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Still can't believe it Brendan. I was there throughout 89, 91, 98, 2002, 2004 and they've struggled to live up to those teams. I never thought I'd see them this good again. I'm going tomorrow and that's going to be a real test as it always is against an Utd.

11a is holding me up. What am I missing that everyone else is getting?

It parses as 2+4 - homophones of 'I see' as an exclamation and 'cunning'.

Rocky, I see Arsene was there a few weeks ago, he must be pleased to see them doing so well. As you can probably gather, I'm delighted we managed to get 3 points today, we sorely need them!

Good luck tomorrow:-)

Thank you Rainman. I kept thinking Paisley when I thought of pattern. So not so far away. As for football, I'm not that into it. I'm an Everton supporter.

I really struggled with this. I got a few and then was stuck for a long time until I worked out the theme and then everything fell into place. Please note 20a is one of those clues that only works for people with a certain kind of English accent, an accent I don't have. Paul is my favourite setter so I was disappointed it took me so long to crack this puzzle.

ABZ
If you mean 21a rather than 20a, it really doesn't work in any accent; I don't see how you could possibly match the second syllable (unless your pronunciation of the actual answer was extremely casual, I suppose). I "groaned" at this one earlier!

Completely agree, Chris. As an American, I'm not always sure, but I don't think the homophones work anywhere near as much as setters seem to think. Glad to have a Brit support that view. I didn't care for the other one in this puzzle either.

Re geeker @46, ironically it was my LOI. Wasn't expecting it I guess, but once I had the crossers (and the theme) it became clear.

Well, I finished much more quickly than usual, but there were times when I was really stuck. I didn't see the theme for a long time, even after I had got quite a number of the thematic clues. When I did get it, it helped a lot. Several clues I had to Google after I had found the answer, to confirm that a relevant word existed and had the necessary meaning. FOI 3d, LOI 11a, COD 13a,20d. For me, the homophones in 21a work perfectly, and I would have thought that they would for well over 90% of English people, not just those with a particular type of English accent. However, I suppose there are probably some parts of the north where the second syllable is given a more emphatic pronunciation, as is the case with "computer", for example.