RandoEFC

Absolute disgrace this. You can lose at Chelsea but the manner of this is putting huge pressure on us against Forest at the weekend now. Pathetic effort tonight. Sort of occasion that calls for first half subs.

2-0. Absolutely shite from us. Pace killing us after we initially set up quite well. Completely capitulated after one moment of quality.

Great from Palmer but that is so poor from our defenders.

The part that nobody wants to talk about is how the Premier League along with a few teams who parted their cheeks and lubed up for the rampant capitalism that entered the sport to lock in pretty much permanent advantages over the rest of the pyramid, created the conditions where the only way anyone else could ever compete again was by doing what Chelsea and Man City did. City's owners are horrific cunts. Everyone knows this. But they and Chelsea and Newcastle are symptoms of the shift toward excessive, unsustainable spending and "the brand" that occurred in the early 90s. Anyway, feel oddly optimistic about the game tonight. Maybe just because any points here would be a bonus. Just have to get into these.

Not sure if there is choking. Think Liverpool have just run out of steam after punching above their weight all season. Arsenal possibly the same but possibly just that they didn't take advantage of the half they had the better of today against the team sat in 4th and Villa did. City left the door ajar this season with a poor first half of the campaign but their only dropped points since Palace at home before Christmas were draws with Arsenal and Liverpool and that weird 1-1 with Chelsea. But if you look at the three squads with all/most players fit, City should still be a bit ahead of Liverpool and Arsenal.

Bookies have City as roughly 70% likely to win the title now. Arsenal 20% and Liverpool 15%. It was about 40%/35%/30% on Friday. (I know they don't add up to 100% but that's how odds work).

Naturally I don't want Liverpool to win the title but I was hoping Arsenal could stop City who are just about as unpalatable. I know it's still close and "it's not over yet" but I don't think City will blink now. They do not lose a close title race. But maybe this will be the time...

I'd basically forgotten about Gakpo as well. He looked like a decent pick-up last season.

It's mad that you went on that improbable run where those kids were playing quite regularly and they did enough to win the League Cup and keep you in Europe and the title race and then when you've got a bunch of your senior players back from injury they've fucked it all in the blink of an eye. I do think there's an element of some squad players like Elliot, Jones and Tsimikas who have played above their level for a lot of the season and just haven't been able to keep it up all the way. Nunez and Diaz have put some good numbers up but I think Liverpool should listen to offers for either really because I don't see either of them having the ability to step up as the "main man" when Salah is out of form like he has been recently, or when he leaves. Jota is a bit better but none of them are as good as Mane or peak Firmino. All players who can complete a front three combo if you've already got 1 or 2 world class players alongside them to raise them up but not world class in their own right.

Almost certainly curtains for Liverpool in the title race. They know it as well. Especially if Arsenal win next. Have to say I'll be delighted if that's it for them this season because the Jurgen Klopp farewell tour would have been absolutely nauseating from a media perspective if they were in contention for any sort of title or treble.

Henderson has been all over the place here. Probably going to be the worst performance to keep a clean sheet at Anfield if they see this out.

Robertson does well to clear off the line to prevent 0-2. Van Dijk needs subbing off at this rate. Stood there gawking for the first then gone full Gerrard for that chance.

I think a lot of the bickering and misunderstandings around this topic could be avoided if people on both sides could understand better that "the Jews", "Israel" and "the Israeli government" are actually distinct groups of people. It's a fucking mess down there. Our whole lives, the vast majority of leadership in the Middle East comes from bad actors convincing their populations to hate and be scared of their neighbours so you better vote for me because I'm going to protect you and reassure you that it's okay to feel that way. The West (mostly the US) have shown themselves to be bad actors looking after their own interests also. It's going to take more than "strong leadership" and a stiff upper lip to sort it all out. There are clearly deep and long-standing cultural and psychological issues. You've got hundreds of millions of people who have never really lived properly in peace and you're trying to convince them to trust each other and live happily side by side. You'll have about as much luck convincing everyone in Europe to stop watching football and follow water polo instead. It'll take something seismic to reset the board down there. Hopefully it doesn't need to be world war 3.

Got robbed on the second leg. Bournemouth were one corner short for me but there was a shot in injury time that clearly deflected wide off a United defender but the officials gave a goal kick. Ah well.

Absolutely robbed the W on that first leg .

Nice job from City and we'll take the Forest draw.

To the tune of about £75m as well apparently. Corrupt. Corrupt. Corrupt.

Leeds 0-1. Gonna be Ipswich 1st and Southampton 2nd at this rate.

All season people have been saying whichever team doesn't get automatic promotion out of Leicester, Leeds and Ipswich is going to be depressed because they were all on track to outscore the previous record for 3rd place by 10+ points. Now all three of them seem determined not to gain automatic promotion.

Doing a "normal" bet this week. Maidenhead have had O2.5 in their last 7 home games with BTTS in 6 of them. Gateshead have had BTTS in 5 of their last 7 away. Generous odds for this one. Bournemouth get a lot of corners, especially at home. Their last ten corners for - 6, 7, 6, 8, 11, 3, 10, 11, 9, 9 with the 3 coming against Man City. Man Utd concede a lot of corners on the road - 7, 12, 4, 4, 4, 10, 8, 15, 14, 12. I've gone ambitious here but I can easily see Bournemouth getting 8+ corners here.

I wasn't talking about your threat!

Really hard to turn that around for Liverpool. I wouldn't bet against them turning around that margin at Anfield but it's a really tall order away. If anything, Atalanta could have had more. This is why it always makes me laugh when Luton or Bournemouth get patted on the head for being "brave" at Liverpool or Man City when they've turned up with no defensive structure and just run around a lot and nicked a goal. Liverpool were horrid tonight but it's a master class from Atalanta in how to stifle a team like this whilst carrying a consistent threat at the other end. West Ham were doing well against Leverkusen. 1-0 to take back to London would have been decent for them but a late second goal for Leverkusen makes it a lot harder for them. I think Leverkusen end the night as clear favourites for the competition now.

Atalanta should have practically won this tie already.

We started early this season! Alonso has just signed a multi year extension with Aston Martin so that's one fewer moving part. AMuS were saying that Verstappen and Mercedes have been talking but it doesn't sound likely due to Mercedes' poor performance. Ferrari and Aston Martin are both trying to prise Adrian Newey from Red Bull and his departure could make Verstappen's departure more likely. Audi are waiting for a decision by Sainz on their offer. Perez is an alternative for them if he becomes available. Gasly and Ocon are both open to leaving Alpine so they could be in play as well!

The stalemate continues. The Premier League have responded to the fan advisory board to basically say it isn't in their remit to "reject" 777 and force the owner to look for an alternative buyer, leaving us in limbo as long as 777 claim to be pursuing this. Moshiri won't talk to other buyers who are ready and willing to come and 'save' the club because they're not willing to buy his equity at the price 777 are willing to pay. All the while, the fans have no power to do anything but watch and wait. As far as I can see, there is no mechanism to stop this going on forever. Either 777 have to provide proof they can buy and fund the club which they haven't managed to do in 8 months, or Moshiri has to agree to sell to somebody else. That somebody else will either have to match 777's price (not going to happen) or Moshiri is going to have to cut his losses and agree to sell his shares to an alternative buyer for less money. The longer he keeps faith with 777, the more Everton gets saddled with further debt and the less appealing ownership of the club becomes, meaning he's likely to have even lower bids for his shares. Now we wait for Moshiri to come to the decision to cut his losses. I can't see how 777 are going to pass this fit and proper ownership test if they're asking for another extension now, so I think it's on Moshiri to end this. Sadly, Moshiri has shown time and time again that he doesn't tend to make either the most prudent decision in general or the decision in the best interests of the football club. It makes you wonder whether this fit and proper owners test should have an expiry date of say 3 months or the PL/EFL should have the means to conclusively reject an application, because this stalemate doesn't help anyone and all the parties worst affected (fans, staff, players) have no power to influence proceedings.