DrewDon

I'm a Villa man (been to two games this season), but all proper football men surely respect Chelsea. They aren't really a club you can dislike.

I'm loath to praise VAR, but if it has to exist, at least the Premier League seem to have reached a point where they are clearing stuff like that challenge from Keane quite quickly. It was borderline, could have gone either way, so just accept the referee's on-field decision and minimise the delay. I genuinely think they might have needed about five minutes to review it in Scotland and would have then sent the referee to the monitor.

If you are Gareth Southgate, you are surely giving Cold Palmer a first-class seat on the flight to Germany.

Definitely. A lot was said about our performance against Rangers at Hampden in December, but it wasn't all bad: the shape was mostly good and we denied them too many clear-cut chances. But we were painfully timid when we got the ball, and really struggled to make use of having both Miovski and Sokler on the pitch when we did get periods of possession. If we can replicate some of our good work out of possession against superior teams from earlier in the season (big, massive 'if') but also combine that with being brave on the ball and committing bodies forward without leaving ourselves too open, we might be able to give ourselves a slim chance. We would no doubt still need to have a really good day and Celtic to have a really bad day, though.

When the draw for this was made, I was only really wanting to avoid Rangers and felt that we could give Celtic a decent game (although we would still obviously go in as underdogs). Having now watched both teams over the last fortnight or so, though, and with Celtic beginning to get back the likes of Hatate and McGregor, maybe that was a bit short-sighted. I do wonder if Leven will be tempted to get out Robson's blueprint from some of the Conference League games, where we were content to sacrifice possession for a sound defensive structure and rely almost entirely on transitions for our attacking threat. That would likely mean reverting to a five at the back, with a lot of responsibility on Devlin and Mackenzie at both ends of the park. We need to make sure we have some size and energy in the middle, especially with Shinnie suspended, so Phillips has to start for me. I also wouldn't mind seeing Polvara and McGrath essentially in the roles they took up against Frankfurt away and PAOK at home, making us into quite a compact midfield four but also hitting the box and supporting Miovski as often as possible when we do get possession. Polvara in particular would need to get close to Miovski when we have goal-kicks and are going long, to make sure he doesn't get swamped and to give us an alternative target in the air. I think I would go with: Roos; Devlin, Gartenmann, MacDonald, Jensen, Mackenzie; Polvara, Barron, Phillips, McGrath; Miovski. I could maybe see the case for Clarkson over Barron, but the defensive side of the game is a bit more natural to Barron and he is still a bit more comfortable receiving the ball in tight spaces. Rubezic would ideally play in the middle of the five, but it would be madness to throw him in after so long out. Also, given that Celtic will probably start with Kyogo and not have much physicality up there, it is arguably the sort of game in which his skillset isn't that much of a loss anyway.

Should Sky bring him back? Yes, no doubt about it.

Sydney Sweeney's breasts have killed off the woke mob forever, thankfully.

Watkins is one of my favourite players in the league. I have watched him live twice this season at Villa Park, and his composure, movement and footballing intelligence are elite level. He might miss out on the England squad because Toney is a better like-for-like replacement for Kane, but he couldn’t have done much more this season to stake a claim.

I’m just coining this now, and I’m sure it will catch on: Arsenal and Liverpool are the hundreds of millions of pounds, red bottlejobs.

This is not great for my team, but it is very funny!

It will probably all be academic anyway, but it was really obvious in the second half today that we need more energy and presence in the middle next weekend or Celtic will have a field day. Phillips is a must start, for me, and I wouldn't be opposed to reverting to one of Robson's European set-ups either.

That moment when he received the ball in front of the dugouts, with space to charge into, but kind of stopped dead, stumbled over the ball and then gave it away. I burst out laughing, unfortunately. Must have wanted the ground to swallow him up.

We started well enough, especially with Duk's running causing Dundee issues and incurring three bookings, but once Dundee got to grips with him then they were the superior team - as they have been in all three games against us now, in fairness. We needed a bit of luck and Dundee profligacy in the second half to get out with a point, and it was probably a point more than we deserved. I can't say anybody was particularly good for us, but I thought McCowan was particularly impressive for Dundee and they moved the ball well, looked like a team with a good mix of physical and technical qualities at times. It's poor from Shinnie at the end, but basically captures our lack of control and general rashness in microcosm. Duncan hasn't played a lot of football lately, and I don't want to single him out because nobody was good for us, but his performance from the bench with the exception of one half-decent cross was one of the poorest I have seen from an Aberdeen player. He finished last season really promisingly under Robson as an understudy for Shinnie and Ramadani respectively, but he looks broken right now. I wouldn't have minded Phillips getting some minutes, especially as he is the most natural replacement for Shinnie next week. I suppose he hasn't been out for too long so could still start, but surprised we didn't chuck him on for ten or twenty minutes at the end when Shinnie was clearly running on empty. More broadly, I suppose it is four unbeaten, but variance has caught up with us over the last couple of games after maybe riding our luck a little bit to narrowly beat Motherwell and County, and we were fortunate not to lose today. Still not a good team, still not well coached, and absolutely deserve to be where we are in the table. If anything, the attacking patterns have disappeared since Warnock walked away, and the defence remains as fragile as ever despite somehow having three clean sheets in the last four games.

Ange needs to learn that you can’t saunter into our league, play like this and expect to get away with it. You aren’t playing against Stirling Rovers now, ‘mate’. Painfully naive from the Australian.

That is the most obvious but also unsatisfying explanation.

Obviously if the ball goes either side then it is straightforward, but when the ball goes out for a corner kick by going over the crossbar in a football match (e.g. the goalkeeper tips a shot over the bar), how does the referee decide which side the corner should be taken from? I have been watching football for over two decades now and the few people I have asked about it have not known the answer. It came to mind again tonight when I was watching a game. There is presumably a very straightforward answer.

Mike buying up the domains is my favourite Apprentice bit.

I actually despise the woke mob, I really do.

It's Yimmy Tee-leen, by the way.

I have never really had any feelings about Dundee FC, either positive or negative, but I have an outrageous amount of respect for them at the moment.

What does the data say about Barron, out of interest? I wonder if he is one of these players who impresses a bit more through the eye test.

I think he is destined to play at a higher level, and it doesn't surprise me that Serie A clubs like him, but it is a bit disappointing that we have never really seen Barron in a genuinely good Aberdeen team with proper coaching. Aberdeen, and Scottish clubs in general, don't produce many players like him.

I think they are slightly underselling how bad a miss that is from Wood.

Sorry, meant Fernandes from the halfway line and then a Mainoo screamer. The concept is broadly sound, though.