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2018-19 Premiere League Thread

Liverpool held serve on the weekend and will maintain their 4 point lead over Man City if Xity close out Wolves (they’re currently leading 1-0 approaching halftime). Chelsea climbed to within 1 point of Spurs with their win and Spurs’ loss to Man U. Their won moved them into a tie on points with Arsenal which dropped a dreary match at West Ham. At the other end, Southampton climbed out of relegation by beating Leicester and Newcastle fell in with their loss to Chelsea. Fulham and Huddersfield remain 19th and 20th.

Speaking of Huddersfield, David Wagner has left by mutual agreement. It was inevitable, just surprising it took this long. They have 11 points in 22 matches and have only scored 13 goals.

https://www.skysports.com/football/...-wagner-leaves-huddersfield-by-mutual-consent


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Speaking of Huddersfield, David Wagner has left by mutual agreement. It was inevitable, just surprising it took this long. They have 11 points in 22 matches and have only scored 13 goals.

https://www.skysports.com/football/...-wagner-leaves-huddersfield-by-mutual-consent

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I always feel bad for guys like Wagner who go from media acclaim to the unemployment line simply because they can't handle the transition to the toughest, deepest league in the sport. One thing I've learned for dead sure from watching my own favorite club settle into the Championship for now 3 years ... success in the Championship has VERY little to do with survival in the Premiere League.
 
Deal lord ... that man forced his staff to watch and break down every minute of Derby's 51 games from LAST season? Under a different manager? And they survived? Miracle. Again, did I mention how BORING Derby have been? Even with a superstar former England stalwart for a manger they're deadly dull. Before that? Ugh. Watching over 200 hours of THAT? Cruel and unusual, I'm telling ya.

Bielsa, thankfully enough, remains insane. Brilliant manager. Absolute lunatic.
 
Liverpool maintain their 4 point lead over Man City as both teams win on the weekend. Spurs get a win at the death as Harry Winks nods home a cross at Craven Cottage. But Spurs may be without Dele Alli who appeared to suffer a hamstring injury. With Kane on the self for 2 months and Son in South Korea for the Asian Cup, attacking options are thin. Arsenal get a rare clean sheet against Chelsea and close to within 3 points of 4th. Man U continue to win under interim manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, tied with Arsenal for 5th. Below Man U, there is an 11 point gap back to Watford in 7th. Wolves move back into the top half, grabbing a win at the death against Leicester as Diogo Jota completed his hat trick behind some shambolic defending from Morgan and Evans.

At the foot, Newcastle climbed out of relegation with a win over Cardiff, who fall to 18th. Fulham and Huddersfield remain 19th and 20th. Huddersfield’s 13 goals are the fewest in the Football League. Among the other top European leagues, only Frosinone in Serie A have fewer and they’ve played 3 fewer matches.

No league matches on the weekend, it’s the 4th round proper for the FA Cup. Midweek have the 2nd leg of the Carabao Cup semifinals with Burton Albion hosting Man City and needing to make up a 9 goal deficit and Chelsea hosting Spurs who have a 1 goal advantage.


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Liverpool maintain their 4 point lead over Man City as both teams win on the weekend. Spurs get a win at the death as Harry Winks nods home a cross at Craven Cottage. But Spurs may be without Dele Alli who appeared to suffer a hamstring injury. With Kane on the self for 2 months and Son in South Korea for the Asian Cup, attacking options are thin. Arsenal get a rare clean sheet against Chelsea and close to within 3 points of 4th. Man U continue to win under interim manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, tied with Arsenal for 5th. Below Man U, there is an 11 point gap back to Watford in 7th. Wolves move back into the top half, grabbing a win at the death against Leicester as Diogo Jota completed his hat trick behind some shambolic defending from Morgan and Evans.

At the foot, Newcastle climbed out of relegation with a win over Cardiff, who fall to 18th. Fulham and Huddersfield remain 19th and 20th. Huddersfield’s 13 goals are the fewest in the Football League. Among the other top European leagues, only Frosinone in Serie A have fewer and they’ve played 3 fewer matches.

No league matches on the weekend, it’s the 4th round proper for the FA Cup. Midweek have the 2nd leg of the Carabao Cup semifinals with Burton Albion hosting Man City and needing to make up a 9 goal deficit and Chelsea hosting Spurs who have a 1 goal advantage.


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Dele out until March. And Wanyama out, and Sissoko out, and Dembele would be out if he weren't already in China, and Moura questionable. Now we get to watch the transfer window close with nothing happening, not that it would matter because it takes six months for guys to bed in to Poch's satisfaction anyway. That four-point lead over fourth place is made of ether.
 
So we’re 2/3 through the season and where does everything stand? There are basically 5 groups from top to bottom:

The contenders: Man City, Liverpool, Spurs. City and Liverpool are tied on points but City have a staggering 10 goal advantage, aided in no small part by yesterday’s demolition of Chelsea, 6-0. And it could have been worse...Aguero missed a sitter from 3 yards out and hit the woodwork too. After 2 straight draws, Liverpool righted the ship with a 3-0 win over Bournemouth on Saturday. They seem to be struggling with their confidence, something they have to fix as they head into the UCL round of 16 this week. Spurs are in this group but I don’t see them as true contenders. But they’re closer to 2nd than 4th, 5 points behind Liverpool, 9 points ahead of Man U. They scraped out a win against Leicester that wasn’t won until late and could have been a lot different if Vardy had converted a penalty on his first kick of the match.

The pretenders: Man U, Arsenal, Chelsea. The Red Devils have made up about 12 points since firing Mourinho and have gotten back to attacking soccer. Pogba looks like a changed man, playing with the same bravado he did in the World Cup. They lead Arsenal by 1 point. The Gunners have scuffled since their 22 match unbeaten streak across all comps ended in mid-December. Since then, they’re 6-6-1 and have seen the back line decimated with injuries. As noted, Chelsea were absolutely thrashed by City yesterday. The NBC team were openly speculating if Sarri would be sacked today. They’re in trouble, but at least 6th place should be safe.

The middle class: Wolves, Watford, Everton, West Ham, Bournemouth, Leicester. Places 7-12 in the table from 38 points down to 32. With the EFL Cup winner almost definitely qualifying for Europe by table place, one of these teams will get a Europa League spot. That’s a double edged sword, as Burnley, Everton and Southampton can testify. It shortens the offseason, with the 3rd qualifying round starting in early August and it can set the tone for the beginning of the season. Burn key are just starting to recover.

The danger zone: Crystal Palace, Brighton, Burnley, Cardiff, Newcastle, Southampton. Only 3 points separate Palace in 12th from Southampton in 18th. One of these clubs will be relegated. Cardiff have gotten on a little roll with 2 straight wins but how much of that is emotion after the devastating loss of club record signing Emiliano Sala? Palace have a 3 match league unbeaten streak and also took out Spurs in the FA Cup. Brighton are headed in the opposite direction, on a 6 match winless steak in the league. Burnley appears to have found its footing, also on a 3 match unbeaten streak.

The goners: Fulham, Huddersfield. Fulham are 7 points from safety with 17 points, Huddersfield have 11 points. I don’t think there is any hope for either.

In the Championship, Norwich and Leeds hold the automatic promotion spots. Sheffield United, West Brom, Middlesbrough and Bristol City have the playoff spots, Derby trail Bristol on goal differential. Reading, Bolton and Ipswich Town are in the drop zone.


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Deal lord ... that man forced his staff to watch and break down every minute of Derby's 51 games from LAST season? Under a different manager? And they survived? Miracle. Again, did I mention how BORING Derby have been? Even with a superstar former England stalwart for a manger they're deadly dull. Before that? Ugh. Watching over 200 hours of THAT? Cruel and unusual, I'm telling ya.

Bielsa, thankfully enough, remains insane. Brilliant manager. Absolute lunatic.

Leeds were fined £200k by the EFL for,the spying scandal.

https://www.si.com/soccer/2019/02/1...stigation-spying-derby-county-training-ground
 
Liverpool and Man U played to a draw and the Reds move back to the top, 1 point over Man City. Arsenal moved ahead of Man U into 4th. Spurs lost at Burnley but remain 3rd. Leicester got spanked at home by Crystal PalCe and then sacked Claude Puel.

The big story was the League Cup final. Man City beat Chelsea on penalties. But before the penalties started, Sarri tried to sub Willy Caballero in for Kepa, who appeared to cramp up at the end of extra time. But Kepa refused to come off and stayed in for penalties. Is the open defiance of Sarri the end for the manager? How does he recover from this? Chelsea host Spurs on Wednesday.
 
Kepa's mutiny was one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen in a sports context. What an idiot. And why Sarri couldn't do something about it is beyond me.
 
Kepa's mutiny was one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen in a sports context. What an idiot. And why Sarri couldn't do something about it is beyond me.

Kepa was fined 1 week’s wages and apologized. Sarri said they had a good conversation. He’s still done like dinner.
 
Leicester has received permission from Celtic to talk to Brendan Rodgers. After consecutive domestic trebles, and in position for a 3rd, what’s left for him in Glasgow?
 
Leicester has received permission from Celtic to talk to Brendan Rodgers. After consecutive domestic trebles, and in position for a 3rd, what’s left for him in Glasgow?

Failure.

And I'm serious. His run has grown decidedly stale this season and it's a good time for Celtic to move on. Apparently they've already gotten Neil Lennon to agree to return if/when Rodgers is gone. Whether that's as interim or permanent is unclear at the moment.
 
Only caught the last 30 or so of the Arsenal v Spurs game, but mind boggling refereeing. Two badly awarded penalties (granted, one was on the linesman to call the obvious offsides) and I don't understand how if Torreira's follow through on his tackle was a red that Danny Rose's exact same if not worse follow through was only a yellow.
 
Only caught the last 30 or so of the Arsenal v Spurs game, but mind boggling refereeing. Two badly awarded penalties (granted, one was on the linesman to call the obvious offsides) and I don't understand how if Torreira's follow through on his tackle was a red that Danny Rose's exact same if not worse follow through was only a yellow.

I only saw the 2nd half. Anthony Taylor made hash of it. Tha said, if Auba had converted, I’d still be dancing around the house.
 
From what I've read, for the first penalty, blame the rulebook, not the ref. If a player in an offside position is fouled prior to playing the ball (or having a chance to play the ball), it's still a foul. And in the box, a penalty. Not that I would be happy having a call like that going against me.
 
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