2019/20 Premier League & General Football Discussion

[m8h3r]

Does anyone know why they are having the mid half water breaks? I assumed it was due to the weather, or due to the gap between the stop and restart of the season but they still do them now.

 

[88GTA]

The water breaks were added due to the time off and the heat. They seem to take them regardless of the weather, even in the Italian league.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

I'll post this weekend's games after the West Ham-Watford game tonight.

Its a bit different tonight as its also the FA Cup semi finals, there are league games of course and the four teams involved in the cup will play their games in hand in mid week next week, the final day of the PL season is next Sunday.

 

[Touring Mars]

Congrats Leeds for promotion to the EPL... though I reckon the BBC cameraman is not a fan of their manager.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

West Ham beat Watford 3-1 and they were 3-0 up at half time, Watford were better in the second half and they are in a bit of trouble near the bottom now, if they lose there final two and either Villa or Bournemouth win their final two then hey are down.

Big congrats to Leeds on the promotion, after a 16 year absence as well! And they done it without kicking a ball as West Brom lost to Huddersfield earlier.

----------------------------------------

FA Cup Semi Finals.

Saturday.

Arsenal v Man City (7.45 BT)

Sunday.

Chelsea v Man United (6pm BBC)

-------------------------------------------

Premier League.

Saturday.

Norwich v Burnley (5.30 Sky)

Sunday.

Bournemouth v Southampton (2pm BT)
Tottenham v Leicester (4pm Sky)

Monday.

Brighton v Newcastle (6pm Sky)
Sheffield United v Everton (6pm Amazon)
Wolves v Crystal Palace (8.15 BT)

 

[andrea]

Pep was just casually wearing a watch valued at a million quid today. Arteta with the Apple watch. Something something joke about transfer budgets.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Arsenal beat Man City 2-0 in the FA Cup semi final at Wembley, Aubameyang got both goals in a great team performance with David Luiz actually coming up trumps, City only had one shot on target and they were out-fought. Chelsea v Man United in the other semi later today.

Burnley beat Norwich 0-2 in the only league game of the day and Norwich went down to nine men in the first half after having two players sent off.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Its been reported that Nigel Pearson has been sacked as Watford manager.

They are currently 3 points clear of the relegation zone ahead of their last two league games, they did have a bad 3-1 loss to West Ham in their last game, when Pearson took over earlier in the season they were 4 points adrift at the bottom.

Huddersfield have also sacked Danny Cowley and his brother despite them securing survival in the Championship but beating Stoke on Friday night.

 

[redhed17]

Its been reported that Nigel Pearson has been sacked as Watford manager.

They are currently 3 points clear of the relegation zone ahead of their last two league games, they did have a bad 3-1 loss to West Ham in their last game, when Pearson took over earlier in the season they were 4 points adrift at the bottom.

Huddersfield have also sacked Danny Cowley and his brother despite them securing survival in the Championship but beating Stoke on Friday night.

Some weird decisions, but there may be more going on behind the scenes. If history is anything to go by, if Watford stay up, have a cheeky few pennies on Watford to win the league, if the Leicester history with Pearson is anything to go by.

Seriously though, nothing surprises me with Watford and the number of managers they have been through over recent years. Pearson seemed to be getting the players working as a team for the most part, and has down another great job considering the position they were when he went there. Man City and Arsenal are two hard games to go into with a potentially new person charge. 13 managers in 8 years tells the story of an unstable club.

At this moment it has not been confirmed, but Wikipedia already have Hayden Mullins as the caretaker manager.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Its been confirmed, Pearson and his assistant Craig Shakespeare both gone.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Bournemouth 0-2 Southampton
Tottenham 3-0 Leicester
Man United 1-3 Chelsea

Terrible from United earlier, just looked all over the place and couldn't get anything going, terrible defensively with mistakes from De Gea and a horrendous mistake for the second, third was an own goal from Maguire just to make things even worse! the only crumb of comfort was that Leicester lost in a key game in fourth place battle but we still need to pick ourselves up and try to beat West Ham on Wednesday.

Arsenal v Chelsea FA Cup Final on August 1st.

Another nail in the Bournemouth PL coffin sadly, Ings with the first and Adams in the 98th minute for Southampton.

 

[Famine]

Its been reported that Nigel Pearson has been sacked as Watford manager.

*crosses everything that Monk is next and Pearson finally agrees to be manager*

Pearson's always, reportedly, been averse to being Wednesday manager because there's nothing to be gained by it. We have a big, well-paid squad (but no money), big stadium, big crowds, and lots of expectation. He was club captain back in the 1990s - including when we were the last team outside the top flight to win a domestic trophy. Nothing short of getting back into the Premier League, and staying there, will ever be good enough for most of our fans, and that's pretty much impossible now.

We're probably going to be safe this season, and then relegated because the EFL will decide to punish us for the stadium sale thing after the season has ended, because they're determined to do so for some reason. Garry Monk has been incredibly inept and whaps out the same tripe match after match about the players not getting the basics right; he makes Jos Luhukay look competent (and neither of them would play our #1 goalkeeper, Keiren Westwood, for no reason I can detect; Lee Bullen played him when in caretaker charge after Luhukay and it instantly changed our fortunes. Steve Bruce played him and we were solid top seven).

With us back in League One, the expectations are lower - as they will be after three years of dross post-Carvalhal. Pearson can rebuild and get a second excellent reputation with us.


Aaaaaand, when I wake up we'll have Steve McClaren in charge instead.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

That FA punishment for Wednesday seems weird, weren't the club charged last Summer? And FA want to dish out the minus 12 points once the season is over?!

 

[andrea]

That "hi" in the end did it for me, great content :lol

 

[Hasnain282]

 

[Famine]

That FA punishment for Wednesday seems weird, weren't the club charged last Summer? And FA want to dish out the minus 12 points once the season is over?!

Nobody even knows what's going on.

Wednesday were charged in November, Derby in January, both for the same thing - selling the stadium to themselves (a second company owned by the owners of the club) in order to avoid exceeding FFP outgoings over the past three seasons. Reading did exactly the same thing and have faced no charges. Reading sold the Madejski for £26.5m, Wednesday sold Hillsborough for £60m, and Derby sold Pride Park for £80m (but still made an £8m loss ). EFL thinks that the latter two valuations are too high, and that's pretty much why they didn't charge Reading.

In principle, the clubs could be docked nine points for breaching FFP, and up to a further 12 for an "aggravated breach" (shenanigans to make it look like there wasn't a breach). Apparently the "independent three-man panel" heard Wednesday's case in June, but... *tumbleweed*.

The extra fun part here is the directly comparable case of Aston Villa. Villa sold Villa Park to its own owners for £56.7m in May 2019 mitigating a near £100m loss which definitely breached the EFL's FFP spending limits.


And even if the cases are resolved by the start of next season, there's appeals. The EFL will definitely appeal if it loses (it did so with Birmingham in March), as will the clubs. Wigan are contesting their own 12-point deduction as well. Reportedly Barnsley will "refuse to be relegated" until everything has run its course.

Basically the EFL is bent.

 

[redhed17]

Basically the EFL is bent.

Maybe, but selling a stadium to your own company to try and circumvent financial rules shouldn't go unpunished.

Rules and the punishment should be clear and the same for all though.

 

[Famine]

Maybe, but selling a stadium to your own company to try and circumvent financial rules shouldn't go unpunished.

The EFL changed the rules to specifically allow this in 2016. It's the valuations it's kicking off at - and neither Reading nor Aston Villa have faced any sanctions whatsoever.

If Villa Park is worth £60m, so is Hillsborough.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

There wont be a Balon D'or awarded this year for the first time since its inception in 1956.

The reason? because of the break Football took during the pandemic, thats despite the fact that most major leagues season have almost been completed and the only major league that didn't finish was the French Ligue Un.

It might just be me but this news doesn't make much sense.

 

[Jimlaad43]

There wont be a Balon D'or awarded this year for the first time since its inception in 1956.

The reason? because of the break Football took during the pandemic, thats despite the fact that most major leagues season have almost been completed and the only major league that didn't finish was the French Ligue Un.

It might just be me but this news doesn't make much sense.

I can understand not hosting an event, but not awarding it at all? Ridiculous...

 

[daan]

Was reading that FIFPro want players to get a 5-6 week break in between this season and next. There is a minimum of 3 weeks that players must get. I can understand that players need a break but did they not get that in March/April?

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Sheffield United 0-1 Everton
Brighton 0-0 Newcastle
Wolves 2-0 Crystal Palace

Brighton have secured their survival with that point against Newcastle meaning a third consecutive season in the PL, well done to them and credit to Potter who i think has done a good job there.

----------------------------------------------------

Tuesday night.

Watford v Man City (6pm Sky/Pick)
Aston Villa v Arsenal (8.15 Sky)

Wednesday night.

Man United v West Ham (6pm Sky)
Liverpool v Chelsea (8.15 Sky/Pick)

These are the games in hand from the FA Cup over the past weekend, Liverpool will receive the PL trophy and medals after their game on Wednesday, they have built a podium in to one of the stands at Anfield in readiness.

The final day of the Premier League season is this Sunday and all games will kick-off at 4pm.

The final day of the Championship season is on Wednesday at 7.30pm and lots of things still to be decided there, second place and promotion is between West Brom Brentford and Fulham, the last play off place is between Forest Cardiff and Swansea (CMON THE SWANS!!!) And relegation to be decided as there is only three points separating the bottom four teams!

 

[Jezza819]

Big home win for Aston Villa 1-0 over Arsenal. For now they are out of the bottom three on goal difference since Watford were hammered at home 0-4 by Manchester City.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Man United 1-1 West Ham
Liverpool 5-3 Chelsea

Another tepid performance from United, we started quite well with some good chances in the first 20 minutes but we tired quickly again, West Ham took the lead after they were given a penalty when Pogba put his arm up to block the ball that was about to smack in the head at speed from a West Ham free kick, Antonio converted the penalty just before half time, Greenwood got our equalizer just after the break from the only good bit of play we produced, it was a poor performance and whilst we still only need a point against Leicester on Sunday it does put us under a bit of pressure.

The Liverpool game was a bit mad with both teams going for it, fantastic goals from Keita and Trent and a third from Wijnauldum put Liverpool three up before Giroud made it 3-1 just before half time, Firmino finally scored at Anfield before Abraham made it 4-2 before Pulisic produced some brilliant to make it 4-3 and then Ox-Chamberlain made it 5-3. Liverpool receive the trophy and medals soon.

The final day of the championship was tonight and it was madness!! West Brom are promoted despite only a 2-2 v QPR as Brentford lost 1-2 at home to Barnsley who have survived thanks to that late winner, Fulham only managed a 1-1 at Wigan but that wasn't good enough for Wigan who are now relegated. Hull and Charlton are also down. Swansea needed a win v Reading plus a loss for Forest and a five goal swing to make it to the play-offs, and that's exactly what happened! Forest lost 1-4 to Stoke and Swansea beat Reading 1-4! Swansea v Brentford and Fulham v Cardiff in the play-off semi finals.

 

[redhed17]

I'm obviously very happy that Liverpool won, as it would have put a dampener on receiving the Premier League trophy if had they lost. A very good game, with some great goals. It's been a long time, but they won it in style.

If it were not for this virus I think some more records could have fallen, but the main thing was to win it. Just glad they were so far ahead, and the season could be restarted, and hopefully finished on Sunday. If anyone thinks there were a lot of fans when Liverpool did their trophy parade after last years Champions League win, what would have happened after this would have been a lot bigger. Fingers crossed they can do something in the near future when/if it is safe to do so.

 

[Jezza819]

I've been home all week long burning vacation days. I scheduled this week back in April. I'm so glad I got to see the trophy presentation ceremony live. The actual game got a little squeaky late but we sorted it out finally.

 

[Hasnain282]

This can only end well

 

[Jimlaad43]

SAFC? Which team is that

 

[Hasnain282]

SAFC? Which team is that

Sunderland

 

[redhed17]

Hopefully he doesn't pass the rules to become an owner, because he 'smells' dodgy.

This can only end well