Checko

Like the look of Khusanov - looks pretty fast, two-footed, some nice passes, even takes some free kicks. Very aggressive. Gets a ton of interceptions but also quite a few yellows. From his stats, although he's listed at about 6'1"/2 he wins a lot of aerial balls. Feel we played quite well with Botman covering while Schar was more aggressive so they may pair well. That said, he hasn't played that much in Ligue 1. Only 20 games or so. Might be more of a Saliba project where he needs a bit more time to develop there before being Prem ready. Could see him staying on loan this year and maybe next.

That's a bit catchier, should go with that! Though passy man (Bruno F) is doing his best to confuse things right now.

Now I'm sober & more clearheaded can confirm it's Ugarte. Suspended due to 5 yellows. Casemiro is too-slow-now-to-be-tackly man.

"You can argue I have been here one month and I've had four training [sessions], but we are not winning. That is the reality." - They've hired the Portugese Steve Bruce!

Couldn't realy pick a better time to play them so I'd agree with the bookies we're actually favourites here, as mad as that seems, though obviously favourites don't always win.

Basically, if it hits your arm it's handball if it's one of these situations: 1. Deliberate handball, e.g hand to ball. 2. Accidental but your arm was in a position that made your body unnaturally bigger. (Basically is your arm position reasonable taking into account your movement) - Judgement call, eg Tino vs PSG 3. Accidental but it goes in off your arm, even if just a tiny brush (what Bruno was penalised for) 4. Accidental and you yourself score immediately after it hits your arm. (Eg Wilson vs Brentford away a year or two ago) If it hits your arm accidentally someone else can score immediately, (eg Longstaff's goal vs fulham last year here) but you can't score yourself. So in this case, it hit Bruno's arm, so he couldn't score, but someone else could. As it looks as if it would be going wide without the deflection it would be an own goal, so none of the above categories apply. EDIT: That said, watching the highlights, from another angle I can't actually tell for sure whether it was going in off Bruno or not.

And that's not even mentioning the absolute bodying he game their player to win the ball in the first place! Pretty rare to find such a great playmaker who's also so able and willing to mix it.

Milanista said he was basically Ambrosini IIRC.

His reaction to Duran probably gets the red card shown yesterday.

Definitely looks worse in slow motion, can see why it's split. Also if it had been one of our players think there would be a lot more calls for accidental.

Just got to hope with Fernandes and Ugarte out that they don't luck into a different set up that works for them.

Yeah, I meant not a stamp with the right, he does step on Schar and shouldn't.

Yeah, Eddie's evenness, at least in public, is a good feature. A lot of football is about not getting too carried away with the wins or down with the losses. Haven't seen much of Amorim, but I certainly wouldn't be writing him off yet. He plays a completely different system, which was known when they bought him so he'll need time. He's also new to the country and giving interviews in a foreign language so sometimes allowances need to be made for the exact wordage he uses.

Really wasn't sure about the red card tbh. It wasn't a stamp, it was a scrape and he does lose his footing and balance which could well be what causes his leg to instinctively come out. On the other hand he loses his balance because he treads on Schar and he's looking at him the whole time. It's all very quick in real time but he had a couple of steps first, he shouldn't be stepping on Schar in the first place there so I'm leaning to red because of that.

Worth reading comments on Eddie Howe from 15th Jan before writing off Amorim. Things can change very quickly in football when it starts to click, as we've seen over the last couple of weeks.

Love his fucking triangle pass.

No form, new system, no Fernandes, no tackly man [can't remember his name]. We are going to go there and absolutely batter them. 2-1 Man U.

Any chance you could start posting your picks so I can bet against them? I'll give you a quarter of all profits.

No. Why do you think we eat so many baked beans?

Double checked and Bruno's goal clearly comes off the defender. Looked like it was going wide, or at best on to the post without so I reckon should have been an own goal. Didn't affect anything but probably was something VAR missed. I presume they assumed it went in off Bruno and didn't check for anything else.

Thought he was excellent today, even without the goal: good defensive work, looked like he was causing a threat all game. Feel his understanding with Hall is coming along nicely as well. Man, if those two can build a really good understanding...

Yeah - regardless of it being accidental/hand position it's handball if it goes straight in off your arm, or you score after it hits your arm (eg Wilson vs Brentford away a couple of years ago). Looked from the final replay that it was going wide and went in off the Villa defender though, in which case goal should have stood as an OG I believe. Haven't seen it again though to double check.

Love seeing our best playmaker freed up to be a playmaker.

I like Targett, he's been unlucky here but always been solid. Nice to see him back.

Great start, lovely goal from Gordon, then I thought they got on top though we were dangerous when we got forward. The one issue really was our ongoing struggles passing out from the back under any kind of pressure, Eddie still hasn't solved this. Still think he should just drop Bruno back at times so he and Sandro can double pivot the fuck out of teams in those situations. We brought a lot of pressure on ourselves and that let them dominate things for a while. Still, after the red card it was one way traffic unsurprisingly. Up to 5th, feels the exact opposite of how things were a year ago. Couple of tough away games to come so fingers crossed. If we can get something from them we're in a really good spot.