Abacus

Carragher; "I can't say Tottenham don't deserve it" Sort your double negatives out. Just say; "Tottenham deserve it".

1-1

Given

Decent Villa equaliser. Draw here please but wait here & VAR...

Top 5 looks very unrealistic, but you never know. If we got Europa it might be difficult next season due to playing two games a week again and I don't get the sense that we'll ease off in the domestic cups either. That said even if a Europa campaign had an impact on our league form, it's still another route to CL football itself. So two bites at the cherry meaning I'd bite your hand off for it right now. Conference League? Hmm. Personally, not convinced it would be worth the hassle. In which case I'm not all that fussed about finishing outside 7th, if the trade off for not being in it was a stronger league campaign next season.

Brilliant that

Tired of the constant football even as a fan, and also the expectations on the players as if everyone is just a robot. It has become ridiculous. Terrible game, 1-2 to us. Then having to navigate the baggage conveyor belt at Barcelona and back.

For what it's worth i didn't think he meant untrainable or disinterested, hence his fitness comment. So, he's ready to play, he just needs to earn his place with actual performances. Kick up the backside maybe. I was gagging for Wissa to start initially before the Dr Congo debacle to give Wolt a chance to bed into the league - a player I do still think is a huge talent and has been used out of position by necessity, or as an experiment. On which note, I'll always be grateful for Ciaran Clark getting sent off for making Joelinton the beast he was and still is, an experiment nobody expected. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Which is a slight diversion from the Wissa subject, I fully admit.

I'm not going to pile in on him - already said he's been a disappointment so far, once or twice no need for me to bang on about it. Have to confess, I'd not watched him much at all prior to him signing here. So what I'm not sure about is what sort of striker he actually is. People on here have said he's more a goal poacher type than a Gordon type pressing machine so I'm inclined to go with their views if they've paid more attention. But then we don't really have a team set up for a poacher, and if he's lost half a yard of pace after injury that is a further problem. Daft thing is, him and Wolt together could work if that is indeed the kind of striker he is, getting on to clever flicks etc. But then, nobody plays with two strikers any more. And it means setting the team up in a completely different way, and I think there was a press conference where Howe basically dismissed the idea of the two playing together very often, so I guess he thinks similarly. Thought the comment before from Howe was revealing for someone that rarely gives anything away in press conferences about him having to actually perform. He's maybe not what we thought we'd bought and Howe wasn't deflecting using his fitness as an excuse for him - just that he needs to be better. Maybe it was meant more as a bit of gee up.

I'm quite amazed we put in that performance after the number of games we've played. I'll whisper it quietly but I'm secretly quite glad we're out of the FA Cup now as the schedule would have been brutal.

Agreed, as Gottlob says though I think it is more the case that refs inherently favour the "big" teams in any subjective 50-50 call as a matter of natural human bias. But even then I think back to the PSG penalty two years ago and can't help thinking of a few decisions that just didn't feel right, even whilst trying to leave aside my black and white specs.

From the Times referring to the refereeing; Marco Guida, of Italy, and his team of officials had an all too familiar case of Barcelona blindness, and not just from the garish fluorescent shirts. Barcelona got away with a lot, Newcastle with very little. Fermín López very obviously pulled back Hall, making no attempt to play the ball. Had he been booked he would have missed the second leg; Guida took it in his stride. Later, Yamal would also take Hall out of the game, roughly. Again, no card. Yet when Sandro Tonali brought down Raphinha, he was booked.

Agree with this. I was thinking that a narrow 1-0 lead in the away match is a bit of an albatross. We'll have to win it now and that's pretty straightforward, not in terms of the game itself but what we're trying to do.

Let's get this tie won tonight.

Interesting watching Brentford's build up play. A lot slower and more methodical than the way we play so you can see why Wissa did better there than he has here, so far. Fun game anyway.

Absolutely clear penalty there, given after VAR. McCoist on co coms making the fair point that the ref saw it then bottles the decision knowing it'll be re-reffed on VAR, so it's actually wrecking the ability of refs to make any key decision.

It was the 2-1 at home, still on YouTube

Or Electric Avenue, I haven't made up my mind.

I have this running debate with a non NUFC fan about the best ever player you have seen live. I keep saying Ben Arfa, saw both of his wondergoals from the gallowgate, as well as his first ever wonder touch where he controls a terrible ball dead and passes it effortlessly. After getting annoyed with other NUFC fans for saying the same thing, he's finally shared some of the highlights with his (also) non NUFC fans, and they've also had to begrudgingly admit there was something a bit special about him. I'd say otherworldly instead, but will grind them down. Whenever you do that complete compilation Alberto I'd request an REO Speed wagon soundtrack so they can't fight that feeling any more either.

We're going to win this one and then be right up for Tuesday.

I'm going to watch that goal about 20 times until I fall asleep

Best ever striker in the entire universe

Wooooa

A sending off where Ramsey didn't even appeal and got clipped? Nope.

Fair point.