Cf

I love how open Slot is about his shit coaching. Pointing out the reason Fulham had so much space for that strike was the fact they set up to defend a long throw and instead they took it short.

£0m now.

Get out.

I like that the PL is physical but he's just took Tonali out there with no attempt to play the ball.

Base offside off the feet, not which way a player is leaning. Sorts that type of situation out. (Or bin VAR obvs)

Commentator just referred to it as an onslaught. Vindicated.

This is awful so far. Palace goal is inevitable with this onslaught. Where are the subs?

Villa are currently +17 from expected on understat.

If he is on good wages over there then this is where we find out if he prioritises getting paid for sitting on the bench for a good chunk of his career or taking a pay hit and playing first choice.

How many other teams in the PL aren't suffering from this? I reckon only Arsenal have been properly consistent. Pretty much everyone else though has had ups and downs. Just points to a strong league this season imo.

Maresca is one we could do with staying there as long as possible really.

RW is the main issue there I think. We're just a bit unbalanced which won't be helping LW out. I'm not saying LW isn't an issue but in terms of priorities I think it's further down the list.

And as much as I shout FOR FUKES SAKE GORDON when he skies yet another effort I'd say LW is the least of our worries atm.

I think he's just technically limited and always has been. And his end product just isn't consistent enough. That doesn't make him a bad player but it does make him an inconsistent and unfortunately a frustrating player. I think he's at an annoying level where he starts for a lot of PL teams but he's just below the quality you're looking at for a top 5 team. If he's having a purple patch he doesn't look out of place but when he's out of form he really does.

The much reduced travel time shouldn't be underestimated here either. Our only away fixtures are the middle and end of the month. The rest of the time can be spent on the training pitch, r&r, etc.

I take it we lost then?

Ramsdale saves that.

Ramsdale concedes that.

If you got to choose the 3 teams to go down then the current bottom 3 is basically perfect isn't it?

I really don't think there's a giant mystery here. This is much easier to do when you have the squad depth/quality of Arsenal, City, etc. We don't which is why we've seen this slightly more conservative energy conservation approach. It hasn't quite worked thus far but it's probably the best option available to us.

Well that's part of the point it is making. If you're conceding smaller chances it suggests a) you're defending well in the main to not give big chances away, b) you're running somewhat unlucky that these chances are being well taken and/or c) poor goalkeeping. All the above ring true to me. Pope has had his dodgy moments whilst he was fit and Ramsdale hasn't covered himself in glory either.

And long may it stay that way

I have. I've watched us all season. We've been fine/good for the most part imo with a couple of bad performances (which all teams have) thrown in. We're just having a run where nothing is falling for us whilst playing a style designed to conserve energy due to the sheer amount of fixtures. Anyone who watches yesterday would say we should have had at least a point from that game. Likewise Chelsea we battered and should have had all 3. It's a bad run. They happen. Especially when the quality in the PL is as good as it has ever been.

https://www.football365.com/premier-league/table/table-between-two-dates Put the start date as 16th March (the cup final everyone says we've been shit since). 6th in the form table. 1 point behind Liverpool. Maybe not quite where we want to be but it's not bad by any means.

We're 6 points off 4th, still in the CL with a shot of auto qualification, in the LC semis. Work to be done but hardly screams total reset.