Some may see Everton's woes as vindication Kroenke was the right choice. I don't.
First, two different clubs with two different situations and starting points. We've always had more collective talent than Everton.

Anyway, neither Usmanov or Kroenke are acceptable to me but it is what it is. I've already beaten that horse about Dein bringing both into the club as a choice. Unforgivable and self serving. Fortunately, we have seen things improve in terms of the league this season. But it didn't happen over night. To be fair, we won some silverware as well.

The whole game (industry) has moved on so much as to be unrecognisable. I no longer have any idea about what a good owner is. I certainly can’t see many role models.

Imagine ending up like Derby County.

Draw or West Ham win for me. Just like the point you make about Chelsea (which I agree with) we should have enough quality to finish ahead of West Ham in the long run. Man Utd are more likely than West Ham to overtake us, if they get their act together.

Everton starting with two strikers I wouldn't mind seeing at Arsenal, Richarlison and Calvert-Lewin.

With Calvert-Lewin, there's obviously the question of the price tag with him being young and English. His injury record is a little shaky as well, but I like him as a player - good target man, physical, but with some skill and not as slow as many other players of his ilk.

Richarlison I really like, versatile, can play in several positions but has been used mainly as a central striker this season. Skillful, hard working and tenacious. It's ridiculous that a starting striker for Brazil is playing in an Everton side fighting just above the relegation line.

But it was Fiszman who facilitated Kroenke’s control of the club, not Dein. Kroenke had less than 10% of the shares before Fiszman decided to sell his entire holding to Stan on his deathbed.

I'm not familiar with most of the owners in the PL these days. Who would be regarded as a good one? Leicester City maybe? I don't know.

I was initially proud of our ownership when I first became a fan. From what I know they were well respected men in and out the league.

Richarlison is a weird one. He has buckets of talent. Sometimes I look at him and wonder why he isn't playing for Real Madrid. Then on other occasions he looks like a pub league player. A move to a bigger club could benefit him. I definitely wouldn't complain if we signed him.

Yeah, I don't know if it's his temper that scares teams off because he's really talented. Could see both him and Calvert-Lewin score more in a better, more attack minded side, playing along the likes of Saka, Martinelli and Ødegaard.

I could see both of them angling for a move if there are clubs interested.
On the other side of today’s game is Ollie Watkins who I rate. Quick, full of energy, presses well, good off the ball runs, can link play and run the channels and play wide and gets in the box to score ‘classic’ striker goals.

Watkins and DCL is all about the price though.

'Ammers started lively. They may get something out of this.

Just to wind up Top Gun.

The view from Xhaka (with lots of sense really).

https://www.skysports.com/share/12521125

Moyes should be a serious contender for Manager of the Year if there is any fairness.

Each week that goes by I ask myself how on earth we managed to be the one team to lose to Everton.

Man Utd wins the game in the 94th minute after their first good attack of the game.

Gutted, close to the perfect result for us. Spurs and Man U winning games in the last second 3 times in a row between them, and we lost to everton and Man City with last minute goals. Huge points swing.

What spurs and Man U are doing right now is winning marginal games. Two evenly matched teams and they’re sneaking the wins and winning when playing poorly time and time again. If we play poorly we don’t win, nearly all of our victories this season have been us playing really well.

Stuttgart are second from bottom in Germany. If they get relegated their obligation to purchase Mavropanos for about £3m becomes an option to purchase him for that price. Which means Arsenal can refuse and either bring him back or more likely sell him to a higher bidder

Doesn't the option to buy mean we can't refuse the bid if it's for the right amount?

Seen the replay for the Man Utd goal a couple of times now, and it still looks offside to me. They did a VAR check so I assume they got it right, but...

Are you Rich in disguise?

Match resumed. Ref also had a communication equipment failure that got fixed.

You be the judge!

I didn’t watch the game but had a look at the stats for the Manchester United (MU) vs West Ham (WH) game, and BBC Sport (a site I trust and rate very highly) give this.

Possession
MU 57% - WH 43%

Shots
MU 18 - WH 6

Shots on target
MU 3 - WH 1

Corners
MU 3 - WH 3

Fouls
MU 9 - WH 8

Nothing material between the corners and fouls, but on the stuff that arguably give a better guide as to who deserved to win, to me it looks like MU.

As I said, I didn’t watch the match and MOTD will no doubt provide the expected goals stat, which the BBC Sports website didn’t. But unless MU’s 15 off target shots (18 in total less 3 on target) were from miles out or so wide and high they went nearer the nets at the Etihad than Old Trafford while WH’s 5 off target (6 in total less 1 on target) were terrible misses from a few yards out, with the same sort of principles applying to the on target shots, then I anticipate MU’s expected goal stat to be higher.

I honestly feel MU win so many games with late goals that it’s a positive characteristic that deserves respect, even if it’s annoying.

So regular that it can hardly be regarded as mere luck.

Communicating with the betting agency ?

Exactly.

Here we go

Your telling me the staff at Stockley park where the VAR decisions are made don’t have what’s app and online betting apps on their phones….. purlease.

Ref has hotline to William Hill.

I wouldn't say it's necessarily 'luck', but in terms of ways to win a game it's certainly not as sustainable over a long period of time compared to generally outplaying your opponents.

They have released the actual lines and he’s well inside. The angle of the freeze frame is always deceptive when seen like that. Defenders toe is quite a way behind Cavani’s shoulder.

It was only their second late winner in the league this year. Away to West Ham was the other, they’ve had 3 or so in the champions league to win or save a game.
But they also lost to an 89th minute goal 1-0 to Villa, conceded two late ones to Villa away to draw 2-2 and lost late to wolves at home 1-0.

The last minute wins stick in the mind more because of the annoyance of them.

With Man Utd, I think it's the fact that they have so many first halves where they are second best but still come out on top in the end. I view them as a team that is well short of winning the league but have enough good players to win plenty of games.

MOTD did give the expected goals stat. It was 1.63 for Manchester United and 0.29 for West Ham. Along with the other stats I reported here earlier, I’m finding it hard to accept that Manchester United didn’t fully deserve their win today.

You don’t always get what you deserve: if you did someone would have kicked Boris Johnson in the bollocks this week.

I'll have you know the EPL has the finest referees that money can buy.

Had an exchange with a Man Utd supporting person I know. Whenever Rooney's dive is brought up (and as aside despite clear video evidence they never fully admit it), they bring up Pires and Pompey.


First, the Rooney dive is clear cut. The Pires penalty is not. Second, Rooney's dive came at the end of the game. Pires' at the 28th minute. I asked him "Would you take odds that, that Arsenal side wouldn't be able to equalize over the next 62 minutes? Really? Consider Leicester has down a goal too."

A lot of 'you never knows' and 'you can't predict football' and such. But really. When we scored, we took the foot off the gas against Portsmouth. They were not a threat. We played for a draw but could have turned it on at any time.

Strange one that Armstrong wasn’t sent off for his studs to the thigh foul on Laporte yesterday. It went to var but wasn’t given. Plenty of Arsenal fans online pointing out Nketiah was sent off for something similar, and City fans pointing out Stones was sent off v Villa for something similar too.
Of course var is still the subjective decision of a referee but you’d hope that with the benefit of time to fully review that there would be more consistency and that as a ref group they have agreed what constitutes a red.
There will be plenty saying ‘if that was Xhaka’ and they’re not wrong. I can’t recall any time we’ve had a var review for a possible red and they’ve decided to keep it at a yellow or less.

Given that Rashford’s goal, an open goal tap in, would account for at least 0.9 of that xG the rest of the game ls chances would seem quite even. I watched the highlights and it does seem to be quite even, nothing clear cut for either side. A header each from a corner and a couple of shots from range from Fred and bowen- but the highlights didn’t show a single save required by either gk.
Man U deserve it because they created the one certain goal moment but from what I’ve seen there wasn’t much between the teams and it goes down as a marginal game that Man U found a way to win rather than a dominant Man U up against a dogged defence and top performing gk and they finally found a way through at the death

This is the xG map of the Man U v West Ham game. Location of shot and size of circle shows the chances of that shot being a goal (bigger is better). Lots of very low chance shots from range for Man U then one single great chance in the last minute.

I was fully persuaded by Bernard’s perspective until you posted that. Slam dunk.