Barclays Premier League

I couldn't see a thread on this already, so sorry if there is one already...

It's been an interesting season so far, with lots of shocks and big teams droping points against the so called lesser sides. The current table looks like:

Chelsea 11 27
Man Utd 11 25
Arsenal 10 22
Man City 10 19
Tottenham 11 19
Liverpool 11 18
Aston Villa 11 18
Sunderland 11 17
Stoke City 11 16
Burnley 11 15
Fulham 10 14
Wigan Athletic 11 13
Everton 10 12
Birmingham 11 11
Bolton 10 11
West Ham Utd 11 10
Wolves 11 10
Blackburn 10 10
Hull City 11 8
Portsmouth 11 7


I follow Liverpool and we have been poor this season and have had bad luck along the way with injuries and the famous 'beach ball' goal. I think we are out the title race so i hope Arsenal win the league as i love the way they play football, i would settle for Chelsea winning it. Anyone but Man Utd who would have 19 titles if they won overtaking my beloved Liverpool.

So any other PL fans out there? Who do you guys follow? Hope there are some fellow reds on here...!

Todays fixtures:

15:00 (UK time)

Aston Villa v Bolton
Blackburn v Portsmouth
Man City v Burnley
Tottenham v Sunderland


17:30 (UK time)

Wolverhampton v Arsenal

The teams in bold are the teams i think will win today and the Blackburn game will be a draw in my opinion. Got a cheeky bet on the teams in bold also so fingers crossed...!

I´ve been a big fan of Chelsea my self since Zola played for them some fifteen years ago. They got a shot at championship this year if they can keep their play up for the lesser teams. They havent had much trouble with the big teams. Big game for them today against ManU.

Really looking forward to the game today (only 35 mins till kick off!)

I think Chelsea have the stronger team but you just never know with Man U they always seem to pull something out the bag when you least suspect it.

I think it will finish 1-0 to Chelsea.

Should be a cracker!

Jay87 wrote:

how come my score prediction was censored out?

I predicted 1 nil to Chelsea aswell, i never get my predictions right.

Come on Liverpool tonight!!

I think Arsenal are the dark horses this year. Hardly anyone is talking about them but their defence is a lot better with Vermaelen, Fabregas is scoring for fun and Van Persie is in great form. If Arsenal can stay injury free it could be their year.

Man Utd miss Ronaldo, Liverpool have bad injuries and I'm not convinced about Chelsea's manager yet.

But should be more open this year, especially if Man City spend in the transfer window again.

I'm gutted about the Liverpool result last night, we dominated the game had about 30 shots and all we get is a draw which was lucky as N'gog dived to win it.

It's been such a horrible season for us reds fans so far, i hope things pick up quickly!!

Diving is awful in football I think. If Uefa can retrospectively ban someone for a foul, then why can't they retrospectively dock Liverpool 2 points. Although you could argue Liverpool may have equalised after anyway.

I think they should make a new rule that if tv proves a player dived the club should be docked points.

motorcycle wrote:

I think UEFA got t right when they banned Wduardo for 3 games for diving. If only they would have stuck to their guns it would stop players diving as they would not want to miss 3 games.

The only problem with this is for one of games i.e. Champions League Final, when players will think if i dive and win a pen we could win the cup and i will take the ban next season in the group stages.

It's probably impossible to stop diving and there are times when you can't be sure if the player was diving or if they just lost balance with their momentum taking them down.

Anyways 2 weeks for Liverpool to try and get Gerrard, Torres fit before a massive game with Man City.

Latest table:

Team Pld Points

Chelsea 12 30
Arsenal 11 25
Man Utd 12 25
Tottenham 12 22
Aston Villa 12 21
Man City 11 20
Liverpool 12 19
Sunderland 12 17
Stoke City 12 16
Burnley 12 16
Fulham 11 15
Everton 11 15
Wigan Athletic 12 14
Blackburn 11 13
Birmingham 12 12
Bolton 11 11
Hull City 12 11
West Ham Utd 12 10
Wolves 12 10
Portsmouth 12 7

Jay87 wrote:

Currently the rewards of winning a penalty are far greater than the punishment (a yellow card) so something has to be done. But as you said it's difficult to prove, what happens when a player dives out of the way to avoid an injury? Didn't Arsene Wenger say that's why Eduardo dived V Celtic as he had the bad injury before V Birmingham?

motorcycle wrote:

Yea he said that.

It's would be extrememly difficult as there will always be an arguement one way or another if a player dives.

Anyways the premier league today rejected a two tier league proposal that would have bought rangers and Celtic to the Premier League.

Prem should only be 18 teams

Jay87 wrote:

I was surprised about that. I read that the Premier League's main source of income is selling overseas television rights and they felt Celtic and Rangers wouldn't add to that demand. But you would think it Celtic's involvement would bring more revenue from North America (from ex Irish people) and surely more people would want to watch Rangers V Spurs than Bolton V Spurs.

I think the smaller clubs didn't want Rangers and Celtic as it would mean 2 less places in the top league for which them to get in.

Football is so much about money these days

motorcycle wrote:

I think it was the right decision as the Scotish League would be pointless without Rangers and Celtic and would probably get less fot TV money and other revenues if the big 2 teams wern't involved anymore.

The two tier league would have eliminated relegation and promotion which would just be silly in my opinion. The lower league teams would have probably voted for it as they would be safe from relegation.

Scudamore (the premlier league executive) has said Rangers and Celtic will never play in the premier league and that right as they are Scottish. If they did join the English league then they shouldn't start at the top they should have to work there way up!