It's been 10 days now. No fever at least but still zero taste or smell. Nose blocked constantly.

Interesting that Martinelli played and scored up front for Brazil and has been training in that position. As I’ve said for a while now seems a bit weird we haven’t tried him in that role.

I hope you start picking up. I know a lot of people with long symptoms and recovery after losing symptoms is still bad with extreme fatigue.

Hi Gaz, Warrior,

I hope you two are feeling better soon.

Lots of nasty stuff around.

Don't worry though, kiwi is working on a cure-all as we speak.

I think it is simply because, apart from Jesus who we seem to see as a striker, we don't have anyone nearly as good on the wing. He's definitely got the attributes and right instincts to play up front, and I think he'd be a revelation.

Hi AG,

Any kind of points deduction is meaningless to the likes of City and Chelsea, unless it relegates them 4 divisions.

The only meaningful punishment, if found guilty of significant breaches of FFP over a number of years is to strip them of titles, trophies etc. That would basically shake the very foundations of football but isn't going to happen.

City and Chelsea's lawyers are probably working on a slap on the wrists as we speak.

I've seen a strain of thought that the example has been made of Everton because they are confident they have a robust case against City. If 1 breach amounting to £20m is worth 10 points then City has to be relegation in the minimum.

I really hope the Everton deduction sticks, I don't have a huge grudge against Everton but if it does stick then it makes it more difficult to not punish City or call out the unfairness if they're not suitably punished.

It is the Premier League putting the punishments out there so you'd have to question if relegating City and Chelsea would be in their best interests to promote the league throughout the world

Everyone has probably forgotten about it now but Spurs were caught fiddling their books in the ‘80s and ‘90s under Alan Sugar. They were given a fine, a 12 point deduction and were omitted from the FA Cup the following season. ’93 or ’94 I think. And then Sugar growled back. The details of his threats were never made public but he clearly scared the *%^@ out of ‘em. Fine was increased a bit but the points deduction and the Cup exclusion were dropped.

I suspect the same sort of horse-trading - threat and counter-threat - is going on the the moment.

The difference though is Everton are mounting an appeal that's effectively crowd-funded.

City have the backing of a sovereign wealth fund.

Spurs was bad but the one that sticks in the mind for me always was the West Ham Tevez macherano affair when Sheffield United were relegated on goal difference because the premier league failed to deduct points from West Ham for fielding them in breach of premier league rules. Tevez literally kept them up scoring 7 in the last 10 games.

It just had to be a points deduction and the premier league bottled it proved by Sheffield being awarded 20 million quid in compensation when it went to arbitration.

Anyone expecting the premier league to do the right thing on these city charges is living in cloud cuckoo land.

Juventus and Milan also had almost unlimited financial backing. We can but hope that the English FA and courts are at least as independent as the Italian!

SHAZAM ...you called .

Okay here's the deal ....you gather green plants throw them in the blender with some water and liquidize
[ obviously not belladona , foxglove , hemlock , nightshade , giant hogweed ] ....spinach , broccoli , parsley , cabbage will do if you don't have the more exotic comfrey , dandelion , chickweed .

Just open your gob and chug a lug the mixture ; get it past the taste buds as fast as possible ; because until you harden up the taste can be a bit of a culture shock . Little drop of orange juise , sweetened coffee sipped immediately can offset that

The benefits are immense ; the chlorophyll in the plants is the greatest blood purifier on the planet . Clean blood translates to healthy cells , healthy cells means healthy body . Plant cells are identical to human cells except in humans they have an iron molecule in the centre and plants have a magnesium .

Now unfortunately Soc ...although I love you like a son , there is unfortunately NO current cure for the multitude of afflictions you display

..... although a combo of battery acid , epsom salts and sheep's piss does show promise .

Watching a bit of the england game. Saka has been kicked twice and now the ref has given an awful penalty against England on the advice of var.
Rico Lewis jumps to head the ball clear and his hand accidentally catches the north Macedonian player in the face. Clearly no intent. Such a terrible decision

.

Got to say England's finest Harry Kane v Malta . What an awful trailing of his leg to try and milk a penalty .

What an absolute plank , you are a quality player playing a tiny little pimple of a country with a total of about eighty part time soccer players , England has already qualified and you resort to that .

If I was his father I'd be giving Harry a ring and telling him a few home truths .

Worse still was the idiot commentator who probably has Union Jack underwear bleating about " contentious decision " ..." there was contact "

That’s one of the most ridiculous penalty decisions of all time surely.

It’s absolutely searching so much

Agreed with the refs decision to be honest but if you like that check out the pen england have just conceded

Absolute comedy

Hmmm just dialled it up ... bit divided on that one can't make up my mind because I don't care either way

Think you'd have to have "a horse in the race " to come to a firm conclusion .

Macedonian player definetly makes a meal of it , but was the England player just flaying his arm around in the normal run of play or actually trying to give the guy a sneaky jab in the face .

What's your take ...... ?

I mean, he firmly headed the ball with his arms out but down by his waist. He didn’t swing it into his face.

Thanks Kiwi. In the future when a doctor tells me he will be pulling the plug on the life support I will try your solution. Hopefully that is at least an EPL title and CL before that date comes around.

" arms by his waist " ?????? .. different terminology I guess ; you Poms call the waist ; what is referred to Down Under as the shoulder .

Watch it again https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQe2YGCXfX0 ..... about a quarter of the way through

Hope you are soon on the mend Gaz ... but take heart ..... sometimes an illness can have beneficial side effects .

You mentioned loss of taste so that usuually means you don't feel like eating ..... sort of enforced fast .
Fasting gives the body a chance to cleanse itself of a lot of toxins .

For example I ate very little for three months but VOILA ... now I dont suffer from hay fever .

I wonder if Edu was chosen on merit, he showed some sort of proclivity for scouting and administrative work or he wanted to work for the club and they found a role for him?

Whichever it is, he's found his calling.

On a random Saturday 1983.

The 17:30 kick off time for our fixture at Anfield means our supporters can't get back by train - but who cares, eh?

Arsenal have taken more touches in the opposition box than any other team in the league this season. However with all those touches we’re turning them in to a glut of chances and shots as we’re well down in both those metrics.
Defensively we’re the best team in the league so far.

Prem clubs will be allowed to sign players on loan from partner clubs after the prem clubs voted and only 13 voted against the move, you need 14 for a vote to pass

The 7 clubs who voted for are Newcastle, Sheff Utd, Man City, Chelsea, Everton, Wolves, Forest.

It might not happen but surely we can’t be comfortable with a situation where Newcastle’s owners can spend ‘can’t turn it down money’ on someone like Neves, park him in their Saudi teams and then loan him to Newcastle without having to pay any sort of fee and certainly not the fee it would have taken to prize him from Wolves.

https://billycarpenter.substack.com/p/introducing-pwr

Very detailed scouting article looking at midfield options for us.

Yeah fair enough up by his shoulder, he’s about a foot smaller than the attacker. Is a hand on the face when the other player isn’t looking at you and heading the a ball a penalty then?? You don’t know the rules be honest.

That’s nonsense, it needed 14 votes to ban it, but if the question was framed the other way they only had 7 votes.

I'm absolutely fuming at this Argentina loving referee. He is giving fouls to Argentina at every turn. And now sent off Joelinton for a push by De Paul, that was faked as a hand slap on the face.

Why does it need a vote on it at all ? The football authorities should simply say in the interest of FairPlay it’s not allowed.

Why would forest and Sheffield vote againest it. I can understand the motivations of the rest

Hmmmm.....let's just think about that.

Why would poor weak teams align themselves with the richest clubs on the planet?

EDIT - sorry, just read Arseblog.

Sheff U are owned by Saudis while Forest are owned by the bloke who owns Olympiacos. So self-interest works just as well for small clubs as big ones.

I see Jesus played the full 90 minutes last night. Nice gentle workout after a month out. Thanks a lot, Brazil Manager blokey. While we're on it, big Gab played 72 mins and Martinelli 78mins.

Throw in a 10 hour flight through a few time zones, and they'll all be nicely rested for Saturday.

Poxy internationals. I wonder if they're on Javier Milei's list of things to axe? Hope so.

And wolves had connections to super agent Jorge Mendes and have loaned loads of his players in so they won’t support it.

Basically all the dodgy owners stick together

Pretty lively game as it was live here. More than a few ice packs will be needed for both sides.

Would you agree that any punishment be related to the club. Meaning, lets say City were found to have lost the same amount as Everton. It's far bigger but for argument sake its the same amount.

10 points to each would punish Everton far more than City, we can all agree with that. So, would it be fair (or unfair) to City if their punishment was in a manner where it would truly hurt them similar to how 10 points severely hurt Everton? Everton are now in relegation zone. 10 points would still put City in contention for the title.

As it happens, City's 'crimes' are far, far more extensive hence its taking so long to unwind all that from what I've heard on podcasts that discuss it.

Hi all.

Judith has asked a question.

Anyone know of any December tickets by chance ?

" Steve's 2 nephews are visiting the UK and they would really like to see a home game in December. Is there a possibility to get tickets for them please ? "

05/05/66 Arsenal 0 Leeds Utd 3
Att. 4,554 the lowest ever attendance for a competitive match at Highbury

You can bob and weave about the height of the players and whether one is a Virgo or a Pisces . Lewis wasn't looking at the Macedonian but isn't that part and parcel of the sneaky foul .

They gave the penalty and I'm sure they must know the rules better than you or I .... n'est ce pas ?