Premier League - 2023/24

He clearly needs to work even harder and throw them a few more decisions to earn their love.

 

The Premier League will do all it can to make sure Klopp can ride off into the sunset with the Premier League title. Got to have their fairytale ending that the can document and make money off for years to come.

 

Did the Premier League make Nottingham Forest fail to clear the ball for the best part of 2 minutes? They're in deep if so.

 

Yes. Some proper Harry Potter witchcraft going on behind the scenes.

 

Chris Wilder magic on display

 

Sheffield United's last two home games were 5-0 defeats so at least they are consistent.

 

Sheffield United very much reminiscent of us under Hodgson. Having said that, at least we had players like Dennis who could sometimes turn it on. Sheffield United don’t appear to have anyone. Will be a long 2 and a half months for them

 

Fifteen goals in two and a half games at home is just unbelievable. And they shipped 8 in one game to Newcastle earlier in the season too. Embarrassment of the highest degree.

 

Surely there must come a point where the Premier League starts to become embarrassed by the lack of competitiveness in parts of their league.

 

No. As long as the small clubs go back down they’ll be fine.

 

Sheffield United still on course for that Premier League record? Will be conceding 101 at this rate - even if they end up letting in 100, it's still a record because they'll have done it in four fewer games than Swindon.

Most of their remaining opponents probably won't contribute that much to that total, but they've got Liverpool and Newcastle away and Spurs (who are still prolific post-Kane) at home - even Chelsea who are relatively better away than at home could add several to the against column.

 

3 wins and a GD of MINUS FIFTY

 

But it’s only two clubs, isn’t it? “Parts of their league” is a bit of a stretch.

 

I would argue that even the mid-table teams in the PL are by no means competitive with the top few, even if they don’t lose 6-0 to them every game. The point is that the disparities are getting wider by the year.

 

For teams like Man Utd and Chelsea that just means dropping a few places in the league though, they’re still winning and in contention for cups even if they’re not winning leagues. For a club like us you’re talking potentially decades of drudgery in the 2nd/3rd tier.

 

Great win for the boys last night. Gooners!

 

But there’s some churn there. In the past couple of seasons Brentford have done well. This season, we have Villa, Brighton and Wolves. Admittedly only one of those has really broken into the top echelon but I don’t see it as all that different from when we were in the Prem.

 

I would argue that this season has only proved how average the championship is now with Burnley and Sheff Utd totally outclassed and only Bedford FC making any attempt to compete .
We have a 3 horse race at the top and another scramble for European slots below .
In previous seasons Citeh would be away and gone whilst the Arse and others fall over themselves trying to stay up with them .

 

Darren bent (having played in the championship) said on Talk Sport the other day the Championship is significantly more competitive and higher quality now, even compared to when he played in it. He said even back when he played he’d encounter overweight and unfit centre backs that he could have a field day against, but now, as a minimum, every player is at least an athlete.

The Championship isn’t any more average than it’s ever been, if anything it’s as competitive and high quality as it’s ever been, it’s its our yardstick of the PL moving further and further away from it that makes it look worse, but in isolation it isn’t.

The fact that there is a 3 horse PL race just means less points for the rest of the league, so makes the gulf look even wider.

 

I don't think competitive and quality can be used in the same argument .
If Arse Citeh and Liverpool's dominance means less points for others then that is not a quality
issue whereas in the Championship so few points separate so many teams so the league maybe competitive
but the quality must be compromised surely ? Unless all the teams are of a great standard ?

 

I don’t really see how the Championship can operate in a vacuum where advancements in coaching methods, fitness, stats, player motoring etc. won’t have trickled down over the years. Premier League teams can only have so many players in their squads, so as much as they can hoover talent up, they have to loan the excess talent back out anyway.

The financial disparity has grown exponentially since the PL started, but I can’t see how the championship hasn’t improved in quality, just not at anywhere near the same rate.

Maybe someone like @reids has an opinion, or some sort of stat to back it up, or debunk it?

 

Exactly this.

 

No stats but would say the quality has improved dramatically at pretty much every level compared to even 10 years ago (understand the point @Lubaduck is making about the dominance of Arsenal/City/Liverpool not being a quality, but would say thats not a quality of the league but the money now involved has drastically increased the quality at the top of the league, whilst the quality across the rest of the league has also improved - just not at the same rate). And that has undoubtedly filtered down to the Champ and even further. There's sides in the National League playing great football which 10 years ago just simply wouldn't have happened.

 

Yeah that was basically my thought, it’s almost leagues within leagues, the quality of the top sides has risen further due to rich owners, more sponsorship, CL money etc, but that doesn’t mean the teams below them haven’t also improved, which you can see they have as, they’re now a force in all the other European competitions as well, and then the championship and all the leagues below have also improved, but that also doesn’t means the gap between PL/Championship hasn’t widened further, but a rising tide lifts all boats.

 

The game last night showed a top 4 prem side vs a side automatically promoted to the prem last season, 0-5 after 39 mins and the rest of the game a non-event after Arsenal put their slippers on.
Supporting a club like Watford is becoming pointless as mere survival in the champ is seen as failure given our recent successful history and any promotion will see us humiliated without a BHA/NF/Bmouth style bankrolling. What we really need is a Luton-style collapse down the pyramid for a few seasons and then fight our way back up with every season feeling like progress. The difference in morale of Luton fans vs WFC fans when we were both mid/top half 15 months ago was chalk and cheese....

 

Currently their goals against average is 2.88 per game (last night moved it from 2.57) therefore as their momentum is down and Chris Wilder has said he is thinking of playing a few youngsters I would be very surprised if they don't break the record!

 

Well done Palarse.
Absolute berks.

 

Burnley pretty much completing the set of Luton’s relegation rivals folding and giving away an injury time goal in the past fortnight. Not sure I can remember a run like it. That’s Burnley, Sheff Utd, Everton and Forest who’ve all lost points in the last knockings of a game since last Saturday, while Luton keep scoring them. Could probably extend it to Brentford last night too.

 

I think we can forget about Sheffield United and Burnley now tbf. Meanwhile, Ederson has channelled his inner Bachmann...shame he didn't in the cup final!

 

Ake and Ederson having a Bachman moment.