Official 2012/13 Premier League thread

[The Lusophone]

He's not alone in wishing his death.

[Berober]

Didn't watch the Newcastle game, but I felt this was a game we could win.

Tell me more of your fascinating assumption...

[Gazz]

Didn't watch the Newcastle game, but I felt this was a game we could win.

Tell me more of your fascinating assumption...

Well, Villa are shit.

[Summers]

We were better than you.

[Matt]

The scoreline indicates you were of a similar standard, tbh.

[Rafael]

If Villa was better, then we're below shit.

We're at Liverpool's level now.

[Summers]

The scoreline indicates you were of a similar standard, tbh.

No it means we scored the same amount of goals..

[brenchill]

No need to get scientific.

[Jimmy]

haven't seen the game, but from reading Pardew's comments it sounded like Villa were the better team.

[Summers]

Newcastle came into in the last 20 and they showed their class, had they played like that for 90 minutes we'd have lost.

[GoN_]

So wait a minute, AVB does awesome in Portugal by joining a team and not making many changes (instead making the most of the team he knows and understands) but he needed to destroy the core of Chelsea in order to accommodate Modric? Isn't that the entire opposite of his ideology?

Pretty much spot on. What he did in Porto was take a team that did badly in the season before, create a strategy that fitted not only his style but also the players he had (well I forgot that he got an important signing in Moutinho that played his best football that season and was simply amazing in AVB's system). I think that when he got to Chelsea he defined a different objective. He had an aging team that "really needed some new blood" but he tried to do too much too soon. Right now, the fact that he missed Moutinho's signing might screw up his plans, afterall he lost Vaart and Modric his best playmakers. I don't know Sigurosson besides him being a really good and cheap player in Football Manager, but I doubt he will fill that role like AVB needs.

[The Lusophone]

Siggurdson did really well for Swansea last season.

[Sam]

Arsenal's midfield of Arteta, Cazorla and Diaby looked very tasty today. If Diaby stays fit he can be a great player for them.

[Szumi]

Liverpool's midfield of Allen, Gerrard, and Sahin did not Gerrard was at his worst, and Sahin was very anonymous. Joe Allen was his usual good self, but I question whether he will be able to make a real impact going forward and sort of step into a role where he's the creative lynch pin going forward. I don't think he's that kind of guy though.

[Summers]

Holy shit, Johnson's positioning was horrible in that game. Where did he think he was playing?

[Dingle]

Liverpool's midfield of Allen, Gerrard, and Sahin did not Gerrard was at his worst, and Sahin was very anonymous. Joe Allen was his usual good self, but I question whether he will be able to make a real impact going forward and sort of step into a role where he's the creative lynch pin going forward. I don't think he's that kind of guy though.

He can. He's still more of a 'dictator', as it were, but he is definitely good enough to control a game if his forwards are playing well. He's certainly better than Gerrard at it.

[Szumi]

Well, to be fair, who isn't better than Gerrard at it?

See, I haven't seen him play enough to know if he has that capability. If he does, great. Because when Lucas is healthy, you could see Lucas dropping deep and holding, Sahin being a deep dictator (that sounds wrong ), and Allen being the guy to go forward.

Also, Assaidi, the winger they signed. Is he hurt or something? He's been nowhere to be found.

[Pesci]

Rodgers likes his full backs very high up the pitch, which causes problems when other teams attack. Good when your full back can get back to position himself in time, but not so good when they can't :/

Sahin looked a bit off the pace but I'll let him off because it was his first game. Allen's very much the metronome who just keeps things going and gets the ball to our creative players so I wouldn't expect much from him in terms of goals and assists. I'd like to see Shelvey given more of a chance in the Gerrard role since he looks like he can actually keep the ball and pass it well.

Edited September 2, 2012 by Pesci

[Pesci]

Ben Arfa's a special player, isn't he?

[TCO]

Holy shit. Ben Arfa in discovering he has a right foot shocker.