blunther

You're right, the deaths are delayed. In which I mean the 649 today include deaths that happened today, yesterday, the day before, often going back up to four weeks. That graph above is updated daily and deaths are retrospectively added in on the date of death. It's not perfect as we're working with incomplete data, but there's a clear demonstrable peak which passed a few weeks ago. We won't know exact numbers until long after this has passed I assume, but the pattern is becoming clear and we're thankfully on a clear downward trend now. Edited to add, the thin red horizontal bars on top of the blue are deaths announced today. You can see there have been deaths added all through the start and middle of April from today's numbers. So the blue bars on the right will indeed grow taller, but they won't get as tall as early April. To get back on topic about the football, think about other seasons ending early. We could have finished last season in the bottom half of the championship, yet we got promoted. Leicester in 2015 were rooted at the bottom of the table and cut adrift. They survived then won the bloody league. Newcastle would have a league title from Keegan's days. We could have won the league under O'Neill. It's a farcical state of affairs. A league season is each team playing each other twice. Until that happens it's not a season.

Those are deaths reported today. Some go back weeks (to the day the person actually died). We're still in the hundreds but it's hopefully not close to 700 now. The way figures are reported is really confusing and misleading. The best graph I've seen illustrating the current situation can be found here... When it comes to football, God knows. Can't do anything without upsetting loads of people. I don't see how you can relegate anyone though and call it fair. There's no relegation spot until each team has played every other team twice. It's as relevant being in 19th after 28 games as it is after 1 game or 10 games. It's only after 38 that it becomes the relegation zone. If they relegate us for that then play the next year or so behind closed doors I'll probably just jack it all in and do something more productive to be honest.

A lot of talk about relegation and the like (obviously since we're down there) but that game in hand for Sheffield United could put them in a champions League spot if the Man City ban stands. Arsenal also a game in hand away from a Europa League spot. I've no idea how you could fairly sort that out...

Also means if we relegate 5 or 6 next year that bouncing back up the year after will be the hardest it's ever been!

They might think a bit more long term...get rid of the top four, no teams coming down with PL money.... Gives teams like Forest, Preston and the like the best chance of promotion they'll ever have next year.

It's not the first time Friend has been demonstrably bent when refereeing a match of ours. He's a crook.

Same here. I'm certainly coming if we're in the Championship. Yet to decide if we stay up.

I looked a couple of weeks ago and they were sold out. The also segregated the car parks by team, though not sure how they were planning on enforcing that. Pink was Man City IIRC.

I've done exactly the same. Hopefully be quite quick onto the M1 after the match.

Really? I think if it finally came out that there was match fixing at the top level I and many others would be thinking 'no shit, sherlock'. Not saying VAR is the cause of match fixing, but I'm convinced some referees have been on the take for decades. There's too much money at stake, and referees are paid too little in comparison, for there to be any other option than match fixing by referees. Not saying fixing as in specific scores or even results, but little sweeteners for the refs if a few 50/50 calls go the right way... course it happens.

So, VAR overruled it, so it was a Clear And Obvious Error, yeah? So which of the linesman or referee will be held accountable for their Clear And Obvious Error? I could understand the referee not having a great view, but if he didn't then the Lino was ten yards away. Surely there should be a tally of the Clear And Obvious Errors each referee and linesman have made? When and how are they held accountable for them? If a referee keeps making Clear And Obvious Errors then surely they should be sacked? Say, more than three a season? Or maybe it's all just made up bullshit.

Plenty of good performances today from us. The main thing I took home from that though is the conviction that the referees are on the take. No yellows for Spurs in that game is so demonstrably corrupt it's unbelievable. They're obviously all at it though so no one does a thing.

I always liked what I saw of him. I'd hate to see us lose him for nothing, especially if we end up going down. With Grealish leaving he'd have a chance to force his way into the team.

Seems so simple to me. Have someone watch it back in slow motion if there's a goal. If there's an obvious error, overrule it. If the linesman's decision looks kosher in slow Mo, let it stand. Gets rid of egregious errors without the nonsense.

More farce in the Wolves match. Even the referee doesn't seem to know what's happening. Who's in charge anymore?

Hello all, I've always got the train to Wembley in the past, and usually stayed overnight too. For various reasons I need to drive down this time. I remember I went in a minibus as a kid in 1994 and parked near the ground and it took hours to even start moving. I'm assuming this hasn't improved much, so looking for tips on better places to park. I don't mind a bit of a walk, and would much rather walk 45-60 minutes after the game and get straight out than walk ten minutes and sit in traffic all evening. I'll be heading down the M40/A40 so looking at maps somewhere like Perivale looks about right to be in walking distance yet hopefully be able to jump back on the main road, but I'd never even heard of Perivale before looking at a map. Since we seem to go to Wembley every year now I'm hoping someone here has some good tips! Thanks!

It's like a bloody episode of Black Mirror. Nothing exists these days unless you wave your bloody phone at it. What happened to just experiencing something?

Oh, ace! I got my info from VillaTalk - shoulda known not to trust that lot

I don't think he can play against Leicester as he wasn't registered for the first leg...

Fair play. I kind of like how he rips the piss out of us when he scores. I just wish he wouldn't score so bloody often. Rivalry like that is what footballs about. We'd love him to bits if he was one of ours. Very good striker.

Just wanted to say after they started time wasting at 0-0 I tried to count how many times the referee had to signal to hurry up and stop timewasting. 14. Fourteen times and not one yellow for it. Absolutely spineless refereeing from an utterly useless referee. The timewasting bastards got what they deserved!

I don't care about Watford's form... what I care about is we need five or six wins to stay up, and if we don't get them against Watford at VP and Bournemouth away then I don't see where they're coming from. Four points absolute minimum needed from the next two, otherwise we're deep in the shit.

Feel sorry for the poor bugger that paid £42 for my ticket for that!

Not sold out yet then.... My season ticket is on resale and still hasn't gone yet!