Colly

Watching a bit of the Henderson press conference, he's doing quite well to avoid saying he regrets the move but also heavily implying he regrets the move.

Arsenal 2 vs. 1 Crystal Palace (Sat 12.30pm, TNT) Brentford 3 vs. 1 Nottm Forest (Sat 5.30pm, Sky) Sheff Utd 1 vs. 1 West Ham (Sun 2pm, TNT) Bournemouth 0 vs. 2 Liverpool (Sun 4.30pm, Sky) Brighton 2 vs. 0 Wolves (Mon 7.45pm, TNT)

Just bear in mind there's always the chance of a switch to the Tuesday for TV, because this is a stupid sport.

Nah, Metalman is right, it's more than I work too.

His man management is interesting.

I completely missed this. Arteta's face at the end is classic.

Did you forget?

I do find the pearl clutching over it a bit silly, players can get injured in the warm up. Get rid of that rule and there'll be whinging over tight offsides again.

I'm semi fuming I'll be in Newcastle for the match.

Burnley 1 vs. 2 Luton (Fri 7.45pm, TNT) Chelsea 2 vs. 0 Fulham (Sat 12.30pm, TNT) Newcastle 1 vs. 1 Man City (Sat 5.30pm, TNT) Everton 1 vs. 3 Aston Villa (Sun 2pm, Sky) Man Utd 1 vs. 1 Tottenham (Sun 4.30pm, Sky)

Magic of the cup. Man City screwed too.

With Phillips and now Ayling gone, how many players do Leeds still have with the Leeds haircut? This is very important.

I keep meaning to go back to Gotham, think I was up to season 3 then stopped when it moved channel? Mine was Falling Skies. The first season felt very Walking Dead lite, literally substituting aliens for zombies while they wandered the wasteland and hid a bit. It grew into a pretty good Sci fi eventually, and survived long enough to have an actual ending.

I don't think the sticking up for their mates really applies, other than the on field almost always agreeing with the VAR after seeing the video. This was just pure incompetence. I've mentioned it before though, the fact they basically see studs and go "red" without even considering the law at all drives me mad. DCL had basically come to a halt, there was no force whatsoever had there actually been contact so it doesn't remotely meet the criteria for a red card. Dale Johnson rightly compared it with Havertz against Newcastle which despite being "a trailing knee" was the reddest red you'll ever see but not given by ref or VAR. As far as "tackles" go that is, before someone comes and says "but Bruno"...

Appeal was successful. VA ruddy shite more like.

Presenting this thing of beauty without context.

I'm curious as to whether any clubs/coaches are actually complaining about them significantly? At PL level they've got the squad size to cope (I looked at Man City's team that played Huddersfield and thought it looked strong, then you realise it was essentially a reserve side. As ridiculous as that sounds considering the cost of said reserves), so there's almost two bisecting lines on a chart between teams who can cope anyway and teams where the welcome extra revenue more than outweighs the issue. Presumably the middle of that chart is somewhere in the Championship/League One where the extra revenue isn't enough to make up for the extra game?

Aargh, which wrestling theme was that, it's driving me mad.

I think you'd have to do it that way, but then you're depriving lower league fans of the chance to ever have an away trip to Old Trafford etc. Or a stadium that isn't falling to bits where you won't be fleeced on ticket prices...

I've a feeling we had this discussion recently, while I get the fixture congestion argument I still don't understand how it's "old fashioned". There's far more sporting merit in taking the tie back to your home ground than the League Cup "go straight to penalties" routine. If you're desperate to avoid a replay just go gung ho and play to win, Newcastle showed how to do that when we frantically ran away from the Europa League last month... Ooh it's on page 1 of this thread, I'll fall back on that.

Completely disagree on this, unless they start giving the lower league side a big chunk of the gate receipts and tv money regardless of whether they're home or away. Even away from that I quite like the concept in principle, far better than instant extra time and pens. While we're on kits (from yesterday), while I like the Arsenal thing I do wish they'd make the numbers black. I've a feeling I said the same thing last time though...

Pretty rare that we play in away kits at Sunderland. Just look at the socks and you'll be fine...

Muting @Lineker today just in case.