Footyball thread no. 8

[Calibandar]

A round of EPl results today to start off with.

Chelsea vs Sunderland 5-0, hattrick by Anelka. Drogba returns to the side as well.
Man U vs Hull City 4-3, 2 goals for Ronaldo again, just as on Wednesday.
Stoke City vs Arsenal 2-1

Early days and all but in my opinion Arsenal being beaten again sees them bowing out of the Championship race very early this year. Fans may disagree of course but the same problems they faced in the last 3 years or so have not been solved in the slightest.

[Mr. X]

Happy American here, thanks to another injury time thriller from Spurs. Woo-hoo, no longer in dead last! :D

(still at the bottom, just not the very bottom)

[Iskaral Pust]

I'm gutted that we just lost that game to Spurs. Completely undeserved. We really needed to put in a second goal while dominating for so long.

Knowing that Spurs would be on a high, I was so impressed by the way we, as the away team, scored early, killed the game, dictated the flow and controlled posession. We hit the post a few times, but the ball needs to be in the net. Keane was a bit of a passenger again today, and Babel and Benayoun made no impact. Riera had his weakest game yet - he played well enough, but in a few good attacking positions his final ball was awful.

I've no idea what Carragher was doing at that corner and Dossena really should have smothered Bent at the back post for the second.

If I was being paranoid, I would think the biased officiating was a grand conspiracy to help the Redknapp revival. More likely just influenced by the home support.

I'm off to play my football game now. No better way to exorcise the stress. That's probably where the word exercise comes from.

[BLU-RAY]

Thank you to Spurs. Much obliged. Does Tottenham simply play to the level of their competition, or what? They've a win against Liverpool and draws with Chelsea and Arsenal now; yet, they seem to be getting hosed by teams not up to scratch with these.

The long throw-ins by Delap on Stoke sound very entertaining. I wish I'd gotten up for this crop of matches, oh well.

[Jon AS]

Bremen 5-1 Hertha, hopefully this will set them back on track for the season. Oh and it turns out that bringing back Pizarro was a good idea, who would've thought?

Apart from Werder's dip in form, the Bundesliga has been highly entertaining so far, with a little more than 3 goals per game on average. Hoffenheim is still top of the table, closely pursued by Leverkusen. Weird.

[Isis]

I think we found out that Torres and Kuyt do not = strength in depth up front. Which might also explain why Chelski's GD is miles better than ours. We don't actually have strength in depth anywhere. We managed to keep up the illusion for a while, but I think the cat is out of the bag now.

[Lord Baelish]

[quote name='Iskaral Pust' post='1574276' date='Nov 1 2008, 19.39']If I was being paranoid, I would think the biased officiating was a grand conspiracy to help the Redknapp revival. More likely just influenced by the home support.[/quote]

Poor refereeing going against Liverpool? That would be a first.

[Iskaral Pust]

[quote name='Isis' post='1574625' date='Nov 2 2008, 04.42']I think we found out that Torres and Kuyt do not = strength in depth up front. Which might also explain why Chelski's GD is miles better than ours. We don't actually have strength in depth anywhere. We managed to keep up the illusion for a while, but I think the cat is out of the bag now.[/quote]

I didn't think it was any secret that we lack depth throughout our squad. Central defence might be the only exception, and maybe left-back, where we aren't all that strong but have a few options of similar quality. It takes a lot of luck to win a league title these days relying on the same core 11. It's not impossible, just unlikely.

Look at Chelsea. They can win 5-0 without Ballack, Essien, Drogba and Carvalho. That's a huge gulf.

[Black Wizard]

Chelsea don't really have strength in depth up front themselves. The only out & out centre forwards they have are Anelka and Drogba (who have major attitude problems). It's their midfield which is setting them apart from the rest right now: Deco, Lampard, Obi Mikel, Malouda etc are on top form right now.

[Deedles]

I was listening to the radio yesterday pleading with the Gods of football to leave Liverpool alone. Sadly, they didn't hear my impassioned cries and decided that Rafa's (in my mind misguided) substitutions should be punished. Meh. From the sound of it, for the last 20 minutes, there was no cohesion and no planning. Again.

I'd just love to know what's happening at Arsenal though. They've always had their problems but this year they're exceeding those. Hull, Stoke, Spurs at the moment. Playing to the opposition is one thing but Arsenal seem to be imploding

[Iskaral Pust]

Bolton won!?! Man City were awful TBH.

Black Wizard: agreed on Chelsea's midfield. Anelka picked up a hat-trick yesterday without breaking a sweat (and stealing a goal from Alex in an offside position). Lampard, who I think is often over-rated, is currently in amazing form in front of goal. Malouda looks much better than last year and Deco has been very good. It also helps that they play with attacking full-backs now.

[Smudge]

[quote name='Black Wizard' post='1574889' date='Nov 3 2008, 08.45']Chelsea don't really have strength in depth up front themselves. The only out & out centre forwards they have are Anelka and Drogba (who have major attitude problems). It's their midfield which is setting them apart from the rest right now: Deco, Lampard, Obi Mikel, Malouda etc are on top form right now.[/quote]
Personally, I think Drogba, Anelka and Kalou is more than enough depth up front when you have the support of a midfield of that quality.

Any news on Newcastle? Has Ashley found a buyer yet?

[john]

Liverpool are getting desperate with looking for these last minute comebacks. Gerrard's even throwing himself into his opponent's elbows in the box. :P

[Lord Baelish]

Liverpool cheat their way to a point. Now there's a shock. Gerrard jumps into a defender then goes down like he's been ****ing shot. Cheat. And then Aguero gets booked for booting the ball straight out from the kick-off. Great refereeing there, you useless tit.

[Zoë Sumra]

... and Liverpool nick a point with a penalty right at the end.

I personally didn't think it was a penalty. Gerrard [i]jumped straight into the guy[/i], bounced off and went down; he wasn't tripped, but fell over through his own fault. :rolleyes:

[Iskaral Pust]

Sounds like a soft penalty for Liverpool after being denied a legitimate penalty for handball earlier in the game. Make up call by the ref? I didn't get to watch the game at all, just skimmed the text updates on the BBC Sport web page.

Athletico and Liverpool should cruise through that group now. There's still some advantage to winning rather than placing second, and Athletico currently have a single goal advantage (have conceded one less and scored the same).

Chelsea got thumped by a Roma team that has been terribly out of form. And Deco sent off too. Highly improbable stuff, but that's football for you.

Barcelona and Inter both held to draws by relative minnows (especially Inter).

[john]

Liverpool still just about deserved it in terms of the play. But there was a couple of good looking Madrid penalty claims which were missed too. The ref and the assistants in this game didnt seem to want to see any handling in the box.

[Iskaral Pust]

[quote name='john' post='1577436' date='Nov 4 2008, 18.13']Liverpool still just about deserved it in terms of the play. But there was a couple of good looking Madrid penalty claims which were missed too. The ref and the assistants in this game didnt seem to want to see any handling in the box.[/quote]

The lack of consistency on that kills me. I wish the refs would nut up and call the same fouls inside the box as outside. Defenders would change their behavior pretty quickly.

[Mathis]

[quote name='Iskaral Pust' post='1577660' date='Nov 5 2008, 02.43']The lack of consistency on that kills me. I wish the refs would nut up and call the same fouls inside the box as outside. Defenders would change their behavior pretty quickly.[/quote]


Thats a terrible idea.

[Jon AS]

Argh! What is is with Greek teams that makes Werder play like a bunch of amateurs? :bang:

Some interesting results last night: Barca draw with Basel, Roma beat Chelsea and Famagusta hold Inter.

So Gerrard pulled a Ballack? Clearly he's national team captain material.