RandoEFC

@Rick @Tommy @Whiskey @Redcanuck @Storts @N U F C still got most games to choose from if you want to take part in this round.

£10 > £36. First leg is a typical case of the mad corner stats in the A-League. Melbourne Victory's last 6 home games have averaged 14.5 corners and Western Sydney Wanderers averaging 15 in their last 6 away games . I think the Newcastle one is quite self explanatory. Newcastle have seen 28 goals in their last 6 league games at home, averaging almost 5 goals per game. In fact Newcastle average the highest match goals in the league all season at 3.73 with Sheffield United 3rd on 3.68. Newcastle famously won the reverse fixture 8-0 as well.

I don't think Perez to Mercedes is a go-er. I wouldn't be shocked anymore to see Verstappen go there if their form picks up in the back end of the season. Red Bull would be kind of fucked if that happened. They'd probably then have to go for Sainz and/or Norris. Hulkenberg to Audi is an interesting move. The talk has always been that Sainz would go there to lead their new project. It could still be Sainz/Hulkenberg but I wonder if they're getting one driver tied down as they're struggling to get Sainz over the line while he holds out for potential gaps at Mercedes or Red Bull. Interesting times. This is a blow for Haas because Hulkenberg is clearly doing the business for them more than Magnussen. They're not an appealing prospect for an established driver unless the likes of Perez or Bottas are keen on extending their stay in the sport "for the sake of it".

The bookies usually give a good indication of probabilities. Last weekend City's odds were 1.40 (70%+ chance), Arsenal were at 5.00 (20% chance) and Liverpool were at 7.00 (~14% chance). I've been keeping an eye on it and after Arsenal smashed Chelsea on Tuesday, City drifted as far as 1.72 and Arsenal closed into about 2.62 which was starting to look pretty close. Liverpool's defeat and City's big win have reset things a bit though. City back to 1.40, Arsenal on 3.25 (30%ish chance) and Liverpool now out to 41.00 (2.5% or so). I don't think City will blink but if they do, I wouldn't lose any sleep over us losing at Arsenal on the last day if it gets them over the line and denies City the title. They've won 6 out of 7 and are on for their 4th in a row. Huge shame to see any team have the league sewn up like that for so long.

Here I am, once again watching a Man City game and wondering how a match with four goals so far is so mind-numbingly dull.

Pathetic this from Brighton. 3-0 down after 34 minutes after getting caught pissing about at the back while surrounded by 5 City players.

The most concerning thing for Liverpool last night wasn't the poor performance but the failure to match Everton's desire and commitment. That was a bigger game for Liverpool. Everton put themselves 5 clear of the drop zone at the weekend and still have Brentford, Luton and Sheffield United to come where they can target the last few points they need to make sure. We could have been forgiven for having half an eye on Brentford at the weekend. Liverpool HAD to win. Liverpool's players have been hiding in the last few games. I watch them a lot because my Mrs is unfortunately a Red. Against Atalanta, Palace and last night, they just crumbled at the first sign of adversity. Van Dijk giving goals away for fun and waving his arms at his team mates, Salah completely anonymous, Nunez and Diaz missing really good chances. Robertson must have fallen over the ball about 15 times last night. Long term servants and more recent signings alike have just hidden from responsibility which is very odd for this era of Liverpool. This defending from Alexander-Arnold for the second goal last night epitomises what I'm talking about. Literally just straight up pussies out of it and let's us score. I don't think the words pathetic or disgraceful are out of place here to be honest. That's not down to a lack of ability or a transition period, he just didn't fancy it on a night where Liverpool needed to win to keep the last slim chance of winning another trophy alive. It's just really strange.

If Ferrari sign both Hamilton and Newey in the space of a few months... I wonder if this has anything to do with the Horner scandal or whether that was a factor at all. I hope it is. Karma. Ideally for the fans, Newey will just retire from F1 and let us have actual competition but it sounds like he has a move lined up.

Wolves got fucked over again tonight. Watch this clip 5 times and I bet you won't be able to work out why this goal got disallowed without opening the comments.

Nunez for £85m will go down as an absolutely horrific investment. Rare for Liverpool. After he hammered that chance straight down Pickford's throat I think the away end joined in with the chorus of "you're just a shit Andy Carroll".

Van Dijk was shite for a bit, then good for a bit, then when he scored the winner in the League Cup final there was that clip of him saying "they all thought I was finished" after the game. And ever since he's played like he's finished whenever I've seen him.

Just a lovely evening all round and one this fanbase sorely deserves. Cracking performance to a man. Liverpool hilariously bad. Honestly a miracle that that team has stayed in a title race for this long but I'm glad they did because seeing us put the final nail in the coffin for them tonight is a nice cherry on top of a win that all but guarantees our survival. 8 points clear of the drop. Might actually be able to enjoy the last four games of the season without worrying about the club facing a potential existential crisis. First time since Ancelotti was manager we had that luxury to be honest. What a novelty.

He also thought Goodison wouldn't have booed that offside decision that cancelled out the early penalty if they'd just been shown the evidence .

About as good a half as I could have hoped for. Half time has come at a good time for us. Mykolenko probably needs to come off though, as much as I might joke about a one-legged Mykolenko being better than Ashley Young...

Shame about the offside but probably the best 5 minutes of performance from us in a derby since we won at Anfield .

No it's true. One of Boehly's other companies bought a hotel off Chelsea for £70m. Apparently Chelsea can prove it's that valuable so it's fine and the whole conflict of interest/money laundering through a different company angle just isn't covered seemingly.

Actually not that stressed about tonight. I think we have a not insignificant chance of keeping them to a draw. I can't see how we'll really hurt them enough to nick a 1-0 win and if they score first at any time in the game then it's game over. I do expect us to go down maybe 0-2 or something but it's all about survival at this point and we're finally in a good position. Anything we get tonight would be a massive bonus and it would of course be very funny if we could cost them 2 points which could end their title charge but my expectations are zero. I will be pissed off though if we throw in another performance like Chelsea and get embarrassed.

Everton's situation boils down to the fact that we have an owner who wants out and isn't really funding the club anymore, his main source of money was Alisher Usmanov whose assets were frozen because of links to Putin costing us loads of sponsorship money (e.g. he was sponsoring our training facilities for what nobody can deny was a very inflated rate) which is why the club tried to use the Ukraine war as a mitigating factor in the case. Add to that the financial drain of building a new stadium and having a relatively poor cash flow through our own sponsorship deals, kit deals, matchday revenue, etc. (all again linked to the lack of leadership at the top of the club while the owner is absent and waiting for the sale to go through) means the club is losing money hand over fist. Everton thought they were just about compliant because of thinking some interest they'd had to pay on a stadium loan wasn't included in the FFP calculations but were found guilty because you can only omit those from the calculation if the *stated purpose* of the loan was to fund infrastructure (the stadium). Moshiri funded the stadium with his own (Usmanov's) money and took the loan to help with day to day running costs. Then Ukraine happened, the loaned money had to be re-directed to the stadium due to the loss of Usmanov's money and therefore the interest payments counted as losses when it came to the FFP calculations. The counter-argument is "well Everton shouldn't have spent £30m on Onana that year and then they wouldn't have breached" but because of that interest stuff, the club thought they had that to spend. It's all VERY interesting and exciting, but the bottom line is I think we've been a bit unlucky and the club is more guilty of clumsy accounting and generally not being run very well more than cheating or financial doping. I think the Forest case where they've signed 42 players since being promoted and continued to spend on Chris Wood, for example, last January, who directly helped them to stay up at the expense of Leicester and co., when they knew the deal would take them over the FFP threshold, is probably worthy of a points penalty if anything is. It's why our fanbase was so outraged when they only got 4 points and we got 10 reduced to 6. The Premier League should actually have a sanctions policy written down though so that all of this back and forth and appeal stuff can get in the bin and take all these asterisks away from the league table. Even now, Everton and Forest might get back a point or two from their appeals which means Luton don't know what they need to do with 4 games left to survive. They could go and get a point at Wolves and then find out later that they really needed to push for the win.

Mad how Arteta in his first coaching job has turned Arsenal into this side while the strings of more experienced and decorated managers at Chelsea and Man Utd over the years have made them worse and worse. Shows the importance of having your ducks in a row as a club and having an actual plan, but I also think what he's doing as a manager is a bit underrated still.

Can one of the clubs with a bit of money not just go all out and buy Cole Palmer this summer just for the sake of putting Chelsea into a relegation fight? I don't think we'll ever see a better opportunity for one of the Super League Six punted into the Championship.

I get what you're saying but those that have implemented the rules, sanctions and timelines have seen the league table altered in the courts 4 times this season and it could be 6 by the time the appeals processes are wrapped up. The clubs and the organisation itself both have to take responsibility for that. Regardless of who you blame for it, and I'm certainly not trying to make out that Everton are innocent here or shifting the blame elsewhere, but it is an absolutely whopping load of shite for the league table to be altered in any way by off the pitch events. The clubs that have pushed the envelope could still be punished by a sporting disadvantage by not being able to register new players, for example, whilst still having a league table that is solely decided by what's actually happened on the football pitch.

I'd be surprised if we didn't get hit with a points deduction next season too to be honest looking at our last set of accounts but at least we'll never get done for two time periods in the same season again. There was some talk about Leeds' accounts looking bad a few weeks ago as well. This is the new football now. Sad.

It is very different. The fact they've mentioned he's a Luton fan on VAR is one step away from alluding to match fixing. The truth is that referees getting too many decisions wrong is distorting results far too often and PGMOL need to make fewer mistakes. Forest are suggesting by bringing the guy's Luton allegiances into it that there's a deliberate element to it. Forest, just like every other club, are only upset because the decisions went against them. They don't give a fuck if the officials are incompetent until it affects them in a negative way. Until the clubs in the Premier League get together and put a vote of no confidence in PGMOL together or something then I won't take any one of them seriously when they start cry-arsing like this. All it is is them trying to twist it in their favour for the next match.

@nudge @Viva la FCB @6666 @RandoEFC @Michael @Pyfish @Bluewolf @CaaC (John) @...Dan @Dan @Redcanuck @Rick @Tommy @Rucksackfranzose @Lucas @Whiskey @Stan @Storts @DeadLinesman @N U F C and any others welcome. Below are the fixtures for Gameweek One. Montpellier vs Nantes PSG vs Le Havre Metz vs Lille Clermont Foot vs Reims Lorient vs Toulouse Strasbourg vs Nice Rennes vs Brest Lyon vs Monaco Marseille vs Lens My pick for Gameweek One is PSG. Good luck!