FA Cup Quarterfinals, Loanees and Premier League games

Leeds pick up the ball, go straight up the other end and score.

Good call Kieran on that kick to the face. I guess the striker was looking at the ball but you have to know what could happen extending like that.

Rangers apparently plan to report the guy for making the racist remark to the police. Sad to see two teams who've had a great run letting everything descend into racism, violence etc.

No guard of honour for Rangers.

The enforced so called fair play handshake and this guard of honour thing are just theatrical nonsense to me and distract players from focussing on the game ahead of them. Guess I'm getting older and grumpier!

I can probably bring myself to understand why it is a thing but yet another initiative in the game driven likely driven by men in grey suites who have never played the game.

Right, that triggered! Off to pour my medicine to keep the heart rate and blood pressure down ahead of later. It's called vino!

Also have Brentford on. Interesting to see if they can finally get up after going so close in recent seasons.

Good, no more stories about Jack Wilshere.

Nope, disallowed by VAR again.

Now it is 3-0..........I think!!

Yep.....game over!! 😁😁😁

Don't know how Archer can bowl with that Goldy looking chain around his neck!

In the Sixties, one of the tabloids asked each First Division club to nominate their player with the hardest shot to have a competition to see who was the best. They used a device which measured the speed of the ball, a bit like a radar trap, and each nominated player hit the ball through the radar beam to gauge the speed. Lorimer won.

Everton's player was Sandy Brown.

9 times out of 10, Man City win this game given our injuries and the respective depth of the squads. This could be the 10th game, you never know.

What a state Newcastle are in. The body language of the players suggest something is rotten at that club beyond the dugout and Steve Bruce. At one point I see a Newcastle player attempt to make a "pass". Not sure what his intent was, but clearly there was someone in a black and white striped shirt in row D, seat 55 as that's where it went. More likely to see that type of pass in the Dog & Duck versus the Red Lion.

Away The Celts

You've just gone down in my estimations. 😀😀

You must carry the biggest drum! 😁😁

Really impressed with pre match at the old firm game.

Black footballers, boxers, athletes,baseball players, basketball players, singers, actors, all need to walk off stage.
The losses to the money men would soon bring the required change

Morelos with a Calvert-Lewin poachers goal at the back stick from a corner. Corner given away though by Johnjoe Kenny with a terrible back pass to the goalie.

Poor lad. I really wish him well, but that didn't look great.

I think Southampton and Brighton have done enough now. All that remains to be seen is whether Fulham have it in them to muster enough points to overcome a team that seems to be in total free fall judging by last night.

Sam's hose was always going to run dry at some point.

At least he or his agent has plenty of time to look for another club.

No idea why

Rob #51, I remember that one. And I remember him scoring one like that with his left foot in the Bundesliga a year or two earlier. The guy had thighs like bridge pylons. Biggest I ever saw outside of a bodybuilding competition.

Great cross from Lundstram?

Sheffield Utd giving this a go.

I must grudgingly give credit to Moyes. He has built a good team at WHU who many pundits had for relegation.

Typical Moyes team build - careful scouting to bring in players who are hard-working (Soucek) and those looking to rebuild their careers (Lingard) and a very solid defence.

Croatian heritage, made in the USA and came through at Borussia Dortmund.

The Bundesliga certainly does have a good plug into the US system. I wonder why it's not something English clubs look at more.

He's done a sound job at West Ham and they remind me of his Everton sides between 2007 and 2012, they all play to a pattern and know what they are doing unlike our lot that sometimes don't look like they've ever seen a ball in their life.

It's annoying watching sides that haven't spent the money we have, play football that tries to entertain and win matches, even Sheff Utd have just given it a right good go at Chelsea and been unlucky there to lose that.

Seriously, I would like to see us tap more into that system. The US generally produces technical players in my experience. And good goalkeepers, which I assume is linked to the hand-ball nature of the most popular sports out there.

Arteta has a big job on his hands at Arsenal and I fear he goes down the Lampard route. The perils of a club going with a populist heart-based decision.

I wouldnt worry too much about him. He will get al the backing he wants.

Judge him when he has had a few transfer windows LOL

That's what so exciting about this new generation. Pulisic, Dest, McKennie, Reyna are all top quality technical players.

But you're right about the US goalkeeper factory. Howard, Friedel and Keller were all star basketball players in high school.

Thanks Mike. Have to admit, some of the local facilities I see around where I have property in Florida are absolutely stunning. Puts us to shame.

Don't under sell the US players. You missed Robinson off that list and Yedlin who does seem to have had a recent loss of form.

I'm not sure an Arsenal win will benefit us by the end of the season.

Yedlin is no longer relevant. He's been surpassed by Dest and Cannon. He's now in Turkey. I doubt he will make the World Cup roster.

Lingard's mother was ill, he was having to look after younger siblings. By his own admission, stress led him to do some stupid things and to lose focus, so his form tanked. But he had a heart to heart with Ole and this loan is viewed as his chance to have a reset.

I see Arsenal with a late run so I'm happier with them both dropping 2 points.

Nobody snatches defeat out of the jaws of victory like The Dour One... some things never change!

Moyes doing a Moyes there... 2nd in a one-horse race.

Sky may have given Chamberlain MotM there but for me I was really impressed with Odegaard. Kind of goes against the grain of wanting pace but demonstrates you can be energetic and quick of football brain without having jet powered boots.

Moyes is so frustrating. Early Everton Moyes I got and understood. Today was typical of later Everton Moyes. Why change what you're doing if it's working? They sat massively deep. That said, credit to Arteta and Arsenal for the manner in which they came back.

West Ham looked as if they could score with every attack first half, Arsenal all over the place. Moyes can't bring himself to kill games off by attacking. He got his just rewards.

Only 5th place is ever guaranteed Europe.

Likely that City, United, Chelsea and Leicester will take top 4 or at the very least qualify for Europe.

City play United in the League Cup final. So, given the above, the League Cup place goes to 6th place in the league.

The FA Cup final is going to be between either Man City, Chelsea, Southampton & either Leicester or Man Utd.

So, providing Southampton don't win the FA Cup, by virtue of all those teams already being in Europe, 7th does it?

Apart from Man City playing Spurs in the Carabao Cup Final. So, if Spurs win that, they qualify for Europe irrespective of league placing.

Any one of Man City, Man Utd, Chelsea or Leicester City win the FA Cup and it will be down to 6th place for the final European place. However, if Arsenal win the Europa League does our 4th placed team drop into the Europa League?

Seems the important matches will be West Ham, Tottenham, Arsenal & Villa (x 2). Well, they all are as I'd like to think we take points from Palace and Brighton before that but, at this stage of the season, matches against those around you are the 6 pointers.

Leicester City vs Southampton.
Chelsea vs Man City.

Moss looked like he was going to mark the spot for the free-kick to be taken, then West Ham took it very quickly, without any whistle or anything, and scored. Were there no arguments over this goal?

Man City
Man Utd
Chelsea
Leicester City
Liverpool
Everton

I'm not sure if that will get us European football.

I think!

It may not if Liverpool win the CL and Arse the Europa and finish outside the top four. In that case Fourth fifth and sixth would go to Europa or the new conf and 7th would miss out I think

I hope he's right though...

Moyes's entire schtick is to evoke sympathy when things go wrong and dampen expectations when things go well.

Today's debacle calls for the wounded man act whereby he deftly leaves the blanks for others to fill in: "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune".

He might be as dull as dishwater but his ability to defuse personal criticism and replace it with "I am a man of dignity come what may" is second to none.

There I go again.

Odegaard did look quality today, Thomas.

Small margins.

Same lad gave a stupid free-kick away leading to the goal. Player with his back to goal, going nowhere, and he fouls him.

Right, Villa vs Tottenham. Another draw or Villa win? I have to be careful here as the wife and in-laws are Villains.

Working hard seems to come naturally to American sport-stars, so maybe it's time to get excited about your country's football team, now you've got the talent to go alongside honest endeavour?

Jack Grealish sat in the stands brazenly sporting his Nike swoosh pyjamas.

Dave #129, West Ham can take the free kick as quickly as they want, as long as it's from the correct spot -- and as long as the ref hasn't made that pointing-to-the-whistle signal meaning wait for the whistle to take it. Moss made no such signal. That's why nobody on Arsenal complained. They just got suckered and knew it.