English Premier League thread

I think Wolves will go down, gets a bit trickier after that. Newcastle and Blackburn will be safe I think Sina but you could be right it only takes a couple of loses for you to be rock bottom so its anyone's guess.

Wolves, West Brom and Blackpool I think.
 
Sadly i think you're right concerning Wolves and Blackpool.
I like both of them, they play reasonably good football.
Somebody here mentioned Birmingham. That is the least attractive team of the division IMO, but they will be safe...
And Stoke, aren't they doing well?
 
Stoke are doing ok, but they have slipped a bit from a good start.

I agree Birmingham aren't great to watch, but think Stoke are worse, and don't rate Pulis as a manager at all. In terms of results he has done ok but there is no flair to his teams at all, it's kick and rush football at it's very worst. For instance he's got rid of talented attackers like Tuncay and Gudjohnson and instead builds his strikeforce around tall target men (Carew, Kenwyn Jones) - at least Birmingham play with a more mobile 2nd striker (e.g. Cameron Jeromé or Martins) and Zigic himself is a classier player than Carew or Kenwyn Jones in terms of skill and touch. The quality players they have (Pennant and Etherington) would struggle to grace a top 10 team.

It's worth having a look at the form table here:

http://www.premierleague.com/page/FormGuide/0,,12306,00.html

Looking at that I'd say Birmingham should be ok (probably Villa too) - dont forget Birmingham have played fewer games than anyone else (25 compared with 26/27) and with the FA Cup this weekend and Carling Cup next weekend, that will give them 2-3 games in hand compared with the rest of the league.

That form table would seem to indicate Blackpool are doomed, I'd tend to agree with it. Hodgson might be able to turn West Brom around, I think they have some decent players (Jara, Tamas, Odemwindge, Dorrans etc), the same applies for West Ham - they've added some experienced players in the transfer window.
 
Yes but the defending of both West Ham and WBA is abysmal.
And to be honest, Wolves' defending is not better.
Same goes for Blackpool.

3 of those 4 clubs will go down.
 
Great victory for the Toon today! BAD result for McCleish and his men who could've made it 3 wins in a row after ages!
 
Thanks for your opinions everyone regarding the relegation battle. Some very interesting points including things I had overlooked.

Great victory for the Toon today! I was wrong. BAD result for McCleish and his men who could've made it 3 wins in a row after ages but slipped up and will be very unhappy with giving potential rivals 3 points and taking 0 themselves at home! It's a game they should be winning if they wanna avoid relegation especially being in good form. No excuses here!

cfdh_edmundo said:
Stoke are doing ok, but they have slipped a bit from a good start.

I agree Birmingham aren't great to watch, but think Stoke are worse, and don't rate Pulis as a manager at all. In terms of results he has done ok but there is no flair to his teams at all, it's kick and rush football at it's very worst. For instance he's got rid of talented attackers like Tuncay and Gudjohnson and instead builds his strikeforce around tall target men (Carew, Kenwyn Jones) - at least Birmingham play with a more mobile 2nd striker (e.g. Cameron Jeromé or Martins) and Zigic himself is a classier player than Carew or Kenwyn Jones in terms of skill and touch. The quality players they have (Pennant and Etherington) would struggle to grace a top 10 team.

It's worth having a look at the form table here:

http://www.premierleague.com/page/FormGuide/0,,12306,00.html

Looking at that I'd say Birmingham should be ok (probably Villa too) - dont forget Birmingham have played fewer games than anyone else (25 compared with 26/27) and with the FA Cup this weekend and Carling Cup next weekend, that will give them 2-3 games in hand compared with the rest of the league.

That form table would seem to indicate Blackpool are doomed, I'd tend to agree with it. Hodgson might be able to turn West Brom around, I think they have some decent players (Jara, Tamas, Odemwindge, Dorrans etc), the same applies for West Ham - they've added some experienced players in the transfer window.
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Agree with everything except the bolded part. John Carew in fact for just ONE example, absolutely toyed with Sergio Ramos and Co. in a CL match for Lyon a couple years back with his supreme technical ability which when in form and confident combined with his size was a handful for any opponent.

Jones' technique isn't better than Zigic but overall he's a much more effective forward as well. A lot more Drogba like.

Zigic has decent technique for a big man but definitely not as much as Carew who even at one point had a silly little rivalry with Zlatan with both being big men from Scandinavia from rival nations which led to that famous saying by the cocky Swede saying: "What John Carew can do with a ball, I can do with an orange!" :LOL:

Oh actually there is one other thing I disagree with. Tony Pulis. Yes, his team has no style, no flair and he prefers forwards like Jon Walters to likes of Tuncay! But at the end of the day, his results have been great for Stoke haven't they? And isn't results all that matters at the end?

So I don't like the guy but for me he's done an amazing job. He's made a small club like Stoke get promoted and then stabilized them much like Sam Allardyce did with Bolton previously and for that ugly or not, he deserves a lot of credit!
 
I'm surprised you think Newcastle and Blackburn could possibly be relegated. There are quite a few teams I'd be more worried about that might go down i.e. Fulham - who seem to draw every week.

You could've spent that $35 on something else, Sina! :P
 
:P

The thing is I was expecting Birmingham to beat Newcastle at home today and start their downward slip but we know how that turned out. :P

And yeah there are teams down there with lesser points and in seemingly bigger trouble but their odds weren't 1/13. :P but this was a good 'outside' bet and it can still happen anyway, hopefully Blackburn will make me proud and earn me some $$$. :D
 
This was posted in the football clips thread I think already cuz I've seen it before. Why you posting it in EPL thread? what division is this anyway? Is this the Blue Square (conference) league?
Anyway it's damn funny though! :D :LOL:
 
PFA TEAM
96845_Dream_Team.jpg


PFA
Bale

Nasri
Tevez


YPFA

Jack




I assume 7 goals was enough for Bale and a outstanding match vs. Inter. gave `em the gong. Jack I`m puzzled really he held his own let see what Fifa UT will rank him now :LOL:
 
Bale got it?

I was pretty sure Vidic would.

Bale should be young player of the year. He hasn't done enough yet to be named the league's best player. And surely the matches against Inter for example where he was phenomenal shouldn't be taken into account? This is about EPL's best player based on Premier league performances. Europe comes into play?
 
I`m not sure vidic didnt come near runner-up Nasri or Tevez.Jack was strange enough to get the prize. I remember Milner got it last season and Fabregas` best season ever missed out on it.
 
I love Bale, but imo Vidic should have got it.
In the team Chicarito should have been there instead of Berbatov.
And then there are the great players for lesser teams like Scott Parker and especially the American who plays for Bolton and who is injured now...
 
Scotty Parker should have won, hands down. Means more to his team than any other one player, and has been genuinely impressive too.

Love the comparison: Nani - 18 assists, 9 goals; Bale - 1 assist, 7 goals.

I know who I'd rather have in my team...
 
I don't agree with you beachryan, there are arguments to prefer Nani above Bale but not those...i think there can be no discussion that Vidic is much more important for the team than Nani.
 
So goals and assists aren't a good way to judge a creative player? Alright, well taking from OptaJoe - Gareth Bale created 43 opportunities for teammates to score in the prem - 7 less than Simon Davies at Fulham.

Nani almost created that many goals for the team, forget chances!

I agree that if the award went to the 'MVP' type player, it should go to Vidic, Parker, Adam or even someone like Ben Foster - but if they're going to award it to an attacking, creative player who's job it is to create and convert chances, you can't give it to player that has barely created anything and converted even less, imo.

It would be like saying Torres is the best striker in the league. Maybe on his day he is, and he can look utterly class, but in terms of productivity he's not done it over the course of the season.

Bale got it on a media explosion following 2 matches, one of which his team lost.
 
You misunderstood me, goals and assists are only part of the story.
I'm the first to admit that there is too much hype around Bale. But forget the hype and look at him objectively: he has played a very good season...only look at the space he creates for his team mates... Look at his match at White Heart Lane (another lost match by the way) against what is probably the second best team in Europe: he was a constant danger...

Bale should have been the young PFA player of the season and Vidic should have won the more important trophy. But it is not because Bale is overestimated and overhyped, that you should underestimate him...i'm pretty sure Ferguson would do a murder to have him in his team...and come to think of it, if Bale would be A United or Chelsea player, the fact that he is player of the year would not be disputed.
The fact that Bale was chosen by his peers does mean something.
 
Bale has created 43 goal scoring opportunities for his team. Simon Davies at Fulham has created 50.

So, he didn't have the best assists, goals or even key passes in the league, yet he's the best player. :LOL: :LOL:

Plus, Baines has been better than Cole this year.
 
UJ, what would you say if Simon Davies would have been named player of the year.
You can prove everything you want with stats. For example: Arsenal's defense has conceded less goals thatn Man Utd's...if i had to chose between both of them...i would always go for United's defense.
I agree with you that Baines has been better than Cole.
I'm not sure i would put Wilshere in that team of the year too...Modric was more consistent in roughly the same position.
What also strikes me: nobody mentions Charlie Adams. If this was january Adams would have been in the team or lots of people would say that he had to be...
This is all so subjective (yet big fun to discuss about).

Oh and Pele was better than Maradonna :COOL: :PIRATE:
 
gerd said:
UJ, what would you say if Simon Davies would have been named player of the year.
You can prove everything you want with stats. For example: Arsenal's defense has conceded less goals thatn Man Utd's...if i had to chose between both of them...i would always go for United's defense.
I agree with you that Baines has been better than Cole.
I'm not sure i would put Wilshere in that team of the year too...Modric was more consistent in roughly the same position.
What also strikes me: nobody mentions Charlie Adams. If this was january Adams would have been in the team or lots of people would say that he had to be...
This is all so subjective (yet big fun to discuss about).

Oh and Pele was better than Maradonna :COOL: :PIRATE:
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I wouldn't have agreed with Davies getting an award, but the point i was making was that Bale is somehow player or the year based on a few good games, he hasn't been consistent at all and if you look at the stats he's probably had less of an impact on Tottenham's season than Modric or van der Vaart. I know stats don't tell the whole story, but for an attacking player who is now supposedly the best player in the league (and therefore the best winger) to have such poor stats for goals, assists and key passes (ok 43 isn't poor, but it's still below what others have done this season) it only reiterates the fact that he's not the best.

IMO if it weren't for the British media fawning over him at any given opportunity he wouldn't have won it, in the exact same way that Roy Hodgson shouldn't have got the Liverpool job but suddenly became a big name because of the media overating him.

You've only got to watch any Tottenham game (especially in Europe) and listen to the commentary, last week for example against Madrid, Ronaldo could have beaten 5 players and lobbed Gomes and the commentators would have said "good goal that" but Bale dribbles 20 yards and passes to Modric right next to him and the commentators go on about how easy he makes it look and how skillful he is.

Oh, and it's Charlie Adam ;) - and if anyone is more important to their team than him then i don't know who it is, if it weren't for him they'd be bottom and probably by a fair margin as well.
 
Fabregas last season had 19 + 19 and Milner beat him to the punch. I agree with UJSupanova the Media leans towards their own.

Gerd Pele was better :P
 
Well i watched Spurs-Madrid on Belgian television.
The pundits in the studio all agreed that Madrid was by far the better team, but that Bale (and Modric, not Vander Vaart) were impressive. I'm a Spurs fan and i think Vander Vaart is more overrated than Bale. He had a very good start of the season, but he's been average for a couple of months now. Still, he had a very good season.
It seems as if apart from Man Utd, all the big English teams lack balance...Spurs are not good enough defensively, Arsenal lack power and a winners mentality, Chelsea lack creativity, Man City lack team spirit and Liverpool just had a bad season...

Still i don't understand why Vidic wasn't named player of the year (who would you name UJ?).
 
gerd said:
Well i watched Spurs-Madrid on Belgian television.
The pundits in the studio all agreed that Madrid was by far the better team, but that Bale (and Modric, not Vander Vaart) were impressive. I'm a Spurs fan and i think Vander Vaart is more overrated than Bale. He had a very good start of the season, but he's been average for a couple of months now. Still, he had a very good season.
It seems as if apart from Man Utd, all the big English teams lack balance...Spurs are not good enough defensively, Arsenal lack power and a winners mentality, Chelsea lack creativity, Man City lack team spirit and Liverpool just had a bad season...

Still i don't understand why Vidic wasn't named player of the year (who would you name UJ?).
Click to expand...

I meant on English television of course.

Tbh i don't know, Nasri started this season brilliantly but hasn't done much for a while, Tevez has been a different class, Nani has been huge for United (as have Vidic, van der Sar and Hernandez).

Probably Tevez or Nani.
 
Its voted for by the players and apparently they vote in February...

Modric is our player of the season and it says a lot about what Nani's fellow pros think about him that he didn't even get nominated. I hate him too.
 
:SS But why, im pretty sure off the field hes a pretty nice guy compared to the likes of Rooney and Terry for example but both of them have won the award?
 
Because he is a diver who tries constantly to "give" other yellow or red cards. In Dutch there is an expression for those kind of players "matennaaier"... one could translate it in English as "someone who fucks with his colleagues" (of course "fuck" is not intercourse but messing with..this is turning out to be a very funny post).
Initially i liked both Nani and Ronaldo but i can't stand their attitude (although Nani is more of a team player), they show no respect for opponents. I completely understand why Nani isn't liked by is opponents. Off the field he may well be a nice guy (unlike Cr. Ronaldo).
 
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