Premier League 2-3 April 2016

Aston Villa V Chelsea 12:45
Arsenal V Watford 15:00
Bournemouth V Man City 15:00
Norwich V Newcastle 15:00
Stoke V Swansea 15:00
Sunderland V West Brom 15:00
West Ham V Crystal Palace 15:00
Liverpool V Tottenham 17:30

Leicester V Southampton13:30
Man Utd V Everton 16:00

We smashed Norwich 6-2 at home, so maybe we match up against them well, on the other hand someone told me the last time we won there Andy Cole and Beardsley scored.

I remember that - wasn't that Winaljdum's only good game for Newcastle?

The title could be wrapped up this weekend - I expect us to get at least a draw and Leicester could be 8-10 points clear of Spurs by the next time Spurs play.

Leicester will win 1-0, they'll be nothing special but the ball will ricochet off a players offside arse, cue the media banging on about them "grinding out 1-0 wins, great performance".

Leicester have indeed been very lucky at times but I don't think anyone could say they don't deserve the title. They've been the best team defensively by some distance and at times have played some football as good as anyone else. Everything seems to have fallen into place for them - they have 3 winnable fixtures next whereas Spurs have 3 tough ones.

Will be interesting to see how City do today - CL midweek is everything to them now but they can't afford to let West Ham leapfrog them in the top 4.

Pato is playing for Chelsea

Even Pato has scored vs Villa.

Surely Villa cant be charging fans for this tosh?

Villa's stadium more sparsely populated than a plane to Liberia during the Ebola epidemic.

Save your jokes for the RNC Dicky.

Since beating Norwich on 6 Feb, Villa's record is:

P7 W0 D0 L7 GF2 GA22 GD-20

In 6 of those 7 matches, they managed to concede 2 goals within 5 minutes of each other.

It's an astonishing record. Probably the worst top flight team in the history of football.

All the senior players need to retire from professional football in shame. Can't see a single one being wanted by another Premier league club.

We're so shit, if we somehow stay up we'll still need a huge amount of changes. Even the January signings are gash.

Some Newcastle bawling her eyes out.

Payet scores from another superb free kick.

Kimbo wrote:Save your jokes for the RNC Dicky.

not a Republican 👍

Luis wrote:Leicester have indeed been very lucky at times but I don't think anyone could say they don't deserve the title. They've been the best team defensively by some distance and at times have played some football as good as anyone else. Everything seems to have fallen into place for them - they have 3 winnable fixtures next whereas Spurs have 3 tough ones.

Will be interesting to see how City do today - CL midweek is everything to them now but they can't afford to let West Ham leapfrog them in the top 4.

Best defence by some distance? Except for the fact they've conceded more than Spurs?

That's some interesting logic.

Payet's free kick today. Wow He's dragging them into the CL almost
Single handedly, very Bale/Suarez esque. Phenomenal player. 29 though so this is his peak. If it means West Ham can start attracting players with CL, London and their new stadium then they really could upset the natural order for years to come. Man U and Liverpool should be desperately hoping they don't finish top 4 as its going to make it even more difficult (and expensive) to get back in than it already is.

Nah. Spurs finished in the CL places before, so did we and we both ultimately didn't upset any natural order at all. I'd rather them finish in the top 4 than City though just to make players like Neymar think twice before joining them but I don't think it will matter with Pep at the helm anyway.

That was before the tv money has leveled the playing field somewhat, as well as West Ham now having a 60,000 stadium they don't actually have to pay for. And both Liverpool and Spurs did upset the applecart to some degree in that it forced the other teams to shell out shitloads of money in a desperate attempt to claw back. City spent 300million in the 2 Windows after Spurs finished ahead of them in CL, ditto United when Liverpool did. Now that the financial playing field isn't so stacked in one favour its going to be harder to do that now that clubs like Wham and Stoke are able to afford and lure the likes of Payet. I don't see there being an obvious natural top 5 anymore, these so called anomalies are going to become more regular.

Howson blatantly brings the ball down his hand, and that's us down.

West Ham costing me 60 odd quid there. Shit club.

Even if we stayed up Rafa would have too much to do with this squad, they don't care, he came in when they were already thinking of their next transfer in the summer. The man should go back to Spain, why he wants to live near Liverpool is beyond me.

Screwed by Clattenberg

Pretty even so far. Kane and Sturridge should have scored. Our passing has been pretty dreadful - Sakho and Mignolet close to fucking up quite a bit. Feel like we're a bit nervous and Kane will score if he gets chances like he's had in the second half.

Two really good goals in the Liverpool - Spurs match.
Kane has the same posture and body technique as Lampard when shooting. It's really off putting.

Fair result. Title over for Spurs?

Good game.

A Leicester win tomorrow makes them champions elect. They can still throw it away but I don't think they will. They're set up just has a very solid vibe about unlike at the beginning of the season. If they were still winning games with a high goal count, you could see them do a Liverpool. But they're looking more like a ManU team.

Luis wrote:Fair result. Title over for Spurs?

Unless Leicester bottle it

shazlx wrote:Good game.

A Leicester win tomorrow makes them champions elect.  They can still throw it away but I don't think they will. They're set up just has a very solid vibe about unlike at the beginning of the season.  If they were still winning games with a high goal count,  you could see them do a Liverpool. But they're looking more like a ManU team.

That's exactly what makes me think they'll win it.

Their core players are also used to the pressure of must win games - relegation fight last season, and the Championship the year before.

Kane's two footedness is rarely discussed but it's one of his major attributes - at ease receiving the ball on either foot. It shouldn't be a somewhat rare feat but it is. Lovely taken goal despite actually playing rather underwhelmingly.

Alli didn't turn up, he was really very poor which was somewhat irritating given how well he played in a friendly last weekend. Suppose at 19 that sort of inconsistency is to be expected.

Dembele was easily the best player on them pitch alongside Coutinho - both were the clear stand outs on either side with some supporting casts in the form or Lalllana and Dier respectively.

We've got through a season without losing to Liverpool which is an improvement. On the otherhand Leicester win tomorrow and it's game over. Can't be too disappointed, Liverpool always look up for it when they play us, probably as they know we keep finishing above them despite being a smaller club, so it keeps them relevant in some way I suppose.

I think S'oton at home is a terrible fixture for Leicester - S'oton v good defensively, long and Mane a nuisance.

Can't believe 'castle have Wijnolan and De Jong in the same squad - they are both fake midfielders who get good stats 'cos they play pretty much as striker.

Shelvey is also an AM at heart - leaving only Tiote really as CM.

He may infuriate the fans and have shit stats but Sissoko looks like the one who can make things happen - must start him, Towsend and Mitrovic to have a chance.

You must never play either of the 2 dutch "midfielders" away from home.


We are in freefall but should be safe - its been obvious for some time that we need to play 4-3-3.

Sell Ighalo in summer and spend money on wingers.

However great Pozzo reputation they still make mistakes with transfers - ridiculous that Berghuis and Diamanti took up squad places that could have gone to Forestieri and Vydra.

I was also quite impressed with quality of this match, both goals were excellent as well.