English Premier League 2017-18

Two dodgy penalties and the ref knew the first one was bogus. That guy shouldn’t ref another premier league match again.

Robbed. That’s the only word for it. Liverpool were absolutely robbed by the officials.

I’m not generally one to complain about officiating, but those penalties were both fucking terrible. The only saving grace is that, but for a Harry Kane brain fart, the shitty officiating could actually have resulted in a Liverpool loss rather than a draw.

Salah further cemented his place as one of the best players in the league; his second goal was masterful. And the first Tottenham goal by Wanyama was an absolute cannonball.

Great game to watch, marred by some awful refereeing.

Real Madrid went into Levante and were leading 2-1 into the 89th minute when Levante tied it up. The first half, it was all RM but in the second half there was constant end to end counter-attacking (almost giving me whiplash!) and Levante was totally RM’s equal, and totally deserved the tie in the end.
Pleased Levante’s spilling-into-the-stairs fans.
Manoman RM were all like cats, everyone chirping at each other after Levante tied it up. (even though yes I do realise cats don’t chirp) Total arm-waving fingerpoint-fest. Not great optics.

Uh, yeah, definitely not Real Madrid’s season, this.

“You’ll never whine alone” :stuck_out_tongue:

That was quite a thrilling game. Spurs somewhat unlucky to earn only one point given their big leads in possession and shots on goal, but could have been worse.

Watching PSG these days is nothing short of stupendous. There’s two links I wanted to post (goals from Neymar and Argentine 22 yr. old Lo Celso) but I never see goal-scoring links in GR in general, so, is that kind of thing verboten here?

If so - Neymar painted the top left corner on a free kick that, while it was just outside the 18, had to curl down tight to peg that corner, and Lo Celso’s goal was this amazing, soft souffle of a chip shot that, like Neymar’s, was just outside the area (same spot) and had to be calibrated ‘just so’ to barely eke between fingertips and crossbar. The insane backspin to finesse that thing to make it float over keeper Areola (great name) like that was amazing. Youtube the vid - worth it.

Chelsea are seriously going down crummysville lane right now, suffering a 4-1 drubbing in the hands of Watford, after going down to 10 men in the 30 min. mark. Not the most ideal conditions for Giroud’s 64th minute debut, who looked incredibly strange in blue.
I’m sure Abramovich is a Horton’s Who away from giving the heave ho to Conte. Volatile culture there.

Feb. 5 seems a special day in the footy universe, with birthdays for Tevez, Ronaldo and Neymar.

And Don Cherry :slight_smile:

Missed edit window: forgot to parenthetically add next to Neymar that he’s the top scorer in the top five leagues in 2018 with 7 so far, so I spose he’s earning his paycheck.

Messi is slowing down. :frowning:

pardon - one more missed edit - I should also take into consideration, however, that sure, Messi is 30 now, so he can’t have the same constant spring in his step like when he was 24, but he is currently, however, leading La Liga with 20 goals (at only halfway in the season!) and Silva recently said Messi was harder to check than Ronaldo, which I think speaks volumes, (and I’ll bet that just burns Ronaldo:p). I’ve always been way more a Messi fan, and pissed that Ronaldo had the edge over him in '16 and '17, but I’m doubting that will be the case for '18.

Also providing ten assists, Messi has scored half of Barcelona’s goals this season, and more than the totals of NINE other La Liga teams. He needs to play with Alba as much as possible. Roberto is impressing me just as much. Iniesta is still solid, with age once in a while betraying him, which is why Coutinho is in place to hopefully try to gradually take on such an imposing mantle. It’s been said Xavi was never satisfactorily replaced (understandable) - Iniesta’s mantle would be equally daunting to match.

Right - back to EPL stuff.

You mean we can now talk about the implosion going on at Stamford Bridge? :smiley:

Nothing like an injured, depth-challenged and downward trending lineup with which to take on Barcelona.

In front of an all-time EPL record 83,222 punters at Wembley, Tottenham took a 1-0 win over Arsenal (who’ve won only three of their 13 road games this season). (and 16 winless road games in a row against teams in the top 5 of the table) Cech was at times brilliant, with amazing point blank saves, and other times scary, giving the ball away. Lacazette still wasn’t making much of an impression like I would have expected by now.
Oh well.
Europa.

I can’t talk; yesterday my Foxes totally imploded against City. It was disgusting the way they played the second half. I actually turned it off after the fourth goal, because when you give up goals by playing that stupidly, you aren’t trying, and I hate watching teams that aren’t trying, even my own. :mad:

But, then, my son would be even more upset than I am today, given he supports the Red Devils. :stuck_out_tongue:

Man City lose to Wigan 0-1 in the FA Cup despite dominating possession 83-17. One OOTP poster in Wigan is going to be very happy.

Gerry would so slap your face!

Well, who knew we would watch the silent implosion of all Arsene Wenger has stood for this season?

A good possibility that Bellerin’s going to Juventus this summer.

I was out way too late last night, had to avoid all social media this morning to not see any spoilers for Manchester United-Liverpool, finally got to watch the match…ugh!

Really, really ugly scenes from the Olympic Stadium today. I’d have thought that sort of stuff long since gone from the English game, but, then again, we are talking about East Enders… <sigh>

Crazy, seeing Noble deal with a fan.I was surprised security was lax enough to allow someone else to actually grab a corner flag and run out to centre circle and duly plunk the flag right on centre spot. The most startling image for me, though, (and which the announcers said they’d never quite seen) was seeing the section just below the directors box, all pointing and yelling and chanting at the owners - kinda scary and mob-like, almost. And an even scarier image was a camera shot from the directors box section, looking down, and all you can see is everyone turned around, looking up at you, not at the pitch. Scary-surreal. Wise that the big-wigs were escorted out about ten minutes before game’s end.

The Hammers’ five remaining home games might not be as bubbly as one hopes.

You could see, in both of the altercations, some West Ham players yelling at the security staff, asking how the hell these people are getting onto the pitch.

Yeah, that was pretty grim stuff. Some of the Burnley subs even vacated their benches to allow some kids to sit there, in case things got out of control.

Ugh, I’m really disappointed in Jamie Carragher. Passion is one thing, but this type of garbage is inexcusable.

Jamie Carragher: Ex-England player apologises for ‘awful’ behaviourhttp://www.bbc.com/sport/football/43376262
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