v.old

See my comments above

He’s got their back two scared shitless

Stays as it is then Brighton will not recover and their game v Villa will be to decide the last European spot and that is as it should be. Champions League is down to two from three

I thought the VAR drama suppressed our mood, improved their mood but most significantly the length of the hiatus totally disrupted our dominance of them. Did they score almost immediately after? Feels as if they did. Having said that our response was surprisingly inadequate and they deserved the win

Sky pundits talking about Liverpool like they’re doing a podcast for the Liverpool Echo is nauseating

I got 9-1 on us qualifying for the Champions League in May and am now being offered cash out at better than 8-1 so the bookies only see us qualifying

I knew Jacob had it in him

So, am I correct in thinking that there's a correlation between Newcastle United’s chances of qualifying for the Champions’ League and the opportunity for detente between Saudi Arabia and Iran and conflict between Saudi Arabia and BEIN Sports coverage and whatever the next thing is?

I was proud of them in the end

We win or draw, we finish at least fourth. And my bet comes in

About the same amount of time between fixtures as well. At least Germany spent the time rearming

Such a putty

It was my turn and got the error report. Booted to the back of the queue; they need to sort this out as it shouldn’t still be happening

AC Milan kicking themselves that they’re not Brentford

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/oliver-holt-column-manchester-city-4777142 Article’s from 2014 but really apart from the ESL debacle and the PIF buying us, what’s changed?

WTFF. How good are we

The reports in the papers paint the document as a bombshell when in reality it’s the output of this https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/cases_e/ds567_e.htm , a process that has been going on for some time and with which the Saudis are engaged. There’s an appeal process too. Definitely not an expert but surely this has come as no surprise to the buying side and the impact of it might not be as profound as those briefing the Guardian want.

Southampton, so good they named it twice. Unlike Norwich.

Wild Arabia on BBC Four now for bit of info on culture and natural history relating to our new overlords chums.

Good article on Hayden in today’s Times, unfortunately paywalled. There were health issues surrounding the birth of his daughter, her health and his partner’s health that led to his wanting to move. All perfectly understandable. He really wants to spend significant time with his daughter that he feels unable to do as his partner and her have to live away for family support while he’s up here. The feeling I got from the article is that he still wants to go but is happy at the club until he can get away.

Forgot to say, amazing ability and maturity from Longstaff. Excellent.

An outstanding performance for this group of players, I believe. Can’t fault anyone for application and I refuse to criticise them on the basis of ability with this owner. The manager is a gift from the gods as he will keep us up and a hound of hell for making life easier for Ashley.

Thought pretty much everyone played to the maximum of their abilities. Could have nicked a somewhat undeserved point but we were resilient in any case. Onwards to next week and hopefully upwards.

I'm going to this. Really want to do some sightseeing but prematch was thinking of the John Donne up the Metro from the ground for a bite and some beers before the match (4 or 5ish). If you get the visa and hear of better let me know.