Premier League 2008/2009

[Y 2 Jake]

It's confirmed. Hull are bottom of the 2008/2009 season. Thank you people of Hull. 6 points that Stoke don't need to get off Man Utd. I'm calling quits on the {Official} Stoke City F.C. thread. Not forever fans, never fear. Just until next year. I'll still pass comment occasionally. probably when we win a couple of cups. And to piss take Hull when they become Derby v.2.

Honestly though. Hull & Stoke are fucked. We never beat each other. I suggest match rigging. Three points each. We win one, then hand them a victory in the next match.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

I've decided to work out how many points Stoke will get next season, and to see if we'll stay up. 'Cus I am bored is all.

Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool & Manchester United: I don't expect us to get any points off the top 4 teams. We probably will. There's bound to be a draw in there somehwere. But I doubt there'll be a victory.

Aston Villa, Everton, Manchester City, Newcastle United, Portsmouth & Spurs : I see no reason why we can't get a couple of points off these teams. Possibly not many victories, but an occasional one, and a lot of draws.

Blackburn Rovers & West Ham United: On any given day we could beat these two. There's no reason why we can't.

Bolton Wanderers, Hull City, Fulham, Middlesborough, Sunderland, West Bromwich Albion & Wigan Athletic: Our relegation competition. We can forget about all the other teams. Those are hit and miss. We can get points off them. But it's more liely we'll be getting the points off this lot. No reason why we can't. People write off Stoke. But 1st season syndrome might play a part, and the promoted teams have a nice cash injection. I'm not saying it won't be a struggle, I'll even be surprised if we stay up. But there won't be another Derby this season. If there is it'll be Hull. Stoke have had an extra 3 weeks to arrange new transfers, Hull can only start building a Premier squad as of today. Those couple of weeks will make a difference.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Apparently Avram Grant has been given the sack. Not sure why. He took Chelsea to the Champions League (Tournament surely) and the Premier League title went to the last day. So why he's gone I don't know. Stoke will take him, under Pulis obviously. So guess who's set to replace him. Mark Hughes that's who. Yeah I know. Good manager, just an odd name for a team like Chelsea.

 

[Gelgarin]

It's been no great secret that Grant hasn't been especially well liked by the players, (lets be honest, nobody was realisticly going to be able to replace Jose).

Most of this seasons success has been the squad Jose built, doing what he trained them to do; and if this new guy nobody had ever heard of didn't have the faith of the players, then it was never going to work; especially with rumours flying around that assorted members of the team are going to take off to whereever Mourinho takes up residence next.

 

[cfluck7]

Drogba and maybe one or two more may leave. Avram Grant did not deserve to step down and accept a lesser role like Jose preceded to do. Its not on him that some players didnt like him, management shouldnt have hired him if he would get fired for losing on kicks (and they outplayed Manchester).

 

[Jest XXL]

I agree about Hull doing terribly this season, they will be the new Derby County!

Manhester United are definetely favourites to win again this year, with or without Ronaldo in my opinion. They have so many match-winners in the team aswell as Ronaldo and such a strong squad. I then expect Chelsea to come second but not as close behind United as this year, 3rd will probably be Arsenal again but I expect te fourth spot to be very intersting. There are many teams which could probably stop liverpool claiming fourth spot this year such as: Man City (Which I regeret to say), Portsmouth or even the likes of Everton, Tottenham or Aston Villa.

At the other end of the table I expect Hull City, Stoke and Fulham to go down with Sunderland, Newcastle and Sunderland also fighting against relegation.

 

[jpfizzle]

I think United will take the title again this season... it will be a close one again with chelsea and liverpool giving it a close run. I am undecided yet wether or not Arsenal or Spurs will finish fourth, I wouldn't bet against either of these teams, Ramos is an exceptional manager and Bent looks hungry, wether spurs get 4th depends on who they get to replace keane/ berbatov.... rite now though I think Arsenal edge it, just.

Aston Villa and Portsmouth will take 6th and 7th.

Manchester City, Everton, Blackburn will complete the rest of the top half of the table.

Newcastle will finish 11th with Keegan getting the sack.

West Ham, Middelsborough, Fulham and Bolton will take 12th, 13th, 14th and 1th and the bottom 5 will be Hull, Stoke, Sunderland, West Brom and Wigan, I cannot say who will go down but I am rooting for Hull to stay up.

 

[Mitch3721]

1-Chelsea
2-Manchester United
3-Liverpool
4-Arsenal
5-Tottenham
6-Portsmouth
7-Aston Villa
8-Manchester City
9-Everton
10-West Ham
11-Blackburn Rovers
12-Newcastle
13-Fulham
14-Middlesbrough
15-Wigan
16-Sunderland
17-West Brom
18-Bolton
19-Stoke
20-Hull City

I could not hate chelsea more but i do see them winning the league this season. I feel like man united will become very unstable when ronaldo comes back, nd then in january with the reopening of the transfer window. LIverpool will be even closer to the top 2 this year. Stoke and Hull City will defnetely go down, and im guessing bolton will also go dwn this year, as they have no attacking quality left.

 

[Booyaka]

1. Arsenal
2. Manchester United
3. Chelsea
4. Liverpool
5. Portsmouth
6. Spurs
7. Aston Villa
8. Manchester City
9. Everton
10. Sunderland
11. Bolton
12. Hull City
13. Newcastle
14. Wigan
15. Fulham
16. Blackburn
17. West Brom
18. West Ham
19. Stoke
20. Middlesbrough

Liverpool will finish 4th again nowhere near the top on points.Rafa will get sacked at the end of the season finally. Scolari will have a tough season with many stars underperforming especially Lampard where his head is somewhere else (Inter). Middlesbrough will go down because it will give them a kick up the backside and hire a more experienced manager. Also Blackburn will struggle because Paul Ince has only managed in League 2 so far

 

[AFC1986]

1. Manchester United
2. Chelsea
3. Liverpool
4. Arsenal
5. Everton
6. Portsmouth
7. Aston Villa
8. Manchester City
9. Blackburn Rovers
10. Tottenham Hostpur
11. West Ham United
12. Sunderland
13. Newcastle United
14. Wigan Athletic
15. West Bromwich Albion
16. Middlesbrough
17. Stoke City
18. Hull City
19. Bolton Wanderers
20. Fulham

That is how I think the table will finish. I can't see Arsenal pushing for the title like we did last year as don't have enough experience. I think it will be a two horse race between United and Chelsea with a close battle between us and Liverpool for the third and fourth

 

[TheSaint]

1.) Manchester United
2.) Chelsea
3.) Liverpool
4.) Arsenal
5.) Tottenham
6.) Portsmouth
7.) Manchester City
8.) Everton
9.) Aston Villa
10.) Newcastle
11.) West Ham
12.) Blackburn
13.) Sunderland
14.) Middlesbrough
15.) West Brom
16.) Fulham
17.) Wigan
18.) Stoke
19.) Hull
20.) Bolton

I think West Brom will surprise a few teams this season. I expect Sunderland to have a better year, last season they were disapointing. Tottenham may do better than Arsenal, but I still expect Arsenal to take 4th cause they are unwilling to spend big to challenge Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool.

 

[Luther_Hull]

Not long to go now, and although Hull have had a terrible preseason I'm still confident we can beat Derby's lowly score last year. Which is all we'll be aiming to do realistically. It'll end up being between Stoke and Hull battling it out for 19th place, as I don't see either side picking up many points anywhere else. We're both just regular midtable Championship sides who have gone on a good run of form and ended up in the Premiership, so we'll be lost, and the long ball doesn't work at all in this league. Here's hoping, but I think all three promoted sides will be back in the Championship next year, albeit with a lot more money.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

I don't see why Stoke & Hull can't stay up Luther. Yeah they are just average Championship sides. But so are Wigan, Brom, Fulham & Bolton. Remember that the bottom teams can in theory stay up if they were to draw all their games. It won't happen. But 38 points is something to aim for. At least both of us start off with teams that aren't significantly better than us. Stoke have got an ok August. It's September that will be hard. 5 points this month and we'll be doing pretty well. Stoke also have the easiest run up they could possibly get. By the last day at Arsenal they should know how they're going to finish anyway.

 

[DjPauliieeP]

If Arsenal Buy One More Expreienced Midfielder I Cant See Why We Cant Challenge
Man U Havent Got An Out And Out Striker Chelsea Dont See Deco Mking A Shevy Season Liverpool Arnt Going To Be Challenging, Keane Wont Make You Go From 4th To First, Tottenham Wont Be Great , Everyone Said This Time Last Year Arsenal 5th Spurs 4th Spurs Finished 11th And We Finsihed 3rd 1st For A Lot of The Season, I See VillaHave A great Year And Middlesborugh Who Havve Got To Many Youngsters :L Seeing Arsenal have Aswell But Ours Quality,


1. Man U
2. Chelsea
3. Arsenal
4. Liverpool
5. Villa
6. Spurs
7. Pompey
8. Everton
9. West Ham
10. Sunderland
11. Man City
12. Newcastle
13. Fulham
14. Wigan
15. Blackburn
16. Bolton
17. Stoke
18. Middlesborough
19. Hull
20. Wba

 

[AFC1986]

If Arsenal Buy One More Expreienced Midfielder I Cant See Why We Cant Challenge

The large majority of Arsenal fans know this so why doesn't Wenger do something about it. Also, why is he not buying a center-half as Senderos and Djourou aren't good enough for our first team and althouth Alex Song played well towards the end of last season, Wenger doesn't know whether or not to play him in midfield or defence

 

[AFC1986]

It was a bit of an iffy performance from us today as we should have won at least 3-0 or 4-0 as Adebayor had a couple of chances and so did Eboue. But what I don't understand about today was Wenger's tactics. He played Eboue as the holding player in midfield when we had Ramsay on the bench. He then decided to take off Walcott and puts on Toure and instead of Toure going into the centre of the defence with Eboue right mid and play Djourou as the holding player, he sticks Toure in right mid. Toure is a centre back, not a right midfielder. We need to improve next week against Fulham as if we play like we did today against a good Fulham, we could easily draw or even lose and that would not be a good way to start our "challenge" for the title

 

[OIL]

Manchester United 1 - 1 Newcastle United

A very sloppy performance from Man Utd. Our passing wasn't as crisp as usual and our movement was awful. Fletcher down the right just didn't work, he is a CM and not a RM. He has no pace and didn't know how to make good runs from the right. Newcastle deserved their point and to be honest, we were lucky that we didn't lose. Nemanja Vidic made one world class tackle from Gutierez, which was just fantastic. Totally kept us in the match.

Everyone could see that we were missing a good striker, so I do really hope Fergie signs Berbatov because Campbell just isn't up to it. He needs time to adjust and we can't ask too much from him now. Tevez returning next week should help, but we despo need Nani back from suspension. We're lacking that natural winger who'll make runs constantly. Giggs did try his best but his pace still isn't there, understandibly. Allthough, he did show some slick skills during this match which shows he still has it.

With 11 players out at the moment, United are really hanging on for dear life. A new striker is top priority. We also need Brazil knocked out of the Olympics, so Anderson can return. His pace would be a welcome addition. Furthermore, Hargreaves is really needed. He can play from the right and produce class crosses. But all in all, we are missing the influence of Ronaldo. I can't say for sure at the moment, but when we get our midfield fit without him i'll be able to see just how important he is to that midfield, as i'm sure we could cope. But at the moment, we just have to hang on.

 

[AFC1986]

United are in desperate need of a top class striker as they will be without Tevez and Ronaldo when they play Liverpool and Chelsea in a couple of weeks. If they get Berbatov, I think he will be unbelievable as he has been scoring for fun while he has been at Spurs. If he does go to United, I'd love to know who Spurs will get as they will Darren Bent will be their only striker

 

[OIL]

United are in desperate need of a top class striker as they will be without Tevez and Ronaldo when they play Liverpool and Chelsea in a couple of weeks. If they get Berbatov, I think he will be unbelievable as he has been scoring for fun while he has been at Spurs. If he does go to United, I'd love to know who Spurs will get as they will Darren Bent will be their only striker

Tevez is back for the Pompey game, so we'll be fine in that respect.

With regards to who Spurs would get, it has to be Arshavin. They've wanted him for ages and are the only willing club to pay around £19m. Personally, he isn't worth it as he's only been tested in the Russian league, which is awful. Internationaly he has done well, but he still needs to prove himself more.

 

[texas freebird]

ok im gonna throw my hat into the ring so to speak! Liverpool have 3 things that could make us champions again!

1= Gerrard. THE finest player since king kenny to pull on the red shirt. the man has it all a superb range of passes and some wicked free kicks. i know that one man does not make a team but he comes close.

2= a better strike force. In Torres and Keane we have the players that may give us the goals we need to turn draws into wins. it is too early yet to say if they will hit it off but i live in hope!!!

3= kewell. the fact that that waste of space is no longer figuring in Rafa's plans can only be a good thing. surely i cannot be the only one who spotted that in 2005 when we won the champions league we were being hammered then kewell limps off and we go on to win. the same happened in the fa cup the following year. he was Stevie G's polar opposite.

remember i only said we might win the league.

 

[Lee]

Well I was pleasantly surprised at the weekend.

Sunderland seem to be looking promising (WTF!), with a very good game against Liverpool.

Middlesbrough again were quite a shock, although I knew Spurs wouldn't win (despite a team worth £47 million more than Boro)

Stoke are not to be written off, one game and a loss, who cares? I hope they do well.

Everton seem very shaky, as do Liverpool (1-0 against Sunderland is easy).

Man U had something like 4 players injured, but so too did the mighty Newcastle United. That's the first time I've enjoyed watching a Toon game for quite sometime!

Though the league is Chelsea's.

 

[HBK-aholic]

Well I was pleasantly surprised at the weekend.

Sunderland seem to be looking promising (WTF!), with a very good game against Liverpool.

Middlesbrough again were quite a shock, although I knew Spurs wouldn't win (despite a team worth £47 million more than Boro)

Stoke are not to be written off, one game and a loss, who cares? I hope they do well.

Everton seem very shaky, as do Liverpool (1-0 against Sunderland is easy).

Man U had something like 4 players injured, but so too did the mighty Newcastle United. That's the first time I've enjoyed watching a Toon game for quite sometime!

Though the league is Chelsea's.

I have to agree with this. I don't support any particular team, but I think Chelsea have it in the bag this year. I mean, they have Scolari. A man I love and respect huge amounts. He did a lot for Portugal, and despite them never winning a trophy, they came a long way with him in charge, and it's a loss for them. But this is a huge gain for Chelsea. Add him to the amount of good players they have and it'd be silly to not put Chelsea as favourites. And this is coming from someone who hates Chelsea.

 

[OIL]

Man U had something like 4 players injured, but so too did the mighty Newcastle United.

Hargreaves, Ronaldo, Carrick, Giggs, Campbell, Saha, Manucho.. that's 7 off the top of my head. Plus Rooney isn't properly fit, just came back from a virus. And then Anderson, Nani and Tevez were all unavaliable for one reason or another. So that's 10 players we're missing. That is just insane, no wonder we drew the match. When any team loses 10 players they're going to feel the effects, which we did.

Though the league is Chelsea's.

How is it Chelsea's?

It's been one game and already everyone is having an orgasm over Chelsea. Sure, they played well, I watched that match with my mate and we both agreed that Chelsea did really, really well. But it's only one game. For all we know Chelsea could struggle a lot in the coming weeks. Just wait until they have to go away from home to the big clubs, they'll find it hard. You can't base a team winning the league just off one game.

Scolari hasn't managed a club team in something like 8 years, which is a long time. From his time with Brazil and Portugal he has done very very well. No doubt. Winning the World Cup with Brazil and then getting to the final with Portugal in the Euro's is amazing. But club football is different. They have to deal with different matters, want-away players, contracts, unhappy owners ect ect. It's going to be a big ask for Scolari, but with a billionaire owner, i'm sure he'll find things easy going.

 

[HBK-aholic]

How is it Chelsea's?

It's been one game and already everyone is having an orgasm over Chelsea. Sure, they played well, I watched that match with my mate and we both agreed that Chelsea did really, really well. But it's only one game. For all we know Chelsea could struggle a lot in the coming weeks. Just wait until they have to go away from home to the big clubs, they'll find it hard. You can't base a team winning the league just off one game.

Yes, Chelsea could struggle in the next weeks, but so could any team. It'd be stupid not to look at the opening games in order to base an opinion on who will win. It's not set in stone now, and won't be until the season is over. That being said, Chelsea are looking the strongest team at the moment. I'm aware Manchester United had injury troubles and whatnot, so they very well may look stronger when everyone returns. But at the moment, Chelsea are favourites and deserve to be.

 

[OIL]

Yes, Chelsea could struggle in the next weeks, but so could any team. It'd be stupid not to look at the opening games in order to base an opinion on who will win. It's not set in stone now, and won't be until the season is over. That being said, Chelsea are looking the strongest team at the moment. I'm aware Manchester United had injury troubles and whatnot, so they very well may look stronger when everyone returns. But at the moment, Chelsea are favourites and deserve to be.

The opening game means barely anything. Players are still finding their feet following pre-season, so you have to give teams at least 2 weeks until you can judge them. At least 2 weeks. That gives them plenty of time to find their rythm and whatnot.

And finally, I can't take anything football related from you seriously unless it's about Portugal. You didn't even know McClaren was sacked, nor Capello was assigned the new manager.

Except for Portugal, you know nothing more than the average fan knows.