I hate Liverpool more than I hate Raheem Sterling, which is saying a lot. Hopefully we can win or draw so Man City can win the EPL.
COYS. Zero expectations. Team is the usual, Reg still out so Sessegnon LWB. Bench is scary, 3 kids (White Craig and Scarlett) included.
Pretty even so far. Liverpool playing a very high press. Once they start to tire maybe Spurs can hit them on the break.
Agree that we were unfortunate not to win. Royal being out of position, but still ending up in the right place at the right time to set up our goal reminded me a bit of the goal Dier scored against West Ham. Royal's performance on the day was exceptional. Emerson Royal's game by numbers vs Liverpool: 100% tackles won (4/4)100% succesful dribbles (1/1)80% accurate long balls (4/5)79% pass accuracy (26/33)78% ground duels won (7/8)73 total touches5 clearances5 ball recoveriesAn outstanding performance. 🇧🇷 pic.twitter.com/CUxLkJgEOr— Statman Dave (@StatmanDave) May 7, 2022
This point + United being thrashed by Brighton means we can't finish lower than 5th. I've seen a graphic of the pre-season top 4 predictions of about 20 BBC pundits. All of them but one had City, Liverpool, Chelsea and United in some order. 1 guy snuck Leicester in there. Not one mention of us, or Arsenal.
I had not been looking below us in the table, so it was a pleasant surprise to see we have clinched 5th place. No conference league, at least. Great performance yesterday. It really is a game of inches. If Bentancur had got his foot out another inch, that shot would have gone wide. If he had stretched a couple inches less, he would have missed the ball and Lloris would have saved... Conte is a really good coach.
Just saw the hightlights today. Hojbjerg's injury time header back to no one when in on goal ... what the actual f*ck?
A really good performance and result, but unfortunately it is a waste when you chuck away points to teams like Burnley and Brighton.
First 25 PL games under Conte: won 14, drawn 5, lost 6, points 47, scored 51, conceded 24. First 10 games under Nuno: won 5, drawn 0, lost 5, points 15, scored 9, conceded 16. Looking at our squad, I would never have predicted that point haul and a +27 goal difference. Hopefully Uncle Danny will realize we have lucked out in getting a manager of his quality and provide him with the tools we need to get to the next level.
Honestly, the difference between 1.88 and 1.5 ppg is not that great. It may have been enough to ensure Europe at some level, but it's not an eye-popping difference (nor is it statistically significant). +27 GD though... that's pretty sweet and maybe tells the story better.
Actually, it's pretty significant. Spread it out over 38 games and it's the difference between 71.5 and 57 points. The former will almost always get you in the Champions League. The latter, more often than not, won't get you into Europe, at all. Actually, now that there's the Europa Conference, that may not be true. But a casual guestimation would say it's the difference between 4th and 7th.