toonotl

Obvious dive from Simple Jack.

Refs just allowed opponents to kick the shit out of our best players. It’s fuckin mental. That was a hoof of a tackle.

Nah wasn’t a pen. But great move and press. Beautiful. Perfect perfect start.

Get in!!!! It looked a pen too.

After all that @Gemmill. We’re warming up in a back 4. If I had to bet on it, I’d say that they’re bluffing in the warmup and we’re playing a back 3. The masterclass has already begun!

Fingers crossed. I’m more inclined to see it as a tactical tweak to more defensive setup driven by injuries. Doesn’t mean it won’t work. Doesn’t mean we won’t attack where appropriate and try to win. Maybe it’s the best way to win with the players available. Hopefully it works out.

If things don’t go our way today I suspect we’re most likely fucked regardless tbh @Gemmill Today was the day to play Big Joe if we could, especially now with more injuries. I don’t expect to see him again this season. I could be wrong of course probably am but I don’t think we’d have played a back three if we hadn’t had the injuries. Howe tinkers very seldom. And Chelsea are shit. In a straight up fight we win. Don’t need to pull a surprise or play funny buggers with weird tactics. I dunno. Have we gone conservative to settle for a draw? Or try to at least. It’s a bit of a concern. Also have to worry about when we knew Tripps and Willock would miss the game. Hopefully all week so they’ve managed to prepare this setup. I’d say that has happened. So we have a chance. But it definitely isn’t ideal.

This must be injury related with Tripps and Willock not selected on the bench. Combined with missing Big Joe this makes me very nervous now.

I'm in the CL is very very important boat too. The difference between getting CL and not getting CL could be and very likely would be enormous. As OTF mentions it makes Mitch's hot summer extravaganza what we all hope it will be. Also qualifying for the CL next season is likely to be much more difficult with the added burden of more games regardless of which European competition we're in. If we're missing CL this season, we're odds on to miss it next too. But with CL we can potentially recruit more players to help ease the burden of the extra games. I think everything points to CL qualification being an enormously important boost to the club's progress relative to the EL (unless we win it which isn't anywhere near as easy as it sounds).

Based on this evidence, I've amended my opinion to completely agree with Craig. Not that I agreed with Gemmers, but it was close which can't be a good thing.

I think that's definitely the truth.

Fuck the both of ya. How's that?

Are you saying that your interpretation is the same as that Spurs supporters? Not that I really care at all at his point three days after the fact, but I don't think that's what Minteh was saying at all. I can't watch that video because it's geo-blocked but from memory he does three things. 1. He makes a prayer gesture, which I interpreted as "giving thanks" or being "grateful" in an ironic sense to Newcastle for selling him. 2. He then does the ridiculously overused "my house" pointing at the ground gesture, which I interpreted to mean "I'm here now" and I'm a complete wombat. 3. He then kisses his badge adding further credence to the idea that he's completely lost the plot, but which I also interpreted to mean "And I'm happy about being at Brighton and having been sold". I think the whole escapade was incited by the away support getting on his case a couple of times prior to that, the most immediate example being when he caused Tino to roll his ankle. I think his teammates may have been annoyed or more likely concerned that (a) he was inciting the opposition supporters in an incredibly inflammatory way which is never a good idea and (b) he's got caught up in the crowd booing him for his involvement in a few incidents and is clearly not concentrating fully on the game. His teammates may be saying in essence, "Forget about them, play the game". Difference of opinion, of course, and impossible to verify either way. But I really think it's pretty unlikely that he's saying he didn't want to come to Brighton with that celebration. He may have been refusing to celebrate again like previously but I don't think so, I think he's perhaps even lulling the supporters into a sense that he's refusing to celebrate then gone off on them. Or, possibly another alternative, he was refusing to celebrate then the away support gave him more lip and he's turned on them then and there. Like I said, I haven't rewatched it since two days ago but that Spurs supporters idea doesn't jive with my memory of it. He seemed to be very very angry with the Newcastle supporters and not indicating in any way that he didn't want to be at Brighton. Anyway without being able to re-watch it from memory my interpretation at least seems to track with how the three separate gestures might be connected. I don't see how those three gestures can be connected to your interpretation (if that tweet is representative of your interpretation) as a coherent slight against Brighton (not that the celebration made much sense in general). In any case, it doesn't really matter at this point. I don't care what happens in the guys career. He's gone. Who cares. He never played for us and his refusal to celebrate the first time he scored against was strange and unneeded. This celebration was just more of the same in the opposite direction (as far as I could tell). He never built a connection with the support because he never played for us. Seems a little self-important to think otherwise from his perspective. Weird of him to expect that the away support would treat him like one of their own. But, hey, whatever. Each to their own.

This is some great "Origins of 'The Run-in' Thread" lore. The kind of deep investigative analysis this thread is crying out for tbh. Personally, I'd be interested to see "Paul", as the third most significant contributor to this discussion that we know of so far, elaborate on his views.

I think we'll be back on it for this match. Away to Brighton is a bogey game for us for some reason. 3-0 against a Chelsea team who have been close to a bottom half team since their string of good results was broken early in the season. Isak two and Murphy. I only want to see one change with Miley in for Willock. Willock has been crap.

Pope. Perfectly timed his pretend injury.

What a mental game. No doubting the effort as usual. Would’ve accepted a draw at kickoff given recent results against these lot.

God they nearly had two goals from two chances.

We’ve got a grandstand finish for Minteh’s testimonial. Predictable.

That should call Pawsen to the screen just to confirm with him what a penalty looks like.

How’s Wilson failed to score there? Is that a fuckin card? That’s deliberate handball.

We have completely bottled this today. Worst performance since probably the last time we played these fuckwits. And there’s no way that’s got anything to do with Brighton. Just crap the highest order.

Fuck off man. This finishing is diabolical.

We have to just not lose our heads here. Could easily see a Gordon/Schar style red here with the way the game has gone.

Howe taking the piss. They’ll have to send Pawsen to the VAR screen to figure that out though.