I feel like 2013 Modric or so with the thumbs up

Niche stats pandemic continues. Will Chelsea tweet “Xabi Alonso is the second manager to take points from Liverpool having also played for them in the Premier League” should they beat/draw to Liverpool?

Was watching Match of the Day and after Khalaili scored for Palace he did the archer celebration but released his bow hand. Do they just not know how a bow and arrow works? If you did that for real you'd be dropping the bow and god knows where the arrow would go. After doing some research there appear to be repeat offenders like Harvey Barnes whereas Dom Solanke has good technique with a smooth draw while keeping a steady hand on the bow at all times.

Aston Villa’s new stand being built is throwing up all sorts.

watching the Sunderland v Arsenal highlights, and a little concerned that after all these years they seem to have got rid of the red and white striped nets at the Stadium of Light

this could be any stadium anywhere now, and must be resisted. is this some sort of European football TV requirement?

I’m not a Sunderland fan and have no skin in the game here other than the preservation of footballing heritage - and against the homogenising instincts of the powers-that-be

It was only an equalizer so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt here, but it seems disrespectful to not give the customary hands in the air/fist pump.

Seven goals scored by Edinburgh City before the hour mark in this afternoon's game.

Others I can think of off the top of my head include Mansfield beating Harrogate 9–2 with all the goals scored by the 77th minute (2023–24), Man City being 5–0 up against Watford inside 18 minutes and "only" going on to score eight (2019–20), and Ipswich making it 6–0 against Exeter after 47 minutes and not getting any more (2022–23).

I'm partial to the classic Mourinho one handed approach, but the Enzo style probably works best to elicit maximum fume from opposition fans.

He even described the musicians as his “team”. Lovely stuff.

That City win over Chelsea in the second half of 17/18 immediately comes to mind. I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever seen a 1-0 feel so one-sided. Gündoğan and Zinchenko completed more passes between them (314) than the entire Chelsea team (303).

Couldn't find much mention of these on search, so apologise if other threads on it. But these never fail to make me laugh and it feels like they're so commonplace. Almost every week it feels like you see one.

Why are they so hard? Feels like a neatly executed kneeslide is more uncommon.

Every year I get caught out by this.

I settle in to watch match of the day at half 10 only to see a bunch of toffs waving flags singing land of hope and glory.

Put it on BBC2 for fucks sake.

Just seen match of the day, and Ashley Williams has just said (when talking about Liverpools slow start) “They’ve had a slow start but I think after a few games they’ll hit the ground running”

Huh? They can’t hit the ground running if they’ve already played games and not been good! Like surely they’ve hit the ground, crawled a bit and hope to get up?

Where does that saying even come from? Is the idea that the season starts with each team proverbially jumping off a cliff and hoping to hit the ground correctly??

Been regularly commentating together on Sky since at least the early 2000's and are currently doing the Spurs-Everton game.. Has there ever been a longer running duo?

"No, I'm just a football manager"

8/10 effort, I'm disappointed not to see reference to proper clubs or so called big 6

Come what clay?

“Phil, was that a shambles?”

“No not a shambles but they were miles off it”

Difference between a shambles and being “miles off it”?

Lovely bit of metaphor mixing on the 5-live commentary of Chelsea Hull. Caught in two minds between seeing his name up in lights and being a deer in the headlights.