2012/13 Premier League discussion thread

by Guest Sat 18 Aug 2012, 1:05 pm

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.

by **Crimey** Mon 22 Oct 2012, 5:48 pm

Steven Taylor said recently that no member of the Sunderland's team could get into the Newcastle XI...what do you people think of this?

While Newcastle probably have the better team, I think Sessegnon, Adam Johnson and Steven Fletcher could all push for the Newcastle XI.

My combined side would probably be:

Krul

Simpson
Taylor
Coloccini
Santon

Johnson
Cabaye
Tiote
Ben Arfa

Fletcher
Ba

I think if Cisse can find his form again he'd probably knock Ba or Fletcher out.

by compelling and rich Tue 23 Oct 2012, 9:23 am

i dont rate johnsen, typical overated english player who's so predictable. i know city fans who used to say he should be in the team over the likes of nasri! even still its pretty tight between him and gutierrez. think overall cisse is a better player than flecther, flecther is playing very well on current form while cisse is playing very poorly. but dont think flecther is capable of doing half the goals cisse scored last season, he's a poacher who realies on service

by **Crimey** Tue 23 Oct 2012, 9:29 am

I don't think Gutierrez offers anything other than his work rate, he's better as a hard working central midfielder in a 4-3-3 but wouldn't say he's better than Johnson at all.

I do agree that Johnson is overrated, but Nasri was in horrible form last year so it wasn't stupid to suggest he should have been selected ahead of him.

by GSC Tue 23 Oct 2012, 9:31 am

Betcha Fletcher scores more than Cisse in the league this season

by compelling and rich Tue 23 Oct 2012, 9:35 am

watched city alot being thier our main rivals and i thought nasri came on alot after silva started to go missing, think thier main problem was they both play the same postion but nasri towards the end of last season was in better form than silva, even the city fans ended up agreeing on that.

with your team like its is i think for the reason for me picking gutirerrez was the reasons you pick. give ben arfa a more free role and get the best out of him. johnsen offers nothing defensively, on form he can look great. but so do swp, young, lennon and walcott all english wingers who cant perfrom consistently for a whole season, johnsen is propabaly more on a level with young (who i also dont rate) as he doesnt possess the pace of a lennon or walcott that make them more of a threat. if he doesnt pull his finger out he will soon be more on swp level

by compelling and rich Tue 23 Oct 2012, 9:37 am

GSC wrote:Betcha Fletcher scores more than Cisse in the league this season

he probably will do as he's the main focal point and has the whole team built round him, a team which has no goals coming from elsewhere. unlike newcastle, doesnt mean he's a better player

by GSC Tue 23 Oct 2012, 9:38 am

And the fact that Cisse has 0 goals in 7 league appearances?

by compelling and rich Tue 23 Oct 2012, 9:39 am

GSC wrote:And the fact that Cisse has 0 goals in 7 league appearances?

he's on a poor run of form, can easily turn that round and compare last seasons stats with cisse v flecther if you want?

by GSC Tue 23 Oct 2012, 9:42 am

When Fletcher was in the worst team in the league and Cisse in a top 5 one?

It was fairly inevitable that some Newcastle players were going to come back to earth after last season

by compelling and rich Tue 23 Oct 2012, 9:57 am

GSC wrote:When Fletcher was in the worst team in the league and Cisse in a top 5 one?

It was fairly inevitable that some Newcastle players were going to come back to earth after last season

it was inevitable that cisse couldnt carry on scoring like he was, otherwise he would be up thier with ronaldo and messi!! but think your jumping the gun abit if after seven games your writing him off. flecther has been around the prem for a while with his best season scoring the same amount of goals as cisse did in half a season!! and thats even including when he was in the spl!! if you take thier career totals (from wiki) cisse has a total of 107 goals in 238 apperances while flecther has 91 goals in 299 apperances and consider he was playing in the awful spl for most of that which is best?

i have no loyalty for either, but there is a simple reason why sunderland struggled last season and newcastle didnt, its because newcastle has the better players!! being at home playing against 10 men for a hour and still not winning would also suggest newcastle are a better team

by GSC Tue 23 Oct 2012, 11:37 am

Having a better team doesn't mean you are better at every position however

by compelling and rich Tue 23 Oct 2012, 12:15 pm

GSC wrote:Having a better team doesn't mean you are better at every position however

nope it doesnt, but like i argued above i dont see flecther as being one of them, o'shea and brown if any where near their best are better than williamson and simpson. but from what ive seen that hasnt been the case as they have been injured more often than not and are on the slide

by Guest Tue 23 Oct 2012, 12:21 pm

GSC wrote:Having a better team doesn't mean you are better at every position however

Your right about that but your comments about Fletcher and Cisse are just pointless, jumping on the bandwagon and enjoying Newcastle's fall back down to earth. Everyone knew it was going to happen, it's no surprise, but anyone can say after a number of games that player A is going to score more than player B, once you analyse the players form and position or focal point in the team. Yes, Cisse has no EPL goals this season compared to Fletcher but everyone knows Cisse's undoubted ability to score goals and that he's a far better striker than Fletcher will ever be. Coloccini had Fletcher in his pocket all game, shame that Fletcher knew that and had to resort and con a ref to send Tiote off, to try and gain any advantage possible for his woeful Sunderland side.

by GSC Tue 23 Oct 2012, 12:22 pm

O'Shea and Brown haven't been near their best for years though.

by Guest Fri 26 Oct 2012, 5:20 pm

My predictions for tomorrow:

A Villa 2 Norwich 1
Arsenal 5 QPR 1
Reading 2 Fulham 2
Stoke 1 Sunderland 0
Wigan 1 West Ham 2
Man City 4 Swansea 0

Sunday:

Everton 2 Liverpool 1
Newcastle 2 West Brom 0
Southampton 1 Spurs 3
Chelsea 3 Man Utd 1

by Smirnoffpriest Fri 26 Oct 2012, 6:55 pm

From an arsenal point of view i hope ur right!

by azania Fri 26 Oct 2012, 9:44 pm

I hope Chelsea and Manure draw. I can see arsenal scoring quite a few against QPR. Probably the kiss f death as I thought we would beat Norwich 2-0

by socal1976 Fri 26 Oct 2012, 10:02 pm

azania wrote:I hope Chelsea and Manure draw. I can see arsenal scoring quite a few against QPR. Probably the kiss f death as I thought we would beat Norwich 2-0

Yes and with a couple of red cards thrown in the mix to their key players, that would be very nice indeed. I have to say though as an Arsenal fan I am so peed off every time I see hazard play and wish we had him. The guy is like a younger, better Riebery. And Oscar is a sheer delight I always liked him better than Neymar anyway. At least chelsea aren't as terribly dull as they were the last couple of years. For some reason I think Man u is going to fall off a bit from last year they have played well so far and have a lot of great players but I don't know if they are as strong defensively or in goal as they have been in the last few years.

by azania Sat 27 Oct 2012, 12:06 am

£32m for Hazard and £25m for Oscar. We can only hope. Plus its likely they will be with Chelsea for the better part of their careers. With Arsenal after a couple of years they will develop Barca or Man City DNA.

by socal1976 Sat 27 Oct 2012, 10:34 am

azania wrote:£32m for Hazard and £25m for Oscar. We can only hope. Plus its likely they will be with Chelsea for the better part of their careers. With Arsenal after a couple of years they will develop Barca or Man City DNA.

Isn't Hazard a beauty azania, I am big enough to admit it I am green with envy every time I see him play. And with reports that Arsenal have 35 mil for a striker in the next transfer window couldn't Arsene have loosened his famous gallic purse strings for this one. I don't even want to think how much better we would be with him instead of gervy. Fairness to gervy he is leading us in goals but Hazard is class through and through. Sad when a club like Arsenal is never even in the running for a purchase like this.

by **Good Golly I'm Olly** Sat 27 Oct 2012, 11:52 am

Norwich City FC ‏@NorwichCityFC
#NCFC XI to play @AVFCOfficial - Ruddy, R. Martin, Bassong, Turner, Garrido,
Johnson, Tettey, E. Bennett, Pilkington, Hoolahan, Holt (c)

Unchanged for last weekend, no surprises there

by **Good Golly I'm Olly** Sat 27 Oct 2012, 11:54 am

Norwich City FC ‏@NorwichCityFC
and the @AVFCOfficial XI - Guzan, Lowton, Vlaar (c), Bennett, El Ahmadi, Delph, Herd, Albrighton, Holman, Agbonlahor, Benteke

Only 1 CB?????

by John Cregan Sat 27 Oct 2012, 12:10 pm

Olly,
Lambert will surely get a great reception from the Norwich fans today..............the more you think of it what he did for the club is remarkable.....................hope Hughton can keep things going

by **Good Golly I'm Olly** Sat 27 Oct 2012, 12:33 pm

He will get a decent reception i am sure. Not a great one because of the way he left.

ANYWAYS COME ON YOU YELLOWS!!!!!!!!

by azania Sat 27 Oct 2012, 1:02 pm

socal1976 wrote:
azania wrote:£32m for Hazard and £25m for Oscar. We can only hope. Plus its likely they will be with Chelsea for the better part of their careers. With Arsenal after a couple of years they will develop Barca or Man City DNA.

Isn't Hazard a beauty azania, I am big enough to admit it I am green with envy every time I see him play. And with reports that Arsenal have 35 mil for a striker in the next transfer window couldn't Arsene have loosened his famous gallic purse strings for this one. I don't even want to think how much better we would be with him instead of gervy. Fairness to gervy he is leading us in goals but Hazard is class through and through. Sad when a club like Arsenal is never even in the running for a purchase like this.

Hazard is a gem. To think we could have got him 2 years ago but we baulked at a reported £16m. Apparently at the AGM it was said that we have £70m available for transfers this January window. I expect Wilshire returning to be like a new signing. We need a striker and to keep Theo. Just imagine the damage Theo could have done against the Skalke defence when Gerv had that through ball.

by **Good Golly I'm Olly** Sat 27 Oct 2012, 1:13 pm

Frak sake

by **Good Golly I'm Olly** Sat 27 Oct 2012, 1:43 pm

Clear pen in there for us. We never get those decisions

by GSC Sat 27 Oct 2012, 1:46 pm

Both of these teams look awful so far

by GSC Sat 27 Oct 2012, 2:15 pm

Jack Wilshere starts for Arsenal

by GSC Sat 27 Oct 2012, 2:17 pm

Sagna also returns

by **Crimey** Sat 27 Oct 2012, 2:18 pm

Keep Wilshere away from Diakite then.

by GSC Sat 27 Oct 2012, 2:21 pm

For the 10 minutes or so Diakite usually manages

by JamesLincs Sat 27 Oct 2012, 2:39 pm

got fear for villa and norwich

by **Good Golly I'm Olly** Sat 27 Oct 2012, 2:40 pm

Would have taken a point at the start of the game, and I will take it happily now!

If only we could score our chances lol

by GSC Sat 27 Oct 2012, 3:35 pm

Yeah they look 2 poor sides

by Guest Sat 27 Oct 2012, 3:43 pm

West ham vs Wigan..

I fully expect the mighty hammers to win this game, probably by only one goal, but we should still win!

by westisbest Sat 27 Oct 2012, 4:23 pm

As soon as Bennett was sent off, you knew we would concede.

Thought we were going to lose. Good game from Guzan.

Still not worried about going down, ok we're poor at the moment.
We'll have enough to stay in this league.
Still very early in the season.
I'll wait till march and if we're in a similar position, than I'll start to worry.

From an Irish point of view, thought hoolahan was quality today.
C'mon trap get him in the starting 11.

by **Crimey** Sat 27 Oct 2012, 4:24 pm

CF wrote:West ham vs Wigan..

I fully expect the mighty hammers to win this game, probably by only one goal, but we should still win!

Wigan winning 2-0. West Ham could be dark horses for relegation, so many people expect them to stay up because they have a decent squad and Alladyce as manager but if any of QPR, Southampton and Reading get into form they could easily get sucked into a relegation fight.

by Guest Sat 27 Oct 2012, 4:56 pm

also we were 7th before this game and showing some decent form, so i dont think we will be relegated, however there is a long time to go in the season.

by **Crimey** Sat 27 Oct 2012, 5:03 pm

CF wrote: also we were 7th before this game and showing some decent form, so i dont think we will be relegated, however there is a long time to go in the season.

Yeah, I don't think there is any signs of it yet, just my thoughts.

by Guest Sat 27 Oct 2012, 5:17 pm

yup i know what you mean, our form is always so inconsistent, but at least we started the season pretty well.

by Guest Sat 27 Oct 2012, 5:21 pm

I'm not a great fan of the Allardyce brand of football but he does have a knack of getting results. West Ham fans, in my opinion, have no worries regarding relegation.

by **Good Golly I'm Olly** Sat 27 Oct 2012, 5:23 pm

Interesting that norwich (7pts) now have the same points they had from the respective fixtures from last year. (west ham = blackburn)

by **Good Golly I'm Olly** Sat 27 Oct 2012, 5:26 pm

westisbest wrote:As soon as Bennett was sent off, you knew we would concede.

Thought we were going to lose. Good game from Guzan.

Still not worried about going down, ok we're poor at the moment.
We'll have enough to stay in this league.
Still very early in the season.
I'll wait till march and if we're in a similar position, than I'll start to worry.

From an Irish point of view, thought hoolahan was quality today.
C'mon trap get him in the starting 11.

I think you'll be ok also tbh. Although we should have won the game, i will take the point for sure.

Hoolahan has been playing like that for ages. Last season as well, he is probably our best player. How he dont play for Ireland I will never know

by GSC Sat 27 Oct 2012, 6:31 pm

I worry for Villa in that their squad just isn't particularly good. They've been very close in recent seasons to a spell in the Championship.

Same thing with norwich in that the squad just isn't that good. Leaning towards Reading, Norwich and Villa atm

by **Good Golly I'm Olly** Sat 27 Oct 2012, 6:36 pm

You say the squad isn't that good, and that would have been true of us last season. We had little to no depth in our squad. Now we do have that depth and added quality. I mean we are leaving the likes of David Fox and Marc Tierney even off the bench, and they were big players for us last year, they can't even make the matchday team. I think our squad is much improved from last year

by GSC Sat 27 Oct 2012, 6:47 pm

Olly wrote:I mean we are leaving the likes of David Fox and Marc Tierney even off the bench

by GSC Sat 27 Oct 2012, 6:53 pm

Finally a moment of quality from City

by **Crimey** Sat 27 Oct 2012, 7:08 pm

I don't understand why City have gotten worse since last year. Defensively they have looked poor this year, and going forward hasn't been much better. They didn't strengthen in the summer, but surely the outgoings of De Jong and Savic haven't hit them that hard.

Or is this just the result of them being the team to beat now.

by GSC Sat 27 Oct 2012, 7:12 pm

A bit of everybody wants to beat the champs.

Yaya has to cover a bit more now and Aguero got hurt and Dzeko/Balotelli havent filled the void

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