Positions you agree with?

Sell Man Utd   2 votes - 66 %
Buy Arsenal   3 votes - 100 %
Sell Liverpool   2 votes - 66 %
Sell Chelsea   3 votes - 100 %
Buy Man City   2 votes - 66 %
Buy Newcastle   3 votes - 100 %
Buy Blackburn   3 votes - 100 %
Buy Villa   2 votes - 66 %
Buy West Ham   2 votes - 66 %
 
3 Total Votes
Gamblin' ~ by husiacct (1.00 / 3) #1 Sun Sep 23, 2007 at 08:11:08 PM EST




Liverpool by DullTrev (4.00 / 1) #2 Mon Sep 24, 2007 at 05:41:46 AM EST

Liverpool have a surprisingly poor record against us in the Premiership. No, I have no idea why, either, but given my brother supports the scousers, I'm more than happy about it.


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DFJ?


As Villa have been wrt Chelsea... by leviramsey (2.00 / 0) #3 Mon Sep 24, 2007 at 06:37:56 AM EST

I figure that if the Villa beat Spurs at the Lane next week, we can make it two managers fired...


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Could I be the next Lee Abrams?
[ Parent ]

Mourinho's by yicky yacky (4.00 / 2) #4 Mon Sep 24, 2007 at 08:22:48 AM EST

departure has skewed things in your favour, no doubt. When you first posted these, I thought it was a fairly brave and adventurous choice, but maybe not so much now.

I don't know about Chelsea. Yesterday's results did nothing but confirm that Alan Hansen knows little outside the art of defending to my eyes. He was on 'Match Of The Day 2' asserting that Manchester were superior in every department. If they were, I didn't see it. ManU had the better of the first 10-15 minutes, then Chelsea came right back into it, and for a few minutes looked like the better side; then Mikel got harshly sent off. After that, all bets are off. It's not hard to look the better side when you've got an extra man on the field; arguably, they should have been a lot more convincing than they were. Having said that, Ferguson's a canny old so-and-so, and they came away with the three points, which is ultimately what matters.

The revelations (or rather assertions) in The Observer yesterday regarding Chelsea were quite stunning; if true, it hardly bodes well for them, but they've got a team of world-class players and a veritable mountain range of moolah, so I wouldn't quite write them off yet.

Arsenal are playing sexy football again, which is an unmitigated joy to behold (especially now that there are no whiney, talented, french cheats cluttering up their squad), but I question their solidity. I suspect they're fragile, in that better teams may well be capable of disrupting their flow. They had trouble disrupting Manchester City and Blackburn, and have yet to play a really 'big' team (Spurs notwithstanding). Let's not forget that Liverpool spanked Derby 6-0 and Spurs beat them 4-0; I'm not sure how much can be read into Saturday's endeavours.

We're not discussing Villa today. ;)


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Terry's suing over The Observer article by jump the ladder (4.00 / 2) #5 Mon Sep 24, 2007 at 09:02:27 AM EST
I thought they played OK at Old Trafford but even in their better moments, they never looked like scoring even with 11 men. Not really Grant's fault as our attacking players are pretty much out of form at the moment which was a continuity between the new regime and old regime.

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True by yicky yacky (4.00 / 2) #6 Mon Sep 24, 2007 at 09:27:27 AM EST

Without Drogba (and, to a lesser extent, Lampard), and with Kalou not really in form at the moment, it's hard to see where the goals are going to come from in the short term.

Is he actually going to sue, or just claiming, for PR purposes, that he's going to start a lawsuit, which will magically fail to materialize at a later date? The Guardian Group don't look too concerned at this exact instant, as the articles in question are still online, and many of the claims made in those articles were also in The Telegraph (albeit with a more attenuated tone).


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Arsenal by TPD (4.00 / 2) #7 Mon Sep 24, 2007 at 10:22:13 AM EST
I definitely agree that Saturday's result didn't mean much beyond there was (a relatively straightforward*) job to do and Arsenal did it as clinically as possible.

However Arsenal are going in the right direction, yes they didn't find it the easiest against Man City or Blackburn (who we should have still beaten beyond a howler from Lehmann), but not many teams  will. It was the performances against "the lesser teams" last year that cost us being in contention rather than head to heads against the big boys.

That said I still think Liverpool's scarily strong team should be the team to beat this year - though Benitez's rather odd squad rotations in the premier league could very well be their undoing.

* Truly Derby are not premiership class at the moment, and need to find seomthing extra pretty quickly if they are not going to stay routed to that bottom spot. I hope they do!

Rock Hard Abs are just a sw-sw-swivel away!
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Largely agreed by yicky yacky (4.00 / 2) #8 Mon Sep 24, 2007 at 11:22:14 AM EST

I actually like New Arsenal© more than the all-conquering squad from 3-6 years ago. Much as I loved the way the old guard played (and still regard Bergkamp as one of the best foreign players to grace the Prem[*]), there was something about the antics of the Pires-Vieira-Wiltord axis-of-evil (in decreasing order of despicability) that always put me off. Great players; shockingly poor sportsfolk. The only member of the current squad which emanates similar vibes of hate-a-bility is Van Persie, but he's calmed down a bit over time. Fabregas is a class act and a half (get that man a passport), but I think the current squad's strength is that it's a group of very good players all playing like a team. Whether this lasts as certain individuals naturally rise to prominence over others remains to be seen. I'm still not entirely convinced by Adebayor -- he's in a rich seam of form at the moment, no doubt (beautiful goals this week) -- but only time will tell whether we're seeing the waxing of a world-class talent or a brief high point in the career of a generally "good" player.

Still, as you say, they're on the right track and, as a number of people have apparently mentioned this weekend (including, by certain accounts, Henry himself), Henry's departure for Catalonia has liberated the rest of the squad to play in a more cohesive, natural and balanced manner.

[*] - My finger is entirely off the pulse on that question, though. I always think Henry and Cantona get a bit too much praise and Zola and Bergkamp not enough.


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