Kid Icarus

Was behind a Muslim at the cash machine earlier today. He dropped his card and I picked it up and handed it to him. He said "You've done a favour for me, now I'll do one for you. Don't go to the match tonight" I said "why?" and he said "because it's tomorrow"

I agree on the position to xG position thing broadly, but I think even in 23/24 it went beyond that and the devil was in the details a bit and they were overperforming in a different way to now. They were in and around 4th, up to 2nd at one point and did have some really good performances but every time I watched them I thought the way they were playing was suicidal and unsustainable. Their high line was insane and kept getting broken, but they kept getting away with it because the opposition's finishing failed to punish them. So I think they were always succeeding on that knife edge - this season it seems more like the knife edge that they've been succeeding on is either taking the very limited chances they get each game, or scoring from distance. It might be a rivalry bias thing from me as well, but aside from a few matches (PSG or us at home for example) I've never watched Villa and thought they're a team that are really all that good.

The weird thing with Villa is that they've been like this for a while, not just this season but over a few years imo. It's harder to say it's not sustainable when it's somehow a bit of a model for them that's been successful.

Fuck all will happen to Man City either. The mantra of today's immoral actions, not just in football, is essentially "what yee gannae dee like?" and the answer continues to be nothing.

Honestly, even under Pardew them beating us felt ridiculous, and i hated Pardew. I don't think it's the case now at all, but I definitely think from our 5-1 win until they went down that their whole thing was staying up with a team set up to beat us.

Knew someone would spoil it.

Not sure tbh, he's definitely had a few moments that have cost us but there have been plenty that weren't his or Ramsdale's fault as well, or in some cases no one's fault. By hook or crook it's just felt inevitable in every game this season.

Sometimes you just have to sit back and think, hei, what a weekend of Premier League football we've just all experienced together there.

You can say that again!

I think we'd definitely be talking about Ramsdale missing a punch if Chalobah had scored as he should have, but like we're saying, it's nice to see one single mistake not punished for once.

This being 3rd vs 4th says is all about the quality of the league this season and last like. Really poor.

If this is the stuff that he says in public, imagine what he says in training. Imagine what ends up on the cutting room floor because he thinks it's too cringe.

Exactly the sort of offside that somehow ends up being onside. Linesman flags when he shouldn't, Watkins shoots anyway just in case, gets a yellow and obviously the commentator and Neville back the decision. No VAR check.

Man United Villa is the perfect match to have on if you just want some nice background noise while you dose off.

The only thing I would say is that I think we've performed just as well in other matches and come away with a draw or a loss. The result hugely dictates the perception of the performance I think, but imo we've deserved for more of those performances like that to result in wins. We've had so many matches this season where every chance or half chance the opposition has had has flown in (backed up by having the best XGa after Arsenal's) so it was nice to have a result where the outcome felt like it matched the performance.

Dokko that's an astute and insightful observation that gets right to the core of the issue.

I'm in two minds about whether some of his balls are hit and hope or it's the right ball and a player should be there. Maybe a bit of both.

Nothing has changed hugely for me tbh, he's a very good player with a ton in his locker. My issue with him is still the same, consistency and doing it in the smaller games when we need him. Once we see that we'll have a player fully doing themselves justice. Having said that, his performances in general have improved a lot since around the turn of the year.

He's the David Koresh of LinkedIn ffs. I hate him.

42 points with 8 games left feels like a very high points total for 9th. Could be wrong like.

100% They'd be overjoyed.

Are Sky doing the Smith-Rowe Lewis-Skelly thing over another one of their young players like? It's very weird like.

Feel like it needs to be mentioned because it feels so rare, but that wasn't a terrible performance from the officials. Could have had a pen, but I don't think it was scandalous, just subjective.

He played a role even less suited to him today but was really good I thought. Helps that he got the correct decisions going his way as well.