Annoyman

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

Finishing in the top half of the Premier league for the first time in 12 years is a hell of a drug

Digne's done very well in the last couple of games against teams that have been set up in a way that affords him a lot of time and space to whip in crosses from the left. Against teams that are harder to break down, Moreno is way less one-dimensional offensively. He will often look for dangerous passes to feet in the box rather than speculative crosses, and if nothing's immediately on he can play fancy short one-twos or just dribble horizontally across the edge of the area pulling people out of position and causing confusion. He is a really interesting player to watch for this reason imo! Not knocking the job Digne's done covering, and certainly wouldn't complain if we keep both for this seaaon

I was about to post "ah lads you can't put three exclamation marks on Duran's name just because he came off the bench"

Digne's a bit one dimensional in attacking positions when he isn't given the luxury of making left footed crosses in space, but he's been getting that today Enjoying some of the set piece stuff

The exact polar opposite of that phenomenon was the brief, unhappy period where MON would play Carlos Cuellar at right back. Loved the guy, but I used to sit down so fast when he got the ball out wide I think I did lasting damage to my tailbone

It could happen. Last time somebody signed an unexpected new contract with us there turned out to be a release clause that let them leave at the next opportunity. Arsenal seem to be properly back and can offer Champions League. Hopefully it doesn't happen, and certainly not to Spurs: The Wilderness Years, but we'd be better able to cope with him going now than at most points recently I'd say, and if he wants the move and/or has a release clause the club is probably well on top of it and has a plan

If it was Michael Owen he'd have his wife parked at a spa and be playing golf with the lads within two hours of arrival, no question

He was really good as a stabilising influence when he came in in the later stages of games, and tbf he did much better than I expected when starting during the period Cash was injured, but idk if it was sustainable for much longer to have a situation where one injury means your only fit right back is a 38 year old. If you're swimming in cash and can afford to keep him around as utility sub and more occasional starter that's one thing, but we probably can't afford to keep that up. Brighton have some compararively big gaps in their midfield and wage bill about to appear so Milner maybe easier to accommodate

Think they'd distributed some commemorative Best Season Ever shirts to their away support a la Mellberg's last game

In the end I feel nothing. They had become wretched, almost pitiable, and this outcome was as inevitable as the coming of the dawn

They've only beaten us once, and we shithoused a lot and got away with a probable penalty decision in the last away win tbf, some antipathy understandable. Imagine how we'd feel it West Ham had Emi Martinez in goal every time they conspire to beat us. Or if the brain-dead Michael Oliver overturned VAR penalty from the Brighton game in the COVID season had also happened in every subsequent match The recent history seemed to be colouring things a bit today for Brighton's more Extremely Online contingent (the timewasting was way less egregious than at the Amex and our relative control of the second half extended well beyond that), and in terms of discipline the ref kind of lost control to nobody's overall benefit. It was a foul-heavy but not especially ill-tempered game and it seemed like the atmosphere in the stadium wasn't particularly hostile

Only one sub right? Fair play, there were some nerves at the start and Cash had a rough time, but in the last 20 he made the exact kind of calm, sensible decisions with the ball that Young would have been brought on for. I think with the dust settled, the refereeing performance and the amount of pressure we were under in the second half were both a bit overstated; they weren't really in it for the last half hour. For me if anything the ref should objectively have booked Luiz early on and was then guilty of overcompensating for several decisions after their players went nuts and pressured him (without getting a yellow for it...), but by the end it had evened out and they were committing more fouls and getting penalised for them. Brighton have been excellent and doing a double over them is very satisfying, especially seeing as we were playing far more incisive football for the goals and chances this time out compared to the grim rearguard action at the Amex. We'd probably be tempted to say we're a slightly better team than them as of right now, but you can't say they don't deserve 6th over a full season with a good manager and that style of play in place. Considering where we've been, 7th would have been a ridiculously good season for us even if Emery had come in in pre-season, to get it after being out of the relegation zone on goals scored at the end of October is unreal.

Ekoku: wasn't that close actually replay immediately shows it was very close

GOAL - Crystal Palace 1-1 Nottingham Forest Will Hughes [visibly slipping into a coma] unbelievable Jeff

Ref should've booked Luiz, they went mad complaining and he's given out two dodgy yellows to us since

You reckon de Zerbi's just told them to shithouse in every way possible as retribution for the 2-1 away

How does Ekoku not know that's off ffs

The cogs turning in Ramsey's brain there as he waits for the pass to be available, then he executes it perfectly

One thing I also like is that, in a season characterised by managers regularly losing the plot and getting themselves in trouble by saying or doing stupid things, Emery never gets sucked into beefing with rival managers or complaining about decisions or the opponent's tactics. It's always just a calm assessment of his own team's positives and negatives from a match. Klopp was out there with his usual vaguely unhinged sour grapes after the game on Saturday, and with any of the stuff Emery might have kicked off about, he was basically just saying he was proud of the performance. (I'm in the possibly small camp of thinking we haven't actually had an outrageous amount of egregiously bad decisions go against us this season, a couple of soft penalties aside, especially compared to some recent seasons so maybe that changes idk)