OTF

And then Dermott "whatever the refs did was right" Gallagher came out and defended that decision as well. Nevermind that those two decisions stand in stark constrast on the you can/can't contact an opposing player in the box ledger, they're both right because.... that's what the referee called during the game.

Nuno: "I didn't see the images yet. It's not my job." Smart man, doing a good job.

Yep, he was preparing to jump higher to claim the ball, denied the opportunity. All down to that cross being such a hail mary.

Rafa: "In England I think they don't know this rule, so it's ok.....in the firstbgame we had an elbow into the face and we lost the game so it's ok." Not verbatim but basically "referees are shit" without and danger of penalty. Well said.

Owen Hargreaves calls it spot on. Defender's arms are on Dubravka's shoulders well before the ball is in the area, keeping him from making a fair play at the ball and pulling him backwards. Dubravka could have been stronger but a bigger player's arms land on his shoulders and pull him off balance. Then an ex-referee comes in and stands up for the refereeing decision. Completely pointless having someone like that on. "I don't really think he's done too much wrong there (Boly).......he's (Dubravka) got the advantage of using his hands". Said immediately after footage of Boly using his hands to gain advantage, so tell us Dermott exactly what advantage does Dubravka have when another player lands on him from behind whilst he's waiting for a lofted cross to come into play?

5th minute of 4 added.

Papiss Cisse?

And it should have been 4, I'd be waking in a cold sweat if I missed that one, much worse than Ritchie's from earlier in the season. Aguero deserves to forget about it after his first though. Can you imagine how many hat tricks Shearer in his prime would get playing in the current Man City side?

Can't see Rafa changing his tactics for this one, particularly as it has become increasingly important that we get something from it. As much as I'd like to think we should be able to play a more possession based game against opponents on similar levels the reality is otherwise. Maybe when we have the likes of Ki back for a while that will be possible. Having won three straight league games they'll be confident. They've got a strong defensive record as well but won't be used to attacking in compressed space and hopefully won't have the quality to break us down. They tend to have the ball more than we do, so there's no reason to expect that to change at their home ground. Given the return to availability of several players it will be interesting to see who starts, in particular whether Longstaff and Hayden retain their spots and whether Ritchie continues as a wing back. That will all come down to how Diame and Ki have been training. I'd expect at least one of them to come in for (hopefully) Hayden. Longstaff IMO deserves to retain his spot, he's been without flaw.

Another notably good performance from Longstaff. Great engine on him and a very good head for his age and experience.

Absolute legend of the game. They misnamed a major central Australian highway after him in anticipation of how great he was going to be.

Struggled to get down fast enough. On the handball in the headup from Llorente, think it's nullified by the nudge from Schar.

Real shame after the game we've had.

Hacked?

That's his official title.

And wonder how our away allocation could sell out when there's loads of seats. But then I've never bothered to look into the way away allocations are.... allocated.

We've got Tim Sherwood who delights in slagging Rafa and Newcastle off at every chance. Probably because we routinely beat them when he lucked into the managers role at Tottenham.

Dubravka should have held onto that. Got a bit lucky.

Can only hope we can maintain our structure and discipline at the same time.

Aye, Schar way behind the defensive line keeping them on side he can thank his lucky stars they didn't score.

Almiron amusingly compared to Gareth Bale, amusing mostly because when they said Bale I heard Barry.

Eagerly anticipating this one with a nice early kick-off down here (11:30PM). So we're nailed on for a terrible performance and loss.

We'll find out tonight, live! Plenty of football to be play tonight! And beyond. Live! Actually it's the morning for those of us on the other side of the world. Will be going for Leicester in this one fo' sure. Pep didn't seem in the mood for staging a title push.

Listen to you sour bunch of discontented pessimists. The rest of us have found the golden nugget* having beaten the unbeatable and with our record signing on his way** * in the continual unrelenting river of shite ** pending no resumption of regular service

Unbelievable result. Well played team, well played Rafa.