2024-25 Premier League Thread

[Ed H in Pasadena]

This weekend's fixture list. Times shown are GMT.

Saturday 23rd November
Leicester City vs Chelsea KO @12:30
AFC Bournemouth vs Brighton & Hove Albion KO @15:00
Arsenal vs Nottingham Forest KO @15:00
Aston Villa vs Crystal Palace KO @15:00
Everton vs Brentford KO @15:00
Fulham vs Wolverhampton Wanderers KO @15:00
Manchester City vs Tottenham Hotspur KO @17:30

Sunday 24th November
Southampton vs Liverpool KO @14:00
Ipswich Town vs Manchester United KO @16:30

Monday 25th November
Newcastle United vs West Ham United KO @20:00

 

[andyt]

After 15 matches in charge, and coming off a hammer loss to Chelsea yesterday, Leicester sacked manager Steve Cooper. Assistant manager Alan Tate and first team coach and analyst Steve Rands are also out. First team coach Ben Dawson takes over as interim.

 

[Ed H in Pasadena]

After 15 matches in charge, and coming off a hammer loss to Chelsea yesterday, Leicester sacked manager Steve Cooper. Assistant manager Alan Tate and first team coach and analyst Steve Rands are also out. First team coach Ben Dawson takes over as interim.

Gotta feel bad for the guy. He tried but couldn't connect with their fans. I heard they might be taking another run at Graham Potter. Good luck with that.

 

[Ed H in Pasadena]

Didn't see the Villa match (which I understand was a good one) but who'd'a thought the match of the weekend would've been Liverpool vs. Southampton? From up 1-0 to down 2-1, Mo Salah scored twice, the second from the penalty spot, to help the Reds beat the Saints 3-2. Some really good play from both sides, and some really poor play, and some up and down officiating from Sam Barrott. Liked what I saw from the Saints overall. Russell Martin, though, is probably going to need to produce more results or he could end up facing the sack soon enough.

 

[VinatieriDefinesClutch]

Villa created more in the match yesterday than they had in the past month total. Unfortunately, our transitional defense is just beyond shit right now. A lot of it feels like an effort issue with players not hustling and just not winning any of their duels. This season we've done very little from open play, but set pieces are all super exciting, because we have scored from quite a few and also have given up so many goals and goal scoring opportunities from our own set pieces.

 

[jeffbear]

Villa created more in the match yesterday than they had in the past month total. Unfortunately, our transitional defense is just beyond shit right now. A lot of it feels like an effort issue with players not hustling and just not winning any of their duels. This season we've done very little from open play, but set pieces are all super exciting, because we have scored from quite a few and also have given up so many goals and goal scoring opportunities from our own set pieces.

Just not getting it done in midfield right now, especially in transition defense, which is hardly a shock given the personnel issues.

 

[jeffbear]

Didn't see the Villa match (which I understand was a good one) but who'd'a thought the match of the weekend would've been Liverpool vs. Southampton? From up 1-0 to down 2-1, Mo Salah scored twice, the second from the penalty spot, to help the Reds beat the Saints 3-2. Some really good play from both sides, and some really poor play, and some up and down officiating from Sam Barrott. Liked what I saw from the Saints overall. Russell Martin, though, is probably going to need to produce more results or he could end up facing the sack soon enough.

Wild game. Really fun to watch.

 

[VinatieriDefinesClutch]

Just not getting it done in midfield right now, especially in transition defense, which is hardly a shock given the personnel issues.

A thing I noticed is we have very few players willing to just take a yellow to do a professional foul to stop a break or even make an attempt at a 50-50 and instead just back off.

 

[jeffbear]

A thing I noticed is we have very few players willing to just take a yellow to do a professional foul to stop a break or even make an attempt at a 50-50 and instead just back off.

True ... but having two passers in the double pivot role is always going to cause that kind of problem. When guys like Tielemans and Barkley start making those calculations, nothing good comes of it. They've lost a a lot of their spine with those injuries, and not just in midfield.

 

[Ed H in Pasadena]

Final match of the weekend saw West Ham travel to St James and beat the Geordies 2-0. Tomas Soucek and Aaron Wan-Bissaka help the Hammers to a surprisingly convincing win.

 

[Ed H in Pasadena]

Table after 12 matches

Premier League

#	Team name	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Liverpool	12	10	1	1	24	8	16	31
2	Manchester City	12	7	2	3	22	17	5	23
3	Chelsea	12	6	4	2	23	14	9	22
4	Arsenal	12	6	4	2	21	12	9	22
5	Brighton	12	6	4	2	21	16	5	22
6	Tottenham Hotspur	12	6	1	5	27	13	14	19
7	Nottingham Forest	12	5	4	3	15	13	2	19
8	Aston Villa	12	5	4	3	19	19	0	19
9	Fulham	12	5	3	4	17	17	0	18
10	Newcastle United	12	5	3	4	13	13	0	18
11	Brentford	12	5	2	5	22	22	0	17
12	Manchester United	12	4	4	4	13	13	0	16
13	Bournemouth	12	4	3	5	16	17	-1	15
14	West Ham United	12	4	3	5	15	19	-4	15
15	Everton	12	2	5	5	10	17	-7	11
16	Leicester City	12	2	4	6	15	23	-8	10
17	Wolves	12	2	3	7	20	28	-8	9
18	Ipswich Town	12	1	6	5	13	23	-10	9
19	Crystal Palace	12	1	5	6	10	17	-7	8
20	Southampton	12	1	1	10	9	24	-15	4

 

[VinatieriDefinesClutch]

Well I guess only being four points behind the eventual league winners means we aren't doing as poorly as I feel like we are

 

[jeffbear]

This stretch was always going to be a big ask for Villa. Mix in the horrible injury luck and ... yeah. Big 2022 West Ham vibes.

 

[andyt]

Ruud van Nistelrooy replaces Cooper at Leicester.