Consigliere

It looked a bit soft (like the Madueke one against Chelsea) but I'm not a fan of VAR getting involved unless it is blatantly obvious that something is or is not a penalty. Both of these cases are neither stonewall nor a case of 'definitely not a pen'. For 50/50 calls like these two the on field decision should stand. Unfortunately for United the on field decision was for a penalty both times.

Kompany has shown his naivety this season. Poor game management and the team are constantly giving away daft goals all in the name of a doomed philosophy when Burnley would have been much better served by a more pragmatic approach. On a separate note, from what I've seen of Burnley this season, Trafford is not ready for this level. He's still a young keeper so there's every chance that he can improve but right now Kompany was right to (belatedly) drop him as he should not be the starting keeper for any club at Premier League level let alone getting England call ups.

United have conceded more shots in 2024 than any other side in Europe's top 5 leagues. For the season to date, only Sheffield United have conceded more shots than United in Europe's top 5 leagues. Ten Hag has failed tactically this season. He's obviously able to set the team up to be more compact (like last season) so he is deliberately choosing to play suicide-ball this season and apparently sees nothing wrong with that.

Newcastle are just going to increase Saudi Arabia affiliated sponsorships over the next few years which will increase their spending power. Related party sponsorships aren't really being strictly enforced by either UEFA or the Premier League. Newcastle already have a squad good enough to at least compete for the top 4 or 5. The only reason they aren't this season is because of the injuries. ETA. this thread should probably be merged with the one PG opened yesterday. There's three open football threads right now. @mormont

It's pretty unlikely that they will be getting a points deduction and even if they do, it's unlikely that the points deduction will be big enough to put them in a relegation battle. There's also been other reports saying that Chelsea should be okay on the PSR front. They will also most likely sell some academy players before June 30 - according to reports, Newcastle intends to make Lewis Hall's move permanent so that's already going to be £28m + £7m in add-ons for Chelsea.

Look on the bright side. Chelsea's problems, much like United's, are like 'first world problems'. Sure, both have been shit relative to their expenditure but neither are in any real danger of facing serious consequences like relegation or going bust and both have still won a few trophies which is still better than the vast majority of football clubs.

Arsenal winning would be the least objectionable outcome. I'd still have City as marginal favourites for the title though purely because they've repeatedly proven their ability to hold their nerve in tight title races.

Yeah, it's not just purely down to goals conceded. Arsenal snuff out opponents attacks better than any other side in the league this season. Opponents don't tend to create much against them. Think if Arsenal had a keeper who was close to Alisson's level they'd be under 20 goals conceded.

Arsenal's defence this season could be the difference maker for them. Last season they still had the tendency to concede a few soft goals but this season the entire defensive unit has been immense (clearly the best in the league).

Lascelles has ruptured his ACL. Expected to be out for 6-9 months.

Chance Perdomo, ‘Sabrina’ and ‘Gen V’ Actor, Dies at 27 in Motorcycle Accident

Annoying to concede so late on but on the balance of play, we were extremely fortunate to escape with a point. Brentford absolutely battered us.

The penalty was bullshit but Phillips has once again put in a disaster class. He's been nothing but a liability for West Ham.

Ruben Amorim was next on their list according to reports.

Good man. Hopefully the Leverkusen squad doesn't get picked apart.

Rubiales could also be in hot water over the deal to play the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia. Spanish police raided RFEF offices last week as well as a property owned by Rubiales. Seven people have been arrested and five others (one being Rubiales) are currently under investigation as part of a corruption, improper asset management and money laundering investigation.

It didn't make much sense to me that Southgate calls up Branthwaite but doesn't give him a single minute of game time across two friendlies. Stones even went off injured early on against Belgium and Dunk was having an absolute 'mare. Could've brought Branthwaite on in the 2nd half at least.

David Squires on … England’s collar and other ‘woke’ things destroying football.

The French national teams at various levels have had a fairly large number of Muslim players over the years. It's never been an issue for the FFF before that required banning Muslim players from fasting during Ramadan until now. Reading that article linked above makes the "why now" pretty clear though - seems that the FFF has been taking more and more anti-Muslim stances.

United created enough in normal time to have won the game. The eye test is backed up by the stats too - United had an xg of 3.1 vs Liverpool's 1.9 after normal time. Xg of 4.2 vs 2.1 after extra time.

That was probably the best game we've played for a long while. But we still made hard work of it. Should've had Liverpool finished off in normal time.

The thing with Bayern is that it's not just a Tuchel problem. Quite a few of the Bayern stalwarts have been phoning it in domestically this season but they might just rouse themselves enough to actually put in the effort in a big CL knockout tie. So potentially a difficult tie for Arsenal since Bayern still have plenty of top class players.

Favourable draw for Liverpool. They will be very happy about how the EL and CL draws played out. Liverpool vs Atalanta Benfica vs Marseille Benfica/Marseille vs Liverpool/Atalanta semifinal Milan vs Roma Leverkusen vs West Ham Milan/Roma vs Leverkusen/West Ham semifinal

Or how about Mbappe delivering a CL to PSG on his way out.

Atleti, Dortmund, Barca and PSG will all be very happy with their draws and route to the final. All the tournament heavyweights are on the other side of the draw.