Paullow

Yeah, defo Man City-Arsenal, but will watch 30 mins of Forest-Brighton at 7.30.

Poor Paully. Hebburn out on pens (missed their final 3 after an early lead), but Stockton are through on pens. Stockton vs Long Eaton final, presumably at Stockton's ground.

Who's finishing 8th and missing out on Europe altogether? You'd probably have to think Spurs at the moment. Liverpool would possibly prefer to not be in the Conference if that was all they could get, Spurs possibly as well (despite their lack of trophies), but Brighton and Villa would likely appreciate it if they were to finish 7th.

Hebburn from 0-2 to 2-2 and extra time in one playoff semi final Stockton from 2-0 to 2-2 and extra time in the other Winners meet in the final.

Huge let off for Leeds.

Crazy how at this stage Villa have played 33 games and Brighton only 29.

Fair enough. Very similar situation as both are on 75 points from 44 games and an almost identical GD.

Carlisle perspective? I'd kind of given up on automatic and was more concerned about securing a playoff spot as one team will miss out despite being well clear of 9th. Mansfield currently losing is good from that perspective

Ipswich and Plymouth both 2-0 up, and if it stays like that then it's extremely likely that it'll be the playoffs again for Sheff Wed, which would be crazy considering the position they were in a month or so ago.

There's minimal stress from an NUFC perspective. I know Toon25 hates Villa so that will obviously influence his view, but Villa winning here is not bad. If Villa won ALL their games they would be on 69 points meaning we would only need 10 more because the GD isn't getting overturned, but if they were to win every game then, as pointed out earlier, that would mean losses for Liverpool, Brighton, Man U and Spurs which would be good anyway. I think I'd prefer them to win tonight, keep them interested/motivated and give the others more to think about when they play Villa.

FFS. I'm watching on the BT app and forgot it was a minute or so behind. Holding off sending until the VAR check is complete

Leeds vs Leicester is a cracking fixture pal!

Are people wanting Villa to lose / drop points tonight to keep them further at bay, or for them to keep some momentum going ahead of matches against those from 4th to 8th?

Aye, keeper lucky to still be on the pitch.

If Sunderland do make the playoffs then I'd prefer them to play Boro over two legs, as Boro probably are the best team outside the top 2, but really hard to call if Boro would finish 3rd or 4th or Mackems 5th or 6th. I guess the winner of this, especially if it was Luton, would be most likely to finish 3rd.

Sky would have been hoping / expecting more on the line with tonight's fixture. It's pretty meaningless really. It's not even that there's a team likely to finish in 5th and you could then potentially manipulate things to either avoid or get that team in the semis.

True, if we had a repeat of Everton away last season, and Southampton matched their Arsenal performance then we could get like 1 point from the next 2, and if Liverpool won both then that 9 point suddenly becomes 4, GD advantage narrows, with a few tricky games to come, but as it is, I'm pretty relaxed with that 9 point gap with only 7 for both of us to play. It's funny how it works, but after Villa only drew, and we won (a potentially difficult match) to extend that to 8 points with a game in hand and an insurmountable GD advantage, rather than them beating Brentford and us losing to Spurs and possibly only being 3 points clear and breathing down our necks, I think I'd probably want them to beat Fulham tomorrow to keep them very much interested in Europa and in form ahead of their matches against Liverpool, Spurs, Man Utd and Brighton as them getting a couple of wins and a couple of draws in those matches would actually be great for us.

Yeah, I'm not really worried about Lpool now after our win yesterday. Realistically too many points gap and not enough games left, even if they were to go on an amazing run. It's just the fact Brighton have the opportunity to close the gap, and have to play us, so it's more in their hands than it is Liverpool's, which is key at this stage of the season. Less likely they will go on a huge run than Liverpool given their remaining fixtures and backlog, but still an opportunity for them, and some of their big matches could come at the right time for them.

Still keeping an eye on Brighton. Closest odds to us at the bookies (5/1), hard to beat, no FA Cup distractions, win their two games in hand and they are only 4 points behind and still have to play us, so an opportunity (for both). They obviously have a tough run in, and a lot of matches to play, but if Man City beat Arsenal on Wednesday, and then Arsenal draw us (dropped points for both), the title race will effectively be over and their two matches against Man City and Arsenal won't be as daunting as they usually would be. Arsenal deflated and City, despite their massive squad, having their minds on other competitions. Really hope Arsenal get something there. Hopefully Forest get something from them on Wednesday. Us, Liverpool, and Brighton all have similar fixtures in midweek, all away to bottom half sides who are / were in the relegation fight. West Ham are pretty much safe now, but they are also in decent form - hopefully we at least match what those two do in this upcoming game week.

2 bigger names and one weaker one from pot 3 (like say Shakhtar or Salzburg this season) would be absolutely perfect. Probably should finish at least 3rd and extend the Euro journey, and have a shot at the Europa, and a chance to test ourselves against the very best. I still reference our wins over Juventus and Barcelona, far more than the Leverkusen's, Kiev's, Feyenoords etc. (even though that one was amazing).

https://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/premier-league/top-4-finish 1/10 now at PP, the lowest by far that we have been. Spurs are a massive 22/1. Brighton 6/1, Liverpool 7s.

The whole Brighton winning the cup and knocking us down a European competition shouldn't really apply anymore. We should defo finish above Villa and Spurs now, and if we were to finish 6th if would almost certainly be behind Liverpool and Brighton, in which case it would still be Europa (in a pretty worse case scenario). So aye, Man Utd vs Man City might have a bigger feel about it, but think I would like to see Brighton win just to offer a potential bit of distraction to their league form down the line.