the playoffs). Czech vs Moldova is on the free Viaplay channel.

Just taken the lead on the hour against fellow high flyers Forest at the City Ground, Elson. Just following updates as don't think there is a stream - sounded like Forest just about had the better of the first half, but Newcastle were knocking on the door early in the second.

Yeah, used to love watching a random match on Sky back in the day, like Kazakh / Azerbaijan / Georgia at 5pm and then a close looking qualification impacting match later on, but it's grim now. ViaPlay Xtra is effectively free to air, or at least available to a significant amount of households, but the match choice on there is very hit and miss. https://www.live-footballontv.com/live-football-on-viaplay-sports.html They had Liechtenstein vs Portugal tonight, which was pointless as one was guaranteed to finish last and the other first, and a mismatch so no jeopardy or anything riding on it, although they do have Denmark vs Slovenia tomorrow night which could be important, especially if Kazakhstan win earlier in the day as expected. I'll possibly watch that over the England match tomorrow. I've mentioned a few times on here, but I think it's absolutely scandalous how Scotland matches are buried on a niche paywall like ViaPlay whereas England and even Wales via S4C get theirs on free to air.

I'd been wondering for a while and don't think it was covered on here at the time, but seems that the home match with Halifax that didn't take place when the World Cup final was on will be rescheduled later in the season rather than forfeited and a points deduction. They have been fined £250 which seems incredibly low. A local business person could cover that without even noticing it. I guess it's an extra home match to play for Newcastle, and a chance for more people to see them as interest continues to grow, but seems Halifax got off very lightly. It would be pretty ironic if that one ended being played at SJP.

Dortmund could also afford to draw with AC as they would have the better H2H with us if we both ended on 8 points.

Hall's a long way off being the finished article.

Must admit I like the recent switch from the BT Sport app to Discovery+. There's literally 32 Europa / Europa Conference matches available to watch on Thursday, which means I can watch the mighty FC Nordsjælland

It does kind of feel like the tournament has passed us by a bit. Obviously a magnificent win over PSG, which will be remembered for years (depending on how we get on in the coming seasons, as hopefully there will be similar nights), but drew blanks in the other 3, back to back losses against arguably the weakest of the 3 opponents, the toughest match of the 6 still to come, and, probably more likely than not, be out of Europe altogether before GW6. Obviously a mix of a tough group and possibly more so a lack of players and squad depth, but it does feel that we haven't quite given as good an account of ourselves as we could have. Much more favourable group, clearly, but it is a bit frustrating seeing fellow 4th seed Sociedad do so well in, like us, a rare CL campaign for them.

Thing is if we do finish 4th and Man Utd don't get out of their group then, while I don't know the criteria, 5th place for PL might be more unlikely than many think.

That would be incredible, but it would then simply come down to overall goal difference, then goals scored. If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams were still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams; Goal difference in all group matches; Goals scored in all group matches; Away goals scored in all group matches; Wins in all group matches; Away wins in all group matches; Disciplinary points (direct red card = 3 points; double yellow card = 3 points; single yellow card = 1 point); UEFA club coefficient.

Yeah, at least Dortmund know they will very likely slip to third in the group if they were to lose to Milan, so will be up for it, and it's not like they are already through, although saying that, they do also have the safety net of knowing that if they beat PSG on the final day they will qualify regardless of how they get on in Milan. Just can't see us not losing in Paris to be honest, it would be a monumental effort to get anything from the game given their home form, so definitely hoping Milan don't win next week. It would be a bit of a damp squib going from top of the group after GW2 to guaranteed 4th and a dead rubber final match, which is probably the most likely outcome now, unfortunately.

It completely depends on how you view the situation and landscape. My order of preference would be draw, PSG, Milan. If Milan win here we'll likely finish bottom of the group, but would simultaneously, on paper at least, keep us in top 2 contention if we got 4-6 points from final 2 matches

Aye, a draw is probably the best result overall. Keeps 3rd place in our hands and still a very outside chance of top 2.