2021/22 Premier League & General Football Discussion

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MUSC4EVER
@Famine are you doing an FA Cup thread this year??
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In common with my team, no FA Cup action this year.
 
Shame to see the horrible Atlético advance. The idiots awarded for their behaviour again when Cunha escapes with nothing and Wendell gets a red for a fake situation.

Kudos to Liverpool and Ajax for going clean through the group stage. Pretty rare feat actually. Was expecting Liverpool to lose tonight but yeah.
 
Great result from Liverpool, especially after making 8 changes, including the whole defence bar Alisson. I was surprised that Liverpool were the first English team to win all of their group games. 😲

AC Milan were very disappointing, considering they needed a good result to stay in a European competition beyond this game, and they are leading Serie A, they were pretty ineffectual.
 
Dave A
A very solid first half performance from Manchester United today in the first game of Ralf’s red revolution. United ended up winning 1-0 against Palace.
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That first 35 minutes had me standing up in my living room and applauding the tv at 8am in the morning. That wasn't a new manager boost. It was a clear change in style and play. I'm sure many United supporters thought the same... it looked like we knew what we were doing! Loved it! And Rangnick did that in 1 training session.
Dave A
It could be tiredness, but McTominay looked like a weak link
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I can confirm; it's not tiredness.
 
A few bits of Covid related news tonight.

Due to the new Omicron variant and the spread of it Fans will now need to show proof of double vaccination or a negative test to attend sporting events of more than 10,000 in England under new Covid-19 rules, the government has made the NHS Covid pass mandatory at such events because of the spread of the variant, cases have doubled every day for the past four days. The rules will come into effect next Wednesday the 15th (there are mid week PL games next week) This will of course have an effect on most League grounds in England and maybe a handful of non-league grounds.

Also you may have heard about the Covid outbreak at Spurs this week, they have had 13 positive tests with 8 players and 5 staff testing positive, they play Rennes in the Conference League tomorrow and that game will go ahead, they then play Brighton on Sunday which is under review. It now turns out that Leicester are struggling as well with seven players missing the trip to Napoli tomorrow night due to illness or Covid.
 
Brighton-Spurs has been postponed due to Spurs Covid situation.

There is a game on Friday night so here are this weekends games.

Friday.
Brentford v Watford (8pm Sky)

Saturday.
Arsenal v Southampton
Chelsea v Leeds
Liverpool v Aston Villa
Man City v Wolves (12.30 BT)
Norwich v Man United (5.30 Sky)

Sunday.
Burnley v West Ham
Brighton P-P Tottenham
Crystal Palace v Everton (4.30 Sky)
Leicester v Newcastle (2pm Sky)
 
Leicester 4-0 Newcastle
Burnley 0-0 West Ham
Palace 2-1 Everton

Comfortable win for Leicester, two goals from Tielemans (one a penalty) with Maddison and Daka getting the other goals plus Maddison with two assists, West Ham couldn't break Burnley down, Connor Gallagher and James Tomkins put Palace in front with Rondon getting one back before Gallagher scored a superb later winner! Richarlison was subbed off before the hour mark for Everton and he wasn't injured, he was not happy!

Man United and Aston Villa are latest PL clubs to have Covid outbreaks, a few staff and players have tested positive for United who didn't travel to Norwich yesterday so the game v Brentford on Tuesday should go ahead, Villa away to Norwich on Tuesday too.
 
The UCL draw is done:

Real Madrid - Benfica
Liverpool - RB Salzburg
Ajax - Inter
Lille - Chelsea
Bayern - Atletico Madrid
Man City - Villareal
Man United - PSG
Juventus - Sporting

The draw wasn't short on drama, as Man United were picked against Villareal, which they couldn't as they were part of the same group.

Edit: there's doubt in the air if the draw stays as is, or if it should be redone. Will have to wait and see.

Edit: It's official, the draw will be redone.
 
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dacc10
The UCL draw is done:

Real Madrid - Benfica
Liverpool - RB Salzburg
Ajax - Inter
Lille - Chelsea
Bayern - Atletico Madrid
Man City - Villareal
Man United - PSG
Juventus - Sporting

The draw wasn't short on drama, as Man United were picked against Villareal, which they couldn't as they were part of the same group.

Edit: there's doubt in the air if the draw stays as is, or if it should be redone. Will have to wait and see.

Edit: It's official, the draw will be redone.
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They should get Masi to do the redraw. He'll ignore the pots and just draw the teams he thinks people want to see and then say "that's football".
 
Now the real result of the draw:
Salzburg - Bayern
Sporting - Man City
Benfica - Ajax
Chelsea - Lille
Atletico de Madrid - Man United
Villarreal - Juventus
Inter - Liverpool
PSG - Real Madrid
 
There is a Champions League thread!

Back on topic the Premier League have announced 42 positive Covid tests in the latest round of testing of the players and staff, its the highest number recorded since the release of testing figures in May 2020! The League has now reverted to its emergency measures and will increase the number of both lateral flow and PCR Covid testing.

This news comes as Man United are in discussions with the league regarding tomorrow nights away game against Brentford, the club had to close their training complex today due to positive tests meaning the players were unable to train and prepare for the game, so obviously the discussion is whether game should go ahead, worth pointing out that United do have a big squad but I think Brentford will have an advantage if the game does ahead as they have had preparation time. Also this news broke hours ago and no more news on it since.

Here are the mid week league fixtures.

Tuesday.
Brentford v Man United*
Norwich v Aston Villa (7.45)
Man City v Leeds (8pm)

Wednesday.
Arsenal v West Ham (8pm)
Brighton v Wolves
Crystal Palace v Southampton
Burnley v Watford

Thursday.
Chelsea v Everton (7.45)
Leicester v Tottenham
Liverpool v Newcastle (8pm)

All games kick off at 7.30 unless otherwise stated and all games are on BT Sport.
 
The match between Brentford and Man United has now been postponed due to United's positive Covid tests.
 
Man City 7-0 Leeds
Norwich 0-2 Villa
Burnley P-P Watford
Arsenal 2-0 West Ham
Palace 2-2 Southampton
Brighton 0-1 Wolves

Burnley game was called off at 5pm due to positive Covid tests, a few postponements creeping in here and there now and its maybe getting to the point where league season can continue or not, situation is not looking good right now.

On the pitch, Martinelli scored a great Thierry Henry-esqe goal for Arsenal in their win, Coufal was sent off for two yellows for West Ham and conceded a penalty which Lacazette missed, Smith Rowe with the late winner and Arsenal are in the top four, Ward-Prowse scored a great free kick for Sourthampton, last night Man City blitzed Leeds in a record breaking night for Pep and you know its a beating when both centre backs score! Comfortable win for Villa.

Sergio Aguero has retired at age 33 due to his recent health scare, Arteta has stripped Aubameyang of the Arsenal captaincy because of his recent disciplinary breach.
 
So Leicester v Spurs was called off earlier, Five Premier League games called off this weekend meaning only five games taking place so far. Premier League need to take action soon as its getting ridiculous.

Of the two games taking place tonight Liverpool just beat Newcastle 3-1 with great long range strikes from Alexander-Arnold and Shelvey, injury hit Everton managed to get a 1-1 away to Chelsea.
 
Not a classic display for Liverpool, but more than deserved win from the chances created. Great winning goal by Alexander-Arnold.

The records keep coming though. Mo Salah continues his great form this season by being involved in 15 goals in a row, either scoring or assisting, matching the record of Jamie Vardy.

The big one though, which was a surprise to me, was that Liverpool are the first top flight English football team to reach 2000 victories. 😲 🙂 Number 10 was a surprise to me, but Sunderland were a huge team in the past.

Top 10 English teams with the most wins in the highest category of English football​


1- Liverpool: 2,000 / 7,047 points

2- Arsenal: 1,927 / 6,861 points

3. Everton: 1,873 / 6,775 points

4. Manchester United: 1,858 / 6,528 points

5. Aston Villa: 1,676 / 6,012 points

6. Manchester City: 1,519 / 5,440 points

7. Chelsea: 1,436 / 5,203 points

8. Tottenham Hotspur: 1,453 / 5,199 points

9. Newcastle United: 1,361 / 4,950 points

10. Sunderland: 1,260 / 4,560 points
 
redhed17
Liverpool are the first top flight English football team to reach 2000 victories
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Wow, in only 29 years?!



:mischievous:
 
Here is the Covid affected schedule for this weekend.

Saturday.
Aston Villa v Burnley
Leeds v Arsenal (5.30 Sky)

Sunday.
Newcastle v Man City (2pm Sky)
Tottenham v Liverpool (4.30 Sky)
Wolves v Chelsea (2pm)

And that's it...if they go ahead as there could easily be more postponements before tomorrow, five games off so far and there are 19 games off in the EFL as well. Carabao Cup quarter finals are next week if they go ahead!
 
Villa-Burnley was called off just two hours before kick off meaning the only game on Saturday was Leeds v Arsenal, Arsenal had a very comfortable 4-1 win and Leeds problems continue as some of their bad defending and giving the ball away lead to a few of the goals, Martinelli struck twice and there was a goal each for Saka and Smith Rowe.

There was an incident where it was alleged that racist abuse was aimed at some Arsenal players whilst they were warming up, a Leeds fan has been arrested and credit goes to Rob Holding who alerted the referee.
 
Wolves 0-0 Chelsea
Newcastle 0-4 Man City
Spurs 2-2 Liverpool

What a game between Spurs and Liverpool and its definitely a contender for game of the season. Kane gave Spurs the lead with only his second league goal this season with a great pass from Ndombele, Jota header in a Liverpool equalizer after that and it was 1-1 at the break, Robertson slotted in from close range to make it 1-2 before an error from Alisson led to Son having an open net to aim for and making it 2-2, Robertson then got sent off for a challenge which was a yellow initially but ref took a look at the VAR monitor and shown a red instead, Kane should have seen red for a reckless studs up tackle but only saw yellow and Liverpool maybe should have had a first half penalty as well, great game and it was really end to end.

Another comfortable win for City with four different scorers and City now three points clear at the top at Christmas, Chelsea tried to get their game called off as they have eight first teamers missing. The league turned the request down and they played out a fairly dull 0-0 away to Wolves.

Premier League and the clubs are meeting tomorrow to discuss the current Covid situation, very interesting to see what happens.
 
MUSC4EVER
Spurs 2-2 Liverpool

What a game between Spurs and Liverpool and its definitely a contender for game of the season. Kane gave Spurs the lead with only his second league goal this season with a great pass from Ndombele, Jota header in a Liverpool equalizer after that and it was 1-1 at the break, Robertson slotted in from close range to make it 1-2 before an error from Alisson led to Son having an open net to aim for and making it 2-2, Robertson then got sent off for a challenge which was a yellow initially but ref took a look at the VAR monitor and shown a red instead, Kane should have seen red for a reckless studs up tackle but only saw yellow and Liverpool maybe should have had a first half penalty as well, great game and it was really end to end.
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The irony is Robertson didn't even get booked for this in a previous fixture.
Swings and roundabouts for me, don't think anyone can say we didn't deserve a point today.

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"Swings and roundabouts" maybe, but it just highlights the inconsistencies of the officiating, especially atm.

Just seen another blatant penalty not given in the Newcastle v Cit€h game.

As for a deserved result, a draw seems fair. Would they have got the draw if Kane would have been sent off! If Liverpool got the penalty! 🙄 We'll never know. 🤔
 
The Premier League has decided against postponing a full round of fixtures amid the Covid-19 outbreaks at several clubs. after todays meeting the league has maintained fixtures will continue 'where safely possible'.

Also the FA has scrapped third and fourth round replays to ease fixture congestion, I think all of this is sensible, the virus wont go away in a week so why stop the league, no third and fourth round replays is good too.

It is clear however that more players need to have the jab, 78% of PL players have been double jabbed which seems like a high number but in Spain La Liga and French Ligue Un the number is high as 98%.

EFL Cup quarter finals this week (if they go ahead!) Arsenal v Sunderland and Spurs v West Ham are the games on Sky.
 
Arsenal just beat Sunderland 5-1 in the EFL Cup, hat-trick for Nketiah with the other from Pepe and youngster Charlie Patino coming off the bench to score his first Arsenal goal, 5200 Sunderland fans there making a 550 mile round trip four days from Christmas!

Welsh sport will be behind closed doors from Boxing Day, it means that Swansea, Cardiff, Newport, Wrexham and the League of Wales will have no fans at their home games for now, but fans of those clubs can travel to away games in England....Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, however Scotland are doing something similar so maybe it will happen in England too...
 
I watched the Arsenal v Sunderland whilst doing other things, but I thought Sunderland played very well, and had quite a few chances. A lot better than the last time I saw Sunderland. ;)
 
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Liverpool 3-3 Leicester (Liverpool win 5-4 on pens)
Brentford 0-2 Chelsea
Spurs 2-1 West Ham

Terrific comeback from Liverpool who were 1-3 down at half time, Klopp made three subs at the break bringing on more experienced players and Jota made it 2-3 on 86 mins with Minamino grabbing a 95th minute equalizer to take it to pens with back up keeper Kelleher making two saves during the shootout, Vardy got two and Maddison with the other for Leicester.

A depleted Chelsea just managed to get past Brentford thanks to a Jansson OG and a penalty from the returning Jorginho, All three goals came in just six first half minutes at Spurs Stadium, Bergwijn put Spurs ahead but Bowen almost immediately equalized, Lucas Moura got the eventual winner just a few mins later.

Carabao Cup Semi Final Draw.

Arsenal v Liverpool
Chelsea v Tottenham

As things stand the semi finals will be played on Jan 3rd and 10th with the Wembley final taking place on Feb 27th.

Elsewhere Barcelona have agreed a deal with Man City to sign Ferran Torres for a reported £55 million, where have Barca got this money from? They have taken out yet another bank loan.
 
MUSC4EVER
Elsewhere Barcelona have agreed a deal with Man City to sign Ferran Torres for a reported £55 million, where have Barca got this money from? They have taken out yet another bank loan.
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They could sell Coutinho 🤣🤣
 
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