Well ...we obviously had different broadcasts ..

I thought he dived ; Bryan Robson thought he dived ; and his main commentator thought he could have stayed on his feet .
FFS he wasn't floored by the tackle ... he dragged his feet to enhance the " foul "
If that same set of circumstances had been the other way would you be screaming for a Sheffield penalty ...of course not ....flaky

We didn't deserve to win and didn't ...............end of story

Lost in your opinion. In my view you lost. I think Mancini was astonishingly dire as a central defender. Being good at telling jokes doesn’t mean he saved us from relegation.

This was the post that started it.

I think the game has changed with regards what gets given as penalties these days. In the 1970s kiwi would normally have been right and a penalty not given. These days I see Rich as right as I think most, or even the big majority of refs, would give that challenge as a penalty. At the game it was hard to tell. Seeing the replays on MOTD convinced me otherwise that to keep in line with modern decision making, a penalty should have been given.

If we can get our act together plenty of other teams are incredibly inconsistent as well. Spurs, Chelsea and Man U are scrapping for points and wildly inconsistent. The difference is the points they put on the board at the start of the season and their ability to click and win a game 4-0.
I’ve always thought it’s much easier to get out of trouble because those around you aren’t picking up wins, but this season (and last season) 4th will be the least bad of a pretty average bunch

1965. Branco Kubala, son of Ladaslao Kubala (google is your friend if you don't know the name) training at Highbury.

I hope Leicester and Sheffield United get them if we can’t. I’m assuming Manchester City will get the other ‘second to fourth’ place.

With Liverpool walking the league as they are, for neutrals I see the fight to avoid relegation as more interesting than the top. Personally I’d like to see Norwich, Bournemouth and Brighton go down. I’ve no big affinity with Aston Villa but I hope they stay up as they’re such a big club. Also going away there gives a chance to get a meal at Glynn Purnell’s Michelin Star restaurant.

I find myself a stinking Man Utd fan today. Oh the pain and conflict in my heart.

Gotta give it up to Klopp, when he's on his game, he seems to have no equal. He is not consistent but when he's hot, he's very, very hot. Dortmund had such successes seemingly against unbeatable odds with BM having all the money and talent.

Now, Liverpool has the money, so he has the money to keep it going for a while. City have more (Chelsea even perhaps) but he can stay very competitive. Liverpool is a place players will want to come to. And to imagine, he lost Suarez, Coutinho, etc. and built an even better team.

One can only imagine if we had pulled the trigger and brought him in back then.

Isaac Hayden scored the winner for Newcastle v Chelsea yesterday, good for him after not making it at Arsenal. But also another example of Arsenal under selling players, I think we got £2m for him. Other top 6 clubs at the time would have got £10m easily

Last season I’d have been happy for Brighton to drop, they were a dull nothing team. This season I’ve been impressed with how Potter has turned their style around completely.
I generally want teams who add little to the prem to drop, I think Brighton add enough. I’d rather Villa drop as they spent huge amounts of money in the summer

The EPL is exciting and truly a league where anyone can beat or take points from anyone at any time and it won't be a shock. The managers, both foreign and UK based are by and large playing a style of football pleasing to the eye.

When I started watching football a couple decades ago, the EPL attracted me more than any other league. Foreign managers were scarce. The football was fast paced, aggressive and appealed to an American who grew up watching similar style of sport in American football, ice hockey and even basketball (before they softened it).

The passion of the fans was another reason as well. I think the EPL got a little boring to some extent a few years ago but its now better. I don't mind watching weaker sides play. The increased money and the normalization of foreign players to the league which helped the homegrown players immensely. I think England's national team benefited greatly from training and playing against foreign players and removed the fear factor from the better continental countries as well as the both the South American giants because the league has attracted some of the best talent from both areas.

Have to agree with this guy, this is the worst arsenal side there has been for some time.

https://youtu.be/ipZ7m4EZNPE

Yesterday it seemed the best way of actually getting the ball up to the strikers was to play a long ball to Lacazette and try and win the second ball or knock down. Our midfield is that bad right now. Arteta has my sympathy

Just turned on the tv. It’s halfway through the first half and our ladies team are 0-3 down to Chelsea. Oops.

Anyone seen this

What are the conclusions from this? Iwobi doesn’t shred his sensitive paperwork? Footballers are paid money and then charged tax? You could mock this up for any footballer surely anyway, bar the N.I number.

Sadly, I don't think we will win the Europa League with the team we have, full stop. Our defence is not good enough, our midfield not defensively savvy nor offensively creative enough and we simply don't score enough goals to compensate our fragility at the back.

I think we would need a couple of top signings and a big dollop of luck to win the EL and the former is not going to happen.

If you looked at how we finished the game yesterday you could be forgiven for thinking Emery was still in charge. It is going to take Arteta time to clear out the deadwood and bring in players more capable at this level.

Anyone still harbouring the hope we can still win the Europa league needs to seek urgent help and cognitive therapy

We have won 6 games out of 23 this season in the league. We won’t win any competition.

Bring on the end of the season

Hi TG,

The fact that our best player yesterday was an 18 year old playing out of position at LB and our only real goal threat was from an 18 year old playing in a wide area says everything about where we are as a team.

Luis has played very well lately but then you see him literally not jumping for a corner and letting his man have a free header and you realise we are capable of conceding at any moment under the very minimum of pressure. It's almost farcical.

Hi mate

I think Saka did well and is a good player.

The problem with our entire side at the moment is midfield. Xhaka is much better under Arteta. Why ? Because Mikel isn’t letting him run aimlessly around the pitch and demands he works in a certain area and this makes us more compact but not offensive enough if we also play Torreira.

We need to sign 2 new full backs, 2 central midfielders and a experienced left wide attacker. Only horse trading gets us out of this situation.

Arsenal at the moment are on a sabbatical or a coma right now. We need the season to end.

Lampard couldn't strengthen in the summer and is doing a halfway decent job without any new players. It will be interesting to see what he does with money. Chelsea are bound to spend big to make up for it.

I'd love to beat them next week. But right now, a draw is probably what we can hope for.

This match is my earliest memory of British football. I recall watching the news a little boy and there were lines of cops on horseback protecting fans coming off a train. And they are bustling to get to one another and my brothers and I were thinking 'This is insane!'...haha

Ironically, Philadelphia's old Veterans football stadium became the first sports facility in America to have a court and jail installed in it because of so much fighting. We saw it as the norm.

I wonder how things would have worked out had Ferguson stayed a few more years. My guess is he knew after that last title, he wasn't going to get one for a while and wanted to end on a high note. Smart. He must of seen the likes of Clough and Wenger and thought, I'm not staying past my time. The league has changed.

I'm sure he'd love to see a resurgence and he hates seeing that City and Liverpool are the clubs that are at the top and will win it for the next few years. Pep and Klopp will likely go back and forth on the title for the next few if not several years.

Wenger on the other hand must be having a 'I told you so' smirk on his face. Where we would be now had he stayed? Worse or better (hat tipped to omoh).

I still think it was time for him to go and have no regrets as a fan about it. In fact, we got him out way too late.

Agh your off our meds again aren’t you

Time for me to entrust Man Utd with that famous american gooner lucky charm magic. C'mon Man Utd 2 goals like you did against that good for nothing rat b****** Bayern Munich team of '99.

What this Liverpool side are doing is unprecedented. 91 points from 93?? That’s *%^@*** incredible. I think we are witnessing the best PL side yet, regardless of whether they go undefeated or not.

It's past incredible. Look at their total losses in all competitions. That is equally as astounding. I've said this before, if they are going to go unbeaten, I'd rather share the pain and see them win the treble.

Hi Darren,

You would think that at some point they would have a bad day at the office, or an injury crisis, or the opposition would score a couple of worldies or they would suffer some bad refereeing decisions but none of these seem to be happening at the moment. Even the best United and Barca sides lost the occasional game and I think they are better than the current Liverpool side, but stats suggest otherwise.

If Leicester gets runner up or even top 4, it would go almost unnoticed. Klopp will rightfully be manager of the year if things remain the same but Rodgers, if he gets runner up, really should be in the conversation at least. Although it would be almost laughable not to give Klopp it if things remain as is.

I'd love to see our invincibles on their best day against this Liverpool side. Or even the spring '02 side vs. this side.

Interesting how quite a few teams are missing absolute guilt edge chances against them, Martial today, Spurs before that, Watford missed a couple of tap ins. Liverpool so rarely give anything to anyone that there is so much pressure on any chance that comes a teams way.

The balance in this Liverpool team is superb.

I think they could easily be the best prem team of all time, but the other option for me are City over the previous 2 seasons. Liverpool are utterly ruthless but they haven blown away many teams this year, lots of 1-0, 2-0 or 2-1. City were absolutely spanking teams 4 or 5 every other week.
I think the City team of 2017-19 when they played to their best were better, but they couldn’t reach their best every game. Liverpool’s best isn’t quite as good but they are on or near their best in far more games.

Liverpool’s front 3 would cause the invincible’s problems for sure. Our best hope is that dynamic left side of Henry/Pires/Cole would best Liverpool’s weaker right side. I don’t think Alexander-Arnold and Gomez could cope.
Vieira and Gilberto would do their midfield.
If Liverpool got on top though, their flying full backs and front 3 would be very difficult to stop.

Had a debate today about how strong the league is at the moment, or how you determine the strength of the league.

A few seasons back I think 5/6th place was on something like 70 points. The big 6 swept everyone aside. Is that a stronger league than we have now where we have a single phenomenal team but everyone else is beating each other. Have the best teams got worse or have the weak teams improved?

With the huge jump in tv money, and the fact it’s distributed evenly has allowed teams in the bottom 3 to sign £30m players. They can bring moments of quality to win games that these teams just didn’t have before. I think it has condensed the league.

Hi Rich,

I think the secret to Liverpool's consistency is that they do not overcomplicate things, they have a simple well drilled system and thus can play relatively well in every game. A simple system with attacking fullbacks, a fast interchanging goalscoring front three and a high press when they lose the ball. It's not rocket science but it works bloody well. Having players prepared to bust a gut without the ball is a big help.

The best GK and CB in the league makes them a tough cookie to crack but teams do create chances against them.

Some day, by the law of averages, you would think a team would take their chances and beat them, even if undeservedly so.

The sad thing is that we probably need a major signing or two this January because we need a load of players and you can't buy them all in one summer so you need to add in every window you can or else face years in the wilderness.

If they progress in the Champions League, and there’s no reason to think they won’t, and they get the Premier League win confirmed very early, might Klopp start resting players in the domestic league? That could weaken the side and stop them remaining undefeated.

Having said that, I’m probably being over optimistic. Even though they still have sixteen games left, I do now expect them to finish the Premier League season undefeated, and to drop quite a number of points less than we did (24 from drawing twelve games).

Maybe they have but Liverpool seems to rarely make a bad big signing. Signings may leave but not before they have made a huge impact (Suarez, Coutinho) and not because they are flops. Man Utd has had a lot of flops. Chelsea a few as well. Liverpool seems to research very well who their target is and they seem to slot right in.

I don't think they'll do it (go unbeaten).

I still sometimes have trouble believing we did it.

It's an almost mythical thing to do.

I'm sure everyone knows that before us only Preston did it, in the League's first season. As an aside they were proven to have paid their players so I don't think that one should count. Anyway, when we did it I got my book of league tables out and looked through all the divisions because I wondered if it had happened in the lower leagues. In the whole history of all the divisions I only found one other unbeaten league season and that was from the 1890s (from memory) in Division II, and it was ironically Liverpool. Three times total.

Banana Split man won't make it four.

(opinions subject to change as the season wears on)

I thought the the villa went unbeaten as well in around about eighteen/canteen

Thinking about it that was the double villa won along with PNE.