Lucas

I know, I had to double check the stats twice thinking it was some kind of sick joke. This game has a brilliant curse over us at times.

Have to say, since we've entered 2024, Phil Foden is probably the best player in the World currently on form. Just unreal at the moment. And he's only going to get better. Southgate should be absolutely laughing with him, Saka, Jude, Kane, Rice etc this Summer.

The Watkins one came in. So I'm going to combine this with a Man City Man U bet builder. Man City to win, Over 2.5 Goals, Foden 1 Shot on target and Casimiro +1 foul. 1.95 odds. So if this lands, with the 2.50 from Watkins, it will be £48.75 from £10.

I had a feeling Huddersfield would get something against us today. Had a week off, first home game for the new manager, full house and against us, the one game they always get up for. To be fair, we were miles off it today. I just think the last few weeks have caught up with us a little bit and it would have been nigh on impossible to keep winning games. When you have performances like today though and its just not going for you, you at least make sure you don't lose. At least we got a point and as disappointing as it felt with Leicester losing, we got a home game in the week to put it right again. Really pissed off with yet another Southampton 90+ winner though. How they nearly cocked up that Birmingham game I don't know.

I'm going to split my bets up if ok. First selection is 1 Watkins Shot on Target and Watkins to be fouled once. Betfair boost of 6/4 (2.50) so £10 wins £25. If it comes in, I'll likely have a selection from the Manchester derby.

Saturday 2nd March, 2024 Brentford 1-2 Chelsea Everton 1-2 West Ham Fulham 2-1 Brighton Newcastle 1-1 Wolves Nottm Forest 0-2 Liverpool Tottenham 2-1 Crystal Palace Luton 1-3 Aston Villa, 17.30 Sunday 3rd March, 2024 Burnley 1-1 Bournemouth, 13.00 Man City 4-1 Man Utd, 15.30 Monday 4th March, 2024 Sheff Utd 0-3 Arsenal, 20.00

8th 19th

Poor old Newcaatle, they get some fucking terrible draws to be fair to them Away in every round so far.

Happy with that. Weakened team and done ourselves justice. Had the better of the game for sure and IMO, should have won. Chelsea will know they got away with that but fair play, clinical when it counted. They were in a bit of a no win situation tonight too. Archie Gray is 17 and making this game look so easy. Bad night for us putting himself in the shop window but pleased for the lad also. Going all the way to the top.

Villarreal

Fingers crossed for a Coventry v Leicester Quarter Final now. Would be hugely refreshing for the competition if that came out.

I think you've kind of used that angle to justify your arguement but I have to disagree with that. In normal circumstances if Salah is out, you have a front three of Jota, Darwin and Diaz. That is strong. Even Gakpo offers great back up across that front three. What you should really be doing is comparing what eleven City could field if they had the same multiple injuries to key players like you currently have in Allison, Trent, Szoboslai, Salah, Darwin and Jota. I mean, in normal circumstances, you can easily field two class teams like City can right? ----------------Allison Trent - VVD - Matip - Robbo Szoboszlai - Endo - Macallister -----Salah - Darwin - Diaz --------------------Kelleher Bradley - Konate - Gomez - Tsimikas ----Gravenberch - Thiago - Jones ---------Elliott - Gakpo - Jota Totally accept the absurd amount of injuries to the forward players have hurt you now so the strength in depth looks more precarious but in normal circumstances, you could lose Salah and cope fine, just as in your statement, City can lose KDB and cope fine. Let's make this fair and compare as close as we can. If City were missing Ederson (Allison), Walker (Trent), KDB (Szbozslai), Foden (Jota), Haaland (Salah) and Alverez (Darwin), there is no doubt they would struggle as you have. -------------Ortega Stones Diaz Ake Akanji -----Kovacic--Rodri Silva---Grealish---Doku ------------Bobb That might not be entirely accurate of how they'd line up but I mean, let's be honest, if you were facing that Man City side, you would carry some genuine hope of beating them. So lets look at what you could field Sunday. ------------------Kelleher Bradley - VVD - Konate - Robertson Macallister - Endo - Gravenberch ---------Elliott - Gakpo - Diaz Is there a lot between those two examples? I wouldn't say there is substantially. I think City would get by, much like you have, but would still struggle in the same situation, especially juggling multiple competitions.

I really like the bloke but Pochettino's reputation is going rapidly downhill and that stigma about him not being able to get his teams over the line only grows. That was a massive chance for Chelsea to kickstart this new regime and bag a trophy. They had a lot of things fall in their favour to do so, and they've still not managed to find the answer. There is now a genuine prospect that Chelsea are going to face two years without any kind of European Football. This is a club that won the Champions League in 2021. A club that had developed a winning mentality to close out finals. Three years later and here we are, Can't beat a team ravaged by injuries to their best players and forced to field kids. Ridiculous, bordering on unacceptable given the standard they should adhere to.

We've never won the playoffs since they were formed. Our record is atrocious. We've lost to Watford in the Championship final. We've lost to Doncaster in the League One final. We've lost to Millwall in a Semi Final. We've lost to Derby in a Semi Final. We have even lost an inaugral playoff to Charlton in 1987 when it wasn't even a thing to decide promotion. I absolutely dread them and hooe to god we don't get in them again or we're likely done for. But it is what it is. Of all the things the EFL has brought in and done over the years, creating the playoffs has been the best thing to happen to the Football League hands down. It's just the luck of the draw. You know what the story is before you kick a ball. If you'd have asked any Ipswich fan at the start of the season what would be your expectation for the team, many would likely have said Midtable or Top 10, and some would have dreamed of snatching a palyoff spot with a little bit of luck, realistically or unrealistically. Thats just what the playoffs do. They allow clubs to dream of having a shot to reach the Premier League even if their budget or circumstances wouldn't necessarily allow them to. Just look at Luton now as the classic example. And coming from a club in the division that has come down with a higher wage bill, bigger transfer kitty and better squad than many down there, I will begrudgingly accept if we finish 3rd and lose playoffs. I'll be gutted obviously, especially if we finish 20 odd points ahead of say a Coventry or Hull but thats just tough shit. We would have had a significant advantage to get us Top 2 and failed so it'd be on us. I get Ipswich are having a great season but to be perfectly frank, there is every chance Southampton finish above them anyway, maybe even 2nd still, and suddenly you'll be welcoming a playoff spot.

22nd for both

Happy days, she'll do.

My bet for today. Palmer and Diaz 1 SOT each. Macallister to commit 1 foul. 3/1 Skyboost. £10 wins £40.

Great win mate. Chuffed to nuts that landed and came in for you

Also, what a weekend at the bottom. Wednesday, QPR, Huddersfield as well as Millwall all winning. That's developing into a right battle royale down there now. I'd like to see Stoke drop to be fair, Birmingham too.

That Millwall result was lovely. Unexpected and now leaves a previously unbeaten in 25 games Southampton with three defeats in four. Serious food for thought for them. Credit to Ipswich, so many late goals. They keep going. Been a great week for them but not sure it will be entirely sustainable.

Yeah, maybe not the best week to have played that chip but always worth a shot.

I second this motion.

Well, I was disappointed we werent leading at HT tbh as we created some good opportunities but the last touch was shocking. Think back to Piroe's shot early doors which was wayward, just needed to square to Summerville for a tap in. Gnonto just needed to shoot when through and then wasted the chance cutting in, Summerville through again and then a poor touch...we were so off it but they are three big chances. Second half you went up a notch and had us on the backfoot. Meslier made a couple really solid saves and you're dead unlucky with the offside goal. But you know as well as I do, cannot miss them chances that Mavididi and Daka miss. I still don't know how Daka's went so off target. That was poor. I thought we looked out of ideas around 60-70mins and you had us totally in your pocket but Bamford, Roberts and James come on and its given us fresh energy, especially the former. Out of nowehere, we've grabbed an equaliser after good play from Rutter and then Elland Road becomes the bear pit its synonymous with being. We've found a gear and you look a side that knows the game should have been won. Definitely looks a mental case with you. We were incredibly lucky you didn't kill us off last night, no doubt about it, we were there for the taking but I guess there is a reason we've gone from 17pts behind to just 6pts now. Obviously not a bad side and we're pretty dangerous team to let off the hook. Considering we had an awful summer and the first two months of the season we were playing catch up after so much upheaval, we've really done well to get ourselves into this position. Makes you wonder what could have happened if we were able to have a clean start in August.

Saturday 24th February, 2024 Aston Villa 2-1 Nottm Forest Brighton 2-1 Everton Crystal Palace 1-1 Burnley Man Utd 2-1 Fulham Bournemouth 1-3 Man City, 17.30 Arsenal 2-0 Newcastle, 20.00 Sunday 25th February, 2024 Wolves 3-0 Sheff Utd, 13.30 Monday 26th February, 2024 West Ham 1-1 Brentford, 20.00

Obviously, estatic. I don't think it's quite sunk in we've won that game but that's Football isn't it. It's probably the first time in a long time we've won a game we've been second best in and don't deserve to. Very unlike us. Got to say I feel for the Leicester boys on here, it's horrible losing games like that, especially the one's that are bigged up a bit by the media so I don't want to twist the knife. They played a solid game, if they had won 0-3, I don't think I'd have complained. But fuck me, you can't waste them chances though. I wouldn't say we we were entirely dominated start to finish as that first half could and should have been a different story really with the openings we created, but we were dead and buried second half. Literally just hung in there and taken a pounding. So yeah, we've ended up robbing them really based on the chances they missed and that Daka 'goal' disallowed (which 100% should have counted) Terrible performance from us. Players looked far too tense, stray passes, heavy touches, snatching at chances, absolutely no composure whatsoever. Everything felt far too tight, and not loose. But someway, somehow, we've dug that outta nowhere. This is Elland Road. We know what can happen here when we get our tails up and get a sniff. Although a lot of quality was missing tonight with our final touch, we still posses that threat in the game if we're within a goal. Once Roberts smashes that equaliser in, Elland Road goes into a world of its own and just does something to galvinise this team. Leicester looked deflated after that equaliser and we just became lifted from the roar of the crowd. I suppose end of the day, you give Farke credit for changing it and the subs all end up making a telling contribution. Bamford, James and Roberts definitely gave us fresh energy and something different, especially the latter. And what about our Archie Gray eh? Out of position at RB, shoved over to LB, and then makes something happen to put us 2-1 up. This boy is made different. Sadly I suspect we may only enjoy him for two seasons tops before he's gone. Unlike some, I'm not really a smug winner. Yeah we cut the gap to 6pts off top but I still fancy Leicester to go up in first. Hopefully we can carry this momentum forward and consolidate that 2nd spot, that's the main objective. Maresca may live to regret the 'just another game' line which was a tad naive of him really, especially now we've ended up beating them twice, but it's all harmless gamesmanship. He set Leicester up really well to be fair and for the best part, they done a number on the likes of Summerville, Gnonto, Rutter etc. Ricardo Perreira was MOTM for me. The lack of a clinical striker was really what let them down. Perhaps if Vardy's fit, he sticks away one of those for sure.