Premier League 25/26 Thread
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I know. I'm still gutted, but a good result nevertheless. We look a completely different team now. The run in will be very interesting indeed!
Ha well we didn't get Dyche (probably a good thing) but I had never heard of Tudor before today. He should only need to get about 10 points from the remaining 12 games, not beyond the realms of possibility?!
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He's interim only though, and from what was said on a podcast earlier he seems to do well for the first 8-10 games, which if he does that at Spurs puts them what, 12-9 ish in the table?
Hopefully his good run starts after the NLD
I would happily lose the NLD if we can beat Wolves, Burnley and Forest to stay up, that's all we need! My standards have dropped significantly over the last couple of yearsHe's interim only though, and from what was said on a podcast earlier he seems to do well for the first 8-10 games, which if he does that at Spurs puts them what, 12-9 ish in the table?
Hopefully his good run starts after the NLD
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FA Cup Draw:
Fulham v Southampton
Port Vale or Bristol City v Sunderland
Newcastle v Manchester City
Leeds United v Norwich City
Mansfield Town v Arsenal
Wolves v Liverpool
Wrexham v Chelsea
West Ham v Macclesfield or Brentford
At least the Geordies should give Citeh a workout
Fulham v Southampton
Port Vale or Bristol City v Sunderland
Newcastle v Manchester City
Leeds United v Norwich City
Mansfield Town v Arsenal
Wolves v Liverpool
Wrexham v Chelsea
West Ham v Macclesfield or Brentford
At least the Geordies should give Citeh a workout
Now as you all know I'm not one to complain, especially when Arsenal are concerned 
but the disallowed goal for 2-2 has got to be the softest "push" I've ever seen given. Would it have changed the result, who knows but it was a piss take. With effectively our reserve team on the pitch I was fully expecting to lose, but still. Strange how VAR can intervene when something isn't spotted by the ref, but cannot be scrutinised when it is?!
but the disallowed goal for 2-2 has got to be the softest "push" I've ever seen given. Would it have changed the result, who knows but it was a piss take. With effectively our reserve team on the pitch I was fully expecting to lose, but still. Strange how VAR can intervene when something isn't spotted by the ref, but cannot be scrutinised when it is?!As a neutral, that was NEVER a foul. The ref should have given the goal and laughed at Gabriel…..then booked him.
I suspect Arsenal would still have won, but that being disallowed and them scoring the third so soon after killed the game.
There was a lot more contact when Ekitike had his hands on Romero's(?) back for his goal that was given earlier in the season.
It can't be legit and Gabriel's is a foul.
The only consistent thing about the refereeing in the PL is how **** it is.
I suspect Arsenal would still have won, but that being disallowed and them scoring the third so soon after killed the game.
There was a lot more contact when Ekitike had his hands on Romero's(?) back for his goal that was given earlier in the season.
It can't be legit and Gabriel's is a foul.
The only consistent thing about the refereeing in the PL is how **** it is.
lejackal
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"Neutral" my arse
It's definitely soft as you like.
On the same topic though, I genuinely have no clue what the rules are regarding grappling/pushing/pulling/blocking - they must be the most inconsistently reffed rules in the game.
It's definitely soft as you like.
On the same topic though, I genuinely have no clue what the rules are regarding grappling/pushing/pulling/blocking - they must be the most inconsistently reffed rules in the game.
I am the definition of neutrality.
I hate every ****** equally. I don't discriminate. Unless you are Utd, in which case you are worse than a mass murdering drug dealing paedo!
Agreed on the grappling thing. That game last night was a piss poor advert for the PL, neither side deserved a point, let-alone three, and Everton's tactics from corners wouldn't have looked out of place on rugby pitch. I can only assume they have been watching Arsenal
I hate every ****** equally. I don't discriminate. Unless you are Utd, in which case you are worse than a mass murdering drug dealing paedo!
Agreed on the grappling thing. That game last night was a piss poor advert for the PL, neither side deserved a point, let-alone three, and Everton's tactics from corners wouldn't have looked out of place on rugby pitch. I can only assume they have been watching Arsenal
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The grappling would stop instantly if they reffed the corner set up like they would the match.
Things they could implement:
Pushing an attacker - corner upgraded to indirect free kick in the box. Pushing a defender - corner reversed to a free kick. Pushing the keeper - corner reversed and yellow card.
No attacking players allowed in the 6 yard box
Things they could implement:
Pushing an attacker - corner upgraded to indirect free kick in the box. Pushing a defender - corner reversed to a free kick. Pushing the keeper - corner reversed and yellow card.
No attacking players allowed in the 6 yard box
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Can't relegate us, can't be having to come up with some convoluted plan to steal spurs league spot again
Gotta be happy with that CL draw, Arsenal wont get an "easier" run to a semi than that. Though they do have a long history of losing in the first knock out round of European competition.
Easier initial draw for Pool (Atleti being the alternative) but Psg/Chelsea in the next round isn't ideal. Then City/Real or Bayern.
City should have too much for Real, but the latter are the jammiest fuckers in CL history, so….
Tough ties for Chelsea, Newcastle (Barca) and Spuds (Atleti).
An all English semi final line up is still, on paper, possible.
Easier initial draw for Pool (Atleti being the alternative) but Psg/Chelsea in the next round isn't ideal. Then City/Real or Bayern.
City should have too much for Real, but the latter are the jammiest fuckers in CL history, so….
Tough ties for Chelsea, Newcastle (Barca) and Spuds (Atleti).
An all English semi final line up is still, on paper, possible.
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Real vs Barca final.
Anyone care to try and explain the difference between the pushes in Spurs' game against Arsenal last weekend and the one in the Fulham game today? The only consistency is that Spurs lost out on both occasions, I thought things like this were supposed to even out!? 
I always said you needed a lot of luck to win the league, apparently the same goes for avoiding relegation
I always said you needed a lot of luck to win the league, apparently the same goes for avoiding relegation
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Bat **** crazy owner I think is the root cause of your issues
Random thoughts on the weekend's football.
1) Villa are gonna **** away a CL spot in the league, again, this year. They should win the EL and get in that way though.
2) The PL has a massive issue with inconsistency regarding what constitutes a shove/push and what doesn't. The Ekitike goal against Spurs and the Gabriel dive (let's call it what it was) also against Spurs, CAN NOT BOTH BE CORRECT. I admit to bias here, but the Ekitike goal was fine for me, contact, but not enough for a foul especially on a big CB. The Gabriel one was an utter nonsense. PGMOL should have apologized for that mistake and ref/VAR stood down. Then this weekend Cunha gets a penalty for looks like utterly minimal contact, the guts of which was outside the box. It's a ******* contact sport, you are allowed to touch people. Yet in the Arsenal Chelsea game very corner was like a Royale Rumble. Both sides as guilty as each other, I'm not picking on Arsenal here. The Utd Everton game was worse. How can the Cunha brush, it was never a tug, warrant a penalty (the red card bit is academic here) yet at a corner you can bear hug anyone and the referees do nothing. Either it's open season and the new rules are taken from the WWE, or Refs need to grow a set and start handing out multiple penalties and cards for holding, grappling at corners.
Personally. I want the latter. If I wanted to watch wrestling, I would watch wrestling. I guarantee you, after a week when 10 or 15 penalties are awarded, the grapplings and blocking off stops.
That Utd Everton game was abysmal, Everton just hoofed corners onto Lammens and hoped it would hit someone and fly in. That's not even Fat Sam football, that's actually worse. Then we got Arsenal Chelsea yesterday. Two of the best and most expensive/valuable sides in the world. Dear god that was ******* *****. Neither side had a clue how to try and score, Chelsea were marginally better. Arsenal, **** me. Seriously, that was embarrassing. Look at that team and squad and tell me why the ONLY way you know how to score is from a set piece? That team should be carving sides open at will. Maybe not in the free flowing way early Klopp or Pep sides did, but like Chelsea did during Mourinho's first stint. Solid at the back and lethal going forward. Instead they are utterly bereft of ideas. Sideways passes between CB's on the halfway line then a punt forward to try win a corner and let the WWE **** start.
I like Arsenal, that should probably be "liked", as a club. They have always played, or tried to play, decent football. They haven't employed too many ******s...........until Thomas Partey (and YES you ******* knew what he was like Arsenal, don't try and deny it. Everyone knew). But this iteration of them play some of the worst football I have ever seen. Not just in the PL, I mean ever. It really is horrendous. Arteta should be ashamed. Those resources, that quality of player and week in week out you produce that eye gougingly bad *****.
I get that you can't play beautiful tiki taka stuff every week, but when was the last time an Arsenal game was a good watch for a neutral? Two years ago, more?
3) As above, Cunha dived. NEVER enough contact for a penalty and the red card was ridiculous. It may be correct "as per the letter of the law" but look at that incident and tell me that deserves a penalty and a red card. Then watch a corner in any game and tell me you don't see 6 or 7 players (on both sides) doing worse and getting away without even a telling off.
4) Spurs are bang in trouble.
5) The CL "race" (more like 'tallest dwarf gets it') is going to be very tight between Villa, Utd, Pool and Chelsea. Three should get in. Unless English sides have the mother of all nightmares in the next round of European comps, but it's gonna be tight.
6) Bring back Amorim. **** Utd were better.
7) Salah is off to Saudi this summer. His legs have gone and he is a pale shadow of what he was. Sad to see, but his days as a top striker in the PL are gone.
8) Does Eddie Howe keep his job if Newcastle finish in mid table? I know PSR limits them but their owners have loftier ambitions than mid table obscurity.
9) Whoever it is at Chelsea that signed off on spending a billion quid on players and yet decided Robert ******* Sanchez is good enough keeper, should be shot. He is hands down the worst keeper in the league, and I include back up keepers, reserve team keepers, youth team players, and hell even women's blind team keepers. He has never looked like a PL standard keeper, and he starts every week for a club who spent a billion Pounds assembling a team. If Arsenal and Chelsea had swapped keepers at KO, Chelsea would have won. Fair play to Raya as well, he is looking better than I previously gave him credit for.
10) Declan Rice should have conceded a penalty right before Chelsea scored. This isn't a rant at Arsenal, more at incompetent officiating. The VAR said "he was in physical contact" ehhh, yeah! He is bear hugging whoever it was for Chelsea and stopping him from jumping. That's a foul! Regardless of that, HE initiates the contact and is the one doing most of it. That in no way excuses him arming the ball away. It was a penalty and ******* poor by VAR, again.
VAR's issue isn't the technology or the time it takes, it's the fact the same morons who **** up week in week out are the ones who are using it. We don't need the BS "someone who has played the game" person to do it, we need any fan with a double digit IQ and an ability to be impartial. The refs have shown time and time again, they are incapable of doing it.
11) Don't count Brentford out the the top 5/6/7 race. They were an utter shambles early in the season but Keith Andrews has got them playing well and their run in from here is very very nice. I would put money on they making europe next year. They should be very disappointed if they don't.
1) Villa are gonna **** away a CL spot in the league, again, this year. They should win the EL and get in that way though.
2) The PL has a massive issue with inconsistency regarding what constitutes a shove/push and what doesn't. The Ekitike goal against Spurs and the Gabriel dive (let's call it what it was) also against Spurs, CAN NOT BOTH BE CORRECT. I admit to bias here, but the Ekitike goal was fine for me, contact, but not enough for a foul especially on a big CB. The Gabriel one was an utter nonsense. PGMOL should have apologized for that mistake and ref/VAR stood down. Then this weekend Cunha gets a penalty for looks like utterly minimal contact, the guts of which was outside the box. It's a ******* contact sport, you are allowed to touch people. Yet in the Arsenal Chelsea game very corner was like a Royale Rumble. Both sides as guilty as each other, I'm not picking on Arsenal here. The Utd Everton game was worse. How can the Cunha brush, it was never a tug, warrant a penalty (the red card bit is academic here) yet at a corner you can bear hug anyone and the referees do nothing. Either it's open season and the new rules are taken from the WWE, or Refs need to grow a set and start handing out multiple penalties and cards for holding, grappling at corners.
Personally. I want the latter. If I wanted to watch wrestling, I would watch wrestling. I guarantee you, after a week when 10 or 15 penalties are awarded, the grapplings and blocking off stops.
That Utd Everton game was abysmal, Everton just hoofed corners onto Lammens and hoped it would hit someone and fly in. That's not even Fat Sam football, that's actually worse. Then we got Arsenal Chelsea yesterday. Two of the best and most expensive/valuable sides in the world. Dear god that was ******* *****. Neither side had a clue how to try and score, Chelsea were marginally better. Arsenal, **** me. Seriously, that was embarrassing. Look at that team and squad and tell me why the ONLY way you know how to score is from a set piece? That team should be carving sides open at will. Maybe not in the free flowing way early Klopp or Pep sides did, but like Chelsea did during Mourinho's first stint. Solid at the back and lethal going forward. Instead they are utterly bereft of ideas. Sideways passes between CB's on the halfway line then a punt forward to try win a corner and let the WWE **** start.
I like Arsenal, that should probably be "liked", as a club. They have always played, or tried to play, decent football. They haven't employed too many ******s...........until Thomas Partey (and YES you ******* knew what he was like Arsenal, don't try and deny it. Everyone knew). But this iteration of them play some of the worst football I have ever seen. Not just in the PL, I mean ever. It really is horrendous. Arteta should be ashamed. Those resources, that quality of player and week in week out you produce that eye gougingly bad *****.
I get that you can't play beautiful tiki taka stuff every week, but when was the last time an Arsenal game was a good watch for a neutral? Two years ago, more?
3) As above, Cunha dived. NEVER enough contact for a penalty and the red card was ridiculous. It may be correct "as per the letter of the law" but look at that incident and tell me that deserves a penalty and a red card. Then watch a corner in any game and tell me you don't see 6 or 7 players (on both sides) doing worse and getting away without even a telling off.
4) Spurs are bang in trouble.
5) The CL "race" (more like 'tallest dwarf gets it') is going to be very tight between Villa, Utd, Pool and Chelsea. Three should get in. Unless English sides have the mother of all nightmares in the next round of European comps, but it's gonna be tight.
6) Bring back Amorim. **** Utd were better.
7) Salah is off to Saudi this summer. His legs have gone and he is a pale shadow of what he was. Sad to see, but his days as a top striker in the PL are gone.
8) Does Eddie Howe keep his job if Newcastle finish in mid table? I know PSR limits them but their owners have loftier ambitions than mid table obscurity.
9) Whoever it is at Chelsea that signed off on spending a billion quid on players and yet decided Robert ******* Sanchez is good enough keeper, should be shot. He is hands down the worst keeper in the league, and I include back up keepers, reserve team keepers, youth team players, and hell even women's blind team keepers. He has never looked like a PL standard keeper, and he starts every week for a club who spent a billion Pounds assembling a team. If Arsenal and Chelsea had swapped keepers at KO, Chelsea would have won. Fair play to Raya as well, he is looking better than I previously gave him credit for.
10) Declan Rice should have conceded a penalty right before Chelsea scored. This isn't a rant at Arsenal, more at incompetent officiating. The VAR said "he was in physical contact" ehhh, yeah! He is bear hugging whoever it was for Chelsea and stopping him from jumping. That's a foul! Regardless of that, HE initiates the contact and is the one doing most of it. That in no way excuses him arming the ball away. It was a penalty and ******* poor by VAR, again.
VAR's issue isn't the technology or the time it takes, it's the fact the same morons who **** up week in week out are the ones who are using it. We don't need the BS "someone who has played the game" person to do it, we need any fan with a double digit IQ and an ability to be impartial. The refs have shown time and time again, they are incapable of doing it.
11) Don't count Brentford out the the top 5/6/7 race. They were an utter shambles early in the season but Keith Andrews has got them playing well and their run in from here is very very nice. I would put money on they making europe next year. They should be very disappointed if they don't.
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Some interesting points there. I obviously can't give a fair appraisal of Arsenal (I don't watch their games) but I have definitely noticed their popularity with neutrals has nose dived, as you say they used to be the team that played beautiful football, now it's American Football / wrestling apparently. Maybe hate is just the price of success, assuming they win it. And it's always puzzled me why everyone hates Spurs, the team that never win anything!
Is Eddie Howe doing a bad job? Difficult one, there's so little separating the middle ten clubs, and even the top five (well three of them anyway) change on a weekly basis. IMO it's harsh to sack anyone who's not on a clear downward trajectory (yes Thomas Frank I'm looking at you) and Newcastle have punched well above their weight in recent seasons.
Are Spurs really in trouble? The papers think so and it's not looking great for sure, but they haven't actually been in the relegation zone yet (in fact I'm pretty sure Arsenal have been in the relegation zone more recently than Spurs, granted early on in a season.) Wolves are ****** but I'd be much more worried if I was a West Ham or Forest fan, Spurs might just scrape through this season by being the least ****. Which is ironic because looking at recent form the champion is going to be decided the same way
And VAR, sigh...
Is Eddie Howe doing a bad job? Difficult one, there's so little separating the middle ten clubs, and even the top five (well three of them anyway) change on a weekly basis. IMO it's harsh to sack anyone who's not on a clear downward trajectory (yes Thomas Frank I'm looking at you) and Newcastle have punched well above their weight in recent seasons.
Are Spurs really in trouble? The papers think so and it's not looking great for sure, but they haven't actually been in the relegation zone yet (in fact I'm pretty sure Arsenal have been in the relegation zone more recently than Spurs, granted early on in a season.) Wolves are ****** but I'd be much more worried if I was a West Ham or Forest fan, Spurs might just scrape through this season by being the least ****. Which is ironic because looking at recent form the champion is going to be decided the same way
And VAR, sigh...
Ehh, yes! And, ehh no.
They are 2 places and 4 points above the drop zone, that's definitely "in trouble"!
Arguably it's 5 points as their GD is 15 better than WH's and 10 better than Forest's. With ten games to go I would much rather be in Spurs position than Forest or WH's, but that's not to say Spurs position would be comfortable.
Spurs have 29 pts from 28 games, as near as makes no difference, a point a game. Roll that on over the last 10 games and you end up with 39 pts. The theory always is 40 points is enough, but in the last few years it has been a lot less. Often as low as 34. So, if they keep going like they have all season they SHOULD be ok. To add a bit more detail to that, for WH to catch them the would need to get 14 pts (15 if we allow for the GD difference). That's five wins. From 10 games. That's a big ask, especially as they have won six of their previous 28. Again, you would assume Spurs are safe enough there. But, **** gets weird at the end of the season. We all remember WBA pulling a miracle out of the hat, ditto Everton way back when, or Leicester the year before they won it. Teams can and do go on great runs when the pressure is on. They also choke and implode. Even if WH do go on a great run and match the 39/40 pts Spurs are on course for that won't send Spurs down unless Forest also close a 2 pt gap. That is a lot more feasible. It literally just takes 1 **** VAR or refereeing decision or someone to have a worldy/nightmare and turn the game. Think Robert Sanchez against Arsenal last weekend.
Can I see WH AND Forest closing the gap o Spurs, hhhhmmmm. Not sure I can. But, I would be sitting very uncomfortably if I was a Spurs fan/player.
I had a quick look at the remaining fixtures and doesn't seem to be a huge amount in it. I think WH have more of the "big" sides to play but there isn't a big difference. It's tricky at this time of the season as you can't really look at the fixtures and go "City/Arsenal/Pool/Chelsea (A) they'll lose that," or "Wolves (H) they'll win that" as form goes out the window. Ok, I would expect City and Arsenal to win any game against the bottom 6 right now, yes Arsenal drew with Wolves but in the run in, my money would be on the top 2. Pool, Chelsea and Utd have been so inconsistent (ie *****) this season you don't know WTF to expect. They could duff a bottom 6 side or play like the part time headless chickens they are and lose. Add to that the fact teams down at the bottom know what is at stake and sometime you get weird results, Wolves and Arsenal again. Also, the top sides sometimes have European distractions (not Utd, lol). Thus a game between the two legs of a CL quarter or semi can be a lot easier against one of those sides as they rest players.
By the same token teams at the bottom are scrapping for their lives, so what on paper would look like 3 points, Arsenal at Wolves again, sometimes is a lot harder than you would expect.
Really in a run in you wnat games against sides with nothing to play for. Given the PL will get 5 CL spots this year, bar a disaster, and City/Arsenal are in the Fizzy cup final, there are 2 extra european spots on offer via the league. Plus Villa/Forest and Palace could all secure European footy by winning their respective European competitions. you're really looking for games against mid to lower mid table sides who are already on the beach and phoning in the performances. Or a CL side who have a two legged knock out game either side of your match.
It may come down to games between the sides down there. Spurs vs Forest (22nd March), WH vs Wolves (11th April ), Forest vs Burnley (18th April), Wolves vs Spurs (25th April), Spurs vs Leeds (9th May), WH vs Leeds (24th May). A win in any of those games is a double boost, 3pts and one less 'winnable' game for the sides round you.
Are Spurs in trouble? yeah, for me they are. I suspect they will stay up as much because there are worse sides than because of anything they do on the pitch, but I wouldn't be hugely surprised if they went down either.
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Foul on Cunha was a foul, it's a contact sport but you can't impede a player in any way who's through on goal and the foul continued into the box, stupid defending. If it had happened up the other end I would have been annoyed, but also would have been annoyed with the defender. If that foul had happened on the half way line it would have been a foul and a yellow card, so not really sure what all the fuss is about.
As for it being straight red as well, I've been saying for years they need to look at red cards in football, they are dished out for stupid reasons which quit often completely ruins the spectacle half way through the first half. Sin bins and forced substitutions would be a better way of dealing with it.
As for it being straight red as well, I've been saying for years they need to look at red cards in football, they are dished out for stupid reasons which quit often completely ruins the spectacle half way through the first half. Sin bins and forced substitutions would be a better way of dealing with it.
