Thought Pogba looked chunky and off the pace as well in first half. All he did was point randomly when other players had the hall.
There was certainly a sense of adventure in that first Pozzo season. A voyage into the unknown which many of the squad seemed to buy into. We were building positively & looking boldly up rather than bumbling & looking anxiously down. And upgrade in quality of some of the players was huge. Vydra! Human nature for expectations to ratchet up. I must confess I looked at the table after Everton & had a little old Watford moment. For my lot to be top half in the biggest, well, certainly most expensive league in the world was just mind boggling. In my formative period (Furphy era) Swindon & Preston were big games. The fact that Walley had played for Arsenal & was foreign (ie Welsh) gave him an aura. What I have done of late is follow our alumni who never made it out of the Championship. Fantastic for Vydra, Pudil keeps going & how on earth is Joka doing that at Fulham? Vicarious Championship kicks.
Text from my Palace supporting mate at 21.07 last night: Palace 2 Man U 0. And counting. Never in doubt. Text from him at 21.57: ****ity **** ****
Palace with Zaha - P18 W6 D9 L3 Pts 27 Palace without Saha - P11 W0 D0 L11 Pts 0 Unbelievable; the biggest one player skew ever. I’d have thought.
It's far more interesting watching what's happening at the bottom than the top Stoke are just a team of knuckle draggers like West Brom, the prem will be better off without them both Chelsea away next for the egg and chips, followed by tricky away game to Huddersfield then being smashed by Liverpool, they could be adrift by end of March... I live in hope Southampton have a tricky run in
Normally I'm a committed ABU (Anyone But United), but last night I was actually pleased to see that very late winner go in, take that Palarse
I can't see wet spam picking up 10 points from their run in either, this is going to be so tight right up to the final games
Big games each week - think its Stoke v Swansea on the final day for example. Of course we play Palace and Newcastle ourselves - be good to push them closer to the edge.
I think it still seems quite likely that the points barrier for relegation will actually be historically pretty low, this season. As others are saying, it's very difficult to see where several sides at the bottom are getting their next points from, and games are really running out.
My three for the drop are: 18. Newcastle 19. Palarse 20. WBA I reckon Southampton, West Ham and Stoke have too much class amongst their players to go down. Huddersfield are fighters and I like their manager too. Reckon they'll just squeek it into 17th sending the dismal geordies back down again....
18. Southampton 19. Stoke 20. West Brom This is based on their respective remaining fixtures. Think Huddersfield and Palace will just about do enough. Newcastle seem to have enough winnable games to survive
Isn't it more like peripheral Lancashire? I always thought of it as nearly being in Yorkshire. (And along way from anywhere).
20 miles from Bradford, 22 from Manchester. Not exactly the middle of nowhere (at least, geographically!).
Teams like Spurs have been lining up bids for him for a while now, and they'd be able to get him for less if they go down; there's no way he'd come to us if they did.
Shrewd addition of 'geographically'. On legal advice? Google maps initially placed Burnley in Neasden. Apparently there's a Burnley Rd or somesuch in those parts. That would make the Clarets our new rivals! Dyche would seemlessly become a Matthew Spring character, forever flitting between the two. Once I had adjusted the vertical hold, I saw that the real Burnley is located, in fact, mid way between the Lancs borders with Cheshire (where they all own Jags) & Cumbria (where they all complain about windfarms).
It would require me to swallow all my principles in one go. But, as Groucho Marx said, “These are my principles, but if you don’t like them, I have others...”
Scores for artistic merit were good but thought 0 from the Welsh and Danish judges for technical ability were a bit harsh.
It was strategically placed a long time ago to ensure that people did not end up there in error, you should only have to go to Burnley if you need to go. Maintains the government national happy ratings for the 98% of the population who don't realise these places weren't a figment of Lowry's imagination. Same as Goole and Corby, just ******* depressing.
Don't really care who goes down as long as it isn't us. After these 2 massive wins for us it is looking like we will be safe. Have winnable games at home coming up so we should be fine. However Looking at it, WBA are as good as down. It really will be 1 from the next 8 or 9. Swansea have done amazing to pull away and owe a lot to our free gift over xmas. The others who replaced managers had a quick burst then fallen back to being as poor as they were....hopefully next season when teams are desperate it means the likes of Pardew, Moyes and Lambert will be consigned to history. I know they all won't go down but none have really improved. West Ham will annoyingly have enough at home to stay up. Having been there a few weeks ago they for me sum up whats wrong with football. From the idiots on the big screen before kick predicting the score to how they have somehow got that stadium. The place is soulless and the club always lurch from one **** up to another. In the end I think Stoke will go and so will Southampton. Stoke like WBA it's their time to bow out and Southampton still don't really think they are in a battle. Plus with more games away than at home the wins are going to be hard to find. Where as Huddersfield and Newcastle have played like they are in a battle all season. Palace will scrape through as well. However if Zaha goes in the summer they are in serious trouble next year. However all this can change so quickly.
I think some people are discussing Zaha, in which case I totally agree with you but some people are thinking of Sakira(I)
I go a lot on the goal difference and so with WBA doomed then it will be Stoke & Huddersfield for the last 2 spaces with Palace being their very close rivals for the third spot. In such a tight finish the 'extra point' of goal difference will end up being conclusive.
At this stage of the season I feel goal is a good indicator of relegation teams and playoff teams. Not when there’s a difference of one or two goal between teams but when there is 5-10 goal differences.
Along with WBA, I expect Stoke to go down. I think that despite the poor state of affairs at a number of clubs that Palace minus Zaha are poor and have a shocking record to match, they probably won't win another match this season and I can't see them drawing their way to safety, I think Palace will finish 19th.
Yes, this iwas in reply to Hairyfrog, who was replying to Luther Bassett's post. Quote:- " Palace with Zaha - P18 W6 D9 L3 Pts 27 Palace without Saha - P11 W0 D0 L11 Pts 0 Unbelievable; the biggest one player skew ever. I’d have thought".
Well they still have WBA/Huddersfield/Brighton and Stoke to play so if they don't win any of those then certainly they deserve to be relegated.
This would be my guess too. The amazing thing is that these are teams that were considered established, higher middle finishing teams that we were aspiring to be like (especially Southampton). To see them drop out and the promoted 3 all stay up would show how volatile and competitive, outside the top 6, the EPL is now.
They play Chelsea this week and then Huddesfield away. In the first game of the season Palace fans,including the now forlorn Mr IBB,were accusing HTFC of butchering Zaha,especially their fullback Smith. Not sure if the loveable scamp is back for that match but he may well end up as The Black Knight if he is!
