Paullow

Shelves?

For those interested in odds and who do use them as a gauge. https://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/premier-league/winner It's kind of in line with how I see it, although I do think Liverpool will finish above Arsenal. Title odds have Man City odds on, Arsenal around 5s. Liverpool 8s, Man Utd 11s, then us and Chelsea around 16s with them slightly shorter (than us generally), Spurs 40/50, Brighton ahead of Villa which is quite surprising IMO, especially with them in the harder European competition this season. https://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/premier-league/top-4-finish Top 4 odds have 4 teams odds on and then us and Chelsea very similar (Chelsea shorter at some, us shorter at others) with Spurs and Brighton (then Villa) a bit further back. https://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/premier-league/top-6-finish The more obvious 4, Newcastle and Chelsea all odds on for a top 6 finish, with Spurs slightly north of evens - it will surely have been at least 15 years since Spurs weren't odds on to make the top 6 before a ball was kicked. Thought there might have been some 'without Man City' odds, but not listed on Oddschecker.

Yeah, Arsenal finished 5th the year before and their European campaign consisted of 8 matches (which we'd at least hope to get this season). 6 group matches of PSV, Bodo/Glimt and Zurich and then a L16 defeat to Sporting - if we had matches against Zurich and Bodo Glimt then it would be a much changed side, possibly not too far off what we played vs Brighton the other day. 4 of Man Utd's 6 group matches included Omonia and Sheriff. They were pipped for top spot on goal difference which meant, unlike Arsenal, they did have to play a L32 match, but Liverpool can certainly experiment in the early stages and rest key players. You obviously need to prepare for games and travel to them, but the Europa Conference group stage will likely be even easier for Villa. West Ham obviously struggled in the league last season although not conclusive that it was mainly down to extra European games because they made the SF of the Europa League in 2021/22 and still finished 7th in the league that season, but their Conference group matches consisted of FCFB, Anderlecht, and Silkeborg - they won all 6 matches and made 10 changes for their final match in Romania, including a bunch of kids, because they'd already won the group and avoided the L16 match, so that could be a great opportunity for Villa to play some of their many promising youngsters in the early stages, like it would have been for us, and save more of their better players for the league matches. You obviously want to play in Champions League, and of course wouldn't change it to be in a lesser competition, or no Europe at all, but it will likely impact the league schedule. Mind, it's also the first time Arsenal have been in the CL since 2016/17, so it's fairly similar for them in that for the first time in years they will have additional huge priority matches in midweek.

Most likely if two are saying it . Thought it was Alex for some reason. I'll blame it on staying up late when full of cold, ha. Edit - yeah defo Jacob. Must have just saw NUFCs tweet say 'Murphy's pass and Anderson's finish' and completely forgot about Jacob

By my reckoning, If Villa lose to Brentford later and Chelsea draw 0-0 with Fulham then we'll be bringing home the prestigious 'Premier League Summer Series' . If Chelsea draw 1-1 (and Villa lose) then it will probably be shared because we (us and Chelsea) will both have 5 points, scored 6, conceded 5 and drew in the H2H meeting, unless there's some other tie breaker that Wiki is not aware of. Not that it matters, but Villa probably favourites at this stage heading into their final match tomorrow.

It was Alex Murphy's assist for the 2nd goal, but I still don't know who did the decent work down the right to contribute to the equaliser.

I think Liverpool will be a lot better this season, and probably favourites for 2nd. Still a great team, ended the season very strongly, some decent additions, won't really need go gung ho in Europe so can save some of their better players for the league, especially in the earlier stages. Then Arsenal and Man Utd probably favourites for the other 2 top 4 slots. I can see us finishing anywhere from 5th to 8th, 6th is probably par as Chelsea have a better manager now, no European football to distract them, and will likely bring in further significant additions. Tottenham and Villa will be in and around, but hopefully we finish above those, and ideally any of the other 5 because as widely documented, it looks like 5th will be CL football for the 2024/25 season. 5th, still be in Europe beyond the 6 CL group matches, and a decent run in either of the two domestic cups (like minimum QF or SF) would be a fantastic season.

If they do go a bit further then Frank might have to mention '£50m forward' in every press conference.

I wasn't sure if Longstaff would be fit, so I was thinking maybe Ritchie coming in at CM if he wasn't. Howe also mentioned Manquillo was an injury doubt in his post Chelsea press conference, so maybe Ritchie will fill in there, or Ashby getting a start despite featuring the other night, or some other young'un that I'm not aware of, but could be a long night with that defence Longstaff hasn't been training with them so doubt he will start, Manquillo not training with the team 'at the moment'.

Crazy to think that only 18 months ago in January 2022 that late Pedro equaliser at SJP kept us 2 points behind Watford in the relegation zone, having played a game more and a much inferior goal difference. The clubs currently feel a millions miles apart.

Yeah, I would have just posted the same above wiki link. 6 places available, 4 via Champions route and 2 via League route. 2 teams get byes to the Champions route Play Off round, a one tie shoot out to get through, and will be joined by 6 other teams (still TBD, and still a while off), whereby the 4 winners will advance to the group stage proper. No teams have Playoff round byes in the League route, but eventually 4 teams will make it to that round, possibly Rangers, and those 4 will compete for the 2 final spots.

Seems strange. 24 in a few months and still being loaned out to the third tier.

This Rakow vs Qarabag match on TNT Sports has been class, genuinely , 3-2 to the hosts in injury time, but so many twists and turns, and finely poised heading into the return leg, especially with no away goals rule now.

Tonight's fixtures (2nd qualifying round): 5pm - HJK vs Molde (currently 1-0) 5pm - Zalgiris vs Galatasaray (currently 0-0) 7pm - Dinamo Zagreb vs Astana - Live on TNT Sports 3 7pm - Dnipro-1 vs Panathinaikos - Live on TNT Sports 1 7.30pm - Servette vs KRC Genk (winner faces Rangers) 8pm - Zrinski Mostar vs Slovan Bratislava - Live on TNT Sports 2 8.15pm - Breidablik vs FC Copenhagen

Must admit I do watch most of the YT content creators stuff. Just easy to stick on in an evening and kill 30 or mins. I'm enjoying the USA videos and does make me wish I went out there.

The club passed 2m followers on Instagram today. Still nowhere near where it should be relative to many bottom half clubs, but it was 712,000 in October 2021 prior to the takeover, so decent growth since then.

There perhaps hasn't been the dominant score lines some were expecting / fearing, 5-0 Japan just before the biggest so far, but in 4 of the last 5 matches: Philippines - 26% possession, 3 shots, 0 on target, 0 corners, lost 0-2 Costa Rica - 20% possession, 1 shot, 0 on target, 1 corner, lost 0-3 Vietnam - 34% possession, 0 shots, 0 on target, 0 corners, lost 0-3 Zambia - 40% possession, 0 shots, 0 on target, 1 corner, lost 0-5 Haiti are 200/1 at Coral so I was expecting similar here, but just switched it on and they had a corner after 60 seconds , so already half of those 4 combined.

NZ were around 8/1, so Norway circa 1/3. Puts the co-hosts in a great position to qualify as Philippines (also in the group) are one of the least favourites in the outright market, so a great chance for them, unless they, Norway and Switzerland all end up on 6 points.

Wow. Blast from the past Ferencvaros 0 KI Klaksvik 3, the Faroes side were like 14/1 to win pre match so God knows what happened there. The Hungarians obviously won their league last year and got to the Europa League L16 as well.

Doesn't look like that Soccerone YouTube channel are showing matches this week. It's good that TNT Sports are showing a couple of games for those wanting to watch, and I guess Maccabi Haifa are the biggest team in this round so may get a few more viewers than most, but not ideal having a match where one team is 4 up from the away leg, especially when there's two finely poised ties on at the same time.

Yep 8 matches tonight and 7 tomorrow. 2 matches on the newly branded TNS Sports (ex BT Sport) 4pm - Struga vs Zalgiris (0-0) - Live on TNT Sports 2 6pm - Flora vs Rakow (0-1) 6pm - M Haifa vs Hamrun Spartans (4-0) - Live on TNT Sports 1 6pm - Sheriff Tiraspol vs Farul Constanta (0-1) 7pm - BATE Borisov vs Partizani Tirana (1-1) 7pm - TNS vs Hacken (1-3) - Live on S4C 7pm - Zrinjski vs Urartu (1-0) 8.15pm - Breidablik vs Shamrock Rovers (1-0) - Live somewhere in ROI

https://www.oddschecker.com/football/womens-international/womens-world-cup Just having a look at some of the individual match odds, and seems hardly worth watching until the knock out stages - Costa Rica 150/1 at Sky Bet to beat Spain, who also have Vietnam at 200/1 to beat USA, Haiti 100/1 to beat England etc. If you get the B side around 13/2 then that looks pretty competitive, relatively. 32 teams clearly works better for tournaments, 2 going through, 2 going out and none of this best third place, and I guess having these less fancied teams might help the sport grow in that particular country, but it seems like they have expanded it well before it's time, and probably get a few pointless 9-0+ type wins in the opening days, and then no doubt more discussions about goal sizes and what not.

If you type 'Newcastle Gateshead' into YouTube the first result is highlights lasting 8 mins 20