Cf

This is the main issue now and what makes it all even more galling. What was lost in the James on Barnes incident for me was the fact the ref had his whistle to his mouth clearly thinking it was a foul. Question then was is it a red? Linesman presumably said he didn't think so, and then VAR spent ages looking at it and concluded the GK covered it. I agree with them that it's not denial of a goalscoring opportunity. But it was a foul! Where the fuck was our free kick? If we're going to have VAR we need to allow the ref to actually use it. Blow up for the FK and then just ask VAR to tell him if it's a red or not. I also think the ref should be sent to the screen more often. The Gordon incident took enough time anyway that the ref could have been at the screen watching the replay. Or word it to the ref "I see where you're coming from but have another look to confirm you're happy". It's all shit. Bin VAR. Train some competent refs. Massive sporting sanctions for any abuse to the referees both at the highest level and grass roots. Red cards for diving/feigning injuries that can be applied retroactively if needed.

The Schar one was a clear penalty. The Gordon one was an even clearer penalty.

That's outright corruption.

We saved all our set piece routines up all season for today or something?

Ok. Let's put it another way. We've "only" actually lost 6 games in the PL. Two of them were last minute goals. Of the other 4 yes we've gone behind and not got anything from the game. Two of those games we went ahead and proceeded to lose the game. But from our 10 wins/draws we've never gone behind. We haven't needed to get points from losing positions because we scored first. So going through all the games we scored first: Wolves. Won 1-0. Arsenal. Lost 1-2. (last minute goal) Forest. Won 2-0. Fulham. Won 2-1. West Ham. Lost 1-3. Brentford. Lost 1-3. Man City. Won 2-1. Everton. Won 4-1. Spurs. Drew 2-2. (last minute goal) Burnley. Won 2-1. Given the stat of we haven't conceded in the first 30 minutes it does suggest there's something to shore up with the late goals. I don't dispute that. But the above list doesn't scream to me that we drop loads of points from winning positions - West Ham/Brentford being two awful performances. Back to the stat of points from losing positions. Man City also have 0 points from losing positions (lost 4). Liverpool 1 (lost 6), Palace 1 (lost 4). I really don't think this stat is a big deal at all

We probably needed to do more than we did. But it was the first game of 8 we have coming up in 27 days. In fact that was our 7th game since the 22nd November. Sunderland would have been very well rested compared to us. I'm not trying to be contrarian with everyone just that I can see the argument for trying to manage the work levels.

That stat of 0 points from losing is a little misleading imo, though it looks bad. Games we've lost: Liverpool. 0-2 down with 10 men. Pulled back to 2-2 and lost to last minute goal. Barcelona. 0-2 down. Pulled back to 1-2. No shame in this one imo. Arsenal. Went ahead. Conceded last minute goal to lose. Brighton. 0-1. 1-1. 1-2. Not great but we got back into it and the winning goal was late. West Ham. Went ahead then this was just a shit performance. Brentford. Carbon copy of above. Marseille. Went ahead then conceded two. Felt we played well enough we should have got something from this. And the latest one we all know. Not saying everything is sunshine and roses but the "0 points from losing positions" doesn't strike me as a huge deal when of all of those only West Ham/Brentford/mackems stand out as bad performances. It's hardly season defining stuff imo - just a stat quirk.

I know quite a few people don't have much truck with xPts/XG but I keep saying fine margins. They're at least a useful barometer to show how variance comes into it. Understat have us 8th in the table on xPts, and Villa 15th. (Sunderland 17th for the record) Villa's actual GD is +8 which doesn't scream 3rd place after 16 games either. There's obviously more to the game than stats but I actually though we started the season reasonably well in terms of performances. It's dipped lately but our not deep squad is contending with loads of games. I really don't think things are as doom and gloom as people think.

I still put this down simply to we can't play like that every game with this increased fixture load. When we tried it two seasons ago we had one of the worst injury crises ever. Maybe we've swung too far the other way. And we haven't got the players in we needed to. But I think a lot of this is simply we've moved away from playing like that every game as it would cripple our squad.

I don't think Gordon gets into a top 6's first 11. Certainly not Pope. Others potentially do but not shoe ins. Besides, it's the "deeper squad" part that's important. Our first XI can't play every game at 100% intensity with the extra games we now have. That's the long and short of it.

I don't think the problem is Howe can't manage the schedule. I just think he doesn't have the squad to have it he an easy job. Swap Howe and Arteta round and see which one can't handle 3 games a week.

Yeah that's a fair challenge. I think at this point though it becomes a question of the squad and I think it's clear in the summer we didn't do the business we needed to do and some of that is on Howe. What has been clear to see is after last time with our injury crisis there's been an attempt to lower our intensity whilst still getting results. It hasn't always worked but as I say - fine margins. Last minute goals to Leverkusen and Spurs in the last week or so, on top of the ones earlier in the season. The freak goal yesterday. My hope is now we hopefully have competence in our director roles and they can help Howe. He went from a good relationship with Ashworth/Stavely to that twat Mitchell coming in. It can't have helped.

By the same token you don't throw away years of progress because of some shorter term bad results.

I think at this point it's clear our summer hasn't been great outside of Thiaw and Woltemade. Our season has been very stop start but for me there's mitigations. - Woltemade was brought in late and had to be thrown in at the deep end due to Wissa's injury. Then Osula got injured and now Woltemade is gassed. Lad needs a break and some time to bulk up. - Lack of time on the training pitch. Just a fact of life with this new CL structure but a lot of Howe's ability is maximising what he gets from players in training and he's just not had as much chance of that. - Lack of leadership structure. Howe takes some criticism for the signings we've made but Christ for a team that wants to get to the top our back room has been shocking. I'm hoping he works well with the new guys to address this. - Fine margins and the fact the rest of the PL has caught up a bit. At this point pretty much anyone can beat anyone. The league seems much more physical and our edge there has gone a bit especially with the increased number of games. We've lost loads of points late. I'm still confident he's a he guy. As has been said we're allowed to have a bad season without throwing the baby out with the bathwater. We'll need to strengthen in January, especially at RW, and I'm hoping our new team have identified someone suitable for him.

Could easily win goal of the month.

Because he would literally run himself into the ground if he tried.

Liverpool fans must be feeling scammed at this point.

But I thought it had to be "deliberate"? (Also agree it's a clear pen)

I know where my vote is going.

They ain't moving Isak on in a hurry with the wages he's on.

One one level perhaps. He'll have gone there expecting to win the premier league. Clearly not happening now. On the other hand he's set for life money wise which I suspect wins out.

Burney were on tol for about 10 minutes when they came rushing out of the gates but after that we controlled it. In terms of chances there was Gordon off the post, Woltemade (who should have done a bit better - a couple of times now his quick shots are straight down the middle), the cross that was just slightly out of Gordon's reach, and one or two other smaller bits. And if course the goals and the Elanga fouled as last man situation. That doesn't strike me as virtually nothing.

I almost want Howe to go to Liverpool if his one condition is Isak is relegated to the reserves.