KentVillan

Brighton have 4 games in hand, we probably can’t catch Newcastle or Man Utd, and Liverpool have relatively good fixtures. I think a really stellar finish would be 5th. More likely 6th. Incredible from Unai though.

Agree, a settled player who’s doing well again, no point in changing up. Doesn’t change the fact Gerrard overpaid for him, but not the end of the world.

All fair points, but doesn’t FFP also factor in - overpaying in one position makes it harder to secure players in another? That’s basically why the Sky 6 pushed for it?

It is, for sure, but we are overpaying for the privilege in his case. Still, he looked excellent, and the competition at left back is clearly a good thing.

I really like him, and he’s been superb in recent weeks, but had a torrid time today dealing with Brentford’s obvious gameplan to target him. Don’t know if Digne just looked better because the momentum of the game had shifted, or if he genuinely just played much better. Think Digne made a good case for a start.

Wonder if he might have earned a start with that performance. Looked much better than Moreno today.

Defended him before, and still don’t think he’s that awful by backup goalie standards, but we could really do with replacing him in the summer with a more accomplished keeper.

Thought he had a very good game today, bar one or two moments. His passing and decision making have come on a lot, and with his natural pace and tackling ability he’s starting to look again like the player we thought he would develop into when he first joined. His only real weakness now (relatively speaking, by CB standards) is in the air, but not a huge problem if you’re paired with Mings.

Was our main attacking threat throughout. Some of the bad passes were his fault, some weren’t, some were just risks that needed to be taken and didn’t quite come off. And as usual, massive shift defensively. I think Emery will be trying to get him to step up that next level next season.

I think it’s much more common than people realise, even at the highest level. Some really elite managers have let their teams play off the cuff. Emery just happens to be very focused on positional discipline, and that’s probably what these players needed. If you’re coaching a Real Madrid type squad, it might not be necessary.

I don’t know to what extent it’s about the players available to him (Moreno is clearly our best attacking full back) and to what extent it’s something he’s developed as a rule, based on most players being right footed. I wonder if he thinks left footed crosses are more effective because most of the players running on to them are right footed, and it’s a more natural hit. So you put your best left footed crosser at left back and let him ghost into space where he has time to cross. But just a theory, no idea why he has this history of often pushing the LB higher. Edit: reminds me there is a proven phenomenon in cricket and tennis that left handed players are slightly overrepresented at elite level and tend to be known as harder to handle. Probably same with boxing? They’re just more confusing for opponents who spend most of their time training against right dominant athletes. Again, no idea if this factors into his thinking, or if it’s just a coincidence. Maybe this summer he’ll sign an elite right footed attacking full back and change things up. You never know with Emery.

It would just be blamed on Antifa and used to fuel the Good Guy with a Gun narrative. It’s unstoppable. The NRA playbook is too effective.

The thing I hadn’t really appreciated with him until he joined is how good an all round manager he is. I knew he was a good tactician, but I guess all the negative publicity around his stint at Arsenal and the mockery of his English covered up just how astute a man manager he is. He really seems to get the psychology bang on. He knows when to praise, when to criticise, when to demand more, when to give the players a break. Just find him a fascinating manager tbh. Hope he stays here a long time.

Nicely delivered from the back of the hand with a lot of disguise, and Bicks has taken the bait. Humiliating for the batsman, who has to walk back to the clubhouse, although can we please talk about why Bicks is right about Starmer’s Labour being quite obviously different from the Tories on Brexit

Ollie's fitness and injury record are part of what makes him a great player. Bit like Lampard at Chelsea... the ability to play a huge volume of games, full 90 mins, for a whole season, is part of the player's value. Add in the goalscoring under Emery, and he becomes a really special asset. But his goalscoring record since joining has been absolutely fine.

I think he just said that goal was “made in South Africa” Uruguayan setting up a Brazilian

Why did they get rid of Tuchel

McManaman

The Tories have a PM and a substantial % of their party who actively campaigned FOR Brexit. Labour's position is that Brexit was a democratic vote, and they are going to respect it... but they are far less Eurosceptic, and most of their front bench were on record as being Remain. Surely you can see the difference in practice with how things are likely to pan out? Weird one to focus on, anyway, given the Labour left were much more ambivalent on the Brexit referendum than the centrists at the time.

Those voters aren’t true blue Tories though. That’s the whole point. And each party will naturally appeal to those same voters on different strengths and policy areas. Just because you’re trying to win over the same voters at the margins doesn’t mean you stand for identical things.

Nonsense. The Corbynite left can’t accept that their electoral strategy was bonkers and Starmer actually knows what he’s doing, so they’re reduced to throwing Tory Lite accusations at him while he slowly works his way to the first Labour majority in over a decade. It’s very obvious from just a cursory glance at the Labour MPs and candidates that they will be a different party with different priorities.

I have tbh because it’s becoming unusable now, but it’s like voting… you are a drop in the ocean. As long as Twitter remains influential and widely used, it’s worth paying attention to.

You can make this argument about gun manufacturing or drug trafficking or anything else that generates money and jobs and scientific advances. I’m pretty ambivalent about horse racing, but the idea that it’s essential or irreversible in any way is bollocks.

Fair point - but he has such a distinctive face. Perhaps body double and then video edited to make the face look more like Putin?