rogerbarton

What's Pickford got to do with their plight this season?! I can't say I've seen enough of him to form a solid judgement, but he certainly seems capable of making some great saves.

To be fair to Rafa, he's not been afraid to u-turn on things since he got here. Though you feel the Mitro situation is a special one. Either way, if he keeps banging the goals in he's either going to get another chance here or be sold for a much bigger fee.

Verratti sent off with second yellow for dissent. I'm all for refs booking players who give them an earful. Yet it very, very rarely ever happens. I'd be a bit annoyed if I were a PSG fan.

As regards the Spurs game, it's very likely that all the matches rescheduled due to FA Cup in GW31 will be rescheduled to GW34. So we'd play Spurs away midweek after Arsenal at home. This is because GW34 and GW37 are the only clear schedule breaks. Because the FA Cup QF means Chelsea, Man Utd, Spurs, Brighton, Leicester, Soton, Bournemouth and Huddersfield won't play in GW35, they'll probably have an extra match re-scheduled for GW37. Meaning our fixtures should look like this: Soton H - Sat 10th March, 3pm Hudds H - Sat 31st March, 3pm Leicester A - Sat 7th April, 3pm Arsenal H - Sun 15th April, 1.30pm Spurs A - Wed 18th April, 8pm??? Everton A - Sat 21st April, 3pm WBA H - Sat 28th April, 3pm Watford A - Sat 5th May, 3pm Chelsea H - Sun 13th May, 3pm If we can win our next two - both at home against poor sides - we'll be on 35 and only needing about 4 more points to be sure of safety. That West Brom game should be a good one to get us over the line (excuse the Pardew pun). They'll likely be down and playing for pride. Alternatively it could be like a Villa away situation from two years ago. EDIT: Spurs game is, of course, away from home.

Hit the post in stoppage time of the first half too... unbelievable how a match can turn on its head like that. Interesting to see what happens 2nd half!

And Arsenal score after probably the worst 42 minutes of football I've seen from any 'top' team ever... Game on?!

Regards Jenas, I actually don't mind him as a pundit. He at least tries to come up with some original insights. And I think, by and large, he's been very fair about NUFC. Clearly he's just sticking up for himself in this conversation, though. And I think going along with lazy comments by Gerrard who probably doesn't remember that Jenas played for us in the Champions League twice, got to UEFA Cup SF and QF, FA Cup SF, finished 3rd, 4th and 5th. Apparently 14 of his 21 England appearances came at NUFC, and don't forget he left us to join a midtable Tottenham.

Looks like Brighton are safe then. Fair play to them and Hughton. Arsenal, though, are an absolute shambles.

It's about our own results really. Swansea's form has been good enough since the new manager came in to stay up easily. So not too worried about them leapfrogging us. Have a feeling the Soton game at SJP is going to be absolutely crucial now.

It's going to be hard to stop Salah. And then they've got Firmino and Mane too... I reckon we'll park the bus but can't see us coming away with anything.

Makes the Southampton game even more important. Stoke, Huddersfield, Palace, Bournemouth and WBA all play in GW31 when the FA Cup quarter finals are on so we don't want to be losing ground.

Gutting as it was, the way I looked at it was a point was a decent result before the game. And that's how we have to treat it going forward. Just think if we'd defended like we did against Man Utd, or even the Palace game before, we'd have held on. Bournemouth were barely exerting any pressure til the last 10 mins.

Just looking ahead at all the fixtures for us and our rivals... 12. Brighton (31 pts, -11GD) Arsenal H Everton A Leicester H Huddersfield H Palace A Man City A (likely to be rescheduled here) Spurs H Burnley A Man Utd H Liverpool A They could be more or less safe by the Spurs game. But if they don't pick up enough points until then it's a dreadful run-in. That said, they seem to have enough about them to survive and GD worth an extra point. 13. West Ham (30 pts, -15GD) Swansea A Burnley H Soton H Chelsea A Stoke H Man Utd H (likely to be rescheduled here) Arsenal A Man City H Leicester A Everton H With Arnautovic and Lanzini back to fitness, can't see them failing to get enough points on the board to stay up. 14. Huddersfield (30 pts, -23GD) Spurs A Swansea H Palace H Newcastle A Brighton A Watford H Chelsea A Everton H City A Arsenal H These have surprised me a bit. Bounced back from their terrible form. And they've got six games where you could see them getting something. They should stay up, but again their last four games are tough if they don't chalk up enough points beforehand. Terrible goal difference though. 15. Newcastle (29 pts, -11GD) Liverpool A Soton H Spurs A Huddersfield H Leicester A Arsenal H Everton A West Brom H Watford A Chelsea H We've got 6 games I can see us getting something from and our form since we beat West Ham has been more than good enough to stay up. It's hit and miss in terms of fixtures right through to the end of the season, rather than having a nightmare run. I honestly think we should have enough to survive. Our GD also offers an extra point at the moment. 16. Southampton (27 pts, -12GD) Stoke H Newcastle A West Ham A Arsenal A Chelsea H Swansea A Leicester A Bournemouth H Everton A Man City H Their form has been pretty dismal for a long time now. They'll see these as decent fixtures, but they're not really showing that they'll be able to take advantage of that. Really depends on whether they can up their game significantly. Goal difference again an advantage though. 17. Crystal Palace (27 pts, -18GD) Man Utd H Chelsea A Huddersfield A Liverpool H Bournemouth A Brighton H Watford A Leicester H Stoke A West Brom H In the midst of a tricky run of fixtures, plus have an injury crisis, so could be looking in big trouble by the time they play Bournemouth. But you feel that when Zaha and a few others return their last 6 games are all winnable. I think they'll probably have enough. 18. Swansea (27 pts, -20GD) West Ham H Huddersfield A Man Utd A West Brom A Everton H Southampton H Man City A Chelsea H Bournemouth A Stoke H They've just come off the back of an incredible run of form, having looked doomed, only to get thrashed at Brighton. Again, they have the fixtures to survive, but also got the potential of FA Cup distraction. And goal difference is losing them a point at the moment. 19. Stoke (26 pts, -26GD) Soton A Man City H Everton H Arsenal A Spurs H West Ham A Burnley H Liverpool A Palace H Swansea A I think these are in big trouble. They've had an upturn of sorts since Lambert came in, but it's only really Shaqiri doing anything for them. Fixtures don't look great, although they do end the season with two winnable games. And goal difference is almost certainly costing them an extra point on virtually everybody else. 20. West Brom (20 pts, -20GD) Watford A Leicester H Bournemouth A Burnley H Swansea H Man Utd A Liverpool H Newcastle A Spurs H Palace A They look like goners. Have five really good fixtures coming up but can't seem to buy a win. Need to get results now as the run-in doesn't look favourable. There will almost certainly be twists and turns, plus in these 'favourable' fixtures only one team can actually get three points, so a reading like this is never that useful. I'm going to stick my neck out and say it'll be Southampton, Stoke and WBA who go.

Yeah, must have been the only time I was cheering on PL leaders to equalise away at a League 1 team. Wigan literally didn't do anything but defend (heroically at times, I'll admit) all game anyway. Such a shite club. Really like Guardiola and the way he's got that Man City team playing too, so wouldn't have minded seeing how close they'd get to a quadruple.

He was "speaking to BBC Sport's Chris Bevan" - I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on it being an edit.

Krul's debut against Palermo was pretty special, but Dubravka showed a bit of everything today. Wyki mentioned his command of the area, the catches and punches at set pieces, but he also looked so composed whenever the ball came to him. And only once did he misplace a pass. Compared to Darlow or Elliot, it's a massive improvement in ball control.

I think the worst one would have to be the non-corner after Phil Jones booted the ball out of play in the first half.

He said "Newcastle fought like animals and that's a beautiful thing in football".

Gosh, Mourinho being beautifully graceful on Sky now. Brilliant, brilliant victory! Fucking love Dubravka already.

For FUCK's sake Bournemouth. You epitomy of absolute fucking shite jizzwads. Beat Arsenal, beat Chelsea, fuck us over in the last minute at SJP, but get absolutely fucking trounced away at Huddersfield. Really beginning to feel like it's slipping away from us when we can't seem to buy a win. EDIT: Maybe I spoke too soon

Yep, Brighton beating Stoke may not be a bad thing. Stoke got a bit of a bounce under Lambert but I'm not convinced about them at all. Still think they, Huddersfield and WBA look the weakest teams.

Let's be honest, if Slimani isn't fit - and it looks highly unlikely he'll be ok to start - we're probably better off with Joselu than Gayle. But my God it's a couple of uninspiring choices.

Oh dear!

And, to be fair, we might get a couple of surprises if Slimani can hit the target. Let’s take the positive that we somehow hung on for a point today.

So our outlay is the lowest in the division. Remember Swansea got £50m for Sigurdsson and Southampton £75m for VVD. That means it's only really Burnley who've been as unambitious as us, and that's because they're Burnley and can't afford to take risks. Brighton have spent £20m more than us, and £57m more net. Let that sink in.