The imaginatively titled Premier League 21/22 Thread
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I saw somehwere that Varane hasn't played any of the top 6 yet, surely that's not true? I know he has had injury problems, and missed both Pool games, but he cant have wimped out of all the big 6 games (pre today).:We probably won't get hammered as Veran is back and we don't get spanked when he's in the team. There's me Jinxing it again. We need the points more than Arsenal, need to consolidate that conference league spot.
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Pretty sure he played against City before Christmas when we lost 2-0, could be wrong. Pretty sure he has missed all the top 6 thinking about it. He wasn't playing when Leicester and Watford humped us.
It depends on your definition of success. If winning trophies is the only thing that counts as success, then 95% of managers and teams are failures. Personally I think taking a team outside the top 5 spenders to PL and CL runners up counts as success. And 95% of managers get sacked when they leave a club too, that's just how it works unless they get poached (eg what could have happened to Poch.) I'm also not sure how you can call a 50 year old manager who's one game away from winning Ligue 1 yesterday's news either, IMO his best days are ahead of him
Massive result for Arsenal today, the race is truly on and looks like it's a two horse race now after United's defeat today.
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Success at Spurs is questionable, he had a good squad and didn't win anything, his ceiling so far is the CL final. Apart from the final Harry did a similar job to Poch at Spurs. Winning the French league with a squad that is worth more than the rest of the league put together isn't really an achievement in my eyes. In fact that squad could probably win the French league with OGS in charge. And he failed to get them deep in the CL and knocked out the French Cup. That's bang average and I can't see another top European club giving him a chance any time soon.
It's only my opinion and about 75% of the Man Utd fan base that think Ten Hag is a better fit for Man Utd. Like you say @edd_jedi we will see the fans can be wrong, but Poch wouldn't have been a popular choice although a perfect puppet for the glaziers, he's probably still got the strings attached where Daniel Levy had him controlled.
It's only my opinion and about 75% of the Man Utd fan base that think Ten Hag is a better fit for Man Utd. Like you say @edd_jedi we will see the fans can be wrong, but Poch wouldn't have been a popular choice although a perfect puppet for the glaziers, he's probably still got the strings attached where Daniel Levy had him controlled.
Well that's the way to do it Spurs, a must win game and you treat it like a Sunday kickabout. 4th is still just in our hands as we have to play Arsenal, but that is a piss poor couple of results and you would probably be a millionaire now if you bet £10 on Spurs losing those two games and Arsenal winning theirs 
Arsenal had the tougher run in a week ago, not any more!
Arsenal had the tougher run in a week ago, not any more!Right, and how many CL finals has Ten Hag been in? Oh yeah, Poch beat him to one Sorry but winning the Dutch League is like winning League One over here, it's literally meaningless on the world stage. He hasn't proven he's a world class manager yet, that's a fact.
Sorry but winning the Dutch League is like winning League One over here, it's literally meaningless on the world stage. He hasn't proven he's a world class manager yet, that's a fact.
lejackal
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Hopefully after the next two fixtures we can afford to lose the NLDWell that's the way to do it Spurs, a must win game and you treat it like a Sunday kickabout. 4th is still just in our hands as we have to play Arsenal, but that is a piss poor couple of results and you would probably be a millionaire now if you bet £10 on Spurs losing those two games and Arsenal winning theirs
I saw bits of the Arsenal Utd game and it was fairly even from what I saw. If anything Utd probably deserved to be level. I missed from 5 mins before xhaka's goal so can't comment on anything after that. I did hear Fernandes could/should have gone for a shocker.
Some utterly woeful defending from both sides. That Arsenal penalty was a farce. Even as an ABU I wouldn't have given it. Contact DOES. NOT. EQUAL. FOUL/PENALTY. It's a fecking contact sport, the clue is in the name. A few tight offsides that went (rightly) against Utd, a fluffed penalty and they hit the post and the bar. On another day…..
Still, that's them fighting for EL now. No chance they close a 6pt gap. Not even sure where their next win is coming from. They did look better today, not hard, but confidence is on the floor.
The North London derby is going to go a long way to deciding who gets the CL spot. Actually, scratch that. Whoever wins it will lose all their remaining games. Whoever loses it will win their next two and then lose the rest and some random club will come from nowhere and nick the 4th spot. Wolves for the CL.
PS, that Tavares really is dog **** bad. He's the black Moreno. There is no bigger insult I can give a player.
Some utterly woeful defending from both sides. That Arsenal penalty was a farce. Even as an ABU I wouldn't have given it. Contact DOES. NOT. EQUAL. FOUL/PENALTY. It's a fecking contact sport, the clue is in the name. A few tight offsides that went (rightly) against Utd, a fluffed penalty and they hit the post and the bar. On another day…..
Still, that's them fighting for EL now. No chance they close a 6pt gap. Not even sure where their next win is coming from. They did look better today, not hard, but confidence is on the floor.
The North London derby is going to go a long way to deciding who gets the CL spot. Actually, scratch that. Whoever wins it will lose all their remaining games. Whoever loses it will win their next two and then lose the rest and some random club will come from nowhere and nick the 4th spot. Wolves for the CL.
PS, that Tavares really is dog **** bad. He's the black Moreno. There is no bigger insult I can give a player.
Chelsea deserved to lose that game for possibly the worst penalty I have ever seen. I have no sympathy for any poncey penalty that misses, just bloody boot it! And WHU now have no centre backs apparently after that red card. Oh and Burnley's win means Everton are in the bottom three now, at least they only have to play Liverpool later...
I haven't seen the Chelsea game but I heard the penalty was woeful.
On the subject of "deserved to lose" SLAP THAT RIGHT UP YOU LAMPARD. Clearly he picked up Jose's bus parking tactics and nothing else. That was a ****ing carbon copy of Jose at his worst. five at the back, four in midfield strung in a line 10 yards outside your box and one "striker" who stayed 10 yards inside his own half. They were time wasting from the 3rd minute, Pickford was taking so long over each goal kick that children grew beards. It was horrible horrible antifootball. The kinda **** Jose used to love inflicting on us all. I do not miss him and I do not miss his brand of football. The fact that fat Frank inflicted that on us means I now huge Everton go down. It was pathetic.
I get not going toe to toe with Pool, especially when you are in the bottom 3, but there are ways of trying not to lose and then there is that anti football shite. **** you lampard and **** that stupid club who employed you. Enjoy the Championship!
On the subject of "deserved to lose" SLAP THAT RIGHT UP YOU LAMPARD. Clearly he picked up Jose's bus parking tactics and nothing else. That was a ****ing carbon copy of Jose at his worst. five at the back, four in midfield strung in a line 10 yards outside your box and one "striker" who stayed 10 yards inside his own half. They were time wasting from the 3rd minute, Pickford was taking so long over each goal kick that children grew beards. It was horrible horrible antifootball. The kinda **** Jose used to love inflicting on us all. I do not miss him and I do not miss his brand of football. The fact that fat Frank inflicted that on us means I now huge Everton go down. It was pathetic.
I get not going toe to toe with Pool, especially when you are in the bottom 3, but there are ways of trying not to lose and then there is that anti football shite. **** you lampard and **** that stupid club who employed you. Enjoy the Championship!
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Another lucky win for Liverpool, poor standard in general this season, apart from the top 2. Man City and Liverpool are the only competitive teams in Europe really.
Well, 4-0, I was close.
I'll take the 3 pts either way.
City don't look like dropping any points so I suspect whatever Pool do is kind of irrelevant anyway.
Norwich now gone. While I respect a well run club that doesn't gamble its future on one season of staying up, I do have to wonder what the point in Norwich is. Too good for the Championship but plainly not even close to good enough for the PL.
Big win for Burnley too. All but mathematically sends Watford down (see my comments on Norwich, but without the "well run" bit) and leaves Everton right in the shite.
As for the standard, it's kind of hard to say. The top two are two of the best sides the PL has seen so that skews things. I don't know what the average pts total for 3rd and 4th is. That would seem the fairest way to judge them. Ditto any other random places you wanna pick. And you probably need to look at it over a few years not just compare two. Though I suspect whoever stays up may well only need 35pts this year. Previously I think it has been more, but it has been gradually dropping. Which probably says more about the gap between those at the top and those at the bottom rather than the overall quality.
WH and Leicester in European semi finals would imply the standard isn't all that bad. Especially with Chelsea making the last 8 of the CL, and being unlucky to lose they were the better team for vast chunks of the tie. And Utd got out of their group too, albeit via a lot of late winners.
I don't really know how you fairly and accurately compare seasons. Especially if you go over any length of time. Take a team from the 70's, or 80's when English football dominated Europe and buck it in the PL now and they are worse than Norwich. Fitness, conditioning, tactics, refereeing standards etc. have all changed massively. The same could be said for any PL side from about the first 10 yrs of the PL as well. Time and the changes to the rules how they are interpreted make comparisons all but impossible.
Not sure. Yes, it was ONLY 1-0 and Newcastle could have nicked it. BUT, they didn't have many clear cut chances (I can't think of any off hand) and Pool missed a hat full. Dubravka made 9 saves, granted most were easy but that was cos Pool hit the ball straight at him. On another day that's 4 or 5. On an average Saturday Salah, Mane, Jota and Diaz all bury chances they fluffed today.
I'll take the 3 pts either way.
City don't look like dropping any points so I suspect whatever Pool do is kind of irrelevant anyway.
Norwich now gone. While I respect a well run club that doesn't gamble its future on one season of staying up, I do have to wonder what the point in Norwich is. Too good for the Championship but plainly not even close to good enough for the PL.
Big win for Burnley too. All but mathematically sends Watford down (see my comments on Norwich, but without the "well run" bit) and leaves Everton right in the shite.
As for the standard, it's kind of hard to say. The top two are two of the best sides the PL has seen so that skews things. I don't know what the average pts total for 3rd and 4th is. That would seem the fairest way to judge them. Ditto any other random places you wanna pick. And you probably need to look at it over a few years not just compare two. Though I suspect whoever stays up may well only need 35pts this year. Previously I think it has been more, but it has been gradually dropping. Which probably says more about the gap between those at the top and those at the bottom rather than the overall quality.
WH and Leicester in European semi finals would imply the standard isn't all that bad. Especially with Chelsea making the last 8 of the CL, and being unlucky to lose they were the better team for vast chunks of the tie. And Utd got out of their group too, albeit via a lot of late winners.
I don't really know how you fairly and accurately compare seasons. Especially if you go over any length of time. Take a team from the 70's, or 80's when English football dominated Europe and buck it in the PL now and they are worse than Norwich. Fitness, conditioning, tactics, refereeing standards etc. have all changed massively. The same could be said for any PL side from about the first 10 yrs of the PL as well. Time and the changes to the rules how they are interpreted make comparisons all but impossible.
lejackal
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For what it's worth the invincibles would struggle to get third these days with this iteration of pool and citeh as they are and Chelsea not exactly bad. Even the best Ferguson UTD from 1998-2008 wouldn't be doing anything to break into the top two.
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Best teams the premier league has seen are these teams, City and Liverpool. Chelsea 2004 - 2006, Arsenal 1998 - 2004, Man Utd 1999 - 2001 and 2007 - 2009. Total points accumulated should never be put above trophies won in those periods. That Chelsea team only conceded 16 goals and lost one game in a season, the Arsenal side went an entire season unbeaten and both Utd sides still hold many records. My favourite is the treble season where they went unbeaten from January to May in all 3 competitions beating all the best teams in Europe when Italy, Spain and Germany had strong sides.
To say either of these present sides are the best ever is typical of modern society, dismissing the past quickly without any proper research or understanding of what happened in the past. Best ever Chelsea team and best ever Arsenal team would give Liverpool and Man City a good game 100%.
To say either of these present sides are the best ever is typical of modern society, dismissing the past quickly without any proper research or understanding of what happened in the past. Best ever Chelsea team and best ever Arsenal team would give Liverpool and Man City a good game 100%.
No I'm with Weasel on this one, any pre-2010 team would get rinsed by modern City or Liverpool, as he said the game is just totally different. If you could compare distances covered for example (which you can't because the stats don't go back that far) the players are so much fitter these days. In fact whenever I watch reruns of old 80s and 90s football matches now, it looks like pub teams playing, there is a charm about it for sure but the level of fitness and skill isn't even in the same ball park. A good example - does anyone fall for the Cruyff turn any more? No, it worked for about 3 years when he first invented it but now players are wise to it.
