shurlock

Hoedt you clown. Not the first time this game.

Pied’s settled down.

Rotation- another residual effect from last season, out of the manager's control?

Residual effects from last season Are you a believer in post-puel-stress-disorder too, like our quack Glasgow? Romeu in interviews has spoken about the conservative/defensive tendencies of the manager which would partly contradict your claims.

Great game.

Leicester very good second half - could have had four or five. Looking forward to our match with them.

Bored Puel 1 up after 6mins.

How are you assessing these chants? You decided that because one chant uses a couple of swear-words. it must necessarily be more offensive. Good lad. Holding hands is a low-level chant but the context in which it is sung isn’t - it still plays on the idea that gay people are different, this in a society where deeper homophobia still exists and sexual orientation goes to the heart of people’s identity and self-worth. It doesn’t mean that all these chants amount to hate speech but there are sensitivities around them that will never exist in a million years about a team’s support. F**king s**t or not. You should stick to lecturing people about the Chinese flag pal #notthesharpesttoolinthebox

It doesn't mean that abuse was homophobic in nature - it may just have been general swearing and foul language. Which people do everyweek at every ground at every fan, drawing no distinction between sexual orientation, race, religion or any other characteristic. The authorities may have used his general abusive behaviour as context for his holding hands chant, concluding it made it worse; others would argue that this was further evidence of a moron who was mindlessly rattling through every footballing cliché in the book rather than being particularly homophobic towards Brighton fans. Ultimately, I don't think the authorities engaged in such semantic niceties and as such much of the discussion on this thread is moot and masterbatory hobbyhorsing. Rather the authorities took a very practical and procedural position. They made it clear after Brighton was promoted that they would be enforcing a zero tolerance policy, no matter how low-level the chant. Fans had prior notice, the defendant still took no notice and now is paying the price. It's no more complicated than that.

Also bet the stewards/OB singled out the gimpiest, dimmest-looking, least likely to defend themselves fan to make an example of. The idea that only one of our fans was singing this -after it being a crude, if innocuous staple for so many years- strains belief.

Wait till doddisalegend gets a 3-year ban from the Itchen North for chanting 'she's got chlamydia'. Surely perceived sexism is the next domino to fall.

Very true, though you try to remain indifferent to your own players yet I've ended up actively disliking a lot of them.

Most of our regular starters are pretty unlikeable with the exception of Romeu, Davis and Yoshida.

Looks like bit of a wrongun to me.

City fans are among the worst - proverbial Micky Carrolls who if they hadn't won the lottery would be like the dopey, deluded Geordies albeit without the support. Perhaps deep down they realise soul of the club is a shrivelled husk but best to double down and embrace it.

Thought our performance under Puel last season was much better than last night’s performance - we showed more ambition on the ball that’s for sure. Certainly this season’s City team has clicked in ways that it didn’t last year, even if the personnel is pretty much the same (note Sané was a big miss). That said, I do think we could have been a tad bit more adventurous, especially with Redmond’s positioning which basically made us a 5-4-1. Long also dropped deeper and deeper -and made the threat of a counterattack less and less credible as the game wore on. Pellegrino also had the likes of Lemina, Hoedt and Gabbi at his disposal that are an upgrade on last season’s squad. I only point this out -as you note- because last night’s performance was not a flash in the pan or an outlier but more a point along a continuum, an extension of existing principles and its worth whether asking whether those underlying principles are appropriate for the likes of Stoke, Brighton and Huddersfield.

Sounds like you’re the sentimental and emotional one, pal.

Yep thought it was during the game - either way its a signal to other clubs and players coming to the Etihad intending to park the bus and has the same purpose.

Did you use the EPL channel on Flawless which aggregates all the non-Sky streams?

Probably just mind games - an attempt to stroke Redmond's ego and take his mind off the task of defending and staying in shape.

Get in hahahaha. Great touch Boufal.

Flat track bully.

This is his default position - the way he managed Alaves. By the way we’re playing, he and we seem pretty comfortable with it.

Looks more like 5-4-1 with Redmond wide left midfield.

Mine's currently working without VPN.