General Premier League Thread 2023-24 Mod Note in op 27/6/23 And 21/05/24

I don't like to give English lessons but....

Bias is to be unfairly or prejudicially opposed to something or someone.

I've never heard of a fan who says they aren't a fan.

My team is Athletic club. I like Blackburn Rovers.

Tonali charged by the English FA now for gambling offences after he joined Newcastle.

Clearly he has addiction issues. If he went for treatment for his issues between now and August then he should be given a suspended ban.

I would say he deserves another ban. But I'd be putting a lot of the blame on Newcastle this time, if they did their homework on him correctly then they would have discovered his addiction and could have put things in place to help him from the minute they signed him. it's as much a failing on their part as on his.

The problem with gambling addiction is it's very easy to hide unlike drugs or alcohol. And it's not only that you look perfect but you can also make a decision after a bad day that you are quitting and believe you will stick to it and if you believe it then others will too. This is why a gambler can lose everything very quickly.

Its a terrible problem because it's not identifiable.

I don’t know if you can have rules against gambling that you push aside for gambling addiction though. You kind of either have them or you don’t.

There are some who don't have any addiction issues and are betting or being paid to make sure certain events happen in a game. The reason for the rules is to try and prevent that from happening.

Yeah the FA & PL should be looking at themselves here at the same time. Maybe even first. They are actively contributing towards the image of gambling within football.

I know that there will be a new ruling enforced where clubs cannot have a betting company sponsor the club shirts, but that doesn't kick in until the start of the 2026/2027 season. You would automatically assume that the reason why this is, is to allow the clubs honour their existing deals that would have been signed before the agreement to remove the betting sponsors, and give the clubs time to find new deals to use after.

But they have allowed clubs (like Aston Villa) to sign new sponsorship deals with betting companies after this ruling as long as the deal finishes up before 2026/2027. This is not helping things, but obviously the clubs are not playing ball there too. The proactive thing would be to just ban any club from signing new deals with betting companies, and let the existing deals filter out, before a complete ban starting in 2026/2027.

I fully agree, at the very least there should be a watershed for those ads. It's totally wrong that they are on during the day when kids are watching.

id rather be an alcoholic or druggie than a gambler, you could knock a days craic out of €100 on the pints but it wouldn't last you in a bookies, thankfully i can do all 3 without any problems

yeah i understand that, sorry i didn't word it right in my post 🤦‍♂️gambling is a terrible terrible addiction. has no place in advertisement or sponsorship the same as cigarettes and alcohol

If it's intentional, then he's veered away from gambling addiction and into match-fixing, which is a whole new charge and probbaly a lot more serious.

You can gamble without match fixing and you can fix matches/incidents as a player without gambling.

Yeah, i know; but mitigating factors against addiction may well be taking into account, mitigating factors into match-fixing would not, if he was convited of it.

At that point he'd even be commiting fraud.

Stones and Walker both out on Sunday, big boost for Arsenal that

It hurts but it'd be a bigger disaster for other clubs.

Like they still have options like a back three with Akanji, Dias and Ake or a back four with the three above and Gvardiol. I can see Bernardo Silva playing deep in midfield or alternatively Kovacic coming in.

Like you've got Rico Lewis for wing back and Gvardiol on the other side if you go back three. I won't even talk about further upfield bar the Kovacic mention above.

Ridiculous squad.

I'd be sending Lasagna from White Hart Lane!

This is harsh considering this seasons Arsenal team have taken 7 points out of 9 from the Liverpool/City games so far

As mentioned above, those games were playing against Liverpool who had a lot of injuries and then one of those games where Rodri was missing. Sunday is a new challenge for Arsenal this season - playing Man City when both Rodri & KDB will be available.

That said, if Arsenal can get someone running at the sides of Rodri with pace, they can get some joy as the recovery pace of Walker will be missing, as well as the defensive head of Stones in the same areas. Rodri doesn't tend to deal with pace too well, and if he is bypassed, then the Man City defence is extra exposed.

A lot of Arsenal fans reckon a major defining factor behind why they didn't win the title last year was because Saliba got injured in the Europa League and missed the run in.

And they may be correct. But that’s still on them. If Stones or Dias get injured it won’t derail City (yes of course the conversation will go on for months about how City built that squad). You can’t be 1 injury away from collapse.

Its different this year. They have two Premier league winners in the squad which has to be a great help at this time of the season.

You’re just repeating my point though