Premier League 24/25 Thread

[theforceuk]

Well done West Ham by the way, they took there chances, deserved the points. Big 3 points for them.

Nottingham Forest flying, anyone have them for team that over achieves?

 

[weasel]

@Cazza agreed on Utd, Jose's Chelsea and Fergy's Utd were worse.

As for the Arsenal goal, the Ref has his hand up and is clearly playing advantage. Quite what advantage he thinks Liverpool will get from a loose ball bouncing about in their box when it's full of Arsenal players, is beyond me. But if you can find the zoomed out view of the incident, you can clearly see he puts his arm up a few seconds before he blows his whistle. And he blows his whistle before Arsenal score anyway.
That one was a non-story for me. The penalty is more debatable. I have definitely seen them given. Konate does get a bit of the ball, and as per Sanchez "getting the ball" last week before literally upending Curtis Jones, apparently that then negates you munching someone after. I still think it falls in to the "seen them given, seen them not given" category, but if I had to give odds on it being given, I'd probably expect to see it given more often than not given, say 60:40 ish.

As for Almerim. He was all set for Pool then decided to be a dick and go and meet with West Ham to discuss becoming their new manager. Unsurprisingly Pool told him exactly where he could **** off to. He seems to be very keen on 3 at the back, which will suit Harry Maguire (new contract incoming, watch and see). But his character would worry me. I'm not a fan of people who try and dictate to clubs, it always seems to end badly. Either way, it's all West Ham's fault for scoring that penalty! ;-)

 

[theforceuk]

Yeah it will be 3/4/3 with him in charge and a striker as the focal point. I will physically throw up if these players suddenly start performing. Players like Rashford and Shaw are on there 6th manager.

 

[weasel]

They'll see a 7th.

I wonder will the new manager have the sense to just flog Anthony for the £1.27 and half a Curlywurly that he's worth, or will he be dumb enough to try and play him to get his resale value up. The latter seems to be Utd's default setting. Or at least value a player at 20m more than he is worth and refuse to sell for any less than that price.

 

[theforceuk]

Probably, seems like most the fan base are happy with the shiny new toy. Still got piles of **** hanging around left right and centre though.

 

[weasel]

Massive win that for Pool. Arsenal lose (and it looked a fair enough result from the chunks I saw) and City lose, coming from 1 down to win against a bloody solid side is a great result. Still ridiculously early in the season but those are the points that make a difference come the end of the season.

Forest in third, dafuq? They beat Pool, but that was one of those games were they took their one chance and Pool fluffed their 10.

Lopetegui (spelling) must be on very thin ice too along with whoever loses the Wolves Palace game.

Was ETH the first PL manager sacked this season?

 

[theforceuk]

Yes Ten Hag first coach sacked.

 

[weasel]

Arsenal flat as a pancake last night again.
The penalty was a joke, but they are the sort of things that refs give in European comps. Utd got one very similar to beat PSG back when Rio Ferdinand did his famous "let him fill in whatever numbers he wants" gubbins about Ole and his new contract. I did laugh at Martin Keown saying decision like that were "ruining our game." Had that been Arsenal, awarded a penalty for the exact same thing by an Inter defender he would have been saying how that was the laws of the game and it wasn't soft or fortunate and the defender should know. But because it was against his beloved Arsenal, suddenly it's ruining the game. Do us all a favour Martin and **** off! And see when you get there, **** off some more

Arteta out trending on Twitter. A tiny tiny bit premature in my mind. Although, I assume Arsenal want to be front and centre when ETH is picking his next club so maybe not.

 

[lejackal]

A couple of flat performances and a couple of injuries is hardly a crisis. **** ***** on twatter.
To be honest we're not tracking a million miles behind last season, but that gap will widen if they keep posting in performances like they are currently. This feels a bit like the Liverpool third season after the 99 and 98 points totals, although we haven't won anything. And also didn't get those points totals, before anyone feels to need to clarify that.

I think we'll be okay and still in the race for a while yet, but you never know.

 

[theforceuk]

Artetta out is ridiculous. They've won the league 2 years in a row……

 

[lejackal]

Not that we played close to our level on Wednesday, loosing 1-0 to Inter in Italy (even with them rotating some players) is hardly disgraceful

 

[weasel]

I think the Chelsea game is a big one for Arsenal. If they lose that then the "crisis" gubbins will be in over drive. Ditto if City lose to Brighton. If both happen the media will have crowned Liverpool PL winners and Slot the greatest manager the world has ever seen etc etc.

A defeat to Chelsea isn't terminal for Arsenal's PL chances, but, if City and Pool win, closing a 10pt gap on Pool AND an 8pt gap on City is a massive massive ask. It's early days, but given you can drop about 24pts if you want to have any realistic chance of beating City to the title, and Arsenal have already dropped 12 before this weekend, they have very little room for any slip ups.

 

[theforceuk]

Over quarter the way through the season, Liverpool should get top 4.

 

[weasel]

I think three of the top four were sorted before the season kicked off, barring massive injuries or implosions. Pool being the least likely of the three to get, due to the unknown of a new manager.

 

[theforceuk]

City could still get a massive points deduction, unlikely. I also think 5th will get a UCL spot this year.

 

[theforceuk]

Liverpool are in a title race now, I would usually be saying they've won the league. Don't know though just seems ridiculous that Slot is just going to walk the league in his first season. I guess stranger things have happened.

 

[lejackal]

Imagine how pissed off I'll be if we finish above City, only to lose out to Liverpool

 

[theforceuk]

I think if Liverpool go into December with only dropping 5 points, they're going to be hard to catch.

 

[edd_jedi]

Ange:
"Right lads, if you beat a team that hasn't been in the PL for 2 decades and hasn't won a match since May, we'll be in third place for the international break, and set us up nicely for the game against City in a couple of weeks."

Lads:
"Nah, let's spend two weeks in tenth"

 

[weasel]

Palace hadn't won in 9 and Ipswich hadn't won in 10 (or it could be the other way round) then they played Spurs……

@theforceuk, I suspect you might be right on 5th getting a CL spot, although have UEFA decided if they are continuing with the new, ****, format?

 

[theforceuk]

I think the new format is here to stay, the league table from 3rd to 13th is 4 points. That's ridiculous. Looking at it Liverpool are going to walk the title.

 

[edd_jedi]

Yeah I guess the few points separating 10 clubs makes it exciting, but holy **** Spurs it was right there on a plate for you, I don't feel entitled saying we "should" be third, how can you beat City and then lose to Ipswich! There is no other club like us

 

[edd_jedi]

And if you want to know why I feel a little hard done by, not only do Spurs have the second best goal difference, they have scored more than any other team including Liverpool and City, and have conceded the same as City and Chelsea, yet we're 10th and they're 2nd/3rd

 

[weasel]

Those two posts sum Spurs up perfectly. Lol

 

[lejackal]

Now please ignore the fact this is Liverpool, but just…WOW!

 

[weasel]

That's a giant screen. You can see it on the side towards the end.
No football club would allow stools like those, just asking for trouble, and the two staff members (in black) would surely be in red or have large Liverpool logos on their shirts.

Great set up though. Great club too

 

[weasel]

Thoughts on David Coote?

Beyond him being dum as ****.

 

[lejackal]

Thoughts on David Coote?

Beyond him being dum as ****.

He has to go imo, even is he was on VAR for the Odegaard not handball against your lot.

To be honest the whole organisation needs a shake up, from top to bottom, and not just His Royal Highness Howard Webb doing his tv show defending the indefensible week in, week out

 

[weasel]

A new video out of Coote doing coke. TBF it could be any dark haired fella and he uses a dollar bill, so I have my doubts about how accurate this one is.

Coote was on VAR for the Odegaard non handball yes. And the Pickford GBH that snapped VVD's cruciate, but wasn't a foul. And he thought Bailey, as last man, bringing down Salah last weekend wasn't a foul. And he let Rodri away with that blatant handball in the City's box (I cant remember who that was against).

I suspect, if you look hard enough, you can find 3 or 4 posh calls any ref has made against any club. Coote's problem is there is video evidence of him saying he hates Klopp and that brings his integrity in to question.
It wouldn't be a problem if he has retired, but as an active ref you cant say **** like that on camera.

I don't doubt certain refs hate certain managers/players (and vice versa) but the ref has to stay above it, until he retires, as he has to at least appear impartial.

 

[edd_jedi]

I mean, surely this should be the whole point of VAR!? Nobody is impartial, if I was refereeing a game between two Korean teams, I would have my own subconscious bias about certain characters. Imagine if it was possible to have a real-time video where several people could see a replay and make a joint decision? Magic that would be!