The Barclays Premier League thread 2015/2016

[stokeriño]

^ Can't see many from the loan army who I'd urgently pick over Traore, Kenedy and RLC though. Maybe Bamford, but he's a little up in the air at the moment. Similarly with Ake v RLC. Or Van Ginkel? Christensen over Djilobodji probably, on the basis that I'm pretty sure that Djilobodji is actually a figment of our collective imagination.

That's discounting players who have already been here and sucked, of course (e.g. Cuadrado). Again, would very much rather Traore actually got to play for once.

[The Lusophone]

45 minutes ago, stokeriño said:

Congratulations, Man Utd. You get to feel the full force of a semi-injured Eden Hazard who hasn't scored all season leading our attack.

Chelsea line-up: Courtois; Ivanovic, Zouma, Terry (c), Azpilicueta; Mikel, Matic; Willian, Oscar, Pedro; Hazard.

Subs: Begovic, Baba Rahman, Djilobodji, Ramires, Loftus-Cheek, Traore, Kenedy.

Meanwhile, you have a broken Rooney and a Martial who seems less and less confident everytime he plays to contend with. Onwards to the glorious 0-0 says I!

Man Utd XI: De Gea, Darmian, Smalling, Blind, Young, Schneiderlin, Schweinsteiger, Mata, Herrera, Martial, Rooney

Subs: Jones, Depay, Carrick, Romero, Fellaini, Borthwick-Jackson, Pereira

[stokeriño]

Meanwhile, BT Sport have graciously provided some rare balance to their match pundit team. While they've been known to present all-United panels in the past, today they've countered Rio and Scholes with noted Chelsea assist machine Stevie G.

[peteypirahna]

Biased panels are great, it makes it all the more satisfying when their team loses and they lose their shit over a delayed free kick or a foul throw and not their team playing like shit for 85 minutes.

[stokeriño]

Good chances for Mata and Terry already.

Maybe it won't be as utterly dull as we thought...

[The Lusophone]

This game is kinda ok...

[stokeriño]

If Chelsea could act like they're even slightly involved in this game of football any time soon then that would be super.

Shitting hell. We should be a couple down already.

[Baddar]

Harsh as fuck that yellow. Willian went into the challenge the exact same way. 

Much better from us in this game so far, definitely helped by Chelsea not being at it yet. Need a goal to show for it.

[stokeriño]

Given that Mikel only has a yellow because a foul on Zouma was completely ignored, let's call it even then?

[Baddar]

S'pose. 

[The Lusophone]

Awful feeling Chelsea will win this despite us having all the pressure.

[stokeriño]

I can only assume that Chelsea are playing some kind of longer-term game designed to save LVG's job.

[Kaney]

Gabriel puts us ahead. Hopefully we're more up for this one.

[Baddar]

Good first half but you have to think Chelsea will improve. Could look back on the first half as a missed opportunity in terms of not getting the goal.

[stokeriño]

Maybe our grand strategy is to overcome Boxing Day fatigue by only playing half an hour of football today?

[FLiam]

Another day, another Özil assist. Only needs 4 more to equal Henry's PL record.

In other news, Mertesacker had possibly the funniest miss I've ever seen.

Still not over here, Bournemouth look a threat on the counter.

[stokeriño]

Holy shit, we're actually starting to close players down.

...And punt the ball into Oscar's face. Good work, guys.  

[The Lusophone]

Thanks BBC live updates, I totally need to read about Alan Shearer and Robbie Savage arguing on twitter >_>

[stokeriño]

I really think that Oscar should come off in favour of either Kenedy or Traore at some point in the near future. He's having one of his games where he's almost entirely invisible - mainly popping up to occasionally give away freekicks.

How did we survive that?!?

FFS Matic

Willian off for Ramires? Guess we're really gunning for that 0-0 after all.

[Baddar]

Meh. Good first half, all too predictable in the 2nd. Not good enough.