2025/26 Premier League & General Football Discussion

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Crystal Palace lost their appeal at CAS against their demotion from the Europa League to the Conference League meaning they will now play in the latter this season, they won a spot in this season's Europa League following last season's FA Cup win but were demoted to the Conference League after they 'breached' multi club rules, former Palace co-owner John Textor owns a majority stake in Lyon who are in the Europa League this season and whilst Textor did sell his stake in Palace earlier this summer it was after the March 1st deadline. the demotion is seen to be pretty harsh and obviously hasn't gone down well.
 
It seems crazy to me that stable and debutants Crystal Palace are the team being demoted, not Lyon which is in financial meltdown currently and had been relegated for it. Why is Palace the team feeling the brunt?
 
Jimlaad43
It seems crazy to me that stable and debutants Crystal Palace are the team being demoted, not Lyon which is in financial meltdown currently and had been relegated for it. Why is Palace the team feeling the brunt?
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UEFA ranking coefficient, I suspect.
 
Man United has signed Benjamin Sesko from RB Leipzig in a deal that could total £74 million.
Aston Villa have had a pretty quiet window so far but have signed striker Evan Guessand from Nice for £30 million.
Liverpool's Darwin Nunez has joined Al-Hilal for £56 million.
Burnley has signed Armando Broja for £20 million and Lesley Ugochukwo for £25 million, both from Chelsea.
Everton have signed Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall from Chelsea for £25 million and just signed Jack Grealish on a loan with a £50 million option to buy from Man City.
Bournemouth defender Illia Zarbarnyi has joined PSG for £57 million, Bournemouth are replacing him with Bafode Diakite from Lille for £34 million.

That's mostly it for the transfer stuff, there is the ongoing saga for Alexander Isak at Newcastle who wants to join Liverpool and is training on his own. Newcastle actually play Liverpool in a couple of weeks so that could be spicy!
 
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Anyone doing any predictions?

Here is where I think everyone will end up.

1. Liverpool
2. Man City
3. Arsenal
4. Chelsea
5. Spurs
6. Aston Villa
7. Man United
8. Newcastle
9. Brighton
10. Nott Forest
11. Bournemouth
12. Fulham
13. Everton
14. West Ham
15. Palace
16. Brentford
17. Leeds
18. Wolves
19. Sunderland
20. Burnley

Liverpool are many people's favorites for the title but I don't think they are clear favorites, City won't have a 'bad' season like last time and they will have a resurgence and I think they will push Liverpool all the way to the final day. Both Arsenal and Chelsea have been spending big this summer and I can see them getting top four comfortably, Spurs and Villa will fight it out for the last CL spot (if the league gets one)

I've got mixed feelings about Man United's chances, we've had a good summer so far and it seems pretty positive but at the same time the pressure will be on Amorim to deliver and we have Arsenal, City, Chelsea and Liverpool in our first eight games. I think we need to be in and around the top four by Christmas or Amorim will be gone and it could be Sir Gareth in! I'm quietly confident though. Newcastle haven't had the best time of it so far this summer and I think they will just miss out on a European place.

The mid table is what it is but as for the bottom all three promoted sides have gone straight back down in the past two seasons and I think it should stop, Leeds to me are the best placed to stay up and Wolves have been sleepwalking towards relegation for a while now, Brentford are the same.
 
  1. Liverpool - They've gone big in the transfer window and have the quality and depth of squad (except CB's) to deal with a big run in many competitions.
  2. Chelsea - The CWC win was impressive and shows that Maresca has finally got something working out of the crazy squad. Won't challenge though as tiredness from the Summer will cause a slump somewhere.
  3. Man City - I heard that Rodri had a big injury again. Shame for him and that consigns City to another season of misery by not being able to hit their other heights. Plenty of money spent but is it the right recruitment?
  4. Arsenal - They finally have a striker but excuses and Phase 7 Arteta will be lagging behind the other three
  5. Aston Villa - Surprisingly Emi Martinez hasn't left yet so another solid season for Villa here and I'm predicting an FA Cup for this team.
  6. Everton - Moyes has got badly-run teams into Europe recently and the new stadium bounce will help Everton actually challenge for decent results this season. If Moyes can unlock Grealish then this will be a good team.
  7. Tottenham - They haven't strengthened much but Thomas Frank is a great signing as Manager, but how well will he balance the Champions League and Premier League?
  8. Newcastle - Lose Isak and it's game over for Newcastle who just seem to have had a stinker of a summer.
  9. Brighton
  10. Crystal Palace
  11. Nottingham Forest
  12. Manchester United - The new signings don't seem to be papering over the cracks and there's still chaos behind the scenes.
  13. Fulham
  14. Bournemouth
  15. Burnley
  16. West Ham
  17. Wolves
  18. Brentford - The loss of Frank and not replacing him with a proven manager will be suicidal. They've lost some of the core players that did well last season, and Kelleher can only do so much in goal.
  19. Leeds
  20. Sunderland
 
MUSC4EVER
Anyone doing any predictions?

Here is where I think everyone will end up.

1. Liverpool
2. Man City
3. Arsenal
4. Chelsea
5. Spurs
6. Aston Villa
7. Man United
8. Newcastle
9. Brighton
10. Nott Forest
11. Bournemouth
12. Fulham
13. Everton
14. West Ham
15. Palace
16. Brentford
17. Leeds
18. Wolves
19. Sunderland
20. Burnley

Liverpool are many people's favorites for the title but I don't think they are clear favorites, City won't have a 'bad' season like last time and they will have a resurgence and I think they will push Liverpool all the way to the final day. Both Arsenal and Chelsea have been spending big this summer and I can see them getting top four comfortably, Spurs and Villa will fight it out for the last CL spot (if the league gets one)

I've got mixed feelings about Man United's chances, we've had a good summer so far and it seems pretty positive but at the same time the pressure will be on Amorim to deliver and we have Arsenal, City, Chelsea and Liverpool in our first eight games. I think we need to be in and around the top four by Christmas or Amorim will be gone and it could be Sir Gareth in! I'm quietly confident though. Newcastle haven't had the best time of it so far this summer and I think they will just miss out on a European place.

The mid table is what it is but as for the bottom all three promoted sides have gone straight back down in the past two seasons and I think it should stop, Leeds to me are the best placed to stay up and Wolves have been sleepwalking towards relegation for a while now, Brentford are the same.
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1. Arsenal
2. Liverpool
3. Chelsea
4. Man City
5. Newcastle
6. Man Utd
7. Aston Villa
8. Everton
9. Leeds
10. Tottenham
11. Brighton
12. Forest
13. Fulham
14. Bournemouth
15. Sunderland
16. West Ham
17. Palace
18. Brentford
19. Wolves
20. Burnley

1. I think Arsenal do it this year, they've strengthened well and added in areas where they have been lacking. If the signings perform as expected, they will be very strong. Liverpool have looked unconvincing so far.

2. Chelsea will be sniffing around most of the season, they have looked solid in preseason and Maresca seems to be getting everything where he wants it to be. Will be a threat but not often enough to truly challenge for the title. Likewise Man City, their car crash season, for them, won't be easy to move past.

3. Newcastle and Man Utd positions will depend entirely on who replaces Isak at Newcastle, whether he stays or goes. Newcastle are strong, the loss of Isak will be large but they have a good squad and a solid team. Ironically they could poach Hojland from Utd and be in a good place. Amorim has a male or break few months coming up, I think United start their resurgence this season. Slow start but they'll come up strong.

4. Mid table will be tight, Villa have been pretty strong but honestly you could order Villa down to Forest in any order and not be far off. Everton will be stronger, new stadium bounce and some very good signings, including Grealish, should see them get away from relegation fights and into a mid table, possible European fight.

5. Fulham will just exist. Everyone below them will be fighting relegation. It will be tight, Burnley will 100% go down, incapable of staying up, Wolves have trended towards the championship and Brentford have lost all their star power.

Championship predictions:
Champions: Southampton
Promotion: Norwich
Playoffs: Birmingham

FA Cup: Chelsea

League Cup: Everton

UCL: Barcelona

First EPL sacking: Vitor Pereira (Wolves)
 
I did these like a week ago though I'm hardly ever right with them

1. Man City
2. Liverpool
3. Arsenal
4. Chelsea
5. Everton
6. Newcastle
7. Aston Villa
8. Tottenham
9. Crystal Palace
10. Bournemouth
11. Brighton
12. Wolverhampton
13. Fulham
14. Nottingham Forest
15. Man United
16. Sunderland
17. Leeds
18. Brentford
19. Burnley
20. West Ham

It's hard to pick the mid pack and it can easily be flipped on it's head without any surprises. It does have the makings of being a very interesting season

For Championship I had Coventry, Leicester and Bristol City getting promoted
 
Some really interesting picks from you guys, a couple of you going for Everton to finish in the top eight and for Man United to finish in the bottom half.

For the Championship I'll got for Southampton, Ipswich and Coventry to go up.
 
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Liverpool 4-2 Bournemouth
Aston Villa 0-0 Newcastle
Brighton 1-1 Fulham
Sunderland 3-0 West Ham
Spurs 3-0 Burnley
Wolves 0-4 Man City
Chelsea 0-0 Crystal Palace
Nott Forest 3-1 Brentford
Man United 0-1 Arsenal

Liverpool started the season off (and their title defense) with a good win over Bournemouth, new striker Ekitike scored on his debut but Bournemouth did fight back and used the counter attack well, the game was overshadowed by some idiot allegedly aiming a racial comment towards Bournemouth's Semenyo, who went on to score both of their goals.

Impressive wins for Sunderland, Spurs and Man City and I think its going to be a long season for Brentford, Wolves and West Ham, it was an encouraging performance from Man United undone by a goalkeeping error from Bayindir who fumbled at a corner. we had a lot of chances and Arsenal didn't really do anything, if we can play like that for most of the season then we will be fine. Leeds v Everton is still to come tonight.

In terms of transfers Nottingham Forest have been the busiest in the past few days, They signed James McAtee from Man City for £30 million, striker Arnaud Kalimuendo from Rennes for £25 million plus add-ons and Omari Hutchinson from Ipswich for £37 million.

Liverpool have signed young Italian defender Gabriel Leoni from Parma for £25 million plus add-ons.
Brentford has signed Dango Ouattara from Bournemouth for a club record £42 million in a weird transfer.
Former Everton striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin has joined Leeds on a free.
Newcastle have signed defender Malick Thiaw from AC Milan for £34 million and midfielder Jacob Ramsey from Aston Villa for £43 million.
 
Welp, two teams in very different stages of evolution right now just unexpectedly both picked up their first point in the Championship this season...

1755964745064.webp


... and neither are in the bottom three. Both 🐷 and Oxford have lost three from three, and QPR got absolutely poked raw 7-1 at Frank Lampard's Coventry City*, and we're split by Derby County who picked up their first point last night.

The bottom six are rubbish :lol: But at least five of them can bring in new players in this window and the next one to get out of being rubbish.


*Apparently the official name for the club now
 
The first half was okay from us but the second half bordered on abusive. A thoroughly deserved point for Wednesday but if we can't beat yous, I'd say we're in for a long and difficult season.
 
Liquid
but if we can't beat yous, I'd say we're in for a long and difficult season.
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Why you...

... fair enough :lol:
 
Bruno Fernandes just took a penalty that was so bad it looks like CGI.
 
Liquid
Bruno Fernandes just took a penalty that was so bad it looks like CGI.
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He's such a tool. Instead of just focussing on the penalty he wanted to stare at the ref for 5 minutes for that accidental shove.

Seeing everyone's predictions of the season, you guys give United way too much credit :lol:
 
West Ham 1-5 Chelsea
Man City 0-2 Spurs
Bournemouth 1-0 Wolves
Burnley 2-0 Sunderland
Brentford 1-0 Villa
Arsenal 5-0 Leeds
Palace 1-1 Forest
Everton 2-0 Brighton
Fulham 1-1 Man United

West Ham fell apart for the second week in a row and Graham Potter is under pressure already, Spurs were excellent against Man City and its been a good start for Thomas Frank, big win for Arsenal with Gyokeres getting his first goals but Saka will be out for around a month with hamstring injury.

Everton put in a great performance in the first match at their Hill Dickinson Stadium with Jack Grealish the star of the show providing both assists, a bit of a step backwards for Man United yesterday.

Newcastle v Liverpool still to come tonight in the Isak derby!

The biggest transfer news of the week by far is Arsenal signing Crystal Palace's Eberechi Eze for £67 million, it looked like he was heading to Spurs but Arsenal hijacked the deal and got it done pretty quickly.

Leeds has signed striker Noah Okafor for £25 million.
Bournemouth has signed winger Amine Adli from Bayer Leverkusen for £25 million.
Nottingham Forest has signed Douglas Luiz on loan from Juventus.

Carabao Cup second round is this week, international break is after this weeks action, its also Deadline Day next week as well.
 
What an insane game that was between Newcastle and Liverpool!

It finished 3-2 to Liverpool thanks to 16 year old Rio Ngumoha 96th minute winner, Liverpool took the lead through Gravenberch and then Anthony Gordon was sent off for Newcastle for a reckless tackle on Van Dijk just before half time, Ekitike made it two just twenty seconds into the second half but despite having 10 men Newcastle fought back with goals from Guimaraes and Osula then Ngumoha put away that late winner.

Just breathless!
 
League 2 Grimsby Town have just knocked Manchester United out on penalties in the EFL cup, after taking a 2-0 lead, Man Utd came back into it late but Grimsby eventually prevailed in an astonishing shootout, 12-11.

Their reward is a trip to an empty Hillsborough.
 
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Imagine spending half a billion quid to have your new frontline fail to hit the target in 15% of spot-kicks and lose to a team with "Winner Winner Chicken Dinner" on their shirts.

They could have spent a tenth of that on Sheffield Wednesday and be in the third round.
 
Get the fish puns in whilst they're fresh. At least Man United know their plaice.
 
Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, we hit another new low.

Its all about the tactics and system for me, he has stuck rigidly to this 3412 with no plan B and he has not changed it once in game, the club have tried to buy players to fit the system and have given him time but if it can't work against a League Two team then can it ever work?

The way Amorim was speaking after the game was a bit concerning as well, almost felt like his heart wasn't in it. Also the fact he stayed in the dugout during the shootout and didn't see the penalties was strange.

No idea where we go from here, we got Burnley at home on Saturday but then its Man City and Chelsea back to back after the internationals, he could be gone by then...

Fair play to Grimsby, it was well deserved.
 
Liquid
Get the fish puns in whilst they're fresh. At least Man United know their plaice.
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Seems like Amorim is skate-ing on thin ice.
Personally, I think he's had(dock) it.

It seems to be a common thing with almost all managers now to stick with one system whatever happens. There must be a reason for this - because that's the system used in training that players should be most used to? Or because of "stubbornness"?

I feel its a massive weakness in modern managers. All good when you're winning every match, but when you're not you need to be able to adapt.

Now, all top level managers seem to have the philosophy "if plan a not working, lets revert to plan a".

In the "glory days" of Mourinho in his first spell at Chelsea, the system would often seem to be changed mid match if the plan wasn't working.
 
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Carabao Cup Third Round Draw.

Port Vale v Arsenal
Swansea v Nottm Forest
Lincoln v Chelsea
Spurs v Doncaster
Brentford v Aston Villa
Huddersfield v Man City
Liverpool v Southampton
Newcastle v Bradford
Sheff Weds v Grimsby
Wolves v Everton
Crystal Palace v Millwall
Burnley v Cardiff
Wrexham v Reading
Wigan v Wycombe
Barnsley v Brighton
Fulham v Cambridge

Ties will take place across two weeks in between Champions League and Europa League fixtures, starting from the 15th to the 22nd of September.
 
MUSC4EVER
Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, we hit another new low.

Its all about the tactics and system for me, he has stuck rigidly to this 3412 with no plan B and he has not changed it once in game, the club have tried to buy players to fit the system and have given him time but if it can't work against a League Two team then can it ever work?

The way Amorim was speaking after the game was a bit concerning as well, almost felt like his heart wasn't in it. Also the fact he stayed in the dugout during the shootout and didn't see the penalties was strange.

No idea where we go from here, we got Burnley at home on Saturday but then its Man City and Chelsea back to back after the internationals, he could be gone by then...

Fair play to Grimsby, it was well deserved.
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;)
 
sirjim73
;)
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I have to agree, Wednesday's U21 side are also quite good.

"The gulf in perceived class was players with a value of £106m starting the game versus not even the first choice youth team at Sheffield Wednesday because many of them have been sold. It is a huge, huge upset."

"It is right up there with some of Leeds' most embarrassing defeats," added BBC Radio Leeds reporter Adam Pope.
 
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Newcastle are breaking their transfer record to sign Stuttgart striker Nick Woltemade for £69 million and he has completed his medical, he is seemingly a replacement for Alexander Isak for which there is still no news.

Spurs have just signed Xavi Simons from RB Leipzig for £51 million.
Crystal Palace has just Spanish attacker Yeremy Pino from Villareal for £26 million.
Its would be the last few days for the transfer window without Chelsea and their merry-go round of attacking players, Christoph Nkunku is set to join AC Milan for £37 million with Man United winger Alejandro Garnacho joining for £40 million. Chelsea are also in talks with Brighton for a loan move for Facundo Bounanotte.
Everton has signed young winger Tyler Dibling from Southampton for £40 million.
Brentford make a bid in region of £45 million for Borussia Dortmund striker Max Beier.
West Ham has signed Mateus Fernandes from Southampton for £42 million.

As for United well all the talk since Wednesday night has been Amorim's future but the club are working on transfer deals, Rasmus Hojlund is close to joining Napoli on loan with an option to buy for around £45 million and the club are still trying to ship out Jadon Sancho and Antony whilst trying to sign goalkeeper Senne Lammens from Royal Antwerp, but truth be told Amorim might not be in charge after the internationals.

Transfer window shuts on Monday at 7pm.
 
A defeat for Man City is a victory for football.
 
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