EPL 2024/2025
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@sparky said in EPL 2024/2025:
Liverpool FC can book an open top bus voyage for the end of May in Strand Street. No one is catching them in the league this year.
Yes this win feels very significant in the title race. Especially after West ham winning at Arsenal yesterday.
11 points ahead with 11 games to play. 7 of those games are at Anfield. One of them is against Arsenal.
Its looking very good for Liverpool to win No. 20
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@DaGrubster said in EPL 2024/2025:
@sparky said in EPL 2024/2025:
Liverpool FC can book an open top bus voyage for the end of May in Strand Street. No one is catching them in the league this year.
Yes this win feels very significant in the title race. Especially after West ham winning at Arsenal yesterday.
11 points ahead with 11 games to play. 7 of those games are at Anfield. One of them is against Arsenal.
Its looking very good for Liverpool to win No. 20
That really couldn't have been a better weekend for Liverpool. Pundits talking up Arsenal closing the lead at the start of the weekend and they win and the teams in positions 2-6 all lose. Given the way that the teams are looking, it will be a major surprise if Liverpool's final margin is less than 12 points.
Also looks like no excitement at the bottom either. When all 3 promoted teams from last season play at home to mid-table teams and all of them concede 4 goals - Wolves should pull clear a few more wins. Cannot really see any of next season's promoted clubs doing any better - the gap between the established teams and the promoted ones is getting bigger every season, you just have to look at the depth of squads that the likes of Brentford and Palace have built. The gap between the relegated and the rest in the championship is also growing - honourable mention to Luton for bucking the trend and being 24th
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@sparky said in EPL 2024/2025:
Great come from behind victory by Aston Villla against Chelsea yesterday to win 2-1.
Marco Asensio with two goals and Marcus Rashford with two asssits. Both looking like £80m+ players. Thanks PSG and thank you Manure!
Don't want to speak too early, but I knew we could get a tune out of Rashford. Also, if he wants to go to a big club like Barca, then he has to do the business here between now and the end of season so I think a loan deal is perfect for us. Wouldn't get him permanently though as his wages are far too high for us to he able to afford in our fight against fair play.Asensio however, I could see him potentially coming permanently. He's a class act on the ball.
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@Billy-Tell said in EPL 2024/2025:
City are like the ABs in 1991. A year past their best.
Maybe like United in Fergie's last season - everyone could see they had weaknesses and needed a rebuild but collective will and individual brilliance saw them get the title.
City's season looks like an extensive plot to prove that Rodri deserved the Ballon d'Or last season - it all fell apart after he got injured.
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@KiwiPie The exception to your dire predictions for promoted clubs is two seasons ago. Fulham, Bournemouth and Forest all stayed up and now all three are in the Europe conversation. With Fulham the most likely to miss out
Fulham learned from their previous failed promotions and backed a talented Manager. Bournemouth are an incredibly well-run club with a vision of where they want to be and Forest rolled the dice and decided spending up large would bring more points than the likely deduction for ignoring the rules.
I agree none of the likely promotion candidates look equipped to adopt any of those survival strategies
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@sparky said in EPL 2024/2025:
Great come from behind victory by Aston Villla against Chelsea yesterday to win 2-1.
Marco Asensio with two goals and Marcus Rashford with two asssits. Both looking like £80m+ players. Thanks PSG and thank you Manure!
Villa were worth that win.
We (Chelsea) are finished as of right now. I genuinely think we will end up 10th..... For all the money we spent we only have two real star players - Palmer & Caceido, no leaders and no elite keeper.
Under the new ownership we have essentially been consistently mid table (save for the last dozen games of 23/24) and without Palmer we would have been much worse than that. There is no clear pathway back into the top 4 because our squad is so poorly put together. You would need to rebuild a rebuild.
It's been a shambles ever since Clearlake took over.
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Is it realistic to think that Liverpool could go on a run here for the next few years and win a hatful of titles? Does it depend on Salah?
They were just extraordinarily unfortunate to run into City on a couple of titles where they went blow for blow but were pipped by the narrowest margin. I just don't see anyone else getting their act together any time soon.
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it's quite interesting, and overall good for the league i think, just how much the overall league itself has changed. The middle of the table (basically 3rd to 16th) has flattened remarkably.
If you look 10 years ago, the top 2 still accumulated a shit ton of points, but back then 3rd and even 4th weren't that far behind. This year it looks like the top two will finish in excess of 80 points, but it looks like 3rd will probably not even break 70.
And then behind that now it gets really flat. West Ham in 16th already have nearly as many points after 26 games as the 16th finisher a decade ago. The gap from 4th to 16th was 42 points then, it's 14 now.
And the relegated teams suuuuck. A decade ago 30 points got you last place. The chance of any of the bottom 3 getting to 25 is remote at best.
So the middle are taking points off each other in a far more regular fashion, and everyone is taking points off the bottom sides. And that's good. Right now there are probably 8 teams all considering themselves a realistic chance to play Champions League football next season.
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@mariner4life said in EPL 2024/2025:
it's quite interesting, and overall good for the league i think, just how much the overall league itself has changed. The middle of the table (basically 3rd to 16th) has flattened remarkably.
If you look 10 years ago, the top 2 still accumulated a shit ton of points, but back then 3rd and even 4th weren't that far behind. This year it looks like the top two will finish in excess of 80 points, but it looks like 3rd will probably not even break 70.
And then behind that now it gets really flat. West Ham in 16th already have nearly as many points after 26 games as the 16th finisher a decade ago. The gap from 4th to 16th was 42 points then, it's 14 now.
And the relegated teams suuuuck. A decade ago 30 points got you last place. The chance of any of the bottom 3 getting to 25 is remote at best.
So the middle are taking points off each other in a far more regular fashion, and everyone is taking points off the bottom sides. And that's good. Right now there are probably 8 teams all considering themselves a realistic chance to play Champions League football next season.
absolutely and that middle still has plenty of banana skins with teams trying to stay outside the bottom, makes for a thrilling finish, even if it is not the traditional relegation battle
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@mariner4life said in EPL 2024/2025:
it's quite interesting, and overall good for the league i think, just how much the overall league itself has changed. The middle of the table (basically 3rd to 16th) has flattened remarkably.
If you look 10 years ago, the top 2 still accumulated a shit ton of points, but back then 3rd and even 4th weren't that far behind. This year it looks like the top two will finish in excess of 80 points, but it looks like 3rd will probably not even break 70.
And then behind that now it gets really flat. West Ham in 16th already have nearly as many points after 26 games as the 16th finisher a decade ago. The gap from 4th to 16th was 42 points then, it's 14 now.
And the relegated teams suuuuck. A decade ago 30 points got you last place. The chance of any of the bottom 3 getting to 25 is remote at best.
So the middle are taking points off each other in a far more regular fashion, and everyone is taking points off the bottom sides. And that's good. Right now there are probably 8 teams all considering themselves a realistic chance to play Champions League football next season.
Agreed.
I think you have to go all the way back to the 1980s, maybe early 90s to find a time when English football was as competitive as this. Any side is capable of beating other sides on their day. That has not been the case for much of this century where many games against lower calibre opposition could be pencilled in as an easy win.
If you are a neutral it is as good as it gets.
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Would love it if eventually it got back to how it was in the late 60s and early 70s (65-73 or thereabouts) where virtually every domestic trophy was won by a different side over that time period.
From 65 to 73 -
7 different sides won the league
8 different sides won the league cup and
9 different sides won the FA Cup.That was a golden era imo and of course it coincided with England winning the World cup.
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@nonpartizan said in EPL 2024/2025:
@sparky said in EPL 2024/2025:
Great come from behind victory by Aston Villla against Chelsea yesterday to win 2-1.
Marco Asensio with two goals and Marcus Rashford with two asssits. Both looking like £80m+ players. Thanks PSG and thank you Manure!
Villa were worth that win.
We (Chelsea) are finished as of right now. I genuinely think we will end up 10th..... For all the money we spent we only have two real star players - Palmer & Caceido, no leaders and no elite keeper.
Under the new ownership we have essentially been consistently mid table (save for the last dozen games of 23/24) and without Palmer we would have been much worse than that. There is no clear pathway back into the top 4 because our squad is so poorly put together. You would need to rebuild a rebuild.
It's been a shambles ever since Clearlake took over.
Although Jackson as a finisher is shaky, I think he's really been missed since he got injured - he's very quick and always prepared to run in behind and that opens up the pitch for the rest of the team (well Palmer I suppose).
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@KiwiPie said in EPL 2024/2025:
@nonpartizan said in EPL 2024/2025:
@sparky said in EPL 2024/2025:
Great come from behind victory by Aston Villla against Chelsea yesterday to win 2-1.
Marco Asensio with two goals and Marcus Rashford with two asssits. Both looking like £80m+ players. Thanks PSG and thank you Manure!
Villa were worth that win.
We (Chelsea) are finished as of right now. I genuinely think we will end up 10th..... For all the money we spent we only have two real star players - Palmer & Caceido, no leaders and no elite keeper.
Under the new ownership we have essentially been consistently mid table (save for the last dozen games of 23/24) and without Palmer we would have been much worse than that. There is no clear pathway back into the top 4 because our squad is so poorly put together. You would need to rebuild a rebuild.
It's been a shambles ever since Clearlake took over.
Although Jackson as a finisher is shaky, I think he's really been missed since he got injured - he's very quick and always prepared to run in behind and that opens up the pitch for the rest of the team (well Palmer I suppose).
100% spot on.
Jackson and Palmer have better chemistry than any other combination of attackers and like you say he stretches defences with his pace.
Jackson actually has a very good all round game, his finishing is very inconsistent as you say but in other respects he is very good and can play some very nice passes at times.
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lol that is kind of funny.
Bournemouth almost found a way to draw against BHA but couldnt get home, easier to replace a striker than a central defender. Zabarnyi harder to replace, could hurt us next couple of matches until he returns
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https://www.givemesport.com/everything-todd-boehly-said-at-ft-business-of-football-summit/
^ comments from Todd Boehly at the Financial Times business of football thing.
Honestly, I get that he is a businessman but as a sports fan and a purist who sees sport as primarily cultural and communal thing - I really hate how people like him talk about sport.
To them its just a commodity, a product, something with value that they can sell to make themselves ever richer. They have no appreciation of tradition or history and just turn it all into a soulless cash grab.
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Really didn’t like welbeck when he played for United back in the day but he has got better and better with age. Quality finish to send Brighton past Newcastle.
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@Billy-Tell said in EPL 2024/2025:
Really didn’t like welbeck when he played for United back in the day but he has got better and better with age. Quality finish to send Brighton past Newcastle.
I always thought Welbeck was similar to Alvaro Morato in that he had all of the attributes to be a great striker, size with pace and could be brilliant at times but lacked that certain something to be great. Pretty sure if he was in this current United team he would look terrible whereas at Brighton he always has players to combine with.
