Jimmy_D

JWP doing all he can to try and claim the spot that’s opened up, could easily have three assists.

I’ve said all along that the cost of further lockdowns needs to be considered. In making that comparison though, it’s important not to underestimate the threat that the Delta variant poses. You only need to look to what’s happened in India to see what can happen if it becomes widespread, and you only need to look to here at the end of last year to see how a combination of a new variant and easing restrictions can lead from “it feels like we’re on top of this” to “how did it end up even worse than last time”. It’s important not to underestimate the cost of lockdowns too, but it’s difficult to estimate both. The potential risk of the Delta variant is a bigger unknown though. By not enough data, I mean that the increase in cases hasn’t been going long enough yet for that data to be available. Every time we’ve seen an increase in cases before, it has led to exponential growth in cases, and then further increases in hospitalisations and deaths, with that only being combatted by further restrictions. Back then, though, we weren’t this far into a very effective vaccination programme, with more people being vaccinated every day. It’s literally an unknown how badly a third wave of the Delta variant becoming widespread would hit us. No-one is suggesting reverting any easing of lockdown, not least down to Boris Johnson’s promise of it being irreversible, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see the final easing of lockdown back to normal levels delayed if we see the case figures start to get even worse and then the hospitalisation figures start to follow that.

Unfortunately I lost my job last week, so I’m part of the COVID related job loss numbers now. I’ve been saving in case something like this happened, so I’m ok for a while, and I’m hopeful it won’t take too long to find a new one, but obviously it’s not ideal.

To be fair our chances are massively reduced regardless of the rest of the squad/tactics if Kane gets injured.

The current level of restrictions and vaccination aren’t enough to stop COVID cases spreading and increasing exponentially here, probably due to what’s now known as the Delta variant, previously known as the Indian variant. I absolutely hate that that’s the case, but here we are. Right now is the best time to put a stop to that. The speed of the vaccine rollout will help, but there isn’t enough data yet whether that alone will keep hospitalisations and deaths down to ‘acceptable’ levels. The trouble with leaving it to individuals is that the risk to every individual is genuinely low. No one would choose to keep restricting themselves, and that leads to a massive problem overall with more deaths than anyone would want. Cases and deaths were incredibly low last summer for a long time until a variant meant that the restrictions in place weren’t enough to stop exponential spread. Then no-one was too worried as numbers were still low, even though they were increasing, then before we knew it there were more cases than it was possible to track, and it was too late to do anything about it. It’s no surprise that people are wary about the possibility of that happening again. There is a difference this time of course, in that our most vulnerable have been vaccinated, and that will help massively, but considering there seems to be evidence that a single vaccination isn’t enough against the Delta variant, unfortunately we’re nowhere near a position where we can just ignore the threat yet. Needless to say, it’s an extremely tough call as to which way to go. I certainly wouldn’t want to be the one having to make it.

Feels like JWP is very unlucky to miss out with that squad. What scenario makes a 4th right-back more valuable than the best set-piece specialist in the league!?

We’re doing pretty well in the UK, but worldwide COVID is worse than it’s ever been, it’s a threat like nothing else we’ve faced in our lifetime. No-one wants to keep putting restrictions in place, and everyone wants it to all be over, but the fact is that it isn’t. Unfortunately it won’t be completely over for a long time to come. Until then it’s a case of doing what we can to beat it and minimising the cost to health and wellbeing, both from the effects of Covid itself and the effects of restrictions.

It’s already visible that there’s been a concerning rise in cases with the current level of lockdown easing. All the way through there has been a delay of 1-2 weeks between an increase in cases and an increase in hospitalisations, and a delay of 2-3 weeks for increases in deaths. There’s a high possibility that the vaccination programme so far will have broken that link between cases and hospitalisations/deaths, but there simply isn’t the data to back that up just yet, so they haven’t made a decision on delaying the next lockdown easing yet. We’re vaccinating at a very fast rate, which is improving our position all the time, I was lucky enough to be vaccinated yesterday. If there is a need for a short delay (which certainly isn’t definite yet), it would make a genuine difference in how vulnerable on average those remaining unvaccinated are.

Ings has been scoring pretty well since coming back from injury, on form alone he probably gets in, but I think Southgate probably thinks the risk of him missing a big chunk of the tournament through injury is too high.

Utterly pissed all over West Ham for the first half hour, conceded two sloppy goals, then it looked like we forgot what the round thing filled with air was.

1-1 After full time, straight to penalties, lost the shootout 2-3. Played well, would have deserved it if we'd got a winner during the game, but penalties are always a lottery.

If ever second season syndrome was needed, it’s for that bunch of utter ****s.

They play each other, Liverpool have it in their own hands.

Ridiculous that there were four minutes of stoppage, let alone that Liverpool scored after they were up.

Oh ffs. West Brom absolutely robbed.

And another one? Thought it was only if the header had scored itself that being in the keeper’s eyeline would be offside?

So Mike Dean pulls it back for the ref obstructing a Liverpool player (not the ball), lets them take a quick free kick for it instead of doing a drop ball, and Liverpool score from it...

It could have hardly been a more direct route to goal the ball took. I think that VAR have looked at it, thought “**** we can’t disallow a goal like that in a final” and bottled it, made a different decision to what they’d make in any other game.

By this season’s rules, that’s handball for Leicester’s goal?

That’ll do.

Good to see Tella get off the mark, always a huge moment for a player

Has been a model pro for us and an extremely reliable left back, I'm sure he'll do well wherever he ends up. Probably the right time both for him and the club that he moves on, hopefully we'll be able to replace him well.

40 Points! I think we're probably safe now. Always feels good to get a win despite cheating antics from the opposition, played well and the third goal properly killed the game off. It's a shame we had such a bad run the latter half of the season, our start had given us the chance to do something special, but at least it feels like we can properly start looking to next season now.

Justice against the cheating ****s for the penalty. Ings makes such a difference to the whole team.