Premier League — Week 17

Watching Watford and the RS. If Watford go down, I'd go in for Deulofeu. I don't know when the lightbulb went off over his head, but Gerry's an EPL player now. He works hard and all his skills are intact.

James, they say that a player going back to a Club rarely works but, in Deulofeu's case, I would make an exception. Like you say, he has matured a lot since he left us, and does have that ability to turn a game almost single-handedly.

Pity he has poor players around him at Watford; people were wishing for Doucoure early in the season, but he has had a stinker today and a glaring miss in front of goal.

James F, I am watching a Liverpool team showing no commitment or drive and Deulofeu is still a peripheral player.

Bournemouth lead Chelsea 1-0. Goal given after VAR as Dan Gosling was flagged for offside, and the referee had blown his whistle. I thought once the ref had blown his whistle then no VAR review was required?

Some interesting latest scores in the Premier League at the moment. Bournemouth and Burnley about to put some distance between us and them whilst Chelsea, Leicester dropping points. It's very open this season...

Bournemouth winning at Chelsea, Norwich drawing at Leicester, who despite being a good team, are definitely punching above their weight at the minute imo, and are a team I think Everton can beat next week.

James (3) - The few times they've had something on were thru him. That doesn't surprise me. With us, the ONLY times you'd see him working was when he had the ball. Also, the only times you'd see him on the TV screen.

Anyway, the likelihood of his return is remote. Just seeing him now makes me wish he was a more fully-formed footballer with us.

Another thing came up during that game, I've been thinking about for a while since VAR; the blue/red line being used in reviewing offside.

That blue/red line in review mimics the yellow line the NFL has been using for ages in determining first downs. Good stuff. The Prem now has an order of magnitude better way deciding offside or not. Terrific.

A couple things:

The position of the feet should be the sole determining factor. On Mane's disallowed goal, he's feet were on-side, but some dotted vertical line was shown indicating that some part of his upper body was offside. This is silly.

If we're really going to use technology to eliminate all doubt regarding offside review, only foot position should be considered. No other factor (And, yes, including an attacking player's head).

With that, look at foot position the way pro hockey does. It's way too fast a sport for a referee's eyeballs to track offside, so they use the Blue Line and have forever. If both skates are COMPLETELY past the blue and receive a pass, you're offside. If you have just ONE FOOT anywhere on the blue line, you're onside.

I think football should follow that. The focus strictly on foot position and ONLY on the trail foot. It simplifies things for players and reviews, minimizes delays, and most importantly, favors attacking football on the business end of the pitch.

There are some ridiculous rumours out there this morning. Apparently Everton will sell Holgate for £14m. There's a queue of clubs looking to buy him. I can believe there would be at that price, given his performances!

Why on earth would Everton sell their 3rd choice centre-back, a player whose versatility means he is always someone to put on the bench at least, and choose to sell him now he is actually getting in the side?

Smacks of a dodgy agent after a new deal for his client now he is in the side. He still has 2.5 years left on his contract so we would normally make a decision on a player and look to negotiate with the agent around this point. If a deal cannot be agreed then you would sell him in the summer, but not in January, when you have no other backup!

Champions League draw is made.

The Red Shite get Atletico Madrid. Easier task than in previous seasons but still a tough tie.

Draw in full:

Borussia Dortmund v Paris St-Germain
Real Madrid v Manchester City
Atalanta v Valencia
Atletico Madrid v Liverpool
Chelsea v Bayern Munich
Lyon v Juventus
Tottenham v RB Leipzig
Napoli v Barcelona

The Blades just keep on going it seems,Wilder is doing a great job there with limited resources,the exact same thing is happening at Preston,no money,but matching the teams around them with sheer hard work and belief...I do hope our board start to look a lot closer to home for our next Gaffer.

Steve, I saw the a Holgate rumour. Initially it was Newcastle that were planning a £14m bid, but this was being reported from one of those dodgy newsnow websites as an ‘exclusive' so I wouldn't believe a word of it.

I actually wouldn't be surprised if he gets an England call up before the end of the season. Being U21 player, Southgate will know all about him. Plus his flexibility of playing multiple positions, he might be a shock inclusion for the Euro squad.