The 6th Place Trophy - The 2017/18 Premier League Thread

[Dolphin Ziggler]

First topic message reminder :

The fixtures have been released, players have been signed and summer is already a bit boring, so here's the Premier League 2017/18 season thread.

Opening fixtures:

Arsenal v Leicester City
Brighton & Hove Albion v Manchester City
Chelsea v Burnley
Crystal Palace v Huddersfield Town
Everton v Stoke City
Manchester United v West Ham United
Newcastle United v Tottenham Hotspur
Southampton v Swansea City
Watford v Liverpool
West Bromwich Albion v Bournemouth

[Ent]

Teams are terrified of being relegated and played 4 lost 4 scored 0 doesn't make for good reading.

[GSC]

I hope Mane gets a longer ban for frivolous appeal, that would be hilarious

[Ent]

I hope Mane gets a longer ban for frivolous appeal, that would be hilarious

He should, wasting everyone's time.

[Guest]

Decent game, this. Some neat football on display.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Brighton going with the not marking Defoe tactic there

Interesting

[GSC]

Got to be able to close these games out, Brighton will be disappointed if they don't take a point from this.

[Ent]

Palace have had 4 managers in 9 months and have just hired a 70 year old.

They need to be careful they are slowly creeping towards the championship.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Woyyyyy

[Duty281]

Alert: Roy Hodgson not the messiah. Sky hype machine crashing.

Don't freeze again, Roy!

[Duty281]

With the games in front of them, 8 losses out of 8 and no goals scored is a viable prospect for Palace.

[GSC]

Crazy thought, maybe the manager you gave 4 games wasn't the problem.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

They've played ok the last two games but doesn't mean anything now. Roy has almost gotta spend the next few weeks as a training process and hope they sneak points

[Guest]

Lascelles!!!!!!!!!!

Newcastle 2-1 Stoke - Three wins on the bounce. Sitting in the CL positions, back where Rafa belongs

[Guest]

Not a bad set of fixtures coming up for Newcastle too. Good luck to ya, John

[LivinginItaly]

Am i the only Liverpool fan on here who has had enough of Klopp? I am all for giving people time, but it is unforgivable that our defensive problems still haven't been addressed. I don't care about how many attacking options we have if we can't keep a clean sheet.

[Ent]

Crazy thought, maybe the manager you gave 4 games wasn't the problem.

Palaces players weren't trying. Was an easy game for Southampton, like a training session. Lots of time on the all under no pressure

[Atila]

Question for you guys. I was watching the Spurs Swansea game and the commentator said that the Spurs players still have to get used to the size of the pitch at Wembley.

Why aren't all pitches the same size?

[Duty281]

Am i the only Liverpool fan on here who has had enough of Klopp? I am all for giving people time, but it is unforgivable that our defensive problems still haven't been addressed. I don't care about how many attacking options we have if we can't keep a clean sheet.

Overrated manager. The media fall in love with his style, and lose focus of what really matters: results.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Question for you guys. I was watching the Spurs Swansea game and the commentator said that the Spurs players still have to get used to the size of the pitch at Wembley.

Why aren't all pitches the same size?

There's a choice for teams between certain widths and lengths. West Ham always had special dispensation to be a little smaller when we were at Upton Park due to the stands and build of the stadium: Spurs could have had similar. They also had no choice over the dimensions, Wembley is not theirs.

It can also be where the stands are; our players have said TA affected them as they were use to square shape and a natural quick look and knowing where they were on the pitch automatically.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Like Jamie Carragher said: when things go wrong for defensive managers, we never talk about them changing their style, yet attacking managers like Klopp get told to tighten things up.

Klopp could do more on defence, but his attacking management has been exceptional. He got them top four, an achievement without doubt, and is only two years in.

I find it all a bit sad. Football is entertainment, and Klopp has had success, by position and by style, in the Premier League. People don't know what they're doing if they're criticising Klopp to point of Liverpool changing manager

[Guest]

"it's Frank De Boer's fault for going to Crystal Palace and trying to change their style of football..."

Another Phil Neville gem.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

"it's Frank De Boer's fault for going to Crystal Palace and trying to change their style of football..."

Another Phil Neville gem.

How dare he

The arrogance of some managers eh Freek

[GSC]

You can see why Palace brought him in as the natural choice to replicate Big Sams methods.

[Atila]

Question for you guys. I was watching the Spurs Swansea game and the commentator said that the Spurs players still have to get used to the size of the pitch at Wembley.

Why aren't all pitches the same size?

There's a choice for teams between certain widths and lengths. West Ham always had special dispensation to be a little smaller when we were at Upton Park due to the stands and build of the stadium: Spurs could have had similar. They also had no choice over the dimensions, Wembley is not theirs.

It can also be where the stands are; our players have said TA affected them as they were use to square shape and a natural quick look and knowing where they were on the pitch automatically.

Thanks. I never considered that the size of the grounds might have had something to do with it. Always thought that at least the pitches were the same.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

"it's Frank De Boer's fault for going to Crystal Palace and trying to change their style of football..."

Another Phil Neville gem.

How dare he

The arrogance of some managers eh Freek

I'm going to support him a little bit here and say he's not wrong. It's Palace's fault for hiring a man who would do that, but de Boer can't be free of criticism just cos "that's who he is." That's like not criticising Boris Johnson for saying offensive and crude things because "that's who he is."

You have to take the blame if what you do doesn't work.

[LionsV2]

It's a process and De Boer tried changing too much too quickly.

[Ent]

Lukaku just misses far too many routine chances.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Ref not giving a pen cos Lingard decided to try shooting as he stumbled. This is why people throw themselves around...

[LionsV2]

That had been coming all game, so many times Everton gave the ball away in the defensive third.

[LionsV2]

Devastating final five minutes for the third time this season; Everton their own worst enemy today.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Indeed, HH, they are animals late on.

Everton in the bottom three, now conceded as many as Palace and only scored 2.

[Nathaniel Jacobs]

Manchester United got an abundance of talent in their squad. Martial and Herrera start for any other side. That's not factoring in long-term absentees Zlatan, Rojo and Shaw.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

They're ruthless at times. They're the steel and City are the sparkle. I'd guess the title race depends on how much each side can rely on those strengths to get them through

[gazzyD]

In the last three years United had scored 4 goals in a Premier League fixture on 3 occasions. They've equalled that stat in the opening 5 games this season.

Everton were really poor yesterday because we didn't actually play that well ourselves

[NickisBHAFC]

Palace

[wisden]

Nick

[GSC]

Rios taking up boxing apparently

[Duty281]

Rios taking up boxing apparently

If Flintoff can do it...

[compelling and rich]

i read this last night and didnt have a clue who you were talking about. i was reading it as the south american sounding name rios, not rio's

[LionsV2]

I don't think he's quite come to terms with things yet, he seems to need to keep himself occupied at all times, hopefully it doesn't end badly.

[Guest]

Basically a gym rat nowadays, so not surprised. Pretty stupid idea imo. Unnecessary risk, and always the risk he could receive life-threatening injuries, so to put that upon his children, who have already lost their mother, seems irresponsible & selfish.

[Beer]

He's not stepping in the ring with Anthony Joshua, is he!? He's obviously going to face someone at a similar weight and level to him. Bit over the top to say he's risking his life, by that logic we should ban boxing.

[Guest]

WHU 2-3 Spurs - Kane (2), Eriksen

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Too many unforced errors against an efficient if not brilliant Spurs side. Ref was horrible

[Guest]

October 2016 - Oumar Niasse stripped of his squad no, locker and made to train with the u23's.

September 2017 - Bailing Koeman's arse out

Burnley 0-0 Huddersfield
Man City 5-0 Palace (Sane, Sterling X2, Aguero, Delph)
Everton 2-1 B'mouth
Southampton 0-1 Man U (Lukaku)
Stoke 0-4 Chelsea (Morata hat-trick)
Swansea 1-2 Watford (Three home defeats in a row for Clement)

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Why does Harry Maguire think he's the second coming of Beckenbauer?

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Liverpool get away with one - Vardy with an awful penalty and Mignolet should be off

[NickisBHAFC]

What a win

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Bobby Madley bottled that - definite pen

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Divers prosper. You gotta learn to simulate cos if you don't, refs punish honesty

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