Paullow

At least we can all 100% want Chelsea to beat Liverpool on Tuesday. There's no way they will pass us in the league now.

Chelsea have definitely improved as the match ahs gone on, dominating the stats.. Looks like they have a goal disallowed here. Still 0-1.

Imagine if Villa didn't have Stevie G for the first 12 or so games. Good signs for them long term mind.

Good save by Martinez, albeit from his own mistake. I think if Chelsea score early, they will go on to win fairly comfortably. If they did win then they would temporarily go within 6 points of us (albeit played 2 games more), but they play Liverpool on Tuesday, which would become a bigger match generally, and at least one of them would obviously be dropping points there. Watkins with a great chance just now. It's been a decent start to the match.

But while what you say is currently true (albeit hand picked to suit), on the other hand, if Chelsea get just a solitary point later today then their (Brighton) 'top 9' record will suddenly become W3 D3 L3, which looks significantly better, and will be pretty respectable, and will feel far more legit having matches against a traditionally strong team like Chelsea in it than a newly promoted side like Fulham when analysing results against the 'better' teams. Our record against the current top 8 and Chelsea is 3W 4D 3L, so not much different.

I'm quite looking forward to it to be honest. Quite an interesting game, and Villa being in form adds to the intrigue. It doesn't massively affect us (which is also quite nice), but I probably hope it's a draw, just to keep them both more at arms length. A draw will be a good result on paper for Villa (like Sunderland last night), but both really need to win if they are going to threaten the top 6.

Thought that was Brighton with the winner there the way Jeff was celebrating (his son supports them, so he obviously likes them), but forgot about Hartlepool

Just stuck £2 on Brighton to win at 15/2, just in case

Looks like a penalty to Brighton. 10 men? Hopefully they don't get a winner.

Cardiff 2 Swansea 2. This match is pretty much always on TV, or at least moved to 12.30 for crowd reasons if not selected. They probably will have, but not sure I've ever seen it be a normal 3pm KO before.

Liverpool losing and Brighton not winning were my main two hopes today (not too fussed about Fulham, but guess it's not a bad thing them losing). One is in the books, and the other is not looking likely, so aye, happy as it stands. Would have preferred Carlisle to win their big match on a personal note being a Tynedale lad, but they've just fallen behind to Orient (who are now down to 10), but obviously irrelevant to most Newcastle fans.

Sunderland do have quite a nice run of games coming up - Hull (H), Cardiff (A), Birmingham (H), Huddersfield (H). They don't have a great home record, and some of those are fighting for their lives, and doing OK at the moment, but it is a chance for them to get 10 or so points, and the results today are going for them at the moment with those above them Bburn, Norwich, Coventry and Watford losing or already lost, WBA and Millwall drawing (each other) is quite positive for them too. It'll be tough for them, but if they do string some wins, then they could be back in with half a chance of the PO's.

It's strange a huge city like Sheffield having two teams pretty much the same size, you could argue either way, but neither really doing anything these past 30 years. Rarely in the top flight, or just hanging on if they are, and both having spells in the 3rd tier. You'd think either could be ripe for the next significant takeover, but while it'll obviously never happen, (and shouldn't), if they merged and became 'Sheffield City' they could be quite the force. Having two of pretty much the same stature, but not really massive, kind of holds both back. I wouldn't mind Sheff U back in the top flight. They are harmless enough at the moment, and I think it's quite good to have more bigger city teams in the top flight, and they are at least Northern.

Terrible 10 minutes for Boro! 3-1 down, and now Sheff U take the lead.

I've not seen the (non) penalty at Forest, but Wolves certainly don't seem to be getting the rub of the green generally with these VAR decisions. That goal at Liverpool, Pope, the Leeds goal the other week, and now this. That new manager will definitely feel something is up

Get in Brentford!

It's great football at this stage of the season. Huddersfield level against Boro, and no doubt Sheff U fans watching one of those GSS / Final Score shows, who normally wouldn't care so much about their relatively near Yorkshire neighbours, will be absolutely buzzing.

We'll just have to agree to disagree, because they've already taken 4 points off Liverpool, including a 3-0 home win, and also put them out of the FA Cup. They beat Chelsea 4-1, and won at Old Trafford at well. They likely will drop points in some of those games you mention, and the games may well catch up on them as they juggle the FA Cup, and some rearranged league games, but as they have already beaten a lot of the sides that you have mentioned, and are in great form, you certainly can't just assume they will draw / lose those return fixtures.

I just have and it's arguably better than ours. We only have Southampton and Leciester at home where we will be clear odds on favourites to win, whereas they have Southampton, Everton, Wolves at home for a start. They have Bmouth away where we were disappointed to drop points (so would they be, and less travel). Villa away on the final day will probably be a dead rubber for the home side as well, and possibly not even a league position on the line, and potentially more favourable than when we play them soon. They've got 16 points from their last 8 games, or 25 from their last 13, so have been averaging 2 points per game for a while, and are a very good side.

We're not really in a position to be picking and choosing who we would want to get there at this stage to be fair, so while it's extremely tight, I'll personally be wanting the teams who I perceive to be the biggest threats to drop as many points as possible, and then perhaps hope teams I quite like to do better once we are well clear of them.

They will literally be 2 points behind us on the same amount of games if they win, and a similar goal difference. We still have Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, even Brighton themselves, so without checking, I'd say the fixtures would at least be comparable. They absolutely are a threat to us.

Brentford were 20/1 for top 6, let alone top 4, whereas Brighton were 4/6 to 4/7 before kick off, so Brighton are clearly much more of a threat. I'd rather Brentford won myself, but a Brighton win is clearly the worst, and the longer Brentford are, or were, winning, the less chance there is of the clear worst outcome to materialse.

He'll likely know what he's doing as he's got everything else pretty much spot on since he took charge, but still find it weird how Jason Steele has replaced Sanchez as first choice keeper. Sanchez was in Spain's World Cup squad a few months ago, and has generally been decent since he's been in England, whereas Steele is coming up to 33, has barely played these past 5 years, and the last time he got a string of games it was in Sunderland's disastrous Championship campaign in 2017/18, where he only played 15 games, and rotating with Lee Camp and that Dutch lad who broke his finger.

I guess if Brighton did win today then, from a more conservative / pessimistic POV, it would make European football more likely if we did have a very poor end to the season and dropped to a disappointing 7th, but we've obviously got to be thinking much more positive than that. Man, 1-2 now. Wish you could easily televise the 3pms.

A draw will be fine as only 2 points will be taken, as opposed to 3, and neither will close significantly on us, and it will still feel like dropped points for Brighton with them being at home, but realistically, I think I'd prefer a Brentford win with them having played 2 games more, and generally not as good. https://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/premier-league/top-6-finish If you look at the current top 6 odds, Brighton are around 4/6 to finish inside, whereas Brentford are a modal average of 20/1, so Brighton are clearly much more of a threat to us generally - it's a bit like a few weeks away when Brighton played Fulham, some were wanting a draw, others were wanting Fulham to win, and that shock Fulham away win is obviously looking a lot better now, as it was generally always more likely to be, longer term. A Brighton win is clearly the worst result, by a mile.