New Thread to continue discussion for General Premier League. Old thread closed.
Peach from Hudson odoi
Keeper should have done a lot better to be beaten near post.
Hudson-Odoi with a good effort tipped onto the post by Ederson. It was a very good save.
Nico Gonzalez with a bullet of a strike that clipped the outside of the left upright. I don't think Sels was getting it.
The Nottingham Forest fans rose to their feet in the 3rd minute to wish Stewart Pearce well. I didn't know he was unwell, apparently he had heart trouble aboard a plane, had his flight diverted and is recovering in hospital in Canada.
Former Nottingham Forest player Stuart Pearce 'falls ill' as plane is forced to divert
5th is basically guaranteed CL football regardless
Big game this between Nottingham Forest and Man City. Forest in 3rd place in the table just a point ahead of City, and just 2 points ahead of Chelsea in 5th. 6 points separates the teams from 3rd down to 10th(though Aston Villa in 10th have played a game more).
If it comes down to goal difference between Nottingham Forest, Man City and Chelsea then Forest will be in trouble unless things change between now and the end of the season.
First of 3 "finals" today for Liverpool in Slot's words
The only league game for Liverpool in the entire month of March
After this, Arsenal play 3 games before Liverpool play again.
Southampton poor this season but it's absolutely a final and 3pts would be huge
You don't know what kind of pressures the families of the Latin American countries are coming under. You'd have to think if it was a case of them just needing money themselves the player would sort them out, as said above, this is likely much deeper.
There's an uncle and a cousin allegedly involved too and maybe other family members. This goes a lot deeper than Paqueta himself.
I just don't understand it if he did indeed do it. You're making 6 figures a week and you engage in spot fixing for relative pennies for friends and relatives. I can sort of understand lower league players getting lured in but not a player in the Premier League.
The charges have definitely affected him over the last 12-18 months as he's been dreadful for large parts. The big irony for me is that all this came to light because Betway, West Ham's sponsors, reported the suspicious patterns.
They announced today the prize pool for the club wc is $1b. No prizes for guessing who stumped up that cash.
It's a bit of a joke lineup regardless… a few top tier teams, and then absolutely loads of fodder.
It's quite possible that the team who wins the CL this year aren't one of the teams qualified for the club World Cup, would be interesting if that happens, a club world cup without the current European champions, yet teams that failed to qualify for this year's CL could end up as club world champions!
Lucas Paqueta facing a hefty ban, must be very severe to get a lifetime ban
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/13322201/lucas-paqueta-west-ham-midfielders-betting-charge-hearing-to-take-place-this-month-with-fa-seeking-lifetime-ban
Reading the rules and regulations PDF so you don't have to!
FCWC25_Regulations_EN.pdf
4.2 By signing the Participation Agreement, each participating club automatically undertakes to: a) ;b) c) d) field their strongest team throughout the Competition;
I'm not sure how that works in practise. Will someone from FIFA tell Pep that Foden is better than Grealish and he shouldn't start the latter? I guess it's just there to stop completely taking the piss, and with squads of 35 you basically have to bring everyone along in the first place. A lot might depend on what fines FIFA would apply for breaches, there's oodles of money in the pot.
Seachtain na Gaeilge innit
didn’t know **** had a fada,
edit- but I can guess now why it’s there
Well now we know what was supposedly said!
https://www.thefa.com/news/2025/feb/14/everton-and-liverpool-charges-140225
It was reported by the Referee that following the full-time whistle, he was approached by LFC’s Arne Slot (“AS”) who had entered the field of play to confront the Referee and the Match Officials team. Tensions were running high. It was alleged that AS’ manner was confrontational and aggressive. It was alleged that he initially used abusive words whilst shaking the Referee’s hand including that the Referee had “fúcking give them everything” and that AS hoped that the Referee “was proud of that performance.” The Referee thereafter confirms (having reviewed the video footage to clarify) that he was approached again by AS around one minute later. In this exchange, AS once again shook the Referee’s hand and said “if we don’t win the league, I’ll fúcking blame you.” It is then further alleged that AS turned to the Assistant Referee and shouted twice that it was “a fúcking disgrace.” As a result of AS’ conduct, he was shown a red card by the Referee.
Additionally, Sipke Hulshoff (“SH”) is alleged to have entered the field of play following the full-time whistle to confront the Referee in an “extremely aggressive manner.” It is alleged that SH said the Referee was “fúcking shıt” and “gave them everything” and he was a “fúcking disgrace.” We are advised that the Referee attempts to remove himself from the situation to deal with the dismissals of CJ and AD, but SH continues to follow him and is eventually restrained by colleagues, but continues to shout “fúcking shıt.” SH was also shown a red card by the Referee and dismissed.
The Club World Cup will basically mean players for certain teams will have basically no time off potentially for years. Two Summers will be the Euros and WC and then this Club World Cup in other years. No wonder so many players are getting injured.
There has been a lot of stupid things in football over the last while but this maybe tops the lot It doesn't fit in the calendar, simple as. It'll either be a glorified pre-season tournament or the teams taking part will have to massively rotate their squads for the first month of the season potentially putting a title challenge on the line. I know City have all the money etc.. but even they can't carry this. Pep himself surely needs some downtime
I have no interest in watching the tournament or paying attention to it, but I am curious about how the new Club World Cup works out for Chelsea and City
It kicks off less than 3 weeks after the end of the season in America
So season ends May 25th for City in the league, with Chelsea likely in the Europa Conference League Final on the 28th
Then the international window is June 2nd to 10th (includes the Nations League Finals) and traditionally players would go on holidays after this window.
But the Club World Cup starts June 14th and runs to July 13th so the clubs will be in Noeth America when all others will be on holiday and yet to start pre season tours
I guess it's like a regular World Cup year for 2 clubs and they can use squad players if they're not that serious about winning it and then try to have a normal preseason with the rest of them with the 'World Cup' players returning late
Seems like a massive headache and I'm not convinced that not qualifying for it is a bad thing. But let's see. I'm curious to see how strong they go with their squads, I'm sure FIFA would hate for the biggest clubs to field second string sides in their fancy new format tournament, and will be interesting to see if it affects them in the early part of next season - or if it boosts them!
It's funny that you mention Bolton when one of the primary drivers of their success in the 00s was their use of the revolutionary ProZone predictive data analysis. They gained a massive advantage because of this, because they had an outlier.
It didn't take long for every other club to take note, and increase their own standards to use this, or similar, technology. Thus increasing the standard of the entire league.
You'd think as an Arsenal fan, you would be well aware of how one club can achieve over others by having some sort of revolutionary technology or methodology. Arsenal had it with dieticians and sport science under Wenger. They won a few leagues until every other club caught up, dragging the other clubs out of the 80s & 90s era when it came to food and fitness and drinking, and the league eventually became better as a whole. Every club started to use the same techniques.
The league keeps evolving and increasing in standards across the board.
If your starting point is in a lower league never having played top flight before then solid midtable of the Premier league can absolutely be the result of terrific recruitment
I'm saying that clubs outside the "big 6" can win trophies and should be aiming to. Favourable draw or not Wigan still had to beat those teams to win the FA Cup. Yeah Leicester City fans are protesting but I don't see Southampton, Ipswich or Wolves fans protesting.
So you're saying that Fulham, Brentford and Brighton have all had terrific recruitment but yet have failed to win anything so it isn't terrific recruitment unless you're definition of terrific recruitment brings you midtable mediocrity. Fulham managed to make a Europa League final in 2010 and no one was calling their recruitment terrific then.
There never were any easy games in the Prem unless it's against some sh1t promoted team like Sheffield United last season, Southampton this season or 07/08 Derby. Was always tough going away to the likes of Stoke, Birmingham, Blackburn or Bolton. Probably easier now than before when the lesser teams used to have rubbish pitches and knock lumps out of passing sides. Now every ground has the same standard pitch and every team is playing some variation of tiki taka or counter pressing.
You're just listing out clubs, from outside the 'big 6', that have won a trophy in the last 25 years. Without actually saying anything.
How clubs played in the cups 25 years ago isn't relevant to the current standard of league. They could have got a favourable draw etc. For example, Wigan (PL) played teams in League 1, Non-League, Championship, PL and the Championship again before playing Man City in the Final.
Leicester fans are protesting the current state of the team in a relegation battle. It's not because they are not winning the bloody Premier League or the FA Cup in this current season. Success for them is staying up, in their first year of being in the actual league. You don't get promoted and automatically think that you can win the league the next season. Their team fell off a cliff because they bought average players and the other clubs around them bought well. The other clubs raising their standards and Leicester fell backwards. The other clubs like Fulham, Palace, Brighton, Brentford etc, all with terrific recruitment and managerial appointments. They are protesting because their club are not maintaining the status quo with these clubs, not because they are not winning the cups and league. If you think it's because of that, you're deluded.
Aston Villa had a terrific CL campaign and beat Bayern Munich amongst other teams. Are doing poorly in the PL, are in 10th position because there is no easy games anymore, apart from those 3 teams at the bottom. Villa can't handle the extra workload because the 'lesser teams' can turn them over now in that 3rd game in a week. The days of just rocking up away to a mid-table side away from home and beating a hungover Robbie Savage team is long gone.
That is the big thing now. No more easy games you can win by just showing up. The standards have increased massively, especially in positions 7 to 15. West Ham won a European trophy, while finishing bottom half in the league.
Again, the point has nothing to do with winning trophies. The fact that so many of the teams that DO NOT win trophies are now good enough to cause the biggest sides trouble is what makes for a league with strong depth. The biggest teams at any given time will always win most of the trophies, and selecting the small handful of exceptions from a 20 year period only enhances that. (on that subject though, it might be worth noting that only 1 of the 8 quarter finalists in this years FA Cup is a 'big team').
Some of the traditional superpowers are in transitional phases, and most of the rest have stepped up a level. It's great!
(as for the Leicester point… their owners money comes from duty free shopping. That industry's collapse during covid destroyed them. they just don't have money to invest anymore. Add in the tragic death of the family patriarch at one of their games, and their relative stagnation is fairly understandable)
Middlesbrough won a League cup in 2004, Portsmouth won an FA Cup in 2008, Birmingham won a League Cup in 2011 and got relegated, Swansea won a League Cup in 2013, Wigan won an FA Cup in 2013 and got relegated, let's not forget Leicester won the league in 2016 and an FA Cup in 2021 and West Ham won the Confrence League in 2023.
That is success for lower/midtable clubs not finishing in European places or top half. Fans should expecting more from their club. Leicester fans were protesting their owners there recently and rightly so they've seen their team win the league and an FA Cup and rightfully expect higher standards than what they've been producing.
You can say the standards have never been higher but yet the same teams will end up winning the trophies at the end of the season. Liverpool will win the league and most likely win the league cup and City will most likely win the FA Cup. If Chelsea win the Confrence League they'll have had a better season than Arsenal.
Success is not trophies.
Success is meeting and achieving a clubs objectives. Ipswich won't be judged against winning a trophy this season, likewise Wolves or Crystal Palace and Brentford and so on. Chelsea don't care about winning a league cup trophy, we want to play CL football, that's what success is for Chelsea this season.
I’m not sure that what they’ve won has anything to do with anything? The whole point IS that those mentioned are midtable teams. The middling sides by definition are not trophy winners - but in any given era they can be better, or worse. Right now they’re quite good. The depth of the league is actually strong enough that the strongest teams don’t get too many walkovers.
What have those teams you mention won? Success= Trophies.
They are all midtable teams. Wolves having 3 Brazil players in their squad probably says more about how poor Brazil are at the moment than Wolves.
