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

[GSC]

VVD a big upgrade but still not entirely convinced personnel is the biggest issue.

[Ent]

He's a good player but not great, if he was bigger clubs would be after him.

[GSC]

City were but yeah, that's just name your price money

[Guest]

Celtic must be well chuffed with that sale.

[GSC]

Everton signing Cenk Tosun for 20m and addons

[GSC]

Swansea are hiring Carlos Carvahal for some reason.

His championship experience will be a plus for next season

[Marky]

City "buying" the league, everyone moans.

Liverpool and Utd spend fortunes on individual players (who aren't even world class) and nobody bats an eye.

[Marky]

Celtic must be well chuffed with that sale.

10% sell on I read, so that's a bonus £7.5m

[GSC]

City raising the bar can only be a good thing is it forces the rest of the league to improve to match them, like Mourinhos Abramovitchs funded Chelsea team forced everyone to catch them and was part of English teams dominating the CL for a spell

[Ent]

City "buying" the league, everyone moans.

Liverpool and Utd spend fortunes on individual players (who aren't even world class) and nobody bats an eye.

Think quite a lot of people have commented on these signings. Heard far more people saying that than the city buying the league line.

[Guest]

City "buying" the league, everyone moans.

Liverpool and Utd spend fortunes on individual players (who aren't even world class) and nobody bats an eye.

Just means that they're trying to buy the league

[Fernando]

Swansea appoint Carlos Carvalhal as manager

[GSC]

‘The day that this is football, I’m not in a job anymore, because the game is about playing together

‘That is how everybody in football understands it. You always want to have the best, but building the group is necessary to be successful.

‘Other clubs can go out and spend more money and collect top players. I want to do it differently. I would even do it differently if I could spend that money.’

[Ent]

Absolutely grim from united yesterday, hard to see where the next win is coming from.

Top 4 place looking under threat, can see Jose at psg next season.

[GSC]

Terrible decision, justice done

[Guest]

Stoke 0-1 Newcastle - Perez

We should be out of sight, if we had a striker. Hughes rested everyone for this game, if we hold on, I think he's departing tonight

[Ent]

So managed to get a win, looked like more of the same until martial picked one out from the edge of the box.

[Nathaniel Jacobs]

Have to admit United looked a much more fluid side without an out and out striker. 4-3-3 seems to be a better fit for them, but Mourinho has based his career around the 4-2-3-1.

Pogba as the left sided central midfielder was like the player that played for Juventus. It's the role he does for France and did for Juve. It's clearly his best position.

Obviously a 'false 9' won't always work, but I feel Mourinho shouldn't have signed Lukaku and perhaps waited for Griezmann or whom ever else he wanted.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Don’t complain about Allardyce making his team hard to beat. You play his sides in these games, take the points and leave. He reduces the quality of play purposefully

[Ent]

Have to admit I enjoyed the "el busico" tag for the match.

Like dolph says, an away win against an allardyce side is to be taken and the performance forgotten about largely.

[No name Bertie]

Stoke drop into the bottom three following wins by Crystal Palace and West Ham. Mark Hughes / Stoke's major problem has probably been signings especially Berahino who seems to have thrown away a promising start to his career after he downed tools at WBA to force a move to a "bigger club" eventually ending up at Stoke but never refinding form. Another problem with Stoke is that they have the worst defence in the premiership, shipping in 47 goals - over two goals conceded per game played.

[Duty281]

Andy Carroll reminding everyone that he's still about. A lazy performance, but two goals nonetheless.

[Guest]

How’s that Pardew appointment working out?

[Marky]

I don't think you can expect Pardew to turn a Tony Pulis side into a Pep side within a month

[Guest]

With Costa, Chelsea probably win that quite comfortably

[GSC]

Barkley having a medical at Chelsea, 15m

[Guest]

Opportunist move. Merely a signing, aimed at achieving a significantly larger re-sale value down the line. Should improve his tactical awareness under Conte, and playing with better quality, inheritently makes you look better anyway.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Should be getting games there, if Drinkwater and Bakayoko are

[Marky]

Makes sense for both parties, Barkley needs to do something to get into the England squad and Chelsea need more options.

[GSC]

Mark Hughes sacked

[GSC]

Sounds like Sanchez may be on his bike

[Guest]

Dolph, any news on Shelvey to WHU for £12m? Wouldn’t miss him in all honesty, a total liability.

[lfc91]

Dolph, any news on Shelvey to WHU for £12m? Wouldn’t miss him in all honesty, a total liability.

Always liked Shelvey at Liverpool. Thought he had all the talent just missing a few things, things that I thought would develop at Newcastle. Clearly not the case though.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

He’s one of many names. He’ll be popular cos he’s West Ham, but I’m not overly chuffed. We have gaps in midfield but his lack of discipline all round and the fact he isn’t any better than what we have mean it’s all a bit of a waste

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Arsenal just Arsenal’d

[Ent]

They'll be mid table at best when Sanchez and ozil leave.

[Guest]

How Theo Walcott has survived 12 years at a club of that size and stature is beyond me.

What a conman.

[Guest]

Liverpool 1-0 Man City - Oxlade

[Dolphin Ziggler]

"My information is that Aguero is definitely leaving at the end of the season" - BBC’s Alan Green

[Guest]

1-1 Sane

Karius error, for me

Makes sense for Sanchez to wait for the summer, and replace Aguero

[Ent]

How Theo Walcott has survived 12 years at a club of that size and stature is beyond me.

What a conman.

Wenger keeps a lot of crap lying around for some reason.

[Guest]

2-1 Firmino

Stones error

[Guest]

3-1 Mane

Too late though, the rest of the PL needed this result back in November

[Guest]

4-1 Salah

Ederson howler

[No name Bertie]

All the teams involved in the mid-week League (Carabao) Cup semi-finals either lost or should have lost:
Chelsea 0 Leicester 0
Bristol City 0 Norwich 1
Bournemouth 2 Arsenal 1
Liverpool 4 Man City 1 (73 minutes)

[Guest]

Liverpool 4-2 Man City - Bernardo Silva

[Guest]

Liverpool 4-3 Man City - Gundogan

[No name Bertie]

Emre Can for Liverpool has played a blinder today (substituted off at 79 minutes for some reason) - yet he has refused to sign a new contract and can leave on a free in the summer.

Liverpool 4 - Man City 3 (90 + 2 mins)

[TRUSSMAN66]

What a great game..Disappointed as a City follower but congratulations to Liverpool...

Enjoyed it.

[GSC]

Stoke hiring Paul Lambert

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