jamesbuchanan

2 hours ago, John said:

Oh well, as anticipated with Tyrone, I had hoped that Buendia would have been available before the season end. Hopefully they will both be sitting on the bench in Athens and will be firing on all cylinders for next season. 

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.

3 minutes ago, MrBlack said:

Thanks, 

2 corrections of me in 2 posts. Nice work .

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

49 minutes ago, MrBlack said:

I think this is wrong sadly... if the leagues finished now Turkey and Belgium leagues would be getting the extra place  and 5th in our league would be going to the Europa League.

Go to below and sort by 23/24

https://www.uefa.com/nationalassociations/uefarankings/country/

Italy and Germany also ahead of us at the moment. Long way to go though...

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.

1 hour ago, MrBlack said:

I'd take a group with AC Milan, Atletico Madrid and Bayern Munich if you offered it to me now.

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).

19 minutes ago, Don_Simon said:

This is what I think too. The last one, absolutely. The next one, if we don't make progress, absolutely. But this one, where we are making big strides, adding quality, a world cup next summer where he will want to be on centre stage all season, this window makes little sense. 

I'd even say a new contract with £150 million release clause is more likely than him moving. 

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

47 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

That's literally all we need. If we just had 2 wins against the top 6 this season we'd be above Arsenal.

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

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.

2 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I reckon axel will be right back and jed at the back. Bruce seems to have no faith in RDL, Taylor and Elphick and would rather play players out of position. I expect at lease two out the three positions wil be strengthened in the next three weeks. 

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).

1 minute ago, Keyblade said:

Even after this, they have to lose 1 and draw the other for us to even finish above them on goal difference.

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.

When are they going to announce when the game will be played? It would help to know!!

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.