A Beautiful Thread for the Beautiful Game

In the Premier League, Manchester City drew 1-1 against Everton, while Chelsea avenged their defeat from a couple of weeks back by defeating Newcastle. Liverpool managed to hang on to a victory against Sunderland. Tottenham are currently playing Crystal Palace; at the moment it's goalless.

Tomorrow Manchester United will host Southampton, while Arsenal are playing Stoke. There's basically no way for Arsenal to get back to the top-4 this round but not winning against Stoke would be a disaster anyway, especially as Arsenal already lost against them earlier this season.

Harry Kane does it again!!! And not too soon after the beginning of the second half too. Palace 0 - Spurs 1.

Unbelievable that Kane scored 7 in only 7 starts. Also a pretty personal match for me since my ex-girlfriend supports Palace. Not saying I have more riding on this match... just saying.

Fuck me... a penalty for Palace after Joe Ledley is tripped. Gayle makes short work of Lloris on the spot and it's now 1-1.

Oh HELL no... Palace 2 - Spurs 1.

edited 10th Jan '15 11:09:52 AM by sanfranman91

Crystal Palace 2 - Spurs 1 (standby for rage mode)

SON OF A BITCH. Ledley's penalty will be one of the more debated points of the game but the bottom-line is after our awesome victory against Chelsea, we gave away 3 points against my ex's team. And why?! Because of Walker, Stambouli and Fazio. I'll give the former the benefit of the doubt, but he still looked like he was out of his depth against Zaha all night long. As for the other two... oh boy, angry doesn't even begin to describe my reactions to their effort and competence (or lack there of). It's one thing to get bargains from the continent but it's another if our owner wants a player (like Scheniderlin) and ends up settling with a piss-poor copycat (Stambouli). I hope we can pick ourselves to beat Burnley in the replay, but given the way our players seemed to have rested on their laurels after a Kane goal, I highly doubt it. At least Palace has actual fans... so many stadiums in the Premier League are almost like libraries these days (Arsenal and Tottenham are guilty of this).

And I swear to FUCKING God... if I never see Fazio wearing a Spurs shirt ever again, it will be way too soon.

(takes a deep breath)

edited 10th Jan '15 11:36:27 AM by sanfranman91

Benfica 3-0 V. Guimarães

They deserved to win. 3 goals, 3 or 4 shots that hit the post, and we only had a couple of chances.

We'll have to win next time, in order to recover the third place (since it's very likely that either Sporting or Braga will win the match between them.

edited 11th Jan '15 6:32:28 AM by Quag15

Boy, do I know that feeling...

edited 10th Jan '15 11:38:30 AM by BestOf

Only Spurs can defeat Chelsea one week and lose to Palace the next.

Kane seems to be doing all the pulling, or at least a lot of it, but Spurs need to make sure that they don't concede more goals than they score. Lloris, Chadli, Eriksen and Kane have been amazing, and perhaps today made Spurs realize how much they missed Ryan Mason and Nabil Bentaleb - Dembélé was decent, but Stambouli... wasn't. The penalty was debatable, especially considering replays seem to show that the tackler got more ball than man, but Zaha has been pretty good for Palace and his introduction provided the push needed.

I hope Spurs win against Burnley, but now I have no idea.

Podgy Tina's men are now likely to go fifth or sixth, depending on what Arsenal do tomorrow - three points will push Arsenal to 5th, level on points with Southampton, one will also push Arsenal to fifth, level on points with Spurs, but a higher GD.

It's not just Spurs that can be so inconsistent. Arsenal can also win against Bayern or Dortmund and then lose against Stoke or Sunderland the next game. It seems very easy for some players to become complacent a1fter a good result, and the focus and determination of 8 or 9 players isn't enough if 2 or 3 are not playing to win. (Even one complacent player can destroy a game, especially if it's the 'keeper.)

I'm guessing you learnt the hard way with Szczesny. Still, mistakes do happen, and hopefully either a sufficiently chastened Szczesny or a rather motivated Ospina will play. I believe Ozil will be playing too - how do you think that'll work?

Much ado about nothing regarding Frank Lampard - everybody says he's going to New York after the season, yet there's speculation he'll stay at the Etihad, after being pretty good for City.

Schalke closing in on City's Matija Nastasic.

Lacazette says that he wants to play abroad, in Spain or England, should he leave Lyon. Maybe there is hope for Spurs.

Liverpool interested in Gonzalo Higuain. Sounds BS.

Sunderland wants to get rid of Jozy Altidore, but have had no deals from any MLS teams.

The Lampard thing isn't exactly nothing. It was announced by him and by NY FC that he had signed with NY FC and would start there in January 2015, and that for the first half of the 2014-15 Premier League season he'd play on loan for Manchester City. Now it turns out all he had with NY FC was a pre-contract deal, and that his deal with City isn't just a loan, but a one-year contract. The player and both clubs lied so that NY FC could start marketing merchandise and season tickets with Lampard's name and image. (In case you don't know NY FC is affiliated with Manchester City.)

Ospina will probably be Arsenal's starting goalkeeper now for the near future, or at least until he fucks up a couple of games in a row - which doesn't seem likely to happen any time soon. Szczesny really screwed up against Southampton, and after the game he apparently was caught smoking and fined.

I hope Wenger will not have Özil on the left flank again - it didn't work in the first games of the season and even though Arsenal's attacking midfielders are expected to change positions throughout a game it's clear that Özil is at his best if he's primarily playing through the middle. He'll switch places with Alexis and the other winger (probably Walcott, but could also be Oxlade-Chamberlain or Cazorla) but the position he returns to should be in the middle.

With Giroud holding up play and passing to Özil and the other central playmaking midfielder (normally it'd be Ramsey or Wilshere but since they're out it'll be Rosicky or Oxlade-Chamberlain or maybe even Cazorla) there will be space for pacy forwards to race into. I expect Alexis and Walcott (or Oxlade-Chamberlain) to get behind Stoke's defenders with some regularity.

HMRC's appeal against the Upper Tier Tribunal set for a procedural hearing Feb. 3rd.

Coming into the Big Tax Case endgame now.

6 minutes into Arsenal's game against Stoke and Begovic already has 2 fantastic saves. Unfortunately for him Arsenal had 3 shots on goal by then. 1-0 on the 6th minute.

Now Giroud and Oxlade-Chamberlain have had near misses, while Begovic has managed a couple more very good saves.

Meanwhile, Arnautovic managed to cause an injury to Debuchy by pushing him down when the was going over the line for an Arsenal goal kick. If that's the only injury to Arsenal in the first half I bet that's what Stoke's manager will be complaining about, even if the game is 5-0. It really, honestly does seem that Stoke's primary goal in games away at Arsenal is to cause injuries. That's what they want, rather than the points.

Alexis makes it 2-0 with a wonderful strike while surrounded by three Stoke defenders. For Stoke, of course, the scoreline is irrelevant but it's nice to have at least one goal for buffer in case Stoke succeed in a spot kick or corner.

Arnautovic has now had mercy from the referee in at least 2 situations that should've resulted in a yellow card, including the foul that injured Debuchy. Grouch has also managed to evade cards even though he kicked Mertesacker just now and previously hit Monreal in the face while jumping for a header. I think it's curious that he almost always hits people with his shoulders even though he's much taller than almost anyone he ever jumps against. Unfortunately for Stoke, Monreal has his face patched and was able to continue playing after about 4 or 5 minutes of treatment. I think Grouch is going to get shouted at for that - he tried to get Monreal out of the game and failed.

The second half starts with two fouls finally called correctly against Stoke. One of them resulted in a yellow card, and the other in a goal by Alexis. He now has 2 goals and an assist in this game. The referee must've seen replays of his egregious errors in the first half and decided to concentrate on getting his decisions right in the second.

edited 11th Jan '15 6:46:43 AM by BestOf

The Stoke Neanderthals are throwing tantrums with more frequency now LOLOLOLOLOL.

edited 11th Jan '15 6:48:00 AM by entropy13

Manchester United 0-1 Southampton

The Saints snatched two points after a Pelle shot hit the post, and Dusan Tadic from the bench got the rebound and finished past Tyler Blackett on the line. God, that was boring - one shot on target from both sides (not each, both), the goal. Snoozefest, honestly. Bad week.

So, Arnautovic isn't getting anything for the foul that got Debuchy injured. Reports have it that Debuchy will be out for anywhere between 6 weeks and 3 months. To be honest I think it'd be great if every time a player got injured for a foul that, on replay, appears to have been made on purpose the player that committed the foul would have to sit out twice as many games as the player that got injured. That would probably make the league safer in the long run - and more interesting. Then again a ruling like that would probably mean that Stoke would have to play most of the season with just their youth squad.

In other news, Sanogo has been loaned out to Crystal Palace. I think it's a good move for everybody and I hope he'll get playing time and score goals at Palace.

I also watched the highlights on Mo TD and the commentator said it was..."unintentional". I just rolled my eyes after I heard that and stopped watching (since I was able to watch the game itself anyway).

So, once upon a time, this happened.

@Best Of: Hell, even with their youth squad I think Stoke might be the first team to be relegated because too many of their players are suspended.

Strangely enough, Stoke is one of the two teams yet to recieve a red card this season (the other being Burnley), I read today.

It's not that strange. They always get a lot of leniency from referees. It seems as if the referees at some point decided that if they treat Stoke like they treat everyone else they'll have to be carding them all the time so instead they'll just let Stoke commit ridiculous numbers of fouls without getting carded.

Manchester City have officially signed Wilfried Bony.

-facepalm-

Maybe Spurs can get Dzeko now. Or maybe I'm just being overtly optimistic.

City are said to have loaned out Negredo because they couldn't comply with FFP if they had to pay his wages on top of everything else they're paying (including the summer transfers) and now they've had some injuries and they end up buying a fairly expensive striker with probably rather high wages. They'll have to sell somebody in the near future to balance the books. For tactical balance it'll probably have to be a striker. Maybe Spurs should ask about Negredo's availability.

If it wasn't Spurs maybe Arsenal could've helped them out by loaning them Sanogo and Podolski. I suppose that's tough luck to Spurs...

There's a chance that Negredo could stay on at Valencia, I think, which might cause an issue, because Rodrigo and Paco Alcacer seem to be their main strikers, so... It'll be complicated, sure, and maybe a striker less club like Spurs could capitalise if Daniel Levy can close in. If he does, however... I dunno.

Also, I suppose it'd have been weird for an Arsenal player to be loaned (not even sold) to Spurs, given the rivalry between the teams. Not, of course, that they haven't happened - Adebayor is the most recent example - but it'd still be odd.

edited 14th Jan '15 8:09:52 AM by arcanephoenix

In the FA Cup,

Tottenham Hotspur 4-2 Burnley

I didn't see the match, so have no idea what happened, but when your halftime score is 2-2, you can guess the match must've been fun. Thankfully Spurs have managed to pull away, and will now face Leicester City in the next round.

EDIT: Holy highlights, Batman!

There were three goals in the first ten minutes, Burnley was up 2-0 by the eighth minute, and 2-1 by the tenth, with first half stoppage time giving Spurs the equaliser. After that, two second half goals seem to have clinched it for Spurs.

edited 14th Jan '15 6:08:46 PM by arcanephoenix

Mike Ashley offers loan of 10 million pounds to Rangers in exchange for Ibrox and training ground security rights

Be interesting to see what chants Hearts fans come up with for their match today

edited 15th Jan '15 9:04:09 AM by KoBB

It's tomorrow. At Ibrox the Sports Direct Arena

I still think our best anti-Rangers chant is this:

"The Rangers died and the Hearts survived!"

They really seethe at that. Because it's true. We saved our club, and they left theirs to die.