2024-2025 English Premier League

[Amazin69]

Still in the pre-season, but I should mention that there's a Chelsea-Wrexham friendly on ESPn at 10.30 tonight. I'm pretty sure they're playing in LA, as it's rather late in Britain.

I would tune in, but since the Big Bad Blue have continued their history of stealing any Leicester City player they can get their hands on by pillaging our Championship-winning coach (Enzo Maresca) and home-grown hero (Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, available for weddings and bar mitzvahs! Competitive rates! Book early!), I don't know if I want to see any more of them than I need to.

Even if Ryan Reynolds himself is on the commentary, which I doubt. I'll wait for the new season of Welcome to Wrexham.

[Westheim]

Go Wolves!

[Boomcoach]

I saw the new Arsenal away jersey and loved it, so mine should be here in time to head to a "local" bar to watch the opener with a bunch of other Gunners fans.

I say "local" because it is 90 minutes away, but that happens when you live in the middle of bum&^%^ nowhere!)

[Amazin69]

CHELSEA-0, Manchester City-2.

Not exactly riveting (as mentioned in the Mets thread, I literally dozed off), but I did stay awake long enough to hear that Chelsea has (at least) 43 players under contract for their senior team. (Including the likes of Lukaku and Sterling, whom they literally can't give away right now.)

This seems like poor planning. If nothing else, they may go broke paying for the Winners' Medals, even in a best-case scenario.

[mytreds]

Liverpool gets it done 2-0 over Ipswich. Salah makes history by scoring in 9 season openers. Arne Slot is the first Liverpool manager this century to win his first match.

[Hageneezz]

City fans are plastic!

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[Hageneezz]

Come On You Irons!

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[Amazin69]

From Monday's action:

LEICESTER CITEH 1, Tottenham 1

The Hottentots were forcing corner after corner during the first half as we gave them far too much room down the left side. Fortunately, James Maddison remained nearly as ineffective on corner kicks as he was with us (despite Mumbling Martin Tyler actually praising his efforts) and apart from one chance where Wilfred Ndidi (who thankfully did not go to Scotland to rejoin Brendan Rodgers) had to do a semi-bicycle to clear the ball off of the line after it got past Hermansen, nothing came of all that effort.

29' in, Spurs did manage to have an extra man on the left, and so an unmarked Maddison was able to send a nice ball towards the penalty spot which Pedro Porro headed in, and we were down 0-1.

At which point, thankfully, the Tater Totts decided to switch off, perhaps thinking we had no chance on offense. After all, Jamie Vardy had only just returned from a month-long foot injury and, at 37, seemed unlikely to have his famous pace. (A long ball down the middle early on, which would have been a sure goal for Vardy a few years back, didn't even turn into a shot chance.)

Yes, but…after a halftime talk reorganized and re-energized the defense, we started to take advantage of Tottenham's high line, and in the 57', defender Viktor Kristiansen found himself unguarded down the left, slid the ball through an unoccupied box, and Abdel Fatawu (now permanently on the squad after his loan spell last season) chipped a nice little cross in that found Vardy, who still knows how to use his head, and it was even.

At which point, Spurs pretty much lost their heads, and we had the best chances from then on. Bobby DeCordova-Reid found Vardy in the box for a nice chance, but Vicario got a hand to it, then Kasey McAteer (supposedly The Future, but only a late sub here) hit a pop-up header that soared high and alas came down on the net (Vicario couldn't have got there if it had been more accurate) and, in extra time, Bergvall got his pocket completely picked and Ndidi had a great chance that Vicario barely dove to parry (and then he screamed at Bergvall as Bergvall has [I hope] never been screamed at before). Tottenham did force one last free kick from the side and Richarlisson had a chance to head it in, but couldn't glance it correctly.

So, what to think? Surely a point against a side that finished 5th last season counts as a good result, especially as we only had 31% possession and they had 10 corners in the first half alone. But I wish we could have grabbed all three, given the chances we had in the final half-hour.

I think the problem is a lack of star power; Steve Cooper believes in proven Prem players, so with DeCordova-Reid and Harry Winks and Conor Coady (out injured) and Oliver Skipp (just acquired from Spurs) we should be able to post decent results often enough to likely survive relegation. But we won't be moving forward until McAteer (or Michael Golding or maybe even the elusive Nathan Opoku) shows the promise we've been told they have.

Still, better one than none. Certainly the Spurs fans were in a lather…but when are they not? That team would drive anyone around the bend.

[Boomcoach]

Right now it is a good time for me to be a football fan! As a Columbus Crew and Arsenal fan, there have been some tough years, but both teams are flying high right now!

Kinda makes up for my Reds being maddeningly inconsistent, I suppose.

[Westheim]

Wolves' schedule to start the season is like someone's picking on them. They have every big hitter except Man United in their first eight games. It's gonna get a lot worse before it's gonna get better. And at 2-8 goals from two games it's already gotten pretty bad.

[mytreds]

Everton collapsing in final 9 minutes to lose 3-2 to Bournemouth.
Liverpool beats Man U easily 3-0.
Salah score his seventh goal at Old Trafford.

Good weekend

[Hageneezz]

Come on you Irons!

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[Amazin69]

Leicester City sucks.

(More details when I feel the strength.)

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

Leicester City sucks.

(More details when I feel the strength.)

Worse than Wolves?

[Westheim]

Also, Man City leading the league is so boring. Laaaame!

At least the Bundesliga, two rounds in, is led by ...

[Amazin69]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Also, Man City leading the league is so boring. Laaaame!

To be fair, Brighton were top for a day.

They'd still be up there, if they'd taken advantage of Rice being sent off and grabbed all three points at Arsenal. The draw was almost a disappointment, given that BHA have won 3 of their 4 previous matches there.

(In contrast, Leicester City won at Arsenal in October 2020, on a Vardy goal in the 80' , but that was during the COVID season and there were no Gunner Gooners in the stand.

The last time the Foxes won against an Arsenal home crowd was, research showed, 8 September 1973. Peter Shilton in goal, Alan Birchenall in midfield, Lenny Glover and Mike Stringellow scoring the goals.

So 3-1-1 at Arsenal this decade still looks pretty impressive, AFAICT.)

[Hageneezz]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

Leicester City sucks.

(More details when I feel the strength.)

Hope they'll stay up though

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[Amazin69]

And the madness continues! Why does Steve Cooper think that Wilfred Ndidi, a DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDER his entire life, should be a CAM, playing in behind Vardy??

Yes, he's fast, and he took the ball away from the Aston Villa defense a couple of times, but he's not an offensive threat, and he can't even receive the ball well. (Harry Winks sent a nice diagonal pass in the first half at Villa and he couldn't do anything with it.)

I'm glad they're playing Mavididi today, although I'm not sure it should be at the expense of Fatawu. But if the problem you've been having ts that you can't get the ball up the pitch (Fulham completely clamped down on Winks and we couldn't play through the thirds at all), you can't afford to be playing silly games with the formation. GRRR.

(Yes, I'm trying to reverse-jinx the Foxes, it's true. But this really is baffling.)

[Amazin69]

Okay, so most of the American audience is annoyed that USA is showing this game and Manchester City v. Brentford is hidden away on Pisscock (especially since the Bees have taken the early lead at Arab Airlines Field), but I'm glad that I don't have to wait and download this match, so shut up, okay?

I mean, we almost had a scoring chance! (Jordan Ayew, perhaps thinking he's still with Palace rather than playing against them, duffed it, but you can't have everything.)

[Westheim]

Is this the year Everton finally runs outta dice? Back-to-back L's after 2-0 leads. They've not beaten anything outside of Doncaster in the second-sparklingest cup.

Not that I'm rooting against Everton. It's kinda neat that they've played in the top league uninterruptedly since before my parents were born, and they just reached retirement age. Sadly they seem to be managed like the Mets, which is bothersome in a relegation league...