Premier League 2008/2009

[AFC1986]

Yet another disappointing result for Arsenal. I think our best chance of silverware this season will be the Carling Cup as we just don't have the squad to challenge for the either the Premiership, FA Cup or Champions League.

We have already lost 4 matches after playing 13. That just isn't good enough. I just hope Wenger brings in a couple of experienced players during the January transfer window otherwise we could stuggle to finish in the top 4

 

[OIL]

Manchester United 5 - Stoke 0

I guess it's time I wrote in here again. Well, an easy victory for United. We dominated the entire game, and all of our goals were quality goals. The sheer class of Ronaldo's first free kick was unbelieveable, the way the ball moves around like that would have made it hard for any keeper to save.

In all honesty we should have won by more, but it'll boost our goal difference which is vital. We need more big wins like this to help us come the end of the season, as they can be the difference between the title, and 2nd place.

 

[OIL]

Aston Villa 0 - 0 Manchester United

A pretty even game in all fairness, although we did have the better chances. Rooney put through by Carrick should have gave us the lead, but he blasted it over. He should have put that one away, give him that chance a month ago and he would have put it in.

Ronaldo didn't have the best game of his life, mostly because they were doubling up on him, and at times had 3 players going towards him. He had no protection from the referee at all, and that didn't help matters.

Either way, not a good result for United. Still in 3rd place which is good but we needed the win to capitalise on the earlier results for Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool. 2 points dropped.

 

[AFC1986]

Chelsea 1-2 Arsenal

What a result for the Gunners. I was worried when we went behind through Djorou's own goal but we responded well and I feel we deserved to win. Van Persie was clearly offside for his first goal, but we need breaks like that at the moment.

Hopefully we can use this win to give us momentum to try and get back into the title race as we are now only 7 points behind Chelsea.

COME ON ARSENAL!!!!!!!!!

 

[OIL]

Manchester City 0 - 1 Manchester United

Another fantastic performance from United. In the first half we bossed the game, controlling most of midfield and pulling all the strings. Michael Carrick dominated the entire game, and did well with his parried shot with converted into Wayne Rooney's goal.

A well taken goal from Rooney following the shot and anticipating where the ball would fall. He had a very good game, getting back well at all times and had a near 50 yard shot saved off the line.

 

[AFC1986]

Arsenal 1-0 Bolton

From what I heard when I was watching Soccer Saturday we had loads of possession, but just couldn't break through Bolton as they had most of their players behind the ball.

I think January will go a huge way towards how our season turns out as we are have tricky away games at Hull and Everton and we have a tricky home game against West Ham

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Shaping up to be the best Premier season in a while. Probably the worse season for Stoke to go up. It looks like Villa will be there right at the end, I'd possibly go so far as to say that they'll get the 4th spot. All the talk about Liverpool winning the league is bullshit.

The relegation aspect of the league is the most intresting aspect. This week I'm unsure about Stoke going down. At least we'll have plenty of teams around us, a win puts us up 5 spaces with this league.

Brom are going down. That's what they do. I also think Newcastle are going down, or another bigish team. Spuers have the quality to lift themselves up the league, although they'll still finish in the bottom half. Wigan & Fulham will soon start to slip down the league after doing well for a couple of weeks.

Boro will persevere with Southgate wich will proably be their downfall. They're my pick for one relegation spot.

The final spot will either be Stoke, Newcastle, Hull, Bolton, West Ham and possibly Pompey. There are more that'll be down there as well. The last few games should be very intresting.

At least Stoke of have got one of the ''easiest'' runs available to come. If they don't pick up the points after the Villa game they deserve to go down.

 

[maxi]

Manchester United in great form tonight with a 5-0 win at West Brom. Good to see Tevez, Ronaldo and Berbatov all scoring.
Anyone seen Tosic play yet?

Good win for spurs also 3-1 over stoke. Some good signings in Cudicini,Chimbonda and Palacios.

 

[ad21k]

My predictions-

Stoke 0-1 Man City
Stoke play well against better sides because they are good in defence, once they start attacking is usually when they start conceeding goals. If Stoke get 10 men behind the ball and play with set pieces i can see them getting a draw, but I think playing Beatie means they have to play a little more attack minded and they are at home aswel so I see City getting them on the counter.

Arsenal 2-1 West Ham
West Ham are in good form but you can't go against Arsenal here they have the better team.

Aston Villa 2-0 Wigan
Villa are playing very well this season, Heskey could be a good signing for them because they needed someone to hold the ball up and Agbonlahor should benefit.

Bolton 1-0 Tottenham
Tottenham are terrible this season they have enough quality but they don't play as a team. Bolton have been playing v. well this season above expectations and I can see them getting the win here.

Fulham 1-1 Portsmouth
Two teams not in very good form, losing Bullard is a big loss for Fulham,and they lack a goalscorer in my opinion. Portsmouth have lost a few players through transfers and look v. weak. There 1 good player this season is suspended so I can't see them beating Fulham even though Fulham are really struggling.
Hull 2-1 West Brom
West Brom are by far the worst team in the league and although Hull are in a bad run of form they should have enough to beat West Brom who lack any talent in there team, and with Carson in goal they are always liable to conceed a few goals.

Middlesbrough 0-2 Blackburn
Alladyce seems to have sorted Blackburn out and Southgate seems to be digging a hole for Middlesbrough. They have a young team but that is part of the problem as they have no experiance or muscle in midfield. Blackburn should have enough going forward to win.

Man Utd 1-0 Everton
Everton are in great form but so are Utd and they haven't conceeded for 11 games or something. I hope they drop points here and they could do if Moyes gets his tactics right but Utd will probably will get a lucky late goal.

Newcastle 1-2 Sunderland
Newcastle are in huge trouble they have there best players wanting to leave, and haven't brought any players in. They also have Owen injured and I can't see anyone else scoring for them. They might get a lucky goal, but Sunderland are the better side at the moment.

Liverpool 1-1 Chelsea
As a Liverpool fan I hope they win but I can see this been a draw. Liverpool aren't scroing enough goals, and are conceeding cheap goals. Rafa will probably get the tactics spot on in this game because they have usually worked the last couple of seasons against the top 4 but Chelsea will score because our defence is v. shaky.

 

[Mitch3721]

Man Utd look like they are going to run away with it this season, they are playing well and winning, and even playing badly and grinding out results.

Liverpool should finish second, as I believe they have more about them then Chelsea do, although it will be interesting to see what would happen to Liverpool if another striker were to get injured (as Keane has left for Spurs, leaving them with Torres and Ngog).

Chelsea for third, they are beating teams comfortably when they dont have a lot about them, but as soon as quality is put in front of them they look absurdly poor, and a far cry from Mourinho's and even Avram's teams.

I fancy Villa to take 4th spot, just because they are inundated with one of the best attacking lines in the prem league, with Gabby, Heskey, Carew and Ashley Young. Its immense really.

Shocks of the season so far - Fulham and Wigans meteoric rise into the top half of the League, Hull's great start to the season (dying since December though), Spurs and to an extent Newcastle's poor run of form (I think I expected this off Newcastle to an extent) and Arsenal's commitment to dropping lots of points.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

One week I think we can stay up, the next I think we'll go down. I'm on a down week this time. Another sending off, one that could have been avoided. So yeah, it was an impulse sending off, I would have done the same. But it now means we miss Etherington for three matches. He's more of a loss than Delap. Nobody other than Stoke appear to have noticed that Delap hasn't assisted a goal in months, Etherington has though.

With the international break I'm also not sure about the Pompey game when they return. I'm still confident we can get a point from every home game. But I'm not sure about a win, like I was before. Hopefully Adams is still there in two week, he appears to be hopeless.

At least we've still got the easiest run in possible. Maybe the first away win is destined to be Arsenal on the final day, but I don't believe in destiny. It'll be Brom, they're shit.

 

[ad21k]

Portsmouth are a joke, how did they manage to lose last night? Liverpool got away with resting 5 of their best players with Gerrard out injured too, just by bringing Kuyt, Alonso, and Torres on in the last 10 mins. If your going to give Torres a free header in exactly the same position he scored in the last game against Chelsea, or Kuyt that much time and space in the area you might as well just give up now. Portsmouth, Middlesbrough, and West Brom all look hot favourites to go down at the moment, with Newcastle and Stoke also the other 2 who will be battling at the end of the season.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

It's still very tight at the bottom. I think Boro & certain to go down, mostly becayuse of what I've heard about their chairman. Brom are a pile of shit, always have been. They talk about their passing football, it's bullshit. It works in the Championship, not in the Premiership. At least Stoke and their fans are aware they don't play attractive football.

I'm just glad that Pompey, Newcastle, Bolton & Hull are still down there as well. So are Blackburn & Spurs, but I still see them pulling away.

 

[Bozzaholic]

Portsmouth are a joke, how did they manage to lose last night? Liverpool got away with resting 5 of their best players with Gerrard out injured too, just by bringing Kuyt, Alonso, and Torres on in the last 10 mins. If your going to give Torres a free header in exactly the same position he scored in the last game against Chelsea, or Kuyt that much time and space in the area you might as well just give up now. Portsmouth, Middlesbrough, and West Brom all look hot favourites to go down at the moment, with Newcastle and Stoke also the other 2 who will be battling at the end of the season.

Credit to Torres - His header was superb

I don't suppose anyone knows what the pompy relegation odds were at the beginning of the season?

Which manager is more in danger at the moment Rafa or Scolari? another two points dropped by Chelsea

 

[AFC1986]

Spurs 0-0 Arsenal

This was yet another performance that was full of errors and stupidity. Eboue decides to be an absolutle muppet and get himself sent off for two avoidable yellow cards. And the fashion in which he received his second card was just unprofessional. First of all, he needlesly trips up Modric, then he acts all innocent and pats Modric on the back. Now we have nobody to play right midfield as Arshavin is nowhere near match fit and Walcott is still injured.

Adebayor could be out for a few weeks after injuring his hamstring and I think we should play Vela instead of Bendtner as Bendtner makes no impact whatsoever unless he comes off the bench and that isn't good enough.

I have given up on Arsenal finishing fourth and I feel we could lose 5th spot to Everton and unless one of the four teams around us wins the FA Cup, we won't be in Europe next season and that could lead to a few big players leaving the club.

 

[Lowez]

Which manager is more in danger at the moment Rafa or Scolari?

Well, I'd say Scolari's in no danger at all now, as he was fired on Monday. Rafa's under a lot of pressure now. I keep hearing more and more Liverpool fans giving him shit and wishing he'd be sacked. I'm not with them as I think he's done a tremendous job at Liverpool, but it doesn't matter what manager's have done to most people, it's how their team's doing at the moment that puts them under pressure.

 

[The Hiphopapotamus]

United 3- Fulham 0.
Scholes,Berbatov,rooney.Two disallowed goals.
United on song as fulham desperately try to contain.Slick passing and brilliant scholes seal victory.
The clean sheet kings keep another one to further their chance for the european record.
The cookie jar of fulham is opened by the buzzsaw of united.
Everyone else is fucked now

 

[ulimate123]

United 3- Fulham 0.
Scholes,Berbatov,rooney.Two disallowed goals.
United on song as fulham desperately try to contain.Slick passing and brilliant scholes seal victory.
The clean sheet kings keep another one to further their chance for the european record.
The cookie jar of fulham is opened by the buzzsaw of united.
Everyone else is fucked now

Your a bit late mate! Anyway tommorow Arsenal v Sunderland and I'm hoping for a crushing victory for Arsenal and a loss for Villa.

 

[ad21k]

Well thats it another title to United, they look unstoppable at the moment. If they win today they go 7 points clear. Even if we beat Utd at Old Trafford we would need Utd to drop more points, and I think were more likely to drop points through Rafa's crazy thinking more than anything else. We were so lucky against Pourtsmouth, but we have some tough games comming up starting with City. City havent looked too impressive recently I think Hughes will be out of a job at the end of the season. And you cant really blame the ownerseven before they gave him cash they were expected to do better then they are at the moment but it hasn't happened, add that to the fact they have spent more money than any other team and
Hughes looks like hes doing a shit job.

Anyone else wonder why Hughes joined city, if he waited a couple of years until fergie retired he would have been handed the utd job, which is pretty much ready made. At city you have to goout and buy players, most of whom dont actualy want to join a club like city.

What does everyone make of chelsea signing Hiddink until the end of the season? He looks a great manager and has done well everywhere he has been but it seems a bit pointless hiring a manager just until the end of the season. Then what happens they have to bring someone else in who may, or may not do a good job. They would have been better off keeping Scolari to the end of the season that way theres less disruption.

 

[AFC1986]

Arsenal 0-0 Fulham

Yet another draw. That is now 4 draws in a row in the League and that is just nowhere near good enough. If we want to be in the Champions League, then we have to start winning. At this stage in the season, I would rather see a scrappy performance where we do just enough to win than see us play our fantastic football with no end product.

 

[AFC1986]

Arsenal 4-0 Blackburn Rovers

This was a brilliant performance and if Bendtner wasn't such a poor finisher we would have scored 6 or 7 goals. Arshavin looks like a fantastic signing and his goal was a mix of individual skill and composure. If we keep this sort of form going till the end of the season, I can confident we will claim fourth spot and have Champions League football next season

 

[Leeds Guy]

yeah Arsenal (bar Bendtner) were awesome. Theo Wallcott Stole the show for me though he was amazing. Im thinking him and Arron Lennon are the Future.

Im Happy Anyway, DIRTY SCUM LOST 4-1 Well done liverpool, you've made most of leeds happier

 

[Lee]

So here is the Geordie dog fight...luckily we have an easy run of games such as Arsenal, Spurs and Chelsea.

On a serious note, Habib Beye, Martins, Nolan and Owen back in the side should be a much welcomed boost to say the least. i personally hope they go for last years 4-3-3 strategy with Gutierezz-Nolan-Lovenkrads in midfield and Martins - Carroll- Owen up front. Time will tell, we cannot afford to go down.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

You've also got Stoke away. I don't fancy your chances at all. It's really rather sad when I look at your team as one where we'll get three points towards our survival.

At least you'll have Boro to keep you company in the Championship, or whatever it's called next year.

 

[OIL]

How are Newcastle doing so badly? I mean all jokes aside, they're a big club. Huge stadium and a ton of fans. They don't have an AWFUL squad compared to others, and if Mike Ashley actually let them spend some money they could have had a stronger base for this season. Sadly, I doubt they're going to stay in the Premiership. They're low on confidence and since Shay Given left, I think it just killed them off. Losing a class player like that just shows how bad it is for Newcastle. Unless the return of Owen sparks something, which I hope it does, it looks a bleak future for Newcastle.