2012/13 Premier League discussion thread

[Guest]

First topic message reminder :

The big one is about to begin once again lads. Hopefully week 1 will bring a lot of goals, controversy and maybe even a shock!

God I've missed Jeff Stelling and the boys!

Game on.

[Ent]

Bale is a cheat to be fair.

[Kay Fabe]

I'm really liking Chelsea this season, still don't think they'll win the league though, at the start of the season I felt they'd be the team to watch, scoring goals and I felt they would be more likely to concede too due to how attack minded their midfield and fullbacks are encouraged to be.

I'd love to see Arsenal have a realistic challenge, like how they're run albeit overly cautious in the transfer market, Carzorla is a fantastic footballer and Podolski offers them a bit more directness, however I just can't see any team with Gervinho as a regular being successful in England.

Onto Manchester Utd, many feel they're not strong enough this season, I actually think they're better equipped than last year, I'd say they'll be there or there abouts again and any team who finishes above them will win the league

Manchester City, don't buy this talk that they're better than last season, they had the best squad in the league last season and for me they haven't strengthened it, they haven't weakened it either but the signings they've made won't improve their strongest 11, Toure and Augero had tremendous seasons last year as did Silva, they'll need to do that again to equal the consistancy shown last year.

Everton, this is the team I'd love to see crack the top four, unlikely due to the sheer depth of quality, they're probably 6th choice in the top 6 sides but since they've signed Jelavic they've suddenly had a focal point to their team and they are a lot better to watch too, they might not have just enough yet to have that consistancy that'll get them in the top 4, for me the team I enjoy watching most now in England

[GSC]

The thing is, its almost a weekly thing now talking about some Suarez tumble in the area. Very good player but he doesn't exactly endear himself to the viewing public

[Crimey]

The thing is, its almost a weekly thing now talking about some Suarez tumble in the area. Very good player but he doesn't exactly endear himself to the viewing public

It annoys me because people had started to warm to him more this season as he hadn't been diving, he'd stopped arguing with referees and was actually playing well. Now he's back to square one again.

Needs to stick to playing excellent footballs and stay out of the headlines for the wrong reasons.

[Kay Fabe]

To be fair he has been hard done to a lot in the last month, that ridiculous act of simulation though won't gain him any sympathy, I felt before this weekend he was actually going to gain some, that terrible dive though will justify no decisions for ages now unless it's a 100% stone waller

[Crimey]

To be fair he has been hard done to a lot in the last month, that ridiculous act of simulation though won't gain him any sympathy, I felt before this weekend he was actually going to gain some, that terrible dive though will justify no decisions for ages now unless it's a 100% stone waller

Exactly, people were getting back on his side and I don't think I'd seen a single dive this season until then.

[JamesLincs]

erm, man utd?? clipped but completely dived. he is rightly denied penalties because of his reputation. i even have to say bale deserves to be denied fouls too because he is a diver. cant believe motd2 thought initially that it was a foul, it was a clear dive from any angle you looked at it

[hampo17]

erm, man utd?? clipped but completely dived

Depends how you want to look at it, every player when clipped does what Suarez did against United, see Valencia in the same game. Does that make every player a diver?

I personally think diving is when a player goes down with no contact at all, Suarez and Bale at the weekend for example. Exagerating contact is just a part of the game now.

[JamesLincs]

imo yes. no excuse for it, and as ive edited to my last post, bale too

[JamesLincs]

i shall say though, i know how to make a dive look convincing

[hampo17]

imo yes. no excuse for it, and as ive edited to my last post, bale too

When diving/simulation first crept in to the game the "no excuse for it" line could be used. However now as referees are often conned by certain players then there is perfect reason for it. You even see youngsters breaking in to the first team doing it, the young Swansea player last weekend who got booked is a good example.

Sadly it will never be stamped out of the game because refs won't really punish the big offenders. I can't ever see a referee sending off Messi or Ronaldo for simulation, but instead they'll ignore blatent fouls on certain players, Suarez getting flattened from behind against Norwich or stamped on by Huth, which unbelievably is going unpunished by the FA.

[GSC]

Its emerged that Huth will receive a get out a ban free card for public services rendered (to Suarez) this weekend.

[JamesLincs]

van persie is also getting away with his clash with cabaye.

[nasisillmatic]

Didn't you know, you can go around elbowing and stamping on players now.

You can dive as well.

[TopHat24/7]

van persie is also getting away with his clash with cabaye.

If you're going to retrospectively punish that though you have to do the same with Tiote's horror tackle on Clev.

[TopHat24/7]

http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/the-gif-battle-of-the-dirty-dives-gareth-bale-tottenham-vs-luis-suarez-liverpool/

[hampo17]

van persie is also getting away with his clash with cabaye.

If you're going to retrospectively punish that though you have to do the same with Tiote's horror tackle on Clev.

Webb saw that incident and documented it in his match report so the FA can not act, he didn't see the RVP incident but after watching it felt he wouldn't have given a red card.

[TopHat24/7]

That tackle was more dangerous than a carelessly flung arm though, hence why if we're going to start throwing around retrospective punishments then all things need to be addressed equally.

[Kay Fabe]

Did Gareth Bale look for the foul yesterday? I know he dived but did he actually look for the foul? I only saw the clip about an hour ago and even then it was only the once?

Bearing in mind I only saw it once it looked like he was expecting Brad Guzan to lunge into a tackle and as he knicked the ball he just went down while awaiting the challenge, when the challenge didn't come in from what I saw Bale got himself back up and didn't look over at the ref or linesman

[hampo17]

To be fair Kay had be got up and tried to claim he was fouled he would have deserved to be kicked in the balls.

[Ent]

Bale dived and only didn't appeal because of how ridiculous it was- had Guzan put his leg anywhere near him he would have been rolling around appealing.

[GG]

Spoiler:

[Ent]

Lol genius!

[Kay Fabe]

I was just doing some attendance stats there for Celtic home games and comparing them to the highest in England

So thought I'd post the top 5 English in here, no real point to it but since I've got it thought someone might find it interesting

Man Utd 347,071 from5 matches
Arsenal 298,661 from 5 matches
Newcastle 262,464 from 6 matches
Liverpool 306,377 from 7 matches
Man City 257,745 from 6 matches

[TopHat24/7]

Not sure what story that tells Kay??

Have you got the equivalent stats for Celtic? Presumably they're around the 350k mark.

[Smirnoffpriest]

Think it just shows the highest capacity stadiums in England as most clubs at the top end of the league sell out most games - and I know Arsenal for example (and I think Man U, and I'm sure others as well) have long waiting lists for most types of season tickets.

[TopHat24/7]

United historically had massive massive waiting lists, not so anymore. My mate had his season ticket for about 3 years and gave it up for last (and this) season - he was still getting chased in October about renewing as they'd still not sold out!

Arsenal, from memory, have the best sold-out ratio of seats to time. Don't think they've once had to wait until after the season's started to sell out Emirates.

[nasisillmatic]

I know Liverpools' waiting list is bad, I've been waiting for over 10 years for a season ticket.

[Crimey]

I know Liverpools' waiting list is bad, I've been waiting for over 10 years for a season ticket.

Hence why a bigger stadium is needed.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

I believe we sold out our 22,000 season tickets pretty quickly, and I know last year there was a waiting list. We sell out the home areas every week, especially now in the Premier League, we did most of the time in the Championship tbf. Helps that we are the only real club in quite a big area (Norfolk)

[Kay Fabe]

Not sure what story that tells Kay??

Have you got the equivalent stats for Celtic? Presumably they're around the 350k mark.

Celtic's standing at 312k+ after 7 games in the League and Europe, the average attendance so far for league games is just under 15k of capacity, the average price for a adult ticket so far has been £29 (which is a scandel)

[TopHat24/7]

I believe we sold out our 22,000 season tickets pretty quickly, and I know last year there was a waiting list. We sell out the home areas every week, especially now in the Premier League, we did most of the time in the Championship tbf. Helps that we are the only real club in quite a big area (Norfolk)

You only come to see United, come to see Uniiiiiiiiited!!

[TopHat24/7]

Not sure what story that tells Kay??

Have you got the equivalent stats for Celtic? Presumably they're around the 350k mark.

Celtic's standing at 312k+ after 7 games in the League and Europe, the average attendance so far for league games is just under 15k of capacity, the average price for a adult ticket so far has been £29 (which is a scandel)

Scandal expensive or scandal cheap?

[Kay Fabe]

Expensive, no-way should a game of football, particularly a standard league game, cost anywhere near £29, at least there isn't any Old Firm games now, going on previous prices (they went up a quid every game) it would have hit the £50 mark this season

[TopHat24/7]

lol ok, thought that was pretty cheap actually......

[Stella]

It costs £20 to see a league two game.

[Smirnoffpriest]

Expensive, no-way should a game of football, particularly a standard league game, cost anywhere near £29, at least there isn't any Old Firm games now, going on previous prices (they went up a quid every game) it would have hit the £50 mark this season

As far as I can remember the cheapest Arsenal games are £20 and that's cup games, if your lucky enough to get a ticket.

It's expensive but seeing as there's huge lines of people willing to pay it, and fighting over the 60k/80k (dependant on stadium) tickets available, then I'd hardly say it's scandalous

[TopHat24/7]

It costs £20 to see a league two game.

Costs me £19.50 just to see bloody Oxford United

[Stella]

It costs £20 to see a league two game.

Costs me £19.50 just to see bloody Oxford United

I was at the Kassam on Saturday but at a kids party at the soft play

Nice ground if it has four sides.

[TopHat24/7]

It costs £20 to see a league two game.

Costs me £19.50 just to see bloody Oxford United

I was at the Kassam on Saturday but at a kids party at the soft play

Nice ground if it has four sides.

Haha yeh when it was first built the intention was we would 'bounce back' and once in the higher leagues again (i.e. L1) we'd fill in the gap. Funnily enough that never happened lol that said, OUFC still hold just about every attendance record going for the lower leagues which is something to be proud of. Think we once had about 11k turn up for a conference game!

[Stella]

I doubt it has the same atmosphere as the old Manor? Went there a few times, many a year ago.

[TopHat24/7]

Yeh, nothing beat the Manor Ground was only a kid when we went there but think we were able to walk it from my nan's house where my dad grew up so had none of the parking issues like at the Kassam.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

BOOM BOOM BOOM THE PREMIER LEAGUE IS BACK THIS WEEKEND!

COME ON YOU YELLOWS!

[nasisillmatic]

Thank god, 4 weekends of premier league football awaits.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Tomorrow Norwich get there first win of the season...(he says with blind optimism)

[GSC]

Is there anything you dont say with blind optimism?

[Guest]

My predictions for tomorrow:

Spurs 3 Chelsea 3
Fulham 2 A Villa 0
Liverpool 2 Reading 2
Man Utd 4 Stoke 0
Swansea 1 Wigan 2
West Brom 0 Man City 1
West Ham 2 Southampton 1
Norwich 2 Arsenal 1

Sunday:

Sunderland 1 Newcastle 1
QPR 2 Everton 1

[Guest]

That Norwich prediction is laughable. Think Liverpool will do Reading with ease. Think WBA could do City, there without Silva and limited preparation time due to internationals. Would be amazed if Newcastle got anything from the Sunderland game, we've been appaling this season. QPR beating Everton.....

[The genius of PBF]

Love how the likes of Cleverley and Welbeck owned Newcastle.

[GSC]

Spurs 2 Chelsea 3
Fulham 2 A Villa 0
Liverpool 2 Reading 0
Man Utd 3 Stoke 1
Swansea 2 Wigan 2
West Brom 0 Man City 1
West Ham 4 Southampton 1
Norwich 1 Arsenal 3

Sunday:

Sunderland 1 Newcastle 2
QPR 0 Everton 1

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