General Premier League Thread 2025/2026 - See Post #1 for Mod Note

Could anyone argue match fixing there tonight? If I was a West Ham fan I'd be furious with what I saw.

Dont remember Arsenal fans ever cheering losing a game especially when chasing for Champions league.

What are you basing this on?

I’m a Villa fan and I’m furious, that was an embarrassing spineless performance I’ve not seen as bad since our relegation season. Slight sympathy for West Ham but they’ve not played with anything like the passion and urgency shown by Spurs today. With their respective run ins I think West Ham are down

My mate whos a Villa fan is fuming.

Points difference from this point last year.

Over 1 billion on new players combined by Liverpool, Chelsea and Newcastle.

I'm still convinced there's a lot more going on behind the scenes. And not just the struggles and emotions associated with Jota. I think Salah has hinted at discontent - obviously he's had his outburst and is leaving - and so has Mac Allister, who we saw disagreeing with Szoboszlai that time he scored and did the Salah celebration.

I think Ekitike has a bigger ego than comes across which could be an issue. Robertson and Alisson are very very experienced and professional but one if not both of them are leaving with Salah and van Dijk has 12 months left.

I don't think Slot will stay, but I also don't think it's the silver bullet fans think it is.

I think the problems are across the group of players right now with a chasm between the newer younger players and the old guard with too many fancy dans thinking they're the shít already.

Arne Slot I think is an excellent coach and will get results at a top club ONLY WHEN that club has no squad harmony issues. That's what he has last season. No new signings, everybody knows each other and playing well feeds morale which feeds success

The problem is I don't think he is a man manager. He's much more Rafa than Klopp. And this to me screams of a team crying out for someone who can fix the dressing room. If that's a Xabi, brilliant.

I just think Slot is stuck because he's likely always been able to fix issues with his teams before by bringing out the whiteboard and consulting his coaches and making the tactical tweaks necessary to make the team perform the extra few percentage points on the pitch. But this he literally can't fix because he's not that type of manager.

I don't see him saying, but I do think many fans are going too far. As you say, he won the league less than a year ago and gave us another one of the best days of our lives. We can recognise the issues, be disappointed in how the season turned out, wish him well and see him move on, without the petty insults and disrespect you expect from opposition fans.

One thing I will say for Liverpool fans - Gakpo gets a lot of stick and maybe there more to it when you watch him week in and week out

…But he was at least trying out there. Getting himself into dangerous areas, trying to make something happen.

Wirtz on the other hand… well, he gets off very lightly.
If you swapped their performance today you'd have fans saying you can see Wirtz will come good and Gakpo is terrible/useless.

If you asked someone who has no interest in football to pick out the 100m+ pound footballer on the pitch today there wouldn't be a chance in hell they'd identify Wirtz.

I don't see Wirtz week to week (I do see a lot of highlights) but every time I see him for a full game he is completely and utterly underwhelming.

Does he need the team to be built around him to get him going?

Which clubs’ fans have done that?

I think so, yes. He is very young which is where the "he'll come good" shouts come from. He's younger than Harvey Elliott for example who won the u21 Euros last summer but Wirtz was playing with the senior team in the Nations League at the same time

The odd thing though is that Elliott didn't play much last season and was let go to Villa because there wasn't a spot for him...but...if you look at the squad it's pretty clear that Elliott is the closest player to Wirtz in terms of position and style of play

So that's the head scratcher. If you can't fit Elliott in the squad then why buy Wirtz? And even if it's as simple as you don't rate Harvey, what's the downside in keeping him as backup if you're going to change the setup to mold the team around Wirtz? Keep Elliott and you keep the shape you want when Wirtz is out or comes off in games.

What were there differing opinions about a final they were in?

Surely they all wanted to win it?

Im very curious to hear about this? You suggesting that Arsenal fans wanted Spurs to lose the champions league final, ahead of Arsenal winning the Europa league final? Cant speak for other people, but I definitely wouldn't have had that view.

I was personally cheering for Arsenal and Liverpool in those finals.

Didnt enter my mind to cheer for Chelsea as a trade off with a higher force to stop Spurs winning a few days later.