Official 2012/13 Premier League thread

[Gazz]

HATEM BOMB!

[Summers]

luck.

[therockbox]

Horrible goalkeeping from Schwarzer.

[Lineker]

His slump into the net afterwards was quite amusing though.

[stokeriño]

Oriol Romeu has had knee surgery and will be out of action for at least six months.

Hurry up to the transfer window, please. "

[Plubby]

He has a first name?!

[stokeriño]

...Yes?

[Plubby]

Will wonders never cease?!

[Szumi]

All Chelsea fans have done is bash the kid over the past 3 months. Rafa comes in, plays him, and that happens. Tough break for him.

[brenchill]

He didn't break anything. Just needed a knee op.

[Szumi]

...I get the joke. Using my American lingo to slight me and make me look foolish!

...but I'm not HTTK!

[stokeriño]

Not sure Chelsea fans "bash" the kid. Most basically acknowledge that he's behind Mikel, Ramires and Lampard for those two CM spots. Which I imagine should be pretty obvious.

[Matticus]

As a Reading fan, we are absolute dross. Not blaming our players as they vastly out performed in the championship, but We play an outdated form of football and McDermott seems to have lost the dressing room, Jason Roberts and Danny Guthrie have both been dropped due to speaking out at the tactics.

[Colly]

Sure it isn't just that Danny Guthrie is wank?

[Whisper]

He's was Reading's best player by far before he got injured.

[Colly]

Genuinely, or did he play just enough poor man's Gerrard cross field passes of rubbish to look good enough to be? Because that's the same nonsense I've heard from Newcastle fans for four years.

"He just needs a run in the side!"

[Matticus]

His "injury" was a bit iffy anyway, he was unhappy at not being played and spoke out and then got "injured for exactly a month". He has been brought in, and then seemingly told his style of play doesn't suit us, which I can see why he can be frustrated.

Especially since we are devoid of anything creative in midfield, with Leigherwood playing like he is running through mud, and Jay Tabb, as much as I commend his effort, has always been a squad player at best in the last 4 championship seasons, and should not be anywhere near a premier league starting 11.

Last nights game we had 3 defenders on the bench ( one being the dinosaur Ian Harte), a 37 yr old defensive midfielder who has only played 10 minutes of competitive football since early 2011 ( and is essentially retired) and 2 youngsters who had yet to debut for the team). Definitely going to give Derby a run for their money as worst Prem team ever.

[Lineker]

Interesting thoughts from an ex-Arsenal player on the Sky Sports site:

Arsene Wenger is "a dictator" whose time at Arsenal should have come to an end years ago, according to Stewart Robson.

The club's former midfielder, who played 210 times following his debut as a teenager in 1981, believes Wenger has a lack of tactical nous which is costing points every year.

Arsenal have made their worst start to a season under Wenger, but a large section of the support continues to back a manager who has twice delivered the Double and overseen an unbeaten league campaign during his 16-year reign.

Robson, though, told Sky Sports News Wenger's reluctance to listen to his backroom staff is behind the kind of defeat the Gunners suffered at League Two Bradford in the Capital One Cup.

He said: "It was a poor performance, but one I'm not surprised about. Time and time again Arsenal don't earn the right to play, and tactically (Bradford boss) Phil Parkinson showed he's a better coach than Arsene Wenger.

"I'm more embarrassed with the way Arsene Wenger conducts himself these days. He doesn't do any tactical stuff on the side of the field, they tell me he doesn't do too much work on the defensive side in training, yet he'll have a rant at everybody else.

"There's backroom staff that will challenge his decisions - Steve Bould, Neil Banfield, Terry Burton - but they can't challenge him because he's a dictator in many ways.

"Why isn't Steve Bould doing more coaching? Because - time and time again - I don't think Arsene Wenger sees the danger. When the team are making mistakes he doesn't rectify them, and the reason he doesn't rectify them is he doesn't know what the mistakes are.

"In my view it was time up three or four years ago. The fans have stuck by him, they always say 'in Arsene we trust', that can't be the case any more.

"Tactically Arsenal are all over the place at times, they're underprepared defensively, and if you have that you're always going to lose several football games in a season and not win trophies."

[brenchill]

Chelsea fans (stoker ), what's the opinion on Hazard? I haven't seen much of him this year, I know he was looking like a worldy in Ligue 1, not heard much about him this year.

[stokeriño]

Good albeit still overshadowed by Mata, who of course is a year ahead of him in the Premier League. Tends to go a little absent in some games and makes less of an impact when he plays on the left of the forward three rather than in the centre (which is where he's been played a lot).

I think the general consensus is that he's going to be staggering once he has a season or so of PL football under his belt.