jamesbuchanan

I doubt it, neither player is in the the squad for Europe named a couple of weeks ago.

You can watch the whole match on iPlayer. If you watch from minute 63 onwards you can see one definite wave of the arm from McGinn in the direction of Duran because he wasn't pressing. There are then 3-4 more instances of Duran not pressing up to when he is taken off. McGinn isn't on screen for all that time, but when he is on screen I don't see him gesticulating to the bench. I guess he could have spoken to the bench before 63 minutes - someone else can check the second half up to minute 63

Does anyone have a link to the compilation they showed of his saves? Included some Villa apparently.

Sorry I just pop up once or twice a season to correct someone and disappear again. You were the unlucky one this time.

I think the predictions factor the likely performance of teams in this years' European competitions into the calculations, and England are predicted to finish in the top 2 spots.

Won't work like that next season. Each team plays one home and one away match against a team from each of the four pots. So 8 games in total in the league phase.

Excellent defensively today.

Suspect Ollie starts against Andorra, with Kane starting against Hungary. I don't think Kane plays both games, and the only other option in a central role up front is Sterling, and I don't think Southgate would play him there (unlike Pep).

Minor point: the 2022 World Cup isn't in the summer, it's in 18 months' time.

If we'd held on to beat 10 man Arsenal, we'd be above Arsenal!

I have a feeling we will get one good result at home against one of the top 6 this season, and I think everything is set up for it to be this game because absolutely nobody is expecting it. We have no strikers, we're conceding goals, they're in good form, and many people have written this off as a dead rubber. Here's what will happen. They will have all of the ball in the first half. We will have the odd good moment, inevitably involving Jack, but overall the possession/shot stats will massively favour City. Then we sneak a goal just before HT from a set-piece (foul on Jack, then a Mings header). The second half goes even more in City's favour. We retreat and retreat. All of the game is played in our last third. Nyland is a wall. Jota comes on for Trezeguet and is similarly ineffective. There's a heart in your mouth VAR call that goes in our favour. Smith subs Lansbury on for Luiz for no good reason on 80 minutes, then Lansbury touches the ball once in the remainder of the game. Far too much time is added on. City have a final attack. We head it clear. Jack takes it to the halfway line by himself to relieve the danger. The final whistle blows. Everyone breathes for the first time in seven and a half minutes. Or maybe not. It's Friday afternoon and I'm killing time until the weekend starts. But you've got to have a little hope, right?

Table since Dean Smith took over: https://www.transfermarkt.com/championship/formtabelle/wettbewerb/GB2?saison_id=2018&min=13&max=45 Promotion form, basically.

Lansbury won't be playing, his partner gave birth today.

RDL is suspended.

For what it's worth, I just re-ran the simulation (including Fulham's win), and we're now down to a 0.8% chance (about 1 in 131).

Obviously it's pretty unlikely we're going to finish second, but I like messing around with spreadsheets and I wanted to know precisely how unlikely it is, so I just simulated the final 2 games of the season for Us/Cardiff/Fulham to find out. It's a pretty crude simulation - I used match odds from Unibet as inputs into the simulation then ran it 10,000 times. I also assumed that if we finish level on points with Fulham, our GD will be better (we are guaranteed to have a better GD than Cardiff if we finish level on points with them). Here are the results: Conclusion: it's pretty unlikely! Approximately a 1 in 100 chance. You should be able to download the file here if you want to run it for yourselves (click on Simulate).

Not quite. If they draw x2 and we win x2 then we would have the better GD. Still a long shot though.

1-1. Come on Forest.

Probably because of this

Somebody elses projections shared on Reddit. I don't know the details of their simulations, so it's dififcult to critique their approach, but it's really nicely laid out and a good illustration (imo) of the likely outcomes. Edit: link to comments and further details http://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/35liy9/statistical_premier_league_finish_projections/

Gabby confirmed as missing the game (as per the post on his instagram account)

If this was considered to be an issue by the various authorities, they would have already scheduled Arsenal for Saturday and Villa for Sunday. As they haven't, we can only assume that putting Villa on Saturday is their preferred option, but it depends on Arsenal not progressing tonight. Remember these are the same authorities that scheduled Villa-Baggies as an evening kickoff at the weekend. Anyway, as all three clubs who are through so far are putting tickets on sale tomorrow, I expect an announcement first thing in the morning at the latest.

All the more reason to make it a Sat lunchtime kickoff then? Night out for Villa fans would then more likely be the night before, perhaps?

Not always - Liverpool v Everton was a Sat lunchtime kickoff a couple of years ago. Plus an FA Cup semi final hasn't clashed with a big Chelsea home match before, at the same time on Saturday evening. I don't get the fuss about the Baggies fans in particular. There's no reason for them to be anywhere near Wembley. They'll be getting trains into central London while we're playing (assuming an early kickoff), and Villa fans will be heading home on a different train before their game has ended. Situation with Blues fans is broadly similar, although obviously they'll be closer.

Either late tonight, or more likely, tomorrow, is my guess. They're waiting to see if Arsenal go through in the Champions League, because the two legs of the CL quarter final are either side of the FA Cup semi. If they go through, I would guess that they would play on the Saturday. If they don't, I would expect us to play on the Saturday, as they probably want the two teams with the least travelling to do to play on the Sunday. I don't think the Blues/Baggies games in London on the Saturday afternoon are as big a deal as some are making out. Given that Man United are playing at Chelsea on Saturday night, I would expect the first semi-final to be on Saturday lunchtime (with the second semi late afternoon on Sunday). So the travel plans of Villa/Baggies/Blues fans wouldn't coincide too much if we were playing on the Saturday.