Unexpected results over the weekend for some of the bigger teams:
• Man City lost at home to Wolves, leaving them eight points adrift of leaders Liverpool after eight games.
• Manchester United lost 0-1 at Newcastle. The scorer of the game’s only goal was Newcastle’s Matthew Longstaff, who was making his debut and playing alongside his brother, who’s a couple of years older. So Newcastle may have a central midfield in the coming years of two brothers playing side by side.
• Everton lost again and are now in the relegation zone.
• Tottenham lost again (after getting spanked 2-7 by Bayern Munich at home earlier in the week), leaving them languishing in mid-table.
First they get away with a last-gasp victory over Leicester, thanks to a penalty in the fourth minute of added time at the end of the game. Then Wolves do them a massive favor by beating Man City 2-0, through a pair of very nice goals. Both games had me jumping off my couch.
Although they lost at the very end to 'Pool, my Foxes look like a solid bet for Europe next year. As I suspected, hiring Brendan Rodgers was a good move.
Man U seem to have turned so many corners, that they’re back where they started. I’m really hoping they can find some more consistency, starting with beating Sheffield United convincingly in their next game. Unfortunately, the international break probably won’t help with this.
I’m extremely impressed with Brendan Rogers and Leicester this season (I know, hardly a controversial view). I think an analyst on Match of the Day (probably Danny Murphy, can’t remember) summed it up best by saying Leicester are clearly a team that has been well-drilled and crafted by their manager, whereas Arsenal just looked like the manager wrote 11 names on a sheet of paper. It’s a bit mystifying to me why Arsenal are struggling so much. Likewise Spurs. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think many fans of either team expected their seasons to start like this (whereas there are plenty of pessimistic Man U fans whose expectations have been largely fulfilled). Also, Lampard and Chelsea are doing a good job of proving me wrong so far.
Liverpool - no words to describe how good they are, they deserve their lead. Kind of hoping for an implosion, but like last year, I’d rather they won the league than Man City (or Chelsea). For Leicester to win again would be truly amazing - it’s not going to happen, but they have totally confounded my prediction when they reached 7th in the table last season that it would be their highest position for the next decade. Kudos to them.
At the other end of the table, Southampton look about done already - I hope not, and they have plenty of time, but their form is just so poor. It would be nice to see a club stick with their manager and see that pay off, though.
Very exciting Liverpool - Man City game. Haven’t watched all the replays to get angry over calls, but do think the game was much closer than the scoreline.
Liverpool won’t keep their pace up for the whole season, but I can’t imagine anyone is going to catch them. Man City basically have to win out the rest of the season and even that might not be enough.
The game was definitely closer than the scoreline suggests, especially in the first half-hour or so, when Man City had at least as many chances as Liverpool, but just couldn’t get the final touch right. It was amazing that Liverpool were up 2-0 and they had probably been outplayed a bit, but managed to benefit from some fantastic counter-attacking play. Liverpool, though, looked much the better team from about mid-way in the first half to mid-way in the second.
As for the decisions, you could quibble about a couple, but they were pretty close, and I think that Guardiola’s histrionics were a bit over the top.
So not only do my Newcastle defenders have bags more goals then the ONE my three forwards have accrued…if you watch the Newcastle-Bournmouth highlights…these arnt “Defender shoots from outside the box or header off a corner goals”. Yedlin literally went into the goal right after his thumping header. Clark was about 7 yards out.
Like in Football Manager I found myself yelling, “What the hell are you doing up there???” Not that I’m complaining.
Sorry for cutting off the good stuff about the more interesting teams but I’m a Saints guy. In 2017, I predicted Soton would be relegated at season’s end, only to see them escape by the narrowest of margins. In 2018, I predicted again that they would not be able to remain in the top flight, only to once again see a close escape. A few months ago, however, I thought I saw enough spark from the new manager that a prediction that they were staying up was a rational one. I think I’m about to go 0-for-3 in “Ralphampton” predictions.
Nah, it was coming. The CL final was just disguising what was a pretty average season (they were outplayed for most of the semi final as well). A few seasons ago they were playing for the title…but lately they aren’t even close. A whole bunch of players seem to want to leave (for a while now) and Poch has been complaining about not getting the players he wants. To me it seems like a fairly logical moment to part ways, just before sort of rebuilding a team.
