The Fish

I assumed that was projection as you, of all people, couldn't possibly know what the fuck Rafa Benitez is thinking. Here's a clue, a striker's contribution isn't solely to be judged on his finishing.

Mitrovic holds the ball better than Cisse which should reduce the pressure, he's also more of a threat from set pieces.

If "Cisse is the better finisher" doesn't mean he's the best finisher out of the 2, I don't know what does. You daft 'apeth

I don't doubt, but you said he was the best finisher, that's demonstrably untrue. I think Cisse was picked as much to keep Mitrovic's powder dry and rested for Man City tomorrow, as it was because Cisse will graft and is unlikely to get into the book.

Worst shot accuracy of the 3 strikers.

Isn't that what Perez is for?

Depends on the state of the table. If the final positions are wrapped up, they might not turn up.

Did giving him the captain's armband get a reaction? I don't think he did much and was largely anonymous, bar the goal. I'd, maybe give 6/10, but a few media ratings have him significantly higher. Did I miss something?

7/10 Excellent read. Did not end the way I expected.

Nope, but we're 3pts behind with worse goal difference. For us to be 17th we'd need 4points or a better goal difference.

Unless there's a huge disparity that one side is keeping from the other, I'm not sure why it matters? If he was a paper boy and she was earning 6 figures but splitting the Nandos bill with him, that's both usual for Yorkshire and wrong.

Looking forward to seeing him sat beside John Carver on the Goals on Sunday sofa in November. Both of them talking about waiting for the right job to become available. Apparently been offered out by Lescott?

At the time I thought Cisse was not terrible, which is a marked improvement. Lovely deft touch to put Colback through, but that's all I can remember of him as an attacking threat so I had a look; 1 shot, 3 offsides, 41 touches (only 3 touches in the box.) Mitrovic in the 10 minutes he was on the pitch; 2 shots, no offsides, 8 touches (4 in the box)

I don't think anyone is getting carried away with that result. It was always going to be one of the more winnable games, but the hope was that we could stay in touch with Norwich and sunderland. We've done that. We're 4 points off 17th at the minute and the anticipated losses to Man City and Liverpool won't change that. Norwich play Arsenal and Man Utd next. It's entirely possible that we can get 6 points from Palace and Villa. We need to better Norwich (and sunderland's) point haul by 3. I don't think we're going to take points from Man City, Liverpool or Spurs, but if Norwich only manage a couple of draws we can definitely catch them. Sunderland have a worrying set of games; Arsenal (h), Stoke (a), Chelsea (h), Everton (h) & Watford (a). Stoke, Chelsea, Everton and Watford are all on the beach, but they're all more than capable of beating sunderland wearing their flip-flops. I'm still confident we're down, but fuck them for giving me a slither of hope.

Rafa likes his facts, right? We've won none of the last 18 Premier League games against Man City (D2, L16), losing the last 12 in a row. If Man City win they'll equal the record of consecutive Premier League win against a specific opponent (13 - Manchester Utd v Wigan) Man City have won 7 and lost none of their last 8 visits to St James' Park. Newcastle record P8 W0 D0 late F1 A23 Aguero has 10 goals in 8 Premier League games against NUFC, more than any other opponent other than Spurs. Aguero has 99 Premier League goals in 146 games. If he scores on Tuesday he'll be the 2nd quickest to 100 goals in the competition after Shearer (99/124) Silva has 5 goals and 4 assists in the last 7 appearances against Newcastle. Man City have scored at least 2 goals in each of the last 15 Premier League games against Newcastle and 11 in the last two meetings. Pellegrini's next victory will be his 100th as Man City manager in all competitions. We are so unbelievably fucked. You can get 9/2 on City to have a halftime lead of 2 goals or more.

Aguero has scored 10 times against us, only failing to score twice. Him and Kevin will have a field day against Tiote and our back four. They've a few missing and may want to rest some players before the Champions League game, but they'll likely be rested against Stoke on the weekend, won't they?

Caulkin's match report;

Anybody see much of their game against Chelsea? If 40% of that side turns up against us, we are going to get a fucking hiding.

Thought Montero was terrible, not sure how much of that was down to Anita's good work, or just Montero being a bag of turds?

Keeping him fit for the City game? Same as Perez maybe?

It's a great story, not sure how it'll play as a film though. Goal wasn't much cop, was it? Certainly has the drama before the finale now though, with his sending off and potentially missing more games because of the way he had a go at the ref afterwards. #Narrative!

Do I get a say in this? A frustrating draw.

Next Bong party is sorted then.