coachpotato

Of course, completely forgot about that!

Was there even one VAR referral last night? I watched with the commentary turned off.

Odds on they’ll get a pen.

Should’ve put this to bed by now.

Did he have a son who worked at City? I thought his team was West Ham. Funny that when Sunday Supplement was on he, like many of the other journalists, never failed to lick Ferguson’s arse.

Thought a chapter of the KKK had got in when I saw them all gathered in that stand.

Take care of yourselves too.

Pushing for acceptance of UEFA rules, which appear to be less stringent in the manner in which they affect the “richer” teams, would suit City right down to the ground and alleviate the pressure on the PL to be ruthless in deducting points from them. Could be a get out from years of protracted legal wrangling if they hit City with a massive fine and “agree” to drop many of the more contentious charges?

That’s a bit dispiriting of a read. Two paragraphs that stand out to me are: “I'll be submitting further FOIs to try to establish the extent of British government involvement in the PL vs City case, but others so far have been fruitless. The stakes are SO much higher than whether a football club broke some football rules. 9/n “ and “Man City's hierarchy realised around 2010 that they needed "accelerated investment' before UEFA's FFP came into force. Their solution was cooking the books. That was evident from their 2014 punishment onwards. It's all been in plain sight. 12/12” Firstly, if there’s an issue getting facts out into the open regarding governmental involvement in the proceedings, then we might as well forget any meaningful punishment for City. Plus, they’ll be protected going forwards to prevent any future embarrassment to the government. I doubt it’ll alter with a Labour government in power either. Secondly, that they realised in 2010 they’d need to cheat their way going forwards and have got away with it “in plain sight” for, currently, 14 years doesn’t bode well for there to be a fair outcome to those who haven’t cheated. Ultimately, if it is known by those in the game they’ve been taking the piss and they get away with it (again) then I could easily see the EFL or an equivalent being established as the likes of Werner and Henry would be crazy not to say “Fuck you” to the football authorities if they allow them to escape Scot free.

The 12th of never?

Tarkowski, Martinez and Romero, any of whom would happily break an opponents leg. A prial of pricks.

Haaland out for longer than first thought, there’s a chance, slim as it might be, that City will slip up against someone unexpected. I base this on the performance tonight against a Newcastle side that City would have beaten by 3 or 4 goals had they been at their previous levels from seasons past. They are usually clinical and ruthless, they weren’t that tonight despite having the bulk of possession and haven’t been at that level this season. I think more teams are equipped to have a go at them this season too. If we keep pressure on them by winning, the cracks could open up if they do slip up and we’d be in with a great chance of holding them off. We keep winning, we win the league.

Great goal.

These are much more used to hitting on the break than we are. They have to in many of the games against the “better” teams. Pity is we haven’t worked out how to break down a packed defence and we just carry on playing the same way. We need to keep knocking on the door though.

They look more likely to get a second before we get a first currently.

Our passing is way off tonight.

Gravenberch, Diaz and Elliot look ineffective. Even Jones at times, too many balls played backwards, we’re not making the pace and the tempo is far too easy to defend against. But they have mistakes in their defenders, and we have to capitalise by speeding it up and putting them under pressure. Still plenty of time to turn it round, but they’re dangerous going forwards too. Thankfully, there’s still a second game to iron out any fuck ups we make tonight.

Perhaps Onana is similar to Wijnaldum before we signed him? I remember there was a certain amount of doubt because he was coming from Newcastle, where he was one of their better players, but wasn’t seen as good enough for us, basically a squad player. Sometimes, it’s what the Pro’s see in a player that we miss that matters. Hope he goes to Arsenal and, like Everton, sinks without trace.

Ace player. Great in midfield and he helped to redefine what a centre half/back could do. No coincidence that our best teams have had similarly skilful centre backs (Hughes, Thompson, Hansen, Lawrenson, van Dijk, Matip etc.) if not always at his level, he was the first I saw carry the ball as he did. Another for whom the word Legend isn’t out of place. R.I.P. Kaiser.

We had his best years, if he goes anywhere else it weakens them playing against us and others, I hope he goes to Man City.

Dear Everton’s Fans Forum, As you are not one of the Sky 6, I see no reason as to why you should be given any explanation about anything. And even less so because you are cheats. regards Howard

They’d have been screaming blue murder for a red if that was a tackle by one of ours. In the cold light of day it was made to look worse than it was by the VAR check, but technically it fulfilled some of the criteria for a red card. Studs showing, straight leg, off the ground and not forgetting the main criteria, “ there was contact so he was entitled to go down”.

That’s a decent observation, but at least we have the benefit of their experience to ensure it doesn’t happen to us. Our owners are too smart to let that happen. Aren’t they?

A much better performance overall than of late, which sounds daft considering we’re top and by a couple of points This game was another where I felt there was still some room for improvement. Perhaps comparing us with our pomp in 2019-21 is unfair, but the point made that our press was back to a level which made us the team to avoid is a better guideline to where we have to be, and it was there in this game, where we forced the pace rather than stroked the ball backwards and forwards as we have in recent games. Both Newcastle goals were disappointing for different reasons. The ease at which Gordon broke through on our right for the first was scandalous given he was double teamed by Trent and Dominic and the way that Botman got up above all our tall defenders and a 6’2” keeper to head home was poor. I’ve said it before, Allison is a great keeper, yet Botman heads that in from 6 yds out with Allison on his line. There are no Newcastle players blocking him off. So I can’t understand why he isn’t out there punching that away with the advantage he has with his height, presence and arm length. Maybe I’m being overly critical and fair enough if that’s what you think, but we’re probably looking at being near perfect to win this league and sketchy defending and missed goal scoring opportunities will catch us out, probably against teams that we won’t expect them to. Having said that, I wouldn’t have expected us to be in this position at the start of the season, yet here we are, and I think the title is there for the taking as I’m not certain City will do their usual runaway unbeaten run, given how they have played this season so far either. We scored good goals and there were top performances from almost everyone, Jota is back, Mac too and Diaz looked effective, if Nunez can put the finishing touches to his play, we may not miss Mo as much as is thought, and it could keep us ahead of the field.

Van Basten-esque, pity it didn’t go in, looks more spectacular when it cannons in off the woodwork!