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Fierce_LiNk

Football Season 2019-20

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On 17/06/2020 at 9:48 PM, Fierce_LiNk said:

Lovely to see that David Luiz is taking the social distancing seriously. He's distanced himself well and truly from his defensive responsibilities. 

Shocking player.

Luiz is class - because he’s Agent Luiz, sent to ruin Arsenal! :laughing:

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1 hour ago, Kav said:

Luiz is class - because he’s Agent Luiz, sent to ruin Arsenal! :laughing:

Saw a revealing stat about Luiz:

 

Games per red card for Chelsea: 160

Games per red card for Arsenal: 13

 

Games per penalty given away for Chelsea: 53

Games per penalty gievn away for Arsenal: 6.5

 

It's hard not to conclude that the man is a complete liability...

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Great to be watching United again! I didn't think we played too badly overall, except for the period of time after Spurs scored. Terrible goal to concede, a combination of Maguire not being strong enough and De Gea...continuing his disappointing downturn in form.

After half time and before their goal, I thought that we were the better team and the team most likely to win it. A few chances that we maybe should have done a bit better with. Awesome to finally see Pogba and Fernandes playing together. That could be really juicy!

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Race for top 4 will be very enjoyable. I think Leicester could get sucked in, Wolves are looking strong and Sheffield United play pretty much everyone involved. 

On Man Utd, we were rusty as all hell on Friday, understandably, and that played right into Mou's hands. Considering those circumstances I think we still looked promising, and am confident we'll have a strong end to the season.

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Great weekend of football for Chelsea!

Hopefully we can push on and make top 3.

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On 19/06/2020 at 3:05 AM, Blade said:

I'm still absolutely fuming.

Their keeper was hugging the god damn ball against the post. Cheating t***

Apparently 7 Hawkeye cameras couldn't pick the goal up but I saw it clearly on my TV. Yeah, okay then.

What a joke.

 

Prediction for tonight?

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Living the dream tonight. I put the United game on one tv and had the Everton game on the other tv playing through iPlayer. Multi-screen football. :D 

Martial played really well tonight and no pissing about with the finishing. Great finish for the last goal, really cheeky. Hope he gets tons of confidence from this and continues scoring.

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Well done and congratulations to Liverpool. Definitely the best team this season and they deserve it. Can't be any questions about that, regardless of allegiances. 

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Would be great if Klopp could give the kids a run out again against Villa, you can afford to drop a few points and still break City's points record and Villa could do with a win. It really isn't much to ask.

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Chelsea's defending was fucking appalling. I was hoping they'd do Villa a favour and smash West Ham - never expected them to lose. 

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9 hours ago, killthenet said:

Chelsea's defending was fucking appalling. I was hoping they'd do Villa a favour and smash West Ham - never expected them to lose. 

Me neither - I had a bet on it too...

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Feeling pretty pessimistic about Villa's chance of survival at the moment. Even taking the harsh penalty decision into account we just look completely dejected. Tonight was always going to be tough, it would be a complete bonus to even get a point, but it doesn't fill me with much hope for the key games we've got to come. If we don't beat Palace on Sunday I can't see us staying up.

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1 hour ago, killthenet said:

Feeling pretty pessimistic about Villa's chance of survival at the moment. Even taking the harsh penalty decision into account we just look completely dejected. Tonight was always going to be tough, it would be a complete bonus to even get a point, but it doesn't fill me with much hope for the key games we've got to come. If we don't beat Palace on Sunday I can't see us staying up.

I thought the penalty was harsh and shouldn't have been given. 

The issue with Villa is that I don't think they are necessarily a bad side or a weak side. Just that it seems very, very difficult to score goals. Pogba and Greenwood's goals were good strikes and, bar maybe closing down a bit better, there wasn't a lot that could be done. Grealish is a quality player but it's clear that there aren't really too many players on a similar wavelength that can help him out or improve the rest of the side. When you've got good players, it elevates the side, but I think it's too much to ask of one to player to keep the entire team up. It's just a bit beyond them I think.

But, on the plus side, I think there's enough there (with a few additions, e.g. some more goalscorers) for Villa to bounce back up. I think it's the same with Bournemouth, who I will expect to go down. We'll only be talking a couple of points, but that will be enough to relegate both teams, I feel. West Ham and Watford can count themselves lucky, because they are bad enough to warrant going down and should both be playing better than they are.

In an ideal world, I'd like to see both West Ham and Watford go down, with Aston Villa and Bournemouth narrowly staying up. There isn't really a lot in it and it could still happen. In fact:

West Ham's last four games:

Norwich (a)

Watford (h)

Manchester United (a)

Aston Villa (h)

 

Watford's last four games:

Newcastle (h)

West Ham (a)

Manchester City (h)

Arsenal (a)

 

Bournemouth's last four games:

Leicester (h)

Manchester City (a)

Southampton (h)

Everton (a)

 

Aston Villa's last four games:

Crystal Palace (h)

Everton (a)

Arsenal (h)

West Ham (a)

 

So, looking at that...I would say that Villa have got the better run in, with Bournemouth having the worst of it. So, it CAN still be done, but fuuuuuck, it's going to be close. It may only be 1 point that does it for any of these sides.

 

 

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I'm still crossing my fingers that we can pull clear but it's hard to stay optimistic given our trouble scoring recently. Being relegated wouldn't be so bad if it didn't mean losing Grealish, McGinn and Mings (and a handful of other promising players) but they will all be on their way to other clubs if we don't stay up. 

Would absolutely prefer for West Ham and Watford to go down instead of Villa and Bournemouth. It is entirely possible that neither of the London clubs get any points (other than a point a piece when they play each other next week) and that Villa and Bournemouth can sneak past them with two wins but it would take a lot of luck for things to pan out that way.

Palace don't seem to have anything to play for now, same goes for Everton - the defeats to Liverpool and United don't really change the outlook much for Villa as long as we can get wins against Palace, Everton and West Ham then it's still in our hands.

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19 hours ago, killthenet said:

I'm still crossing my fingers that we can pull clear but it's hard to stay optimistic given our trouble scoring recently. Being relegated wouldn't be so bad if it didn't mean losing Grealish, McGinn and Mings (and a handful of other promising players) but they will all be on their way to other clubs if we don't stay up. 

Would absolutely prefer for West Ham and Watford to go down instead of Villa and Bournemouth. It is entirely possible that neither of the London clubs get any points (other than a point a piece when they play each other next week) and that Villa and Bournemouth can sneak past them with two wins but it would take a lot of luck for things to pan out that way.

Palace don't seem to have anything to play for now, same goes for Everton - the defeats to Liverpool and United don't really change the outlook much for Villa as long as we can get wins against Palace, Everton and West Ham then it's still in our hands.

Looking at those games, it is very much doable for Villa. But, as we've said, the goals are a huge issue. The last three games have been tough against Wolves, Liverpool and Man United, but they've really struggled to score even before that. I guess if they can sneak a few 1-0s, that might be enough. It's going to be tight. Those games are not too bad though. Challenging, but winnable with the right team and attitude.

I think Bournemouth are as good as down with those fixtures. Looking at their form, I think they'll lose them all. I just can't see them doing enough in those games to win and they've had a problem too with scoring goals. If they manage to stay up from this position and with their form, it would be a huge success story.

West Ham are the side that have destiny in their own hands. Playing against Norwich, Watford and Villa for three of their last four games is a huge blessing. Three cup finals right there...

I would be surprised if West Ham go down from their position and with those fixtures. I would say that the current league positions will most likely not change until the season finishes...that's my initial feeling. But, I do think that Villa and Bournemouth will be good enough to come back up next season and hopefully stronger. It proves though that if you can't score goals, you're as good as fucked in this league. Good strikers who remain consistent in this league are absolute gold dust. 

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@killthenet has John Terry bring any notable improvement to the team in his time there? I presume he is there for his knowledge of the defensive side of the game, but every time I see you play it's your defense which seems to let you down.

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@LazyBoy That's the most baffling thing, you would think that having one of the most decorated centre backs in English football history as your assistant manager would afford us some solid defensive coaching but it's probably the weakest part of our game. Dean Smith was a centre back himself, although he played at a much lower level than Terry, so he should be capable of providing some words of wisdom to the defence but we just seem to be a bit directionless at the back. We've looked more solid since the restart but we're still leaking too many goal and making too many individual errors, lack of defensive cohesion has definitely been the biggest disappointment for me.

West Ham look like they've sewn up the 3 points at Norwich already but Newcastle are keeping Watford within sight. It looks like it's only going to be one of Watford, Bournemouth or Villa now that can stay up, best case scenario for Villa is if West Ham pull clear by beating Watford in midweek then we should stay up with wins at Palace (or Everton) and West Ham but it's going to be pretty close to the bone. I'm not sure I'd be able to handle the stress if it was still up in the air going into the final day, last time we got relegated we were so far adrift it was pretty much all done and dusted by Christmas - there was no drama whatsoever, no hope to cling on to. At the moment it feels like we're in limbo just waiting for other results to decide our fate, we need to grab the games by the scruff of the neck and put it in our own hands again.

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Massive moment in the relegation battle. Watford given a penalty and Deeney smashes it in. 

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Yeah, seems like it's over now. There are 12 points for Villa still to play for and we're 7 points from safety - things are looking pretty bleak and it'll surely be terminal if we don't beat Palace tomorrow. 

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Thanks for insight @killthenet. I've enjoyed having you guys back, but looks like that Watford result has settled it. Hopefully you jump straight back, Villa Park deserves top level games. Think you'll lose Grealish - even if we can't afford him (though I hope we can), somebody will recognise the value in a player that makes so much happen. UTV

 

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I thought both of those Watford penalties were jammy. Soft as anything! Especially the first one. A good game, but it doesn't do Villa or Bournemouth any favours.

West Ham smashed Norwich. That's good for them, but a bit sad that this is how Norwich are going out, on a whimper. I just get the feeling that West Ham have enough there to make it, however they are chronic underachievers. At the start of each season, you always expect them to have a decent one, but they continue to disappoint. The husband of one of my best friends is West Ham fan and it drives him crazy. They'll scrape by this season, but it's a huge warning to them for next year.

I feel that Aston Villa and Bournemouth have run out of games. We'll see with Villa tomorrow how they perform, but I don't have any hope for Bournemouth with the way they're playing. They wouldn't have put four past Norwich today. :hmm:

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1 hour ago, Fierce_LiNk said:

I thought both of those Watford penalties were jammy. Soft as anything! Especially the first one. A good game, but it doesn't do Villa or Bournemouth any favours.

West Ham smashed Norwich. That's good for them, but a bit sad that this is how Norwich are going out, on a whimper. I just get the feeling that West Ham have enough there to make it, however they are chronic underachievers. At the start of each season, you always expect them to have a decent one, but they continue to disappoint. The husband of one of my best friends is West Ham fan and it drives him crazy. They'll scrape by this season, but it's a huge warning to them for next year.

I feel that Aston Villa and Bournemouth have run out of games. We'll see with Villa tomorrow how they perform, but I don't have any hope for Bournemouth with the way they're playing. They wouldn't have put four past Norwich today. :hmm:

Watching the Blades v Chelsea game?

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20 minutes ago, LazyBoy said:

Watching the Blades v Chelsea game?

Just switched it on but missed the goal by about a minute. The Blades look great, what an insane season it's been for them.

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