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2024-25 Premier League Thread

United look horrible and I cannot stand Bruno F, but that's never a red. It's not the refs fault, but VAR has to have him look at that. Based on everything that happened in the match, Spurs probably win it with ease either way, but you have to make the ref look at that and I cannot imagine him not downgrading to a yellow. Lisandro Martinez made a MUCH more dangerous tackle during the match, it was just mostly avoided. It was high and awkward, but there was zero force behind it and no studs and it was clearly so high because he slipped.
 
Yeah, but they are never dangerous crosses cause he does them when the defense is completely set up for them and also he has zero threat of doing anything else. Bailey's cross for an assist worked, because the defense had to play for the threat of him cutting inside. Also, that was the best right footed cross I've ever seen him do. Digne is also a very good aerial defender for his position so I'll give him that. If he could go back in time twenty plus years to when so much more of the game was crossing the ball and defending crosses, he'd be a great fullback. I don't get why he's still starting over Maatsen and I don't get why Villa fans like him so much and think he's doing well and a good signing instead of correctly lumping him in with the other way too expensive and old signings of the Gerrard era like Carlos and Coutinho.
 
Things went from bad to worse for Southampton and defender Jack Stephens. He was sent off against Man U last month and served his 3 match ban, the last of which was yesterday against Bournemouth. He was hit with another 2 match ban and a £50k fine for calling referee Stuart Attwell and 4th official Gavin Ward c*****. The fine is a little more than a week’s wages, he’s on £45k per week.
 
Suggestion ... maybe Stephens needs to clam the eff down and cut back on the pre-match coffee. To be fair though, Stuart Attwell is a pillock.
 
Liverpool wins the early match 1-0, in a less than impressive display, especially in the second half.

The bigger question: how is Allison and how long will that apparent hamstring injury keep him out? With Caoimhín Kelleher ill, 23 year old Vítězslav Jaroš made his senior debut (after signing 7 years ago). Fortunately for us, Palace failed to legitimately challenge him and Liverpool saw out the match.
 
What a weird time to live in where a draw against United makes me angry and disappointed. Man U should have seen their third red carded player in three matches since Rashford absolutely should have gotten a second yellow and was quickly subbed off since it was very obvious his next foul of any kind would have gotten him sent off. Konsa left injured and I really hope he's okay. I'm getting concerned about the lack of rotation and amount of hamstring injuries and the continual non unleashing of Maatsen who again in his incredibly short time on the pitch looked so dynamic. I get against Bayern starting Digne since we expect to not see much of the ball and his aerial defending and dead ball skills can come in handy (though I'm going to be honest, I can't remember him ever delivering a really good free kick. Just a lot of almost good free kicks), but against weaker sides like Man U (that brings me such joy to say), we gotta unleash Maatsen. It's not like this is some untested youth player, he literally played in the Champions League Final last season. Comparing Maatsen's fbref scouting profile to Digne's makes me just sad. It's a sea of green compared to a sea of mediocre colors. Digne is absolutely a better aerial defender and delivers more crosses (not necessarily a good thing), but otherwise doesn't come close to Maatsen in any category. I know I'm a broken record on this and nobody here disagrees with the statement, but I just don't get it. Emery replaced Digne with Moreno almost immediately after bringing him in and as much as I really like Moreno, he isn't close to the player Maatsen is.

Also, nit picky, but especially if Bailey is on a pitch count, I much rather have him coming off the bench for those minutes than starting. I was kind of hoping Buendia would be starting this match since he's one of my faves obviously and I think his skill set would have been very helpful this match.
 
Nottingham Forest got whacked with a £750k fine for an incident that occurred in April, where on social media, they questioned the integrity of VAR referee Stuart Atwell (him again) and whether he was biased toward Luton, who he allegedly supports.
 
andyt said:
Nottingham Forest got whacked with a £750k fine for an incident that occurred in April, where on social media, they questioned the integrity of VAR referee Stuart Atwell (him again) and whether he was biased toward Luton, who he allegedly supports.
Click to expand...
That WAS a ridiculous episode, but how long is too long for this sort of thing? I'd say this is far too removed from the actual incident for it to be anything other than theater.

Also, removing Atwell would save everybody involved a lot of money.
 
In the summer, Man U annouced layoffs of about 250 positions. This came after they offered voluntary buyouts earlier in the year. They also eliminated the club’s Christmas party and didn’t pay for club staff to travel to the FA Cup Final in May. The Athletic is reporting that they’re also ending Sir Alex Ferguson’s club ambassadorial role in a cost cutting measure. Since retiring as manager, he had been getting paid £2.16 million per year. All told, they’re expecting to save £40-50 million over the next 2 years. They spent £200 million on transfers and sit 14th in the table with 8 points.
 
Arsenal and Chelsea losing this weekend contributed to a bit of an early gap at the top of the table. Man City and Liverpool are now a full win ahead of third place and Chelsea slipped out of a European spot for the first time after getting one point from their last two games. 8 games in is generally enough to start to see trends develop and it looks like Brighton have joined the fray for Europe while Spurs and Newcastle are clinging on, looking for a hot streak. I thought Villa would have been primed for a drop given the toll of Champions League and their injury list, but they've hung in admirably. Meanwhile Man United have made an early statement that ... no, we're not back yet. Unless you mean back in the middle of the table.

At the other end of the telescope, West Ham remains curiously broken and Everton have somehow managed to both exceed expectations AND look like crap in the process. Of the promotion trio, Ipswich and Leicester look like they want to stick around while Southampton probably needn't have bothered. Palace have followed up on the promise of last spring by showing up in a coma and Wolves have nursing staff checking to see if they have a do not resuscitate order on file. 7 loses in 8 and a minus 13 goal diff? Woof, that's just sad.
 
Brighton, once again, look like the "real deal". Do NOT relish having to play them twice within a four-day period AFTER the "showdown" fixture with Arsenal at The Emirates on Sunday. :oops: And while I'm enjoying Liverpool's current place at the top of the Prem tables, I really don't expect them to hold on for much longer. Sunday against Arsenal will tell much more than any match in all competitions thus far.
After the EFL Cup match midweek at Brighton (three in a row away), Liverpool gets three in a row at home: Brighton (again), Leverkusen in the CL (and our highly anticipated "reunion" with Xabi Alonso) and then Villa! I suspect after that last match we'll really know about whether or not Liverpool is a serious title contender, or just a Top 4 contender/title pretender. If I was a betting man, my money would be on the former.
 
If it's any consolation, Villa should be equally shagged out by that point. They aren't mixing it up with the European cupcakes the way they were last season in the dopey Conference League.
 
Arsenal will be without William Saliba thanks to his red card last weekend, so between that and injuries, they may end up playing 18 year old Miles Lewis-Skelly at right back, so Ben White can move inside. And Odegaard is still out so the back 4 and midfield will be a shambles.
 
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