EPL 2022 / 2023

It's nice that two London clubs have started well so that things don't look over already, but

City buying Erling Haaland is fucking outrageous. Scores again this morning to get City a win. He's played for City six times and he's already scored 10 fucking goals.

They'll score 100 in the league this year so everyone else can kiss their ass. I wonder how they'll fuck up the Champs League though?

Liverpool scored an 89th minute winner to avoid a long break of "club in crisis" articles. Which papers over that they look a bit fucked. Chelsea aren't doing much better, but sacking their manager was fucking ridiculous.

Haaland has 13 goals across 8 EPL and UCL games. If he plays 50 games this season that's 81 goals at his current rate - surely he can't keep that up.

My new favourite thing is watching Trent Alexander-Arnold defend - or rather jog back looking disinterested and then not spot the danger when he is actually back in the box. He lays as if they have is a wingback with 3 central defenders. The problem teams have is being able to cope with Liverpool's relentless press to exploit their obvious weakness.

Did you see Marcus Edwards (ex-Spurs youth) playjng for Sporting against Spurs? He almost scored a goal that was Maradona-esque and would have been replayed for years had it gone in - it deflected off the inside of a Lloris foot to go narrowly wide.

It's extra insane that city on paid about £50m for him when you look at some of the other moves. Without that release clause he probably goes for closer to 100.

If he can stay fit (from memory he had a few issues with Dortmund) he's the next Messi/Ronaldo. Now that he has city's quality feeding him he's unstoppable.

One month into the season and the question is who can stop Manchester City and Haaland?

In the League, no one I suspect unless they suffer a number of injuries. Arsenal have best team in years. They have a chance to beat Liverpool for 2nd place. Not much between Chelsea, Man Utd and Tottenham so it's going to be a tough battle between the Top 6 for the four UCL places.

In the UCL, I think City will have a more difficult time. PSG have started well. Real Madrid and Bayern Munich have strong squad. Liverpool will be a handful across two legs in the last 16.

@Cyclops said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

It's extra insane that city on paid about £50m for him when you look at some of the other moves. Without that release clause he probably goes for closer to 100.

If he can stay fit (from memory he had a few issues with Dortmund) he's the next Messi/Ronaldo. Now that he has city's quality feeding him he's unstoppable.

City actually made a profit of 69 million in the recent transfer window, selling Sterling, Zhinchenko & Jesus plus a host of unknowns who netted a total of 50 million between them. Chelsea spent 223 million even with selling Werner for a cool 20 million quid loss.

Watching MC vs MU. The latter totally and utterly outclassed. Haaland scoring yet again but De Bruyn and Foden have been excellent. United need to get rid of a heap of players starting with wage bill Ronaldo.

Man City looked scary good in the 1st half. Watching Man U supporters walking out of the stadium before HT was funny.

I can't see any other team winning the title this year.

@Bovidae Tree consecutive home game hat-tricks Haaland might just get them the Champions League title Citeh crave.

Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs, United, Chelsea fighting for 2-4

@dogmeat How about this?

@Bovidae

He's a phenomenon

2nd best striker in the EPL without a doubt

That "front 5" of Haaland supplied by Silva, de Bruyne, Foden, Grealish is close to unstoppable unless you park the bus and even then Haaland can score ugly goals as well. Unless injury strikes, I can't see any other team being as consistent as City and their system means that they can cope with absences if they have to. Given Liverpool have already conceded a 10 point lead to City in 8 games they look out of it unless City collapse.

Notts County have Macauley Langstaff with 15 goals in 11 games - that's a decent strike rate - no doubt a team higher up will be sniffing around him.

@dogmeat said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

@Bovidae Tree consecutive home game hat-tricks Haaland might just get them the Champions League title Citeh crave.

Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs, United, Chelsea fighting for 2-4

Never took you for Irish…

@KiwiPie said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

Notts County have Macauley Langstaff with 15 goals in 11 games - that's a decent strike rate - no doubt a team higher up will be sniffing around him.

You will need him to have his goal scoring boots on for your top of the tale clash against Wrexham on Wednesday morning. The table toppers have knocked in 31 goals in their 11 games so are no strangers to finding the back of the net. Their defense is pretty miserly too with just the nine having crept past their keeper so you will have to be accurate at both ends of the field at Meadow Lane to leapfrog them into top spot - good luck.

@Billy-Tell my real name is feoil ghob

@Higgins said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

@KiwiPie said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

Notts County have Macauley Langstaff with 15 goals in 11 games - that's a decent strike rate - no doubt a team higher up will be sniffing around him.

You will need him to have his goal scoring boots on for your top of the tale clash against Wrexham on Wednesday morning. The table toppers have knocked in 31 goals in their 11 games so are no strangers to finding the back of the net. Their defense is pretty miserly too with just the nine having crept past their keeper so you will have to be accurate at both ends of the field at Meadow Lane to leapfrog them into top spot - good luck.

It's a pretty big game in the division with both teams going well and only the top team guaranteed to go up. Getting nervous already

@dogmeat said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

@Bovidae

He's a phenomenon

2nd best striker in the EPL without a doubt

Did Mitrovic pick up a serious injury at the weekend?

@KiwiPie He picked up an injury against Sweden and played with his calf and ankle heavily strapped against Norway (but still scored the winning goal his 50th for Serbia). He limped off on Saturday and there has been no real news from Fulham since.

The club have been pretty open about injuries to the likes of Wilson and Salomon this season so I am hopeful his substitution was preventative. Writing was on the wall by that stage. Newcastle were going to win so why run the risk. October is crucial for Fulham as we have a run of winnable games that could see us go a long way towards securing our place in the Premiership. Despite what some say we are not a one man team but we still wouldn't want to lose a guy that has been banging in goals at just under one a match for the last 18 months.

It is amusing how quickly the conversation has pivoted from Mitrovic can't score in the EPL to Fulham are nothing without his goals.

Current goals scored table

Arsenal 20
Tottenham 19
Liverpool 18
Rest of Man City 15
Brentford 15
Erling Haaland 14
Brighton 14
Fulham 13
Newcastle 12
Man U 11

Fucking cheat code. And also awesome to watch. I sorta want him to just run rough-shod all over the comp and set records galore

@mariner4life I first remember seeing Haaland at the 2019 U20 WC, where he won the golden boot with 9 goals (all scored against Honduras). He didn't score against NZ, who won 2-0. Take that Erling!

Haaland has been incredibly well managed. Could probably have gone to a big club from Molde, but chose Salzburg. Could then have gone to a massive club but chose Dortmund. Contrast that with countryman Ødegaard who went to Real Madrid at 15.

Makes me feel old though. I remember when his dad was assaulted by Roy Keane. That was nasty.

@mariner4life said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

@Rancid-Schnitzel said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

That was nasty

struggling to think of a worse act on a sports field. Especially from someone of that profile. Especially when he fully admitted it was intentional.

New thread challenge accepted.

As I know all of you care about Tier 5 of English football - Notts County beat Wrexham 1-0 to go top of the table in front of over 10,000. Another goal for Langstaff who now has 16 in 12 games.

@KiwiPie i at least can confirm i'm interested, all aspects, Wimbledon were there not long ago...chance we'll be there again (although we did get our second win of 2022 on the weekend) plus all the aspects of the fan ownership stuff

currently the fact they cant buy their way out of that league easily is one of the only things stopping more people wanting to sell out....but then the fact they cant get out also mean we'll do anything to stop going back there

@Kiwiwomble said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

@KiwiPie i at least can confirm i'm interested, all aspects, Wimbledon were there not long ago...chance we'll be there again (although we did get our second win of 2022 on the weekend) plus all the aspects of the fan ownership stuff

currently the fact they cant buy their way out of that league easily is one of the only things stopping more people wanting to sell out....but then the fact they cant get out also mean we'll do anything to stop going back there

Turn your ground back into the venue for the car boot sale and you might make some money.

@Crucial it was a great market! we probably still could in the areas around the ground

@Kiwiwomble said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

@Crucial it was a great market! we probably still could in the areas around the ground

I “rented “ old bikes from there for a while. I say rented as every now and then I would have to repurchase it after it got flogged from outside Tescos. £20 every couple of months was a reasonable price

@Crucial :cat_face_with_tears_of_joy:

was going to say the last time i went was the early nineties and maybe it was more reputable then....but i also remember dad talking about geezers selling stuff out the back of the truck....so i might not

@Kiwiwomble said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

@KiwiPie i at least can confirm i'm interested, all aspects, Wimbledon were there not long ago...chance we'll be there again (although we did get our second win of 2022 on the weekend) plus all the aspects of the fan ownership stuff

currently the fact they cant buy their way out of that league easily is one of the only things stopping more people wanting to sell out....but then the fact they cant get out also mean we'll do anything to stop going back there

I wonder if it would be better for all teams if it was 4 up, 4 down between League 2 and the National League. One disastrous season and you can fall out of L2 and it is a really hard division to get out of given the number of ex-league clubs fighting each other every season.

@KiwiPie Would that help though as you would still have just as many clubs coming down so effectively it would still be as much of a shit fight.

Looking at the teams that are currently in the National League there are a lot who have played in the Football League but most briefly.

I guess you all want to emulate Luton or Rotherham. At least there is automatic promotion. There were some decent non-league teams prior to 1986 who never got the chance to go up.

@Rancid-Schnitzel so good

look, i'm just happy someone on a sports show actually had a strong opinion

but holy shit that was an awful take. The price alone meant 15 goals would have been an amazing season

the fact he's got 14 after 8...

that guy should be shown that clip every single week.

Impressive.

@Bovidae Pretty good - Swiss education system is very good hence his English is superb as well.

@KiwiPie said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

@Bovidae Pretty good - Swiss education system is very good hence his English is superb as well.

Born in the same village as my wife. He’s a keeper that one

@Billy-Tell said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

@KiwiPie said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

@Bovidae Pretty good - Swiss education system is very good hence his English is superb as well.

Born in the same village as my wife. He’s a keeper that one

i thought he was a defender?

@KiwiPie said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

@Bovidae Pretty good - Swiss education system is very good hence his English is superb as well.

Cue Harry Kane joke.

@KiwiPie Obviously concentrating on the league!

@Higgins We did have our best 2 players on the bench but that is an embarrassing result! Comes to something when even non league teams don't take the cup seriously.

Big win for Liverpool this morning which benefits both the North London clubs.

@KiwiPie They're only two tiers below you, aren't they?

Not like; say - a Premier League Team losing to Crawley Town ...

A lucky win for Arsenal at Leeds, which had plenty of drama. First there was a 40 min delay to the game shortly after kickoff due to a local power cut. Arsenal had the better of the 1st half so deserved to be leading due to Saka's goal. But the 2nd half was all Leeds. They dominated possession and had numerous chances to equalise, none more so than the penalty. Then Gabriel gets sent off for a kick on Bamford, which VAR rightly overturned as Bamford pushed him over leading to the clumsy contact. Ramsdale was huge.

These are the tricky away fixtures you need to win if you want to make the top 4.