Premier League 2022/23

[Twist]

That’s definitely penalty for me. Nunez gets the ball, Diop wildly swings a leg and catches Nunez’s trailing leg as he continues his natural motion.

Unrelated, I noticed that 5 of the 6 teams currently in the top 6 of League 1 have at one time or another played in the Premier League. Had a check and over half the football pyramid (50 teams) have now had at least one season in the EPL.

And Haaland breaks the scoring record.

Edited May 3, 2023 by Twist

[Szumi]

2 hours ago, DavidMarrio said:

Xabi, don't do it to yourself. Stay at Leverkusen

It would be the worst decision he could make. Xabi is not ready for that step up yet. He's not even got a full season at Leverkusen yet. He's done well to balance their season, but it's not like he's worked wonders in my opinion. They were absolutely awful at the beginning of the season yes, but this was still the squad that Seone took to 3rd last season, plus Wirtz coming back too. If he's smart, he will at least stay a full season next year and keep developing as a manager.

[DavidMarrio]

Good result from the sounds of it. Didn't watch it as I'm away on holiday but 3 points from a potential banana skin at home especially given we lost away and Fulham are a good team. 

It's good that we are building momentum to end the season whether that ends up as Europa League, Conference League or no Europe. Its nice to see the team building on something that during this season hasn't been apparent at times 

[Twist]

12 hours ago, Liam said:

Such a weird passage of play. Diop letting it run was stupid, but it also looks like any contact is initiated by Nunez. See why it has been given, but I can also see why there's a lot of debate about Nunez diving.

There’s a really ridiculous subset of Newcastle fans talking about how this decision show there’s a huge conspiracy against Newcastle to keep us out of the UCL. Utterly absurd.

[The Lusophone]

You'd hope if there was a conspiracy to keep Newcastle out of the UCL they'd be a lot more competent at it.

[Colly]

To be fair, presumably that's Twitter.

I responded to a comment on it by one of our blogs this morning just to say it was a blatant penalty, and the only response is a Fulham fan saying that the ref said in the second half it wasn't a pen. What actually happened was Tom Cairney said another player said the ref said it, which is a lovely game of Chinese whispers.

P.S. Not to sound too GB News, but is Chinese whispers still okay...

[Liam]

6 hours ago, Colly said:

P.S. Not to sound too GB News, but is Chinese whispers still okay...

I don't really think it is, but I still hear it used a lot so...

As I said at the time, I get why it has been given, but I also find that there is enough of a debate to suggest it wasn't the stonewall penalty people suggest it is. If the contact was with the leg he swung at the ball, there'd be no debate, but as it looks like the main contact (if any) is Nunez dragging his leg into Diop's standing leg, it becomes more debatable. It wasn't helped by Nunez going down like he'd been shot, though I guess you would in that situation.

EDIT - I've looked back at it a couple of times and he possibly catches the leg as it comes back into Diop's body actually, so it isn't the standing leg.

Ultimately, if Diop just clears it, none of it happens.

My only other real beef with that decision is that there does still feel a little bit of a 'given for some teams, not for others' element about some decisions we've had recently. Though not a direct comparison, the Bobby Reid/Kyle Walker clash in the Man City game was the type that feels like it would've been given if it was a possible Man City penalty. I could see the type of tackle Nunez got the penalty for not be given by some referees and by proxy for some teams. Maybe cynical thinking, but there've been a few too many decisions that are a bit dubious going against us.

[DavidMarrio]

Chalk it up to the referring standards in this country and the level of consistency being piss poor. 

If that was Mo, we wouldn't have got a pen. 

[Twist]

Fun fact, Danny Welbeck is the only person on the field to have played in a title winning Man United side.

[Baddar]

Been a much better watch than the whole of the FA Cup semi already. 

We've played well, but we tend to do that first half. Can't remember off the top of my head the last genuinely good 2nd half from us. Barca in the Europa maybe.

18 minutes ago, Twist said:

Fun fact, Danny Welbeck is the only person on the field to have played in a title winning Man United side.

The disrespect 

[Kaney]

21 minutes ago, Twist said:

Fun fact, Danny Welbeck is the only person on the field to have played in a title winning Man United side.

De Gea no?

-1 for Baddar.

[Twist]

8 minutes ago, Kaney said:

De Gea no?

-1 for Baddar.

He was there when they won the league but he didn’t play.

Edit: oh, I’m wrong. I looked at a page that said he didn’t play that year. My bad.

Edited May 4, 2023 by Twist

[gunnar hendershow]

Wow can't believe this board doesn't have more experts on the career exploits of David De Gea.

[Baddar]

Standard pathetic 2nd half to cost us the game.

[Colly]

It'll be a crying shame if this Brighton side gets raided in the summer, it's two or three signings away from a Champions League side with some great young players coming three and a top coach. Granted I do already feel guilty we nicked their director of football...

[The Lusophone]

Football is bad and should be banned.

[DavidMarrio]

The only problem I see for Brighton and to a lesser extent yourselves will be squad depth when being in Europe and the league. Yous had that run without Bruno and it felt like you drew every game. 

Advantage yous have is the obvious oil money that could be used. 

But also, this just is the cycle of team comes up keeps improving and smashing it and then their best players leave. Brighton seem to be able to recruit smart so they could keep finding hidden gems. 

That said, I really hope we get Mac Allister. Always rated him more than Bellingsham

[Colly]

9 hours ago, DavidMarrio said:

But also, this just is the cycle of team comes up keeps improving and smashing it and then their best players leave. Brighton seem to be able to recruit smart so they could keep finding hidden gems. 

It is, but it doesn't usually result in a side pushing for Champions League football, it usually ends in a bit of a whimper before your team gets carved up a la Southampton a few years ago. Finding hidden gems can never go on forever as we found out in 2012ish when Graeme Carr went from footballing superscout to basically never being heard from again.

All football players talk about projects when they make a big money move, but surely helping a team build from nothing into something better is a better project than a completely sideways move to Liverpool. Players seldom see that, but it irks me. I accept it's completely one eyed from me too as I've no issue with nicking from overseas...

[DavidMarrio]

I'd argue against it being a sidewards move based purely on the fact that out of the last 5 seasons, we won the title, lost out on the title twice by a point, got to three European finals and won one, won a cup double last season and despite this season being woeful at times we are somehow 4 points behind Man Utd who have been praised for the turn around this season under ETH (Albeit a game in hand). Our worst season in 5 years is better than a lot of other teams of a similar standing (Chelsea/Spurs)

But I do agree you tend to get a lot of players who go for stature of club etc compared to say we've got a good thing going here at Brighton let's see where this run takes us. 

I mean they're getting James Milner out of it so it's not all bad 💔

[Colly]

Not arguing your first para at all because you're absolutely right, but at this point it's 5th to 6th (with 2 games in hand) with both sides likely to be in the Europa League. Someone like a McAllister as a World Cup winner could be the catalyst for getting really good players at Brighton and a push for Champions League next season, in the same way that Bruno is for us. I just don't like the way a well run club inevitably becomes a feeder club for the rich kids at the top, Leicester literally won the league and still lost Kante and Mahrez, and obviously both have gone on to win more titles but it lacks a certain romance. 

There's no logic behind my ranting whatsoever, and I'd probably be delighted if we poached Harry Kane, but it just seems a shame when there's so much potential at Brighton. Mitoma only really played half a season (I had him in my draft team in September 😞) and the likes of Enciso, Buononate and Ferguson only just coming through, that team if not ripped to shreds could do great things.

I do love the idea of Milner going there though.