2023-24 English Premier League Discussion Thread

[MetalFingaz]

Havertz was not even suppose to be on the pitch... Ref saved him for not showing second yellow for blatant dive. Talk about obvious - "well second yellow card has higher threshold bull"...An offense is an offense in my book and he should have been send off.

We got 2 clear penalties wiped off the board lol. We are so good at set pieces and crosses now that teams are allowed free reign to just foul. Trossard was fouled and so was Gabriel. VAR is useless

Why don’t you mention that?

Neither of these are clear penalties and are almost never given. There's some grabbing as there is on every set piece, but they don't look like much of anything if Trossard and Gabriel don't theatrically fling themselves to the ground.

[MaliBrah]

Havertz was not even suppose to be on the pitch... Ref saved him for not showing second yellow for blatant dive. Talk about obvious - "well second yellow card has higher threshold bull"...An offense is an offense in my book and he should have been send off.

We got 2 clear penalties wiped off the board lol. We are so good at set pieces and crosses now that teams are allowed free reign to just foul. Trossard was fouled and so was Gabriel. VAR is useless

Why don’t you mention that?

Neither of these are clear penalties and are almost never given. There's some grabbing as there is on every set piece, but they don't look like much of anything if Trossard and Gabriel don't theatrically fling themselves to the ground.

Agree to disagree. City got that pen at Old Trafford this year

Havertz first yellow was for jumping and incidental contact. It should never ever ever have been given out. That was an awful decision

[wco81]

Dominance by Spurs.

[The_Brecht]

Stop the count

[wco81]

Sure seems like Pool is generating more chances. Those younger players were running around a lot in the first half.

They aren't finishing too well though.

[The_Brecht]

Doku unlucky to hit the post.

[MaliBrah]

City are so so lucky. Decisions just don’t go against them.

[wco81]

More possession, more shots (19) but only 6 shots on goal.

They outworked City, especially those younger players. Elliott seemed to be all over the pitch.

[MaliBrah]

Our run of good form finally moves us in the table with a healthy GD.

Most goals scored , least conceded , best underlying numbers. 10 games left. I hope Rice and Saliba are the difference this year. Tough schedule left but City away is the big one and its the next league game. Get by that and anything is possible!!! *KG VOICE*

[Baphomet]

Dominance by Spurs.

Really great performance but Villa looked tired in the second half from their midweek game. Don't know what McGinn was thinking with that rash challenge.

Richarlison aside the team is basically at full strength now, and it showed on the pitch. Sarr is a phenom, Porro gives the team so much quality at RB. Van de Ven getting injured again is worrying but now we have Dragusin to step in and he looked solid.

[MaliBrah]

Dominance by Spurs.

Really great performance but Villa looked tired in the second half from their midweek game. Don't know what McGinn was thinking with that rash challenge.

Richarlison aside the team is basically at full strength now, and it showed on the pitch. Sarr is a phenom, Porro gives the team so much quality at RB. Van de Ven getting injured again is worrying but now we have Dragusin to step in and he looked solid.

So Baph ... with Spurs needing points to secure their spot. You guys have a say in where the title goes. Should be interesting

[Baphomet]

Dominance by Spurs.

Really great performance but Villa looked tired in the second half from their midweek game. Don't know what McGinn was thinking with that rash challenge.

Richarlison aside the team is basically at full strength now, and it showed on the pitch. Sarr is a phenom, Porro gives the team so much quality at RB. Van de Ven getting injured again is worrying but now we have Dragusin to step in and he looked solid.

So Baph ... with Spurs needing points to secure their spot. You guys have a say in where the title goes. Should be interesting

Yeah it's nerve wracking but I want to be back in the CL badly even if it means Arsenal possibly winning the league as a result of whatever it is that Spurs do or don't do. Even if a victory against Liverpool or City meant handing Arsenal the title, you have to want to win your games, anything else is a loser's mentality, imo. I remember known Chelsea blowhard Rory Jennings gave Spurs grief for beating City last season and possibly giving the title to Arsenal. It didn't happen in the end, but I really don't understand that mentality.

A possible scenario is that Liverpool lose it to Arsenal/City by a point or GD, which they may have had were it not for that calamitous VAR decision against Diaz in our game against them earlier in the season.

[MetalFingaz]

It's gonna be a heckuva run-in!

[knickabocker88]

It is what it is.

10 game sprint to the title for all 3 teams. Let's see what March 31 brings.

[MaliBrah]

Really great performance but Villa looked tired in the second half from their midweek game. Don't know what McGinn was thinking with that rash challenge.

Richarlison aside the team is basically at full strength now, and it showed on the pitch. Sarr is a phenom, Porro gives the team so much quality at RB. Van de Ven getting injured again is worrying but now we have Dragusin to step in and he looked solid.

So Baph ... with Spurs needing points to secure their spot. You guys have a say in where the title goes. Should be interesting

Yeah it's nerve wracking but I want to be back in the CL badly even if it means Arsenal possibly winning the league as a result of whatever it is that Spurs do or don't do. Even if a victory against Liverpool or City meant handing Arsenal the title, you have to want to win your games, anything else is a loser's mentality, imo. I remember known Chelsea blowhard Rory Jennings gave Spurs grief for beating City last season and possibly giving the title to Arsenal. It didn't happen in the end, but I really don't understand that mentality.

A possible scenario is that Liverpool lose it to Arsenal/City by a point or GD, which they may have had were it not for that calamitous VAR decision against Diaz in our game against them earlier in the season.

Yea agreed control what you can control and everything will take care of itself is the right mentality to have

Yeah i'd be furious if i was a liverpool fan if it came down to that. Doku's challenge was wild today too i said woah thats a pen in real time lol. In our case Newcastle goal against us and that first west ham goal against us will make me sick forever. City though , always the benefactors. Makes sense since they fly these guys out to Dubai to ref matches and get their palms greased!. Don't mind my tinfoil hat

[Baseline81]

Yea agreed control what you can control and everything will take care of itself is the right mentality to have

Yeah i'd be furious if i was a liverpool fan if it came down to that. Doku's challenge was wild today too i said woah thats a pen in real time lol. In our case Newcastle goal against us and that first west ham goal against us will make me sick forever. City though , always the benefactors. Makes sense since they fly these guys out to Dubai to ref matches and get their palms greased!. Don't mind my tinfoil hat

I am absolutely fuming. That’s three huge decisions now against Liverpool. As Baph explained, the goal that was not given at Tottenham, the handball at home to Arsenal (game ended in a draw) and now today’s result (another draw). That’s possibly 5 additional points LFC should have in the table not to mention what it would do to the opposition's.

It doesn’t matter that Doku touched the ball first, at any spot on the pitch a foot with studs up above the waist is a foul. This happened to be in the box, thus a penalty should be been given.

Again, why is the ref not going to the monitor…

[Baphomet]

Yeah it's a stonewall penalty. I think the officials bottled it, it feels like they didn't want to decide a game of that magnitude off a last minute VAR decision, or something along those lines.

Makes me think of this admission by Mark Clattenburg regarding 2016's "Battle of the Bridge", the game where Leicester won the title as a result of a Chelsea comeback. He basically said he didn't want to send someone off or give specific decisions because he went into the match with a narrative in mind.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42219327

[Baseline81]

Yeah it's a stonewall penalty. I think the officials bottled it, it feels like they didn't want to decide a game of that magnitude off a last minute VAR decision, or something along those lines.

Makes me think of this admission by Mark Clattenburg regarding 2016's "Battle of the Bridge", the game where Leicester won the title as a result of a Chelsea comeback. He basically said he didn't want to send someone off or give specific decisions because he went into the match with a narrative in mind.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42219327

No doubt to the underline. Alan Pardew stated that exact reason as to why he was glad it wasn't called. Nonsense.

I know Manchester City fans who told me they were lucky it wasn't called.

[Pipp33]

Dominance by Spurs.

Really great performance but Villa looked tired in the second half from their midweek game. Don't know what McGinn was thinking with that rash challenge.

Richarlison aside the team is basically at full strength now, and it showed on the pitch. Sarr is a phenom, Porro gives the team so much quality at RB. Van de Ven getting injured again is worrying but now we have Dragusin to step in and he looked solid.

Credit to Spurs, thoroughly deserved that victory, we were well off, especially in the second half.

Not sure why, but we changed our formation to one that we haven't had success with and it was a massive fail. Trying to cover Kamara's absence has been difficult, and then Ramsey still unavailable for our left really made Emery try and overthink this one.

Not sure what McGinn was thinking, probably, I'm buggared and could do with 2 weeks off

Best to just move straight on from that and try and re-group for Ajax on Thursday.

And we are still in 4th, but we have a real tough run home. As long as Manure don't catch us, I'll be happy with the season.

I do think it's been a great credit to Emery to not make excuses of the injured players we've been missing, with a few for large parts or all season, as Ange has done the same also.
Too many other managers try to put all excuses on injuries, but most teams will face critical players missing throughout the season. And the worst managers are the ones with more depth than most other teams

[The_Brecht]

Didn't get why Emery changed to a back five instead of playing his normal formation.
Seemed like the end of his time at Arsenal.