RandoEFC

As I said on Tuesday night, I'd have backed most of the Championship to put up more of a fight than West Ham under these circumstances today. Useless.

A bit of excitement at the end! Unfortunately the chequered flag came out just as Norris got into the DRS window but it can only be a good sign for future races for Lando to finish less than a second behind.

What a disappointment...

They should change the fixture schedule so the top teams from the previous season play each other in the last few games and likewise for the newly promoted sides and teams that finished near the bottom the season before. Having these foregone conclusion matches at the end takes away from the excitement. Imagine if last weekend you had City vs United and Arsenal vs Newcastle then this weekend it was Arsenal vs City? Gets rid of this tedious case where one team is 2 points clear with 10 games to go and 8 of their remaining fixtures are guaranteed wins.

This is what I tried to say in the match day thread the other day. Yes he got them into Europe for the first time but I think they'd have done that anyway if Potter had never gone to Chelsea. It felt like they were heading there and anyone with a reasonably steady hand would finish the job. He's done a steady job but this season has been very ordinary. I know it's been pointed out they had a lot of injuries to key players but they're sat on the same number of points as Bournemouth and (before deductions) Everton who both battled relegation last season while Brighton were comfortably in the top half. To be fair, they have missed Fati, Mitoma and Ferguson for a lot of games which has probably stunted their attack quite badly but I also don't really see overall how what he's done in two years at Brighton has led to him getting linked with Liverpool, Bayern, Juventus. I feel like people are far too quick to look at managers who have done a slightly above average job with a club for a season or 18 months and start touting them as the next big thing and mapping out their next move.

Bayern have denied it already. Given Chelsea's fetish for anything related to Brighton I wouldn't be surprised if they sacked Poch at half time tomorrow to get De Zerbi .

This has been one honker of a performance from Bolton.

Verstappen just about takes pole position. Ferrari flopped but both Mclarens within a tenth of a second. Hopefully they can double team Max tomorrow to make it a decent race.

You almost had the regrets there but Piastri saved your blushes .

"Mutual agreement". I suspect either Brighton will have a new manager within a week or De Zerbi will have a new job, and that will tell us just how mutual the decision was....

Looking like a mad weekend this. Red Bull possibly behind both Mclaren and Ferrari and Alonso and Perez have both binned it in FP3.

Deadlinesman's predictions: Leclerc Leclerc Norris Perez 12th Gasly Looking like a full house!

Long shot for me this week. £10 > £213.75

@Whiskey @Tommy @MUFC don't forget!

I can't tell if you're agreeing or disagreeing with my point . My point is that, one way or another, the Premier League have allowed City to drag it out and obfuscate for so long that they will have crowned them champions twice before that process even properly starts. It's no good for the league and it leaves a massive asterisk hanging over everything that happens at the top end of the table until all the facts come out and we know whether or not, and how much, Man City have broken the rules and gained advantages they should never have had.

You know what I mean though. Their actual hearings haven't started.

Is it allowed to question De Zerbi's reputation? I find it weird how it's just accepted that he's linked with jobs like Liverpool and Bayern. From what I can see, he took over a Brighton side on the up, completed their journey to European qualification, fair enough, but they've been average at best this season and slipped into the Bournemouth/Wolves/Fulham tier of mid table. Think he's pretty overhyped if that's allowed.

It really should be a benefit for officials to have more technology to help them make the correct decisions but this lot are so awful that I don't think they'll ever get it right. I'd rather see them sack it off completely. I don't think it'll happen sadly.

While we're all right to bemoan the boringness of it, what's actually a bigger issue here is that the Premier League will have crowned City champions twice since levelling 115 charges at them for breaking the rules and City are yet to set foot in a courtroom to defend themselves. In the meantime, two other clubs have been fast-tracked (one of those twice) and Leicester have been pretty much told they'll have a points deduction next season when they come up. It really shows who's governing things here. If the Premier League had an ounce of integrity they'd stop making excuses about how complicated City's case is because they broke 114 more rules than anyone else and get on with it. Start with charge 1 next week, if City refuse to turn up to the hearing then they get sanctioned. The case isn't going to get any less complicated the longer they wait. Get the fuck on with it. And if it's that complicated to do it as one case then offer to have 115 different hearings for them and see how they like the threat of having to fight each one in the courts with a constant drip feed of points deductions over several seasons ruining their chances in the league.

I saw two fans do the Poznan after City scored. There's always going to be some. Vast majority were giving the officials grief for any decision that went City's way etc.

Just because a title race goes down to the last weekend doesn't mean it's exciting. There are no ebbs and flows. Man City are usually about 5 points behind at Christmas time. Then they win 23 of their 25 games and draw the other two, while the team leading the league lose a couple and draw a couple and it's enough to see City come through. It's really fucking tedious actually because the "title race" consists of 2 or 3 teams winning 3-0 every weekend except the one that's not Man City drops points once every 4-6 weeks. That's not exciting. Most weekends, nothing happens. The only thing that's actually *happened* in the title race in the last two months was Liverpool drawing at Old Trafford and Arsenal losing to Villa. You can have a close title race but it isn't good or exciting if both of the teams involved winning every weekend is all but a formality. The financial regulations have created an even bigger gulf between the top teams and the mid-table fodder who used to be able to cause an upset to a title contender on any given day. You won't see any of that until that changes. Another sea of talented players (Olise, Branthwaite, Toney, etc) will be plucked from the helpless bottom half clubs again this summer to reinforce the benches of the rich clubs again, and then we'll complain again next season when Man City turn up and spank all of the clubs that sell these players next spring. The whole thing needs a massive rethink if we ever want it to change.

Fair. I can see both sides of it. Spurs' season wasn't mathematically over before last night but at the same time, it's not like top four would have been in their hands or even likely if they'd have won. I'm sure Storts was over-egging how much he was supporting against his team. It's one thing saying beforehand "I'm not arsed if we win" or "I hope we get battered". Not many people can follow through with that emotion by the time their team kicks off. Spurs' crowd certainly didn't sound like they wanted to lose last night.

In the Premier League's slight defence, at least the title still goes down to the last day regularly. Aside from that though, yeah it is a predictable load of shite. Man City going on a run of 23 wins and 2 draws from the start of December to the end of the season would be a notable achievement in isolation but it genuinely happens every season now. It's boring and uncompetitive. The Premier League is defined by the richest clubs getting richer and richer and becoming more efficient in using that money to lock in their long term advantages. City have made an absolute art of it now. This is it until Pep leaves. Couldn't have asked more of Arsenal this season either realistically. Or Liverpool in some previous seasons. Until Pep goes or something else upsets the apple cart then this is the league.

Son, what a tit. That's that then for another year. I don't think there's a team in the Championship, let alone the Premier League, that I'd back less than a West Ham side with nothing to play for and a lame duck manager to go and do something at City on the last day.

Fuck sake.