coalman

Now for the best bit of this game. Conte's interview

It's hard watching Middlesborough trying to break down plucky Tottenham who have two solid banks of four sitting deep to nullify their Championship opposition. I can see Tottenham nicking one and causing an upset here.

Remember how our form tanked last season when key players got injured. I'm glad we had points on the board and Ralph learned his lesson and built a stronger squad. We're seeing the benefits now. Feel for Leeds fans. Feel for Bielsa. Every time someone suggests Big Sam, god kills a puppy.

Yup. It's almost like our government's slow response is giving the oligarchs who fund them time to make arrangements to stop their assets being seized or frozen.

Tough to do that. Chelsea owes Abramovich $2billion. https://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddawkins/2022/02/24/roman-abramovich-has-sanction-insurance-a-2-billion-loan-to-chelsea-fc/

I'm not used to being 1-0 up and feeling unworried.

Just watched the match again. One feature of our play that's come on leaps and bounds is ball retention. We're comfortable playing in tight pockets of space and the players trust each other to receive and move the ball on quickly. Players are making themselves available and know where to expect each other so when we win second balls we are passing rather than hoofing. Everton were left chasing shadows.

That's the most one sided 2-0 I've seen. Weathered the storm then never looked troubled. Everything stuck to Romeu. And our passing was so composed and slick.

Love the calm way our stewards dealt with that blue flare

I love that Ralph saw how weak they'd be to a Long back post header. Inspired

Little arms

This. But if it keeps his value down...

It's Saints we expect 0 goals when we're on top

From this stream I'm coming to the conclusion that male hair loss is a big thing in Australia

4-0 all the way. Adams hat-trick and JWP free kick

Chances are this will get cancelled. I don't see Everton being able to travel down today safely.

https://youtu.be/ZpoNqYLv_8w

Newcastle don't have to play until want to. They'll let the FA know when the fixture isn't too scary.

I hope Trippier recovers soon. Nobody wants to wish injury on another player. Plus, I don't want one fixture remaining in July.

Nice to have KWP as an option in attacking midfield. He rarely gives it away and takes up great positions. But, Armstrong is our best attacking midfielder by some distance. All season I've been begging our players to have a pop at goal so, while we've erred towards too selfish, I'd rather that than the alternative.

This. It's going to go one of three ways: 1. He stays at Saints and we build our attack around him. He has the chance to be the main man in a team on the up (hopefully). 2. He goes back to Chelsea to fight for his place and risks going into limbo when the next 100 million pound striker arrives. 3. Somebody else offers a big pile of cash as the hype train picks up speed. Chelsea may be tempted with this but we seem to be doing ok with buybacks. I agree with Lighthouse that he's in a great place to develop into a top class striker with us. Historically 3 has been the dominant choice so it kay be wishful thinking on my part to think we have a chance. It's going to come down to what the player wants.

I'd love Rashford playing for us

No system which attempts to turn subjective metrics into an objective metric is perfect. However, I'd argue that a metric which attempts to quantify expected results is extremely useful in dealing with self serving bias.

https://www.goal.com/en/news/what-is-xg-football-how-statistic-calculated/h42z0iiv8mdg1ub10iisg1dju It's worth noting the weighting of each factor and interpretation is still subjective. As in, if two people work out xG there will be differences. That being said. Man Utd had some excellent chances. 2.5 doesn't seem crazy. 0.75 on the other hand...