This Weekends Prem Fixtures

PHB

Arsenal is gona be a tough game, both teams are in fantastic form, but the game against Juve last week physically will be nothing compared to this week. It is going to be an incredible battle and there is no doubt that Arsenal will be tired after it.

Also, Arsenal against United, United tend to win. Infact recently Arsenal have stopped this by playing 4-5-1 to counter United. If they go back to 4-4-2 against United, I think we will beat them simply because the Arsenal full backs are always exposed against United(cept Cole but he is injured). If they go to a 4-5-1, I don't know what will happen tbh. I expect them to stick with 4-4-2, and try and play football, in which case, It'll be interesting.

Pepe LeFrits

Lemlin wrote:

Just watching Match of the Day. Henry is unreal. The way he just stopped his run, stood back, waited for the flick back from Adeyabor and then finished for the goal was superb.

He and Adeyabor look like they could be a very potent attacking force.

I look forward to seeing it on Football First! I went to the private members bar for a beer at half time and came out 2/3 mins late... while walking back out the stewardess goes to me "hurry up or you'll miss another one!"

"Bollix" I instantly thought

fade2black

:rolleyes:

We know you were at the game. Get over it.

Pepe LeFrits

Mmmm, that was a bit good alright.

PiE

I'm a Liverpool fan and even I'd prefer Utd to win the title than Chelsea, but hang on a minute... the only victory of note since Utd's last loss (4-3 to Blackburn) has been winning at the Reebok. All of the others have been scrappy wins or wins against wretched teams. Hardly "unstoppable".

PHB

Which wins were scrappy wins?

p.s.
Liverpools winning run this year that everybody went on about, and everybody thought they had become the 2nd best team in the country was:

West Ham
Villa
Portsmouth
City
Sunderland
Wigan
Boro
Newcastle
Everton
West Brom

SteM

jank wrote:

He is a United fan

So am I, but I'm refusing to get carried away

eyerer

Sat, 4th H Fulham (PREM.)
4 - 2 | W Match report
Sat, 11th A Portsmouth (PREM.)
1 - 3 | W Match report

Mon, 6th A Wigan (PREM.)
1 - 2 | W Match report
Sun, 12th H Newcastle (PREM.)
2 - 0 | W Match report
Sat, 18th A West Brom (PREM.)
1 - 2 | W Match report
Sun, 26th H Birmingham (PREM.)
3 - 0 | W Match report
Wed, 29th H West Ham (PREM.)
1 - 0 | W Match report

Sat, 1st A Bolton (PREM.)
1 - 2 | W Match report

many of the same teams

PHB

indeed, I'm just pointing out the hypocrisy.

wheres me jumpa

I was wondering when this thread would degrade into a Utd v Liverpool thread! Most united fans will have been on here complaining about the team. The team hasnt changed so just because we have put average teams to the sword doesnt mean that suddenly we are a match for Chelsea.

However the fact is that the gap has been closed. I dont believe it is significant enough to be getting excited about winning the league. Next weekend will decide whether its a close run thing or stroll in the park. If United can beat Arsenal they should be capable of winning their remaining fixtures which will keep the pressure on, if only from a distance.

PiE

PHB wrote:

indeed, I'm just pointing out the hypocrisy.

Please, point it out. I thought at the time that people were getting carried away with Liverpool's run and I feel the same about Utd now.

It's also not so long ago that Utd were being humbled in the CL with largely the same team (I don't think Vidic nor Evra add much to the mix).

Swings and roundabouts.

andrewie

Man City 0 - 1 Middlesboro' Lee Cattermole 43 mins

okidoki987

I put a few quid on Utd to win the premiership just before the Chesea game ended, got them at 16/1, they are 11/2 now. I am not all that confident but at least I got nice odds!!

Lay it off on betfair or batdaq

I look forward to seeing it on Football First! I went to the private members bar for a beer at half time and came out 2/3 mins late... while walking back out the stewardess goes to me "hurry up or you'll miss another one!"

Unlucky :rolleyes:
I was in the North bank and I can say Van Persie's goal was one of the best
I've seen at Highbury over the years.
Not only did he have to stop it going out, but he had to keep it away from the goalkeeper and then try to get an angle to shot and score.
Class.
It was funny before he came on when he was warming up, the North Bank and East stand were singing Robin Van Persie's name and he was nodding his head to the chant.

One of the most one sided games I've seen this year.
Villa weren't at the races, feel sorry for O'Leary if (when) he gets the boot.
Must have been his worst nightmare playing Arsenal when they have just stuffed Juve, OUCH!

Necronomicon

No birthday goal for Teddy. West Ham 0-0 Charlton. FT

andrewie

Teddy was so unlucky not to score a birthday goal late on. Great save from Mhyre

redspider

Liverpool had a facile victory over the weekend. They played 4-4-2 with Cisse out wide right. This position does not suit him. Alonso played well, the back line was strong and Liverpool dominate. Fowlers goal though was off-side, so lucky that the linesman was not up to scratch. Cisse's goal came about from a route-one pass by Alonso and Cisse's angled run which was too fast for the West Brom defence.

A lot of talk about Chelsea slipping up. In a way, they were unlucky as they dominated their game as much as Liverpool did and as much as Man Utd did (who won 1-2). And that is the nature of football. The same level of domination does not produce the same scoreline or result in the same number of points.

I still think it will finish:
1 Chelsea, 2 Man Utd, 3 Liverpool, 4 Arsenal

with West Brom, Birnmingham and Sunderland relegated

Its good at least to see Man Utd giving Chelsea some sort of jitters, but its still a 7 point gap with only 6 games left, one of those being a head to head. If Chelsea get their scoring boots back on, they could easily win the next 3 games. Liverpool are only 5 pts behind Man U, although with a game less, but then they dont have to play Chelsea or Arsenal.

Man Utd have to keep winning, which is not easy. They have won 8 in a row recently, but it would be a big feat to win the remaining 6 matches, and even then that may not be enough.

Mathematically, Liverpool can still win the title race but I'm not holding my breath.

redspider

fade2black

I think, as has been said last year, it's great that next year we should have a decent 4 horse race. Chelsea will inevitably strengthen their squad but they won't be siging optimus prime in goal and I'm sure the other three won't cheap out in the market either. This season may be all but over, but the appetite is whetted for next year...

cruiserweight

Team news for tonights game :

Blackburn
B Friedel, L Neill, Z Khizanishvili, R Nelsen, M Gray, D Bentley, R Savage, S Reid, M Pedersen, C Bellamy, P Dickov
Subs: S Kuqi, P Enckelman, A Mokoena, K Tugay, F Sinama Pongolle

Wigan
J Filan, P Chimbonda, P Scharner, A De Zeeuw, L Baines, G Teale, J Bullard, G Kavanagh, L McCulloch, J Roberts, A Johansson
Subs: M Jackson, M Pollitt, D Connolly, R Ziegler, D Thompson

Aquos76

Jason Roberts has just made it 1-0 to wigan. Lovely finish too

Playboy

Wigan were robbed. Perfect Goal disallowed and Blackburn's goal was a clear foul on the keeper.

Chucky the tree

fade2black wrote:

I think, as has been said last year, it's great that next year we should have a decent 4 horse race. Chelsea will inevitably strengthen their squad but they won't be siging optimus prime in goal and I'm sure the other three won't cheap out in the market either. This season may be all but over, but the appetite is whetted for next year...

Price doesnt matter to chelsea though. It does to all other clubs. ALl teams will have targets, but finacially it might not be possible for liverpool, united or arsenal to afford them. Where as whoever chelsea want, they can pretty much get.

THe one bad thing about the title chase being this close, and possible getting closer is that it gurantees chelsea will go out and break the bank for a quality striker in the summer. WOuldnt be at all suprised if they actually did sign Schvenchenko(sp).

mike65

Bad luck for Wigan, the results are all panning out quite nicely for Arsenal though. Looks like they won't HAVE to win the CL to be in it next season.

Mike.

Lemlin

Playboy wrote:

Wigan were robbed. Perfect Goal disallowed and Blackburn's goal was a clear foul on the keeper.

Dowd was a disgrace. Plenty of decisions were wrong. Blackburn were lucky though and hopefully they can beat Portsmouth in a tough away game this weekend. To get a point was lucky last night but at least we've closed the gap on Spurs to 2.

county

Lemlin wrote:

Dowd was a disgrace.

i agree and so does p jewell,looks like he`s in hot water with the FA over his comments about mr dowd

andrewie

hes definetly in trouble with the FA for his comments. Dowd shoudn't be allowed ref in premiership for awhile. He made some shocking decisions last night.

Royale with Cheese

Birmingham beating Bolton 1-0 at half time thanks to Jiri Jarosik's goal. G'wan you big legends.

Pepe LeFrits

If it finishes like that it'll be 3 defeats on the bounce for Bolton I think, and the end of their CL ambitions.

Necronomicon

What did Paul Jewell say? I didn't watch the post-match comments. He was justified in whatever he said though, Filan was bulldozed over by Lucas Neill, it was shocking. Although I didn't see the Bellamy disallowed goal.

Pepe LeFrits

"He (Dowd) genuinely gets things wrong. He doesn't do it on purpose, he is just not very good. He is just incompetent."

Jewell said of the equaliser: "Their goal at the end is not a foul, it's GBH.

"One Premier League manager told me Dowd is the worst referee we have got in this league - and he isn't wrong."

There ya go!

Royale with Cheese

Finished 1-0 to Brum, Excellent. Piss off out of the race for 4th place Bolton and never, ever, come back.

Necronomicon

Thanks PePe! Yeah, probably will land him in hot water!
"Their goal at the end is not a foul, it's GBH."
GBH??

Pepe LeFrits

Gross bodily harm

Chucky the tree

Not greavous(sp) bodily harm?



Bolton on a bad run, we have them up next on sunday.

Necronomicon

Thanks for clearing that up guys.
To be fair to Neill, there's no way he could've stopped with the momentum he had, there was nothing malicious or intentional whatsoever, but it was still a clear foul.

WhiteWashMan

gbh = grevious bodily harm, as opposed to abh, which is actual bodily harm.

never understood the difference to me.

anyway, just saw the bolton result which quite shocked me. 7 points behind 4th spot now with only the 1 game in hand. arsenal 2 points behind 4th with 1 game in hand. blackburn 2 points behind, same games played.

its really turned into an exciting race. im not sure that bolton have shot their bolt, but id rather have then 7 points behind with an extra game, than 4 points behind. on paper, arsenal have the easier run in, but weve seen sunderland gain a point, birmingham pulling points back against chelsea and now bolton, what i would say are 2 of the toughest defences in the premier league.
west brom really put the wind up spurs last week, and they are playing great football. no easy games left, although, i wouldnt lay my mortgage on arsenal not winning.
martin jol could be right, it could all come down to the match at highbury.
but right, now, for me, every match is a cup final. although, i wasnt surprised to see spurs lose at newcastle. just a shame they couldnt have had their inconsistant team out that day, and we forgot to get on the bus

WhiteWashMan

although, looking at the fixtures, i think if liverpool and chelsea both beat bolton, then they are out of a european spot.
i also think if spurs can win 4 of their last 6 games, and one of those wins is against arsenal, then we will retain 4th spot.