I don't mind people scoring from corners. What's annoying is the time it takes to get going and all the holding that goes on.
The ref could legitimately call a foul against either team at every set piece.

I'm so going to enjoy reading this. It's sunny I've thought about for years.
And why players aren't running from a few yards back while the kicker does - you'd be so much faster to a rebound than starting from stationary.

We've had plenty, and it's justified. Which team in North London are you talking about? I've not seen it.

Obviously not primarily as a religious holiday, but wouldn't it be St David's Day you'd have in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿?

If it's about curbing nationalism, that's probably why we don't do it in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 either!

(I thought St G. was born in Turkey, but possibly of Greek heritage.)

You should try being a Chelsea fan. We've dropped 17 points from winning positions. At home.

Ta. So, the English establishment aren't discriminating against Wales, they just don't think a saint's day is important enough to have a holiday.

And with the toxicity of current discourse, I dread how one might be used in England.

Fails the @zonal-marking.bsky.social 3-condition test for a stat.

Coz otherwise you might get someone as head of state like Trump or Putin?

I think I'd rather have the head of state be purely ceremonial.

To be fair, England doesn't even have it's own national day as a holiday.

On the left is James this season and Trent last season. On the right is James in 2020/21, prior to injury.
James can't take on his man like he used to but makes up in other ways.
Passing remains good (although % can be bulked up with short sideways passes of course.)

I suppose Bale was more of a runner, but all Chelsea gave would say that James is a great passer in his own right. His problem is the injuries that are preventing him getting up & down the pitch like he used to and that TAA does.

IIRC, Trent was a midfielder at youth level, but took a deliberate decision to play RB because that's where he identified a path into the 1st XI.

Could be. What if the comparison was to prime RJ before his injuries, perhaps 20-21?

Or top Bale?

I'm not knocking TAA's excellence. But watching recent RJ regularly, he's just not being asked to do the same things, esp for Maresca. There might be more appropriate comparators.

I know you aren't knocking RJ.
Sometimes I think there are external factors that make it hard to distinguish the way they play from the ability to do it.
Definitely an interesting chart nevertheless.

It's an interesting comparison, but is it confounded by other factors?
TAA gets to look for in-form Salah, not Madueke or Neto.
RJ isn't playing the marauding FB role; he's often a DM or inverting into that space.
(I'm not dissing TAA, coz I've not watched him, just wondering.)

Brilliantly written. "signed João Félix twice" cracked me up.

I keep forgetting you've gone to The Observer.

Chelsea’s dismissal of Paul Green is a Clearlake sledgeha... Since Clearlake took over the club in 2022, they have made a number of costly mistakes. This time, there is nobody left to fix it

Chelsea’s dismissal of Paul Green is a Clearlake sledgehammer to the women’s team bit.ly/4rKoHR9

Troubling news at #CFCW

Josh is showcasing the driving runs as in underlapping centre back that would have excited Chris Wilder's Sheffield United.

Chelsea still struggle to break low blocks, and we did before Poch. Breaking low blocks is hard; that's why teams use them.
I don't think that's too mch of a reason to berate any manager, frustrating though it is.

I don't think there was any marking scheme at all on Thompson's run. Our NFL friends would call that blown coverage

If Sky's own commentators aren't going to use this, why bother making it?

There's only a limited window to get a new player's name right before the wrong pronunciation is established in the public consciousness.

I fear it's already too late for Estêvão.

What does that translate to? Taps it around the back four and GK a lot?

Is every player and every fan convinced that the refs or the league are biased against their club?

The Set Piece Revolution The game is changing in the English Premier League.

I wrote about the Set Piece Revolution in the Premier League, why I think it's still just getting started, and my worries that it will require significant reforms to roll back www.expectinggoals.com/p/the-set-pi...

I don't like Liew but this is a minor point of the article, which says some good things about NWSL. He's writing for a UK audience and no, I didn't know who Macario, Girma,Thompson, Fisher, Pulisic were until they joined my club. I only have limited sports bandwidth. Hell, I didn't know Eden Hazard.

I read The Guardian a lot, but Liew is someone I usually regret having spent the time on. He just seems snarky to me.

I'm lucky enough to have been a Chelsea fan for over 50 years. I've experienced failure and astonishing success. Fans who stick it out with their local club deserve my utmost respect.

It's not great. We're giving away too many opportunities, and it looks like we're worse than average on defending each one.

It was a booking. Caicedo always goes in at pace, and he's very effective. But when he doesn't get the ball it's often card-able. He needs to improve, which will come with experience.

He made a second challenge which was almost as dodgy.

No wonder Wharton was upset for getting his second yellow.