Premier League discussion 13/14/15/16 March

Saturday, 13 March 2010
Birmingham v Everton
Bolton v Wigan
Burnley v Wolverhampton
Chelsea v West Ham
Hull v Arsenal
Stoke v Aston Villa
Tottenham v Blackburn

Sunday, 14 March 2010
Man Utd v Fulham
Sunderland v Man City

Monday, 15 March 2010
Liverpool v Portsmouth

Tuesday, 16 March 2010
Wigan v Aston Villa

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

Not the most interesting set of fixtures on paper but I reckon there will be goals galore this weekend for some reason. I can see Spurs, Chelsea and United all winning very comfortably, scoring lots of goals.

Birmingham Vs Everton will be interesting, if Everton can get 3 points there then you can't rule them out of a late race for a top 6 finish.

Liverpool, like Spurs should get the 3 points without any bother but right now it's hard imagining us even scoring more than a goal, we've hit rock bottom and if we fail to get the 3 points at home to bottom placed Portsmouth then it's all over for us in the race for 4th.

City and Villa have much more difficult tests, I think both will have to work very hard to get the 3 points.

In the race for the title I don't expect too much to change, Arsenal could slip up at Hull but I can't see it.

These two fixtures may well decide whether we are in the race for 4th, I think we need 4pts minimum to stay in touch (& also to keep a cushion ahead of Everton)

Hopefully Sunderland can put the brakes on City after their freak win at Chelsea, while anything Blackburn/Portsmouth get is a bonus.

Optimistically speaking, it has to be said that its in a few 'easy' home fixtures like this that Spurs have been dropping points this season, while Portsmouth should go into the Liverpool game with a nothing-to-lose attitude. In their cup wins at least they've shown better attitude than Liverpool lately, despite their diabolical situation, so you never know against a side who keep finding new nadirs..

I'd say that wins for Spurs and City and dropped points for Liverpool and then Villa in both games would mean pretty much a two horse race.

Luis wrote:I'd say that wins for Spurs and City and dropped points for Liverpool and then Villa in both games would mean pretty much a two horse race.

Maybe. But let's not forget which two horses you are talking about. These are horses who, when leading by a dozen lengths, would be disqualified due to being owned by Kim Jung-Il or suddenly come down with a case of explosive lasagne-based diarrhoea

Hilario is injured for us so Ross Turnbull (future England no.1) stands in, with Rhys Taylor on the bench (future Welsh no.1).

Trip to the stadium of light on sunday, not sure what to expect after they beat Bolton i think they will be more confident butwe should have enough to do them....we need to if we are going to stay in the race for 4th.

debaser wrote:

Luis wrote:I'd say that wins for Spurs and City and dropped points for Liverpool and then Villa in both games would mean pretty much a two horse race.

Maybe. But let's not forget which two horses you are talking about. These are horses who, when leading by a dozen lengths, would be disqualified due to being owned by Kim Jung-Il or suddenly come down with a case of explosive lasagne-based diarrhoea

You've got a point there. Unfortunately.

Blackburn at home is not a banker.

We have managed to throw away a lot of points this season at home to some shit teams. And usually after having approximately 20 shots on target.

Fully expect Robinson to have a once-in-a-career type game against us, just like the Hull goalkeeper did when they came to WHL. Added incentive playing against his former team.

Still maintain that 4th is out of our reach. a 5th place finish and FA cup final would do me from this season. Anything more will be a nice bonus

it's hard not to have a bit of sympathy for Fulham with their current run of fixtures

2 x 0-0 draws leading into

Juventus (a)
Man Utd (a)
Juventus (h)
Man City (h)
Tottenham (a)

they could (and probably will be) out of 2 cups and in the bottom half of the table after that run

They're not going to be relegated and are currently topping the fair play league table which would mean Europe again next season so reasons to be cheerful 1 2 3.

Manuel Glennegrini wrote:it's hard not to have a bit of sympathy for Fulham with their current run of fixtures

2 x 0-0 draws leading into

Juventus (a)
Man Utd (a)
Juventus (h)
Man City (h)
Tottenham (a)

they could (and probably will be) out of 2 cups and in the bottom half of the table after that run

They're not going to be relegated and are currently topping the fair play league table which would mean Europe again next season so reasons to be cheerful 1 2 3.

Sympathy

You play football for games like that FFS. I find it amusing playing big teams is now a terrible thing.

Hull will kick us up and down the pitch and also try and provoke the players (Nasri needs to watch out, no stupid retaliations). We need to take control of the match early but probably won't and eke out a scrappy 1 - 2 after a couple of nervous patches.

Spuuuurs: Gomes, Corluka, Dawson, Bassong, Assou-Ekotto, Kranjcar, Modric, Palacios, Bale, Pavlyuchenko, Defoe.
Subs: Alnwick, Kaboul, Crouch, Gudjohnsen, Rose, Kyle Walker, Livermore.

Blackburn: Robinson, Salgado, Samba, Givet, Chimbonda, Emerton, Nzonzi, Pedersen, Olsson, Dunn, Kalinic.
Subs: Brown, Roberts, Andrews, Diouf, Basturk, Hoilett, Di Santo.

Salgado's an even slower right-back than G Neville. Bale's just pushing the ball past him and beating him with ease and is comfortably Spurs' most dangerous player at the moment.

Its madness..what is Sam thinking playing him up against Bale?

I was just about to post something about Salgado but I've been beaten to it

He's making Bale look like a superstar. Fat Sam can't leave him on for the 2nd half, when Spurs score it will be down to him.

L r dd wrote:

Manuel Glennegrini wrote:it's hard not to have a bit of sympathy for Fulham with their current run of fixtures

2 x 0-0 draws leading into

Juventus (a)
Man Utd (a)
Juventus (h)
Man City (h)
Tottenham (a)

they could (and probably will be) out of 2 cups and in the bottom half of the table after that run

They're not going to be relegated and are currently topping the fair play league table which would mean Europe again next season so reasons to be cheerful 1 2 3.

Sympathy

You play football for games like that FFS. I find it amusing playing big teams is now a terrible thing.

Yes Leetard, Sympathy

Playing against Juventus and Man Utd is great, but those 3 games 7 days is far from ideal especially with Fulham's meagre squad.

Sppppppppppppppppppppppppuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurs

1-0 Charmaine Defoe

Awful defending