Polarboy

Timber getting injured might put a damper on Tierney, but it was weird that be was playing LB in the first place given he's seemingly only ever played RCB and RB. Then again they still have Zinchenko and one or two others who can operate there. Getting Tierney a move if he's been assured of one might be of more concern, wage bill FFP etc.

His logic is flawless. The Moretti, spaghetti chant is a bit cringe and complicated.

Jackson just got yellow carded for holding up the imaginary yellow card. So at least we have a bit of consistency after Bruno's card yesterday.

Not impressed by either team here so far. Might be famous last words, but looking at how open Liverpool still are, we could really give them a good trouncing in a few weeks. Especially given that they won't be sitting back obviously, as a lot of teams will when they visit us. Unless Klopp becomes substantially more conservative in his selection, and very quickly gets Lavia or whoever in as DM.

Eddie Howe's howitzer horn pipes vs Emery's slack alley Annie's.

One of the best things about Tonali's performance and him seemingly settling straight away, is that it means we can bench Bruno some games in order to give him a rest, or a kick up the arse if that's what he needs. Bruno hasn't suddenly turned into an average player, and I trust Howe to get him back to his best soon enough. A win today when we have Citeh away next week was crucial. If we can get two results from these opening games the tone will well and truly be set for the season. But it looks like we've just carried on the form we've had for the last 18 months. Our press and general work rate is still elite. It's funny when you start a new season, especially from where we've come from under Bruce and Ashley, close to relegation etc, you, or at least I, don't take anything for granted in terms of the team being able to keep previous seasons performance levels up, but Howe seems to have them pretty finely tuned already. Oh, and one last thing, I fucking love how quietly arrogant Isak is about how good he and the team is.

The Murph is on.... and Ciggy 😂 Nah our bench is ridiculous now, and we'll likely get at least one more player before the window closes.

This football craic is easy. Just stick on Barnes and Wilson and we'll score another one 😂

What a fucking finish!!!! I thought it was a deflection at first, but no, just a Messiesque chip over the keeper. Isak will score 20+ goals no problem this season.

Almost inevitable that Diaby would score. He's going to be a handful for Villa this season.

I'm actually surprised that Howe has decided to start with Tonali, after all the talk of him perhaps still trying to adapt to the pace at which we play, and the pace he faced against the PL teams in the preseason, and would obviously face now the PL season proper has started. And of course we've seen Howe slowly introduce Bruno, Botman etc. You would think it's a good sign, but perhaps Longstaff isn't quite fit enough, and he didn't think Anderson had the right defensive qualities to match up to Villa's midfield.

The only good thing is that if we get pulled for it by the PL, we at least have clear evidence that they're playing favourites if they charge us with anything.

Apparently Arteta's assistant was stood right next to him in the technical area for part of the match today. I won't hold my breath for the PL to uphold their own rules for one of the "top six".

I've heard Lukaku, and Mitrovic strangely enough, in relation to Spuds.

Neither Carragher or Neville have us even in the top six this season in their predictions. Carragher says that odd complimentary thing, but when it came down to it last season both he Neville picked their biases in the top four race over the reality staring them in the face. Of course their comments could also just be clickbait shite because they know how much press we generate. Top four again this season, or even top five given the extra CL spot, will be extra sweet even over last season.

Fucking hell, he hasn't even managed to keep his gob shut on how poor Liverpool supposedly are in his press conference today. "We want the player and not any kind of agreement," said the Reds boss. "What did change is we are a club, we don't have endless resources. We didn't expect a couple of things to happen this summer; [Jordan Henderson, Fabinho] - stuff like this. We gave it a go and we will see. I've told you now what I know." Don't have endless resources compared to who? It's a mystery to me that players actually respect that twat.

Yeah if you're Southampton you're slapping at least another 10m on Lavia straight away. Good enough for Klippity Klopp the nonce.

Will Klopp shut the fuck up and stop whinging, will he fuck.

Anderson is about as quick as Schar as far as I can tell. Maybe someone who watches Palace more can tell me otherwise, but if that's the case then I'm not keen. Anderson is basically just a younger version of Schar given his passing ability, particularly long balls. It'll cost obviously, but we need a younger version of Schar with elite pace. This van de Ven fella going to Spurs for example is absolutely rapid.

On the one hand he is at least going over to sign some stuff, but on the other what a fucking bell-end. Can you imagine Eddie ever doing something like this. Maybe I'll be proven wrong and he's just a very good actor, but Howe seems like one of the few true gents left in the game, in the mould of Sir Bobby, or even old Woy Hodgson.

Just had a look and Trippier has played at LB 9 times for England. If anyone is going to switch to playing LB it likely will be Trippier, but I highly doubt it will be in the near future given how important Trippier is to us down our right flank, and in an attacking sense in general. You also have to factor in Livramento settling in and getting his full match sharpness back after his long layoff. As of now I'd be shocked if we don't play at least the first six or so games with the same back four we had last season, barring injury of course. If we can get the young, quick and athletic ball playing RCB understudy to Schar, we can take our time integrating both players.

He seems to be the number one choice to replace Trippier when he slows down and then retires, and his price would likely have only doubled if we'd waited, or indeed Chelsea may have activated their buy back clause that would have kicked in season after next. A bit like Gordon who signed six months early it's a transfer of opportunism. Edit. The Chelsea buy back clause is already in effect, but that point still stands.