General Premier League Thread 2022-23 - mod note in OP 12/03/23

That was down to the manager making 3 subs when Arsenal were dominating the game.

Just want to get this clarified, do you get less points when you play counter attacking football and win? Just Utd could be in real trouble if they keep get these lesser victories. Could be a real problem going forward

Are people saying it's a criticism?

For me, it's just Utd won't be counter attacking every week.

Ten Hag has made Utd extremely difficult for possession dominant teams to play against. Massive improvement. The next interesting step is how they play when they have the ball for large periods. If that massively improves too, then they're a real threat for the season suddenly.

Some interesting things came out of yesterdays game, it was a great watch for the neutral

Arsenal done a Arsenal & faulted under the first real big game but this time i'd actually blame the manger more than the players , Arteta just didn't hold his nerve & made a mess of things with the 3 subs, He didn't trust his players who where playing well, Can he take them to the next level or will he continue to panic in the big moments , I think they lack in CM & a back up CF

Great 3 points for United , I wonder will Ten Hagg bring Ronaldo back as the CF simply because how much better Rashford is off the left, I honestly thinks Sancho is a better " footballer" but struggles with the physicality of the Prem , Rashford has show in 2 games this season its his physicality that makes him so dangerous & there for better suited to the Prem ,

I think Eriksen will have a huge positive effect on Bruno, Both have similar abilities Bruno maybe has more but Eriksen can teach him how to use his ability more effectively & more importantly efficient, I have to say Eriksen is such an intelligent footballer i thought he might struggle fitness wise but he's been brilliant

Top four race will be very very interesting , After City as Champions its impossible to call right now ,

No one knows anything for sure, made a point that we are seeing the man that made Ajax great , and a couple of weeks ago he seamed out of his depth. If people couldn't give an opinion , boards would complety die.

Dropping Maguire was one of the most obvious eureka moments in football.

Even when Maguire came in he looked like an liability for his brief appearance.

my point is what we've seen from Utd isn't what actually made Ten Hag great. he's done what Utd needed to see at this moment - he's made them solid and horrible to play against. he's coached them exceptionally well, and they've got a couple of deserved results.

the greatness may well come over the next few months and years. we'll see.

i'm as much against the calling of him 'overrated' that many did a couple of weeks ago, as I am putting the word 'great' next to his name now purely because he's made Utd resilient. that's all.

Off all the decision the Newcastle one is the worst by a mile,

It's a goal or a penalty , in no world is it a free out ,

Absolute bizarre call & basically cheating ,

It's amazing how often these calls swing n favour of the Big 4/5 in the EPL.

If you add the non red card for VVD to the above you get the benefactors as:

Liverpool

Man Utd

Chelsea

Man City

Yes, if you ignore the decisions listed that went to clubs outside the top 4, all the remaining decisions went to top 4 clubs.

Must be a conspiracy

I keep reading that Arteta made a mess of his subs. In my opinion he was just reacting to the clever sub of Fred by Ten Hag. After only 5 mins on the pitch Arteta could see that Fred was occupying those spaces where Arsenal were getting joy through Zinchenko and Odegaard. It was a very clever tweak by ETH and Arteta was just trying to wrestle back the upper hand.

I'd say he knew full well of the risks of leaving United man for man up front.

Also, whilst I agree with others that there are similarities between Ole's team and that of ETH, there are also some key differences. We are definitely organised better in our press and we want to control games more but I think the Stamina isn't there yet. It takes considerable time to build up the level of fitness required to play that way and a shortened preseason didn't help. See Klopp when he took over at Liverpool. It will be bit by bit that ETH gets United playing more to his preferred way but there are green shoots. The first goal yesterday is as good a team goal you will see. We also haven't got a keeper to sustain possession or a striker to keep it until Martial is fit.

You're right that the Coutinho one wasn't a VAR fault, but it was more a ref error than a lino fault (though it was both). Flagging doesn't automatically lead to a blown whistle - it's the ref's responsibility to decide to stop play. Rashford scored on the break a few seasons ago, where the flag went up but the ref didn't blow. The lino was wrong, and the goal stood because play hadn't been stopped. That's what should have happened on Saturday.

That is where the linesmen are bad some hold the flag down for certain times until either the ball is won, goes out of play or a goal is scored and some put it up right away. They need to be

Reports this evening that it will cost Leicester close to £10m to sack Rodgers and to pay him off.

No wonder he has been doing his best in the media over the last few weeks trying to get fired instead of quitting.

However Rodgers is laying some great foundations there for the next manager.

Swansea won the league cup after he left, Liverpool won everything after he left and Celtic are winning again.