EPL 2022 / 2023

@KiwiPie They don't seem to want to refer back to the refbecause of the time it takes.

The ref in Fulham's loss at Anfield apologised to Fulham players in the second half (having had the opportunity to view the replay at half time) for awarding a penalty he shouldn't have.

Not sure why he would do that or what difference it would make. In real time on the pitch it was a fair decision. It is VAR that are supposed to have the time and multiple camera angles to get it right.

Instead they seem to decide that everything is a 50/50 call and it should stay as ref's decision. So what the hell is the point.

@Billy-Tell said in EPL 2022 / 2023:

That’s a very handy win for Everton away to Brighton.

Also for Forest..pressure squarely on Southampton, Leicester and Leeds now

@bayimports No pressure on Southampton other than working out where to stay in Rotherham next season...

Everyone's now played 35 so easier to sort out permutations

So pick two from

Leeds 19th - 30 points - Goaf Diff -25 1 point from last 5 games
Newcastle (H), West Ham (A), Tottenham (H)

Leicester 18th - 30 points -(-15) 5 points from last 5 games
Liverpool (H), Newcastle (A), West Ham (H)

Everton 17th - 32 points - (-21) 5 points from last 5 games
Man City (H), Wolves (A), Bournemouth (H)

Forest 16th 33 points - (-31) 6 points from last 5 games
Chelsea (A), Arsenal (H), Crystal Palace (A)

Today's wins massive for Forest and Everton. Can't see that may wins from these remaining 12 games so I reckon Leeds and Leicester are for the drop. Big Sam will pocket half a mill for achieving fuck all.

Their only potential lifeline is maybe West Ham drop points as they're now safe and might be focusing on Europe to try and retrieve their season.

@dogmeat said in EPL 2022 / 2023:

No pressure on Southampton other than working out where to stay in Rotherham next season...

very true, will have a close eye on the championship playoffs to see who their biggest competition will be next year.. Sunderland the big finishers with momentum, could be the smokey

Championship is Luton v Sunderland (very 1980s Division 1) and Middlesbrough v Coventry (very 1990s Premier League).

Luton is the romantic one, low budget, in the National League less than a decade ago and (like Notts County) falling out of Div 1 the season before the Premier League started.

Boro haven't been in the EPL since 2017 and Coventry since the start of the century (and also dropped into the 4th tier for a season not long ago). These 2 teams played today and drew.

Finally Sunderland dropped out of the EPL 6 years ago and dropped another level in the next season.

Suspect Boro have the best team and in Chuba Akpom a guy with 28 goals - former Arsenal player who seems to have spent seasons being loaned out and is suddenly a star.

RM vs MC is a class match.

Arsenal complete the choke by getting dumped on by Brighton at home.

@MajorRage I could enjoy that if not for the fact that Spurs are so bad, with no obvious improvement in sight. No defence, no director of football, no head coach, no hope...

@KiwiPie

Congrats on making it backing into League 2.

Glad to see your heart didn't give out. Your team certainly did everything they could to make it an even contest....

@dogmeat It was a crazy 2 play-off games - we were only ahead for 2 minutes across 240. Justice was done so I don't feel so bad for burgling 2 wins! Now to take on League 2 and continue our relentless rise to the EPL!

Good win for Fulham and good to see Chelsea a distant 3rd in the West London league.

Brighton are great to watch - having changed keepers to Jason "Balls of" Steele who loves to pass the ball with attackers swarming him. And now Arsenal can kiss Buonanotte to the Premier League title.

While I can sense the glee from those celebrating Arsenals demise hopefully, since they will be in the Champions league, unlike other high profile teams, like Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea, if will be interesting to see what they do in the offseason. Arsenal play soft and need to address the defense and midfield. Hopefully they bring in some grit and not the pretty players. They looked tired today. A couple of Roy Keane types would be good.

Also Leeds draw with Man City officially means Bournemouth now mathematically safe

i hope City win the Champions league so Pep can say "job done" and fuck off. Only then maybe someone else can win the league

They've won 12 straight to get themselves on the cusp. They are just relentless at this time of year. They last dropped points in mid-Feb to Forest of all teams, and their last loss was 2 weeks before that to Spurs.

So the loser of the 2023 Champions League Final has been found. Inter beat their flatties 3-0 on aggregate.

And Luton into the final of the Championship play-off. Pretty romantic story this one given they dropped down to the 5th tier and have one of the lowest budgets in the league. Capacity is only 10,000 and their footballing style is fairly basic, not sure how they would go in the EPL if they get there.

And you enter the stadium through someone's front door.

@KiwiPie said in EPL 2022 / 2023:

And Luton into the final of the Championship play-off. Pretty romantic story this one given they dropped down to the 5th tier and have one of the lowest budgets in the league. Capacity is only 10,000 and their footballing style is fairly basic, not sure how they would go in the EPL if they get there.

And you enter the stadium through someone's front door.
View image

Wow that's really old school!! I remember when they were in the first division back in the 80s

@KiwiPie I would love Luton to make it for the following reasons

• fairytale story
• the humour of the likes of the state owned sportswashing mega rich clubs having to go to Kenilworth Rd
• sticking it up Watford ownership who are the antithesis of the Luton model
• Let's face it they would make up the numbers in the EPL. Almost certainly assured of immediate relegation meaning Fulham only have two other sides to finish in front of. For the same reason I hope Leeds and Everton survive to 'enjoy' another season circling the relegation plughole. I reckon Forest & West Ham are more likely to get their shit together than those two.

City are O for awesome. Utterly destroying RM so far.

Modric is finished imo. Just too old and slow.

@Billy-Tell

It's injury time they have to watch out for....

Real Madrid put to the sword.

Statement performance from Citeh

Inter will have to get a papal intercession to get anything from the Final I reckon

Coventry through against Middlesborough. They or Luton will play in EPL next season

Coventry v Luton is very 1980s DIvision 1. Coventry won the FA Cup and Luton won the League Cup in the 80s. I reckon both teams/clubs are ill-equipped to survive unless they do a Forest and buy a whole new squad.

City have had so many of these performances against top tier clubs.

A true juggernaut.

Sheffield Wednesday come back from a 4-0 first leg deficit to make it to the playoff finals to get back into the championship. Pretty impressive turnaround. The playoff system is brutal for fans but my god does it produce incredible drama.

Over the last 2 weeks:

Newcastle 0 - 2 Arsenal
Arsenal 0 - 3 Brighton
Newcastle 4 - 1 Brighton

Apart from Man City winning, nothing seems a certainty.

i just love the fans of other clubs just writing City off as meaningless because they spent money. Most especially Man U, Liverpool and Chelsea fans who seem to pretend their clubs are just chock full of local juniors battling on as plucky upstarts against chequebook teams.

@mariner4life I sort of agree and disagree.

Those other clubs you mention have bucket loads of dosh by comparison to most other EPL clubs let alone those further down the pyramid. But they can't compete with a sovereign wealth fund

So yeah it is hypocritical of the other clubs to whinge, but there's what 100? questionable issues relating to FFP that are being asked of City.

Fulham's Chairman is one of the wealthiest individuals in sport but because we can't wriggle around FFP we couldn't just go out and buy success.

City buy in the world's best coach and then give him every player he wants. Grealish as back up to Foden etc and can do it because they manage to sell lucrative sponsorship deals, several of whom just happen to be based in Abu Dhabi and directly or indirectly controlled by the owner.

So like I said agree and disagree. Sympathy for those other clubs zero and as we can see from Newcastle and Man Utd fans given the chance they'd like their club to emulate City. However, that doesn't mean there isn't a stench associated with the ownership and funding of City and that football wouldn't be better off without it.

Except in playing terms of course. Watching the side in their pomp is glorious.

FFP is complete bullshit. it's not about "fairness" it's about ringfencing clubs who were lucky enough to be good when the money in sport exploded, and want to stay that way.

Fuck Man U. They were lucky to be good at the right time. Liverpool the same (without the being good in the 90s and early 2000s bit). So they get the biggest "acceptable" revenues, and what that to be the be all and end all.

@mariner4life said in EPL 2022 / 2023:

i just love the fans of other clubs just writing City off as meaningless because they spent money. Most especially Man U, Liverpool and Chelsea fans who seem to pretend their clubs are just chock full of local juniors battling on as plucky upstarts against chequebook teams.

I genuinely don’t know one single fan from any of those clubs who hold that point of view.

Almost all of us are basically jealous of Guardiola. He's clearly the difference between the clubs to have such continual success. Perhaps Liverpool fans less so, as they've had a pretty good time under Klopp, but certainly the rest of us tend to look on in awe of Pep.

Truth be told, money is a massive factor in being a successful club, but it's far from the only one. Newcastle are chock full of cash these days, but they've spent very wisely, as opposed to others.

I cannot praise Howe enough for what he's done there. Contrast it to Potter, and the difference is immense.

Speaking of Chelsea, so we've got Poch from next year. Good appointment, I think. Has proven he can manage a big club with big players, but hasn't proven that he can win anything (in the UK, at least).

@MajorRage said in EPL 2022 / 2023:

Truth be told, money is a massive factor in being a successful club, but it's far from the only one. Newcastle are chock full of cash these days, but they've spent very wisely, as opposed to others.

I cannot praise Howe enough for what he's done there.

It plays a huge factor and hopefully Bournemouth will improve next on that factor alone. As for Eddie he continues to deliver with or without a huge budget, he is a genuine elite manager in my mind. That for me is the sign of a great manager.

I may have a small bias of course come home Eddie lol

@bayimports I'm pretty sure that Eddie sees himself rehabilitating his reputation at Newcastle so that Bournemouth will have him back

This is quite an interesting page - net spend for the last 5 seasons of the teams currently in the EPL
https://www.si.com/fannation/soccer/futbol/news/all-20-epl-clubs-ranked-by-net-transfer-spend-over-last-5-seasons.

It shows City have been relatively low spenders in the transfer market in that period, making a net profit of 87M for the most recent season by selling Jesus, Sterling, Zhinchenko plus a clutch of youngsters. Not the whole story as what you pay players is maybe more important now in terms of attracting them.

@KiwiPie this would be a stat that you would only likely know If Forest somehow went down (and it might not be possible now), would that have made them the biggest spenders in one year to then go and consequently drop?

@mariner4life We can all quibble with FFP and say it's bullshit, but the fairness point comes in where there are 19(?) other clubs complying but one is not. I would be really pissed if I was Chelsea and Everton who have been / are being done for breaches of FFP rules while City exist.

I get the point about the bigger clubs using FFP as a ring fence (Euro teams like RM, BM, Barcelona actually the most likely beneficiaries of this). But, for the smaller clubs, while it does limit how much they can grow financially in any given period, it also puts a cap how big a gap there can be to the bigger clubs in any given period too.

That is nuts. Those WH fans were crazy brave

@canefan said in EPL 2022 / 2023:

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That is nuts. Those WH fans were crazy brave

Alkmaar ultras were fucking useless

@MajorRage said in EPL 2022 / 2023:

@mariner4life said in EPL 2022 / 2023:

Almost all of us are basically jealous of Guardiola. He's clearly the difference between the clubs to have such continual success. Perhaps Liverpool fans less so, as they've had a pretty good time under Klopp, but certainly the rest of us tend to look on in awe of Pep.

Pep obviously but the decision making on players coming in to the club is outstanding. They always upgrade. Get the best striker in Haarland. Offloading Jesus and Zhinchenko to Arsenal was brilliant. Did Arsenal overpay? Yes. May have helped in the short term but these players are not the basis of challenging City. Builds squad depth which Arsenal need and you can tell because Saka has had to play every game and looks tired. Whole Arsenal team looks tired for that matter. City are an amazing team and you know that if they want to they can put 3 goals on any side any day.

@bayimports Probably the biggest spenders of any promoted club. Basically they had to buy almost a full squad and then bought a few more for good luck. Lingard sitting there on 200K per week and has hardly kicked a ball.

Absolute disgusting performance by Arsenal. No urgency. No quick transitions which has been a hallmark on their game and has helped create scoring. Their stars look boring and lacking creativity. Because Forest was able to get behind the ball it was White to Partay to Saka, cuts back in, to Odegaard, Partay, White and repeat at nauseam in an umbrella. Arteta should worry less about the "Arsenal family" and their new chocolate lab and feelings and book them into the roach motel to develop some anger and get them out of their comfort zone. Kliewer at left back was a failure or he is learning to play without penetration? Tierney should have started. At least he showed some willingness to get to the byline. Jesus can not play as a point man with 2 men marking him. Just no movement and so predictable. Worried if Edu brings in more pretty players like Fabio Viera.