Premier League 25/26 Thread

[weasel]

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.

Foul? He barely touched him. I'm not sure gently brushing his shoulder counts as "impeding" him. The clip I have seen makes it look like a dive. Even Mark Goldbridge is calling it a dive.
If that's a foul, every tackle is a foul and every corner Arsenal get should result in 6 red cards. That Everton Utd game would have been abandoned after 20 mins cos there was no one left on the pitch.

 

[weasel]

That pretty much sums Liverpool up

 

[edd_jedi]

You need more corners

 

[theforceuk]

Mark Goldbridge doesn't know what a foul is either.

 

[weasel]

I know, he's a Utd fan. That lot know FA.

I think you're definitely in trouble now @edd_jedi, 1 point above the drop and a game in hand (Palace tomorrow)

 

[Cazza]

View attachment 202568
That pretty much sums Liverpool up

It sure does. Put 5 past us when we played really well- first time I can remember us having higher possession, passes and (in more recent times) xG against Liverpool, let alone at Anfield, yet you still put 5 past us. It made a close game look like a thrashing. Then, absolutely dominate Wolves and manage to lose! Typical!

 

[Cazza]

Foul? He barely touched him. I'm not sure gently brushing his shoulder counts as "impeding" him. The clip I have seen makes it look like a dive. Even Mark Goldbridge is calling it a dive.
If that's a foul, every tackle is a foul and every corner Arsenal get should result in 6 red cards. That Everton Utd game would have been abandoned after 20 mins cos there was no one left on the pitch.

I agree, never enough in it for a foul. However, this is the sort of thing Salah used to get penalties for all the time.

 

[theforceuk]

It was a foul you can't put your hand over the top of a players shoulder and grab the chest when a player is running through on goal. Soft or whatever the defender is asking for trouble. Arms and hands are used to tackle in Rugby. What a surprise a Liverpool fan and a West Ham fan agree that the penalty that won Man Utd a game wasn't a penalty.

 

[weasel]

Ehhh ok. So, if I follow your logic next time anyone gets a corner or a throw in within 30 yards of the box then all grappling will instantly be penalised and a penalty or free kick given, as that is hell of a lot worse than brushing someone's shirt?

My rant isn't against Utd per se. More the **** officials. If that was Bournemouth or Palace I would be saying the same. The fact it was Utd means it is more high profile. There is just no way that a slight shirt brush is a penalty yet a Royal Rumble at set pieces is fine. It's the inconsistency that bugs me the most. The latter needs to be stamped out. The former also. Diving is diving.

It was never a foul. Contact does not equal a foul. Just cos it's your team doesn't mean you can't admit you were a tad lucky. I have no issue agree with @Cazza that Mo Salah goes down very/too easily. Too many players do these days, at all clubs. But a minimal shirt ruffle is never a reason for a guy to go down, especially not with his legs flailing. All academic anyway, the penalty was given, they aint gonna change their minds cos we/I disagree.

I have seen none of it, but it sounds like that Arsenal game last night was another case of 'winning ugly'. The BBC write up even goes as far as saying that statement is an insult to ugly.
I did check the score at HT and laugh. Bright had thirty six times Arsenal's XG..........ok it was 0.36 to 0.01......but, Arsenal were 1-0 up.

I admit there is a degree of envy in my slagging of Arsenal. I would love Pool to be where Arsenal are, and if we are honest most of us would happily take their brand of football if it meant our sides were having the season they are having. But **** me, that is a horrible horrible brand of football. What annoys me the most is that is NOT a GBH squad. That is a bloody good squad, yet they play some of the least watchable football the PL has ever seen. Check the comments on any BBC article about it recently and you will see almost no one defending Arsenal (they are the poster boys of this brand of football, but by no means the only ones doing it). "The ends may justify the means" especially after three years of being bridesmaids, but when you are less enjoyable to watch than a peak Jose team......

Arsenal are now the joint most successful side from corners in PL history. Alongside the WBA side from 16-17 (Tony Pulis' time) and Oldham from the very first season of the PL 92-93. That tells you all you need to know.

@Cazza, yeah, from what i have heard about the Pool v's WH game it was very much a case of the scoreline not reflecting the balance of play. Pool were just more clinical (or "lucky" if you want).

Tonight's game for Spurs is huge. Lose that and the **** really is flying towards the fan.

 

[theforceuk]

Well yeah and a penalty is often given if it directly affects a goal scoring opportunity. It's not my fault the morons that officiate the game don't apply the rules correctly. Every season they say they're going to stop the grappling in the box and every season it gets worse.

 

[weasel]

If they start to implement the rules around grappling and blocking off like they should have, Arsenal will go down.

 

[theforceuk]

Yeah Spurs are in trouble.

 

[edd_jedi]

Yeah I guess I asked for that what was Van Der Ven thinking, but I thought the red card and penalty "double whammy" was supposed to be reserved for only the most serious offences now?

 

[theforceuk]

Red cards are ruining the spectacle, unless your Newcastle.

 

[edd_jedi]

So with my own reality setting in, here's a bit of fun, what's your personal best and worst outcomes this season? @lejackal can probably just invert mine

Best case: City, Villa or United win the league, Spurs and West Ham avoid relegation (only because I have a lot of Hammers friends, one of which I've got to spend three hours in the car with tomorrow!)
Worst case: Arsenal win the league, Spurs get relgated. I'm well aware this will also be the highlight of every Arsenal fans life if it happens.

Most likely: Arsenal win the league, Spurs just about scrape through. But it's going to be tight and we need to win probably 3 games? Or everyone else carry on losing as well.

 

[lejackal]

I've one for you, it's the last game of the season, your match with villa has been postponed to now. You need a point to survive, villa need 3 to take the title from Arsenal. Are you prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice?

 

[weasel]

Ehhh it could be worse @edd_jedi!

Arsenal will the PL, Spurs go down and then Arsenal win the CL as well. FAC/League cup don't really make much difference.

I agree on the double jeopardy for VDV, I don't get why it happens for shirt pulls but not mistimed tackles. @theforceuk THAT is what a shirt pull looks like! ;-) . It was also daft. Yer man was clean in on goal, but VDV must have known a pull was going to get him sent off. Even if Stevie Wonder was refereeing (and some of the PL refs have worse eyesight than Stevie) the VAR would have picked up on it and he was a goner.
That ten minute implosion by Spurs cost them the game. Or at least a point. I don't think it's unfair to say half time saved them. Had there been another 10 mins to play that could have been 5 or 6, they just utterly vanished.
You can't do **** like that if you actually want to stay up.

I realised I missed a trick the other day in my assessment of Spurs chances of staying up. "Form". We all know how important it is, we all remember Leicester saving themselves the year before they won the title, and other clubs pulling themselves to safety from seeming certain relegation, Fulham in Danny Murphy's day, WBA with the on pitch celebrating with the fans, Bradford 25 years ago (beating pool in the last game to cost Pool CL), etc. etc.
Spurs haven't won a PL game this year. We're in March.
That is the kind of form that takes you down.
I have no idea what WH and Forest's form looks like, but ehhh it can't be worse than Spurs.
They need to turn that around, and quickly. Though please wait until after next weekend!

Returning to my rant from earlier in the week about defending at set pieces....

"I watched and rewatched many of these incidents myself and witnessed defending players holding attacking players around the waist, and not even looking at the delivery. That's a foul, and a penalty should be awarded.
In fact, we're at the stage now where referees have to clamp down and give either penalties, or free-kicks to the defending team, if they see an offence.
We are seeing players penalised outside the box for incidents that are nowhere near as blatant as the chaos we are witnessing in the six-yard box, and around the goalkeeper - so why is a foul in one part of the pitch, not a foul in this scenario?
One of the things this chaos has led to is teams not defending properly now. Why should they, when they can get away with not even watching the cross come in?
I've heard many pundits come up with different suggestions of how we can stop this nonsense. Well, how about common sense? That tells me that if the referees start dishing out penalties and red cards, then it would not carry on."

Those words aren't mine. They are from that esteemed footballing purist and lover of Tiki Taka.......................Tony Pulis*!

If one of the biggest hoofball GBH merchants the PL has ever seen is complaining about the farcical nature of defending ("wrestling" would be a better word) at corners and set pieces then cleary something is very very wrong.

* It's from his column on the BBC football page, I assume it's ghost written as there's no way our Tony know how to spell big words like "stage" and "chaos"

 

[lejackal]

FA Cup quarter-final draw 2026[

• Southampton v Arsenal
• Chelsea v Port Vale
• Manchester City v Liverpool
• West Ham or Brentford v Leeds United

Man City drawing another small club in the cup

 

[Cazza]

• Southampton v Arsenal
• Chelsea v Port Vale
• Manchester City v Liverpool
• West Ham v Leeds United

Updated

 

[theforceuk]

West Ham got a good chance of going to Wembley, congratulations @Cazza !

 

[Cazza]

Hopefully! Mind you, a couple of years ago, we knocked out both Manchester teams, then lost to Southampton. It's the West Ham way

 

[weasel]

Yup, City continue their tradition of drawing the weakest side left, at the Etihad, and Liverpool continue their tradition of drawing PL sides.

I know who my money is on…..and they don't play in red.

 

[Gadders]

Anyone here support teams outside the Prem?
I'm an Oxford United season ticket holder, and have been for 40 years...

 

[lejackal]

Edd will be soon

 

[lejackal]

Joking aside, surely you now need to sack that guy after he's shat on your keeper like that?

 

[edd_jedi]

It was the most farcical 15 minutes of football I've ever seen but I think it was the right call, if you let in three soft goals in 15 minutes it's not going to get any better. 5-2 wasn't actually a terrible result overall, it could have been 15-0, and while unlikely a 3 goal deficit is recoverable. Also worth pointing out that:

Goals 1 and 3 were slips
Goal 4 came from a free kick given for a blatant dive (how can that not be reviewed by VAR when it created a goal scoring opportunity?)
So it was actually more like 2-2

 

[weasel]

Tudor never looked like "the right man". His CV, I think I posted a picture of it a few pages back, is utterly appalling. Lo and behold, he has lived up to it. He should be sacked after last night. Even without his decision to throw in a raw inexperienced keeper and then sub him after 15 minutes. Four games, four defeats, scored 5 goals, conceded 14. **** me! My granny could do a better job, and she has been dead for 20 years.

Sometimes you can cut a manager a bit of slack if he had played, City, Arsenal and Atleti (A) then fair enough. Two bloody hard games and Atleti is never an easy place to go. But ehh take out City and add in Palace and Fulham. He can't be in charge come tonight.

If I was running Spurs he would have been sacked at FT. Well, he would never even have been considered for an interview let alone appointed, but anyway.
Whoever appointed him should also be sacked or fall on their sword. That is one of the worst appoints I've seen. Up there with Ange at Forest and that moron Celtic appointed from the American soccer-ball league. If you are able to look at his CV and think "that's the man for us" you should be nowhere near a football club.

Now watch Spurs turn into peak Barcelona for 90 mins on Sunday afternoon

 

[Cazza]

Anyone here support teams outside the Prem?
I'm an Oxford United season ticket holder, and have been for 40 years...

Forest Green are my second team. Go and watch them occasionally.

 

[theforceuk]

Well that's half the English teams out of the UCL!

 

[edd_jedi]

Yeah amazing that none managed to win despite finishing so well in the league phase. It is funny that Spurs lost because of a few stupid slips / mistakes, while City and Chelsea lost by the same margin by being completely outplayed, yet apparently we're the joke!?