Annoyman

Unfortunate for Clermont Lovelength

All the outcomes here are either good or funny

Frustrating one. They got caught offside a dozen times and if Zaniolo gets a free kick for the first goal and Martinez doesn't uncharacteristically chuck one in for the second, it might be a stodgy 0-0, but we just didn't have enough enterprise going forward for the situation we'd put ourselves in

Digne was our best attacking threat, but that cross Pau slid him in for at the end looked like it'd be harder to miss one of our players than not, and he somehow basically made a decent clearance for them

Ref was crap but they deserved to win. Hopefully it's one of those where a detailed angry inquest from Emery puts things right and we're back to at least continuing some home form

Dunno if it's just flashbacks to the Stoke dark ages but I wish the Premier League would tell people throw-ins aren't ceremonial and they have to take them reasonably quickly

It takes time for players to respond to a new manager's ideas, it's really too early for Blues to even think about occupying the position in the table they were uh in when uh Rooney took over as manager

God, I was at that one, still got some Czech kid's Slavia scarf sitting in a drawer somewhere, didn't think it'd be the last one for 15 years

I liked how the instant the ball hit the net for his goal, Tielemans was turning round to shout out the quality of McGinn's pass

The commentator is decent, seems like he knows his stuff, but his claim that our PL goal difference is +24 is a bit uhh citation needed

Interesting how the Kamara error almost encouraged them to overcommit to the press straight after to try and rattle us, and we just passed through them really easily because they've worked on it loads

Happy for Tielemans, he's looking assured out there in this role

Nervous for this one. Their fans hate us more than anything in the world and ever since we relegated them they've been waiting for nothing more than to get back here and get revenge. They'll be well up for it and if we're not on it from the first kick of the game we might-

Ah hold on, I'm being advised that Coventry City in fact lost the playoff final on penalties, lmao owned

Hopefully we can keep the winning run going here, would certainly take a more pragmatic, less spectacular win (like Forest at the end of last season) given the big week ahead

Watford 2-1 was Rob Hawthorne, also of "it's broken again for Ashley Young...is there to be a final twist yet? YOUNG~!" fame

34 minutes ago, rubberman said:

It'll be tough as there was only 1 match today. 

Gah! Wish I'd known that when I made the post! In this context it's now absurd, humorous even

The commentary did seem weirdly begrudging, the stuff about how we're too inconsistent because we got pasted by Newcastle, who are in the Champions League and got dismantled by Brighton...not saying we're favourites to finish top 4 by any stretch but yeesh. I used to think Dixon was alright as a pundit but no, he is a dim, surly luddite

And despite all of them goals  I bet we're still last on Match of the Day 2 and all! Disgraceful

Good little bit of proactive play by Zaniolo to create the opening for the first goal. We're a bit overreliant on him with Ramsay out but he's got something, and hopefully he'll develop a similar level of understanding with Watkins as Diaby has. And not get banned forever.

Also an assist for Tielemans which might be something for his confidence, though Leon will rightly take the plaudits. For all he hasn't been as consistent as we hoped just yet, shifting it onto his left in that part of the area is often a death sentence for the opposition. He did it against "Leeds United" and when was the last time you heard anything about them?

Also a good weekend for being grateful that we have a top class keeper who doesn't chuck many in his own net, even if his hamstrings do become terrifyingly fragile during the last 15 minutes of games we're winning

We were so, so overdue to paste these. They're always a tough game for us, but it really felt like a gulf in class in the styles of football became apparent as the second half wore on. We were also a bit fortunate that Antonio looked knacked and only really contributed one dangerous ball in; feels like West Ham definitely have a platform to develop if they keep the good players they have and get a new manager and centre forward

Please no weirdly limp performances against AZ and Luton now! No Kenneth.

Ollie Watkins has turned heel. Can't believe this

Edit: this was in reference to him taking out McGinn with a backfist, but then McGinn immediately set him up to score. Terrible booking but I'll take it

Paqueta doing his routine of backing into Kamara trying to get a cheap free kick then just plays Konsa in

I don't even know if I could have been mad if they'd held on for 0-0, that was an all-timer of a defensive performance by a team that could afford to settle for a draw

Nice for the nazi salute guy to see us get a late winner against his team I guess

Tielemans seemed slightly improved and was maybe a little unlucky not to create something, he had a few very good balls that were very narrowly cleared or cut out, though that stray pass near the end could have turned ugly. He needs one of those long rangers to fly in. Lenglet was fairly effective in the second half hemming them in a bit and recycling the ball

Cash is a really good impact sub to come on and cram 90 minutes of running into a single half like a madman. Shame we don't have a proper right back to (sometimes) start ahead of him

It genuinely looked like every single one of our players was roided to the gills and had been hypnotised into believing it was the Champions League final

I feel like if I was neutral I'd think our second and third should have been disallowed, but in this case I don't doubt we'd have gone back up there and scored a different goal in response anyway

I've always believed that John McGinn is the best left back in world football

What a finish!

Still no idea if Digne is OK

It wasn't a red but the law is kind of an ass when the free kick and yellow card stand because Sterling wasn't sent off

We've not been at our best going forward but there are several players having excellent games

Yeah I was kind of expecting to grudgingly concede that it was a harsh pen once MOTD slowed it down, but nah, still not losing any sleep over that

Shades of the Roger Johnson on Agbonlahor one in the Derby in 2010-11 ish that Blues went mental over, the incidental nick on the ball becomes irrelevant if your other leg is bringing the guy down and preventing him from retrieving it