We Go Again! The 2014/15 Premier League Thread

[Ent]

First topic message reminder :

Missed the game today great result!

City have bought terribly since they won the title in 11/12, 100s of millions and no real certain starters or class players introduced.

They've prospered in a relative decline of the pl, picking up the top players from the non top 4 and the sub elite Europeans was good enough as a base but they didn't kick on and it has showed in Europe and this season.

6 wins in a row for United, city, Spurs and Liverpool in that run.

Top 4 all but secured, big test next week against chelsea.

[GSC]

A Jose Mourinho team doesn't respect officials.

Next you be telling me David Luiz was overpriced.

[Hammersmith harrier]

Carrick, Rojo, Jones and Blind all out which means it will be a rather comfortable Chelsea victory, just having Carrick and Blind out rips our defence and midfield apart.

[Stella]

Rooney in midfield?

[Hammersmith harrier]

Going to require a massive shift around either way, Mcnair and Shaw coming into defence with probably Rooney playing defensive midfield. Would rather play a false nine like Di Maria than Van Persie or Falcao personally.

[Ent]

Going to be a shambles ffs.

Blind a huge miss, great outlet ball and retaining possession so well.

Expecting a comfortable chelsea win.

[Stella]

Going to be a shambles ffs.

Blind a huge miss, great outlet ball and retaining possession so well.

Expecting a comfortable chelsea win.

They're in the Cricket equivalent of the nervous 90's. Utd could get a point. Fergie would have found a way, can Van Gaal?

[Hammersmith harrier]

Fergie's record against Mourinho's Chelsea was very poor Stella, two wins, four losses and a draw without a single point at Stamford Bridge.

[mystiroakey]

If Man U pack the midfield like HH says they may have a shot- Man U are confident as a team and winning well, Chelsea seem a bit fatigued.

[Stella]

Fergie's record against Mourinho's Chelsea was very poor Stella, two wins, four losses and a draw without a single point at Stamford Bridge.

I was thinking more of getting results with players like O'Shea in midfield, when the likes of Scholes were suspended/injured. I would look at Utd's team sheet at times and think they're gonna get beat, and they quite often wouldn't.

[Ent]

Fergie's record against Mourinho's Chelsea was very poor Stella, two wins, four losses and a draw without a single point at Stamford Bridge.

To be fair fergie had a crap side for most of mourinhos first stint and had retired by his second.

Stamford bridge always a bogey ground.

[Stella]

Fergie's record against Mourinho's Chelsea was very poor Stella, two wins, four losses and a draw without a single point at Stamford Bridge.

To be fair fergie had a crap side for most of mourinhos first stint and had retired by his second.

Stamford bridge always a bogey ground.

Chelsea were a bit of a bogey side even back in the early 90's weren't they? The 1994 FA Cup final apart!

[Guest]

Looks like Vincent Kompany is out for the rest of the season. Hardly surprising, given how prone he's become to injury.

[Crimey]

I'd have thought United will line up something like:

De Gea

Valencia Smalling McNair Shaw

Fellaini Herrera

Mata      Di Maria    Young

Rooney

Possibly even with Di Maria playing deeper and Fellaini further up. That defence would be so suspect though.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

I wouldnt be concerned if its Drogba as the striker. Legs gone.

City are without a good few players this weekend but i'm quite disinterested. More excited by the Championship, the relegation race and which managers are moving around. Rafa, Klopp, Carlo and Pep could all be on the move.

[Crimey]

I think if Guardiola leaves Munich and Ancelotti leaves Real Madrid, Bayern will be after Ancelotti, Manchester City will probably go after Guardiola, Rafa Benitez might fancy Real Madrid but Klopp more likely.

[Guest]

Yeah, if anything the chelsea vs United game is rather a dull affair, nothing major on it & both will take a draw. Chelsea have the title all but sorted & United have bagged a top 4.

[Hero]

I'd have thought United will line up something like:

De Gea

Valencia Smalling McNair Shaw

Fellaini Herrera

Mata      Di Maria    Young

Rooney

Possibly even with Di Maria playing deeper and Fellaini further up. That defence would be so suspect though.

Personally I'd have Mata centrally and RDM on the right side

[Josiah Maiestas]

Chelsea have had the upper hand lately in this rivalry however with the lack of form in several players this is a very clear chance for them to come unstuck. Arsenal will probably win again so a draw in this game is what neither team want, but Mourinho wouldn't be too annoyed if it's 1 point. United are far better than they were 2 months ago, should be close match

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Jose will take a point now, he always plays for the point in big games.

Personally, I'd just shift Herrera back to Carrick's role and throw Di Maria into Herrera's gap.

[Hammersmith harrier]

That would change the whole Herrera, Mata and Valencia dynamic so wouldn't do it myself, we're better served to keep our right and left sided triangles in place as much as possible.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

I see it as the only way you dont majorly disrupt the way you play. I'm pretty sure Di Maria can do what Herrera has been doing, but otherwise you're completely ruining an on form fellaini or, as its being reported, playing on form Rooney in midfield

[compelling and rich]

Fergie's record against Mourinho's Chelsea was very poor Stella, two wins, four losses and a draw without a single point at Stamford Bridge.

I was thinking more of getting results with players like O'Shea in midfield, when the likes of Scholes were suspended/injured. I would look at Utd's team sheet at times and think they're gonna get beat, and they quite often wouldn't.

best one of that was when we played arsenal with about 7 defenders starting, we had o'shea in cm and both da silva twins on the wing and still won 2-0

[compelling and rich]

on a side note which moron has been organising the tv fixtures, theres no 12.45 kick off but both fa cup semi finals are clashing with sky games one being rather big united v chelsea fixture. could well be the first time i can remember not watching any of the semis

saying that i'll probably cheer on villa against the scousers

[FootballLight]

A big game. If United win today then Arsenal will be licking their lips as they could be back in the title race and they could be in the FA Cup final. They'll be looking for the perfect weekend. Although Chelsea win and it's over.

[Guest]

palace 0-1 wba - morrison

[Guest]

I'd expect WBA/Pulis to retreat now, close down the space & let Palace try & break them down, instead of allowing them to counter.

[Guest]

That's exactly what we're doing, giving them over 65% possession. Palace will be found out.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Burnley being screwed over by the referee today

[Guest]

Palace 0-2 WBA - C u in the Prem next season!

[mystiroakey]

Damm you TP..

He knows us to well. , we haven't got a clue what you do with 65% possession

[mystiroakey]

Palace 0-2 WBA  - C u in the Prem next season!

Yep It looks like job done For you lot

[Guest]

Cant believe its taken so long for teams not to set-up like we are. Palace can counter, that's it. Pardew will have a problem, in the long term, if he can't find a plan B.

[mystiroakey]

No I can't see us having a problem tbh , our possesion has gone up by at least 10-15% under pardew anyway, and we have picked up a lot of points. But we were very much around the 35%'mark before he came in and under TP. I was just being a bit ott. You have to slowly move your team on. Same goes for wba now under pulis. Your possesion stats will dip due to players not chasing the ball and just covering zones instead.

[Fernando]

Chelsea XI: Courtois, Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry (c), Azpilicueta, Zouma, Matic, Oscar, Fabregas, Hazard, Drogba.

United XI: De Gea, Valencia, Smalling, McNair, Shaw, Mata, Rooney, Herrera, Young, Fellaini, Falcao

[kingraf]

Interesting match ahead. Chelsea really should put this UTD team away, but LvG has gotten into a late season groove, and Mou doesn't set up to give reasonable teams the business. Still, taken Ladbrokes Chelsea 5/1 and here's hoping Mourinho does something.

[Guest]

Typical Mourinho setup, he's not stupid allowing Fellaini to dictate & Zouma has nullified the threat. Great goal by Hazard, Chelsea nearly there now. Pretty awful game though

[Hammersmith harrier]

That a team can win the title playing the way Chelsea do is shameful.

[Mad for Chelsea]

That'll do

Mourinho spot on again, Chelsea nullified Man U, and a moment of class from their attacking trio enough for three points.

[FootballLight]

Typical boring Chelsea. Week after week its just about grinding out results. Get the first goal, sit in and defend and then hit on the counter in the last 10 minutes of games and they will score. You either get a 1-0/2-0 with Chelsea.

I could bet every week on Chelsea being a 2-0 game, even against someone like Burton they would only win 2-0, nevermind a Premier League team. Although I'm glad United lost.

[Guest]

Yes, they are crawling over the line, missing key players, however many other title winning sides have done the same. I have to laugh at this constant, equally boring criticism of Chelsea under Mourinho, it's not like it's a surprise tactic. What do you want him to do, copy Spurs & City tactics & neglect the main threat of Fellaini & let him dictate a game & then Chelsea lose? He's a top manager, knows how to do his job & he's a winner. The Zouma/Fellaini tactic was superb, Mourinho wasn't going to miss that trick & let Ivanovic be exposed, even if it did effect the fluency of his sides play in midfield. You think he goes to bed crying at night because you don't like it?

He get's the job done, will win the PL & League Cup this season & that's quite frankly all that matters.

[Mad for Chelsea]

I'm always amused at the "boring Chelsea" brigade. For the first half of the season, Chelsea were anything but... In the second half they haven't been playing so well, so have had to grind out results, true, but still equal best attack of the league (alongside Man City), so if they're boring, what does that make the other teams?

[FootballLight]

Even in high scoring games, Chelsea find some way to be boring. Look at Hull for example, a 5 goal game that was still boring really. Well, it certainly wasn't a classic anyway.

What I mean by "boring" is that Chelsea never really beat a team by 3/4+ goals. They scored a lot at the start of the season, but, not now. I think their last 14 games all but proves what I'm saying about either scraping past teams or not beating teams. They haven't lost in any of them 14 games, but they haven't put 3/4 past teams.

Again, it isn't as important as how many games they win or how many trophies they win. But I think the point is that modern football rallies a lot on your quality of football as well as the entertainment values. Especially from a neutral and media perspective. If every team played like Chelsea in the football league, then there would only be a page of the back page newspapers to read on football.

I think that sort of clears up why people think Chelsea are boring. Its just the style of play.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

I think they'd be more boring if they did beat teams by 3/4 goals every week tbh. That's be awful viewing week in week out

[JDizzle]

Quite hard to continue playing attacking football when you key striker hasn't been properly fit for months and your key cog in the midfield in Fabregas has been poor since Xmas. The important thing is they've kept winning and our almost certain to wiwn the title.

[Crimey]

I think this season has been very boring compared to last. 

Last year you had Arsenal running away with it until Christmas, Liverpool having a ridiculously good season with loads of crazy results on the way - 5-3 Stoke, 6-3 Cardiff, 5-1 Arsenal, 3-0 Manchester United, 4-0 Everton, 3-2 Manchester City then the drama with the slip, even Chelsea were in it until late. Everton also challenging for top four. Manchester United's implosion. Tony Pulis saving Crystal Palace.

Just think this season has been a bit dull overall, nothing major has happened, there's been no classic matches.

[Guest]

Got to agree, Crimey. When more & more people are talking about the Championship, rather than the Premier League, you know it's been a poor season. It was always going to be tough replicating the excitement & unpredictable nature of what happened last season.

[Guest]

With Madrid having signed Danilo & Barcelona banned from the window, I hope PL teams go big this summer, especially with the TV deal & the extra financial muscle gained. PL quality has gone down this year & we've missed star performers like Bale & Suarez. Would love to see players like Pogba, Cavani & even a return of Bale to get the excitement back. Apart from Hazard, there really isn't too much world class talent on show.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Hazard, Rooney, Sanchez and De Gea, with glimpses from Courtois, Costa, Aguero and Silva. Even fewer glimpses from Di Maria and Mata.

No surprise though, those are easily the best players in the league.

[Mike Selig]

I agree with MfC. Chelsea played some fantastic stuff in the first half of the season. Frankly if you found that style boring I suspect it says more about you than Chelsea.

Since then it's been more of a grind and yes the odd game has been honestly dull. But they're sitting 10 points clear with 6 games to go so I doubt they mind that much.

Utd didn't offer that much TBH.

[Hammersmith harrier]

I personally would not be happy seeing United park the bus at home against anyone, it is meant to be entertainment. Playing attacking football for what all of ten games doesn't excuse a team with Chelseas talent playing so negatively.

We played on the back foot against Arsenal early on in the season not by design but because they simply dominated possession and the game. The main reason Moyes got so much flak and then Van Gaal for a bit was because of a negative mindset. We've had periods of being not so good but as long as we try to attack with style and pace the fans stay relatively happy.

Chelsea fans however seem idolise Mourinho so much that they will put up with this negative crap, it's what you expect from a bottom half team battling relegation.

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