YouUnastanFren

He meant top of the tables. Villa are looking to go top of the regular table and Leeds are miles clear at the top of the 'Amount of pundit's spunk received' table.

Nobody is saying that Grealish isn't a bigger threat, just that Watkins is a bigger threat than zero. Not for me to decide, you typed that you have "no reason to fear anything from Watkins" and brought up how he isn't Kane and Lewandowski as if to imply that anyone here thinks he is. That's very different from the point about him being less of a threat than Grealish that you're now making

Even the second one where he had Gomez's pants around his ankles before knocking it in the corner? Nobody is suggesting he is but there are some levels in between strikers you have nothing to fear from and the uncrowned Ballon D'Or winner. He's one of them I reckon

Rumour has it that he was training at home until @samjp26 complained to the front desk about the lunatic on the floor above doing box jumps 6 days a week

Oh yeah I'm not disagreeing, I think Smith and his team will have a plan to maximise our goal scoring chances and minimise theirs. It's not that I think their fitness will help them beat us, just that they run **** loads and it will make the game hard work.

No you're right it doesn't but Smith did also state that Leeds are the fittest team in the league in the same press conference. I probably should have included that The reason I highlighted that other teams all had to put their best numbers up against them was to address the point that the game will already be cardio heavy and probably too much so to have enough left to run them ragged.

Leeds are being heralded as many things they are not, but if there's one thing they are it's fit. I think Smith mentioned in his press conference that every team that has played Leeds so far has recorded their highest total distance run of the season in that game.

75 I think. I don't remember it either, I just have a Leeds supporting mate who isn't fond of Bayern

They played Bayern in the European cup final and got absolutely robbed blind. Champions of Europe, they almost sang that.

This image sums up my memory of the tactical innovation used to stop Grealish last time He can't figuratively break your ankles if you've already literally broken his

Especially as in that instance the season ended with us promoted and them not. Can't chalk it up to winner's mentality if you end up as an also ran. You're just a dirty loser

Oh yeah, I completely agree. I was just trying to give some context to the likelihood of each happening before they started. You're dead on with regards to his great work being priced in as well. The day before that Derby game in 2019 you'd have got way longer odds on us winning 5 in a row in the PL at the start of the 20/21 season than 1,100/1. The job he has done since then is almost incomprehensible.

Historical bookies odds of us winning both runs of fixtures First 5 this season: 188/1 The 10 in a row: 1,100/1 I think it needs a few more to match it in terms of odds. Maybe 7 total.

Agreed, although if Bielsa's record is anything to go by he won't last until the end of his 3rd season in the same job.

I'm not suggesting it wasn't a good result, just that it was a vulnerable looking City that had just been boot stomped 5-2 by Leicester so not overly surprising

Amusingly out of everyone I think Leeds' results most closely reflect the position of the teams they've played. Lost to 3rd and 6th, drew with 11th and beat 19th and 20th. They're the unsurprising package so far this season

That's what Leicester said too, turns out they were fibbing and Evans was fine, the young CB Fofana who made his debut was their MOTM as well. I'd bet something similar will happen on Friday

A ten game winning streak?! Unthinkable, what manager could do such a thing?

We're not actually expecting to win the title. Having said that it is nice that we've come in from whatever the standard no chance odds the bookies give these days (not 5,000 - 1 anymore since Leicester, more like 750 - 1) right into 66 - 1 after just 4 games.

I sort all of my recycling into the correct bins

Generally no but I reckon the fact we've got a game in hand means that a point would give us a legit WATOTL

The answer depends entirely on injuries but assuming we don't have any and after the insane start we've had I'd love us to get 60 points this season which is just under 1.6ppg. If we can average over that for every 5 game stretch this season we'll absolutely smash 60 points. That would mean we'd require 8 or more points from these 5 games but after our first four games even if we reverted to the expected mean a bit and only got 6-8 we'd still be on track.

That's one more thing I hope he can coach into our CBs. He won a lot of games with those goals

Even on that chart they only had 0.45 xG at half time. That's absolutely **** all really You can't claim to have "done enough to create a lead" after accruing 0.45xG. The only good chance they had all game I can remember was when it fell to that midget (that I forget the name of) on the six yard box near the end and his shot was blocked. Presumably that was where the chart went from 0.6 to 1.1. On the balance of the game the chart would suggest they were unlucky to lose which I would tend to agree with but they weren't particularly unlucky to not be leading at half time. Edit - I think Bielsa might've just had his view warped about how many good chances you need to score a goal, they scored 3 against Liverpool off 0.27xG. Probably thinks they should've had 5 from 0.45xG

The probabilities table from five thirty eight has finally got us as over a 1% chance of winning the league. Might just be me but I feel like that is oddly satisfying. With 4 games left last season we were at a 93% chance of getting relegated https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/soccer-predictions/premier-league/