2010/11 Premier League Thread

4 easy wins then...

rishgoon said:

1) The Arsenal (pending the arrival of a world class GK)
2) Chelsea
3) Man U
4) Man City
5) Spuds
6) Everton

18) Blackpool
19) Wigan
20) WBA

Click to expand...

We're pretty much half way, so may as well do another top 6/relegation prediction

1) Arsenal
2) United
3) City
4) Spuds
5) Chelsea
6) Liverpool

18) Villa
19) West Ham
20) Wolves

(page 15 of thread if want to check original predictions)

i really don't see the gunners winning it mate, but anything can happen.. Just to clarify, i don't hate Arsenal, i enjoy watching them and they are a great team but i just don't see it happening

I do agree with with the bottom 3, and what a huge blow it would be for Aston Villa to go down.. This year they were Top 6 prospects but have had an absolute shocker!

Went ahead and couldn't avoid temptation, but i am splashed with cash after christmas and my b'day in quick succession so i bought this one: Google Image Result for http://www.football-kit.org.uk/shirts/10-11-Barcelona-Away-Shirt-Messi-10-(Fan-Style).gif

Love this kit

---------- Post added 30-12-2010 at 10:31 AM ----------

There's been some real inconsistent refereeing recently...

In the A-League the refereeing has been crap, especially when i've gone to watch the Glory. The A-League is being spoiled by these crappy refs who are that inconsistent and i swear favour certain teams..

I thought the Premier League referees had been good for the season but i have changed my mind after the crap that went on over the last couple of days..
Firstly in the Man United Birmingham game when a error from the ref cost us the win after a Blues player hand-balled it CLEARLY and went on to score.. this cost us the win and for World Class referees it just isn't good enough.

Then to cap off the recent crap, this morning i got up to watch the Gunners game which was extremely good. I think N'Zogbia was a little hard done by as there was minimal contact between himself and Wilshere, this put the Wigan oufit down to 10 men and could of denied them from winning the match. After Wigan equalised you thought it was going to a drawn match. But more crap.. Samir Nasri took the free-kick and struck it straight into the wall, were a man jumped and clearly hand-balled it, but the ref didn't spot it, CLEARLY a penalty not awarded. I didn't want Arsenal to win the match as Man U needed some space from them on the table but i admit they were robbed. Fabregas complained of this crap on twitter as well, and he should be allowed to as well.. FA are investigating

Well said (sort of). No forceful contact to the face is allowed or it's a red, so the sending off was fair.
Should of been 3-0. N'Zogbia dove for the penalty, although Bendtner looked to do the same to earn his free kick. Squillaci was clearly fouled to force the own goal and as yourself and Cesc said, absolutely blatent handball at the end. Disgraceful. FIFA don't want video technology, but even a couple of referrals per team (ala cricket) would of been very handy.
At least watching the last ten minutes of Liverpool losing softened the blow a bit before I went back to sleep...

haha same, watched the Liverpool Wolves match after the Arsenal match An excellent tactic from the Wolves when Gerrard took the free-kick which was when the goal was offside and it was disallowed. There was no contact was there? I guess the angle of the camera didn't help when they were replaying it. This is exactly what i was thinking with the reviews, video technology should be used to determine offsides etc.. The cricket method should be used but would there be to many penalties for hand-ball? The refs miss like 20 or so of these hand-balls inside the box a week!!!

caught the 2nd half of the liverpool match this morning. Don't know why i bothered. I'm not sure what is wrong there but some serious investigating needs to be done. You don't lose to teams such as Wolves and Blackpool (which we did earlier in the year) at home. You just don't! We have the talent there is no doubt about that, just things aren't clicking and we need to find out why..... and quickly. I don't blame hodgeson becuase it happened last year as well. As funny as it sounds I think we are a star striker and creative midfielder away from really being a contender..... and a better run with injuries. Where they come from I don't know. I am still furious they let Alonso go. Anywho I hope Arsenal win it this year. Really love their exciting style of play.

i think Alonso is a bit like Pique and Forlan mate..

He didn't do TOO much at Liverpool and they could make some money out of him so they sold him, and like Forlan and Pique moved from the Premier League into the Spanish league. Forlan and Pique were crap at united, let's face it.

Now look at the three players, Forlan dominated the World Cup, Pique is wanted by every top club in the world after he established himself as one of the top Centre Backs in the world and Alonso who to has established himself as a great midfielder. What we sometimes forget is that the Premier League is THE toughest football league in the world and some potentially good players might fail to perform. If Wayne Rooney or Didier Drogba were playing in the Spanish league they would dominated, and as Andy Gray said if Lionel Messi moved to England he wouldn't be good enough for Stoke City (maybe too far) but he would be good, but not as great as he currently is.

the January Transfer thread is up, very very slow morning so far.. I now have the feeling we are in for a extremely boring January.. Until Messi moves to United

---------- Post added 01-01-2011 at 04:48 PM ----------

i promise but generally fail to deliver, usually because i forgot or that i have no time.. but i am bored

Match Previews Time

Manchester United v West Brom- The Hawthorns. 12:45pm GMT

Manchester United- Man U will have the late minute equaliser at St.Andrews and there poor away record in the back of their heads as they travel to The Hawthorns. United have only won a single match away this season in the EPL, which has consisted of draws against the likes of Everton, Fulham and Birmingham. Although the dropping of 2 points in these away games haven't much affected their ladder position, they will be keen to change their away record of 2010 into a fresh start with a solid win against West Brom. United's team will be boosted with the likes of O'Shea, Nani and Scholes to be declared fit but are still without Antonio Valencia who broke his leg mid 2010 and is expected back around February/March and recent hero Ji-Sung Park has flown off to compete for South Korea in the Asian Cup starting this month.

West Brom- After a flashy start from West Brom Albion this season they dropped off to have a shocker in December which could have dented their European dreams for next season. Winning just 1 game in December out of 4, like United, West Brom will be keen to reverse this record with a few wins like they did at the start of the season. In the back of their minds will be their last fixture against United when they came from 2 goals down to draw the match, and this should give them a bit of confidence in this match. The bad news for this side is the injuries, their make-shift defence are going to have a challenge on their hands with the likes of out-of-form Rooney (that could change) and red-hot Dimitar Berbatov out on the park for United.

My prediction: Expect fire. 4-1 United.

Likely Teams: Never trusting Goal.com again, so will update line-ups before the match kicks-off.

MORE TO FOLLOW

Warney said:

the January Transfer thread is up, very very slow morning so far.. I now have the feeling we are in for a extremely boring January.. Until Messi moves to United

---------- Post added 01-01-2011 at 04:48 PM ----------

i promise but generally fail to deliver, usually because i forgot or that i have no time.. but i am bored

Match Previews Time

Manchester United v West Brom- The Hawthorns. 12:45pm GMT

Manchester United- Man U will have the late minute equaliser at St.Andrews and there poor away record in the back of their heads as they travel to The Hawthorns. United have only won a single match away this season in the EPL, which has consisted of draws against the likes of Everton, Fulham and Birmingham. Although the dropping of 2 points in these away games haven't much affected their ladder position, they will be keen to change their away record of 2010 into a fresh start with a solid win against West Brom. United's team will be boosted with the likes of O'Shea, Nani and Scholes to be declared fit but are still without Antonio Valencia who broke his leg mid 2010 and is expected back around February/March and recent hero Ji-Sung Park has flown off to compete for South Korea in the Asian Cup starting this month.

West Brom- After a flashy start from West Brom Albion this season they dropped off to have a shocker in December which could have dented their European dreams for next season. Winning just 1 game in December out of 4, like United, West Brom will be keen to reverse this record with a few wins like they did at the start of the season. In the back of their minds will be their last fixture against United when they came from 2 goals down to draw the match, and this should give them a bit of confidence in this match. The bad news for this side is the injuries, their make-shift defence are going to have a challenge on their hands with the likes of out-of-form Rooney (that could change) and red-hot Dimitar Berbatov out on the park for United.

My prediction: Expect fire. 4-1 United.

Likely Teams: Never trusting Goal.com again, so will update line-ups before the match kicks-off.

MORE TO FOLLOW

Click to expand...

Yes Goal.com are good for fixtures and match reports thats about it. They're full of crap otherwise (according to them Schwarzer and Joe Cole had signed for Arsenal) Teamtalk.com or Espnsoccernet.com are a bit more reliable.

yeah thanks for the tips mate More match previews to come, atm i will only do previews for the Big Clubs featuring as there is no interest for the smaller teams

So in the match previews, next will be the Arsenal game match, then Spuds, then Chelsea, then City and if i have enough time will get the Liverpool game in..

---------- Post added 01-01-2011 at 08:25 PM ----------

Arsenal v Birmingham- St Andrews- 17:30pm GMT

Arsenal-
The Gunners would love to get back to winning ways after they were pretty much robbed last match against Wigan. They led the Wigan outfit 2-1 until a late equaliser was scored, and with only a few minutes left had a hand-ball penalty turned down. Arsenal will have to forget about last week, yes they were robbed of the full points but that is football and mistakes are made. Forgetting about last week, they have been a strong force this season and will find themselves as competitors in the final weeks of the EPL Season. For the big clubs recently, St Andrews hasn't been a successful hunting ground with Birmingham building up a extremely formidable team their, and is hard to crack, as Man United found out last week. If Arsenal play their usual football they will win this match, they can beat anyone and everyone if they stick to their winning game plan, and if this works for the rest of the season they will be Top 2 Contenders. In the way of Team News nothing much is going to change, except for the inclusion of skipper Cesc Fabregas who is fit. Injury plagued midfielder Abou Diaby is still out for at least 3 weeks and Vermaelen still isn't close to a comeback. Play the game the way you want to play it, dominate position and you will win.

Birmingham-
They haven't actually won a game a home yet, but they have pinched points from the opposition on 5 occasions. Currently in 17th place, nothing is going right (except for beating Chelsea) for Birmingham but they can only improve. The shining light for City this season has been Ben Foster, he was barely even benched at Old Trafford and after his transfer to City has been superb.
Team News wise, nothing much expected to change, except Hleb might get a start.

My prediction- Gunners 2-1, Walcott to score late in the match to win it for the Gunners!

---------- Post added 01-01-2011 at 08:29 PM ----------

United team doesn't feature Scholes, Giggs, Nani, Van der Sar or O'Shea.. what the hell is going on?

---------- Post added 01-01-2011 at 08:51 PM ----------

ROONEY!!! 1-0 after 2 minutes, first goal in open play from Rooney in months!

---------- Post added 01-01-2011 at 09:35 PM ----------

This is just embarrassing... united should be down at least 3-1 right now.. Neville is terrible, don't know why we even bothered playing him, and he should of been sent off and they should of had the penalty, Obertan isn't playing in the right position and our defending and passing has been s***house. Hopefully Sir Alex sparks them at half time because this is s***.

---------- Post added 01-01-2011 at 10:44 PM ----------

Here it from me now, United did not deserve to win that game, but they did and they got lucky, but again, a win is a win and a away win for united is precious.

Chris Foy deserves to be sacked after that match, he missed 2 penalties, a red card and so many free-kicks it wasn't funny..

I hate to say it but that's the difference between United and Arsenal at the moment. If Arsenal had played like that they would of lost.

---------- Post added 02-01-2011 at 03:29 AM ----------

BUT Arsenal don't play like that. Arsenal 3 Birmingham 0. Time for some shut eye

how do Chelski do that? 2-1 down now 3-2 up!

Great finish, 3-3. The demise continues

yeah an excellent finish, now for the Barcelona game!

Hmm go Levante...
Old Firm game was as firey as ever, great result for the bhoys beating Rangers 2-0 at Ibrox.

yeah saw that, good win from Celtic!

My Barca shirt was sent on the 30/12 and is already in Perth The only problem now is that i won't get it til Tuesday at the earliest
It's amazing the technology we have today, the Barca store sent us a tracking number and we tracked it, it tells you exactly what time it is scanned and where it is. Sent from England, has gone through Germany, China then Singapore and then down to us :O

Yeah I ordered a Nasri shirt a couple of days before xmas, didn't get sent for a few days though due to snow. Hoping for Tuesday.

Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor punch on at training a few hours ago

dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1344009/Kolo-Toure-Emmanuel-Adebayor-scrap-Manchester-City-training.html?ITO=1490

Great way to prepare for return to old club. Although I'll be very surprised if Adebayor shows his face at the Emirates. Hope Kolo belted him (much love for Kolo, wish we'd kept him instead of that sook Gallas) Silva and Balotelli out too

yeah should be interesting, no real transfer news apart from Ronaldinho is on the move, believed to be a step closer to signing with Gremio..

Got my Barca shirt today as well

UAE vs Australia tonight @ 10:30 WST for those that are interested... I'd forgotton