The Cat

The gimp on the stream I was watching on Saturday said "raucous atmosphere as normal at the London Stadium" as the teams walked out. Pretty sure they are all told to say that sort of crap to make the people watching think the atmosphere is good rather than it actually being so. It's all a bit fake and staged but even some of the fans in the MLS put a lot of ours to shame at the moment.

Keane's got a point about Pickford. Technically all over the place at times, often poor decision making. Bails himself out with some cracking saves but he's another one who's been overrated. Henderson at Sheffield United is better.

Whatever happens tonight we can rest assured that Pompey's fans will once again show that they are the best in the country, haha.

Trotting slowly back to defend after losing the ball: 276 (1st) Number of touches needed to bring the ball under control: 7 (1st) Over hit passes to players in space, giving away possession: 354 (1st) (FWIW I don't mind him but he's really got some work to do on his game before he's ready to consistently play for a much better team than us)

Playing devil's advocate here, but is any of this different to Denise Lewis or Sally Gunnell commentating on men's athletics? They wouldn't be able to get anywhere near the men in their respective events so should they be able to pass judgement on people doing the same sport faster and better? They have plenty of women co-commentating on tennis but most of them would struggle to win a game against a decent male pro. I find most football commentators and pundits quite annoying at times and couldn't really care less if it's a man or a woman.

Can't say I remember Richardson or Wright having any songs and that tune certainly doesn't work with their names.

Pretty sure we once subbed Ramirez, fans singing the song. A minute or so later Yoshida does a decent tackle and people sang it again with his name. Woeful.

I've always thought Barkley was overrated. Even when he was being lauded for his displays at Everton he was largely just running around people in positions where it didn't matter and scoring the occasional goal.

Villa kept Ings relatively quiet. Still lost.

Stratford is easy but Hackney Wick is less crowded and has a decent ale bar with outside seating in-between the there and the ground. Personally I'd drink elsewhere then get the tube to arrive about 30 mins before kick off.

Another vote for Tim Vickery. He pops up on the World Service sometimes. Their football show is worth a listen because it covers all sorts of leagues, Pat Nevin is normally on there. He's pretty good and also has a decent taste in music.

Second highest spenders in Europe over the past 2 transfer windows according to their forum. I haven't checked that out but it sounds plausible.

El Ghazi

Had a look at a Villa forum, they think the same.

I like the fact he looks like he's always on the verge of falling over when he runs. Bags of talent, will invariably blow hot and cold but when he's on it he must be a nightmare to defend against. I really enjoy watching him because you never quite know what's going to happen next.

Cheers. Grealish was definitely one of the players getting annoyed with him being on the pitch because they wanted to take the corner.

Fans need to start joining forces in the ground to sing "f.uck VAR" every time it's used. If we had the home and away supporters chanting together in every game it would send a powerful message.

For anyone who watched the match on a stream, what happened to their player who went down for ages in the first half and got subbed? Was it just a clash of heads? Not sure why the ref didn't tell him to move so the game could restart considering he was originally off the pitch but then rolled over about 3 times to get back on it.

Good win. Should have been easier but at least it made for an exciting finish and we got to celebrate a breakaway goal. Decent first top flight game for Smallbone. Pleased that Armstrong got the goal as he played well again.

This from Babel at Ajax is brilliant

Waste of a talent. Pity it had to be us that paid the money to find that out. He has all the attributes we need in a midfielder but sadly he only seemed bothered on the odd occasion.

Remember reading an article when RH joined about how at a previous club he'd had a striker who barely scored but was one of the first names on his teamsheet because of the work he put in. We all know that Long won't score loads and didn't get off to the best of starts under Ralph but it's fairly obvious now that he trusts him to carry out his tactics correctly. This has a big positive impact on how the team play. Yes he could have a younger player with similar attributes who might score more but it makes sense to keep Long for another season.

They did it in Europe to make sure the people with the most away games were the ones picking up the tickets because they were in short supply. Obviously it won't happen at Burnley away because we never sell out there, but it's plausible for small allocation sell outs. We won't do it, partly because our ticket office is a shambles and partly because, as evidenced above by the video, our club couldn't give a toss.

We did it for Midtjylland and Prague. Everyone had to go to a hotel and pick up their tickets in the afternoon before the game. I'd ban anyone selling away tickets to home fans, no excuses.

I completely detest Ashley Barnes. Grealish seems like a petulant cock but I like watching him play. Vardy is obviously the worst of the lot though.