Our problem last season wasn't so much Troy but Mazzari, i.e. we had little creativity in the team after injuries to Pereya and Zarate and this was never really addressed. Troy up top on his own didn't work but it could have done if he'd have had quality around him ... Saying all that he now has proper competition for that one spot and his lack of pace will be his undoing.
Huddersfield have been impressive so far but I am expecting them to drop down the league table once the honeymoon period is over and they start to loose that momentum which is inevitable. I have not seen much of Brighton this season but my Leicester supporting friends and associates who watched them against LCFC have mostly said that BHA have no chance of staying up on their last performance. Newcastle also look poor going forward and I have managed to watch their two games and although they didn't look too bad at the back they are crap going forward and haven't looked like scoring yet in the league. Swansea seem to be just getting weaker and weaker and if The Cherries performance against us and The Baggies is anything to go by they could be further down the trouble than many people anticipated.
Big game for Bournemouth tonight against Brighton! I was in the I do not really care about Bournemouth camp initially but having been down there recently and seen first hand their dislike for our club I will be cheering on the Seagulls tonight. The games on Sky Sports Mix so I believe you can watch it even if you have not subscribed to sky sports. SEAAAGULLLS!
Yeah , basically we want every game to be a draw apart from, Top 6 games where you want the the non top 6 team to lose. That way we ll be guaranteed 7th.
Lottery: Burnley/Bournemouth will struggle but most will depend on who strengthens best in Jan ... almost always a disadvantage for small or recently promoted clubs that no one worth his salt wants to play for. No doubt this would include us if Gino didn't have half the globe in his pocket.
I think both Bournemouth and Brighton will struggle on that display, AFCB just pass it side ways and don't really go anywhere was good enough tonight but against better opposition they are going to struggle to create chances. They can't defend well either Brighton put three balls into the box and hit the bar, had one cleared and scored from the other. Unfortunately for Brighton I just don't think they have enough quality in the final third.
Low quality game this evening, neither side impressing, either could drop Not impressed either with palace or Burnley the other day, or Newcastle, or Swansea There is some real tat in the league this year
That was truly a horrendous match between Bournemouth and Brighton. Went the way most expected but both teams were awful. If they carry on the season like that, I can see both going down. As for the rest of this weekends games involving Prem 2 teams, my predictions are as follows: Crystal Palace vs Southampton (1-1) Huddersfield vs Leicester (1-3) Liverpool vs Burnley (1-2) Newcastle vs Stoke (2-2) Watford vs Man City (3-2 heart) (1-3 head) West Brom vs West Ham (2-1) Bilic sacked Tottenham vs Swansea (4-1)
west brom v west ham... that will be a god awful match - home team lumping it to their big man and the away team... err on the basis of how they played the other evening... lumping it to their big man nothing wrong with playing that way when your a penniless lower league team but these clubs get wheelbarrows of tv money
Funny hearing all the negative comments on the quality of football last night. Lest ye forget that for the last 2 years we were saying that about ourselves!
Yeah I do. Liverpool had a mid week game against Sevilla and they are absolute dross at the back. Burnley will frustrate the hell out of them and look to score from set pieces which Liverpool can't defend for toffee. Liverpool only just managed to beat Palace 1-0 and I think Burnley will give them more of a game than Palace did. Of course Liverpool could go and win 3-0 now and this will be irrelevant, but I think Burnley will sneak a win today.
I also have Burnley on my Acca as my outside the box bet I think Liverpools defence may struggle against a physical side especially after the midweek games.
Not easy to see the bottom 3 yet. Newcastle, Burnley and Hudd above us as will Swansea be if they beat us. I just can't see CP going down with the attack they have despite their start and next games. My guess now is Muff, Brighton and Hudd.
Newcastle are overachieving at present, but it is hard not to be impressed by Dyche at Burnley and Wagner's Huddersfield. The latter are rather cany and clued up about the EPL, bit like us in our first season. CP will be stuck in the bottom three the rest of the season. Muff unfortunately probably can survive. The big guns at the bottom (Wet Spam, Toffees and Leste) are pretty poor at the moment but they will get out of trouble. We will see what Swansea are made of this weekend. Could be very tight at the bottom with some 'bigger' teams involved. Interesting times ahead. Must get over our hiccup soon.
Most are only ahead on GD. We're effectively equal 5th. 2 points off 3rd. Have played 2 of the top 4 sides in the league and a southampton team away that many tipped to be in the top 8. We are doing ok. I think brighton lack firepower up front. Newcastle have a very weak squad. Muff look weak. Palace will have virtually 0 points after 8 games so if they start being cut adrift could affect performances. Can hudds keep it going? Everton should be ok but we may get a huge bid for okaka in the winter window! West ham should be ok. Lesta swansea and stoke could well be dragged in. In summary. No idea.
You could just tell it was going to be that sort of game. If there were a couple of better teams this year, I could see both Liverpool and Arsenal finishing outside the top 6. Everton would have been the closest but they didn't buy a striker so they have blown it. It's a shame because I could see the top 6 being disrupted this year but I don't think there is a team that will be able to step up. Liverpool and Arsenal both look rubbish this year and I am more confident than ever about taking points off them. We already have with Liverpool, but even going to Anfield, I don't look at that game and think we are going to get smashed. I look at that fixture and think, we could come away with something. Same with Arsenal. I think the top 4 will be Spurs, Man City, Man Utd and Chelsea (not in that order). Outside of that though, I don't see any reason why 5th and 6th will only be between Arsenal and Liverpool. I think Leicester are a good shout for snataching one of those spots (I had them as dark horses for relegation this season, thought Shakespeare's fairy dust would run out, clearly it hasn't). Bottom three will all depend on injuries and thankfully we have a better squad depth than most. A couple of lengthy injuries to any key players of Newcastle, Burnley, Swansea, Brighton, Huddersfield, Bournemouth and Palace will see them struggle. I can't see Palace picking up any points in the next three games, although we all thought that with Allerdyce and he pulled some big wins out of the bag to keep them up. Howeve Hodgson is out of touch with modern football and I don't see him being able to do what Allerdyce done against the big teams. So if Palace have 0 points after 8 games, they will be playing catch up for the rest of the season. I said it ages ago and I will say it again, Zaha only signed a new deal to get Palace the most money in January. If Palace are bottom of the Prem come January, I can see Zaha, Benteke and Sakho all wanting out. So my guess for the bottom three right now would be Brighton, Newcastle and Palace. This is probably to early for me to say this, but I am the most confident I have ever been about Watford staying in the Prem. I just don't see us going down at all this season. We have a better squad than most of the Prem 2 teams and we would really have to mess it up to go down. I think Brighton, Newcastle, Huddersfield, Swansea, Burnley, Bournemouth and Palace will all be fighting against each other to stay up. They will all finish between 14th-20th While Watford, West Brom, Saints, West Ham, and Stoke (had them as dark horses to go down as well) will battle for 9th-13th Then Arsenal, Liverpool, Everton (if they sign a striker in January, if not they will be in our pot) and Leicester will battle for 5th-8th Spurs, Man City, Man Utd and Chelsea battle for 1st-4th
Bournemouth, Brighton and Burnley all playing extra time tonight. None of those would have wanted extra time tonight. At the weekend Burnley have Huddersfield at home. Bournemouth are away to Everton Brighton have Newcastle at home. All three will be slightly leggy at the weekend and Im predicting a draw in the Burnley Huddersfield game, Bournemouth to lose away at Everton and Brighton to lose at home to Newcastle.
Newcastle are currently fourth. When we were in that position a week ago, posters on here were talking about us qualifying for Europe.
Looks pretty likely that Palace will have 0 points from 8 games and not sure they will recover especially having lost 3 home games they would probably expect to get 7 points minimum from. I agree with others on brightons lack of firepower and think they may go as well. The third place is probably any one of about 8 teams but I don't include us in that. No reason we can't be comfortably top half just hope that once we get to 40 points we don't down tools again like the last two seasons. 4 points from next two games will make it an excellent start to the season and will give us the confidence to give Arsenal a proper game at home which we haven't done recently in the home games against them.
Exactly. My post was a dig at those getting prematurely excited at our start rather than a prediction that Newcastle will end up top 5.