That’s a pretty good move for them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
Printable View
That’s a pretty good move for them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
:lol: As nice as it would be to think they’d be struggling without Kane, I don’t think that’s true.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac76
They’ve got a decent enough squad, Son is quality. They’ve clearly got issues but a decent manager would sort them out. They’re not going to be sweeping all before them but they’re no worse than Top 6
Everywhere they go… :haha:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8gkIVwKiLI
Ok, maybe not relegation but with teams like Brighton and Newcastle on the scene and Chelsea likely to improve, I think they'll do well to be top 8Quote:
Originally Posted by Letters
Son isn't getting any younger
They may have no European football next year, which will be a disincentive for prospective new signings
All they've got to attract players is the Toilet Bowl, but the 'shiny-new-stadium' factor only really lasts a year or two
So I do think they could really struggle - AFAIK they aren't like we were 2-3 seasons ago, when we had a crop of young talented Academy players and smart buys to step into the breach
It’s hard to tell where Spurs will be long term, it’s hard to think they will be doing anything much in the near future. I genuinely don’t know how much the club is suffering financially from the upgrade to WHL….though do find it strange that they’ve not actually sorted naming rights for the ground yet.
For me the best thing they can do for themselves is to sell Kane and possibly Son this summer, take the hit over the next couple of seasons and begin to use the money to bring in better and younger players rather than the sticking plaster solution we tried (just one or two players to get us in the champions league)
I still think they’ve got too much quality to get themselves into an Everton situation but ultimately they need to change their approach to a long term rebuild otherwise they are in that mess.
Brighton I’m not sure long term how long they will be where they are, whilst I absolutely love how they are run as a club its predicated on being able to get untapped potential which is always high risk because you simply don’t know if players you bring in from abroad will produce the goods. It’s not a club that will attract a rich investor because it doesn’t have the history, fan base or infrastructure. And in many ways there’s not a lot of difference between what they are doing now and what Southampton was doing 5-10 years ago and look where they are now.
It’s no surprise that the only teams never to have got relegated from the premier league are all clubs from major cities - London, Liverpool and Manchester
Brentford: Raya, Hickey, Pinnock, Mee, Henry, Jensen, Damsgaard, Janelt, Schade, Wissa, Mbeumo.
Subs: Cox, Dasilva, Jorgensen, Ghoddos, Onyeka, Ajer, Baptiste, Roerslev, Stevens.
West Ham: Fabianski, Johnson, Ogbonna, Aguerd, Emerson, Soucek, Downes, Fornals, Lanzini, Cornet, Ings.
Subs: Areola, Cresswell, Zouma, Paqueta, Bowen, Benrahma, Kehrer, Rice, Mubama.
Everton: Pickford, Patterson, Holgate, Mina, Tarkowski, Gueye, Garner, Doucoure, McNeil, Iwobi, Calvert-Lewin
Subs: Begovic, Lonergan, Keane, Onana, Gray, Maupay, Coady, Simms, Welch.
Man City: Ederson, Walker, Laporte, Dias, Akanji, Gundogan, Rodri, Mahrez, Foden, Alvarez, Haaland
Subs: Ortega Moreno, Phillips, Gomez, Palmer, Lewis, Stones, Grealish, De Bruyne, Silva
Come on Everton, you twats
Hmmm Stones, De Bruyne and Grealish all being rested. Is that a sign of over confidence, or is it a sign that they have enough quality to win without themQuote:
Originally Posted by McNamara That Ghost...
Probably the latter. It was always my hope that the CL would distract them, it hasn’t so far because they have so much quality in depth. I’m still holding out some hope they could yet slip but that has to start today.Quote:
Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn
I won't call them Neverton again for a season if they get at least a draw here.
me neither - let's create as much good karma as possible :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by McNamara That Ghost...
The irony is Everton were at one time City’s bogey team. Even when City had been bought and were looking for major titles….Everton would get wins over them both at GP and at the Etihad (or City of Manchester stadium as it was then)
Come on Neverton.
Just want it to go to the final day. :pray:
Corrected :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
Brentford 1-0 West Ham, Mbuemo.
Brentford have petered out somewhat after what promised to be an incredible season, still I think overall have over achieved. Spurs supporting mate of mine wants Thomas Frank as their next bossQuote:
Originally Posted by McNamara That Ghost...
City 1-0 up, Gundogan
Shit
Flicks it in with his back to goal
That’s the end of that then. :rose:
Neverton. :doh:
Game over now 2-0 Haaland
In fairness to Everton they’ve played ok, been tight and compact…had a few half chances on the break…restricted City largely to half chances but ultimately you’ve got players who can just turn it on at will
Brentford 2-0 West Ham, Wissa.
This was our last glimmer of hope.
Not a chance in hell do Chelsea take anything from the Etihad and they will certainly then beat Brighton to clinch it.
:gp:Quote:
Originally Posted by McNamara That Ghost...
and we'd just decided to be nice to them as well...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
What can you do?
On one hand you can bemoan how we took our title destiny out of our own hands
On the other you have to say that City are just a beast of a team….the only games they haven’t won since mid Feb were draws away at Bayern and Real.
I’ll be disappointed not to take it to the wire but it’s not been in our gift to make sure that’s the case
I genuinely believe we'd have won the league if Arteta knew (a) how to adapt tactics, formations and lineup depending on the opposition (b) how to rotate the squad and (c) how to manage in-game situations
still he's only being paid £8.5m pa, so what do we expect
https://i.makeagif.com/media/8-20-2015/UuKG0B.gifQuote:
Originally Posted by McNamara That Ghost...
Neverton :doh:
I dunno to be honest. I thought we played well at Newcastle last week but we were also massively lucky…in that they hit the post and had glaring chances to score which they didn’t takeQuote:
Originally Posted by Mac76
West Ham and Southampton I think we definitely screwed up. Liverpool I agree with you that we definitely gave them the momentum to come back into the game but you’re also dealing with human beings and the players shit a brick.
It’s not to say you’re wrong but as much as tactical change ups have helped, it doesn’t strike me as merely incidental that we’ve had back to back wins after losing to city and all but handing them the title
It’s not a coincidence that the only team to deny City the title in the last five seasons did so by building up an unassailable lead. The biggest winning run we’ve been on this season is 7 wins in a row.
Careless mistakes cost us the chance to take it to the wire and also losing both head to heads ensured we would never get away from City.Quote:
Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn
Philosophical about the season overall, not sure you can level too much at them if they finished with 90 points. Most enjoyable season in years but of course when you get so close you can’t help but think what if.
0-3. :rose:
Oh of course…and it’s totally reasonable to say we shot ourselves in the footQuote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
It was incredibly frustrating. I think the only thing I’d say to mitigate is even title winning teams do fuck up. We’ve just never been afforded that luxury. Every game we’ve not won has been crucial points dropped and as much as I like many of the players and I find Arteta frustrating…90 points is (if we get it) far and away above anything I would have realistically expected this team to get.
Losing to city twice is for me more galling in the fact that we’ve lost twelve times in a row to them.
The head to head’s ultimately cost us. We slipped up here and there in other games of course, but all teams do. Well, all except City. It’s just relentless. I lost count but it’s something like 15 wins in 17 now. That isn’t normal. They’re just a level above us, as they showed against us in both games. But yeah, we could still get 90 points so I don’t really feel I can fault us too much. For every silly slip there are plenty of very good wins, some from losing positions. We’ve just been up against an absolute machine in City
The head-to-head point is valid and something i've said before is that in one way, we can't argue if, counting the FAC, we lost three times to Citeh in a season.Quote:
Originally Posted by Letters
But away from that I'd argue we could have done enough with better management
It's too easy just to talk about Citeh being a machine, they slipped up a fair few times earlier this season, it's why we were top in the first place
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac76
Not in any big way. Throughout this season you will see that they’ve never gone more than one game without winning
Drew with Newcastle - then beat Palace and Forest
Drew with Villa - then beat Wolves, United, Southampton
Lost to Liverpool - then beat Brighton, Leicester and Fulham
Lost to Brentford - then beat Leeds
Drew with Everton - then beat Chelsea
Lost to United - then beat Tottenham and Wolves
Lost to Tottenham - then beat Aston Villa and Arsenal
Drew with Forest - then beat Bournemouth, Newcastle, Palace, Liverpool, Southampton, Leicester, Arsenal, Fulham, West Ham, Leeds and Everton
The last bit is most pertinent because it’s why I denied we were title favourites because of that ability of City to relentlessly win game after game when it matters
City don’t slip up when it matters though. They never let us get an unassailable lead and then when it mattered they just won every game (or close enough), including both head to heads. When’s the last time someone won the title having lost both 6 pointers against the team who finished 2nd?Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac76
Even with the other slips, we draw the head to heads and all other things being equal we’d be 4 points ahead with 3 games left instead of them being in that position
The last time was 2016 - Leicester lost home and away to usQuote:
Originally Posted by Letters
Also happened in 2009 when United finished above Liverpool in 2nd despite Liverpool doing the double
And also in 1995 where Blackburn finished above United despite United beating them home and away
That’s it for the premier league years unless someone is able to correct me?