Official Premier League 2009/10 thread

[Crybaby Bunting]

Vidic was clearly trying to win an extra ten minutes of play or something >_>

[Adam]

What a game. I've not felt happier watching Liverpool for a long time, even I was starting to doubt Rafa after the 4 game losing run, but he's really pulled it out of the bag today. A much needed win, and it'll never be sweeter than defeating Manchester United.

I don't think Man Utd were especially bad today, they just never really got going. Defensively they were a bit shaky, but Liverpool played with a purpose that they need to apply to every fixture. I'm still not confident in Lucas, he wasn't crisp enough and made some sloppy fouls, but Carragher made up for some poor performances earlier in the season by being really solid today. Mascherano as well was really good in the middle.

As for the red card incidents, both were fully deserved. Vidic seems to have some kind of mental block against Liverpool, long may i continue. Mascherano's foul on Van Der Sar was reckless and unneccessary, he deserved to go too. I hought Carragher would go off for the foul on Owen too, he surely was going to be in on goal without that impede by Carragher. The ref made some fairly poor decisions on both sides throughout the game tbh.

I don't really agree with Torres getting man of the match. I'd have given it to Yossi Benayoun.

I'd agree with that. Torres did what he needed to do but Benayoun was the creative spark in midfield and always caused Man Utd problems. The assist for Torres merits the man of the match award on it's own, it was world class.

[Dynamite]

Was a poor performance from us today really. It was the type of game where we needed a Fletcher/Anderson partnership in the middle to put some pressure on Liverpool's midfield in the same way they did to Carrick and Scholes. Those two are the ones you want in a match where we dominate possession and have plenty of time and space to pick out those killer passes, not when you have Mascherano charging you down every time you touch the ball.

Carragher should have been off. Vidic did essentially the same thing last year to Gerrard and got shown a red. I'm sure if he wasn't on a yellow already, Vidic would have got a straight red for bringing down Kuyt late on too. I wonder what the odds are for him getting a 4th one when they play at Old Trafford...

The biggest concern I had with the game was the lack of pace and urgency that we showed. Beyond Valencia running at Insua, the rest of the team showed very little ambition and just couldn't keep up with the pace of Liverpool when they attacked.

We did deserve to lose but did they really have to let N'Gog score? That was like adding insult to injury.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Chelsea and Arsenal are a long way ahead of the rest this season.

[Hobo]

We did deserve to lose but did they really have to let N'Gog score? That was like adding insult to injury.

N'Gog isn't a terrible player at all though. He's not amazing but it isn't like it was Voronin

EDIT: Holy shit, I turned off the West Ham/Arsenal game and turn back now its 2-2.

[HailtotheYo]

Chelsea and Arsenal are a long way ahead of the rest this season.

thanks for the jinx ... butthead

[Dynamite]

We did deserve to lose but did they really have to let N'Gog score? That was like adding insult to injury.

N'Gog isn't a terrible player at all though. He's not amazing but it isn't like it was Voronin

Yeah I know but I've had so much of my Liverpool friends proclaiming him the 'New Henry', this is just going to encourage them even more.

And if Arsenal could discover how to see out games they would be quite unstoppable. Chelsea are the only real team in the league who are good attacking, have a strong midfield and look secure when defending.

[stokeriño]

"The atmosphere is hard to handle for a referee. Whether he had enough experience, I don't know."

Is SAF trying to get himself banned? I mean, really? They probably wouldn't have the balls to do it of course, and now he's just taunting them by coming out with more stuff like this every week.

[Crybaby Bunting]

He's slowly getting more and more leverage until he can finally say:

That referee was so bad that I hope him and his close family all die in a car crash, preferably against an inanimate object as such to not hurt anyone else.

Edited October 25, 2009 by The General

[Baddar]

"The atmosphere is hard to handle for a referee. Whether he had enough experience, I don't know."

Is SAF trying to get himself banned? I mean, really? They probably wouldn't have the balls to do it of course, and now he's just taunting them by coming out with more stuff like this every week.

He's actually been quite clever there, because he's talking as if he feels sorry for the referee because it was his first "big" match.

The comment is patronising, but nothing that he could get into any trouble over, even if he does mean "The ref was shit today and should never have been in charge of such a high profile game."

[Dynamite]

That Bobby Zamora miss was ridiculously bad even for his standards.

[Adam]

Why is Ferguson such a bad loser? I agree with him on the Carragher foul on Owen but he's just talking out of his arse here:

But Ferguson, recently charged by the Football Association following remarks about the fitness of referee Alan Wiley, felt that three crucial decisions went against his team.

United had a first-half penalty appeal turned down when Jamie Carragher challenged Michael Carrick - and Ferguson added: "He has gone right over the top of the ball.

"If it is outside of the box it is a free kick and maybe a yellow card.

"But it was inside the box and the referee was only six yards from it. It was another bad decision."

Carragher got the ball, it was a great tackle. Nobody had any doubt about it, neither of the commentators said he didn't get the ball and none of the Man Utd players appealled at the time. Clearly the old man is going blind.

[Sam]

We did deserve to lose but did they really have to let N'Gog score? That was like adding insult to injury.

N'Gog isn't a terrible player at all though. He's not amazing but it isn't like it was Voronin

Yeah I know but I've had so much of my Liverpool friends proclaiming him the 'New Henry', this is just going to encourage them even more.

And if Arsenal could discover how to see out games they would be quite unstoppable. Chelsea are the only real team in the league who are good attacking, have a strong midfield and look secure when defending.

Their undoing at set pieces as demonstrated by Wigan and Villa suggest otherwise!

This season has been good though because it's seen a clear regression in the top 4 and a clear step up in the chasers. The thing that's also different is that City, Spurs and Villa all have the squad depth to sustain their form this season and shouldn't fade away come March.

[Gazz]

I'm glad this part of the board wasn't renamed Ewood Park or we'd all get Swine Flu.

[R.W.]

I hope it was transmitted to the Chelsea team as part of a long-term defensive strategy, since the short-term one was utter bollocks.

[ONO]

According to the fantastic Jamie Redknapp a Mr. Michael Owen is "literally like a greyhound". :lmao:

[Scott McFly]

That's because Jamie Redknapp is "literally like a tosser".

[alldaws1]

I guess you can be literally like a greyhound. If he'd said he was literally a greyhound then yeah. No one on television seems to know how to use the word literally properly for some reason.

[ONO]

Andy Burton from Sky Sports News has updated his Twitter page saying he thinks Phil Brown has left Hull, yet to be confirmed though.

[Crybaby Bunting]

Now I finally know his name I've realised that he's the cunt who puts me off watching Sky Sports News.

With 1 hour to go in the transfer market he said "hmm, Ribery to Chelsea? Never say never" whilst the rest of the world wanted to punch him in the face for being so ignorant about a subject he's meant to have in depth knowledge over.

So yeah, PB is probably still at Hull and may launch a lawsuit into this slanderous comment.

EDIT: He's using this as his proof

Now look closely at that pic

The monitor suggests that it's a CRT screen, but the lines on the picture are completely parallel and vertical. It's probably a photoshop to get him out of this ridiculous mess.

The headline is also slightly off, but not at the correct angle that you view the page at

The start menu also looks borked

Edited October 28, 2009 by The General