Admittedly I don’t follow the other European leagues all that closely, but I believe it’s generally accepted that the gap in quality between top and bottom in the Premier League is smaller than in other countries. And the gap between the top one or two clubs and the next best 3-6 teams is evidently smaller, I think. Man City running away with it this year is the exception rather than the rule, whereas in Spain (Barcelona and Real Madrid), Germany (Bayern Munich) and France (PSG) one or two teams have dominated for years. Not so sure about Italy. Certainly Barcelona will have about 30 games a season in which they are very strong favourites whereas in England that number is probably around 20, with any of the top 6 well capable of taking points off each other and plenty of other teams lower down who will do so too, on a regular basis.
As I said, this is really just my perception - I could well be proved wrong by actual facts!
In Italy there seems to be a Juventus (33! Serie A titles) / AC Milan (18) / Inter (18) dominance, with Genoa a distant trailer with 9.
(Hmmmm, from that - I guess one could argue that the Milan squads are an even more distant second/third.)
One huge advantage the Premier has over all other leagues is that the audio, recording the crowds, is infinitely superior, totally immersing you in the game, like, a lot more. I thought I read/heard somewhere that the Premier pitches tend to be more closely surrounded by the stands, which would definitely be a factor.
Well, all that this weekend does is demonstrate that penalties for handling are very inconsistent. The Manchester United game had a clear example of an arm being moved to intercept the ball, but the foul not given because of the short distance the ball travelled. Then in today’s Arsenal game, an arm which never moves after the ball is kicked is considered to have handled the ball, despite the fact that the ball was kicked from about four feet away.
Yes, one can argue in the Arsenal game that the Arsenal player has positioned his arm to block the ball from smashing into him, and thus the player deliberately handled the ball. But arms have to go somewhere and it’s silly to assume that a player is always going to be able to put his arms behind his back at all times while defending.
This morning Southampton FC tweeted a clip of young winger Sam McQueen scoring last year against Reading while on loan at Birmingham City. I tweeted back that Sam may get two more cracks at Reading next season if Saints don’t get off their duffs.
Startled to see Villareal score in the 87th minute to win 1-0 over Real Madrid, at the Bernabeu.
RM are having a tough go - Zidane’s job is in question.
“…It’s just very fucked up for all the players.” (post game)
Liverpool vs Man City. Just wow, Liverpool tries to choke away a 4-1 match, but finally squeaks out the 4-3 win! Not sure why Karius got the start at keeper, perhaps Mignolet was feeling under the weather.
Chelsea is trying to sidewind in on Man U’s acquisition of Alexis Sanchez, but it looks like the latter will prevail. Man U have offered Armenian playmaker Henrikh Mkhitaryan as a makeweight as they seek to match Arsenal’s £35m valuation of Sanchez.
Looks like Man U is really feeding off of Arsenal, with Sanchez recently joining up, and now a more-than-likely Ozil move as well. (odds were very recently slashed to 7/1 that Ozil ends up in Manchester). The number 10 position isn’t found wanting, so I’m not sure how Mourhino (who’s compared Ozil to Zidane) would manage that. Ozil is out of contract at the end of this season and looking for more money, while PSG and Real Madrid were also showing interest him.
I find the efforts of Man U. this window to be a bit surprising. It’s a bit like closing the door after the horse got out; there’s no way they are catching City this season unless City totally implode, and if that happens, Utd. could have caught them with what they have.
Checked out a couple funky FA Cup matches this weekend - neat seeing puny stands like the one at Newport County (capacity 8,700) where the League Two hosts came about two freaking minutes from beating Premier League’ers Tottenham, but that Harry Kane deadbeat went and tied it up, dashing tense hopes for a miracle victory. Will definitely be donning my yellow, black and white Newport County scarf:cool: when the fourth division’ers (who came close to getting relegated out of their league this year!) take Wembley by storm in two weeks.
The pitch was complete ass.
The other match I saw was Man U against Yeovil Town, and was impressed to see the latter put up a pretty good fight, almost keeping it to a draw till the half, but Latchford capitalized on a really lazy defensive mistake just before the half. Up till then, Yeovil were looking good and mistake-free, despite Man U’s possession looking like, oh, 99.9%?
Funny seeing the brand-new 40 million pound Saurez (actually he’s a little lighter than that) coming out to the pitch and looking around at the little grandstands. Hilariously, Yeovil awesomely tweetedtheir welcome to Sanchez into “the big time”.
PSG’s Di Maria, Cavanni, and Neymar are a three-headed hydra of unstoppable devastation, artfully dismantling Montpelier yesterday. Some of their goals were just…just…
Watched a super-soaked game between Arsenal and Swansea, who a couple hours ago reclaimed Andre Ayew from West Ham for a club-record 18 million pounds. Swansea’s Sam Clukas potted a brace to surprise the Gunners 3-1, who’ve won only three road games this season. Swansea’s new Portugese manager Carlos Carvalhal seems pretty entertaining in the post-game! Awesome win for this Blues fan. (still eight points up on gooners)
So a measly seven points separating 11th and 20th place. Has the lower half of the EPL table ever been this tight halfway through the season?
Giroud is apparently set for Chelsea for 17.5 million pounds.
ETA: As I now watch my pvr’d Chelsea game, I see Giroud’s already here.
Jones looks particularly flummoxed in that clip, just kind of aimlessly wandering about in the middle things without marking anything but useless space. It’s like United were not expecting Spurs to actually attempt to score right from the start of the game. :eek::eek:
That was probably the most thrilling premier league match I’ve seen in years with Liverpool vs Tottenham.
Karius saves a penalty kick. Then Salah scores in stoppage time. Then, in the last few seconds, Liverpool gets hit with a dodgy penalty, Kane scores this time on the penalty kick.
2-2 draw
Regret posting that ETA now.