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I think they can afford their customary defeat at Spurs. Liverpool and Arsenal will drop further points.
It wouldn’t surprise me if there’s a twist at the top every weekend until the end of the season.
It’s football, it’s why we all love it!
True. Who would have predicted those results today? Well… my darling wife did. She bet on both and has had a very lucrative weekend on top of her Grand National winnings from yesterday.
She was laughing like a Bond villain when Watkins got the second
Not a gambling man but I said to Jnr yesterday that I had a feeling Villa might do something.
Just because Emery can match anyone on his day.
Football, it’s a funny old game. 😀
Who would have predicted those results today? Well… my darling wife did.
I think it's time to call an experiment on this. Bit like the buttered toast on a cat's back, both can't be true.
Anything I bet on is guaranteed to not happen. If I put the same bets on next week as Mrs B, I want to see if we can jolt the Universe back into alignment as it fights itself to honour her predictions while screwing me over.
The multiple car crashes at the top of the Prem and Champ this weekend have made me feel a bit better about Leeds being involved.
From what I saw of the games today I'd be more worried if I was Liverpool as at least Arsenal should have been three up at half time.
Liverpool have been scrambling for much of the season, you can’t keep giving teams head starts. They’ve probably done better than expected, given the poor season last year and the midfield rebuild, plus the usual injuries.
Well if I were still 12, I'd be doing the simple maths that spurs put 4 past villa, villa 2 past Woolwich, so the NLD should be mega for spurs. Unfriendly un, or fortunately I'm not still 12 and I've long ago learnt form means little on the NLD, and spurs can both beat and lose to any team in the world.
Tbh, with city, Woolwich, 'pool and Chelsea to come I'm at a complete loss to guess if we will pick up 0, 12 or something in between points... although after our performance at St James's 0 feels closest.
binners - can I sign-up to Mrs B's tip sheet?
If you can make head nor tail of it. She’s like a Chinese gangster. It’s all linked up with doubles and trebles. I can’t even pretend I understand it
She never says owt either until she shows you the odds she got on her latest win.
The only person who betters her is my cousin, who’s like statto. He treats it like a science. Before a ball had been kicked in Euro 2004 he predicted, based on his statto breakdown, that the final would be a replay of the opening game - Portugal v Greece - and Greece would win
Of course, we all laughed at him and his preposterous analysis when he had ‘a serious punt’ on that outcome
We weren’t laughing for long
You need to take Mrs B to Las Vegas to play the tables, make serious money until you're rumbled.
the dorky looking kid playing for chelsea just missed a sitter, though he still bagged a pair 😕
29 min hattrick! left, right and header
You were saying….
contender for signing of the season
Chelsea being Chelsea this could end up 4-4
Everton are getting some pummeling.
Palmer was never going to be a regular for Citeh so it's understandable why he left. £40Mn is now looking good value
Compared to £105m for Enzo Fernandez and £85m for Antony it’s a steal. Ok, half his goals have been penalties but the kid oozes class and composure.
Didn't realise that Birmingham were quite so close to the drop - they totally deserve it sacking a decent manager & replacing them with a famous name who never has shown an iota of managerial skill after getting a job.
As a City fan I watched Cole Palmer in the junior teams and what stood out was his calmness and accurate shooting from distance. I was not sure whether some of that was down to the quality of some of the keepers at those levels but he certainly knew where the goal was.
He was with the City first team squad last season and did little of note. Partly due to injuries, being played on the left which is not his best position and getting time as a sub when games were effectively won and City were conserving energy.
He started this season well with a couple of goals in early games but, by that time, the Doku move was in flight so I can understand why he wanted to go.
He is doing brilliantly for Chelsea with impressive numbers even if you take away the penalty goals. I think he could have been a good option on the right for City this year but long term who knows? Jadon Sancho went from City to Dortmund and it seemed that City had messed up but now it looks like we got rid of a bad apple.
I wish Palmer well and enjoy watching him play (when not against City) but have hopes that Oscar Bobb will push on and we will be saying "Cole who?" in a couple of years.
The option given to Cole Palmer seems to be stay and fight for your position or leave on a permanent transfer, he was denied a loan deal. IMO I would have liked him to go out on loan, Brighton wanted him on loan iirc, and I think that would have been ideal. However 45 million from chelsea looked a very good deal for city at the time.
I agree Oscar Bobb looks the real deal, I think he is going to be a proper superstar.
Everton looked absolutely terrible.
Didn't seem remotely interested.
It will be interesting to see how Chelsea do against City in the FA Cup semi-final. It is a bigger game for them than City and they have some talented players so could be a tricky game.
Cole Palmer has done well at Chelsea, but that's a Chelsea team where he is the lead for them in attack, at City he would always be support to Haaland, and you have Foden, Bernardo, Alvarez, Grealish, Doku, etc fighting out for the positions either side, sometimes a player needs to move to find a club that's better for their style and what they need, and with Chelsea being without their main striker almost all year, it's allowed change and Palmer has stuck in there whilst all around have been out of form in patches.
City Madrid intriguing - expect some epic shithousery in the next half hour if it stays like this!
105th minute and Real get a corner
🤦
Oooops. City didn’t do enough really having had all the ball, very few big chances. Strange to take off Haaland when you need a goal but he was pretty anonymous I guess.
That was very dull. Real parked the bus very successfully
Really don't want Madrid to get number 15. Yep, they parked the oil tanker.
They scored 4 goals over the tie. Who doesn’t park the bus against City?!
FA Cup replays to be scrapped, no financial incentive for lower league clubs to fight for the draw 😕
Yeah - they talk about financial fair play then hobble the lower league sides with something like this...
Crap idea. The FA Cup is a shadow of what it was.
However, the EPL clubs have too many games and will have pushed for this.
IMO a penalty shootout gives lower league sides a greater chance of progression than a 2nd game against a PL team.
the lower league pitches used to be the big equaliser when the big boys came in round 3, and they got the lucrative return leg tie, however, the pitches in all leagues are like pool tables and big shocks rarely happen anymore
Emi Martinez* - what a guy!
UTV!!
* Pronounced like Martini - Ma-Tea-Nez not Marty-Nez
We are lucky to have him! UTV
I'm a Reading fan, and an ex keeper (and though I say it myself), played at an OK standard BITD - very edges of semi-pro. I know a keeper when I see one and when we had him at Reading on loan even in a weak team you could see the quality.
I've a mate who's an Arsenal fan and when he went back to them and then they sold him.... for £20m as well.... I said that was going to haunt them. They kept Bernd Leno in favour FFS! And though both Ramsdale (£30m) and Raya (£3m loan fee plus £27m to buy at the end) are decent I'm pretty sure they'd pull your arm off to have him back.
Top shithouser as well, especially in the shootout. There was a moment last night, I think just after the first kicks where he looked over to the Villa players and just through body language said - I've got this. Which means the Villa players know they can win with 4 or even 3 scored on their side, and reduces the pressure.
Also.. I used to referee after I played and keep up to date with the laws, and once again bewildered by last night's 'pro' commentators who've blasted the referee for the second booking when the laws are clear, that yellows in the game don't carry over.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLNxfp9XIAIa9kQ?format=jpg&name=4096x4096
Chelsea getting a penalty every 75(ish) touches in the area this season, Spurs needing 1200!
lies damn lies and statistics 😕 could just show Spurs are good at getting in the box and chelsea aren't
Here's the data it's roughly based on:
Team - Penalties - Touches in box
Chelsea - 11 - 855
Arsenal - 9 - 1208
Newcastle Utd - 7 - 886
Liverpool - 6 - 1163
Brighton - 5 - 929
Manchester City - 5 - 1265
Manchester Utd - 5 - 846
Aston Villa - 4 - 905
Crystal Palace - 4 - 634
Luton Town - 4 - 686
Sheffield Utd - 4 - 537
West Ham - 4 - 664
Wolves - 4 - 652
Brentford - 3 - 852
Burnley - 2 - 694
Fulham - 2 - 756
Bournemouth - 1 - 876
Everton - 1 - 694
Nott'ham Forest - 1 - 666
Tottenham - 1 - 1122
Does seem a bit of discrepancy between Chelsea getting 11 penalties for 855 touches, and Spurs only getting 1 for 1122?
Clearly there is some form of deep lying conspiracy going on here to deny Spurs a spot kick.
a few more brown cash filled envelopes stuffed in the VAR benevolent fund dropbox required 😉
Does seem a bit of discrepancy between Chelsea getting 11 penalties for 855 touches, and Spurs only getting 1 for 1122?
Two words, Raheem Sterling
Agreed @argee See also Saka at Arsenal, Jota at Liverpool and Gordon at Newcastle. I think Gordon is an excellent modern footballer but I squirm at some of the penalties he's 'won' this season. Sadly, it's part and parcel of the modern game. Spurs need Klinsmann in as techncial coach 🙂
Damn I missed it! Big Emi owns all of France 🙂
It’s a big day today with the re-ignition of a fierce local derby…
Ramsbottom v Bury kicks off at 3 in the North West Counties League. Tickets are like gold dust.
I've always ignored the whinging on spurs fan forums about refs hating us but those stats make me wonder!
Long break at Rotherham as medics attend to a medical emergency with a spectator - all the best to that poor soul.
Long break at Rotherham as medics attend to a medical emergency with a spectator – all the best to that poor soul
Indeed. Don't seem to remember quite so many of those types of incident as this season?
Chelsea are giving Citeh a game here. No Robocop and they haven’t had a shot on target
Could it be a Palmer winner here?
It won't be a Jackson one (famous last words)
He's robbing a living as a Premier league striker.
[edit - great minds..... thing is he can hit a barn door; it's just he's been told to do it gently because his Dad's on nights and not to be woken]
you can see why they don't want him taking penalties!
Enjoyable for a neutral
More shit VAR there. They can only rule on the handball shout and give a penalty if it's 'deliberate'. It can't overturn the fact that it's absolutely clearly a corner.
Makes the ref / VAR ref look like muppets when they've applied the law perfectly.
Well it won’t be Nicholas Jackson! Barn door comes to mind. A modern day Emile Heskey?
I was thinking more Liverpool era Raheem Sterling. Loads of pace and gets into great shooting positions, then looks like a rabbit in the headlights once he’s in front if goal, like it’s the first time he’s ever been there
Its a great match this though. I’m sure I’ll enjoy it more than watching us inevitability lose to Cov tomorrow
Jackson is giving Nunez a run for his money, Chelsea have too many shot shy players, they bet on Nkunku to be the star up front this season and he got injured straight off the bat, so much money spent and they struggle to get goals.
First time I've really seen Chelsea this season live and their forward line are total pants. Ball control you'd expect at under 11s. If they had a deadly front man they'd be a force. It's a basic skill. Palmer excepted.
I think the most unforgivable was Mudryk. In extra time and looking for an equaliser he took a free kick from a really good position, to deliver into the box. Everyones waiting for it and it sails right over all their heads (by a mile!), straight out of play. That just summed Chelsea up.
Weirdly, thought that a Cole Palmer Raheem Sterling front line would have won the game for Chelsea, despite his reputation. Then again, they really should have won at a canter anyway. We looked utterly knackered.
Casemiro as a central defensive partner to Maguire?
Hmmmm. I’m saying red card and penalty waiting to happen. I’ve stuck a few quid on him getting carded. It’s 3/1 so essentially free money
Binners what bets has the missus put on? Still time for us to copy!
As a fully committed ABU she’s bet on Cov.
She vocally and enthusiastically supports whoever it is we’re playing, bless her
Oh god! The curse of the early goal! 😩
Our recent record for chucking away early leads is second to none
Utd are so slow and boring I've decided that I want Coventry to win.
Plenty of time for our traditional second half collapse yet
As I was saying… 🙄
I’m saying 97th minute equaliser, 30 pointless minutes extra time and us losing it on penalties
us losing it on penalties
Time yet for a winner
Hoping ETH is going to do enough to keep his job.
This Utd teams results keep me highly entertained.
Binners knows best. You have to laugh!
There’s plenty of United fans want us to lose this so that Ten Hag is sacked
I’d say that they’re likely to get their wish
… and then the whole circus continues with the next mug to get the poisoned chalice.
We’re ****ing dire! This is just the latest in a season of absolutely woeful performances
You have to laugh!
You are correct. Its chuffing hilarious...and I support Utd 😂
They are hanging on for pens now, by the look of it. How on earth did that not go in?
Great game for the neutral
(yeh, like anyone's neutral when Utd are playing an underdog in the cup semi! Maybe there's an odd one or two Birmingham City fans mildly conflicted, but....)