Mark Albrighton

Disappointing to not see any mention of the hot ball(s) being used in the FA cup draw. 

I assume it’s because we’re all just accepting that it is actually true and any time two big clubs are drawn together in an early round it is simply done to try and throw us off the scent of the trickery elsewhere.

Obviously I’m joking.

1 hour ago, sharkyvilla said:

Why in the Fugitive film they chose to use a one-armed assassin.  It's no surprise he botched the job and got tracked down fairly easily by Kimble.

If I was being critical I would say it’s another example of ableism (or whatever) whereby to showcase that the villain is indeed a villain, has to have some disfigurement or disability. The last Bond film received some flak for the villain having facial scars.

I do however like the line “It wasn’t me, it was the one armed man!”. It has a nice cadence or something about it. But I was made aware of the line from it being referenced in The Mask.

It’s just been mostly pissy weather all year, hasn’t it? Not a lot of snow and/or ice which is fine, but just miserable. 

Today is particularly horrible which is colouring my view on the matter.
 

<insert laboured gag along the lines of original Ronaldo being forced to post in this thread because of his Nike deal>

Re reading Kinnear’s Newcastle press conference. It’s rather beautiful in its way.

Just now, ben1505 said:

Perhaps losing key players to injury and suspension would explain our dip in form?

Don’t have to explain it to me.

I’m just pointing out the hypocrisy of suggesting people go and get some fresh air instead of watching a match that directly impacts the club’s position but then proceeds to pass their time by whining about a result from months ago.

Just now, R.Bear said:

How has our home form been since that game?

Didn’t fancy the fresh air then. 

Just now, R.Bear said:

Oh give me a break. We were on a 15 game home winning streak and had just beaten Man City and Arsenal back to back. We were playing a side who have 16 points after 31 games.

That's an embarrassing excuse.

Which is of course typical of sides who are mentally weak, going on historic winning runs.

How about you go for some fresh air instead of telling others to while you dredge up matches from last year?

4 minutes ago, Pongo Waring said:

Go on give it a guess for us

Maybe 10 points. 3 wins and a draw from Bournemouth, Chelsea, Brighton and Palace. Mainly because while I would put us favourites for each game, I don’t think we’ll win all of them.

We (likely) miss out on fourth on goal difference if that happens.

Unless Chelsea or Newcastle do better than I anticipate, which I guess there’s a reasonable chance, but I’m erring on the side that says Spurs will pick up 4 from those.

1 minute ago, Pongo Waring said:

----------------------------------------------------
Spurs Fixtures:
Newcastle (A)    
Arsenal (H)    
Chelsea (A)
Liverpool (A)
Man City (H)    
Burnley (H)    
Sheffield Utd (A)    

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Villa Fixtures:
Arsenal (A)    
Bournemouth (H)    
Chelsea (H)    
Brighton (A)    
Liverpool (H)    
Crystal Palace (A)    

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Who Picks up more points and grabs 4th?
 

I have Spurs at 70 points.

Not sure about us.

51 minutes ago, StewieGriffin said:

They wont go down - Cardiff have been rubbish for weeks now, they'll beat Rotherham too. 6 points might well be enough, but they'll probably scrape a win at Huddersfield as well.

Looking at their recent results, very mid table is my perception. 

Lost to Hull at home yesterday. Beat Coventry away last week. 

Lost to Sunderland and Swansea before that, but also beat Ipswich. 

It’s been LWLLWWWWDL over the past ten games, very Jekyll & Hyde.

I do feel like the Cardiff game may well prove to be the most indicative. If they lose it I think they might actually drop.

Double post

9 hours ago, GeordieVillan said:

I think we would have had an impact, but I think he too would have been exposed more by our playing style this year, and the other injuries.

We are playing high risk football, like many of the best teams do, and we are 4th in the league. Last season we were more solid but more cautious. There may be a middle ground.

I do think the front 6 we played today would have left Mings exposed as well, especially if he was playing in the Carlos position and Konsa played how he did today. I suppose the question is whether Mings would have been in Konsa’s ear and making sure he wasn’t getting caught out…

I feel like we are playing in a reasonably similar manner to last season. I certainly recall plenty of critiques of high lines and playing out from the back.

To kinda further hammer home the stats, of the 26 goals we conceded with Unai in charge last season, 11 were in that 3 game run of Arsenal, Leicester and Citeh. So I think it’s fair to say they were an outlier. 

If we take them out, it’s 15 goals conceded in 22 games. No two ways about it, that’s really good.

If we do likewise and take out the three worst games this season so far, it would be 36 goals conceded in 29 games. That’s not terrible, but obviously nowhere near as good.
 

I don’t really know what the answer is, because my gut feeling tells me that Konsa and Torres are the starting duo going forward. But I think we’re missing something that Mings can offer.

Edit - also, I may be remembering incorrectly but I think we were fourth best in the league since Emery took over to the end of the season.

Edit - no, sorry 5th in the “since Emery took over” table.

The sha - Huddersfield game in which Wagner made ten changes was the penultimate game of the season, rather than the final game which made it slightly more galling.

Just now, Mantis said:

 

Think there may be some crossed wires here. I wasn't saying we're bad at holding onto 2-0 leads, and especially this season we've been on the whole very good. My point was that the number of times we have been 2-0 up and thrown it away in the Premier League era does seem rather high.

I know what you mean, but I suspect it’s probably a form of observation bias. I can think of the number of times we’ve done it in the premier league era because it annoyed me greatly.

I can’t tell you an equal amount of times Spurs or Everton have done so because it didn’t bother me. It probably made me laugh and I promptly forgot about it. It’s probably quite similar if we looked at the stats (which I know is what you’re asking for).

We will have done it fewer times than say Liverpool over the past X years, because they’ve been a better side and better sides are less likely to have such a record.

Spurs beat Forest, Burnley, Sheff United. 

Reasonsble, yeah?

They lose to Liverpool, Arsenal and Citeh. 

Again, I think that’s fair.

Puts them on 66.

Newcastle and Chelsea. What, maybe 4 points? Could be 6, could be nothing. Let’s say 4.

So the magic 70 total.

We would need to beat Brighton, Bournemouth, Chelsea and Palace. I’ve written off the other two games.

I don’t know, it still seems vaguely realistic to me.
 

5 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

The key for them really is the next two, Cardiff and Rotherham. Looking like they'll probably need to win both of those games as Coventry and Norwich are both going all out for 6th spot and neither will be as bad playing them as Preston so I'm pretty confident they'll get little out of those two.

49 points could still relegate them when you see Huddersfield on 43 now with five left so they're a long way from safety despite the mass celebrations the other day.

Yep, in my head I have them winning Rotherham. The Cardiff game looks really key because they don’t have anything to play for, so should/could theoretically be a more straightforward game. 

If they don’t win it, I think I’d put them significantly higher up in the chances of relegation.

3 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

any links to watkins comments?, vid?

Is there a reason you’re asking me?

3 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Win against a poor Forest and they will be 4th with a game in hand, which is why big Ange ain't been flapping. He knows, once he's there, they are gonna take some moving.

They’ve already been there (and higher).

I would be interested but I have zero intent in actually going through the number of times we’ve pissed away a two goal lead.

Today probably doesn’t even break the top ten since I’ve been following them. At least we ended up coming back ourselves and earning a point.

It says something that when I try and list the number of times we’ve come back from two goals down, I’m stuck on that Arsenal game with the falling Santa. Whereas there are plenty of examples the other way around.

Right then.

Just stay right where you are until the middle of May.