Championship has kicked off, Scottish premiership starts today, community shield tomorrow, and the premier league kicks off next week.
My premier league predictions.
1, Manchester city
2, Livepool
3, Chelsea
4, Arsenal
Man U look to be in meltdown already, a few good early results could settle them down, a few poor ones and the shit is going to be flying everywhere. Tottenham haven't strengthened yet if they don't they will miss out on top 4 imo.
I reckon Citeh for the league and Champions League this year. Guardiola is under great pressure to deliver trophies and has the resources to do it.
I'll raise a glass to those predictions
Reckon arsenal will either win it or be relegated
If Utd fall behind early on I think a full blown Mourinho implosion is a cert, judging by his comments over the past few weeks.
City for the league, just. Really hope Chelsea don't do the usual and follow up a poor season with the title.
I can't see anyone but City. They're just too strong. Then... who knows? Will Spurs still bottle it against the top teams? Which Chelski will show up? The title winners, or the mid-table side? Will Liverpool stop playing Kevin Keegan football and actually defend?
One thing is for sure... we're ****ed, quite frankly. Looks like Maureen is setting up his wearyingly predictable third season meltdown already. He really is a charmless, petulant misery-arse. And totally predictable. It'll all be everybody else's fault when the wheels fall off. He's already getting his excuses in.
I think he's now just an embarrassment to the club and needs to go. Can't imagine many players are happy under his present management. He's no interest in developing the younger players or helping anyone improve like Pep or Klippity does. And the football is absolutely bloody awful!
Pogba, somewhat predictably, showed what he can do when he's actually allowed to play. Plenty of others did too.
I'm starting to feel like an Arsenal fan of the last few seasons. I'm sort of hoping we get tonked the first couple of games, to initiate the toys-out-of-the-pram implosion
As an Arsenal fan, I am going in to the season feeling quite excited. I know we probably will not win anything, but new manager and a raft of new players, going to be interesting how we adapt to a new type of football under Emery.
I just hope a monumental mourhino implosion at some point through the season. He's not particularly inspiring confidence in the team at the moment.
MSP, I'd be happy with the table looking like that at the end of the season.
Has everyone got their fantasy football team sorted?
Just looked and I think the established STW league will roll over and start again this season, can't find the code though if anyone new wants to join.
Yep I reckon Reading won't be in the Premier League at the end of the season. And as for the other one I think Arsenal might sneak it... although Liverpool could be quite strong.
1. City
2. Chelsea
3. Liverpool
4. Man U (if Jose goes, otherwise Tottenham)
city are too strong and should win by a good margin. Liverpool have a great squad now but a few new players in key positions to ingetrate; they’ll likely start slow and pick up momentum. The Chelsea players are used to playing together and now have a manager they don’t hate (yet!)
Arsenal are the complete dark horse so who knows
Man U? Binners said it well; I hope the awful, negative, narrow minded, hollow husk of a man that is Jose is gone by xmas and replaced by someone who wants to develop players into the first team. I’ve heard the club have looked at zidane.
Until Jose goes I can’t see any great players wanting to come to the club because of the style of football (some have been quite open about this) and the younger players will become disillusioned and leave. Martial, Fosu-Mensa, mctominay, perriera could be key players if coached properly (or indeed at all)
I’ve read the rumours that United are sounding out Zidane. I hope there’s some truth in it and moaning Maureen is on his way ASAP
i can’t remember going into a season with lower expectations. It’s just going to be a case of when, not if, he has his meltdown. God knows where we’ll be in the league by the time we get there
Sounds like the transfer for Mina has collapsed and Utd are in for Alderweireld for £60m- yet another player in late 20s when they have Lindelof and fosu-Mensa who could grow into that roll
City look to be picking up from where they left off. Chuffed that Phil Foden had such a good match.
Well that was a breeze for City. It’s scary that City had the best two midfielders in the Premiership that they didn’t feel the need to bring off the bench
League one is where it’s at. Ha’way the lads! 😀
Its certainly going to be interesting for us Gooners this season. We are mostly relieved to be rid of Le Prof and looking forward to a season without the same old crap we've endured for too long.
Unlike most people, I have a suspicion the the Spuds will do very well this year. They have a lot of very good players, a years more experience, confidence from their WC performances and a new Stadium to eventually play in. All of which may mean they actually challenge for the PL. I'm not putting any money on it though.....I'd rather lose it! 🙂
As a Leeds fan I was very pleased yesterday - not only with the result against a pre-season favourite, but the performance too.
Still, we had a great start last season so not holding my breath.
Need to not fire Bielsa when a couple of results in a row go against us.
funny how 10 Of The 11 players that finished last season so badly started this season so well.
heck in the sky studio at the ground came across, to me at least, not very bitter, oh no, not him. “They never played that well for me”
MOT. Mid table mediocrity again? Or dare we dream?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4niWReK06_c
West brom's new mascot is going to be the highlight of the season for me!!
Well keeping up my attendance record with a trip to see the mighty toon roll over to spurs on Saturday, hopefully we get a couple more signings in there or Ashley hits his head and opens the cheque book (or sell up)
Mid table mediocrity again? Or dare we dream?
Dreaming. Always dreaming.
The privitisation of The Arsenal is nearly complete.
The arsenal buy out is interesting to say the least. AST vehemently opposing it.
Slightly odd situation that Arsenal fans will have to get used to debt being layered onto the club and annual transfer funds being used to pay interest like Man U fans did after the Glazer takeover.
And Man U fans will seemingly experience what it’s like being an arsenal fan with a manager clearly out of date and terrible transfer windows!
Can anyone point out some ginger premiership players for me?
I normally enter a team of ginger players who are guaranteed to come last in the fantasy footy leagues I enter but I'm really struggling at the moment to put out even half a squad of pure bloods.
Robert Elliot Newcastle GK, De Bruyne and Henderson are the only players I have so far.
You could always top it up with baldies like Shelvey, as no one can say they aren't gingers!
Harrison Reed from Southampton's bench unless he goes out on loan again. By the by, I saw Jack Colback playing on telly last night - my word that's a pureblood ginge!
So Courtois has done a Costa and gone AWOL from Chelski, Pogba's agent is pimping him out to everyone with deep pockets, and it looks like Barca are interested. I'm not surprised he wants away from United (again) while Jose is at the helm.
Interesting that Pogbas agent personally made 41 million quid from his transfer to United. That's just bonkers! No wonder he wants him to move on again
I heard the 41 million crack on the radio the other day.Holy cow.
Although to be fair Pogba has my sympathy ,having to deal with Moanrinho every day.
Harrison Reed from Southampton’s bench unless he goes out on loan again. By the by, I saw Jack Colback playing on telly last night – my word that’s a pureblood ginge!
Looks as if he's out on loan 🙁
I'll have to consider strawberry blondes / blondes or might do a welsh ginger combo team.
"Can anyone point out some ginger premiership players for me?"
How about Andrew Robertson? - His beard's a bit ginge ,plus he's Scottish. 🙂
The undisputed king of premiership gingers?
Anyway... transfer deadline day. The only thing that I'm predicting is that Maureen won't be happy, and will be very vocal about it, and probably call a press conference so that he can have a moan
Long before fantasy football, a mate and I had a rude names XI. I wonder if that could be resurrected, with up to date players.
I don't remember many but as a start
Steve Hardwick (ex Oxford and Huddersfield GK)
Willy Burns (Cowdenbeath and Rochdale)
Wayne ****lyn (Reading)
to which I'd of course add Stefan Kuntz
They were managed by Arthur Cox, so that when a run of bad results ensued the fans could all chant Cox out! He was the replaced as player manager by Julian Dicks, so that when a run of bad results ensued.....
Rude names 11....N'golo Kante - best spoken in an Essex "twang"
Looking forward to seeing what dross Maureen gets bought for him today - hopefully Pogba is a problem too.
Wolves have no intention of going down, they've spent a good slab.
Oh and Rod Fanni (i think that was the spelling) formerly of West Ham; proper rude name
Mcburnie and Clucas,both ginge and play for a welsh team,double points combo:),tho Clucas now going to stoke.
They're just discussing the Premiership season on Five Live, and how optimistic everyone is. Somewhat predictably a Liverpool fan phoned in to say the following
In other news, Mrs Binners just told me she's stuck a few quid on Leicester beating Man Yoo tonight 🙁
Binners - i am not looking forward to watching United tonight. We all know the style of football is going to be exactly the same as last year and that was bordering on LVG dull. I still cant understand why Jose is so keen on defenders, our problem was scoring and breaking down tight defences.
City will win the premiership,Liverpool will be runners up and we have to hope that Spurs have stagnated with the lack of transfers which will enable us to finish top four with either Arsenal or Chelsea.
😂
All premiership clubs should “unveil” their signings like this.
https://twitter.com/bbcsport/status/1027838640012111872?s=21
Re the rude names eleven I'm sure from the days when my boys used to collect footie stickers (mid-90's) there was a player called Bernd Aas playing for a Premiership side but my Google-fu is weak today and I can't confirm that.
As we are talking history I was in a discussion the other day about childhood heroes. I said that as a boy I liked George Best.
No, wait that's wrong...I liked Zippy Best
First game of the season, promising signs from Newcastle but Ali is going to get caught with the decent some day. Kicking the ball away every time something didn't go his way, chatting back and just being a spoilt brat out there. Such a shame for such a talented player.
Rockape - Mrs Binners just asked “is the new Arsenal manager someone the job centre sent?” 😂
Has she put a cheeky bet on the first sighting of an 'Emery out' banner?
I’ll ask her. She called every result yesterday on an acca, and is 100 quid up so far this weekend. I’m not! 🙁 i’m Just going to ask her what she’s bet on and do that in future.
Well at least 606 later can carry on where they left off last season 😂
Well MOTD2 on the TV but today I'd say advantage Liverpool 😉 Looking very threatening and landing on their feet. City looking just a little less dangerous but still starting quickly.
Ignoring the elective MOTD footage Man U, Spurs have a lot further to go to get to where they were last season.
An what is this new TV thing on MOTD2? Pundits standing up!!
City probably had the hardest test of the opening weekend, looked a little stutering, but still bringing their world cup players back up to speed, wasn't a full strength team but still to much for the gooners. That said I think there is more to come from Arsenal as well.
Saw the first half of ManU against Leicester, thought ManU looked poor against a team that will be lucky to get top half this season. Also saw a chunk of Fulham vs Palace, though Fulham looked pretty decent and the better team for the most part, but they will need steel to add to their creativity.
Liverpool looked as dangerous as last season going forward, but it'll be interesting to see how they defend against teams more attack-minded than West Haaaaaam. Milner was really good yesterday. How old is he? He seems to have been around forever!
City look scary. They didn't really look like they broke a sweat against Arsenal yesterday. It was a comfortable win when you look at their bench and the players who didn't even start. Sterling looked really good yesterday, continuing the theme of last season of players who constantly improve under Pep. Oh that we had a manager who was interested in that? 🙁
And whats going on with MOTD2? It looked like they've handed over the programme's design to a 12-year-old with ADHD
Well MOTD2 on the TV but today I’d say advantage Liverpool Looking very threatening and landing on their feet. City looking just a little less dangerous but still starting quickly.
Too early to say. Liverpool at full strength at home against West Ham probably not equivalent to City not at full strength (no De Bruyne) away at Arsenal, even a diminished Arsenal.
Lets see if Klopp has improved the defence this season.
Too early to say.
Hence the smiley in the middle of all that!!
Well MOTD2 on the TV but today I’d say advantage Liverpool Looking very threatening and landing on their feet. City looking just a little less dangerous but still starting quickly.
It's Liverpool's year (again!!!!)
"no De Bruyne"
did you watch the match? He came on as a sub
Ah, must have missed that, thought he'd been rested entirely. Not sure whether that should be any comfort to Arsenal fans, they've clearly got a big rebuilding job to do.
Can't copy and paste a quote for some reason.
Yeah, yeah Binners, not the best start to the season, some strange selections, but lets give the poor bloke a chance, after all it was a bit of a baptism of fire! Also we lost 0-3 in the same game earlier this year, so he's already improved the side! 🙂
It's the point where arsenal need to be taken apart to be put back together so it will take time.
It's OK though arsenal are patient. Good time to play them though.
Its dead easy to replace a manager who's been there for over twenty years. I mean, just look at us......
Oh wait.... hang on a minute...
😉
Yeah but look who you've hired.....Moyes, LVG and then finally the worst one of the lot!
We'll take our chance for the time being thanks! 🙂
(le Prof was never in Fergie's league anyway and long past his sell by)
As a lifelong West Ham sufferer it's nice to see that we've spent £100m or whatever and yet still have the defensive frailties we've had for the last god knows how long. The Sky Liverpool love-in was excruciating though.
That said, better teams than us are going to visit Anfield this year and get soundly beaten. I don't know if they're 17 points better than last season but Klopp has clearly improved what was already a top notch side.
I'll reserve judgement until we've played a few more mediocre teams in the next few games... Bournemouth, Arsenal and Wolves...
As a lifelong West Ham sufferer it’s nice to see that we’ve spent £100m or whatever and yet still have the defensive frailties we’ve had for the last god knows how long
Trying to play a high defensive line against Liverpool was really dumb.
Totally...
Although the one time it actually worked, the assistant ref missed the offside for the third goal and then Jamie Bloody Redknapp add insult to injury and blames West Ham for playing that way rather than the officials for their ineptitude!
'could be a long season' seemed to be the sentiment for the home fan's at the matches I attended this weekend.
Luckily I didn't attend my beloved Rams getting dismantled by a strong looking Leeds team, but probably a good wake up call after the Lampard love in we've all been having.
But as the other half and dad to 4 Owl's fans, I attended an eye wateringly expensive trip to watch a poor Wednesday team fail to nick it against an equally poor Hull. I fear the girl's face a long season as the club are penalised by FFP sanctions and reaping the legacies of poor club management and Carlos Carvahal. And since the Chairman seems to be banking on promotion to save them, it could be a poor few year's.
So my Championship top three;
1 Boro
2 Villa
3 Forest or Leeds (and boy, that hurts to say... 😭)
On Sunday I was at the Arsenal v City match, as my best mate has a couple of season tickets. To me, City won it at a cantar and Arsenal fans didn't really see anything that didn't suggest a lot of work needs doing. Couple of the new signings showed promise, but there was a collective sigh at watching Ramsey wander round like a drunk looking for a kebab shop. Whilst the fans were leaving in their droves in the last 20, those that remained stayed in reasonable voice. But, I can't help think the sky banner pilot's are not looking for alternative employment just yet.
For the Premiership;
1 City
2 Liverpool
3 Utd
As a Leeds fan I know it's far too early to get excited but I've never seen a Leeds team pass the ball from defence to attack as well as this team has done in the first two games. The fact that 10 of the players were in the team that struggled so badly in the second half of the season makes it all the more amazing. Interesting times!
@theboatman - I appreciate your pain but we've waited a long while to see a result like that and in such style....
@deepreddave - first time I've missed the Leeds fixture in year's, but the main comment from those that went was you looked better than Wolves when they turned up early last season and gave us a similar sacking. We don't usually compliment your lot to easily. At 1—4 down with 20 minutes left to go, your travelling fan's enjoyed it and let us know.
@theboatman good to hear and two great performances is better than two poor ones but it's still only two! I'm genuinely shocked by the quality of the play though, wonder what previous managers REALLY think watching the same players perform like that?!
It’s the point where arsenal need to be taken apart to be put back together so it will take time
Emery had better get a move on, the board will only give him 21 or maybe 22 years before they expect results.
Meanwhile in League 1,the mighty Barnsley have won their first 2,despite having a manager who can't speak English,straight back up ?
errr, when I predicted the gooners to finish in the top 4, I misspoke,what I actually meant was that they are relegation fodder.
This is a bloody brilliant game!! I’m going for 5 - 4, but I don’t know who too.
Nice to see 2 teams do away with any pretence at defending 😂
How many sitters are Arsenal going to put into Row Z? 😳
WTF? should be 6-2 to arsenal now after being battered for most of the half.
City struggling without KDB 🙂
If you haven't got Mendy in your fantasy team you have made a mistake.
Or Silva. He was awesome today. Again! That free kick was unreal. Aguaro didn’t look too shabby either.
Anyway... I feel sure that that performance is about to be eclipsed by the other Manchester squad who will deliver a searing display of fast-paced, incisive, free-flowing attacking football.
Yes... most definitely.
Try not to doze off
On a slight tangent... what on earths this thing about absolutely hideous, shell-suit-esque ‘kits’ that players wear when they’re sat on the bench?
They all look like they’ve been ‘designed’ by a blind person with ADHD who’s been smoking spice
Try not to doze off
Wake up! It's all gone to shit! Already!
On another slight tangent, Mourinho slagging off City for being a rich club, but not being able to buy class, is the most unintentionally funny thing he's said for a while.
Absolutely *ing woeful!!! As bad a United performance as I’ve ever witnessed. Absolutely all over the place at the back, and completely toothless going forward! They’re getting in behind us every time. The score-line totally reflects the first half. Played us off the park!
I don’t even want to think about what City or Liverpool’s front line would do to this defence, which between it cost £117 million, yet looks like a pub team
Get the miserable * gone and get Zidane in. Or anyone that the players actually want to play for.
The only silver lining is I’ve got Gross on my FF squad
Worst Utd display since the LVG era. No one has any idea what do do- one shot on target in second half
The 2008 Utd team would batter this Utd team 5-0
What on earth do they practice in training? It’s clearly not practicing attacking or defending! Crochet?
“I understand why he is a bit emotional,” said Mourinho of Ferguson. “He has some of the top players in the world and they should be doing a lot better than that. You would be sad if your team gets as clearly dominated by opponents who have been built on 10% of the budget.”
The 2008 Utd team would batter this Utd team 5-0
3-0 some of them are looking a bit slower these days 😉
Having witnessed two Newcastle games on Sky ..all I can say is that it's going to be a long long season ..dire would be a compliment .
For the life of me what were the management thinking allowing Kenedy to take that last minute penalty ...he had up to that point an absolute shocker of a game where absolutely f/all had come off ..that will have helped his confidence no end ..the rest of the team being no better ..
Ho hum ..
I presume the Pogba on the pitch wasn’t World Cup winner Paul Pogba, but Barry Pogba who normally plays in the Evo-Stick Northern League, with Colin Lakaku.
Absolutely dire! Difficult to see where you go from being that bad. Spurs must be rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of next week.
Forget challenging for the title (which we were never going to do anyway), we’ll be lucky to finish mid-table on that performance.
Good managers develop players. Under Jose this squad is going backwards, fast!
But I am sure he will show his class in the post match interview.
