Les-TA-Jon

A draw right? Keeps Blackburn only 2 points ahead and Oxford 2 points behind.

The state of all those tantrums in here upon seeing the lineup. 3 games in space of 7 days, there will always be rotation. Ayew vs Daka is just ‘pick your flavour of crap’. but at home, against teams that won’t give us space it’s Daka running into space that isn’t there or Ayew who can at least control the ball. Mukasa a passenger at home vs Norwich so understandable the ‘experience’ of BDCR is preferred (even though he had another poor game in the end, losing possession in dangerous areas multiple times). James and Skipp a better pairing and let’s Winks come off the bench to calm and control the game.

Loved that bit when he headed clear a dangerous cross then chased it into RB position and got on the end of his own clearance. great tonight.

Honestly think both players were watching the ball and tripped each other up. Not intentional from Thomas at all

Not sure I agree. Ayew received and controlled the ball multiple times. Each time he did I reckon Daka wouldn’t have.

Gave the ball away multiple times in dangerous moments/positions

I knew people would be going mad about Ayew. 3 games in a week. There’s bound to be rotation. At Home, lots of teams will sit deep. It’s Daka running into space that isn’t there or Ayew who can actually trap the ball. lets face it - they’re both crap and they both ruin our attacks, so it’s largely moot anyhow

Another 6.06pts on the board!

It's not looking good. But we know there's still 10 games to play. We all know fortunes in football can swing quickly, and on razor thin margins. And we know that West Brom and Oxford's position is about as bad as ours. With Blackburn not much better off either.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c8r1m4mr2k8o Interesting article about the new Squad Cost Ratio costs coming in next season. Appears we would never had been in trouble had these rules been in place...

Still playing!?

How many mins added on?

Why’s it only happening to one club then?

We have 1 point out of 6 vs both of them at Home. And have both of them to play away…

Pretty sure that's in the plans

That makes sense for the other/minor european leagues that have fewer european places to hand out in the first place.

I agree on the sentiment of meritocracy, but I'd worry about the practicalities of 18 or so teams out of 24 having nothing to play for, for the 2nd half of the season. Think how much less interesting the PL would be if there was no european places on offer for example (kinda equivalent of playoff spots).

Also personally think this would be way worse than current system - the gulf between PL and EFL means 3rd bottom PL team has potentially big advantage over 3rd place EFL team - so even more of a closed shop. And just means 18 out of 24 teams in the Championship have nothing to play for...

So completely unworkable here then given PL vs EFL

The club's voted for it. How does relegation and promotion work in Germany then?

Been in place since the late 1980s - now just 2 more teams. Gives more teams more to play for, fewer dead rubbers towards the end of the season. Seems win-win for everyone. Not sure what the problem is really.

He's still "Football Operations Director"

That's one word for it

xTPts based on Last 10 form: So Oxford to finish 21st, Leicester 22nd, West Brom 23rd. this could mean 'only' 43 points needed for safety. But ultimately it's still only 3 points separating all 3 sides...and the chances of 3 teams maintaining current form over 10 more games seems unlikely. We are bang in trouble. Our only saving grace at the minute is that West Brom are in just as much trouble, as are Oxford. And Blackburn could yet be involved.

On season long PPG we finish above West Brom just Only 3.9 points separating Blackburn, Us and West Brom 47 points could be enough? W4 D1 L6