Official Football Discussion Thread 2011/12

[Keith]

Yeah I agree that it is way too early to put City down as champions. All that the weekend confirmed is that they must be taken serious now, and that Utd do have weakenesses that need sorting out, still I suspect that their experince will maybe see them over the line come the end, but I expect it to be a good title race this year.

Some shock results this weekend for sure, QPR's win over Chelsea is the upset of the season todate, and a big blow for Chelsea as they failed to take adventge of Utd's defeat, and a very fine performance and point for Norwich at Liverpool, they continure to impress me.

This weekend will be interesting too, Utd play Everton away, a fixture they don't have a good recent record in and the preassure will be on them to bounce to back from last sunday, one edge they may have is that Everton had to go to extra time in league cup on Wednsday so may lack fitness. Meanwhile Chelsea play Arsenal at home. This is a big match for both, Chelsea because they need to stay in touch with the leaders, and Arsenal because they need to stay consistant a pick results up away from home as well as home if they are to compete for the top four. A month ago I would have gone for a home win easy, but Arsenal do seem to be geling, and Chelsea are not as strong as they have been in the past, so I fancy a draw here, Man City should win at home to Wolves.

 

[TheZig]

I didn't realise City had Wolves in the Premier League this weekend, They beat them in the league cup 4-0 this week. I won't be suprised if they do it again seeing as they had a completely different team or so i believe out for the mid week game. United vs Everton will be interesting but i don't think Fergie will allow a defeat at any cost.

 

[Keith]

Yeah Utd did what they had to do today, as did City although they weren't very convincing, and Wolves played very well.

Chelsea VS Arsenal is my match of the season so far, a amaizing end to end football, shocking defending, and twist and turns. I was very impressed with Arsenal's fighting spirt, although when it went to 2-1 to Chelsea right on half time, I thought it would do a lot of damage to Arsenal's confidence, but they came back very well second half, where as Chelsea were awful. Big win for Arsenal, but a another blow for Chelsea.

Villa once again gave away a lead, this time not once, but twice to draw with Sunderland, so that is another blow to us.

 

[Troy]

Very impressive by Arsenal. Robin Van Persie is a star and is in a purple patch at the moment. Man City's goal difference is just ridiculous at the moment at 28, they must surely be closing in on a record.

 

[Keith]

So Newcastle go marching on after a 2-1 win over Everton it was a bit of scraping match and the home team made it hard work in the second half, but Everton never really tested them enough and in the end Newcastle deserved to win and for the time being they go second.

 

[AZUCAR!]

We (Man Utd) have re-named our North Stand, the Sir Alex Ferguson stand in honor of him managing us for 25 years. A nice present to an excellent manager.

 

[Dale]

And a statue of him to be unveiled at some point toward the start of the new year.

 

[Keith]

God he rambled on though!

 

[Troy]

QPR nearly managed a draw against Man City but just couldn't hold on in the end. Good effort though to have it end 3-2 against the top team. Newcastle continue their incredible year and sit in third at the moment. Definitely didn't expect them to start the season so well.

 

[Keith]

I think City's main weakness is when teams get at them and turn it into a pysical game, and that is what QPR did on Saturday and almost got a result out of it. There is a question mark as the season progreses of will this flashy ferign players have the grit to dig in and get results away from home on cold and wet nights.

Once again Villa made life difficult for themselfs on Saturday. Fair play to Norwich for pushing us all the way, but once we got the score to 3-1 in the seond half we should have been in cruise control. The win was important, my main concern is that we have been lucky with fixtures so far, and although we are a decent position we have dropped a lot of points against teams we should be beating, so when we do play the top sides over the next couple of months we could suddenly find ourselfs slipping down the table and paying for too many draws in the early months of the season.

 

[Dale]

How about the Bolton boys thrashing Stoke 5-0. Never saw that coming in a million years.

 

[Aniking]

How about the Bolton boys thrashing Stoke 5-0. Never saw that coming in a million years.

There are a few factors that make this result crazy.

The last time these two sides met was in an FA Cup Semi-Final match last year, which Stoke won 5-0. That's a massive reversal.

Before this match, Bolton had played 5 Premier League games at Home this season, losing all 5 for a goal ratio of 4-17. They scored more goals in this one Home game then they have for the other 5.

That's some crazy shit!

 

[Dale]

Swear their record since that cup defeat was something stupid like losing 15 of the 20 games or sommet.

 

[Keith]

One factor in Stoke losing is that they played in mid-week away from home in Europe and with the journey back, did not have that much time to recover. Besides it was just one of those days when Bolton did just about everything right and Stoke maybe did the oppiste. It happens.

 

[The Cork]

We're on fire ATM.

Until Van Persie inevitably gets injured, that is.