Vaj

I am at a loss with this one for what tactics I would do, do we throw Botman straight back in? 5 at the back? Or just the usual? Think I would prefer to have Botman on the bench to bring on to help see out a plucky 1-0 win () and save him for the Brighton game: Pope Tino - Schar - Burn - Hall Miley - Tonali - Bruno Murphy - Isak - Gordon Starting Willock LCM against Salah/TAA/whoever plays RCM whilst they are attacking would not work, we need the LCM to put some serious graft in, so Bruno is the best option for me in Joelinton's (likely) absence from at least the starting eleven. I think we need to sit in and try and counter attack them. It would never happen but would genuinely love to see Osula start on the RW just to give us an unpredictability on the attack, and that would give us some serious pace on the counter.

Brighton 1-1 Bournemouth Palace 2-1 Villa Wolves 1-1 Fulham Chelsea 3-1 Southampton Brentford 1-1 Everton Man United 2-0 Ipswich Forest 2-2 Arsenal Spurs 2-2 Man City Liverpool 3-1 Newcastle West Ham 2-0 Leicester

He did that awful pass straight to Gibbs-White as well, although most the team was guilty of giving the ball away in the final third at times yesterday.

All teams are massively inconsistent so we need to stop panicking when we have a blip. - Forest are starting to struggle and have a tricky run coming up - Man City have been up and down all season, without CL you would fancy them to get top 5 but even they aren't great. - Bournemouth just lost at home to Wolves, yes they have had some great results against the big teams but they seem to struggle at times to break down some of the weaker teams and now that there run is over, we will see how they will react. - Chelsea are in freefall at the moment without a proper striker in the side and two of the worst goalkeepers in the league. - Villa still look pretty average most times they play, they have CL games to worry about again and three tricky away games back to back (Palace, Brentford and Brighton). If they get a decent points haul from those games I would start to worry, but again they are so inconsistent. So basically we need to stop losing our minds every time we lose a game we shouldn't because everyone is doing the same. Realistically Liverpool, Arsenal and Man City should get CL, but with two other places up for grabs we still have a great chance!

Three points is all that matters but fuck me, that second half was awful!

What was said at half time? One of the best first halves I’ve seen from us followed by this shit

They’ve deserved that, what are we doing this half?!?

I have been beating this drum for a while but depending on opposition (I.e. do we need a Joelinton battering ram in midfield) the best midfield trio is Miley, Tonali and Bruno. Miley has been fantastic! Also credit to Willock, will do him the world of good

What a beautiful half of football

The ref was looking right at this!

Twice Dominguez has kicked/thrown the ball away. Rules not apply to him?

Did well to not touch it with his hand and he follows the ball in to get those tap ins well, good lad Murphy!

What a player Miley is!

I can’t stand this referee

Shit from Murphy to lose the ball and the effort to put a challenge in after was so poor. But what was Pope doing! Frustrating because we started well

Duck me this game is huge, come on lads!

Leicester 1-1 Brentford Everton 1-0 Man United Arsenal 2-0 West Ham Bournemouth 3-0 Wolves Fulham 1-1 Palace Ipswich 2-2 Spurs Southampton 1-2 Brighton Villa 2-1 Chelsea Newcastle 3-1 Forest Man City 1-1 Liverpool

Buy Trafford for £70m and sell Pope for £60m.

Really disagree with this. Howe completely isolated both him and Hall with his tactics of going man for man. You have to be perfect to play like that and it didn’t work today. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but he got it very wrong today.

Next week is a big game, we can still reel Forest in and I expect our form to pick up after the cup final like it did two years ago. If we go 9 points behind them with Liverpool away next then it’s not looking great. Whatever happens in the cup final, Europe probably goes down to 7th or we are in anyway. Still think we will get Europe but today was demoralising

He will be fine as a backup option next season but he needs replacing. His lack of pace is catching up on him and even his passing is all over the place now. Has to be Botman and a new centre back next season. Burn and Schar as backups

Miley was good and should be fourth choice centre mid and potentially third choice. The rest were poor except maybe Tino and Tonali (let himself down for the fourth). We will play like this until the final I reckon, could be out of the race for CL by then. Forest next week concerns me if we play like this again.

I knew what was coming after the first two minutes. Just sitting back and letting them do what they want and then going one on one with them but being a yard off every player. Embarrassing performance this, just hope we don’t get destroyed.

Well this has ruined my day. What a shit performance! Awful selection at the back, zero pace

Brighton 1-0 Chelsea Leicester 0-1 Arsenal Villa 3-1 Ipswich Fulham 1-1 Forest Man City 2-2 Newcastle Southampton 0-2 Bournemouth West Ham 2-0 Brentford Palace 0-0 Everton Liverpool 3-0 Wolves Spurs 1-1 Man Utd Villa 1-1 Liverpool