The imaginatively titled Premier League 21/22 Thread

Will be interesting to see if it has any real impact on them, the fans can't really complain having literally bought trophies for the last 20 years.
 
Agreed. I suspect in a few weeks/months someone else will buy them and they will continue roughly as they did before. Possibly they won't have quite as much money to spend, but other than that, not much will change.

Mind you, I'm hoping they implode and end up in League 2 in 5 yrs.
 
I don't see it having any impact on Chelsea. The government has made it clear the actions taken are against RA. It's not in the governments interest to impede Chelsea. Someone will get a great deal on the Chelsea purchase.

They could still win the CL.
 
Good game between United and Spurs yesterday, it's a shame Ronaldo decided to turn up for the first time this year. A couple of very questionable penalty decisions, personally I don't think either should have been given as neither were deliberate, but I don't see how he gave one and not the other. It's a stupid rule that needs ditching, it's either deliberate or it's not, end of story and everyone is happy.
 
Agreed on the penalty's, can't agree on the Ronaldo comment. Not sure where Man Utd would be without Ronaldo this season. Out of the champions league and a top 4 race for sure, we haven't won this season when he hasn't started since he joined.

The Ronaldo haters who have said he's finished have been sat down, if he was in the City side they would have already given him the golden boot. Fitting that a week when the other two best number nines in the world score hat-ricks Ronaldo does as well.

The press driven negative story's on Ronaldo are what drives the perception that Ronaldo is the problem. Man Utd have been in slow decline for 9 years now, Ronaldo walks into the dressing room and tells everyone how crap they are and the standards are on the flaw and they don't like it.

2 months of the season left and who would bet against him getting 30 goals this season? When was the last time a player did that for Man Utd? I would guess Van Persie 12/13 season when we won the league by 11 points. He's on 18.
 
Really? Not sure I would class his season so far as a success. It's not been a failure, but there is a rather large area between the two. Although if you look at social media you wouldn't think it.

I don't judge Ronaldo by normal standards, cos he isn't a normal player. The guy is a freak. Judging him by his standards this season has been a bit below par. Still good enough to keep most normal PL strikers happy, but he is not normal. He's still done better than Messi at PSG mind.
I would say age is starting to catch up with him. No shame in that, it happens to everyone, and being in such a **** Utd team doesn't help him. But I struggle to see how you can argue he has shut up his critics. The best you can say is he has done 'ok' that's not gonna shut up his critics.

I gotta disagree on Utd being out of the CL without his goals too. In the literal sense, if you take his goals off, "yes" Utd would be out. BUT you are either assuming he plays the full 90 and does nothing or whoever played in his place would not have contributed anything. In the case of the latter chances are the games would have been totally different if someone else played in his place. Utd could have lost 100-0 or won 15-14, we'll never know. That's why I don't like those assumptions. Yes, he has scored some very important goals for Utd in the CL, but if he was not there the games would have been totally different. If he had played and done FA I doubt OGS would continued to pick him, so we are back to the 'someone else playing' argument.
You can't just deduct his contributions and not add any on for his replacement. Kinda like saying if DDG hadn't played you would have shipped every shot on target. In the literal sense, if you played without a keeper, you would have. But you obviously would have played Henderson who is a solid keeper and may well have saved just as many as DDG.


VAR rant time.

How the **** did the Brighton keeper stay on yesterday? Apparently VAR couldn't see any angle that showed whether there was contact. Genuinely, that is what they said. EVERY SINGLE ANGLE BT showed was crystal clear there was contact.
VAR is not the issue, the incompetent referees are the issue. If you can't watch that and see it's a crystal clear red, you shouldn't be a professional referee.

Judge for yourselves, anyone think there might have been contact here?



Also, that Harry Maguire OG, now I don't rate Harry, never have, never will, but he ONLY plays the ball cos he know the Spurs CF is there. Surely that is the definition of 'interfering with play'? As someone who knows more about footy than me once said, "If my player isn't interfering with play, what is he doing on the pitch?"
I feel dirty saying Utd shouldn't have conceded there, but that rule is utter bollocks.
 
Thats red all day. On the ITWGX* scale that's red 12 times out of ten

*If that was Granit Xhaka
 
@weasel We haven't won without him in the starting 11 since he joined. He doesn't need to shut anyone up he's the greatest goal scorer of all time, literally by most goals. My point is he simply isn't the problem at Man Utd as many journalists and football fans would argue. Any player who scores 20 plus goals in that Man Utd team is not the problem. Oh but he doesn't press oh but he's arrogant, oh but he's to old. Complete and utter crap. Any other group of players would have in braced Ronaldo and got the best out of him.

Agree on the Harry Maquire own goal. lol.
Also agree De Gea has been our player of the season, he's made more saves than any other PL goalkeeper. The argument that if Ronaldo hadn't been playing then someone else would have, er who???? Cavani is only fit when an international break is around the corner and that's it. Their is know one else. Your pretty much saying that this Man Utd team has the players to replace Ronaldo who most people would probably agree is in the top 10 players of all time. Last season we didn't have him and we ended up in the Europa league. First time we've been in the knock out stages of CL since 2017 and he's the difference this season no question.
 
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Well that's a clean sweep of **** results for Spurs this weekend, love it when that happens! :mad: things can only get better...
 
Re: Ronaldo I think the point is that football is a team sport, having one (or in United's case five or six) superstars in your team who can't play together isn't any help. Look at teams like Arsenal, West Ham, Wolves etc at the moment, on paper they barely have any big names between them, but as a unit they are playing incredibly well and one of them is almost certainly going to pinch the fourth CL spot. Spurs have the same problem as United, there's no point having the league's most dangerous attacking duo if you have the worst back line.
 
Completely agree @edd_jedi which is why I said last season a striker isn't top of the shopping list or shouldn't be. What's the point having one of the best number nines in the world if you can't get the ball to him, he's feeding off scraps all season and still has 18 goals. Nobody who watches football can argue that Ronaldo is the problem, neither is he the answer. As said before Ronaldo has bailed us out more than once this season and he's been doing it for the last 15 years at other clubs. So the argument that if he wasn't playing someone else would take his place I struggle to see. Especially when our other strikers are Cavani (never fit), Greenwood and Martial. Who all played last season and went out in the group stage of CL.
 
My point is he simply isn't the problem at Man Utd as many journalists and football fans would argue.

I agree. He's not perfect, and I don't think he can press like most teams do now, but he's pretty low down the list of problems at Utd. Your owners would be far and away the biggest problem, and the fact Utd is now run for money rather than to try and win trophies. Fat Maguire would be miles above Ronaldo on that list too, as would your lack of a DCM (or decent CM).

The argument that if Ronaldo hadn't been playing then someone else would have, er who???? Cavani is only fit when an international break is around the corner and that's it. Their is know one else. Your pretty much saying that this Man Utd team has the players to replace Ronaldo who most people would probably agree is in the top 10 players of all time. Last season we didn't have him and we ended up in the Europa league. First time we've been in the knock out stages of CL since 2017 and he's the difference this season no question.
My point was more, the second a game starts with a different player in place it becomes totally different. He will make different runs, he may drop deep when Ronaldo would have run in behind, he may track back when Ronnie didn't, or vice versa. The entire game would be different. As I said, Utd may well have won without him, you did seem to be play better a team last year than this, or you may well have lost (and by more). We will never know. Unless someone here has a time machine? In which case I have better uses for it lol.


Sounds like VAR had another stinker yesterday, Haverts could have been sent off (and would have struggled to score the winner from the dug out), Newcastle denied a fairly obvious penalty too. As before, it's not the system that is the problem, it's the piss poor refs who are working it.


Everton look to be in a world of trouble now. They have a stinking run in too. Newcastle, WH, Utd, Pool, Chelsea, Leicester, Brentford and Arsenal to play, plus games with Burnley, Leicester, Watford and Palace TBC.
There are two massive 6 pointers with Watford and Burnley, the rest you wouldn't put money on them winning. MAYBE Leicester (twice) and Palace, or Brentford, but given the form Everton are in.

I saw this stat,

Brentford - 6 points in the last 2 games
Burnley - 9 points since the start of Feb
Leeds - 10 points since the start of 2022
Norwich 7 points since Jan 15th
Watford - 7 points in the last month


Everton - 9 points since SEPTEMBER

That is appalling. They deserve to go down for that. Still, at least they listened to the fans and appoint Frank Lampard as manager, as guy who took the 4th best team in the championship to 4th in the champions, and who took European and world champions Chelsea to 9th in the PL. He is a much better choice than that other fella who had won trophies all over the world.
 
Well, that was unsurprisingly pish from Utd. You knew exactly what Atleti would do and Utd had no answer. Not hugely surprised, and TBF losing now may well save them a proper beating in the next round, but that doesn't change the fact that was a poor effort from Utd.
**** me Atleti really are a dreadful side to watch though. As soon as they go in front it's time wasting left right and centre, EVERY SINGLE player dives and rolls about the ground, they call for a card even if the "foul" was the most trivial thing and they **** stir and try and get a reaction, or react, to every little thing to break up momentum and waste more time. The antithesis of a good watch. A thoroughly dislikeable team.

I hope Pool don't get them in the knock out stages, they had them in their group and played them 2 years ago so it's someone else's turn now. Chelsea would be my choice to play them, City/Bayern will have too much for them and Benfica/Villareal will probably lose to them.
Given a choice for Pool's next opponents, I'd take Benfica/Villareal all day long. I never want to draw another English side as we see them play twice a year anyway, it's nice to play someone different. What was the stat wheeled out during the worthless cup final, that was the 74th meeting between Pool and Chelsea this millennium? That's more than 3 times a season, year in year out. It's no wonder I hate Chelsea.
I'd also prefer not to play City (if Pool draw City it will be 3 games in a row as the 2 CL Quarter finals are either side of the City Pool PL game) and Bayern for the obvious reasons. And Atleti for the reasons explained above.

City Bayern would be nice!

Also nice to see Juve hoofed out. As one of the clubs still keen on this European Super League they have been beaten in the 2nd round for the 3rd year in a row. Beaten by the European power houses of Lyon, Porto and Villareal. Slap it right up them.

As for last night's game, Arsenal can feel hard done by, they didn't deserve to lose 2-0. Martinelli made TAA look like a right footed Moreno. Arsenal maybe just lack a little cutting edge up front, but they totally dominated the first 55 minutes. That miss by Odegaard was the turning point. 5 minutes later Ramsdale (who I have never rated) leaves a big auld gap at his near post and Pool go in front. Fair do's to Arsenal and Arteta though, that team/club have improved massively and are definitely headed in the right direction. They really should get 4th from here and that should allow them to strengthen in the summer, they need a few more numbers across the park. They still have Chelsea, Utd, WH and Spurs to play. Four cup finals. The race for fourth, or the race to avoid fourth as it has looked at times, is gonna be very interesting.

No Chelsea fans at the quarter finals. I wonder will those arrogant wankers try and invoke "sporting integrity" again to claim they should be allowed fans!?
 
Never mind the race for fourth, the title race is back on! The game between City and Liverpool next month could decide it.
 
Never mind the race for fourth, the title race is back on! The game between City and Liverpool next month could decide it.
Hhmmm, my money is still massively on City, home advantage and a point lead. I think they have slightly easier games too. The title is theirs to lose. Stranger things have happened, but this City side are a class act.

Semantics and all that but I prefer "Alison save" rather than "Odegard miss" 😂

Fair one, he should have scored though
 
Great result for WH last night.

I got my wish on avoiding Atleti.
Pool Benfica with a semi for the winner against Bayern or Villareal.
Chelsea Real with the winner playing City or Atleti.
 
Fantastic from West Ham, really hope they win the Europa League.

UCL all set for a City Pool final. Bayern won't be easy in the semis, they are hard to predict as it's hard to tell how good they are. The last descent team they played was last year against PSG who spanked them.

Guess we will find out when/if they get through to play Liverpool. All English final is likely.
 
Was an amazing performance last night and the place was rocking! So pleased for Yarmo- what an impact he's had in the last two games. Lyon in the quarters looks doable, but you never know at this stage...

Yeah, agree about the UCL- could well be an all English final.
 
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