OTF

Was Longstaff bad otherwise in the game? Plenty saying he was poor. He'd been playing OK of late so kind of disappointing if it is the case.

These days he would have scored the header from his own "pass", claiming both the goal and assist.

This is the archetypical signing for us; sure the transfer fee is higher that we'd liked but that's balanced against his age and the fact that he's not already on ridiculous wages. Rumoured to be going to 100-120k/week which is a massive increase from what he's on at Socieded. Would have been the same for Ekitike.

Not bad but "fuck me" can you get a less "shite" mic please.

I can't fathom anything that could ever surpass the Mike Ashley getting the hang of this footballing lark comment.

THERE ON THE WAYNE!!!!!

That run was glorious, to Maxi it was like Stones wasn't even there. Walker was no doubt hiding elsewhere, glad that it wasn't him for once.

That was Phase 0/1 Eddie Howe. We're at least at Phase 2 now.

Krafth as well. Also, what's with the Ciggy name for Longstaff? I honestly wouldn't mind if Bruno, Bot, Burn, Joelinton, Willock and Miggy played in some capacity too, not sure why I feel obliged to give Schar a rest, probably because Lascelles is guaranteed to play. I assume you can still make 5 subs in cup games? Hopefully Targett will be fit for this - I didn't hear the latest after he was going to have a late fitness check for the Man City game. So many times in these cup games we've played a weakened team, failed to score when we've had the upper hand and had the less favoured opposition grow in confidence. Start with a strong team, aim to get in front then swap in the fresh players and keep our momentum.

It must be tragic at home when you head out on a fishing expedition at the forum of your sworn enemy* after they take the game to one of the best teams in the world and earn wide and far praise in the media for it. * even though you're just comedy in their world.

Keep that on the low-down during negotiations.

Don't think it's very likely that Watford will qualify for the Champions League, cunning clause there Dan Ashworth. #Business

So jealous of you lot that get to go to games. My desire to attend had been almost extinguished by Ashley but it's definitely back. Now it will be q case of waiting a few years and taking my boys (and the Mrs).

@LondonBlue thanks for the honest post. If I was a Man City fan I'd probably have thought the ref "did ok" too. One thing he eventually got right you dont agree with Grealish is a dick but if what he said has in any way motivated Almiron (who had a strong pre-season and has started the season well) then I'm glad he said it. Haaland is going to cause a lot of teams nightmares; with your teams incisive passing and his head down sprint any similarly sized defender won't be able to keep up and any similarly fast player will be out-sized. Pope's quickness off his line in this instance is going to have to be the template for teams to follow. When I first watched the game I marvelled at the brilliance of De Bruyne's pass for the third Man City goal how he somehow threaded the needle through a wafer thin passage. Having re-watched the replays he just got incredibly lucky as it was more or less passed into Willock's feet. It was great movement from Silva though.

Bruno being here surely puts a bunch more Brazilian eyes on our games too, and having watched them you can't help but be impressed by Joelinton's energy and his link up play. The one thing he probably needs to work on is resisting that extra push when boxing a defender into a corner, that little bit of over enthusiasm too often results in a free kick to the defender who will happily go down softly when Joe comes in like a bull in a china shop.

It's not a red card simply because of the height of the challenge (which some have suggested). The main distinction is he was across De Bruyne and not into him (i.e. de bruyne was tripped and not kicked) it was studs first and it wasn't out of control. It he came into the side of De Bruyne then it's dangerous and ared. He was actually on a trajectory to get the ball which is clear from the high angle. It's a cynical yellow every day of the week because he knew even if he gets to the ball first that he has cut across De Bruyne's run. I can actually understand in this case why the ref gave it a red to begin with as he was seeing it from behind De Bruyne so just would have seen Trippier come across through the air and De Bruyne going down. It was perfect execution of the VAR system by both the VAR and the ref. Ref still otherwise had an absolute shocker though.

And why should he, the most ridiculous part was he answered the question once explaining how he hadn't really seen it clearly and then the next 'journalist' effectively asked the exact same thing phrased differently. After a game like that there's so much more to talk about than a call that the shite ref botched and eventually corrected. You can tell in their heads they've already written the article and just need the headline/quote to match their shite.

In all the fanfare for the others Willock missed out though he had a pretty strong game in closing down and contributed to a couple of good attacking movements.

Basically three assists for ASM, two actual and winning the free-kick that Trips put away. He's MOTM for me. A bit tough on Pope, but I'd rather acknowledge our attacking play.

For their second goal, to me, it looked like Stones (I think) was fractionally offside from the cross.

For the sake of accuracy I'd like to clear up a common misconception. The ref, Jarred Gillett, is not Australian he's a Queenslander.

Bruno