OTF

"We'll have Southampton, second leg at St James" "St James' you mean"

Well fucking done Southampton!

73% possession and they currently have 0 shots on target. #PlayedlikeGrealish

Good thing we strategically exited the FA Cup early doors 😉

Here's hoping Man City play a weakened team, which granted will still be full of stars, but they do have the Manchester derby at old trafford on Saturday...

I'm no mathematician but that would make you at least 18 months old (give or take the amount of time it takes for a person to develop long term memory).

With the hint of a tear in his eye he hopped into his Jaguar XJ8, 3.2, the sports version with the AJ-V8 all alloy engine, the kind of engine you dreamed of. The fluted leather seats, contrast colour keyed fascia and walnut veneer gave a warm embrace each time he entered. It was a car befitting the man.

I know there's normally a domino effect in transfers particularly in January, but I hope we're at least a little more advanced than that Craig Hope tweet infers. There's a long second half of the season coming if we don't at least freshen things up a little.

And then everyone simultaneously stood up and broke into applause at the great sacrifice he had made for the betterment of the club at his own expense, and the direction for the future that he would never rightfully receive the credit he deserved for.

It's also much easier for one or two reserve players to look decent (and be decent) if they're amongst our cohesive first team. Especially when Bruno is playing and at his influential best.

He even sounds like him

And finally, not to rain on our parade, but we're always a few injuries away from being more than happy with a top eight finish. We plainly don't have the quality in depth that any of the other sides competing for the top four positions have, made patently obvious against Wednesday.

It won't be easy, sure, but Man City are rightfully favourites to win in every domestic game they play. When you play Arsenal the result doesn't really matter, we're graciously conceding 1 and 2, you can sort it out between yourselves. That said there's a long way to go and recent Arsenal are specialists for bottling it, so I'll have to revisit these comments when we're 3/4 of the way into the season.

It's that slightly poisoned chalice of Champions League qualification versus Europa and Conference League. All may increase the appeal to players to some degree but only one gives you any noteable financial ability to put that appeal to work. Winning the Europa only nets around 8-9M Euro, runner up about half that. Just making the group stage of champions league will net you a minimum of double the winner of the Europa. Then each win adds approx 3M Euro (1M for a draw). If we make the Europa or Conference it's hard to see a scenario where that doesn't have a negative impact on our league campaign. If we make the champions league it will too, but we'll at least be able to bring in some quality players with the guaranteed prize money and exposure.

The rope a dope tactic. Isak looked pretty sharp for a player who has been out for so long, perhaps that was comparatively to our cloggers who he was playing alongside. I did really think it odd that Eddie started him, but he could have had two goals in the half on another night, so I think that's what Howe was going for - some early goals.

Krafth surprisingly did step up markedly befoew his injury. If he comes back at the same level from his injury he's a great utility defensive substitute option, never a first choice though. Shelvey was looking similar until his injury, then worked hard to come back ahead of schedule only pickup another injury. On ability and recent attitude it's fine to keep him around for the time being as a bench option and cup player. Lascelles doesn't work in our new system, from a playing perspective we have to get rid of him or else he's essentially just a novelty mascot as captain. Seems happy enough to br a bit part player so no huge rush if he's contributing to our harmonious squad. Longstaff I have mixed thoughts about, but essentially he has the right attitude. He doesn't seem like he's going to be top quality but if can improve his vision whilst on the ball who knows. Keep him. Anderson it's too early to say, but he hasn't impressed of late. Howe is keen on giving him a chance so he must do alright in training. No risk in hanging on a bit longer.

It is absolute crap, agreed. However what we're engaged in could be a more rewarding gradual ascension. None of that spunking huge amounts of cash on money grabbing mercenaries, and all the while we'll be witnessing the existing big spenders bitching and moaning about us coming for them (refer to Jurgen Klippityklopp).

I'd be wanting us to get 7 points as an absolute minimum from those four games. It won't be easy with the short turn around for the Fulham game after Leicester. A win in that will lift spirits after the Wednesday loss.

Next few games at the top of the table will be quite telling: Man City: (A) Man Utd (H) Spurs (H) Wolves (A) Spurs Arsenal: (A) Spurs (H) Man Utd Man Utd: (H) Man City (A) Palace (A) Arsenal Spurs: (H) Arsenal (A) Man City (A) Fulham (H) Man City Newcastle United: (H) Fulham (A) Palace (H) West Ham (A) Bournemouth Whilst it's tempting to think that the best result for us would be draws in all the highlighted games, I'm not optimistic enough to think we're in a title battle. Therefore ultimately I would want Arsenal and Man City to win all of their games in order to starve Man Utd and Spurs of as many points as possible as the run for three and four will be very tight. Of course the most important factor is us winning our games but in a tight contest every bit helps, if we can get results in these winnable games it will keep the pressure on the others.

I would not count on it, he's very 'raw'.

Ritchie was better than Murphy in this one. Murphy looked like the one who has barely played of late. He's incredibly frustrating with his decision making most often running himself into blind alleys and weakly turning the ball over, he's also weak as piss in the tackle and poor at winning a free-kick. If he comes on late against a tiring defense he can look ok running into space, but yesterday one on one with a defender and all the space in the world he had a core meltdown and did nothing. He made one great run and then didn't have the quality to put it over the keeper into the open net. When called on here as a senior player in the team he let us down is what it boils down to. If you throw him on with our A team his weaknesses are masked, here they were fully exposed and it was very ugly.

The next patron excess funds can go towards a new shift for thebrokenkey.

His eyes being painted on is probably the only excuse I'd accept for him not hitting the target.

Add to that that Anderson was poor. We'll give him the rusty benefit of the doubt.