EPL 2012-2013

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Gatehawk

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Uncle Si":1fbhzpyy said:
For a tournament that everyone blasted Liverpool winning last year there were some competitive matches featuring the some of the world's best players. Funny enough, Liverpool played a very young squad. City and Villa went after it, as did Newcastle and United (for the most part, a good balance of reserves and starters).

Hope it lasts into the later rounds.

It was nice to see Liverpool beat a BPL team, even if it wasnt within league play.

Honestly, the COC is only called the Mickey Mouse Cup if that fan's team is knocked out.
 

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peachesenregalia":1rlskf7v said:
Alright, now that I've had time to let it sink in, I'm utterly FURIOUS with Terry and the FA. What a F***ing sham. Seriously. Complete bollocks to punish one player who admitted what he did and tried to offer explanation, even when no video or audio evidence was available, with an 8-match ban, then punish another player who very clearly called a player a 'black c**t' with video evidence to prove it, with a 4 match ban even after he refused to plead guilty.

I'm done this season, i think. I can't be arsed watching anymore.

It's pretty poor alright.

The FA seem to be absolutely incapable of making a good decision. Ever.
 

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For Liverpool fans (Suarez, peaches)

What do you think of Sterling, Suso and now Wisdom, Yesil, Assaidi, Pacheco, even Sinclair?
 

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peachesenregalia":liajmnen said:
Uncle Si":liajmnen said:
For Liverpool fans (Suarez, peaches)

What do you think of Sterling, Suso and now Wisdom, Yesil, Assaidi, Pacheco, even Sinclair?

Sterling is top-drawer. Fantastic wee player.

Suso impressed me so far.

Yesil I haven't seen much, so I can't give an accurate assessment

Assaidi is fast. REALLY fast. good skill and I think should be working his way into the first team sooner rather than later.

Pacheco I've always rated as a youngster, not sure how well he'll do in the first team though. Doesn't hurt to have another striking option around though.

Haven't seen sinclair

Wisdom is a puzzler to me. He's looked fantastic at times and seems to disappear at other times. I'll wait and see on him.

Future looks very bright with these young lads, though.


I pretty much agree with everything said here. I haven't seen much of Yesil either, but if Borini's dip in form continues who do you reckon gets the call up? Yesil? Assaidi out wide and move Suarez to the center?
 

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I watch via streams and games on ESPN3 (I don't have cable TV of any kind). I will usually download a game or two the day after they are played and then I'll also snatch Match Of The Day. My roommate and I watch that every week. 80 minutes and it gives you extended highlights for all the days matches. A must watch for me...Their analysis is pretty interesting too.
 

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Wow. What an intense game of football that was.

Go AVB! Come On You Spurs!
 

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peachesenregalia":2jz0xmw5 said:
Well done Spurs. Exposed Man Ure's problems for all to see.

Livepool were excellent today save for two defensive mistakes, both coming when then game was already put to bed.

Chelsea are the team to beat this season. Incredible squad they've put together.

I agree about Chelsea being the team to beat. I don't think anyone else is guaranteed to finish in the top 4 at this stage.

It's been a good week and a half for Liverpool, and that coming after a controversial loss to United too.

I'm looking forward to Match of the Day now, especially so that I can see 'Arry try to take the credit for the win today. The Sun will no doubt be finding some way to say that by letting United back into the game that AVB has 3 games to save his job as well.
 

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Better by Liverpool... but still frail in the back. Depsite giving up two goals well after the game was settled, they looked vulnerable for decent stretches. Still, this match belonged to Suarez, and it wasnt just the hat trick. his movement was fantastic and kept Norwich pinned back, really allowed the rest of group to move forward.

Great job by Spurs, but what a game. Spurs the faster, more incisive team up until the 60th minute. United really pushed Spurs all over their defensive third those last 30 minutes. the fact they didnt equalize is almost a mystery. Van Persies left footed miss was a shocker.

Chelsea dont look as strong as their point total indicates. Arsenal deserved better from the game, and Terry was constantly out of sorts dealing with Girouds runs. If they dont find help in that cback position I can see them starting to drop. Not out of the top four, but maybe out of the top spot.

The team that needs to be given some due right now is Everton. Simply winning matches.
 
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Uncle Si":3cdqxwnh said:
Chelsea dont look as strong as their point total indicates. Arsenal deserved better from the game, and Terry was constantly out of sorts dealing with Girouds runs. If they dont find help in that cback position I can see them starting to drop. Not out of the top four, but maybe out of the top spot.

I almost threw my computer out the window after the second Chelsea goal. I don't believe that either team deserved to win that match. It was Arsenal's worst performance this year, and Chelsea caught a massive break when Cech forced Giroud wide enough to somehow miss his shot at the end. The first Chelsea goal I think shouldn't have counted, namely cause I saw Torres yanking on Koscielny's shirt keeping him from fully turning around, Kos should have defended that better though. The second goal came off a free kick after a foul that seemed a bit soft.

Giroud's already getting unfairly criticized for his one legitimate chance. Gervinho looked much better this week and has already equaled his goal tally from last season. Podolski looked a bit exhausted just before he was brought off. I really don't know if Mertesacker would have made a real significant difference if he had played. And now it looks as if Wilshere's return to EPL action is gonna be sooner than later after Diaby's injury.
 

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Gatehawk":3qkvrbzl said:
Uncle Si":3qkvrbzl said:
Chelsea dont look as strong as their point total indicates. Arsenal deserved better from the game, and Terry was constantly out of sorts dealing with Girouds runs. If they dont find help in that cback position I can see them starting to drop. Not out of the top four, but maybe out of the top spot.

I almost threw my computer out the window after the second Chelsea goal. I don't believe that either team deserved to win that match. It was Arsenal's worst performance this year, and Chelsea caught a massive break when Cech forced Giroud wide enough to somehow miss his shot at the end. The first Chelsea goal I think shouldn't have counted, namely cause I saw Torres yanking on Koscielny's shirt keeping him from fully turning around, Kos should have defended that better though. The second goal came off a free kick after a foul that seemed a bit soft.

Giroud's already getting unfairly criticized for his one legitimate chance. Gervinho looked much better this week and has already equaled his goal tally from last season. Podolski looked a bit exhausted just before he was brought off. I really don't know if Mertesacker would have made a real significant difference if he had played. And now it looks as if Wilshere's return to EPL action is gonna be sooner than later after Diaby's injury.

I think Giroud's criticism needs to lay less at what he did with his one chance and more at why it was only one chance? Terry looked lost all afternoon, and yet Giroud rarely made him turn his head.

Still, as a non part watching the game, I saw Arsenal play quite well. I disagree on Torres goal, both parties were guilty of grabbing and clutching, as is everyone in those scrums. Noone gained an advantage over it. Torres was quite tricky with his feet there, all credit to him.

Gervinho really just slows Arsenal down. He stands over the ball too much, rarely moves off of it once he finally does decide to pass, and asaide from a finish here and there slows his Arsenal down. Gunners should also feel let down by Podolski, who rarely found the match. But still, with all that, they deserved a point. The second Chelsea goaal was class Gate, thats a solid hit by Hazard right through the attacking channel. Have seen alot of those slide in, nic a post or slide just wide this season.
 
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Uncle Si":2foioz3i said:
I think Giroud's criticism needs to lay less at what he did with his one chance and more at why it was only one chance? Terry looked lost all afternoon, and yet Giroud rarely made him turn his head.

Still, as a non part watching the game, I saw Arsenal play quite well. I disagree on Torres goal, both parties were guilty of grabbing and clutching, as is everyone in those scrums. Noone gained an advantage over it. Torres was quite tricky with his feet there, all credit to him.

Gervinho really just slows Arsenal down. He stands over the ball too much, rarely moves off of it once he finally does decide to pass, and asaide from a finish here and there slows his Arsenal down. Gunners should also feel let down by Podolski, who rarely found the match. But still, with all that, they deserved a point. The second Chelsea goaal was class Gate, thats a solid hit by Hazard right through the attacking channel. Have seen alot of those slide in, nic a post or slide just wide this season.

Like I said Podolski looked gassed on Saturday, that may have played a part in his lack of involvment.

I wouldn't say Chelsea's second goal was class, but I will say it found the perfect spot to sneak past Koscielny's sliding challenge and Mannone's somewhat poor save attempt. I hope the Gunners don't let this loss get to them too much, because this was a bit of a buzzkill loss.

I'm not too down about the loss as I said at the beginning of September, Arsenal needed to get at least 7 or 8 points to make it a successful month (since the only simple game was Southampton) and they managed to get 7, though I expected the loss to be against City. It would have been nice to get the win and I'm frustrated that Arsenal could not get a point against Chelsea, I have to say it's mostly to do with a good performance by Cech.
 
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An okay 1st half by Arsenal, if not for some good positioning by the Hammers, Arsenal could have scored at least 3 times before they finally broke through. And as luck would have it, Giroud is the one who scores off of a great low cross by Podolski. Diamme has the goal for West Ham, which came off a completely unexpected shot and massively against the run of play.
 
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3-1 Arsenal picking up the win. Great performance off the defeat to Chelsea, West Ham's strategy backfired as they constantly kept trying to get the ball to Carroll. Walcott and Cazorla(with an epic strike) finished off the scoring. Actually before Walcott's goal, West Ham looked like the more likely to score and it was the first time West Ham left any space for Arsenal to really attack the goal. After that West Ham's defense just didn't look as good as before and Cazorla finished them off with a wicked curving strike that Jaaskelainen had no chance to stop it.

Elsewhere, City finally got a clean sheet but everyone will be talking about Balotelli and Mancini... again, Chelsea bullied Norwich, Mark Hughes tenure at QPR is on life support, and Swansea and Everton managed 2-2 draws each.
 

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Gatehawk":1osx97oc said:
Mark Hughes tenure at QPR is on life support

One more loss and 'Arry will be licking his chops at the prospect of being able to rekindle his favourite motto: "When I came 'ere they 'ad 2 points from 8 games."

Hughes has to be one of the most uninspiring, uncharasmatic managers in the business. I like QPR as a club though. Good ground in an interesting location. I've only been to see rugby league there but I'd imagine it'd be a good place to watch football. Pretty good fans too. I hope they stay up.
 
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Arsenal's board has apparently revealed that Wenger will have 35 million pounds to spend in the January Transfer window to "reinforce" the squad. I highly doubt if anything, that they'll spend all 35 million, and moreso all of it for one player as that article has caused some rumors of Arsenal going for Falcao.

Is it weird that at this point last year a lot of us were thinking it was the end of Wenger? Hell there were calls for him to be sacked actually. Last year at this point Arsenal had 7 points and 4 losses and were 15th, this year Arsenal has 12 points, 1 loss, and is 7th in the league, add to that they've given up more than 5 goals(they had five conceeded by the 30th minue of the Nightmare at Old Trafford). What a difference a year makes huh?
 

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Gatehawk":75tmra66 said:
Arsenal's board has apparently revealed that Wenger will have 35 million pounds to spend in the January Transfer window to "reinforce" the squad. I highly doubt if anything, that they'll spend all 35 million, and moreso all of it for one player as that article has caused some rumors of Arsenal going for Falcao.

I'm pretty sure that Wenger would need significantly more than £35 million for Falcao. Atletico paid almost exactly that for him only about a season ago. I don't even know if they'd need to sell him.
Llorente or Villa would seem more likely options to me.

And as you've alluded to, Wenger has never felt the need to pay superstar prices before, it's not the way he tends to work.
 
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I found an interesting "What If" question on Facebook. The question went:

If your club shut down tomorrow/didn't exist anymore, which club would you support?

Now I assume the question was referring to teams in the same league as it went on to mention that if anyone said their direct rivals then for that person to **** off.

For me I'd probably have to say Newcastle cause they're really the only other EPL team I'm ever compelled into watching besides Arsenal.
 

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Gatehawk":27f3ieen said:
I found an interesting "What If" question on Facebook. The question went:

If your club shut down tomorrow/didn't exist anymore, which club would you support?

Now I assume the question was referring to teams in the same league as it went on to mention that if anyone said their direct rivals then for that person to **** off.

For me I'd probably have to say Newcastle cause they're really the only other EPL team I'm ever compelled into watching besides Arsenal.

Probably QPR, as far as the premier league goes. Good ground, location and fans. They hate Chelsea with a passion so I wouldn't have much to learn to fit in.

I also have a soft spot for Brentford as one of my best mates goes there quite often. I've been a couple of times and it's been fun. If I didn't have Spurs to spend my money on I'd go to a lot more games here in Bristol, although I'm not sure if that'd be City or Rovers.
 

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Gatehawk":2nhh9mmd said:
I found an interesting "What If" question on Facebook. The question went:

If your club shut down tomorrow/didn't exist anymore, which club would you support?

Now I assume the question was referring to teams in the same league as it went on to mention that if anyone said their direct rivals then for that person to **** off.

For me I'd probably have to say Newcastle cause they're really the only other EPL team I'm ever compelled into watching besides Arsenal.

Most likely Spurs.

Borini now out 3 months after foot surgery. Either the youngsters step up, or Stewart Downing has to become a goal factory. One of these is likely.
 

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