Dr Gloom

I noticed that too. I think he’s like all the best strikers: hungry for goals and he still fancies the golden boot

what did you make of the xG modelling for yesterday’s game? I’m struggling to comprehend how Palace’s xG was 2 and ours was less than 2. Okay, I get that Murphy’s goal was a screamer from an angle with a low xG probability and that their missed penalty inflated their figures but did they have any other big chances apart from that? Maybe I’m guilty of looking at the game through black and white spectacles but I don’t remember being overly concerned by many of their chances and thinking we wasted at least 3-4 good opportunities on top of the 5 goals scored.

I don’t mind xg in principle but it isn’t infallible. We fucking battered them. There’s no way they should have a higher xg than us. Isak shoukd have scored four. The one he scored was the hardest of his many chances. What did Palace create other than the penalty? It was mostly potshots from outside the box, which surely should have created less xg than the chances we created. It was one way traffic for 90 minutes

welcome back! couldn’t agree more about Murphy. He’s living the dream and I’m here for it

the one occasion you didn’t predict the 5-0 and it came home. Gemmill-like powers of prediction

Get your cigars out lads. This is champagne football

Justice!

How the fuck is that a penalty like? 😂

and it’s LIIIIVVVVVEEEE

If we a win tonight and a draw at villa, champions league qualification is all but done.

Everton? He looks every inch a David Moyes player. Leeds, if they get promoted maybe. Not too far from home. Or he might look at what McTominay did at Napoli and consider a move abroad. He’s a similar player technically to Sean

Man City’s isn’t easy

Agree it won’t be easy. It’s a much tougher task than Man U - they have some dangerous players up front and Wharton in midfield, who looks the part. We could do with an early goal or them getting someone sent off in the first half to settle us down. It’s the sort of game where the crowd could get nervous but I’m hoping the midweek factor, under the lights with more time for pre match beers, will offset that. I was listening to one of the podcasts earlier and someone mentioned our Wednesday night game record: we’ve won five and drawn one of our last six

He’s had a great career at Newcastle and can be proud that he’s been so involved in the squad for so long after the takeover given his technical levels aren’t as high as a lot of the new additions - he was still keeping Sandro out of the team at times earlier this season, which is remarkable really and a testament to the work Sean gets through on the pitch. There were times in the past few seasons where we just looked better with Sean in the side, despite there seemingly being better options on the bench. You can’t question his attitude and I wouldn’t object to him staying on as 5th/6th choice CM. But Sean may prefer to play first team football at this stage of his career and you’d imagine there would be plenty of suitors in the PL or abroad. We should also be able to get £20-30m of pure profit for a peak age English CM with PL and CL experience.

The magpie looks more like a penguin

imagine caring that much about a club that isn’t a local rival that you’d be motivated to commission artwork that bad

we’re not a Superstitious lot on here but I’m alarmed by the lack of your 5-0 prediction. We know who to blame now if we lose

Man U were canny shit for the first decade and a bit of my life. They had two incredible decades in the 90s/00s under fergie but the amount of airtime they get, despite not doing much for over a decade now, makes their demise all the more amusing. Fuck them. They don’t know what following a shite team really feels like. A few more years of mediocrity won’t do them any harm. It’s character building. No club is entitled to success, despite what the “big six” twats say. Cry me a river for Man U fans

imagine how boring it must be to support one of those teams that always win. I can’t imagine any of their trophy wins felt as good as our league cup triumph

I love how the players aren’t hiding the fact they’re aiming for champions league this season. It’s clear what the objective is in their post match interviews and social media posts. They were quite coy about it right till the end a couple of seasons ago. Almost afraid to admit we were in with a chance for risk of jinxing it. It feels different this time. The players know they’re good enough to get a CL finish and they’re not afraid to say so in public. We’re not here to fuck about and make up the numbers anymore. We’re talking and acting like a big club now. Those fuckwits on sky better recognise

a couple of months ago the consensus was he might be one to leave in the summer. Gordon’s moment of madness opened the door and gave him a chance - could have been his last chance for us if he didn’t take it - but he’s been brilliant. The best thing about his uptick in form is his overall contribution. He’s always been a goal threat but looked a bit of a one trick pony, always looking to cut in and shoot on his right, and often seemed to go missing in games when he wasn’t scoring. The most impressive thing about this run he’s had since the cup final is the work he’s doing off the ball. He’s much more involved in games now - both in build up and defensively. Barnes and Gordon are clearly our two best wingers technically - shame neither of them fancy playing on the right - but Gordon will have to wait for his chance to get back in. How do you drop Murphy or Barnes when they’re both contributing goals and assists?

Turns out I knew even less about him than I realised - he’s another inverted LW rather than a RW

Don’t know much about this lad but could it be the start of the “hot Mitch” summer? It sounds like a Mitchell signing. A young starlet RW rather then an expensive, established PL winger such as Mbeemo or Semenyo