ilikenewcastle

Derby games are horrible when you're the massive favourite. The best we can ever do is not embarrass ourselves.

I felt he was a bit of a yes man too. He very much bought into Levy's 'top 4 is all that's important' approach and it seems to me the fans are sick of that.

I thought Chelsea were back?

That's good to know. I remember our push for top 4 under Pardew was overshadowed by the prospect of Chelsea winning the CL and stealing a place from the team that got 4th.

I'm probably a bit too superstitious to want a badge with a single magpie on.

Not sure. I'd love someone to come out and explain all this, things could get messy if West Ham and Chelsea win in Europe while finishing outside the top 7 (though Chelsea surely won't win the CL).

Feel like we're playing them at the right time, they've not looked good lately. They're a way better team at home though, and I'd rather this wasn't a night game under the lights. Big chance for us to get in a great position with Man U, Liverpool and Brighton not playing and would be nice to put pressure on Spurs.

He played well today apart from the unlucky slip. I'm so glad we won to prevent him from being made a scapegoat by idiots.

Like others, I would have been very upset if we didn't get the penalty, but I can see why VAR didn't give it - it's not as clear and obvious as Sky make out. If an outfield player committed the same foul in the box and wasn't the last man there's no way VAR gives it. This will get talked about more because it's a keeper and he's the last man.

Overall the results have gone a lot better than we might have expected. Need to win tomorrow though, huge game.

Find myself saying this every Man Utd game, but how the hell do they get some of these decisions off refs?

I'd take Conference League. Could get to the latter stages without playing our strongest team, would be a chance to boost our UEFA coefficient, would get us into the routine of having extra games, would be very winnable.

If the FA Cup is won by a team that doesn't qualify for Europe then yes. If the FA Cup is won by a team that does qualify for Europe then it's Europa League. (Man Utd not finishing top 5/6 would complicate things)

Neville should never be allowed to do Man Utd games. At least Carragher can mostly control himself.

Liverpool can randomly pull a good performance out of the bag. Beat Man City, should have got something at the Emirates, wouldn't be surprised if they give Real a scare at the Bernabeu.

Awful game, but Liverpool's refusal to ever string more than a couple of decent results together is good news for us.

Feel pretty sick already. Years of Ashley has left us unable to handle these sorts of occasions without a mini breakdown.

Agreed he's done fine but no better than Roy.

I think from what Eddie has been saying we can expect Karius to start (after the game last week he spoke about the 2 keepers but spoke way more about Karius). Not sure what to expect from Karius, don't like that he's not played for 2 years but Gillespie would be well out of his depth (and also hasn't played for 2 years).

This looks interesting. Has anyone been here before/is going on Sunday?

The whole country calls us Newcastle, nobody calls them West Ham UNITED or Tottenham HOTSPUR either. Anyway getting back on topic, I hope we win the cup final lads.

I maybe should have been clearer, I was referring to outrage at them being called Manchester United and us simply Newcastle. I refuse to believe that genuinely upsets people. Also I'd say loads of people refer to the Manc clubs as United and City.

Of all the faux outrage I hear from our fans, the whole United thing annoys me the most (moaning about the BBC showing/referring to the Hereford game is a close second).

I'm not talking about us winning every game and keeping clean sheets all the time, I'm saying if we can be vaguely decent from now until the end of the season, I don't expect anyone to go on an amazing run and overtake us. 4th would be an enormous overachievement but at the same time it would be disappointing to miss out as I feel we can get it without even having to be particularly amazing from now until May.

I strongly believe that if we can get anywhere near our October/November form, we will 100% get 4th.