I know. I was devastated when I first watched it, because I was so sure it was going to pass…

So like CVT for bikes? Sounds neat.

Also, if interested, check out this documentary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Factory. Has a lot of interesting crosstalk between Chinese/American views on work and business.

So my thoughts on Odegaard’s absence are these: Havertz picks up his pressing/attacking duties and Jorginho picks up his outlet/facilitation duties. I wonder whether we can use Jesus and Havertz as our front two tomorrow; the former has a great record in Europe and will press like a monster. Plus, I desperately want to see Jesus hit anything close to his peak form, jinking and juking through the final third, and that seems to put him in a good position to do so.

Inaugural Match Thread Bot match thread!

According to La2Philly, it’s likely 4-6 weeks worst case unless there are complications coming back from surgery (if necessary). So hopefully it’s just one more month from now? Not ideal but as others have said, City is probably the time where Odegaard is least needed in terms of shepherding build up and coordinating the press.

From Porro’s shit-caked perspective, why wouldn’t he give it a go? It worked last week and Veltman was barely punished. On top of that the entire media circus about how Rice should have known better as opposed to Veltman not being such a fucking cunt means that he probably had a 40% chance of pulling it off successfully. Notice that he went down about 4 times during the match (including the initial incident) and the physios never once left the touchline. Meaning that even the staff knew it was bullshit, and somehow pundits maintain that Timber should be fired into the sun for daring to touch a ball.

Because a good chunk of the population doesn’t understand what it is and why it’s bad, and a serious percentage of politicians benefit from it.

I genuinely need to stop reading anything to do with Rice’s second yellow. I’m about to put a fist through my monitor.

"“Once he’s seen Declan Rice deliberately, clearly kick that ball away from the position of that free-kick, then I don’t think he’s got any choice.” Footage of a similar offence committed by Joao Pedro, but that was not punished was then played with Webb explaining the difference between the two incidents.

“It’s a different type of scenario,” he said. “It sits in the same kind of book around delaying the restart. Of course, he should have been cautioned here. The officials on the field gave him too much benefit of doubt, feeling that the actions weren’t really impactful because they felt that the Arsenal players were not ready to take that throw-in.”

“They felt the Arsenal playesr were not ready to take that throw-in”… and Veltman was? You can just say “the officials on the field gave Brighton the benefit of the doubt and not Arsenal”, save us all some fucking time and brain cells, you incompetent and biased fucks.

I agree with you - and that’s why gerrymandering is a problem, because it makes the last 2 questions more valuable to study for. As for statistics, that’s for pollsters and analysts to work on.

Your test analogy kind of proves the point, though. Say you have a 10 question test and 8 are very easy, and the last 2 are very difficult. In general, if you’ve done your homework, you should get most of the first 8. Whether or not you get a really good grade will depend more on the last 2. I think both parties are guilty of assuming they’ll get the first 8 correct no problem, but there is a tactically sound reason to focus on the last 2.

Their defence is definitely their strong point but generally you’re not a “big club” unless your emphasis is on attack, what some describe as “front-footed”. So they try and hype them up as marauding attackers when they’re not. Plus, Ange wasn’t famous for being defensively sound, but for playing suicidally forward.

The problem is that basically every player who left this season wanted out. Vieira decided he wanted to go back to Porto. ESR was done trying to get minutes here. Ramsdale needed to play too. Nketiah was never going to fit our setup. We’ve arguably kept these players for too long, and not moving them on would be a terrible mistake.

Now, for Ø, there’s just not many players who can play his role. I’m so glad that Ethan got some minutes in this match, because he might be trusted more going forward, but you have to remember that if he sees himself at the right 8, signing a player at that position would basically force him to leave. And we desperately didn’t want that to happen.

I think the only criticism the club deserves here is for letting Ø go on international duty. He was already limping v. Brighton, there was no need for him to play more.

They literally had everything go their way and still couldn’t beat us. Rice suspended, Odegaard injured, new signing injured, can’t lose.

🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀

Spuds have this weird aura that makes commentators gush over them despite not really accomplishing much.

He’s low on confidence so he wants the goal to get back into form. I get it but it’s very frustrating.

Eh, means he can’t waste too much time in the dying minutes.

That’s what they’re going to pin us with for the rest of the season

After Rice, I have to be harsh on Saliba and say you can’t be doing that.

Timber gets a card for winning the ball and having a front row seat to Porro breaking his own ankle. Of course the physios were never called on for this life-threatening injury.

Meanwhile, Spuds have gotten 5 players booked. Levels.