Sheaf Saint

It was a clear foul, to be fair.

All the taters and pundits were convinced Diallo was going to RB, but it was pretty obvious it would be JWP with Diallo alongside Romeu in CM. They seemed surprised.

Had to look up the actual date but it was 32 years ago almost to the day - 25 Jan 1989. A league cup QF replay against Luton, which we lost 2-1 after ET. Don't really remember much about the game itself, only that it was freezing cold and we had a goal disallowed for offside, which I didnt really understand at the time. I was 13 and had never really had much interest in football as a nipper. But a mate at school got some tickets from his dad who worked in the ticket office and invited me along. We stood in the Milton and I'll never forget how it felt to be among thousands of people all singing OWTS for the first time. I was hooked.

Newcastle deservedly win at Goodison. Everton were poor again, after being very lucky to hold on for a draw at home to Leicester in midweek.

Blades re-take the lead!

He's gonna be on the bench again tonight for their game against Leicester. Looks like Saturday's cameo in the FA Cup was about more than just giving him a taste of first team football. Ancelotti obviously sees him firmly in his plans now (can't believe I just typed that sentence!) Incredible. I'm so made up for him. But I also know how hard he has worked to get where he is. He's got a phenomenal attitude on top of his talent. He's gonna go far.

For all the myriad faults those you mention have (and they do have many), one thing you can guarantee is that they would not have prioritised the economy over people's lives, and they most certainly wouldn't have used the pandemic as an opportunity to gift £bns worth of private contracts to their corporate mates to deliver sub-standard or non-existent goods/services. You notice how none of the ministers they put up for the daily briefings ever mentions our "world beating test and trace system" anymore? Where the fuck is Dido Harding?

Entirely predictable result that. Even after we took the lead. Arsenal are in really good league form and totally deserved what they got tonight. No complaints. We have a very competitive first 11, but there's just no way a club like ours with the lean squad we have can absorb as many injuries as we have at the moment and still maintain decent form. Ralph mentioned that we can't use our recovery facilities at the moment (cryo-chamber, sauna etc...) due to Covid. On top of that we've got massive fixture congestion because of the condensed season, meaning the fit players we have will be blowing out their arses with the amount of games they are expected to play. I'm really starting to question the wisdom of even continuing with the season now.* When clubs like us aren't allowed to use the facilities that we have and need to use in order to compete with clubs that can afford to have massive squads and benches filled with seasoned internationals, it just gives those richer clubs even more of an unfair advantage than they normally have. * - Of course, if we had had the same luck with injuries that Leicester had in their title-winning season, and we had maintained our form from October/November, then I obviously wouldn't be saying that.

Which JWP has never attempted, and surely never will. Takes a player out if the game for a few seconds I suppose.

Would you prefer he was laughing and joking instead?

This reminds me of the time Gazza got sacked as manager of Rushden and Diamonds but refused to accept it and vowed to turn up at work the following Monday anyway.

I've often wondered, if VAR refs can tell the on-field ref to award a penalty, then surely they should also be able to instruct refs to book players for diving as well.

Edit. Double post. Oh shite! Macca!

Better from us in the last few minutes. Have Arsenal burned themselves out early trying to play us at our own game?

Hang on... How did we not get a corner for that?

Commentator: ”Not sure that's really worth a yellow" Fuck off. That tackle was later than an important decision from Boris Johnson!

How about 4? 😔

They've shown more replays of Lacazette's miss than of our goal so far 🤨

Pompey down to 10 men at home to Lincoln.

I think we've got our wires crossed a bit here. You're referring to the symptoms of the virus, which can feel like a bad flu to most people that get it. In that sense you are absolutely correct. The point I was making was about the overall impact of the pandemic. Many people arguing against lockdowns etc. (and I'm using my own brother as a reference point here, who has fallen head first down the hoax/anti-vax/Bill Gates conspiracy theory rabbit hole and cannot be reasoned with) are focussed solely on the death rates, saying it is no worse than a bad flu season and they would prefer to take their chances because they will most likely survive with no long term effects. But this is incredibly selfish thinking, because it ignores the bigger issue which is the ten-fold increase in the number of hospitalisations and the immense strain this is putting on the NHS.

Agreed.

Total number of NHS hospital admissions with flu 2017/18 season: 46,215 Total number of NHS hospital admissions with flu 2018/19 season: 39,670 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7526100/ Total number of hospital admissions with Covid (cumulative) as of Monday 25th Jan: 371,089 (gov.uk). That's almost ten times the amount of hospital admissions since the start of the pandemic (less than a year ago) than in the entire 2018/19 flu season. And that is taking into account all of the lockdown and social distancing restrictions. Imagine how much worse it would be without them. It isn't, and never was, all about the death rate. It's about the number of hospitalisations and the excessive strain on the NHS. This is why it is completely idiotic to argue that it's no worse than a bad flu season.

Exactly, and that is why it's so hard to debate with the "sceptics" who are so fixated solely on the death rate and claiming it's no worse than a particularly bad winter flu. We're still learning about the long term effects, but some of the individual cases I have read about are horrendous. Many people who survive hospitalisation are left with permanent lung damage, chronic fatigue, and all sorts of other conditions which will have a devastating impact on their quality of life.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jan/18/almost-30-of-covid-patients-in-england-re-admitted-to-hospital-after-discharge-study FYI Edit: I say "published", but it's still actually at peer review stage. Nevertheless, it's very interesting and concerning.