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Monday Football Thread
* The gap at the top of the PL WIDENS after City lose to Everton in a rather great game and Man Utd limp past Reading in the worst game in living memory.
* Villa win the 'BATTLE OF THE DROP'. Villa vs Wigan on the last day of the season should be interesting.
* McManaman is unfairly criticised after a Newcastle player leaves his knee in on a coming together.
* Samaras scores a last minute overhead kick winner, reveals himself to be a vest wearer.
* Forest continue their race to the top of the table with a 2-1 win over someone.
* Messi scores a nice goal.
AOB?
Something to do with Berbatov's intriguing promise to Martin Jol. All he wants is a day off.
That United game was fucking PAINFUL to watch.
That's all I have to say really.
Watched it in a pub in Scotland, and 99% of the other people in there were huddled around the other telly cheering on the Welsh in the rugger. Then they all fucked off and didn't stay to watch the Scotland game! Bellends.
I hate the little country syndrome the six nations inspires
Suddenly half my Facebook feed is people crowing about Wales' Grand Slam even though their only connection to Wales is that they once ate cheese on toast (and then posted about that on Facebook too).
Oh right, football. Liverpool were poor against Southampton and deserved to lose. That's all I've got for now.
it probably speaks volumes that i didn't consider that worth mentioning.
saw the MOTD highlights, Soton probably should've had 4 in the first half.
weird team, Liverpool.
:D
i love it when england lose in sports i don't follow
watching england lose is far more fun that watch scotland do anything
trust
John Terry presenting his rear to West Ham's traveling support
had something for everyone- it had John Terry presenting his rear to West Ham's traveling support, but then also John Terry's rear being pelted by a range of small objects.
To sum this post up: John Terry's rear.
haven't read anything about this
i guess all the press outrage is being used on the newcastle/wigan incident.
My favourite is the photo of a uneaten hot dog hurtling towards his arse
You can't say that and not share the photo.
I think Demba Ba must retain a huge soft-spot for West Ham. No other explanation.
If you really try
you can imagine it being fired out of his arse TOWARDS the West Ham support. Legend. Leader. Hot Dog Launcher.
It had crossed my mind about Ba. Tevez had an even more explicitly wasteful game against them earlier in the year which would have raised question marks if I was a Man City employee/anti-matchfixing official.
Chelsea looked back to their early season goodness.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/03/17/article-2294900-18BD3986000005DC-437_634x514.jpg
love how Terry looks almost photoshopped into this picture
Hate football. Fucking rubbish sport.
Can we talk about something else?
beats the shit out of rugby
That tackle wasn't *that* bad, was it?
Given the initial reaction of everyone, I was expecting to see the lad go through his knees with both feet and the ball to be nowhere in sight.
Fair enough, he led with his studs and probably could've been off, but he seemed to just misjudge the bounce of the ball rather than deliberately go for the player. I remember seeing Lee Carsley do something very similar to Chris Iwelumo a few seasons ago.
Ah well, at least its a marginally more interesting subject to debate tediously for the next few days than handballs and that.
Not really sure what you're smoking here fella. Was absolutely terrible.
The kid couldn't straighten his leg for an hour after it happened
so i'd argue actually yea it was "that" bad, deliberate or not.
You know what those foreigners are like...
It was a really bad challenge and definitely should have been a straight red
but I honestly don't think it was malicious - more an over-enthusiastic strikers' challenge. Still really nasty but I think reckless rather than evil.
I don't know why these issues always get bogged down in deciding whether or not there was malice. It was reckless and dangerous, and could easily have broken the guys leg. That alone is good enough for a ban. Intent can never really be proven except in cases of batshit mentalists like Roy Keane bragging about it in print.
Yeah, it's still a bad tackle and a sending off and that
But when people start going nuts about it as though it was a deliberate act to try and hurt someone is annoying.
Yeah I think recklessness is only marginally better than malice though.
Either way that challenge was completely unnecessary and intent or not he's made no effort to pull out of it. Definite ban for me.
^ Ban request
Exactly.
I'm not claiming it shouldn't be a ban but it does affect how people react to him. It's probably pretty horrific for a young lad on his debut to know that he's caused a serious injury - far, far worse to know that people are accusing you of doing it on purpose.
I mean every time there's a horrific tackle everyone goes into this Daily Mail outrage witch hunt mode where they need to find some words to express just how evil the person who did this tackle is but I suspect the number of people who'd deliberately break someone's leg are pretty few and far between. Injuries happen in football and people do stupid things on the spur of the moment that I'm sure they regret but it must be psychologically damaging when everyone decides you did it on purpose.
Always fun to see a bit of none league end of season crazy fixture pile up
http://www.guernseyfc.com/matches-fixtures-and-results
21 points off top with 8 games in hand, they've played 14 games less than some teams. Think they might need a rethink on how they sort their games out for next season.
All that travel to those away games too
Won't be much building work happening on Guernsey for the next few weeks
ipswich player gives a fan free tickets
Ming the merciful.
* Spurs get their end of season collapse off to a blinder
with a home loss to Fulham.
The Gunners put in a professional performance against a fairly uninspired Swansea and are now four points behind with a game in hand AND an easier run in AND few games to play..
I'm not counting any chickens yet but am content at the situation as it stands.
Won't getting 4th again simply keep Wenger in a state of happy complacency though?
you could argue that finishing outside the top four might be the wake up call that he needs
But he has had more than a few already this season, and it's arguably been our flakiest team under his tenure. He knows we need to improve the squad, and that will be made a hell of a lot easier if he can dangle the carrot of Champions league football. I would still prefer to finish top four, personally.
Oh and Gervinho scored a goal
So underrated.
Sunderland could be an outside bet for a stealth relegation
going by their remaining fixtures. They're only 1 point above Villa at the moment so it wouldn't even take a big collapse of form for it to come to fruition
...
Man Utd (h)
Chelsea (a)
Newcastle (a)
Everton (h)
Villa (a)
Stoke (h)
Soton (h)
Tottenham (a)
ouch
United'll throw them a bone.
I think they can probably 0-0 their way to safety with that run-in, so it's really upon Villa and Wigan to turbo boost and do everyone a favour.
No real beef with Sunderland, but I'd enjoy MON getting relegated
Deeply average manager, spends fortunes on playing horrible football and still manages to duck criticism from the press
Was pleasantly surprised by Arsenal and Spurs
Swansea away looked like a banana skin and I thought Fulham would be a gift for Spurs. Still think it'll go right to the wire, and I always thought the gap would narrow at some point in the run in but the earlier the better.
Let the anti-bants begin.
If Forest get into the PL
do you immediately give up all Arsenal support or will it just be during the matches they play against each other.
Have you received clearance to discuss Forest?
Show your credentials
Theo's in the football thread. Bants ahoy!
It's been so long I can't remember
It's always Forest over Arsenal, but to be honest even if Forest were in the Prem they wouldn't exactly be fighting for the same *objectives*. Also, they'd be some pleasure in seeing Arsenal smash Forest's relegation rivals and seeing Forest take points of Arsenal's top half rivals (hopefully).
Also, re: good goalkeepers
The paper yesterday had The Stats™ for most saves, most catches and most dropped catches. Petr Cech was pretty much the only top half keeper in the top ten for saves and catches (Ben Foster was lurking in there somewhere) and the pretty much the only keeper in the 'most catches' top ten not to appear in the 'most dropped catches' top ten.
I knew Cech was a great keeper, I didn't realise Chelsea had such a potentially leaky defence...unless I've misinterpreted the stats, obvs.
That's that then
I would say the Premiership has been fun, but bar trolling the shit out of Chelsea, it's been pretty miserable
throwing the towel in with 8 games still to go and only 7 points to recover?
Small time.
Well sadly we don't get to play ourselves on the final day so we can't throw it for anyone this time round
It's not the task, and more the manner of defeat after how well we played. It was quite the sickener
Still Reading and Wigan to play though
as well as imminently winnable games against Stoke, Fulham and the last day of the season. It's doable.
I think QPR's biggest problem is who they can actually overhaul.
I can see them picking up results and think they're less fucked than Reading but Wigan are starting their annual Houdini act, Villa are improving and Saints are probably picking up just enough points that Wigan or Villa might catch them but QPR less so.
Sunderland might get sucked in, or even West Ham, but they're pretty big gaps to overhaul...
^ This
We're too far behind after the early season debacle under Mark Hughes.
I think Redknapp's had plenty of time to improve things though.
I mean it's definitely Hughes' fault your in the mess but I don't think Redknapp can entirely absolve himself of blame for underperformance since November/December, although obviously I realise that he will.
To be honest
there have hardly been any shit performances under Redknapp. The Liverpool and Swansea defeats are the only two I can think of.
MK Dons where he basically threw the game to make a point
The twitchy cunt
^that
Won as a we should've done and we'd only be a point behind Villa. Instead it's 7.
Maybe we'll still do it, but it would be an outright miracle tbh. My hope's gone. And to be honest, we don't really deserve to stay up
Covered the Macca challenge over and over yesterday
But it was rather joyous to see us fucking battle, win dirty, and be on the beneficial end of some calamitous decisions for a change. Good.
Think people might be getting ahead of themselves with the Spurs collapse talk
Obviously pretty funny watching the collective bum squeaking and they do have a tricky run in, but it only really works if somebody can string enough results together to take advantage and there's no real indication that Arsenal or Everton are remotely capable of that.
I have a feeling that it'll turn on a really stupid result for Arsenal
rather than on one of the trickier fixtures. Also, this weekend was worth it for Und_Gorgeous_cars' premature mini-meltdown.
The trip to QPR at the start of May looks a prime opportunity for a balls-up
It would be a bit ridiculous if we were to nick 3rd/4th again having been so shit, especially since Spurs actually deserve it for once, like stretching the 2005 cup final over an entire season
Spurs only deserve it on recent form though
They were deeply unimpressive for the first half of the season. And as for Arsenal, I think they've only been really jammy a couple of times, and unlucky (in a self-imposed kind of way) on a few more occasions.
Almost think it's more a case of whoever fucks up and comes fifth deserves it.
Yeah, it's proper tallest midget stuff, but I'd say they've been the better team over the season
Shaky start under Vish Bosh, but they've been fairly consistently good since the win at Old Trafford no? Of course there's probably a point to be made about their best season in 20 years only being marginally better than our worst, but this time of year is for swerving bants, not dishing it out
I think they've been more or less as good as Arsenal
it's just that if you follow Arsenal, even when they're playing well and controlling the game it's hard not to live in fear of them conceding a ridiculous goal for no reason, so you get the impression of them playing worse than they are. Also, Spurs haven't dished out any ludicrous disproportionately one-sided thrashings against rubbish teams, which is obviously the mark of a great team.
Anyway, we'll see how things stand after the embarrasing 1-0 home defeat to Reading.
I think given how utter dogshit City have been recently
There's a good chance they could end up in that fight for 4th
was i right in seeing jack wilshere getting smug on twitter about spurs losing?
watch your mouth son. theres a long way to go.
Don't think he's on Twitter anymore is he?
Think I read something about him and Defoe having another of bet about who'll finish higher, so perfectly possible he's gobbing off via some other medium. Vine, maybe?
i'm not on twitter so i dunno.
i saw it on facebook.
He quit twitter
And to be fair to him he put his money where his mouth was (is?) last season when Spurs were 10 points ahead. Can't remember the specifics but it was some charity donation bet which I think many Spurs fans took him up on and probably didn't pay out when they lost.
http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896/premier-league/2011/11/22/2769159/jack-wilshere-bets-3000-with-twitter-fans-that-arsenal-will
i don't think people are getting ahead of themselves
still a long way to go.
FM2013 Question
1. Is there any way of seeing a full list of fixtures set to take place on a particular date?
You can for each competition, you can't for multiple competitions
To the suggestions forum!
Would be handy. I was clicking on today's date wondering who was playing whom (within the parameters of the competitions I've selected).
See also copy to notepad match reports, export to .csv squad stats, etc :D
i watched match of the day for the first time this season on saturday.
turgid. they're still doing highlights of every game? whats the point. it just means there's 7 times as much unnecessary analysis.
The highlights bit is fine
It's the tedious analysis that is the problem.
It really, really, really needs freshening up.
More football, less analysis, new pundits and maybe a new presenter.
I do think Lineker is a good presenter to be honest
he's not given much to work with though.
Yeah - I do rate Lineker.
I just feel everything about the programme has been going on for too long.
Pat Nevin's analysis on MOTD 2 at least bothers to look at the footage too
I'm polishing up my CV
Dion Dublin telling you what was literally happening on screen as it happened in the style of a lisping, nervous toddler
made Shearer look like a class act. Terrible stuff.
:D
Jesus, Shearer
He's running with his *Taraabt is shit* line cos it seems to be the first time in his life he's had an opinion.
So a few minutes of Dion Dublin pointing out how much he turned the game. Then Shearer's rebuttal. *Nah*. Then his criticism *He only really plays for 15-20 minutes of a match, and goes missing the rest of time. That's not enough for me.* Adel of course, was a 70th minute sub on Saturday
That's what annoys me most about MOTD
The way that there are set narratives for certain players, and they don't let the actual events of the match in question affect it (Hansen constantly moaning about Balotelli or Luiz comes to mind) - they just pick a couple of isolated incidents per game to fit what they want to say, rather than actually analyse their performance properly.
Shearer and Taraabt looks like a running theme :(
It's just basically a case of the former getting upset when the latter doesn't shoot on sight.
Hansen's immovable myopia is very useful though.
You can use it to quickly identify anyone who has actually watched and understood a player/game from anyone just repeating what he says. It's a real time saver.
doing highlights of every game
is kind of the point of Match of the Day.
nah.
2/3/4 of the good games and then the goals from the shit matches. and less alan shearer.
probably wont be watching again.
the current crop of BBC commentators are also AWFUL.
that's pretty much what they do anyway
nah.
commentators are alright, except for the insuferrable Jonathon Pearce
and Motty should really bow out gracefully.
Agree with everything else about MOTD though, Shearer really needs to be put out of his misery
jonathan pearce is the only good one.
so not this^
fucking Robot Wars.
possibly the first time i have ever heard someone praise Pearce
the problem with the rest of the MOTD commentary is outside of Pierce or Motty
they are so bland it's incredibly difficult to tell them apart and all of them just follow the generic small country english football-cliche-pre-determined opinion-hint at what's about to happen-repeat.
I get so angry at MotD and yet I watch it every week.
Dean Saunders buys himself a reprieve with a horrible performance against Bristol City.
Best player potentially out for the season, as well (Sako). Still think we're more likely to go down than survive. Even some of the ugliest hoofball imaginable won't save us.
That last 20 minutes has glossed over what was another truly dreadful performance to that point
We didn't have a shot until not long before the equaliser went in.
Not that Bristol City were any better, but it's a good sign of where we are when we're quite fortunate to edge past the side who are bottom.
The League Two relegation battle actually got even tighter
If current form prevails, Torquay and York will go down. I know he's only had 3 games but Worthington has started in Saunders-like form. Dire stuff.
bottom half of the table is looking quite interesting
I did a quick calculation based on
- bottom 10 clubs' current points, plus
- predicted number of points for last 8 games*(based on last 8 games' form)
and yeah, it's gonna be close between Wigan and Sunderland for the last spot:
11. Norwich 34+8 = 42
12. Wagons 30+11 = 41
13. Southampton 31+9 = 40
14. Newcastle 33+7 = 40
15. West Ham 33+7 = 40
16. Stoke 34+5 = 39
17. Sunderland 31 + 6 = 37
18. Wigan 27+9 = 36 (*9 games)
19. QPR 23+9 = 32
20. Reading 23+6 = 29
That's quite some charge up the table by villa and southampton
why is everyone calling villa wagons?
it's really annoying and lame.
:D
who have stoke got?
no way they only get 5 points, it's Stoke for fucks sake.
In news that will suprise absolutely nobody
Wilshere's out for 6 weeks. Bugger.
*8 years
where are you getting that from?
i wont believe it until i see it from a reputable source
Goal.com so tempted to dismiss it as boohickey,
but whoever covers Arsenal for them seems to have a decent source, they called Walcott's contract renewal and the Podolski signing pretty early.
Won some tickets for the FA Trophy final on Sunday
YEAH!!!!
Rio Ferdinand withdraws from the England squad.
after he seemed genuinely happy to be called up and due to his fitness problems over the last 3 years i'll give him the benefit of the doubt, but i'm sure most people won't.
thats Dawson, Cahill and Ferdinand that have withdrawn then. Lescott and Caulker to get call ups?
The fact that Ferdinand was likely to withdraw is precisely why he shouldn't have been recalled
Feel bad for Rio
Even though he's effectively retired from international football, he's still got a few years left before he can start banging away the coke non-stop.
Francesco Totti
notched up his 226th goal on the weekend moving him to 2nd overall on the all time serie A goalscorers list. For someone that was overated in his prime Totti is somewhat underated as a player these days. A truly fine footballer enjoying a bit of a renaissance over the last couple of years. Well done to the king of Rome.
The Roma scudetto winning side of 2001 will always be up there as one of my favourites. Batistuta, Montella, Delvecchio, Cafu, Candela, Tommasi, Aldair, Nakata, Samuel...even Jonathan Zebina and the thug that was Emerson.
Nakata <3
Serie A financial excess was a fun time
Batistuta to Roma is just the latter day equivalent of Torres to Chelsea.
Also, not being needy or nothing, but it's so annoying that my last few months bantering with you lot
Are going to be us going down.
I've got a new job where I won't be able to post on here any more start in a couple of months FYI. Given I recently stopped posting on here cos I was getting shit in my current job for spending too much time on here, I probably should start the new one fresh.
So if you've got some bants for me, you've got till mid May to go HAM
You think you've got problems?
I'm surrounded by you bastards, you're going down with a crooked manager and a wage bill of about £20 billion and I still can't say shit because you won your cup final.
I did that too when I moved last
Lasted a full 18 months (I still posted, just on the train or at home).
Now allow myself the odd 10 minutes here and there IF I need a quick break from the job. Actually find it helpful.
Thing is, in my contract pack I had a *Social media, blogging and digital communications policy* which I had to sign
Sounds like they're not fucking around, so posting *LOL CHELSEA CUNTS* on here doesn't strike me as a great idea
Haha, yeah maybe not!
I would do more if I banned this site from my life entirely, no doubt.
I think I'd also go a bit mad.