Patched Tube

Brilliant 2nd half. Stylish win and complete battering of poor Newcastle.

Ozil so shocked to find himself in a position to score he almost botches it.

Two goals in two minutes for Arsenal. That was an outstanding header by Aubameyang.

As always when you are playing "fantasy manager" its the money you need to be looking at before you look at the players. The problem with MU is any player has to ask themselves where that club is headed. It's unanswerable of course but the blend of personal ambitions, taste and money and what teams are actually interested can make for some semi-surprising player moves. Grealish is right up there with Zaha in my "players I'd like to see with better teams around them just for the fun of it" list. Which falls someplace between semi-serious speculation and idle chatter over beer.

On paper I can see it but why would anybody look forward to having evil cheese dragging them in the press two years hence?

Speaking of Arsenal... watching that last match and considering a semi-hypothetical question where AV goes down and Jack Grealish moves on. So where does he go where he would fit, do some good and be fun to watch? I keep settling back on Arsenal but right now cold meds and caffeine are waging war in my brain so I'm not sure that's a hill I'd choose to die on.

It's been a while since I've seen a goal keeper play as well as that while giving up three. Reina had a fantastic day and deserved better than that.

Engles has the ability and AV really needed a goal so I can't say I'm surprised.

Nice finish by Toby just now.

I suspect when all is said and done, much more will be said than done. There are a lot of big clubs who's books wouldn't stand an audit both in the EPL and the rest of Europe. There will probably be a one year ban and what appears to be a sizable fine but no wholesale dismantling of the club. MC was going to have to reload this summer anyways so in some respects this development was as well timed as it could be. Guardiola insists he isn't going anywhere but who knows. What I do know is he will leave sooner or later and given the average length of tenure of team managers it's probably sooner. Iterations of teams come and go, it's the nature of sports. For me watching a new iteration of City with Pochettino at the helm will be interesting to watch. If nothing else taking a step back for a year will give Liverpool a chance to run out the string on this brilliant edition of their club. Meanwhile I'm suffering from the space zombie apocalypse plague or the corona virus or possibly the man flu and may not live to see any of this. I'm crawling on to my couch under a blanket with a cup of coffee and will see how much entertainment today's matches bring.

The weather in Southampton is delightful...

Alas I am on a bit of a "staycation" this weekend and this morning I found out that room service breakfast in bed with the football on wasn't exactly what she had in mind so I'll see damned little football this weekend.

FIFY... Simpler and basically in everyone's interest.

I don't know exactly what to make of that. I guess on balance I'd say Wolves looked pretty comfortable and probably feels a little better coming off but it was certainly nothing to get excited about; if they want to take the next step they have to win games like this. If you squinted you could see what MU was trying to do but it just didn't come to much.

You are correct of course... I was being slightly (but only slightly) hyperbolic. But... goddamn OTOH they have a horrible run of matches coming up - they really needed three points today b/c they will be lucky to see a point in the next month.