Premier League 22/23 Thread

[theforceuk]

Celtic were the first British team to win the European Cup. I don't agree that all the crap champions of Europe should be excluded. After all it's called the Champions League which has always meant a competition for all the champions of Europe. I do agree that more top teams should be allowed in it, but not at the expense of the Champions of Scotland or Sweden. Kick Liverpool and City out of it, Liverpool have won it to much and Man City have cheated to get in it.

 

[weasel]

There's a totally dispassionate view if ever I heard one lol

 

[edd_jedi]

Southampton relegated, and definitely no CL for Spurs after today's result, was a stretch anyway. It's quite a dramatic downfall, I do wish Spurs would wait til the end of the season before firing managers, you can't have an interim manager for so many games if you want to compete seriously, it's exactly the same as how Jose's reign ended

 

[theforceuk]

dispassionate

At least I'm honest.

 

[theforceuk]

Poch confirmed as Chelsea head coach, will be interesting. Good luck with that one.

 

[edd_jedi]

Poch confirmed as Chelsea head coach, will be interesting. Good luck with that one.

Yeah I'm gutted about that, it's like seeing your ex girlfriend going out with your worst enemy! I bet he'll do really well there too. Meanwhile Spurs have confirmed Nagelsmann is out of the running, so who are we looking at - Mark Hughes? Paul Ince?

 

[weasel]

Yeah, I don't get why Levy didn't even ask Poch. Maybe he did and we just didn't hear about it, but the impression I get is Poch would probably have been open to going back to Spurs. Chelsea maybe a more successful club over the last 10-15yrs but they are probably a bigger mess right now.

I'm not sure Nagelsman would ever have taken the Spurs job, he will want a proper big name, but it does seem strange to rule him out. Feck knows what Levy is doing. I have seen rumours of yer man from Feyenoord, his track record is very good, but will he want Spurs and will he be able to cut it in the PL?

I also saw my mate Harry Kane was up to his old diving little toe rag tricks again. Sorry, he's England captain isn't he, he was being "clever" and winning a penalty. Definitely not soft, definitely not identical to one Watkins DIDN'T get against Spurs 2years ago, Kane definitely isn't going down before any contact is made, he definitely doesn't drag his foot into the keeper, the keeper definitely doesn't get something on the ball. Absolute stone wall penalty that. Well done VAR exactly what we have you for, over ruling a well placed ref who saw (correctly) FA wrong with it.
If he was foreign the press would be all over his diving cheating back, but he's England captain so sssshhhhhhh.

 

[theforceuk]

That's the title done and dusted, just trying to jinx it.

 

[lejackal]

That's the title done and dusted, just trying to jinx it.

Yep, we needed them to roll over for us and then do this to City

 

[weasel]

I only saw the second half but Brighton looked like the title chasers.
TBF to Arsenal, that is still a superb season. Massively above expectations when the season kicked off. If I was being ultra critical I do think they blew a great chance of silverware with that limp EL exit, but you can't win them all.

As I think I said on here at the start of the season, you need to be getting 95pts ish to have a chance of beating this City side to the title. Looks like Arsenal are going to come up 6 odd pts short. No shame in coming second to this City squad. Especially as they cheat and ignore FFP

 

[Cazza]

Yeah, I don't get why Levy didn't even ask Poch. Maybe he did and we just didn't hear about it, but the impression I get is Poch would probably have been open to going back to Spurs. Chelsea maybe a more successful club over the last 10-15yrs but they are probably a bigger mess right now.

I'm not sure Nagelsman would ever have taken the Spurs job, he will want a proper big name, but it does seem strange to rule him out. Feck knows what Levy is doing. I have seen rumours of yer man from Feyenoord, his track record is very good, but will he want Spurs and will he be able to cut it in the PL?

I also saw my mate Harry Kane was up to his old diving little toe rag tricks again. Sorry, he's England captain isn't he, he was being "clever" and winning a penalty. Definitely not soft, definitely not identical to one Watkins DIDN'T get against Spurs 2years ago, Kane definitely isn't going down before any contact is made, he definitely doesn't drag his foot into the keeper, the keeper definitely doesn't get something on the ball. Absolute stone wall penalty that. Well done VAR exactly what we have you for, over ruling a well placed ref who saw (correctly) FA wrong with it.
If he was foreign the press would be all over his diving cheating back, but he's England captain so sssshhhhhhh.

Thought exactly the same- commentators always say things like he's being 'cute' and it's 'part of the game'. Hate it!

We were shocking against Brentford today, but can someone please explain the handball rules to me? They were changed this season, so goals won't be disallowed if there is an accidental handball in the build-up, unless it's from the goal scorer. So, a ball coming straight off the post, hitting the onrushing Mubama's shoulder from point-blank range, as he put his hands out to stop himself running into the post, goes to Lanzini, who crosses for Ings to head home... disallowed for handball against Mubama.

Sick of these decisions- no pen vs Liverpool (blatant handball), pen against vs Palace (blatant dive), no pen vs Man Utd (another, totally obvious handball), goal disallowed vs Man Utd (DDG hit himself in the face with Antonio's arm), goal disallowed today. This is all in the last couple of weeks...

 

[lejackal]

I only saw the second half but Brighton looked like the title chasers.
TBF to Arsenal, that is still a superb season. Massively above expectations when the season kicked off. If I was being ultra critical I do think they blew a great chance of silverware with that limp EL exit, but you can't win them all.

As I think I said on here at the start of the season, you need to be getting 95pts ish to have a chance of beating this City side to the title. Looks like Arsenal are going to come up 6 odd pts short. No shame in coming second to this City squad. Especially as they cheat and ignore FFP

Yep, EL would've been nice but I think we had to go for the league. Injuries did us in the end sadly

 

[Cazza]

Arsenal have had a fantastic season- far better than anyone thought they would do. A great platform to build from. Just can't see anyone getting close to Man City though.

 

[weasel]

I heard WH got another stinker from VAR today. That's not the first recently either. Though I don't think the Liverpool one was a penalty. I know, I know, but hear me out. Apparently the rules state if a player is falling and his arm is holding him up or breaking his fall, as Thiago's was, then it isn't a penalty. Zero arguments that it hits his arm, and I'm not sure the rule makes much sense. I know I would be pissed if I was a WH fan in that position. But in that case VAR made the right call. Albeit the law/rule itself may be utter bollocks.


I've also just seen Martinelli's "tackle" on Minoma (?). How the hell he got away with that without even a booking is beyond me. He jump shoulder first into a guy who is in midair. He knows he cant get the ball, I'm not even sure he is trying, he is just jumping to make it harder for Minoma. And he ******* cleans him out. I remember my mate Harry Kane getting a penalty for doing that to Adam Lallana the first season the latter was at Brighton. Lallana landed on Kane, after having had his legs cleaned out from under him while he was in mid air, and obviously Mr England captain went down like he had been shot and got his pen. I said it then, and I'll say it now, about Martinelli, taking a mans legs out while he is jumping for a ball is ******* dangerous and both Kane and Martinelli should have been sent off.
I hear Martinelli was wiped out 5 minutes later and had to go off, while whoever wiped him out got off scott free. Karma, to an extent. But two wrongs don't make a right.

 

[weasel]

Yep, EL would've been nice but I think we had to go for the league. Injuries did us in the end sadly

Injuries and or a small ish squad. When you are competing against the machine that is City you need EVERYTHING to go for you. Even then, you can end up getting over 90 points and still miss out by a point. Twice. In three years

 

[lejackal]

Injuries and or a small ish squad. When you are competing against the machine that is City you need EVERYTHING to go for you. Even then, you can end up getting over 90 points and still miss out by a point. Twice. In three years

I sympathise, I really do. I even sympathised in August:

Us loosing Saliba and the first choice back up (Tomiyasu) at the same time did us in I think. Plus the amount we had to play our first choice vs City having the ability (and willingness) to rotate constantly.

 

[weasel]

Genuine question, is it just me or do City seem to be quite lucky with injuries? I don't remember them EVER really having any serious injuries. Sure, they get their fair share of 3-4 week injuries, but I mean season ending injuries or the kinda thing that keeps a player out for months and months. I can't remember City ever having one of them. I'm sure they have and it's just my imagination.

 

[theforceuk]

No I agree, they're probably all on drugs to stop injuries. More cheating!

 

[edd_jedi]

It's because of the huge squad, if you only play 8 games a season the chances of getting injured are pretty slim! City could literally field two starting 11s

 

[weasel]

Which comes back to breaking FFP rules to enable buying the squad.

 

[theforceuk]

Yes exactly, arguably have two teams that could win the league. I reckon they have 3 or 4 transfer windows in hand on anyone else and that's without them buying anyone else.

 

[lejackal]

I couldn't find this stat the other day (and it's now a couple of weeks out of date, but just before Arsenal played City away:

Arsenal had 8 outfield players that had started 25 or more PL games. City had 3

Arsenal had 10 outfield players that had started 10 or more PL games. City had 14

Over half their squad starts less than a third of games.

Basically a long winded version of what Edd said.

 

[weasel]

Aye, that'll do it (stop you getting injuries). Hard to be injured sitting on a bench.
Even so they still don't seem to get injuries in training or on international duty. Maybe it's just my imagination. I need to go and dig up some stats on the number of games missed through injuries and their duration when I get time.

 

[edd_jedi]

I seem to remember Aguero was out for a while once?

 

[weasel]

Fair point, he did get more injury prone in his last 18months at City.

 

[theforceuk]

That was before they started taking the drugs.

 

[edd_jedi]

Coventry and Luton in the Championship play off final, will be good to see one of them back in the PL - possibly the first time for Luton? I remember they were in the old Division 1 when I were a lad.

 

[edd_jedi]

Oh and Toney banned until January 2024, glad I ditched him from my fantasy team a few weeks back!

 

[theforceuk]

Yes I remember Luton in Division 1, think they got relegated 1991? To think they got promoted to league 2 only 9 years ago.

 

[Cazza]

Yeah, nice to see they've both made the final. I remember Luton were pretty decent for a while, the Stein brothers, Ricky Hill, Mick Harford, Steve Foster etc, not to mention the plastic pitch. Bit of a bogey team for that unstoppable Livepool side of the mid-late eighties as well. Also seem to remember Millwall going there and their fans tearing the stadium to pieces!