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If Brighton win the FA cup, they take one of two europa league places. We would have to finish fifth to take the other place, unless Brighton finish fifth and we finish sixth.

But if Brighton win the FA cup, we are screwed.

Fifth place can’t earn a champions league place in itself. The maximum number of English teams allowed in the champions league is five. So if Man City won it this year and hypothetically finished outside the top 4, five teams would qualify including Man City. If two English teams won the champions league and Europa league and both finished outside the top four, they would both qualify for the champions league and the team finishing fourth would go into the Europa league. If Man City win the champions league this year, the top four teams only will qualify as normal. An extra spot doesn’t carry to fifth place.

It’s not ridiculous. They’re playing advantage because they’re not certain if a player was offside. It’s a legitimate passage of play if the player turns out to be onside. You’d think lives were at risk the way people go on.

That’s not true. I’ve seen lots of examples of players being five yards offside and the flag goes up and the ref gives the offside because there’s no doubt about the decision. The example I gave is fine. There will always be potential for poor officiating. Hence, better leave it to a VAR review if the linesman isn’t sure about his decision. Ultimately the right decision gets made. The injury argument is daft. They’re just playing advantage, not being sent to a war zone.

Coutinho had a winning goal denied against Man City because of a flag happy linesman. If they’re not absolutely certain, keep the flag down. It’s a good system.

This co-commentator is an idiot. You can’t rely on VAR if the whistle has already gone and denied a goal.

Well this takes the biscuit. In what world could our XG be less than 4 today. We should have had 6 or 7. If I needed an excuse not to look at XG, here it is.

Traore?

We are almost as close to 3rd place as we are to Chelsea.

Absolutely over the moon for Bertie.

That right there is why VAR is a good idea.

It really is such a wasted opportunity having Bailey in our attack.

I would go with a back 5 again a la spurs and Chelsea. Choke the game and sneak a winner.

I don’t think our owners would let Emery leave for any money. And he wouldn’t kick up a fuss if he even wanted the job. No chance of him going to Chelsea I say.

I think we are going to be a lot closer to qualifying for the champions league next season than most people will expect.

His left leg is in a boot.

Thanks. Disappointing but a good day out. At least we got a few cheers.

I was at the game today. I don’t make many because I live far away. You see things differently when at the game and a few things struck me. Martinez is way over used in open play in my opinion. Not only in playing out from the back but I was surprised how often we worked the ball back to our goalkeeper from advanced positions in the field. Furthermore, I don’t rate Emi particularly highly with this role. He’s not terrible but his distribution isn’t brilliant. Same for Konsa and Mings. Too much of our play seems to revolve around triangles between Emi, Mings and Konsa. I thought Ben White was very impressive and superb on the ball. Villa Park is an amazing place. And you can sense the hunger of the crowd for success. My overriding feeling is positivity in spite of today’s disappointment. It feels like Martin O’Neill’s first season to me. We have a leaner squad primed for reinforcements and you can tell improvement is coming. Or we can hope at least. On a side note, I thought Douglas Luiz was a joy to watch. As was Kamara. I also thought Coutinho played well.

Just saw that Gary Cotterrill on Sky Sports trying to get the Everton owner and chairman to sack Frank Lampard in front of the cameras. Absolute low life. These guys have no respect for anyone.

Do you think they were hard done by though? I thought all the big decisions were right on both sides, although many were close calls. And we had the better of the play overall.

Sell and take the 15 million. He’s 31 in July. I don’t see us getting the chance again to make good money from him. There are some big clubs in a relegation scrap at the moment. They’re desperate and panicked. They’re likely to be less desperate in the summer. He has a decent goals per minutes ratio for us but we’ve used him sparingly. And he offers little from open play. He was terrible against Leeds for example. His legs are totally gone. Add the money to the summer kitty or better yet, spend it now.

Yeah we have no presence up front without him and struggle to get territory in the final third. He’s not perfect but for now he’s still very important for us.

Loved that win. Leeds are always horrible to play against. They’re like the boxer that comes out swinging. We stood up to them well but struggled to get any control in a chaotic game. We rode our luck at times but got our goals at the right moments. We could easily have been 3-0 up with some better finishing so I’m not having any of the unlucky Leeds talk. I think our defence and midfield could now be quite solid but we do struggle in the final third. Bailey and Ings were frustrating to watch in the second half. They struggled to hold up the ball and relieve pressure at key times. Unreal win. 13 points from 6 games is champions league form. We will have more comfortable games ahead where we can impose our style on the game.