Official Premier League 2009/10 thread

[alldaws1]

Always nice to see Ledley King on the scoresheet. Defoe has one so now we just need Crouch and Kranjcar to get in on the act

[Hobo]

Here comes Bolo Zenden as Catermole goes BIH

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Oh well, I was enjoying a good laugh at another miss from the Portsmouth player and celebrating an excellent save from Gomes and then suddenly he's beaten at the near post by bloody KP Boateng of all people to make it 1-2 and Pompey all psyched up...Then Defoe gets sent off. Gah. Stressful last 30 now. If Portsmouth get another I can see Tottenham capitulating like the bad old days.

Good new days Spurs would hold on and maybe get a third....So we'll have to see which we get.

If Tottenham win today then we truly have reached a turning point. If not then it's back to the drawing board.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

.....and if we end the game with ten players (now that Palacios has come on) then it's a miracle.

[Scott McFly]

Apparently Steve Bruce and Rafa Benitez were practically brawling on the touchline. Match Of The Day will be entertaining tonight.

EDIT: Oh shit, that Stoke goal means I just need Leicester to get in front (and the other teams to stay in front obviously) for a 9-team acca to come up! Come on!

EDIT 2: FUCK YOU PETERBOROUGH!!

[Hobo]

Seven minutes of added time at the Stadium of Light and Andry Vorinin is playing! I'm full of confidence

[Scott McFly]

Wycombe equalise against Colchester to ruin a separate treble and sevenfold too. Damn, damn, damn.

Great result for Sunderland if they can hang on.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

All this injury time floating around these days....Were the 7 minutes in the Sunderland/Liverpool game required?

Portsmouth/Spurs got five for 1 red card (up to that point) and 2 or 3 substitutions. So it should have been 3 minutes at most....Ridiculous.

[Hobo]

That was awful, we didn't even try and play for most of the game. Ryan Babel continued to be useless (if he complains so much about not playing then he really should play better when he does) we got lucky in not conceding two more and there was no attacking threat. Skrtel and Carragher again had bad games. Benayoun was rather anonymous for large parts (mostly because he wasn't seeing the ball). By the sheer fact of Kuyt being up front he was missed in midfield. And of course a beach ball scored Sunderland's winner.

EDIT: Hammy, there were two injuries to Sunderland players (Jones and Catermole) and getting them off the pitch did eat up a lot of time.

[Summers]

Summers.

Mrs. Summers.

Mommy Summers.

We enjoyed beating Chelsea today.

Great win.

[Lord Nibbler]

[Fry_4000]

:lmao:

[Scott McFly]

Just watching MOTD and Huth actually just clotheslined Upson right in the face. Was missed by the ref, but if he doesn't get a ban I'll be surprised.

And lol at that space hopper thing that the ball hit for Bent's goal. It made the ball jump up more than go to the left or right, and Reina was distracted by the additional movement when the ball hit it.

Haha, post match David Moyes interview:

Interviewer: And what about the goal you conceded?

Moyes: Well, me and you could've defended it, couldn't we?

And my drunk dad the pundit. Say slowly and with a slight slur:

"Everyone says it's gonna be tight up the top, but I tell you, it'll be tight down the bottom too, everyone's picking up points - Sunderland won, Stoke won..."

"Yeah but, they're pretty decent teams and aren't down the bottom. It'll be Portsmouth, Hull and West Ham, maybe Birmingham and Wolves too..."

*Zola interview comes on TV*

"Aye, he'll be sacked!! He'll be away to Napoli, haha!"

"Em, yeah."

He always comes up with bollocks when he's drunk, he thinks he's Alan Hansen. With such gems as "that Thierry Henry, he's a good player I tell you". Thanks, I had no idea who he was.

[Captain Kirk]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC2Ady-WfMA&feature=related

The legend that is Jimmy Bullard.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Haven't we seen that link about 17 times?

[IAceI]

I'd feel a little guilty about our win had we not been the better team for the match really. Liverpool sorely lacked Torres, Gerrard and Mascherano in the starting line up - and when Lucas possibly being out was actually considered a detriment to the team then there's also a bit of a problem.

Giving Spearing his first Premiership start and sticking him in the middle against Cattermole and Cana should be considered abuse. What the hell? Fortunately for him Cana went to centre back and Cattermole went off or he may have actually been murdered. Cana was awesome when he reverted to CB and as I predicted all my friends who didn't know much about him were all saying "That Cana player was quality today", which he was, and he's a machine.

Also Benitez and Bruce nearly coming to blows was awesome. Bruce would easily win. One headbutt and Benitez might have actually died.

Also if it wasn't bloody Reina (or a Jaaskalinen / Friedel / Given) in nets then we could have had more. Him and Johnson were the only players I'd say, if I were a Liverpool fan, who played well.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I didn't quite see it because watching the Liverpool fans all stand in silence was boring, but when Babel went off apparently they were all giving him the finger and stuff - given the way people are talking on here, that sounds about right. Was probably the most the away fans did all day to be honest, I was underwhelmed by them.

Edited October 18, 2009 by IAceI

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I decided to watch the Liverpool/Sunderland game on TV cos they were showing it later after the other games.

Babel wasn't Liverpool's worst player by any stretch of the imagination. I'll agree with Stan Collymore who said that Benitez has built a lightweight Liverpool squad with very little depth and no real aura to scare other teams.

I also feel vindicated cos I'd mentioned that at the start of the season - every season since Benitez has taken over the squad has gotten worse and worse. Speaking historically only a few of the current squad I would rate as "proper" Liverpool players - Gerrard, Torres, Reina, Carragher from a couple of seasons ago....then, erm, Kuyt and Johnson are alright.

Of their 9 games so far they've lost to Spurs, Villa, Chelsea, Sunderland.

They've beaten Stoke, Bolton, Burnley, West Ham and Hull.

They have the attacking ability to run riot on the "smaller" teams but against the stronger teams they just aren't good enough. The top team Liverpool have beaten all season is Stoke. I can't see them progressing from their Champions's League group either. If Gerrard or Torres gets hit with a serious injury then they're REALLY screwed.

[9 to 5]

Enough of this beach ball gash, time for the oldest derby in the pro leagues to get going and for Burnley to get fucked!

[Crybaby Bunting]

It seems to me like it's fallout from last season, they started last season claiming that this was the last chance they had at winning the title and by narrowly missing out on it saw their entire motivational push fall flat. Now the team is one year older than last seasons team but the year of experience doesn't seem as much as the dip in quality over the last season.

I also dislike Liverpools fear of Evolution. Sure Gerrard and Torres are amazing players on their own, but surely they could be made better if they had better players around them to 'make them do what they do' more efficiently. Torres on his own isn't as good as he could be if he had a Carlton Cole style player to tee up shots. There's only so many times in a season that a striker can get away with a 'mazy run and chip over the GK' without running into a brick wall of a defence (aka, every defence that's team is not in the relegation zone). Gerrard in the other hand needed Alonso at the start of the season, or at least a FIT REPLACEMENT in time for the start of the season, as Liverpool have been playing with a huge gap in their midfield for the past 2 months it's no wonder that teams with strong midfielders can exploit their weaknesses.

It would be nice to think that if Liverpool had another player of Gerrard and Torres' quality on the left wing and in central defence that they'd be a much better team than they are today, but through Liverpools policy of one player at a time, by the time one area is completely covered another gaping hole is discovered (like how they've finally found a great right-back and Carragher has declined in form). They clearly don't have much money to spend but haven't managed to effectively make use of their youth system and bring through players that are tailor-made to suit their needs, they've managed to create some good rotation players... but none good enough to replace any first team player.

The fact that they're probably out of the title race already should destroy what made them such monsters last season, the 'keep pushing and we'll win this' mentality that Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal (once in 'oh shit we've conceded' mode) and Man City seem to have nowadays.

Maybe it's got something to do with Benitez buying about 20 mediocre defenders since managing Liverpool

[Plubby]

I've spent allll day celebrating International Day of the Beach Ball