The Barclays Premier League thread 2015/2016

[Kaney]

You could argue mitigating circumstances for all three goals but in the end they finished their chances and we couldn't. Southampton clearly wanted it more from the very beginning, they deserve all three points. We're still second so it's not a disaster, just same old Arsenal.

[Gorka]

Kinda tragic now.

[Gazz]

Should have been five, Tadic you greedy git.

[Kaney]

Didn't want to win anyway

[Arjen Robben]

9 minutes ago, Gazz said:

@Funny name or something... would love this crowd chant.

'You're fucking shit... You're fucking shit... You're fucking shit... You're fucking shit...'

Wasn't that Arsenal fans signing "We're fucking shit" about themselves?

A la

 

[FLiam]

Have the chance to go to a Boxing Day game for the first time, and that happens.

FML.

[Gazz]

Well, you are one of their best players.

[FLiam]

Fair play to Southampton though, they played really well. We just couldn't cope with their pressing from the first minute. Sometimes with Arsenal it only takes one minute of a game for you to realise how the rest of it will go. 

Time to regroup and come back firing on Monday night.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Was Quique Flores wearing guyilner? He looked like he used to be in an emo band around 2000.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/35183013

 

 

[Lineker]

The former shadow chancellor Ed Balls has reinvented himself on many levels since losing his parliamentary seat, perhaps most surprisingly as a cookery writer.

It should stand him in good stead for his latest venture, after he was announced as the new chairman of Norwich City, where he will share an executive box with the cookery writer Delia Smith. 

Balls, 48, who was born in Norwich and is a lifelong Canaries fan, is to take up the unpaid, non-executive role with immediate effect, joining fellow directors at Carrow Road for Monday’s match against Aston Villa.

For the erstwhile parliamentarian, who has had more time on his hands since losing his Morley and Outwood seat at the general election in May, it is an opportunity to indulge a passion for the club he has harboured since he was a small boy. 

The former financial journalist is currently a senior fellow at Harvard University Kennedy School and a visiting professor at King’s College London. A budding pianist – he took his grade 4 exam last year - Balls recently started working as a cookery writer for the rightwing Spectator magazine.

His debut column, on how to perfect a crab and Gruyère souffle Christmas starter, should stand him in good stead with Smith, a Norwich City shareholder with whom he will be able to swap recipes and garner tips.

In a statement, Balls said: “It’s an honour and a privilege to be asked to join the board of directors at Norwich City as chairman.

“From the moment my dad first took me to watch City from the terrace at Carrow Road in 1973, my earliest ambition was to play for the club I loved. But the next best thing is to become chairman of Norwich City and do what I can off the pitch to help City succeed on the pitch.

“The club’s immediate priority and focus is, of course, the retention of our hard-earned Premier League status, and the hard work of my fellow directors and all of my colleagues at the club means Norwich City is in great shape on and off the pitch going into 2016.

“With that foundation, the challenge for all of us at Norwich is to go from the up-and-down fortunes I have known since I was a boy to an era of sustained success, and I will be proud to play my part in that.”

Balls, who is married to the former shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper, with whom he has three children, left an opponent with a bloodied eye following a tackle during a charity match in September 2014.

Born at Norfolk and Norwich hospital, Balls moved with his family to Nottingham aged eight, having attended Bawburgh County primary school. But his allegiance to the Norfolk club remained steadfast.

After attending Oxford University, he worked in financial journalism before moving into politics, serving as a Labour MP for 10 years from 2005 and as a minister from 2007 to 2010. Once Gordon Brown’s right-hand man, he was shadow home secretary and shadow chancellor of the exchequer before losing his seat.

Norwich were promoted back to the Premier League under manager Alex Neil last season. They are currently 17th, having moved out of the relegation zone last week with a 2-1 win at Manchester United, their first victory at Old Trafford since 1989.

Majority shareholders Smith and Michael Wynn-Jones said in a statement: “His economic know-how and experience, coupled with his passion for all things Norwich City, will be a major asset for the board and we’re excited about working closely together with Ed, David McNally and the other directors in this new era for the club.

“Ed will work closely with all of us on the short, medium and long-term strategy to shape the future of this great football club”.

 

[Gazz]

Ed Balls

[stokeriño]

As we all know, Machester United vs. Chelsea games are difficult to make thrilling at the best of times. Today, we have to factor in:

- neither team being at all good at scoring goals at the moment
- Diego Costa, who suddenly rediscovered the ability to score goals against Watford, also got himself a 5th yellow card and is therefore suspended. Standard.
- Chelsea might not even have a proper striker available (AGAIN), since apparently Remy (some kind of knock) and Falcao (no match fitness and is shit anyway) are doubts
- Fabregas is also out with a fever, while Hazard's fitness remains questionable after getting wiped out again on Saturday (for a penalty that Oscar proceeded to miss, yay)
- Pretty much everybody is already knackered from Boxing Day

So all in all, we're probably going to have to field a team like [Courtois, Ivanovic, Zouma, Terry, Azpilicueta, Mikel, Matic, Ramires, Willian, Oscar, Pedro] and get ourselves settled in for ANOTHER CLASSIC GOALLESS DRAW, WOOO, YEAH

 

[Noah]

22 minutes ago, stokeriño said:

As we all know, Machester United vs. Chelsea games are difficult to make thrilling at the best of times. Today, we have to factor in:

- neither team being at all good at scoring goals at the moment
- Diego Costa, who suddenly rediscovered the ability to score goals against Watford, also got himself a 5th yellow card and is therefore suspended. Standard.
- Chelsea might not even have a proper striker available (AGAIN), since apparently Remy (some kind of knock) and Falcao (no match fitness and is shit anyway) are doubts
- Fabregas is also out with a fever, while Hazard's fitness remains questionable after getting wiped out again on Saturday (for a penalty that Oscar proceeded to miss, yay)
- Pretty much everybody is already knackered from Boxing Day

So all in all, we're probably going to have to field a team like [Courtois, Ivanovic, Zouma, Terry, Azpilicueta, Mikel, Matic, Ramires, Willian, Oscar, Pedro] and get ourselves settled in for ANOTHER CLASSIC GOALLESS DRAW, WOOO, YEAH

Serves me right for celebrating the game against Stoke being on at a reasonable time for once. Us playing your mob is on at a quarter past 4am.

 

 

[stokeriño]

I suspect that the quality of football on display may not be any more palatable at 4 or 5 am, even when factoring in the possibility of semi-asleep hallucinations.  

[The Lusophone]

If you find yourself struggling to sleep around that time however, this game should be perfect.

[DavidMarrio]

Can't wait for two sets of fans to be chanting Mourinho's name for most of the match...

[stokeriño]

What I find curious is that a *lot* of the criticisms the Manchester United fans are leveling at LVG (with regards to his team's playing style, his own personality, etc.) overlap with the kind of criticisms those same fans have previously leveled at the prospect of Mourinho (I've not got the energy to dig out what was being said at the time of Moyes' appointment, but I'm sure it's retrospectively hilarious). Simply a case of the grass being greener on the other side?

[FLiam]

This is embarrassing.

[Baddar]

Ugh.

Anyway, plenty of games on at 3pm today. I'll probably watch the Lineker derby if I can get a decent feed up. As for later, not looking forward to it at all. Expecting to lose a boring game by the odd goal.

[Lineker]

Lamela!  

Lamela