Premier League Discussion

Maybe worth having a thread to keep up to tabs on our rivals and how they get on.

I personally see WBA as fellow candidates for the drop. Great to see them getting spanked, 3-0 and counting.

Confident we can add to their early season misery next week.

 

Don't worry, we'll soon overtake that scoreline.

 

Watched some of it but got bored, City winning at a canter

Hard to judge where WBA are such is the gap in class

 

really one sided game, yes city are clearly a better team but the baggies just havent looked up for it at all. atmosphere is terrible, no noise from the home fans apart from the occasional boo to sterling. rubbish!

 

Would like to see Ighalo/Jurado/Fessi running at Jacob, looks like a red card waiting to happen

 

Man city won 3 - 0 tonight. Not overly worried,think it was a fluke.

 

Berahino, Lambert, Rondon. On paper, that's a very good selection of strikers. I'm personally pretty happy to be taking them on early, before they find a settled partnership.

 

No fluke, West Brom were diabolical.

 

Regardless of how poor they looked against Man City, I'm still very wary of West Brom this Saturday. Tony Pugilist is not a nice manager, his teams aren't nice, and they'll be horrible opponents in comparison to Everton. I'm concerned for Behrami ahead of this game, and also Holebas, who looked easily wound up at Goodison. This is one game where Dean Austin's knowledge will be invaluable, so hopefully the new players will be aware and ready to deal with all the nonsense they'll be facing.

 

Lambert? Where is the concern? Fat old scoucer. Very similar to Tarby.

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I have a feeling that there will be less than 22 players on the pitch at the end of this game.

 

Bit disappointing to see our rivals win 3-0 when we could only muster a draw from the first weekend. We're already 2pts behind them :dismay:

 

Hashiban 1 Godfather 0

 

Premier League strength

I know we've signed 10 new players and we are all unsure how they are going to perform over the course of the season, but judging from the Everton game the signs are encouraging. It was I feel essential that we did bring in more quality into the side during the summer rather than wait and see what happens and then panic buy in the January transfer window when there is less quality available and prices seem to artificially inflate.

What is also apparent is that the quality of the so called mid-table teams has also improved. Sides such as Stoke, Palace, Swansea, West Ham, Newcastle have all made quality signings this summer and although you cant judge a season on the opening game I do believe there will be very few games that teams can take for granted and we will see more results such as Arsenal- West Ham and Chelsea -Swansea this season. I think its going to be a very unpredictable league. Although the exception on the opening day was Man City easily sweeping aside West Brom that does not mean that West Brom at home in our next game will not be a tough game. They will be determined to respond this weekend. Likewise when we have our next away game at Man City the club and supporters should not have the attitude of it being a game that we can afford to lose because its against a title contender. Points are up for grabs in every game and I think the quality this season in the Premier League is more evenly distributed than in the last 10 years. It would be great to get a first win on the board against either West Brom or Southamption in our next two home games but no game can be taken for granted this season.

 

Norwich and Bournemouth don't look particularly strengthened. Sunderland are tosh again. A win against them does not clear Leicester, whose team looks no stronger. West Brom look especially weak. Villa don't have enough goals to replace Benteke and other signings are questionable. Plus I don't rate Sherwood. Also don't rate McClaren.

Swansea, Palace, Stoke and their ilk look good, but nobody expects them to be down there with us anyway.

I remain confident that three teams will be worse than us.

 

Undoubtedly. We're at home on Saturday against one of those relegation candidates so the three points are vital even at this stage of the season ... Not that it's a given by any means.

 

Getting the first win is massive, it became a bit of a burden last time when we couldn't get it. If I remember correctly we were beating Fulham at home and Helguson scored for them, although Young got a last minute equaliser I was gutted and thought we were never going to get a win.

Getting three points Saturday is massive for us and WBA as after getting smashed by City they have Chelsea after us..

 

The quality of the Premier League is well up this season, and I can see the gap between the division and the Championship really opening up again. It's probably going to be a much tighter league than it has been, as Jose Mourinho has predicted, and West Ham's victory at the Emirates suggests, because of the quality so-called lesser sides are bringing in.

Bournemouth and Norwich are in for a very long and tough season. I think the same can be said for Villa, Sunderland, Newcastle and Leicester, despite the latter's opening day arse-raping of Sunderland. That's six sides who I believe we'll comfortably finish ahead of. It's not going to be easy by any means, but I think our squad, as it stands, can do better than just survive.

 

Pulis is a wily old fox. A wise old bird. A pugnacious old dog. A stubborn old mule. In short, he's many animals and adjectives, which makes it tough.

 

Rondon may not be fit in time apparently, although that could just be Pulis trying to throw us a curveball

 

I expect us to finish ahead of at least Norwich, Bournemouth, Sunderland, West Brom, Leicester, Villa and Newcastle based on what I've seen so far. None of them have looked that impressive, but there's only so much you can read into the first game.

 

Do you think Quique will still go for one striker this game?

 

Yes as we don't have many, but he'll almost certainly bring one on as a sub later .... He still won't be certain who works best or of his final squad so expect a few changes to the Everton line up.

 

The way they lost last night won't be a good thing for us on Saturday, but if we play as we did we should get the win.

Looking forward to seeing Jurado play in the flesh

 

Too much over confidence after just 1 game from some of you.
Arsenal were crap after 1 game but likely to be in first 4.
Chelsea crap defensively after 1 game but likely to be one of the better defences by the end.
We showed we are not bad away from home set up for the counter attack.
But what will we be like at home when teams give us the ball and are set up for the counter attack? The home results are going to be crucial.

 

Lawrenson said we were compact,organized at Everton but we may have issues at home when the onus is on us to force the game. Will be interesting to see QSF approach,formation.

 

Have we run out of shirts for him?

I can lend him mine but it's a girly one so might not like it.

 

I know it's one game, but Sunderland did nothing to make me think they can stay up.
Norwich and Bournemouth looked alright, I thought, but came away with no points at home against mid/low-table teams.
I think our game against West Brom will give a good idea of where we both are.
Leicester looked decent but had arguably the easiest fixture of anyone.
I didn't think Villa looked all that, but Gestede looks a good signing.

That'll be the bottom six, I reckon. I think four or five of them will be below us.

 

Agreed a sensible prediction would see us about 15th/16th, if our players live up to their quality and perform as a team there's no reason why we can't finish around 10th but I don't want to get too far ahead of myself.

Villa will be better this season but I don't fear them.
Bournemouth only pipped us for the title and didn't have the bad luck of injuries last season but did have the luck of the phenomenal number of penalties awarded and opposition players sent off; they have only added Championship players at best, they will finish bottom in my opinion.
Norwich's squad is roughly the same as the one that got relegated 2 seasons ago, 16th at best I think.
Sunderland have been getting worse year on year, I think they will go down.
Leicester had the easiest of the opening day fixtures, should be OK though.
How Newcastle perform over the season is the great unknown at this stage.

 

I think unless Everton change manager early they may be dragged into the scrap too. Take Barkley (and possibly Jags and Baines) out of that team and they are really weak.

 

Sunderland will finish bottom by a long way if Saturday was anything to go by

Looked completely out of their depth, shades or Derby or us 99, what on earth have they been doing with all the TV millions to field a team that incompetent??!