Premier League Discussion 3/4 April 2010

Saturday, 3 April 2010
Arsenal v Wolverhampton
Bolton v Aston Villa
Burnley v Man City
Man Utd v Chelsea
Portsmouth v Blackburn
Stoke v Hull
Sunderland v Tottenham

Sunday, 4 April 2010
Birmingham v Liverpool
Everton v West Ham
Fulham v Wigan

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A huge weekend in the title race. Arsenal will be praying for a draw in the United-Chelsea game but personally I think who ever wins that (if there is a winner) will win the league. Sort of like the situation in La Liga. Sorry Arsenal fans but Wenger ruined your chances when he started an unfit Fabregas vs Barca.

West Ham are in real danger now and will probably drop 3 more points. They'll be keeping a keen eye on Fulham's game where if Fulham field less than 10 regular starters they will take them to court.

Liverpool and Spurs have tough fixtures in the race for fourth. Villa can't afford to lose any more points now. I can see City nicking a late winner at Burnley.

Football

Is no one bothered about the title decider then?!...

As for our game, I think we'll play this:

------------------Reina---------------------

--Johnson------Carragher--------Agger---------Insua------------------

---------------Masch--------------Lucas----------------------------------

----Maxi-----------------Gerrard--------------Babel----------------------

--------------------------Torres--------------------------------------------

I'd rather we play Benayoun in Gerrard's position and Gerrard in the centre instead of Lucas. Yossi needs some game time before his stint vs Benfica.

Is Kuyt injured or you think he will be rested?

Is Maxi showing any good signs yet? I haven't seen much of Pool the last few weeks.

debaser wrote:Is Kuyt injured or you think he will be rested?

Is Maxi showing any good signs yet? I haven't seen much of Pool the last few weeks.

Rested. Well I hope so anyway! This is not the sort of game for him, I'd much rather have him battling for us against Benfica. He'll get crowded out against Birmingham so there's no point.

Maxi will play because he's fresh, hasn't played in midweek. Personally I think he's been very poor since joining us. He had one decent game against Sunderland but overall he's offered very little, never looks to beat his man, always passes sideways or backwards. Looks like he can't adapt to the pace of the league to me or Rafa is restricting him in our defensive system.

It's a big weekend in the race for 4th. A tottenham win away at sunderland should really leave them in a supreme position ESP if a tired Pool don't get a win.

I fancy West Ham to beat Everton no idea why.

United Chelsea will be huge but it's an early kick off it ruins the hype and anything can happen im not confident or pessimistic.

L r dd wrote:It's a big weekend in the race for 4th. A tottenham win away at sunderland should really leave them in a supreme position ESP if a tired Pool don't get a win.

I agree. A Tottenham win and us failing to win would pretty much end our chances. I hate playing after everyone else, I'd much rather play and put pressure on the rest but instead the pressure will be on us.

I say we're due a nice weekend after the horrors of last week. Is it to much to ask Villa to win and Spurs, City, Pool, Everton all to lose/draw

I fancy Sunderland to beat Spurs 2-1 for some reason. City will beat Burnley, they look completely shite since Coyle left.

I always watched matches from the EPL ONLY when my beloved Reds/the big four were in action, well almost exclusively.

Nevertheless, seeing how my Reds got destroyed by Fiorentina, the Mancs were clearly inferior to Bayern, Chelsea were utterly dismantled by Inter, and Arsenal were made to look like Hull/Stoke/Blackburn...in their game against Barcelona, I wonder whether I'm still watching 'quality' football from the EPL's big four even though clearly they're second best when put against European top teams like the ones who ran circles around them.

Here's hoping for the return of Liverpool.

You'd think Barca could beat Hull.

Puro's right, the EPL has been disappointing in Europe this season. Just look at the facts FFS mes amis. We've only had 2 teams instead of the usual 4 reach the CL quarter-finals, meaning we've only narrowly out-performed La Liga and Serie A. And, come on, everyone expected Fulham to KO the Europa League defending champions and Juventus.

borocooper wrote:You'd think Barca could beat Hull.

Check it out Boro! Tomorrow morning at 7:45am watching Mancs-Chelsea, then immediately after it's Schalke-Bayern.

Then at 2pm and always NY-Miami time, I'll be watching the fine tuning of the machine, Pep getting it ready for the return match against the so called team that plays "just like Barcelona"

Then at 7pm it's the most anticipated Peruvian Clásico, Alianza Lima-Universitario.

How about that Boro!

Puro wrote:I always watched matches from the EPL ONLY when my beloved Reds/the big four were in action, well almost exclusively.

Nevertheless, seeing how my Reds got destroyed by Fiorentina, the Mancs were clearly inferior to Bayern, Chelsea were utterly dismantled by Inter, and Arsenal were made to look like Hull/Stoke/Blackburn...in their game against Barcelona, I wonder whether I'm still watching 'quality' football from the EPL's big four even though clearly they're second best when put against European top teams like the ones who ran circles around them.

Here's hoping for the return of Liverpool.

Well thats your own fault for thinking the epl starts and ends with the top 4. Cos you would have missed fulham open a can of whoop ass on the old lady of turin, followed by an easy win against the champions of germany. Theres plenty to see outside the top four if you stop believing the peruvian press and hype ffs.

Puro wrote:

borocooper wrote:You'd think Barca could beat Hull.

Check it out Boro! Tomorrow morning at 7:45am watching Mancs-Chelsea, then immediately after it's Schalke-Bayern.

Then at 2pm and always NY-Miami time, I'll be watching the fine tuning of the machine, Pep getting it ready for the return match against the so called team that plays "just like Barcelona"

Then at 7pm it's the most anticipated Peruvian Clásico, Alianza Lima-Universitario.

How about that Boro!

I'll be listening to Boro vs Crystal Palace, so have some of that in your anus.

borocooper wrote:

Puro wrote:

borocooper wrote:You'd think Barca could beat Hull.

Check it out Boro! Tomorrow morning at 7:45am watching Mancs-Chelsea, then immediately after it's Schalke-Bayern.

Then at 2pm and always NY-Miami time, I'll be watching the fine tuning of the machine, Pep getting it ready for the return match against the so called team that plays "just like Barcelona"

Then at 7pm it's the most anticipated Peruvian Clásico, Alianza Lima-Universitario.

How about that Boro!

I'll be listening to Boro vs Crystal Palace, so have some of that in your anus.

No Drogba in XI

Line up -

Man Utd
01 Van der Sar
02 Neville
03 Evra
05 Ferdinand
15 Vidic
11 Giggs
13 Park
18 Scholes
24 Fletcher
25 Valencia
09 Berbatov

Substitutes
29 Kuszczak, 21 Rafael Da Silva, 30 De Laet, 16 Carrick, 17 Nani, 28 Gibson, 27 Macheda


Chelsea
01 Cech
19 Ferreira
26 Terry
33 Alex
08 Lampard
10 J Cole
12 Mikel
15 Malouda
18 Zhirkov
20 Deco
39 Anelka

Substitutes
22 Turnbull, 35 Belletti, 43 Bruma, 13 Ballack, 11 Drogba, 21 Kalou, 23 Sturridge

Draw please

Anything but a United win

Robert F'gerald Earle MBE wrote:

Puro wrote:I always watched matches from the EPL ONLY when my beloved Reds/the big four were in action, well almost exclusively.

Nevertheless, seeing how my Reds got destroyed by Fiorentina, the Mancs were clearly inferior to Bayern, Chelsea were utterly dismantled by Inter, and Arsenal were made to look like Hull/Stoke/Blackburn...in their game against Barcelona, I wonder whether I'm still watching 'quality' football from the EPL's big four even though clearly they're second best when put against European top teams like the ones who ran circles around them.

Here's hoping for the return of Liverpool.

Well thats your own fault for thinking the epl starts and ends with the top 4. Cos you would have missed fulham open a can of whoop ass on the old lady of turin, followed by an easy win against the champions of germany. Theres plenty to see outside the top four if you stop believing the peruvian press and hype ffs.

Our team surprises me a bit especially no Nani maybe he's tired. Would have liked Rafael ahead of Neville also. Macheda has gotta come on at some point.

Puro wrote:I always watched matches from the EPL ONLY when my beloved Reds/the big four were in action, well almost exclusively.

Nevertheless, seeing how my Reds got destroyed by Fiorentina, the Mancs were clearly inferior to Bayern, Chelsea were utterly dismantled by Inter, and Arsenal were made to look like Hull/Stoke/Blackburn...in their game against Barcelona, I wonder whether I'm still watching 'quality' football from the EPL's big four even though clearly they're second best when put against European top teams like the ones who ran circles around them.

Here's hoping for the return of Liverpool.

A team that ran rings around us but still didn't win.

Just saw this comment on 606:

What odds on West Ham complaining to the FA that Chelsea are not fielding a full strength team with Drogba on the bench?

Draw please

Khadrim wrote:Just saw this comment on 606:

What odds on West Ham complaining to the FA that Chelsea are not fielding a full strength team with Drogba and Ballack on the bench?

Can't believe Drogba is not starting.

Well, I suppose with Drogba we tend to result to long balls more which Vidic is fine with. He's only scored once against ManU in a fair few games. Interesting decision.

Hardrada wrote:Well, I suppose with Drogba we tend to result to long balls more which Vidic is fine with. He's only scored once against ManU in a fair few games. Interesting decision.

You had a ridiculously good result without him and Ballack in the last game

The Drogba / Anelka partnership has been producing poor football for most of the season

Ancelotti is doing the right thing. Chelsea now have a chance to outplay United rather than outpower them.

both line ups look horrible, dont see a single wc player in the complete attack of both teams

We'll see if it pays off in the end, I think it might be quite a clever decision with as Hardrade says with Vidic being really dominant in the air.

Hopefully Joe Cole has a good game, he could be the deciding factor if he gets in behind the fullback and starts to create.

Özil wrote:both line ups look horrible, dont see a single wc player in the complete attack of both teams

If only they had Gomez

Özil wrote:both line ups look horrible, dont see a single wc player in the complete attack of both teams

it never stops