A Beautiful Thread for the Beautiful Game

...Bugger.

After the losses of Liverpool and Southampton (1-0 to Everton), Tottenham have a golden opportunity to take fifth place with their game in hand. Even better - it's Burnley (at Turf Moor, but Spurs have won away at better teams). A win will push currently seventh-placed Spurs directly to fifth, with two points over Liverpool and a reasonably easy fixture list (barring Manchester City, and if Spurs pull off a win against Sheikhy at WHL, suddenly Champions League football will be within the grasp, though the previous fixture against Southampton will confirm whether Spurs will play any European football next season). Damn, if only Balotelli hadn't decided to score his first goal against Tottenham, the table would've been different.

Man United had a good win over Villa, with two goals from Ander Herrera and a beautiful half-volley from Rooney, with Christian Benteke preventing de Gea from keeping a clean sheet (incidentally, should the 'd' in 'de Gea' be small, like 'van Persie'?) United have the single most fuckall fixture list now though, with the biggest tests being the next two games - the Manchester derby at home and Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, and taking even two or three points from those two games will probably guarantee Champions League football for next season, along with all that nice, nice money from the Chevrolet and Adidas deals.

Sheikhy (yes, I've discovered 442oons) have a game on Tuesday against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, and a win will get them back to second. A draw, however, will get them to third, above Man United on goal difference; a loss, however, will keep them at fourth, making them the target of the fifth-placed team (hopefully, after today, Tottenham, but it could also be Liverpool if Spurs fail to win).

edited 5th Apr '15 1:24:40 AM by arcanephoenix

Spurs 0 - Burnley 0

Harry Kane had the week of his life with his impressive performances for England. However, you know what they used to say about good times, they never last. It was an interesting experiment to see Kane captain his team at only 21 years of age and he has indeed been the most influential player of our squad this year. The defense on our side was excellent in stopping Danny Ings from adding more goals to his tally. Unfortunately, Burnley had a solid defense as well and they were able to render most of our attacks moot. It wasn't the worst I've seen Spurs this year, as I think our games against Palace and Sheffield United were far worse. Still, it was disappointing to not get all three points in our fading hopes of getting a Champions League spot.

Honestly, the Championship has been real exciting over the last few weeks (and perhaps more so than the Premier League). While everyone knew Middlesbrough and Norwich City were going to contend, there have been a lot of surprise packages such as Bournemouth, Brentford, and Wolves that came out of nowhere to have a legitimate chance of becoming Premier League clubs at the end of the season. All have full-firing offenses and incredible hunger to get points, and it is showing through the quality of their matches. The relegation battle looks to be a heart-stopper as well, with teams like Millwall, Wigan, Rotherham United, and Fulham (of all teams) all desperate to avoid dropping to League One with Blackpool FC.

Having looked back on my Football League predictions, I'm surprised that my Championship guesses are not that far off (apart from Leeds which looks safe at this rate). With the surprise packages in mind, my heart is rooting for clubs like Brentford and Bournemouth being promoted to the Premier League at the end of the season. However, my head says that in the end Boro will win the league, Norwich City will be 2nd, and Bournemouth or Derby will be promoted via playoffs. Thoughts from the others?

edited 5th Apr '15 4:21:52 PM by sanfranman91

As mentioned above,

Burnley 0-0 Tottenham Hotspur

This only pushes Spurs to sixth, level on points with Liverpool but lower due to goal difference - only one goal would've pushed them two points clear of Liverpool straight to fifth. Damn - you'd think a team in the top six could easily dispatch of an almost-relegated side like Burnley.

Now we'll just have to hope that Liverpool lose or draw another game (and more importantly, we win every game, or take at least 11 points every five games). Of course, it is still unlikely that there is much chance of catching the top four, for Liverpool or Tottenham, but top-five looks more appealing than top-six, which is of course better than no European football at all.

Incidentally, what has happened to the FA Cup? It was going on full-swing and suddenly it just stopped.

Also, a doubt. What happens if Arsenal win the FA Cup with Liverpool as the runners-up? Obviously Arsenal, having qualified for the Champions League, won't use the Europa League spot; but Liverpool won't use it either, having gotten a EL place by league position. So... who'll get it? Seventh? God knows Southampton deserve it after the season they've had; plus it's good insurance for us :P

edited 5th Apr '15 8:41:26 PM by arcanephoenix

I'm not 100 % sure, but I think they've changed the rules, meaning the runners-up won't get the EL place and that it'll be league position that counts instead.

I don't know what happens if the EL winner is already qualified for CL through league position, though. I think I've heard that the runners-up won't get the place, but then who will?

It'll be interesting to see what will happen to the Europa League spots after this year's FA Cup.

Also, it's official: Blackpool is relegated from the Championship after Rotherham beat Brighton 1-0. The Seasiders have been an absolute trainwreck this year and, while they are going to League One next year, the worst might be yet to come so long as the Oystons own that club.

As for the second-tier title, it's become a four-team rat race◊ between Bournemouth, Norwich, Watford, and Boro with only 2 points separating 1st from 4th. Pass the Popcorn, because these teams are thrilling to watch and they'll give a world of good for adding even more competition to the Premier League next year.

edited 6th Apr '15 9:11:17 AM by sanfranman91

As someone who mainly follows the Premier League the club I'm most familiar among the top-4 in the Championship is Norwich. Last season you could generally rely on them to produce an exciting and fair game. Obviously they've lost players since getting relegated but I want them back in the Premier League. Who wouldn't have them rather than QPR?

In the Premier League, to the delight of Arsenal, Man United, Liverpool and Tottenham fans (and to the slight frustration of Tottenham fans),

Crystal Palace 2-1 Manchester City

City have now dropped to fourth, with seven points separating them from Liverpool and Tottenham. If only Spurs had won against Burnley, fourth place would've been within five points. -sigh-

But damn, with seven games to go, it's interesting to see what the nature of the top six is: The winners are mostly decided, with Chelsea having seven points and a game over Arsenal, and barring some (admittedly likely) late twists, the relegation candidates are mostly decided too. But the rest... It's all up in the air. United will be happy and somewhat relieved that they have some distance over fourth. (One point, so... still not much, but hey, it prevents playoffs).

Blackburn 0 - 0 Liverpool at half-time in the FA Cup replay. The winner will play Aston Villa at Wembley in the semi-final. The other semi-final will be Reading v Arsenal.

You wouldn't guess from the game so far that Blackburn are a division down from Liverpool. The visitors have controlled possession but they've only had one clear chance and one or two speculative shots from distance. Blackburn are defending as a unit, with determination and belief. When they have the ball they're not afraid to keep it for a bit for a dribble, or to combine several passes under pressure to get an attack going.

I feel a bit for Liverpool - Sakho had to come off with a hamstring problem, and they're already missing Skrtel, as well. It's always a problem when you have several players out of the same position. Still, I'd rather have Blackburn through. They're the underdog, and of course I'd prefer them over Liverpool as a potential FA Cup finalist if Arsenal are going to be the other team in it.

EDIT: Liverpool managed it in the end. Blackburn came into the second half with a very attacking approach and forced two excellent saves from Mignolet before the game started to slip back into Liverpool's hands. A moments of individual brilliance from Coutinho finally decided it. After the goal Liverpool mostly focused on killing the game, which really isn't something they normally do very well under Rodgers but they managed to pull it off today. To be honest they deserved to win it - they were just plain better - but Blackburn can be proud of putting such pressure on Liverpool at times and of never looking like they'd be easy to beat.

edited 8th Apr '15 3:16:20 PM by BestOf

Yeah, it's good to know Liverpool can still manage a narrow win against Blackburn, even if a Champions League spot proved too difficult.

They can still get in the Champions League is someone fucks up. Currently it doesn't seem very likely that Arsenal would do it but maybe one of the Manchester teams...?

After Mikel Arteta, Jack Wilshere, and Abou Diaby played a couple of reserve team games Wenger is suddenly in a very rare situation: he has an almost entiely fit squad! Debuchy is still out so if one wants to have at least 2 options for every position without using any players twice (although realistically there's no reason why Chambers can't play centre-back and right-back) he can play this depth:

GK: Ospina/Szczesny
RB: Bellerin/Flamini
CB (Right): Mertesacker/Chambers
DB (Left): Koscielny/Gabriel
LB: Monreal/Gibbs

DM: Coquelin/Diaby
CM: Ramsey/Arteta
AM: Özil/Wilshere
RW: Walcott/Rosicky
CF: Giroud/Welbeck
LW: Alexis/Cazorla.

Oxlade-Chamberlain is not fit yet, and Debuchy is still returning. That's why I had Flamini at right-back. Welbeck and Alexis can play on either flank - or as centre-forward, obviously. While Wilshere and Ramsey are primarily central (box-to-box) midfielders they can also play on either flank if necessary. Walcott can play as a centre-forward; Gabriel is said to have experience on all positions across a back-4; Flamini is primarily a defensive midfielder (although he's got plenty of experience playing on either side of defence); and Cazorla has recently been deployed as a deep-lying playmaker, rather than a #10 (as that role is held by Özil.) Özil and Cazorla can both also play on either flank.

That's some pretty nice depth.

I expect that Arsenal will release Flamini and Diaby, as well as sell Podolski and one of Akpom, Campbell, and Sanogo. I think I'd sell Sanogo - he hasn't been at Arsenal as long as the other two so he's got more adjusting to do. If Jenkinson returns next season Arsenal will have 3 right-backs (and Chambers permanently shifted to centre-back). That'll be too much competition, so they'll have to either sell or loan Jenkinson, or rotate Debuchy as a make-shift centre-back. Otherwise some of these players will not get enough games. I don't see a way back for Miyaichi. It's unfortunate for him but there you go.

If only all of these players had been available through most of the season...

I'll take a look at a potential list of 25 players for next season.

Bellerin and Chambers still won't have to be registered for next season's Premier League. That frees up a couple of slots in the team; though Chambers will need to be registered for the Champions League, so I think I'll go with him anyway.

Goalkeepers: Ospina, Szczesny, Martinez. Martinez hasn't had to be registered until now, but he's old enough that that will no longer be the case. That's 3 slots. Szczesny and Martinez count as home-grown players at Arsenal for competitions under the FA and UEFA; so 2 home-grown at club.

Defenders: Debuchy, Jenkinson (Home-Grown at Club), Chambers (Home-Grown in the UK), Gabriel, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Gibbs (HGC), Monreal. Bellerin not registered but can play; doesn't count towards any quotas. That's 8 defenders registered. 2 HGC, 1 HGUK.

Midfielders: Diaby, Miyaichi, Flamini Arteta, Coquelin (HGC), Oxlade-Chamberlain (HGC), Ramsey (HGC), Wilshere (HGC), Rosicky, Özil, Cazorla. Gnabry and Zelalem don't need to be registered. That's 8 midfielders, 4 of whom count as home-grown at the club.

Forwards: Giroud, Alexis, Welbeck (HGUK), Walcott (HGC), Campbell (probably HGC; I'm not 100% sure how it works when he's failed to get a work permit. I'll count him for now.) Akpom is under 21 and I'm assuming Podolski is gone. That leaves 5 forwards, with 2 home-grown at the club and one home-grown in the UK.

In total that's 24 players. That only leaves room for one player over 21 (or, if Arsenal want to play them in the Champions League, you can forget about the age.) The 25th player could be Yaya Sanogo (who is under-21 for the Premier League but would have to be registered for the Champions League). There's also Wellington Silva, but if Campbell counts as home-grown so does he; and he's under-21 for the Premier League.

Out of that semi-confirmed squad of 24, 10 are home-grown at Arsenal and a further 2 home-grown in the UK. For Champions League you need 8 players who came through in your country, 4 of whom have to be from the club. Arsenal are easily safe there, even if they were to sell a couple of home-grown players for some reason.

Arsenal are again rumoured to be preparing a bid for Morgan Schneiderlin. He would be a great buy, and currently it seems he just might fit into the squad without anyone having to go (that wasn't going anyway). He just might count as a home-grown player at Southampton; the rule is that you must have been at the club that wants to claim you for at least 3 years before you turn 21. He was 18 when he moved there, so maybe.

Rosicky might be sold, as well - he's not getting the playing time he deserves and he could make a splash at a smaller club - especially if he goes to the US or Russia or somewhere like that. That'd free up a slot for Schneiderlin while still allowing either Silva or Sanogo to be registered for the Champions League.

There's speculation about Walcott, Wilshere, or Szczesny being sold this summer. I don't see any of those three transfers happening. If they did, though, Arsenal could afford to replace them - both in terms of squad registration and financially. I certainly hope that these players aren't sold, though - they're part of a great foundation for a home-grown squad and style of play, further augmented by the likes of Gibbs, Ramsey, and Coquelin. You wouldn't want to disrupt that.

It is worth noting that if Arsenal were to decide that they want to keep Podolski, Campbell, Miyaichi, Diaby, and Flamini, they'd need to find 4 other players to sell or loan out. The most likely candidates would probably include Martinez (3rd-choice goalkeeper, just over 21 and currently out on loan) and Jenkinson (3rd-choice right-back, similarly over 21 and out on loan now.) Rosicky might go, as well. That'd still force them to loan out someone like Bellerin or Coquelin, which would be foolish.

Well this should be fun.

Sounds like a solid squad, and one where you might not need many transfers during the summer season. I might pursue a central midfield to provide some additional cover, but Arsenal seems to have finally found their solutions on the front with Sanchez and Welbeck, so I don't see too many reasons for them to obtain a new forward.

Speaking of which, I have something just for fun in this thread. Name the best XI of all time for your team.

I'll start (3-4-3):

• GK: Lloris
• Defense: Hughton, King, Carr
• Midfield: Bale, Freund, Gascoigne, Ginola
• Attack: Lineker, Defoe, Chivers

The periods of Arsenal's history that I know best are both within the Wenger era; first, success from 1998 to 2005 (a time I've only seen from documentaries and by watching archives of old games and so on) and decline, from 2005 to roughly about last season or so. I don't know what I'd call now; it might still be the decline phase, or it might be the start of a new era of greatness. I do, of course, know some of the legendary players before the Wenger era but I don't think I could fairly say that I have any better reason to put them there than reputation. Thus I'll go with Wenger-era Arsenal:

Lehman
Sagna-Keown-Campbell-Cole
Vieira
Pires-Fabregas-Ljungberg
Bergkamp-Henry

The substitutes would be Seaman, Lauren, Clichy, Koscielny, Alexis, Özil, and Van Persie.

There are a couple of problems with this team, obviously. First, it only has one defensive midfielder - Vieira - and no cover in the substitutes bench. I wanted to fit Gilberto Silva in there but I'm naturally such a fan of attacking football that I just couldn't leave out Alexis and Özil. More recently Arsenal have been lacking in defensive midfield. Song was close but not quite there. With Coquelin it's too early to tell, although he's been brilliant for several months now and he did look promising a couple of seasons back when he was on the verge of breaking into the first-team. Still, Gilberto Silva was better, and stayed for longer (so far). Maybe I should take out Van Persie to fit in Gilberto Silva - but that'd be unfair after the record he left behind at Arsenal. I'll get back to him later in this post.

The second problem is that I've gone out on a limb by including Alexis and Özil. Both have been excellent this season, and I don't believe either have reached their peak yet. At Real Özil was consistently the midfielder with the most assists in Europe, and I believe he can get back in that competition at Arsenal now that both him and the team have adapted. Özil, for me, is Arsenal's best player at the moment, especially when you take (preceived) potential into account.

Similar things could be said of Alexis, except that he never led any super-important statistics at Barcelona over several seasons. Competition for places in the squad, especially in the attack, was just too tough there. I don't think he's properly started with Arsenal, though. After one more goal this season he'll be the first player to get 20 goals in all competitions in his debut season at Arsenal since Henry, but he's not started yet if you ask me.

Other current first-team players that might have a case for inclusion in the bench are Ramsey (mostly based on last season), Cazorla, and Walcott (over his long-term contribution, rather than any particular season). Cazorla is about 30 now so he'll only stay at his current level (or above) for a couple more seasons, but Walcott and Ramsey should still have plenty of time to show where they might peak.

Fabregas and Xavi were my first favourite players, and the former is why I started paying attention to Arsenal in the first place. (The latter, of course, introduced me to Barcelona.) I'm still very fond of Fabregas, even though he plays for a club I hate. When he peaked at Arsenal (that is, peaked within his Arsenal years - he might have been better at Barcelona, or now at Chelsea) he was the best midfielder in the league and it looks like he's just about there with Chelsea now (although Hazard, of course, is currently shining even brighter).

I don't think Arsenal have ever returned to the standard of defending they had around the time of the Invincibles and shortly before. That's why Sagna and Koscielny are the only recent Arsenal defenders to make my best-XI. I hope Gibbs and Gabriel will develop and stay for long enough to make a claim for those spots.

At centre-back Keown and Campbell (even though he was at Spurs) were simply better than any recent Arsenal centre-backs other than Koscielny, who almost reaches to their level. Kolo Toure peaked at Arsenal and he was excellent back then but for me Koscielny just about edges it.

I hate having to name Cole and Clichy but at left-back we've not improved since they left. Lauren was arguably better than Sagna - I might have a bit of nostalgia there in favour of the latter, as I'm a relative newcomer to football and Arsenal - but to me Sagna was always reliable, always willing (but not too willing) to attack, and always a team player first and foremost. I'll even forgive him that hairstyle with which he so inexplicably persisted for all those years (and does to this day).

The same could be said of Arsenal's goalkeepers. Szczesny has had periods where he's looked reliable but he still makes so many individual errors and wrong deicisions you just don't feel safe if it looks like he'll need to prevent a game-changing goal. Ospina already looks better. Fabianski was just below Szczesny's level. Almunia didn't impress consistently. Lehman and Seaman, though, were absolutely brilliant players for club and country alike. I don't imagine Arsenal will have that kind of 'keeper any time soon. I'm happy with Ospina and Szczesny, though, so long as they push each other to make sure there are no persistent lapses in form.

Arsenal haven't had forwards as good as Henry and Bergkamp before or since those two gave the club their immortal excellence. They, too, were team players, usually as willing to create as they were to score goals; and they had such technical excellence and such a brilliant eye for the game that frankly I doubt there are many who wouldn't pick them for an all-time Arsenal best-XI.

Van Persie was good enough to replace them with a sustainable dip in quality (that unfortunately coincided with less sustainable dipts elsewhere) and of course for a few seasons the likes of Adebayor and Eduardo led the line quite well when they were fit. Van Persie was better than them, though.

I'm actually a little bit less certain if Giroud just might push him off his perch in the coming seasons. Giroud probably hasn't quite peaked yet, and already his minutes-per-goal ratio is on par with Kane and Costa. (Of course Giroud was out for several months early in the season, which hurts his overall stats but improves per-game stats since he's been on form since he returned.) He's at 17 goals so far this season, from 22 appearances. That's a great record for a season disrupted by a long-term injury.

I have Ljungberg and Pires on the wings. They were utterly brilliant, and absolutely key to the Invincibles and the football Arsenal played around that time. They were exactly the sort of players that Wenger spots and coaches well, so there have since been some players who have managed to pull off similar feats - Nasri at his best, Cazorla, sometimes Walcott and recently Alexis - but the combination of Pires, Ljungberg, Bergkamp, and Henry is just too good to waste.

edited 9th Apr '15 4:14:33 PM by BestOf

Since sanfranman has already covered the Tottenham best-ever players, and I do agree for the most part (or am simply unaware), I'll go for my other favourite team, Manchester United.

Perhaps there are players before the era of Sir Alex, but his reign over United is quite literally older than me, so I'll have to go for the era which I remember (about 2006-7 onwards):

GK: Edwin van der Sar

Nobody else comes close. I know Peter Schmeichel is regarded as the better goalkeeper, and he did manage to help Denmark to a European Championship, but I guess my age means my only reference points for Manchester United first-team goalkeepers are van der Sar and David de Gea, and in that sense, nobody else does come close; de Gea isn't there yet, despite how crucial he has been to United's fortunes this year.

DF: Gary Neville, Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, Patrice Evra

I actually had to think about this one, considering the defence isn't really the first thing one notices about a United on song. It is telling that three of my four choices are still playing professionally, and none are playing at Man United. Ferdinand and Vidic were solid at the best of times, one cannot mention the era without mentioning Gary Neville, and Evra... was the only left-back I could think of, though I suppose Gabriel Heinze could also be mentioned. I'd still go with Evra over Heinze. Of the current crop, I rate Rafael quite highly, don't know what to think of Shaw yet, and the centre-backs, as of now, are mostlybad, although Blind doesn't do a half-bad job in defence.

MF: Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Michael Carrick, Cristiano Ronaldo

Three of the four people who'd go here were obvious - Giggs on the right and Ronaldo on the left. Scholes through the middle was also obvious. What wasn't was the fourth. I was actually mentally debating on whether to include Carrick or Park Ji-Sung, but I decided to go for Carrick because of the way the man would do 'the dirty work', so to speak. Blind, I guess, was also an option, but I didn't include him because it is simply too early to tell. Hell, it speaks to the quality of di Maria that I genuinely considered him over Ronaldo on the left, but with the way van Gaal has been playing the Argentinean, his talent doesn't really show as it showed at Real Madrid. Mata... subs bench, sadly. One could argue that Beckham deserves a place over Carrick, and normally I'd agree, but I started following football long after Beckham went to Real Madrid (and hell, he went to MLS and the LA Galaxy only a season later) and so I don't think I'm in the position to comment. I did see Giggs and Scholes though.

ATT: Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie

Rooney was the obvious choice, but I spent a good ten minutes wondering who the other striker would be. Falcao? -laughter- not yet, anyway. Louis Saha? -louder laughter- Nah. The serious choices were between van Persie, Dimitar Berbatov and Javier Hernandez. I actually rate Berbatov very highly as a striker, especially in his time at Spurs and at United (though he wasn't at United long), and Chicharito was and is a very, very good striker. However, van Persie was at his absolute peak when he came to United from Arsenal, and had an absolutely phenomenal first season as United won the Premier League. He's still pretty good now, even if age is starting to catch up. Rooney, of course, is perhaps one of the best players in the world right now - it took van Gaal to move him to the position of striker and United are on a goddamn roll.

I'll post on the subs later, but they're:

de Gea, di Maria, Mata, Hernandez, Heinze, Rafael, Valencia, Berbatov

One-nil to the Arsenal at Burnley. Burnley did very well to contain Arsenal and neither team really had any clear goalscoring opportunities other than the one where Arsenal did score (after a number of shots from inside the box were deflected to one Arsenal player after another). Ramsey was the one to finally finish it.

A fairly unremarkable game, to be honest. I would've liked to see some more adventure from Wenger in terms of squad rotation - at least in the form of late substitutions. Turns out he didn't agree, with neither Rosicky nor Walcott coming on. Arteta, Wilshere, Diaby, and Debuchy were fit but they weren't included in the squad at all. That's conservative of Wenger. Surely at least some of them will play Reading in the FA Cup Semi-Final.

Another 3 points in the bag. The game was slightly more interesting than you'd guess from the scoreline, but it was probably one of the most boring Arsenal games over the past season or two.

Spurs 0 - Aston Villa 1

This match is but another reason why we were stupid in letting Tim Sherwood go. Although Villa was one of my picks to go down to the Championship, Sherwood revived Villa's morale and successfully prevented us from having too much possession of the ball. It's not that we didn't have any chances during the match though; Danny Rose made a solid shot on target and Harry Kane was knocking on Villa's door during the second half. It's just that sometimes one or two defensive mistakes are all it takes to screw yourself over and Christian Benteke made us pay dearly for it. It was great to see Sherwood back in White Hart Lane managing in the Premier League again. That said, it was a seriously frustrating performance from Spurs that will have Arsenal fans on standby for yet another St. Totteringham's Day later this month. Seriously guys, what's with Spurs and failure to win against relegation-threatened clubs?! (sigh)

On the bright side, we finally got to see DeAndre Yedlin make his debut for Spurs. His performance was not exactly game-changing and he had a rocky first two or so minutes, but full credit for him picking it up and settling down in the Premier League. Given the American has similar strengths to Kyle Walker, I'd much rather start him than Chiriches for our next match. We could really use Yedlin's pace to create offensive opportunities from the wings again.

edited 11th Apr '15 1:55:03 PM by sanfranman91

• Seaman
• Sagna, Adams, Koscielny, A. Cole
• Alexis, Ozil, Vieira, Ramsey
• Henry, Bergkamp
• Subs: Lehmann, Lauren, Campbell, Petit, Pires, Ljungberg, Giroud

Inverness Caledonian Thistle continue their reputation as one of Glasgow Celtic's bogey sides by holding them to a one all draw at Tulloch Caledonian Stadium.

Details here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3034876/Inverness-1-1-Celtic-Ronny-Deila-s-settle-point-title-quest-lively-start-Caledonian-Stadium.html

The Bhoys are still twelve points clear from Aberdeen at the top of the table with two games in hand over the majority of the other Premiership teams.

edited 11th Apr '15 9:14:54 PM by TamH70

I watched the last 35 minutes or so of Chelsea's away win at QPR. According to the statistics Chelsea had exactly 1 shot on game - Fabregas' goal at the 88th minute. Until then most of the game was QPR dominance, with Courtois just about managing to keep Chelsea in it.

I must say this is just about the most typical Mourinho-Chelsea game I've seen, at least based on what I saw. Defend, defend, defend -> get a goal -> suddenly everyone's injured, goal kicks take 2 minutes to take, and so on.

If I had been a Chelsea fan before last season I would probably be supporting another team by now. I just couldn't deal with being so bored all the time.

At least they'll get the league - for some fans that's all that matters and they're obviously going to be very happy. Personally I think the team would actually benefit from losing a game or two right about now - it'd hopefully drive them to be more adventurous for the rest of the season. They've nothing to lose, anyway.

EDIT: Manchester United 4 - 2 Manchester City.

Great game. United were better by at least the two-goal margin they managed. Arguably they deserved to score more - or concede fewer. Everybody worked hard for United, showing the class you would have expected all season from the names in their team sheet.

For City I think this was a failed tactical experiment. They went with a rather flat-looking 5-man midfield that couldn't clog the middle or build-up impressive attacking moves by controlling possession. They were efficient on the counter, though, but that could've been achieved with a more attack-oriented midfield, as well - and by having more of the ball they would've given United less time to score.

edited 12th Apr '15 9:57:29 AM by BestOf

And, of course, Best Of wouldn't mind if they lose enough games that the Gunners get within touching distance of the Premier League .

Now then, Man United have won the Manchester derby in style, but Tottenham managed to lose to Aston Villa at White Hart Lane. It is rather frustrating, but at least United are making the case for CL and Tottenham... well, I guess Liverpool still might qualify for the CL, meaning seventh place will get Europa League football. I honestly don't know at the moment.

Couple of highlights:

Demichelis gets back from the dead. Naturally, Clattenburg goes, 'Fuck this shit.'

Stare into Pellegrini's soul. I say, very artistic.

Lost 2-0 to our local rivals yesterday. Seething.

The last time Arsenal won in Turf Moor in the league, they won the title by a point through winning their last game of the season (away to Tottenham, no less), despite trailing Leeds United for most of the season.

They then went on to complete the club's first double by beating Liverpool in the FA Cup Final...

edited 13th Apr '15 2:29:54 AM by entropy13

@Ach: Why're you rocking the American flag as your avatar?

Liverpool have won 2-0 over Newcastle, cutting down the difference between 4th and 5th to 4 points. The chances for the old top 4... Chelsea, Arsenal, Man United and Liverpool...