Altamullan

Last time when we were beaten 6-1, I thought we were the better team in the first half. Doubt we’ll have many if any periods of being on top this time, but I find keep talking myself into a decent result. Ok, 3-0 would probably count as a decent result!

Fancy buying my ticket...

careful of ambiguous sightings on Jesmond Dene...

I had us on 36 points finishing 14th. WBA 25, Swansea 28, and Southampton 31 being relegated. Stoke 32, BHA 34, and AFCB 35 below us, and Huddersfield 13th with 37, Watford 12th with 38, Palace 11th with 39, and West Ham in 10th with 44. All are quite low as I have gone on current position/form (not factored in inevitable upsets). Edit: I only had us in the bottom three at wk29.

Mkhitaryan is a great player, needs to get away from Mourinho though. Could be our Robinho signing... not holding my breath.

I’m choosing to blame Cunte for this.

You may have missed this news. https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/west-ham-investigate-jake-livermore-fan-incident-a8138946.html%3famp

I'm in the City end for this, hoping for real struggle to reign myself in.

Not much to congratulate him on spending wise, fork out £150m, strike lucky with ridiculous money for Coutinho. Bought by Rodgers, from under the nose of Pochettino apparently, i.e. he wanted him for Southampton (having previously managed him at Espanyol).

Pretty much the whole family were very familiar with shooting.

Pretty much. I was sitting pitch side (with Stoke fans, oh joy...) level with the half way line and he and Perez were quite fluid. Atsu often seemed the most advanced player, in the first half an hour or so. They linked-up quite well and we really should have scored a couple early on.

Over the last 15 seasons the average points total for 17th place teams is 38 (lowest 34, highest 44). So, 1.0 points per game. The average points total for relegated in 18th place teams is 35 (30-42). Average points per game (PPG) is 0.93. At present Southampton, Stoke, WBA, & Swansea have a worse PPG than 0.93. AFCB (playing today) have 0.96. Ourselves and BHA are on exactly 1.0 PPG. HT, CP, WHU, and Watford all close to 'usual safety figure' on 1.1 PPG. Whilst we have a harder run-in than start to the season, if we maintain this PPG we'd usually (all bar two seasons) be safe. Basically purely in PPG so far there are still 11 teams hovering within 'touching-cloth' distance of the three relegation slots. It also stood out that the higher totals for safety seem to occur when there were quite low totals for the Champions. The average Cahmpions PPG is 2.3; Man City are averaging 2.8. In other words, it is likely to be a relatively low total needed to survive; probably 34-36.

That is horrific!

I would have said it is the only way, but I watched the Bristol City game and they gave them a real scare and were unlucky not to draw or even win. Think we'll put out a side similar to against Stoke. Lots of energy in the central forwards and aim to hit on the break. Man City are not as solid defensively without Kompany. So there is some hope.

Is there any evidence that he 'likes' this style? Away from two seasons when the objective of promotion/survival was/is literally the only thing worth considering? Did his teams routinely play like this at other clubs? Purely from memory, his Liverpool side always seemed very 'methodical'. They were effective, had some great players, but don't recall enjoying watching them. My second reaction to Rafa coming here was a kind of resignation that we were going to see some pretty dire stuff at times. First reaction was pure delight mind!

Who the f*** are Murphy and Aarons? If they are the players you are hanging your hat on with a s*** or bust attitude, then I'm going to stick with the take a point approach tbh. They are at present, along with Atsu, the best options we have for running at the opposition, putting them on the back foot and reclaiming the home advantage which I have seen unsettle even experienced internationals (e.g. can recall Beckham seeming to physically recoil from the wall of noise coming from the crowd, Barton then megged him, to add insult to injury). Playing safe is possibly the best bet, but fuck man we have to win games like yesterday if we are going to stay-up.

Once Rafa has decided he rates someone he seems persistent in following his interest. If Shearer was right about the close season pursuit of Hernández and he's available now, given our evident need for a goal scorer and West Ham not being keen, he could be a solution. Would be fun coming up with some kind of Santiago Munez chant as well! Some blurb from Wiki, on playing style: 'A clinical goalscorer, Hernández has been described as a "goal-poacher"... His movement off the ball, pace, and ability to find space inside the box has also been praised... Rudi Völler, sporting director of Bayer Leverkusen, has praised Hernández for his keen positioning in front of goal, saying: "he certainly doesn’t win every tackle but he has an incredible sense of where the ball will end up". Former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson described Hernández as two-footed, very quick, in possession of a good spring, and a natural goalscorer. Ferguson also said Hernández's style reminds him of former United striker Ole Gunnar Solskjær... Hernández's former teammate Jesús Padilla described him as "amazing in the air" despite his height. Due to his small stature, he is extremely quick and agile, also possessing good technique.'

Ok, on a scale of: desperate, deluded, very deluded, or seek help now! What’s the odds of Citeh losing to Liverpool and with invincibility bubble popped we steal a victory too. A bit like following our 5-0 demolition of Man Utd they lost their next game 6-3 at Southampton (grey strips to blame...).

Atsu has earned his place for me, simply through his willingness to drive forward, take on his man (nutmegging Zabaleta, for example, was glorious). He’s always going to be hit and miss with his final ball, but then most wingers are.

It’s that mentality which is killing us at home... It’s not sustainable over a period of time. The mentality of sitting back and hitting them on the break, at home, to the worst team in the league is embarrassing. I totally understand doing it for the top clubs in the division and basically every away game, but we need to go for it at home and give the fans something to cheer about as what is being dished out simply isn’t good enough. With this tactic and setup we’re dropping far too many key points at home to stay in this division. we are really diluting our home advantage. Which used to be considerable.

I thought that last season some over ‘restricted’ defensive set-ups at home almost cost us the Championship title. This season I fear the same may cost us Premier League survival. If Rafa was playing pontoon, I reckon he would almost always stick rather than twist. Was always going to be this way, and whilst I would always opt for Keegan (or Robson) over Benetiz style wise (all have/had great values and are admirable men, in their own right) I am not even complaining. He is how he is. I do wish we would just really go for it at times, seek to put the opposition under as much pressure as possible; have more s*** or bust last 20 minutes. Surely we had a decent chance of beating these today with a Murphy (or Aarons) chucked on and ‘a rip them to bits’ instruction passed to the whole team.

Maximum 18 points and minimum 11 points for remaining games this season. Certainly can’t see higher, hopefully, can’t see lower: 41 to 34. Up or down. Without a sharp pick-up in form, I think down at the moment.