oishiiniku_uk

Exactly! He's already played in the Champions League, Manchester Derby and against Liverpool in a quarter final. Think he can manage the pressure of this 'big' occasion!

Sub the lunk and bring on the Dunk.

Mainoo 'totally and utterly unfazed' - yes, a meaningless friendly could intimidate a lesser player.

Dougie!

The Kobbie Mainoo love-in.

If you told me Chilwell was David Cameron's son I wouldn't disagree. Definitely looks like he'd fit in at Eton.

Seriously. Gallagher is Such a limited player. He's like Sean Longstaff without the goals.

Chilwell and Gallagher have both been awful. They do only play for mid-table Chelsea though.

I rewatched the second half of the game vs them and I was surprised how little there was between the two teams until the sending off. Their first goal was well worked (though Pau was a bit slow on stepping up) and the second was from our mistake. Outside of that I'd say it was pretty even with both teams nicking the ball by pressing high and creating decent chances (we were 7-3 on shots at one point). And that opportunity that McGinn created just before seeing red, if we'd scored there it could have been a very different game. I was all doom and gloom after the game, but watching again, it really did hinge on a couple of things going their way. Kinda made me more optimistic about the run-in, weirdly enough.

It takes a longer to investigate and build a case against 115 charges than it does against one.

I'm not talking specifically about ACLs, more the number of injuries overall and the prevalence of players coming back too soon from injury and then missing even more time as a result. When you combine prioritizing the short-term with an intense style of play then I think the likelihood of injuries increases. We've seen this before with other teams in recent years: in 20-21, Leeds were the fittest team in the league, ran more than anyone, pressed all over the pitch constantly, 'murderball' training etc. etc. Then in the the following season they had the most time missed through injury of all PL teams. Same thing is happening at Newcastle now. They played a high-press, high intensity style for a season (with no European games) and it worked. Tried to do it again this time, with extra games and a small-ish squad, and it's all fallen apart for them. If you look at teams that play a more controlling, containing style of football, it seems to cause fewer injuries. I've not done any research into it, but it would make sense - if your players are constantly in the red zone then they are more likely to get injured.

Still just 'bad luck' with all these injuries/re-injuries? Something similar happened with Howe before though. From an article about Bournemouth's relegation: Link

Hwang not back for another month either, possibly Cunha misses the game against us too. Good time to be facing them.

He must be a terrible trainer or mess around in team meetings or something cos it has to be his attitude rather than his ability keeping out of the team.

Whenever it happens, and however he gets his yellow, he will be making the 'I got the ball' gesture!

West Ham play 4-2-3-1 so maybe we're matching them up? Feels like a game that's going to be end-to-end with both teams constantly trying to hit the other in transition. Just have to hope that our counter-attacking is the more clinical, I guess?

As others have said, looks so much more effective in the wide areas than as the support striker. Wide left might not be his preferred position, but I thought he still did a good job there. And having him and Bailey on either flank is potentially as threatening as any pair of wingers in the league/Europe. Rogers was playing more central last night, so I wonder if JJ could do similar (I know he drives into the middle with the ball anyway).

The fact they've been able to play Gabriel and Saliba together for pretty much every game has been huge for them, I think. Were either one of them missing for an extended run of games I think their form would suffer.

Yep, agreed. The two toughest teams that the English teams could have drawn, I think.

Well worked goals but Bournemouth's offside 'trap' is a mess. So easy to get in behind them.

One of the best things about the football under Emery until now has been that we've taken the game to the opponent, no matter who they are, especially at home. This new pragmatic approach does not suit us at all. We're conceding for fun at the moment, so why not at least play to our strengths and try to outscore the opponent? Very disappointing to come so far only to suddenly lose faith in the style of play that got us here.

I think we've seen enough slow starts in ECL games this season to think that maybe it's a tactic to try and keep things tight and controlled and also conserve energy for a squad of limited resources. I'm hopeful that we will see a full force Villa tomorrow.

Another great advert for De Zerbissimo tonight. Far too open at the back by all accounts and paying the price for constantly rotating their keeper every other game.

In recent games we've started well, dominated the first half but then let our opponents back into the game. Whereas, Spurs have often been been slow to get going but finished strongly. This may be a tactical plan by The Ange Man to keep the ball and tire their opponent out, or they may be finding it hard to play well for 90 mins. They've conceded first in 5 of their last 6 games so more the latter I think. It will be a battle of two high lines so we have to keep Maddison quiet and hope Tielemans can thread some balls through for Watkins, Bailey etc. Romero has a pretty good range of passing so it could be Pau vs Cristian spraying the big diagonals, also. I'm going for an entertaining 2-2. Also hoping to see Romero's confusion and anger when Konsa starts instead of Cash at right back!

They entertain but they also concede a lot of goals. Very inconsistent but fun to watch. Don't think that would work out well at Anfield or the Nou Camp.