2019/20 Premier League & General Football Discussion

[redhed17]

Before the game Man City Chief Exec Ferran Soriano gave the club first extended response to their European ban, Soriano gave a interview on City's in-house media channels saying the allegations are false and the club will do everything that can be done to prove so.

You wouldn't expect them to say anything else. Hopefully the truth comes out in a clear and transparent way. And quickly too, so as not to interfere too much with things in the future.

I have watched a few videos since the announcement of the European ban with people saying that the players and manager's achievements shouldn't be touched because they have done nothing wrong. Mmm, they may not have, apart from benefit from the money, but if it is proved that they have cheated the Financial Fair Play rules, they wouldn't have achieved what they have without doing that, in being able to pay for the players and paying their wages.

I watched another vid that said the naming of the stadium was way over the odds at the time, but that now may be in line with what it would be worth. But again, it is chicken and egg, without paying over the odds for the stadium, and using that money (as well as a whole lot more ) the success may not have been achieved to increase the value to what it is now.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Here are this weekends games, a more regular schedule following the winter break.
Saturday
Burnley v Bournemouth
Chelsea v Tottenham (12.30 BT)
Crystal Palace v Newcastle
Leicester v Man City (5.30 Sky)
Sheffield United v Brighton
Southampton v Aston Villa

Sunday
Arsenal v Everton (4.30 Sky)
Man United v Watford (2pm)
Wolves v Norwich (2pm)

Monday night
Liverpool v West Ham (8pm Sky)

Some big games there, it doesn't look like that either of the other two games on Sunday will be on TV, weirdly!

 

[Dennisch]

The referee needs a couple of days of vacation.

 

[Jezza819]

The referee needs a couple of days of vacation.

VAR issued a statement later admitting that was the wrong decision. "Our bad".

https://www.espn.com/soccer/report?gameId=541582

 

[redhed17]

VAR issued a statement later admitting that was the wrong decision. "Our bad".

https://www.espn.com/soccer/report?gameId=541582

There is no excuse for getting that decision wrong, unless they didn't look at the video. The Ref was about 15 feet from the side pitch TV screen, and wasn't advised, and seemingly didn't even consider, looking at the screen. What is the point of it being there if it doesn't get used. VAR seems to be getting worse. If that was possible.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Todays results.

Chelsea 2-1 Tottenham
Southampton 2-0 Aston Villa
Burnley 3-0 Bournemouth
Crystal Palace 1-0 Newcastle
Sheffield United 1-1 Brighton
Leicester 0-1 Man City

Cant really comment on the matches as I have been in work all day and have just got in, watching Match Of The Day now.

 

[88GTA]

Ibrahimvic had a great goal ruled out by VAR today so it's not just England. Lots of horrible calls (and Juve favoritism) in Italy too.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Just seen MOTD so have seen all the action, just the one question...

….was VAR having a day off today?!

 

[Woodybobs]

The Wolves disallowed goal was unbelievable, the pass that supposedly showed the Wolves player offside was not a forward pass. Unless I have totally misunderstood what I saw, and don't understand the offside rules any more!

The direction of travel of the ball is an oversimplified version of the actual law. In a case where there are not two defending players between the attacker and the end line the only thing that matters is whether the ball or the attacker receiving the ball is closer to the end line as the ball is kicked. The ball can be kicked forwards to an onside player or, in this case, backwards to an offside player.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Man United 3-0 Watford
Wolves 3-0 Norwich
Arsenal 3-2 Everton

Great game between Arsenal and Everton, four goals in the first half, Everton took the lead after Luiz blunder at the back put Calvert-Lewin in after just 49 seconds, Nketiah and Aubameyang put Arsenal in front until Richarlison equalised and Aubameyang put Arsenal bac in front and that's how it finished, Arsenal tired towards the end and Everton pushed but couldn't make it 3-3.

Bruno Fernandes got his first United goal which came from the penalty spot, Martial then scored a sublime chip over Foster and Greenwood got United third with a great finish, a very nice win. 👍

Jota scored twice and Jimenez got the other in a dominant performance by Wolves.

 

[Jezza819]

Man United 3-0 Watford
Wolves 3-0 Norwich
Arsenal 3-2 Everton

Great game between Arsenal and Everton, four goals in the first half, Everton took the lead after Luiz blunder at the back put Calvert-Lewin in after just 49 seconds, Nketiah and Aubameyang put Arsenal in front until Richarlison equalised and Aubameyang put Arsenal bac in front and that's how it finished, Arsenal tired towards the end and Everton pushed but couldn't make it 3-3.

Bruno Fernandes got his first United goal which came from the penalty spot, Martial then scored a sublime chip over Foster and Greenwood got United third with a great finish, a very nice win. 👍

Jota scored twice and Jimenez got the other in a dominant performance by Wolves.

This Arsenal/Everton game was much better than that 0-0 snoozefest they produced in December. Leno really came up big when Everton pushed in the second half.

Maybe Martial just needs to increase his degree of difficulty to score goals. It's those easy ones right in front that he puts over the bar.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Liverpool are currently 1-2 DOWN at home to West Ham, its just over an hour played so still time left, Wijnauldum got Liverpool ahead but Diop got West Ham equaliser and Pablo Fornals has put West Ham in front.

Liverpool piling on the pressure as you'd expect.

EDIT: 2-2 now inevitably, Salah got the goal but it went right through Fabianski.

EDIT 2: 3-2 now, Mane poking home into a virtually empty net, about 10 mins left.

EDIT 3: just finished 3-2, Liverpool survive a scare, fair play to West Ham who played a lot better than they did v Man City, scored a couple of goals and had some great chances. VAR ruled out a fourth for Mane for offside.

 

[Jezza819]

Good grief!! Of all nights tonight West Ham actually decided to start looking like a good team??

 

[Dennisch]

4 games left to win for Liverpool?

 

[Jimlaad43]

4 games left to win for Liverpool?

Yes. The best Man City can do is 90 points, so Liverpool just need 12 points to clinch the title, assuming City win all the rest of the games.

 

[Dennisch]

Yes. The best Man City can do is 90 points, so Liverpool just need 12 points to clinch the title, assuming City win all the rest of the games.

Having just the audio of the game while working in my garage was pretty nerve wrecking, it has been a while since the Premier league was this exciting for me to watch/listen.

 

[88GTA]

6 Serie A matches in Italy will be played behind closed doors this weekend due to the coronavirus in northern Italy, including Inter v. Juve. Inter will also play the 2nd leg of their Europa League match against Ludogorets with no fans.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

There is a PL game on tomorrow night, the schedule is a bit reduced this week, I'll explain why but here are this weekends games.

Friday night
Norwich v Leicester (8pm Sky)

Saturday
Bournemouth v Chelsea
Brighton v Crystal Palace (12.30 BT)
Newcastle v Burnley
Watford v Liverpool (5.30 Sky)
West Ham v Southampton

Sunday
Everton v Man United (2pm Sky)
Tottenham v Wolves (2pm)

Carabao Cup Final
Aston Villa v Man City (4pm Sky)

So there are a few teams missing there, not just because of the League Cup final on Sunday but because the Fifth Round of the FA Cup starts on Monday and will continue throughout next week, the weeks game starts with Portsmouth v Arsenal.

I will post the FA Cup games on Sunday, lets concentrate on the league for now, and the League Cup final.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

So Norwich just beat Leicester 1-0.

I didn't see the game but I have read bits and pieces about it on Twitter, first half seemed pretty dull and then Norwich's goal came from Jamal Lewis with a lovely strike on 70 minutes. seemed like Leicester didn't really do much and they have really gone off the boil since Christmas after such a good start to the season.

 

[Jimlaad43]

*opens BBC sport*
"Aight, let's see how much we've mullered Watford by"
Watford 3-0 Liverpool

 

[redhed17]

*opens BBC sport*
"Aight, let's see how much we've mullered Watford by"
Watford 3-0 Liverpool

You obviously haven't been watching Liverpool or Watford lately.

Hope it is the kick up the bum Liverpool need, because they haven't been playing grat for the last few games, and not one of them had a good game today. If they play that bad, and thankfully I haven't seen them do that for a few years, they will win nothing. It is not over till it's over. A bit concerning as even Klopp didn't seem his normal self too.

Well done Watford. Not sure if they played great, or Liverpool were so bad, but they certainly wanted it more.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Todays results.

Brighton 0-1 Crystal Palace
West Ham 3-1 Southampton
Bournemouth 2-2 Chelsea
Newcastle 0-0 Burnley
Watford 3-0 Liverpool

Liverpool haven't been playing well in the last four games or so, so the defeat probably was coming, but the manner of the defeat was a surprise.

 

[JohnBM01]

So Liverpool was finally bested after such extended success? The football gods must not have been on Liverpool FC's side after getting spanked 3-0 at Watford. Sad way to go out after so much success. This was still a baller run by Liverpool, though sad their potential greatness in this run was cut short.

 

[Crazy Taylor]

So glad VAR didn't work today .

 

[Jezza819]

Liverpool looked more like the team in a relegation battle today. Just no fight, flat, awful. Lately this has looked more like the Liverpool from a few years ago dropping points to teams at the bottom of the table. Now let's see if they collectively have the heart of a champion and realize that they haven't won anything yet and get refocused and bounce back.

 

[Dave A]

Everton 1 - 1 Manchester United

Two goals contributed to by goal keeping mistakes, the first one was by De Gea kicking the ball into Calvert-Lewin and the ball deflecting off him back into the net and then Fernandes continued to make an impact al beit in his worst performance for United so far in my opinion. He scored a shot from range into the near post. Pickford should have had that covered but was late to react and a bit out of position.

That said, Pickford pulled off a fantastic double save in the second half, I thought United had almost certianly scored but that was some fantastic reactions to save Fernandes shot and then Ighalo's follow up.

A bit of controversy near the end with Everton having a goal disallowed. Sigurdsson was on the floor in front of De Gea and a deflected shot went in. In my opinion it was dissalowed correctly, he was lying in the path of the ball and moved his legs at the last momoent to let the ball past.

He is in the line of the shot between the player and the keeper, he is stopping the keeper from moving off the line if he had to and he pulls his legs back at the last moment. Controversial indeed, but the right call in my opinion.

Dissapointed with Solskjaer, we all knew this would be a tough game and Everton would be up for it, but for large parts of the game we played well. Then Ole took McTominay off for Mata. Is it just me, or is it obvious that Mata was never going to get involved in a game like this today? No surprise that we ended up sitting back and it became Everton corner after Everton corner. Then Ole takes Martial off for Williams. I literlaly laughed out loud when that happened.

We missed a big opportunity to close the gap on 4th today, we may not have won if we went for it right to the end, but we certainly were never going to win whilst defending corner after corner. Besides it's only for the luck of the VAR official sharing my view of what constitutes interfering with play that we didn't end up losing as a result Ole's late game tactics.

Very poor decision to try and defend the draw that was.

On a positive note, Wolves beat Tottenham 3-2.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

We were so bad in the second half, our intensity dropped, we sat back and gave away loads of corners.

Right call to disallow the goal, I know it is controversial but for me Sigurdsson is blocking De Gea.

Ancelotti got a red card after the game for getting in ref Chris Kavanagh's face and screaming at him, he'll probably get a touchline ban for it

 

[Jezza819]

We were so bad in the second half, our intensity dropped, we sat back and gave away loads of corners.

Right call to disallow the goal, I know it is controversial but for me Sigurdsson is blocking De Gea.

Ancelotti got a red card after the game for getting in ref Chris Kavanagh's face and screaming at him, he'll probably get a touchline ban for it

Ancelotti also went into the referee's room after the game to continue the discussion. But you're right he will probably get a touchline ban for the red card.

My immediate first reaction watching that last goal sequence live was also to say that has to be disallowed. But now I'm not so sure. It looks like de Gea sees the ball the entire way after the deflection but is frozen to his spot and Sigurdsson is far enough out that if De Gea were to make a dive for the ball he wouldn't be interfering with that effort but I don't think de Gea is getting to that ball since he moved to his right at first.

I guess we might here from VAR headquarters clarifying that ruling?

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Everton 1-1 Man United
Tottenham 2-3 Wolves
Aston Villa 1-2 Man City

Wolves came from 2-1 down to win at Spurs, Spurs goals came from Bergwijn and Aurier, Wolves goals came from Doherty, Jota and Jimenez.

Man City have just won the Carabao Cup all three goals came in the first half, Aguero and Rodri put City 2-0 up but Samatta gave Villa some hope and they fought well in the second half but its City who get the trophy.

 

[christara321]

My immediate first reaction watching that last goal sequence live was also to say that has to be disallowed. But now I'm not so sure. It looks like de Gea sees the ball the entire way after the deflection but is frozen to his spot and Sigurdsson is far enough out that if De Gea were to make a dive for the ball he wouldn't be interfering with that effort but I don't think de Gea is getting to that ball since he moved to his right at first.

I guess we might here from VAR headquarters clarifying that ruling?

My opinion for what its worth is that the deflected shot was always going to beat De gea and he wouldn,t of saved it, like you say he was rooted to the spot. I thought he was too.
But while Sigurdsson was sat on the floor and moved his legs out of the way of the ball (Interferring with play) going into the net which he had to do otherwise it would of hit him he then became active and rightly so he would of been off side.
But like I say thats the way I saw it and am not sure whether its right or wrong?


EDIT: Had a little google about and found this link.
https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/...-offside-everton-goal-man-utd-var-why-2005358