Premier League 2017/18

[Baddar]

[DavidMarrio]

2 minutes ago, stokerino said:

Well, annoying. Morata's goal was onside in my opinion, but such is the way of things.

It was tight like but I feel Chelsea were hard done by with that decision. I thought he was onside. 

 

[9 to 5]

Just now, DMo Salah said:

It was tight like but I feel Chelsea were hard done by with that decision. I thought he was onside. 

 

Well of course you did.

[DavidMarrio]

Just now, 9 to 5 said:

Well of course you did.

I hate both sides. They can both get fucked. I'd have rather this have been a draw because I don't want United going ahead of us going into the inevitable Mourinho park the bus against us at Old Trafford and it finishing 0-0 start of next month. 

Also something something give the attackers the benefit of the doubt  

[Matt]

He was probably fractionally offside. I do think in those situations the linesmen are just guessing though.

[Baddar]

When Neville and Carra went to work with the officials they admitted they're the hardest ones to get right when the attacker is moving forward as the defence is stepping up. Definitely looked onside going off when Sky paused the play, but you're always relying on it being the time the ball was released. At normal speed it was a tough one that you'd hope as an attacker you get the benefit of.

[The Lusophone]

2 hours ago, DMo Salah said:

Why's Lukaku crossing to Lingard for the header? Why have the roles reversed?!?!!!!

Because Jesse Lingard is the best player in the world.

[Adam]

4 hours ago, DMo Salah said:

I don't get how as a professional footballer, you can do a foul throw in....let alone 3 of them in the same match!!! 

It's daft, it seems they aren't taught how to take proper throw-ins anymore as if it doesn't matter. I've heard officials are told not to look out for it too much either as other things are 'more important'. Yesterday in our game the linesman punished a Rotherham player for a clear foul throw, his foot was fully over the line. Just silly.

[Lineker]

Sounds like Tobes has had another setback in his injury recovery.

[Lineker]

Fairly explosive Wenger presser this morning: 

Arsène Wenger has reminded his numerous critics that he “turned the whole world down to respect my contracts” at Arsenal, as he expressed his surprise and frustration that his job prospects remained at the top of the news agenda.

Arsenal’s 3-0 capitulation to Manchester City in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final represented the latest hole in the club’s season and kept up the chorus of disapproval regarding Wenger’s suitability to continue as the manager.

The 68-year-old faces an in-house end-of-season review ahead of the final year on his contract, and the club have an eye on managerial contingencies should it be decided that Wenger has to go. His best chance of salvaging the season – and Champions League qualification – would appear to be the Europa League, in which Arsenal have been drawn to face Milan in the last 16.

They entertain City, the Premier League leaders, at Emirates Stadium on Thursday night – whom they trail by 27 points. They are 10 points behind the division’s fourth-placed team, Tottenham Hotspur.

“I am just amazed that I have to always answer things that are exactly the same,” Wenger said, when asked about his future. “I am here for 21 years. I turned the whole world down to respect my contracts. So I am still amazed that I still have to answer these types of questions.”

Wenger has previously indicated that he turned down job offers from Real Madrid and Paris St-Germain, among other clubs.

“My position is my position,” Wenger continued, brushing aside the issue of the end-of-season review. “Honestly, that’s the last worry I have at the moment. My worry is to focus, to get the team ready for tomorrow’s game. We are in that kind of situation where you want to focus on the next game. I don’t ask you if your position is reviewed at the end of the season.

“My job is to focus on performing and my job is to perform. It’s for other people to judge me. It isn’t for me to evaluate that. Does it stop you to sleep that my position is uncertain or would not be certain or is certain? No. What is interesting in football is the performances of football, the game you will see on Thursday night. That is what is important. All the rest may make headlines but it is not really interesting.”

For the umpteenth time, Wenger called for perspective after a morale-sapping defeat. He reminded his audience that Arsenal had not lost to a team at “the bottom of the league in division five”, rather one that was dominating English football. He pointed out that City had scored with all three of their shots on target while he also argued that the game had been tight until the second goal went in on 58 minutes.

Wenger stood his ground in the face of the criticism which, as ever, was savage. Gary Neville led the way on Sky Sports by labelling Arsenal as “spineless” and questioning why some of their players were walking and failing to track back.

“You could find that [walking] on both sides,” Wenger said. “You can always get out pictures from a game that justifies what you think. You find in every single game, on both sides, moments where a player doesn’t track. You have to analyse why. Has he made two runs before to go in behind and was exhausted, or did he not track because he didn’t want to? That is different.

“Of course, the players gave me everything. I am long enough in the game to know that when you lose a big game, people always say that the players don’t want it enough. Did we lose the game because of that? I am not convinced. When there is a big difference like 3-0 you always get that impression. For me, it is not the main reason.

“We got to the final and you don’t get there by coincidence. You have to fight to get there and we did. We didn’t play against a poor team in the semi-final, we played against Chelsea and we have shown that we can fight. We have to live with the criticism, it’s part of the modern game. People who comment – their job is to comment, so you have to live with that. What is important is how we respond.”

Wenger reported that Nacho Monreal would be out for one or two weeks with the disc problem in his back that he suffered on Sunday.

[Gazz]

I fancy Arsenal to win on Thursday since they had the weekend off and Man City played in a cup final.

[Benji]

16 minutes ago, Lineker said:

They entertain City

It annoys the shit out of me when journalists refer to teams as "City" or "United" or "Town" etc. I know they then qualify it, but it's shitty and lazy writing that's only design is to extend word count when they then qualify it.

[Adam]

I mean, teams all have nicknames and abbreviations, I know if I'm reading about Wenger's press conference then "City" refers to Manchester City and not Truro City.

On what he's said, I have always been a fan of Wenger but "I turned down Real Madrid 15 years ago you know" is a pretty shambolic defence of why his position is being questioned now. He should go in the summer for the good of everyone at that club.

[Benji]

2 minutes ago, Adam es Tranquilo said:

I mean, teams all have nicknames and abbreviations, I know if I'm reading about Wenger's press conference then "City" refers to Manchester City and not Truro City.

I know, it's a personal bugbear (sp?). Swansea, Stoke, and obviously Leicester are all also "City", so it bugs me.

[Adam]

6 minutes ago, Benji said:

I know, it's a personal bugbear (sp?). Swansea, Stoke, and obviously Leicester are all also "City", so it bugs me.

Got to remember as well that they are all one-city teams. Generally you can't refer to them as Manchester due to Man Utd of course, so how else do you differentiate without saying the full name every time? It'd soon eat up your word count unnecessarily.

I get what you're saying though. If you just refer to a team as 'Rovers' people think Blackburn. They are '@Rovers' on Twitter even. Everyone outside of Doncaster refers to my team as "Donny" but seldom do we use that abbreviation ourselves. What do we call ourselves most? Rovers.

[Gazz]

He should of gone a couple of years ago, the whole remit of a manager's job is to develop the team. Arsenal at best plateaued years ago and the quite obvious weaknesses within the squad and the club as a whole have gone completely unaddressed in that time.

[Benji]

3 minutes ago, Adam es Tranquilo said:

so how else do you differentiate without saying the full name every time?

Quote

Generally you can't refer to them as Manchester due to Man Utd of course

... uh... crazy talk I know, but what about "Man City"?

[Colly]

I don't see it as an issue, except when pundits call Man Utd "United" when they're playing against another United. Idiots. 

[Benji]

It's not an issue, like I already said, it's a personal annoyance.

[Adam]

4 minutes ago, Benji said:

... uh... crazy talk I know, but what about "Man City"?

Well again, that's two words. You're taught in writing journalism to not use any unnecessary words since you typically always have a limited amount of space. Man City isn't much better than Manchester City in that regard.

1 minute ago, Colly said:

I don't see it as an issue, except when pundits call Man Utd "United" when they're playing against another United. Idiots. 

Yeah, this is when I do fully agree with the sentiment. You can't call 'em "United" if they're playing Newcastle.