FLiam

Eric Dier is close to joining Bayern.

Aston Villa 3-1 Burnley (Sat 3pm) Crystal Palace 2-0 Brentford (Sat 3pm) Fulham 1-0 Arsenal (Sun 2pm, Sky) Tottenham 2-1 Bournemouth (Sun 2pm)

Bournemouth 2-1 Fulham (Tue 3pm, Prime) Sheff Utd 0-1 Luton (Tue 3pm, Prime) Man Utd 0-2 Aston Villa (Tue 8pm, Prime) Chelsea 1-1 Crystal Palace* (Wed 7.30pm) Brentford 2-2 Wolves (Wed 7.30pm, Prime) Everton 1-0 Man City (Wed 8.15pm, Prime)

I’m not entirely sure what Saka did that was wrong? Van Dijk pressuring the ref to send Saka off was a joke. He went in for a tackle, one the ball and slipped.

Stressful half that. Great point though.

What a start. Absolutely baffling defending by Konate though. Gabriel lost him so easily then rather than pushing to win the header he simply waves his arm up claiming offside.

West Ham 2-1 Man Utd (Sat 12.30pm, TNT) Fulham 3-0 Burnley (Sat 3pm) Nottm Forest 1-2 Bournemouth (Sat 3pm) Tottenham 2-0 Everton (Sat 3pm) Liverpool 3-3 Arsenal (Sat 5.30pm, Sky)

I know there’s been stories of a strained relationship with the owner etc but sacking him is a baffling decision to be honest.

Arsenal 2-2 Brighton (Sun 2pm) Brentford 0-3 Aston Villa (Sun 2pm) Liverpool 5-1 Man Utd (Sun 4.30pm, Sky)

Brighton 3-0 Burnley (Sat 3pm) Wolves 4-0 Nottm Forest (Sat 3pm) Aston Villa 2-2 Arsenal (Sat 5.30pm, Sky) Everton 2-1 Chelsea (Sun 2pm) Tottenham 2-3 Newcastle (Sun 4.30pm, Sky)

With all due respect - I think that’s a genuinely shocking decision to blow the whistle so early. He played advantage and then blew the whistle probably no more than a second later, that’s not how you call advantage. But, it was City - so, lol.

Brentford 2-0 Luton (Sat 3pm) Burnley 1-0 Sheff Utd (Sat 3pm) Newcastle 2-2 Man Utd (Sat 8pm, TNT) West Ham 4-0 Crystal Palace (Sun 2pm, Sky) Man City 5-2 Tottenham (Sun 4.30pm, Sky)

Patch is out.

Pep to leave next summer?

Must have missed it - don’t see it on the app. Darn.

For Ultimate? Where’d you buy that?

I picked up Control for $10 - I had played a bit of it previously on PC but never finished it. It’s better than I remember. The combat is so smooth, really enjoyable game.

Finished the Fall of the House of Usher and it was utterly tremendous. Mike Flanagan makes some really solid television. The whole series had me pretty gripped to every scene. So well made, the actors were all pretty great too. I am a big fan of the ensemble he uses in a lot of his shows. Still kind of odd to see the ET kid as a) a grown man, and b) a horrible bastard though.

Tottenham 1-3 Aston Villa Missed the deadline again!

I’d argue it was much more than a petulant flap. You can see from one angle his facial expression in which there’s clear intent to hurt someone by smashing their forearm unsuspectingly into the side of their head. It’s assault. In other sports - rugby for example, that would be a red card without hesitation. All I can gather from what they have said is that it can be open season now to do this on a weekly basis. I don’t see it as subjective at all. It’s by the book violent conduct and they completely ignored basic rules of the game. It’s no surprise that Howard Webb didn’t talk about this one on his vanity show.

https://x.com/gunnersc0m/status/1724796197792358487?s=46&t=ZVi2V0_ikaOx-8_TAekX9g Audio of VAR check on Bruno’s assault on Jorginho. ”It’s not nice but doesn’t meet the threshold”. So forearm smashes to the side/back of an unsuspected players head is now perfectly fine in the Premier League.

It has had a good couple of months after a slight dip prior. Two Like a Dragon games I want to play, but still not completed the last game. Then there’s Dead Space, Lies of P and the Lamplighters League - that’s before continuing Starfield.

Rumours of Baldur’s Gate coming to Xbox as soon as next month. Gamepass would be ideal.

Feeling nice and smug being the only one that predicted a Wolves win.

Goalkeeper injuries are getting a bit silly now though. I see a goalkeeper injured in a match seemingly every few games. Already had my starting keeper out for 6 weeks and then my reserve got injured for two weeks. I know it's an ongoing joke about FM needing a patch to be playable but this is the worst I can remember it being upon full release. Main issues I am finding are too many goals, too many goalkeeper injuries, not enough substitutions by the AI, and players complaining even more than previous games. It clearly has the potential to be a lot better than FM23 but so far, all I can see is that it needs a lot of work. Other than those things I pointed out, I am reading from people that have simmed multiple seasons that the AI are still not building squads as you would expect - clubs are stockpiling players in the same position, spending huge fees on players that don't play. Considering AI improvement was one of SI's headline feature announcements - I feel really let down by this release so far. That's not even including the shambles that is the Japanese league not being as functional as they claimed it would. But at least I can add facepaint to my manager now. I missed that SI put out a note: Might not be for at least a few weeks before it's properly playable for me.