Now go and have a nice cup of tea and, maybe, a lie down for half an hour......

A stairway to Heaven and a Highway to Hell give some indication of expected traffic numbers

Ignoring the disappointment of the result, 4 points and only -2 goal difference is probably about as good as we could have expected given our first four games. We had no outlet today which shows our squad still needs another pacey forward and you look at the bench and we have two keepers and two youth players with limited experience, which given we don't have many injuries is a big concern. Personally I would also be looking at an experienced central midfielder whether it's attacking or defending.

On today I think we have to accept City are a better team bank-rolled by hundreds of millions in spending and we at least gave it a good fight, especially in the first half. If we had a player like Haaland we win that game as Eze regularly broke only to find he had no-one to pass to. Mitchell struggles when teams cut inside as he is really one footed which against a player like Silva is a nightmare, Ward is not really a centre-back and Edouard doesn't seem to be quick enough or strong enough to play up front on his own. Tactically I think Vieira did all he could and we weren't helped by the referee.

Spot on

“That’s a joke son, I say, that’s a joke.” “Nice boy, but he’s sharp as a throw pillow.” “He’s so dumb he thinks a Mexican border pays rent” “ “Son… I say, son, some people are so narrow minded they can look through a keyhole with both eyes.”__ Forhorn Leghorn

This was never the game to throw Richards into - there must have been better options - Ward & clyne to full backs & put Hughes into the gap ?

365 pays out a win if it goes 2-0 even if Man City smash us up 2 nd half

Don’t hate football pal. Hate the moment; never the game.
It will excite and depress in equal amounts. Been watching since 77 trust me , I know

I hadn't actually realised that.

What's sad is, living in Bournemouth, there are loads of Bournemouth fans, many who I know have followed the side since before the -17 in league 2. They deserve the glory of the Premier League, because they've suffered and toiled and stayed loyal. But there are also Liverpool 'fans'. Far too many. And they'll revel in the genius that inspired the 9:0, as if they have in any way earned it, and have any entitlement to the score.

I predict some interesting scenes in pubs tonight, 5 pints in, when some Liverpool fan who's lived in Dorset their whole life gives it large to a life-long Bournemouth season ticket holder, and finds himself being told to go f*** himself.

But hey, that's football. I'm off to ignore all football coverage for 72 hours. Enjoy your weekend folks.

I didn't feel secure at 2-0. We can't keep clean sheets, and as soon as they got one, they were always going to get more.

I'd give Johnstone a run in the side, and it's time to leave Ward out, as every opponent targets him. Don't get me wrong, I like Ward and think he's served us admirably over the years, but age has caught up with him.

[just posted this BTL on the Guardian]

I don’t care who you’re playing, if you’re 2-0 up at half time, you shouldn’t go and lose 4-2. It’s a bottle job.

The writing was on the wall even in the first half, though. We didn’t push forwards that much, and when we did, Eze’s limitations in terms of ball control were exposed. I love watching him play but he doesn’t have a close/tight dribble and the high-quality City defenders found it easy to smother him. Ditto Edouard, who I’ve defended before, but now I’m really wondering. Lots of clumsy touches and he looked tired after about 10 minutes. But then again, ditto for Mateta, who when he came on looked tired almost immediately.

The only outfield player I would praise is Jordan Ayew. He was consistently ready to attack, to take on the City defence. We really miss Conor Gallagher; at this point Steve Parish needs to find the $35M or whatever it is to secure a midfielder who will actually hustle for the ball. We obviously therefore also missed Wilf, although his days at Palace are obviously numbered.

Our defence and goalkeeper were magnificent in the first half, all of them. I actually can’t blame them for our losing. As I’ve written here, it’s more this generally passive behavior of sitting back too much. It put far too much pressure on the defence and you can’t stop the man mountain that is Haaland if you keep retreating. He reminds me of that Will Carling remark about the New Zealand winger Jonah Lomu, i.e. “a freak of nature” or whatever he said. For the last goal of his hatrick there was no way that Joel Ward was going to get around him to the ball.

Disappointing after that first half against the team that unlimited cash bought.

Let’s just have a reality check, we have just been beaten 4-2 by a side who came very close to winning the champions league and can afford to buy a guy in Haarland who probably cost more than our whole team put together and with a salary to boot!! Secondly, we held in their own backyard a team (Liverpool) who came even closer to be CL winners. PV and his brilliant back room staff are doing a terrific job a year on from ‘Royball’, so give him some slack.

There are fine lines in football and today we should have got a third, we didn’t and the rest is History.

The tactics may not have been quite right in the 2nd half but he and his team will learn from it.

COYP

Bring back Brolin