Premier League 23rd-25th February Discussion Thread

LOUIS SAHA IS BACK

5:1

Wayne Rooney assist MOTM for sure.

FT: Newcastle United 1:5 Manchester United . MOTM: Rooney, Carrick was close. All of the goals were goals of the highest level if we include the build up plays. Highlight of the game was Michael Carricks pass for Ronaldo’s 1st goal or Ronaldo’s 2nd goal, but it was the former for me.

3pts behind Arsenal, I think Manchester United are back in the Title Race

They were never out of the title race...

This game should shoe why Ronaldo is so much better than Rooney.

There's a "Lets laugh at Spurs/Arsenal/Liverpool" thread, but no Newcastle?!! Confounded!

Perhaps their predicment has gone beyond laughter...

Rooney was ace, however Carrick was very impressive as well.

Good to see Saha score, we will need him for the rest of the season.

Rosicky wrote:They were never out of the title race...

Sorry it was an attack to the many who thought they were out of the title race after the Man City defeat.

whatcha talking about shazlx, did you see the game? please what was your view on Carrick?

Newcastle might go down. Seriously.

Luis wrote:Newcastle might go down. Seriously.

Nah, have a few too many points.

Blackburn and Pool next.

Then it gets easier after that for them.

Luis wrote:Newcastle might go down. Seriously.

I said this the other week, last season at this time i said the same about Fulham and eveyrone said nah but they nearly did and would have if it wasnt for Rafa. Newcastle are in big trouble.

Rosicky wrote:

Luis wrote:Newcastle might go down. Seriously.

Nah, have a few too many points.

Blackburn and Pool next.

Then it gets easier after that for them.

For just a few games then it goes v hard again till the end of the season. Plus there is no saying they will beat the so called $h!t teams. They drew at home with Bolton and Boro, two games they should be winning.

San Marcus wrote:

Rosicky wrote:They were never out of the title race...

Sorry it was an attack to the many who thought they were out of the title race after the Man City defeat.

whatcha talking about shazlx, did you see the game? please what was your view on Carrick?

Carrick made good passes. Its hard for me to analyse this performance because you were away from home and he had Fletcher next to him who also never did anything wrong. But this is the problem I have with these types of CMs. He made ood passes like in his other god games but ManU never had control of the midfield. There were some of Newcastle moves down the center that would have been successful but for the defenders. I don't know if that was Carrick's fualt as you don't/didn't play a possession game but rather attacked down the wings whenever you had the ball. I have to say when Schhles came on he totally owned the passing with two much more difficult pases than Carrick's assist.

Today Barton & Smith were anonymous. Milner was by far their best player the problem is most of the time he, Duff and NZgobia threw in crosses there was no Newcastle player in box. Both of Ronaldo’s goals showed their defence frailties.

Premier League Top Scorers
1. Ronaldo - 21
2. Adebayor - 19
3. Torres - 15

Batman wrote:Premier League Top Scorers
1. Ronaldo - 21
2. Adebayor - 19
3. Torres - 15

Must be noted that Torres has played in a team where the midfield gives worse service than Dominoes pizza!

Anyone else listening to 606

why does he hate arsenal so much?....and how can you possily suggest it wasnt a red card

ads_afc wrote:Anyone else listening to 606

why does he hate arsenal so much?....and how can you possily suggest it wasnt a red card

It's Saints

Luis wrote:

ads_afc wrote:Anyone else listening to 606

why does he hate arsenal so much?....and how can you possily suggest it wasnt a red card

It's Saints

?

San Marcus wrote:Today Barton & Smith were anonymous. Milner was by far their best player the problem is most of the time he, Duff and NZgobia threw in crosses there was no Newcastle player in box. Both of Ronaldo’s goals showed their defence frailties.

I know but ManU never have control (I know you won comfortable). That's why I suggested it wasn'r Carrick's or Fletcher's fault. Its either that you want to play like that - Soak pressure and unleesh attacks through the wings - or that your wingers don't know how to play possession football. That's why I think it would be better to have Rooney on thr right with Cronaldo up front. You saw for his 2nd he can play as the striker that leads the line.

shazlx wrote:

San Marcus wrote:Today Barton & Smith were anonymous. Milner was by far their best player the problem is most of the time he, Duff and NZgobia threw in crosses there was no Newcastle player in box. Both of Ronaldo’s goals showed their defence frailties.

I know but ManU never have control (I know you won comfortable). That's why I suggested it wasn'r Carrick's or Fletcher's fault. Its either that you want to play like that - Soak pressure and unleesh attacks through the wings - or that your wingers don't know how to play possession football. That's why I think it would be better to have Rooney on thr right with Cronaldo up front. You saw for his 2nd he can play as the striker that leads the line.

I think they can play possession football and at times in Europe they do recently....With Scholes, Anderson, Carrick, Rooney, Ronaldo, Giggs...etc...All techincally adept and all confortable in possession....

But Fergie likes to play decisive/Fast pace football...using the Width (who interchange), thus as you see DLP (carrick) plays a crucial role in the way the team plays. Carrick was superb at channelling passes, with terrific movement further up the field...

Point is, it further illustrate how a DLP are influential....

Who scored the best goal today?

I haven't seen Torres's but his second was meant to be excellent.

Ronaldo's were both very good, Rooney's second was class as well

And Mcfadden's free kick was great

I thought we were a little unfortunate today, the scoreline was harsh on us. We weren't dreadful overall, we just made some awful mistakes defensively, we lacked quality, and we perhaps caught Man Utd on particularly potent form - they scored from a lot of their attacks, and were finishing well.

There was nothing really new from our perspective, in that the usual players performed poorly. Barton always goes absent in games. As I've remarked before, it's amazing to me that a player with his reputation shies away so much on the pitch, appears effeminate even. He again played some horrendous passes. Butt worked but isn't good enough, Smith was no use and is entirely ineffective as a forward, I didn't think Faye had a particularly good game overall after a solid start. Given can't really be faulted for any goals, but his kicking was ridiculous today, and I don't know whether his injury had anything to do with that - yet it has been somewhat of a habit recently so that, with Harper making some good saves when he came on, Harper deserves to start the next match for us.

However well Man Utd took their goals, at least three of them were from our mistakes. N'Zogbia lost Rooney for the first, though Rooney's run was clever; Taylor made a fool of himself for the third, showed a lack of nous and composure, though Faye started things off with a dreadful pass out of defence; Smith passed the ball straight to Rooney for the fourth.

The positives were that Duff and Milner put in good performances and looked perhaps more threatening than usual, and the fullbacks had decent games when attacking, though like N'Zogbia, Beye was caught out for their first. Keegan has always liked wingers who can get down the wing and cross, and Duff and Milner fit that bill, so I'd imagine that we will be looking for a sort of Les Ferdinand type in the summer - someone with a bit of pace, good in the air, who can attack balls and head the attack.

Carroll looked decent when he came on. He should certainly get a lot of playing time over the next few months. Viduka is never fit, Shola is out of favour, and whilst Barton's early substitution today was possibly a sign that Keegan is losing faith in him, I expect Keegan to soon lose faith in Smith too. As I've repeated, it will be great to have Martins back to provide a bit of movement and creativity to our front line.

A loss was expected today even though I was hopeful earlier in the week that we might have been able to get something from the game. I still think we will stay up reasonably comfortably in the end. I expect us to beat Blackburn next weekend, then we have some easier home games before the end of the season. Things don't get hard for us that soon - we have a decent run really until the last three games, when we have West Ham away, Chelsea at home, and Everton away.

San Marcus wrote:Manchester United are back in the Title Race

what a fucking idiot

unbelievable!

ads_afc wrote:

Luis wrote:

ads_afc wrote:Anyone else listening to 606

why does he hate arsenal so much?....and how can you possily suggest it wasnt a red card

It's Saints

?

Wasn't me. I never phone 606, and I loathe the presenter who was on tonight (Spoony, Spooner, something like that). I do e-mail Radio Five regularly but when they read them out they never get the timing right or the invective I intend.

606 was full of morons tonight, on 'both' sides of the coin. Can I just say that when I said it wasn't even a red card that was the impression I had from a grainy wide shot. The photos that I've since seen show pretty conclusively that it was a horror tackle, and that he'll be lucky to get away with just a three match ban.

On the other hand, these sorts of tackles happen all the time in the Premiership so I don't think we should make an example of this chap just because it's against Arsenal and they have the mainstream media in their pocket.

Well done Cotter you've dug deep down into the barrel and come up with the most useless, cliched, weightless, predictable response available to you in this language.

I hope you're proud. This, as ever, has f@ck all to do with trying to get attention. If I wanted to do that then I could. As you well know, I'm the most read poster on this board.

funny enough one of the first things that came into my mind while watching the incident was that you would be gaining some sort of satisfaction from the injury / not showing any sympathy to the arsenal player.

I don't know what arsenal or eduardo did to united last week as I had turned off after about twenty minutes so can't comment on whether eduardo did have this snapped ankle 'coming to him'

It is simply distasteful to post the things you have done on the topic in the way you have done in this thread as more or less everyone on here will agree / has already agreed. Or as you choose to label us because you are in a minority of one 'the herd'.

I'm deadly serious - if you treat the game of football with contempt, and go around fouling other teams in a reckless fashion then you can only expect this sort of thing to happen. Eduardo threw himself into a similar tackle last week without giving a toss whether he broke someone's ankle.

As above, I did not see Eduardo's tackle but at no point have I ever watched him and thought he was a dirty player or deserving of having his leg snapped.

You get what you give.

what will taylor get ? A couple of matches ban and booing by arsenal fans for the rest of his life. In football you are supposed to get a red card if you 'give' not 'get' a career threatening injury in return. It was clearly too hard for you to show a little restraint today saints.

chins

pubes

COTR wrote:

Well done Cotter you've dug deep down into the barrel and come up with the most useless, cliched, weightless, predictable response available to you in this language.

I hope you're proud. This, as ever, has f@ck all to do with trying to get attention. If I wanted to do that then I could. As you well know, I'm the most read poster on this board.

funny enough one of the first things that came into my mind while watching the incident was that you would be gaining some sort of satisfaction from the injury / not showing any sympathy to the arsenal player.

You're obsessed. Really, I know I'm an interesting guy, but this is silly.

I don't know what arsenal or eduardo did to united last week as I had turned off after about twenty minutes so can't comment on whether eduardo did have this snapped ankle 'coming to him'

Fine, speaking hypothetically, if you behave like that on a football pitch do you not have it coming to you?

It is simply distasteful to post the things you have done on the topic in the way you have done in this thread as more or less everyone on here will agree / has already agreed.

Something being distasteful doesn't stop it being true.

Or as you choose to label us because you are in a minority of one 'the herd'.

You aren't the herd because I'm in a 'minority of one', but because you act in a herdlike fashion. Groupthink. Encouraging each others' deceit. So on.

I'm deadly serious - if you treat the game of football with contempt, and go around fouling other teams in a reckless fashion then you can only expect this sort of thing to happen. Eduardo threw himself into a similar tackle last week without giving a toss whether he broke someone's ankle.

As above, I did not see Eduardo's tackle but at no point have I ever watched him and thought he was a dirty player or deserving of having his leg snapped.

You obviously haven't seen what I have.

You get what you give.

what will taylor get ? A couple of matches ban and booing by arsenal fans for the rest of his life.

The FA will probably bump up the ban due to the notoriety of the case and the fact it's Arsenal involved. And he'll be pilloried by the press, mark my words.

In football you are supposed to get a red card if you 'give' not 'get' a career threatening injury in return. It was clearly too hard for you to show a little restraint today saints.

Balls to restraint. If you confront the stereotypes of power you are going to piss people off. You can't shy away from it (or in your language, 'show restraint') just because some people won't like it. Cheating shouldn't prosper. Justice can be poetic. This is the basis for what I'm saying and not a single person here who has labelled my comments 'distasteful' has actually had the balls to confront the premises of what I'm saying. Why do you suppose that is? Could it not be because you all know that what I'm saying is unpleasant but actually true? No?

Galoshes

Wenger's new statement:

"I apologise for any comments I may have made regarding the Eduardo injury during the heat of the moment minutes after the game finished. Controrary to what has been said before, the truth of the matter is that I did not see it."

-------------------------------------------------

Obviously an awful incident, and I hope Eduardo's career isn't jeopardy but I wonder if Taylor says that Eduardo was "teasing" him, that he'll have his red card rescinded and get off scot-free.

Seemed a good enough excuse last week

I for one believe that there's more, lots more behind the horrific assault on Eduardo. An investigation should be conducted immediately. These types of incidents are extremely rare, but they occur once in a while when there's a lot at stake.

Back in 1985 Perú and Argentina were fighting for a spot to the world cup México '86. We beat Argentina with Maradona at his best in Lima 1-0. One of our forwards that year Franco Navarro (currently coaching Cienciano) had a field day against the Argentinians in Lima, especially against Passarella getting nutmegged and all. In the return game in Buenos Aires, Bilardo their coach, played Camino (a defender hardly used, a SUB) from the start in the all important 'do or die match' in Buenos Aires.

We needed to beat Argentina in order to make it to México. Camino took Navarro out of the game as soon as it began with a shocking criminal 'tackle' tearing up his knee. The Argie SUB got a YELLOW CARD for that criminal offense. Bilardo immediately substituted his SUB with the starter who played in Lima. The game ended 2-2 with them Argies tying the match with 5 minutes left from a dead ball situation, with Passarella in clear offside position. Maradona and them Argies went on to win it all 7 months later in México '86.

I don't know much about this guy Taylor from Birmingham City. How important is he for Birmingham? Was he a SUB mostly? I don't remember him playing much.

I wouldn't be surprised if there's more to the horrific incident that happened today. There's a lot at stake in the league. You know how Ferguson is so bent on "knocking Liverpool off their fucking perch", that's the glory, financially the league champion gets millions and millions. It's no secret that he has lieutenants throughout the league, you know former players and personal friends. The league title was escaping him, it was going to Arsenal. McLeish is fighting for survival, and I'm sure Fergie will scratch his back in return with some dodgy refereeing in the near future.

In this day and age where everything is 'fair game', I wouldn't be surprised that there's more to this incident than meets the eye, and that Taylor was just a pawn in the scheme of things. Now Arsenal will be minus one of their forwards for the rest of the season. Listening to McLeish's interview made me wonder about the whole situation. McLeish is one lying son of a bitch.

Puro,


Taylor is a Birmingham regular.


If you were going to injure a key Arsenal player then you wouldn't pick Eduardo, since he's been largely Cr@p this season (especially for a 16 million pound player)...

A Tribe Called TS wrote:Wenger's new statement:

"I apologise for any comments I may have made regarding the Eduardo injury during the heat of the moment minutes after the game finished. Controrary to what has been said before, the truth of the matter is that I did not see it."

-------------------------------------------------

Obviously an awful incident, and I hope Eduardo's career isn't jeopardy but I wonder if Taylor says that Eduardo was "teasing" him, that he'll have his red card rescinded and get off scot-free.

Seemed a good enough excuse last week

Indeed, apparently when Arsenal kick their opponents it is because they are trying to stamp out teasing and showboating and have nothing but respect for the rules of the game, but when opponents kick Arsenal it's because they can't play them any other way.

I mean, I'm convinced. Such a strong argument that Wenger's been using, I don't see that there's any room for dispute.