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2018-19 Premiere League Thread

Just a quick look at the Championship as well.

Norwich, Leeds, West Brom, Middlesborough and Nottingham Forest are the top 5 after 20 matches, and those first three have to be the early favorites to fight it out for the two automatic promotion spots. They've been class all season while most everybody else has been all over the place in terms of form. But nobody's running away like Wolves did last season and it's a wide open race for the top 6.

Catching up on other fairly recent former Premiere League clubs
Aston Villa are riding a suddenly hot Tammy Abraham to get back into the playoff mix, but there's noise that Chelsea might recall him from his loan in January. Swansea, QPR and Stoke are literally holding up the middle of the table, while Hull is floating juuuusssttt above the relegation zone. I kind of hope Leeds hold onto their momentum. It would be nice to see the lillywhites back in the Prem.
 
A busy Saturday kicks off the weekend. There are 8 matches, only 4 on TV and a late match at the KP.

Saturday:
Bournemouth v. Liverpool 7:30 NBCSN
Man U v. Fulham 10:00 NBCSN
Arsenal v. Huddersfield
Burnley v. Brighton
Cardiff v. Southampton
West Ham v. Crystal Palace
Chelsea v. Man City 12:30 NBC
Leicester v. Spurs 2:45 NBCSN

Sunday:
Newcastle v. Wolves 11:00 NBCSN

Monday:
Everton v. Watford 3:00 NBCSN


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So. We pull a snow day here on a Sunday and the only Premiere League game on the slate is freaking Newcastle and Wolves .... and the one American involved got a straight red, largely due to his own ineptitude. I mean ... ugh. 2-1 to Wolves ... some decent plays not he goals, but otherwise fairly dire.
 
jeffbear said:
So. We pull a snow day here on a Sunday and the only Premiere League game on the slate is freaking Newcastle and Wolves .... and the one American involved got a straight red, largely due to his own ineptitude. I mean ... ugh. 2-1 to Wolves ... some decent plays not he goals, but otherwise fairly dire.
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I lost power right after Perez scored, so I missed all the fun.

Liverpool top of the table. Go figure.
 
City need to find the hunger in the big games. It's gotten too easy for them against the lower level squads. They didn't look to have that extra level versus Chelsea. They'll probably still win it but they need to maintain that sense of urgency.
 
HNIM said:
City need to find the hunger in the big games. It's gotten too easy for them against the lower level squads. They didn't look to have that extra level versus Chelsea. They'll probably still win it but they need to maintain that sense of urgency.
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Yeah ... Pep has quietly talked with some media about bringing in a couple of guys in the January window simply to provide some competition for his starting 11. Not a bad idea, really.
 
Hassenhuttl's [sp] reaction after the Soton win was princess. Great to see that kind of passion.
 
andyt said:
I hated it. I hated the way Leno misplayed the cross to Austin even more.
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FWIW, I wasn't trolling. With Hugo's penchant for misadventure, that would be terrible karma. And really, anybody but Austin. It was just that after watching Burnley timewaste a good half hour of the game away (three yellow cards for it were nowhere near enough) it was nice to see a squad in a dire situation get rewarded for actually playing the game.
 
I didn’t think you were trolling. Since it was behind the paywall, I didn’t see it, only the highlights. I didn’t see the Spurs match but it sounds like Dyche is back to his pre-2017 mode. It was great to see new blood in the European spots but that last thing the Prem needs is another Tony Freaking Pulis to bleed all the joy out of a match.

And objectively, it’s great that a team got rewarded for attacking late in the match. I just wish it was against someone else.


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Blanc would be a good call for caretaker, I think. He's not a guy who would try to change too much, too soon and he understands the culture of the club. The last thing you want is somebody to follow Maurinho who would just try to turn the horses loose when that's nothing like the way the team has learned to play together over time. Slow and steady loosening of the reigns is in order, and Blanc is a cautious man. Probably too cautious for the permanent gig, but maybe not for the transition period.
 
Liverpool will go into Christmas top of the table after beating Wolves yesterday and Man City inexplicably lost at home to Palace today. Leicester beat Chelseaat the Bridge allowing Arsenal to tie on points. Southampton won again, pulling 3 points clear of the drop zone. Bournemouth and Leicester pulled into the top 10. Man U can move into 6th with a win over Cardiff and we have Everton v. Spurs on Sunday before the Boxing Day matches.
 
Boxing Day results

Everton 5, Burnley 1
Fulham 1, Wolves 1
Spurs 5, Bournemouth 0
Crystal Palace 0, Cardiff 0
Man United 3, Huddersfield 1
Leicester 2, Man City 1
Liverpool 4, Newcastle 0
Brighton 1, Arsenal 1
Chelsea 2, Watford 1

One more short rest weekend to go and the fellas will have survived the Holidays. City's 2nd loss in a row sees them slip to 3rd in the table trailing leaders Liverpool by 7 points. Spurs snuck into 2nd too. Big time angst in both Manchester camps. United won their first match under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer with Pogba scoring a brace of celebratory goals, but anybody who thinks that soap opera has run out of plot lines is nuts.

At the other end of the rainbow, Huddersfield, Burnley and Fulham are the current occupants of the relegation doghouse, with Southampton and Cardiff only 3 points clear. The best result from that sorry lot was probably Fulham's point against Wolves. Southampton can at least defend a bit, but the rest look to be in the bottom of the blender for the foreseeable.
 
After the frantic Festive Fixtures schedule and a weekend off for the FA Cup, the league is back. We’re 2 matches past halfway and Liverpool leads Man City by 4 points. Spurs are 2 farther back, Chelsea 4 behind Spurs, Arsenal 3 behind Chelsea. But Man U is the hottest club in the table, winners of 4 straight games, albeit against bottom feeders, slicing their deficit to 4th place from 12 points to 6. They go to Wembley on Sunday to face Spurs.

Ate the other end of the table, Huddersfield are losing contact with everyone else, now 7 points from safety. They’re joined by Fulham and Southampton in the drop zone, but Newcastle, Burnley and Cardiff are only 2 points clear of Saints.

In the Championship, Leeds and Norwich sit in the automatic promotion spots, Sheffield United, West Brom, Middlesbrough and Derby in the playoff spots. Bolton, Reading and Ipswich sit at the other end.


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Huddersfield appear to be gearing up for the drop rather than looking to spend their way out of trouble (or into more trouble) in the January window. They've loaned out some squad players but only made half assed efforts at a few potential answers up top. They just can't score (around 0.6 goals per game with by FAR the worst expected goal rating in the EPL) and don't seem to have any real answers.

Everybody else in the drop zone has a fighting shot at escape, I think. Although Fulham need to get on with it as well.

Of the promotion chasers down in the Championship, Leeds are starting to make noises indicating they might run away with the league the way Wolves did last season. They've rocketed to first and really seem to be settling into Bielsa-ball as the weather has turned colder and opponents are dreading being clattered in to more and more. Norwich, West Brom and Sheffield United also look to be in the mix for an automatic golden ticket. Recent former Prem sides QPR, Villa, Stoke, Hull and Swansea are all slumming it in the middle of the pack.
 
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