Paullow

I might watch a bit of that, at least until the start of the NL derby. it's on Mola TV here at 1.30pm and I downloaded the app towards the back end of last season. Great experience as you say, CL and then a big grudge match today. Massive match particularly for Ajax, they're already 10 points behind PSV at the top and already in danger of that becoming an insurmountable lead.

I was in the middle of writing a huge paragraph, but my laptop is almost done and as soon as the charger is removed it automatically goes off, and annoyingly, I accidentally knocked it. I had hoped that my passage might have been saved if on my phone, but not to be. Not typing it all out again , but yeah, was meaning England.

Looking forward to the North London derby today. I thought Spurs were at home for some reason, which would have probably been better for the neutral, but it should be an interesting game with Spurs starting better than many anticipated. It probably is the best derby in the country in terms of obvious rival and things at stake. Arsenal have had the better of the most recent fixtures, but over the past 20 matches and 9 years they have both won 7 times with 6 draws.

Oliver Burke is a proper nomad. Season long loan at Birmingham and he'll be 27 by the time it finishes.

Can't say the Birmingham vs QPR match on Sky is particularly exciting, but it was the most appealing to me of a pretty underwhelming bunch on paper. The cameras don't really help because you can't see many fans because of the redevelopments, so it's kind of reminiscent of Covid times. PSG vs Marseille and Atletico vs Real (ITV4) are both on Sunday evening - shame one of those wasn't tonight instead (they couldn't because of European football, but still).

Match against Burnley postponed due to the death of Sheffield United player Maddy Cusack. I was going to ask what was happening with the Halifax home match. It's now 5 weeks since the postponement but seemingly no word as to whether it will be quietly rearranged or if Newcastle will be awarded the points. Not all matches are postponed this weekend, so they will already have a fair bit of catching up to do on others, more so if they keep progressing in cups.

I would much rather prioritise this match than the Man City one.

Forest as well, 89 minute Wood winner. I know you were mainly using those two as they are very good sides and big names, but must be so annoying for them - could have been an extra 3 points, and just 1 or 2 defeats rather than 4. All 4 of their defeats have been by the odd goal as well.

Brighton 2-3 now. Seems some really good games this evening. I've mainly watched Ajax, but following the other scores.

Plus could also cost them a bit in the league as the season goes on. At least they shouldn't wrap the group early and make wholesale changes like what West Ham could do, although they will be pleased that AZ blew a 3-0 lead to lose 4-3 against a lesser known team in their group.

Ajax vs Marseille is a cracker, PEA just equalised for the latter, 2-2 after 40 mins. Classic European match, you'd think it should be a CL match.

Yeah and Man Utd were circa 5/1 to beat Bayern yesterday, so it's not just mainly down to UK bookies. I do take a lot of stock in odds. If we just take the respective names, experience, history, profile, social media followers etc. of the two clubs, you would think we should have been around 6/1, but player for player it's nowhere near that, or shouldn't be, hence the close odds, but the the match did feel like we were major outsiders the way it panned out. We beat Brentford (who were 5/1 to win) and drew Milan, two great outcomes, and that's what ultimately matters most, but the way both matches panned out you would have thought we were 6/4 vs 7/4 vs Brentford, and Milan were 4/9 vs 5/1 against us, not the other way round.

I assume PPs '2 up' thing must only mean 2-0 and not 3-1, 4-2 etc.?

Rovers level.

Sunderland a goal up. I did think they looked good value pre match at 2/1, but they went out to 3/1 in play following Blackburns decent start.

2-2 now and Copenhagen down to 10, so they may end up winning, but Gala did look very poor vs Molde in qualifying.

Man Utd's group could be over before they've even kicked a ball given the current score in the Gala vs Copenhagen match. Kind of spoils the 8pm match from a neutral perspective.

Just watching some of the YouTuber videos and the chant is hilarious if done in a big group because nobody seems to know if 'eats spaghetti' or 'drinks Moretti' comes first, so it comes across one big mess

Last kick of the game as well

I don't think there's much in it personally, but yeah, fair point about Liverpool, and we clearly overachieved (in terms of quality) last season. Milan started Loftus Cheek, brought on Pulisic, and I know he still plays for France, but Giroud is 37 next week and didn't exactly light up the Premier League in his last 4 years here, scoring 7, 2, 8. and 4, and I wouldn't actively want to sign him for Newcastle at this stage. Thiaw signed from a German 2nd division team for £5m last year. I don't know enough about the likes of Pobega, Krunic etc. but it's definitely not a star studded side, and they are not as daunting as their name would suggest. We were, and suspect still are after that result, odds on to get out of the group with PSG, albeit via UK bookies, but the money in the PL these last few years has been obscene and it's hard for these brilliant historic clubs to keep up. We took Tonali from them, Isak, Bruno, Botman etc. One literally did get in their team last year, they wanted, but couldn't afford another, and they would probably find a way to get the other 2 in as well. Our captain Trippier will likely be as good as their RB captain. You'd probably have 5 or 6 of each team if you did a combined XI, and I was expecting a fairly even match, but there did look a big difference between the sides, despite the match odds being very similar. Anyway, I've said more than enough. It is a very good point, one I would have definitely taken a draw at 5.45pm.

Ok.

But they are nothing like as good as their iconic name. Player for player there's very little in it. If we had signed Loftus Cheek and Pulisic this summer they'd have been a lot of disappointment both on here and in general. 25 shots to 6, 9 on target to 1, 6 corners to 2. Battered. Obviously the end result (in terms of points) would have been the same if we went there, went toe for toe and ended up with a thrilling 3-3 draw, but if any one of those 25 chances go in then the outlook on here would have been so much different, and it wasn't mainly down to heroic, well orgsnised defending, it was mainly down to poor Milan finishing that we came away with a very good draw, but it doesn't really inspire confidence, especially when we have been pretty off it in the league the last few weeks.

Great point, certainly would have taken that at the start of the game, but the performance was concerning. They are an iconic club, with a brilliant stadium and vast Champions League experience, but player for player, the difference shouldn't have been like that. They were around 6/4 pre match, we were 7/4, so almost 50/50, but the way the game panned out youd think we were some 6/1 no mark making up the numbers like a Plzen or Antwerp. Liverpool would have been much more in the game there and wouldn't hsve been dominated, but we do look well off it at the moment. Still, good point though. 7 points at home and maybe nick another away point on the road and we should be in and around 2nd, but we'll hsve to be much better than that, and I would expect us to improve at home.

There's Ben Parkinson who did OK in pre season and Charlie McArthur who signed from Kilmarnock and was fairly highly rated, but I don't know of any of the others (not mentioned by you). Had it have been Lewis Miley then I may have recorded it and caught up at some point, but since he's in the main squad, I'll probably give it a miss.