El-Reacho

Is the whole gambling thing resolved with him?? I'd sign him permanently all day long.

Love how he baits players into coming towards him when he has the ball on his own goal line. Such a well drilled tactic that we've benefited from so well. Dean Smith tried to do this too but it was never as good as it is now. We'd a great chance in the first half when Emi and Pau kept passing it along the inside our box and about 4 of Arsenal's front line kept getting closer to them. We managed to pass it through their press via McGinn and Rogers I think, Oliie missed a good chance.

The income they’re getting from their new stadium is huge. It’s far higher than they had projected it to be.

The mistake for their second was dreadful but given the reaction he'll have got from Emery and his teammates I reckon it's the kind of mistake you'll only make once. I think he's getting better and better - will be very interesting to see if we sign him permanently.

Farcical that they can have that level of power across Europe with their various clubs. How that's considered to be within the rules is beyond me. I realise that NSWE are aspiring to the same business model but they should outlaw it.

Looks like we're in similar form to when we played them before Christmas. Think we'd just come off the back of the Forest defeat a couple prior to that game. I honestly would've had City, Spurs, Fulham and even Wolves ahead of us in the form table. Must be a negative disposition I have!

Very similar circumstances to the 1-0 before Christmas. It's a midweek game on TV and is the standout fixture of the week. We don't have the same momentum as we did before Christmas but we seem to have a bit more confidence about us than a few weeks ago. I'd take a point all day long!

Have always felt Grealish's languid style is ideal for Emery. The way he carries the ball up the field is exactly what Emery has encouraged our players to do since he's been here. He'd be perfect when we're up against low blocks. Don't have a great deal of sympathy for him but he's been treated harshly by City.

We were also really good second half - particularly when zaniolo came on and really amped up the press. Arguably better as a team second half than first. Great to have such a good striker but not be solely dependent on them.

Injury time winner for them.

Felt a bit sorry for the Ajax guy that got sent off just after Ezri. He was as hard done by as Konsa was - the ref would never have booked him if he hadn't just handed out a ridiculously soft second yellow card.

Watkins scored a perfect hat-trick against Liverpool within a month of signing for us - he didn't need too long to develop!

It's more the fact that Everton found themselves in the position of having to sell Richarlison within a certain time period to comply with the rules (which they subsequently didn't even do). They maintain they'd have got £20m+ more by holding out until the end of the window like most teams do, but weren't allowed to. So FFP rules have essentially done them out of a potential £20m - how is that in anybody's favour except for richer teams like Spurs? Levy will have known that Everton needed to sell and used that to negotiate. The same thing happened with Brennan Johnson - Forest wanted to keep him for another season to increase his value even further but weren't allowed to to the benefit of Spurs. It'll likely be the same for us this summer if we're tight against the FFP limits. The big 6 will be lowballing us for Watkins etc. knowing we need to sell by a certain accounting date. The rules are clearly designed to give those teams an advantage over anyone who's trying to catch up with them. The rules were drawn up in response to City throwing money and buying their way to the top. None of the traditional top teams want to see that happening again.

That's the obvious solution but it allows the likes of ourselves and Newcastle to gatecrash the top six party. The fact that the current rules prevent (or make it extremely difficult) for us to catch up with those teams makes it pretty obvious what the real intentions of FPP are. Also the fact that Everton and Forest have had to sell their best players to a club higher up the tree (Spurs) for discounted transfer fees, just to try and stay on the right side of FPP is also ludicrous.

Lol - I remember him doing the media rounds after SG was sacked saying how badly the players had let him down and that the squad lacked any real quality.....