FA Cup Final details confirmed. KO 5.15pm, we're the away team and are wearing the maroon kit (P4 W3 D1 L0).
Hopefully Newcastle proceed to follow up taking points off Tottenham, West Ham and Liverpool by being on the beach for us! Southampton don’t have anything to play for but looked good against Tottenham and may have a point to prove from the semi...ultimately both are very winnable if we play as we can. We do seem to have more about us this season, that Palace game on Monday would definitely have been the kind we lost a year ago.
Barnes has an injury set back and won’t be back this season. The biggest concern is whether the likes of Justin and Barnes come back from these injuries as they were or whether they become injury prone as a result. Ricardo has looked a shadow of himself since returning...
Hopefully, with that Barnes announcement made and he has now had another operation, so no one expects him back before next season, there's no rush in his recovery. I get we're less patient and assume players will be back as they were pre injury but Brendan keeps saying Ricardo won't be fully up to speed until next season. Fingers crossed they both are to start the season. JJ will be a world longer, return isn't until October or November at best IIRC, then time to get back to his level sounds next year on Ricardo's timescale.
I think we just need to put the draw against Southampton down to a bad day at the office. Fair play to the Saints, they did what they had to do after the early red card. Vardy had a great chance late on, but I think that would have been harsh on Southampton. It's still a point and another game ticked off. The others around us still have ground to make up, so it shouldn't be all doom and gloom.
No complaints about the score, we didn’t trouble them all game apart from the goal. Really poor when they had their best player out and were 10 men for 80 minutes. Tbf we’d have probably lost if they’d had 11 as they were more up for it than we were. We are going to need to serious points still dropped from the teams below as we still need 7 and we aren’t getting that many!
Hard work and a hard watch. We weren't anywhere near our best, we looked tired. Southampton defended deep after the sending off, which totally changed the dynamics of the match. A point isn't to be dismissed and beats our total for last year. Need to dig deep for the coming games. Makes a win Newcastle very important. I'm convinced we'll get points from the last 3 too. Hopefully Liverpool and West Ham drop points in their games.
Below par performance made difficult by them reverting to a very defensive formation after the red ... but every team drops points that they should probably have taken ... could have been worse, could easily have lost that ... and we are capable of getting something from the games against Chelsea Spurs and United as we have already shown this season ... and Newcastle at home gives us a great opportunity.
It feels very different after that last night. Realistically, we have played poorly constantly since the last international break following genuinely great showings against Man U and Sheff U. Even Brendan acknowledged we were poor against West Brom but they literally handed us back possession every time we gave it them and Palace we were fortunate. They cut us open a few times. Based on the recent evidence I’m not even sure it’s particularly negative to think a realistic outcome from the final 4 games would be draws in the home games and away defeats meaning two more points in total. That is the best I think we are capable of getting playing as we have been and most certainly won’t be enough for top 4. Clearly we are also capable of turning it around but we’re carrying too many passengers at the minute...if Liverpool avoid defeat at Man Utd we are in trouble!
It’s an alternative view Seriously though, you think Newcastle is a gimme in the respective form of both sides? Unless they have planned on taking point off all our competitors to then roll over for us but looks like a 1-1 all over. Man Utd it’s a case of guess which minute they get their pen not if they get on. Spurs may have nothing on it by then. We will need West Ham, Liverpool and Spurs to drop points that’s for certain.
If we don't think we can beat Newcastle, then why are we even bothered about qualifying for the Champions League? And I have to admit that I have serious doubts about whether we can beat them, because we are such a Jekyll and Hyde team. If it weren't for the financial aspect, I'd much prefer to win the FA Cup.
I've looked in to my crystal ball and this is how it all pans out. Man City 90 Man Utd 82 Chelsea 71 Leicester 69 West Ham 66 Liverpool 64 Everton 64 Tottenham 62 Then Arsenal will win the Europa and take our place in the Champions league!
If arsenal won the Europa League and we're 4th, we're still qualifying for the CL. It's only if an English team wins EL & CL but doesn't finish top 4 it's an issue. We're allowed 5 English teams in the CL.
I’ve still not heard anything about any repercussions Man Utd will suffer. If that had happened at places like Rochdale, Millwall etc they would have already had points deducted. Absolutely no point in giving them a fine. Failure to fulfil a fixture should lose them points for starters!
Probably more likely that they will say it can’t be fitted in and give the 3 points to Liverpool but without docking points from Man U. This way they wouldn’t upset either either team. Would be **** for us though as that game is/was the best chance of Liverpool dropping the points we need them to.... Maybe we need Man U fans to do the same for our game with them...
Even the Premier League wouldn't be that daft. They will squeeze it in as they need to be squeaky clean after the super league fiasco.
They will have to fit it in, the other year there was a security incident at the Bournemouth v Man U game on the last day and it was played after all the others. Current speculation is a possibility of playing it FA Cup weekend and moving the WBA v Liverpool game to midweek. Personally, I don't see why they couldn't have played yesterday but then you remember the profile of the particular game and the broadcasting revenue, it'll need a prime slot.