Board 8 > 2024 Premier League(/Football general?) Topic

(+) Yeah! (+)

Crazy title race coming down the stretch. Champions League heating up. I know there are footie fans on the board so I figured we could talk about things.

Who do you all think will win the Premier League this year? Obviously City are favorites just because they always feel so inevitable. Arsenal are playing lights out football right now, but no one knows if they can keep it up down the stretch. Liverpool... they feel like that have to do it with this being Klopp's last year and they're ahead now, but the injuries for them are piling up as well as the fixtures.

How can I not mention the Harry Kane curse? Bayern have absolutely fallen apart, they're 8 points behind in the Bundesliga and trailing in their CL tie (though they play at home in the second leg so I expect they'll turn that around).

I am SHOCKED Tuchel is still there with the way they're playing but for Kane to go there and Bayern not win a trophy for the first time in like 30 years would be hysterical. You can take the lad out of Tottenham... etc

ExThaNemesis posted...

Bayern have absolutely fallen apart, they're 8 points behind in the Bundesliga and trailing in their CL tie

very spursy of them tbqh

For City, March is going to be key. They've got United, Liverpool, Brighton, and Arsenal. If they put there foot down, as they've done the past few seasons, and get the needed Ws, then they'll repeat again. They didn't look great against Chelsea this weekend but I blame Haaland for just being off. Then again, Chelsea probably should have scored 1-2 more too, so a draw was probably a fair outcome. I've been a City fan since I started watching in 2010, so I'm certainly rooting for them to get across the line again.

I expect Liverpool to hang tough, especially with it being Klopp's final go round. Plus, they have no UCL games to clog up their midweek. I guess they're fighting some injuries though?

Arsenal...I don't know. They did beat Liverpool recently but I'm still not sure they've got the mentality to be champs. Whooping up on teams recently has greatly helped their goal differential though, which, could end up being very important. They also have at least 2 more UCL games.

As an American, while it's nice that I technically have the ability to watch all of City's games...goddamn is it fucking annoying and spread out. Champions League on Paramount+, FA Cup and League Cup on ESPN+, and EPL on Peacock. Except that EPL on Peacock isn't totally true. Half the fucking games are on USA Network, which means I have to wait until 24 hours after the fucking game ends to be able to watch, which is absolute horse shit. THEN, for those delayed games, you have to avoid the minefield of highlights on the Peacock app to get to the stream without having it ruined, because once I know the score FUCK IT I'll just watch the highlights. It's awful and it honesty makes me want to stop paying all this money to all the services, because at a certain point, maybe it's better just to watch the free, extended highlights on Youtube.

Seanchan posted...

I've been a City fan since I started watching in 2010, so I'm certainly rooting for them to get across the line again.

I'm going to refrain from being mean to you over this even though it's VERY hard hahah.

For watching EPL games that are on USA, I use Fubo TV. It's obviously expensive, but it also lets you watch a good amount of the Champions League games as well.

What I do, is I pay for my own Fubo TV sub, which gets me the Prem games, UCL games, and also NFL games that are nationally televised, then I use a friend's Peacock sub for the other Prem games I need and my one buddy has Paramount+ which I've only needed one time this season.

And Liverpool don't have UCL games, but they're in the Europa League and are the odds on favorite to win that competition. Klopp will want to go out with another European trophy as well. I think a Liverpool vs Leverkusen final, perhaps featuring Klopp vs Alonso as his potential replacement, would be PHENOMENAL television.

I have wanted a topic like this for a while. I watch both Premier League and LaLiga very regularly (and the Danish Superliga but yeah) and follow Serie A and Bundesliga to some degree too.

Biggest moment of the year for me is obviously FC Copenhagen making it out of a Champions League group. That's huge. Drawing City sucked because I think we could've scared some of the other group winners, Sociedad, Dortmund, even Barca, but City is too good. Still, it's been 13 years since a Danish team (the same one) made it out of the group stage and this was a much tougher group.

I'll consider them PL favorites until it's impossible for the them to lose it lol.

Leverkusen winning is phenomenal. Harry Kane curse being funny aside, it's good to have varying winners in the big leagues.

Big ups to Copenhagen. Even against City the other night they did themselves proud. They were electric in the group stage and gave all of us lots of joy in how they handled Yanited lmao.

Arsenal's draw for the CL, a lot of people said it was a favorable one, but I'm not sure. This is a HUGE moment for the club, and the manager whose record in Cups, especially European ones, is not good. Porto have a ton of pedigree in this competition. But this is absolutely a tie we should be winning. Throw the recent form out the window because I think this one will be tough. I'd love a nice 1-0 professional away win to keep the momentum going into Saturday when the Toon come to the Emirates. I want to fucking DESTROY them so bad and we'll need to keep winning in the league. Have to win every league match up until the City game to see where we're at.

It's funny because for the first 20 minutes or so, maybe a bit less, they got a break when Grealish went off injured, City looked like a team about to win 6-0. Yet two of the City goals were a bit lucky in injury times. Overall very good performance for 70 minutes. Our goal was started by a mistake from Ederson but that doesn't take anything away from how good it was! Kicking out Galatasaray fans who thought it would be them against United and we were a walkover (despite being the higher seed of the two of us) was just as satisfying as kicking out United lol. Wonder if we could've gotten more points from this current form Bayern.

Recent form still matters even if European nights are different. Arsenal had a brief period of struggling to score goals at least goals not from set pieces. I'd be shocked if they don't advance. I have them as third favorites to win it all with whoever is fourth being a bit distant currently.

Also I don't find myself rooting for United often, but current Rasmus Hjlund form is excellent with Euros coming up, we really need that. A bless he could score 5 Champions League goals and somehow get 0 points in those matches lol.

Rasmus Hoijlund is literally the only likable player United have had in the last ten years somehow. I feel bad that he's there and felt bad for him when he was having his struggles in the league.

Hopefully he maintains this sort of scoring form when they go to the Etihad!!

I would love for Arsenal to win the League but I don't trust them

They were the team I started off following and supporting but then I become more of a Wolverhampton fan (just before they dropped down multiple leagues lol). So Arsenal is still my number 2 team to support.

Yeah then those statistics came out that he was getting the fewest passes in the league. He was a United fan himself, he really wanted to there. Just barely old enough that he can recall the Ferguson heydays.

As long as he maintains it when he goes to Germany in some months lol.

Maniac64 posted...

I would love for Arsenal to win the League but I don't trust them

They were the team I started off following and supporting but then I become more of a Wolverhampton fan (just before they dropped down multiple leagues lol). So Arsenal is still my number 2 team to support.

leaving Arsenal to join Wolves has to be one of the more bizarre fan choices to make, but this weekend you must've been really REALLY happy hahah

I think you have to really hate Arsenal or really love City to not like Arsenal winning the league lol.

But yeah, City running with it just seems most likely.

There's a sort of apathy when it comes to City's success in that it's obviously not earned nearly as much with the other clubs, so if you're a rival fan you can write it off as less meaningful. Where-as if Arsenal or Liverpool win the league, their success is directly put into your face as a sort of "well, they did it so why can't you?"

The way City have manufactured their success in a way that isn't replicable by anyone else on the planet makes it this way and it's why last year you had Yanited fans cheering for them to replicate their treble and EPL three-peat in lieu of Arsenal winning the league.

I will, however, not fall into that trap. I would rather Liverpool take the league than ever see that fraudulent oil outfit win anything else with that bald fraud Guardiola and their 115 charges.

ExThaNemesis posted...

leaving Arsenal to join Wolves has to be one of the more bizarre fan choices to make, but this weekend you must've been really REALLY happy hahah

I'm a life long Cubs and Iowa Hawkeyes fan, winning/being a successful team is not a requirement for me lol.

And yes! Any time they beat one of the Top teams it always feels great.

down with all of the big six

FFDragon posted...

down with all of the big six

which of the six did you like the least?

I'm guessing the Rice banger hurt the most... :)

Maniac64 posted...

And yes! Any time they beat one of the Top teams it always feels great.

well as a former Arsenal fan seeing Sp*rs miserable should've been even better but I get what you mean.

Still can't believe "title challenging" Mateball shipped 6 points to Wolves this year but I guess that's just who they are, Mate.

also sorry in advance when the inevitable tottenham fan comes in here and is put off by my condescension but I am not capable of behaving rationally about that club.

That club which despite winning the premier league in October, are now only 2 points ahead of where they were with Antonio Conte last season.

115 charges we will see about. Guardiola is still a top manager though.

If there was ever was a time to see a Spurs title as an Arsenal fan, it's the season where Kane leaves to Bayern to not win trophies.

I was casual enough for the couple years of cheering just for Arsenal that I didn't get as into the rivalry.

LaLiga update, title gets less interesting while top 4 gets more interesting. It's a shame the reaction will probably be that Girona ended up disappointing when the reality is that it's super impressive they're even in top 4 contention.

Super disappointing, but losing like that to Real Madrid absolutely broke them.

What's even more disappointing is that Barcelona will get another farcical easy walk to top four and Champions League money. They live such a charmed life that Athletico are useless and won't get their shit together enough to take it from them. A year of no CL money would absolutely break them financially (and get Frenkie De Jong over to Arsenal where he belongs).

ExThaNemesis posted...

I'm going to refrain from being mean to you over this even though it's VERY hard hahah.

For watching EPL games that are on USA, I use Fubo TV. It's obviously expensive, but it also lets you watch a good amount of the Champions League games as well.

What I do, is I pay for my own Fubo TV sub, which gets me the Prem games, UCL games, and also NFL games that are nationally televised, then I use a friend's Peacock sub for the other Prem games I need and my one buddy has Paramount+ which I've only needed one time this season.

And Liverpool don't have UCL games, but they're in the Europa League and are the odds on favorite to win that competition. Klopp will want to go out with another European trophy as well. I think a Liverpool vs Leverkusen final, perhaps featuring Klopp vs Alonso as his potential replacement, would be PHENOMENAL television.

I came to City fandom honestly! I had heard of Man United but the very first game of that 2010-2011 season was Tottenham vs Man City (an exciting 0-0 draw, fyi). When I found out Man City wears blue and was at the time considered the Mets to United's Yankees, well, as a Mets fan I had found my rooting interest. They hadn't even won anything when I became a fan, so I wasn't really jumping on a bandwagon. That they've had so much success since then has been amazing, though I know mine's not the true fandom of City fans who went through the decades of prior misery.

It'll be interesting to see the results of the FFP charges, especially in light of what happened to Everton (which is comical that they got deducted 10 points and could get docked more for an overlapping period of infringement).

Of course Liverpool are still in Europe! That's what I get for looking quickly at their fixture list on ESPN. That would be a great final for your reasons mentioned, especially if Leverkusen were to pull it out. "And here's your new coach, the team that denied you a European trophy".

I have a weird stance on this because obviously we're both Americans so it's hard to call either of us "true fans" in comparison to folks that live in England and I am always of the opinion that you should support who you want to.

But you have to have some self-awareness about it, and it seems like you do. I will never knock anyone's fandom as long as they're watching and supporting every week win or lose.

ExThaNemesis posted...

Super disappointing, but losing like that to Real Madrid absolutely broke them.

What's even more disappointing is that Barcelona will get another farcical easy walk to top four and Champions League money. They live such a charmed life that Athletico are useless and won't get their shit together enough to take it from them. A year of no CL money would absolutely break them financially (and get Frenkie De Jong over to Arsenal where he belongs).

I mean the team in fifth just took three important points. Another easy top four walk seem a bit of a strech for a team that's defending champions. And if lower teams can challenge Barcelona of course they can challenge the other top teams!

Also Girona seemed to break at the end of that Sociedad match the week before Real Madrid.

Seanchan posted...

Of course Liverpool are still in Europe! That's what I get for looking quickly at their fixture list on ESPN. That would be a great final for your reasons mentioned, especially if Leverkusen were to pull it out. "And here's your new coach, the team that denied you a European trophy".

also I had that happen to me when I was looking at Brighton's fixtures. This round of the Europa league is the weird one where the second placed group teams all face the third places UCL group teams so Liverpool and Brighton and Leverkusen all don't have an opponent yet lol

sorry but there's still a massive team left in europa

if we punt all the league games and focus strictly on Europe, it could happen

I mean, it literally happened last year!

full copium

You're absolutely safe as far as the League goes, but it's such a waste to have gotten into such a good position and then throw it away.

But anyway after dealing with West Ham supporters all summer during the Rice transfer saga I am well and truly over that club.

(please do take points off Sp*rs though that's always very funny.*

Champions League today.

Inter vs. Atletico (yawn, Simeone away champions league terror ball)

PSV vs Dortmund (should be entertaining football)

City are obviously going to squash Brentford who have completely lost all their quality from last season

ExThaNemesis posted...

(please do take points off Sp*rs though that's always very funny.*

my best friend and person who got me into soccer is a spurs fan, so if nothing else I wish for this

Brentford still above what they realistically should be able too, last season was an abnormality. Thomas Frank still very good!

But City at Etihad is a match basically everyone should except 0 points from.

Is Chelsea/Spurs not being rescheduled because they want it at a better time if that comes up? They rescheduled Liverpool Luton to earlier this week and could've done the same with the other one. Liverpool also plays in Europe though so maybe that's why.

Oh and I'll be watching Atletico/Inter for sure. Winner there is a strong dark horse. Dortmund/PSV was among the weakest possible matchups.

Atletico Inter will be a defensive snoozefest unless Inter get an early goal.

Also I cannot tell you how tortuous it is constantly checking the City gamecast, getting my hopes up as it stays 0-0, but knowing in my heart of hearts we're gonna see something like '45 De Bruyne to have my hopes dashed.

It's kind of incredible Sociedad somehow won that group ahead of Inter and they barely got a more favorable draw from it lol.

Atletico aren't playing boring so far

Before this round my power ranking in Champions League was

1. Manchester City
2. Real Madrid
3. Arsenal
4. Inter Milan

We'll see if that changes.

Several teams could be in contention for fifth imo. Don't think there's a clear answer right now.

I'm on board with that ranking tbh

City are so annoyingly inevitable.

Brentford are in serious danger of being dragged into the relegation scrap tbh

At least they didn't run up their goal diff and they still look a bit off it offensively. Hoping they don't find form just when their tougher fixtures come in March.

Brentford has Toney back now. They have had some of the toughest matches since getting him back, Liverpool, City twice, Spurs too, but I think they'll be safe once they start getting more favorable opponents again.

Villa fan checking in

pezzicle posted...

Villa fan checking in

good ebening

For the first time in seven years, Arsenal will play in a Champions League knockout fixture.

I'm emotional. I'm so emotional. And nervous. And excited. COME ON YOU GUNNERS

oh shit i just remembered that europa conference draw is on friday!

One of the worst performances of the season capped off by allowing a silly goal right at the end. 0 shots on target.

Thanks, Arsenal. So glad I took today off of work to watch.

I don't know what's more disappointing, Arsenal trailing their first leg or Bayern Munich.

Also, Man United are so boned regarding top 4/5. Shaw's out for pretty much the rest of the season and now the club have no left backs to play and they can't play Dalot there because Wan-Bissaka's also out. Add in Martinez being out, and United have a barely functional defense.

Bayern with their rutine and experience in this competition makes it worse but based on current form Arsenal is bigger and they should've had that.