Football 2011-2012

[eFestivals]

Remember though Chelski are losing Drogba, Kalou and Mikel to the African Cup from Christmas to late February.

That'll probably do them a favour.

Joking aside, much the same has been predicted to cause a dip in results in previous years, without it having that effect.

Adebayor is still retired isn't he? so Spurs will be keeping him.

No, and so no.

And if the stories are true, it's more than possible he'll be sent back to Manc in January anyway. But if not January, it defo looks like it'll happen at the ends of the season.

They were very comfortable, walk in the park. They didn't get out of 2nd gear.

How silly of me, of course they didn't. After all, Adebayor scored, and he doesn't do top gear.

[The Nal]

That'll probably do them a favour.

Joking aside, much the same has been predicted to cause a dip in results in previous years, without it having that effect.

[eFestivals]

They're already missing Essien through injury too remember. Torres in current form is gash, Anelka doesn't seem arsed and Sturridge isn't a big game player, yet. Fatso isn't scoring 20+ from midfield anymore and Ramires is average. If I was AVB I would be worried.

Yep, there's reasons to be worried, but I still wouldn't worry too much just yet. As I keep saying, Chelsea's form at this time of year has been dreadful for years, and has caused at least three of their more recent managers to be sacked .... yet the team has done well over all those seasons.

Oh hes playing now? Didn't know that. Spurs have Pav and Defoe to call on though.

I'm pretty sure he's sorted out to play for them again, but I could be wrong.

Adebayor isn't a hot shot, but he's a raging inferno compared to those two.

[pink_triangle]

Yep, there's reasons to be worried, but I still wouldn't worry too much just yet. As I keep saying, Chelsea's form at this time of year has been dreadful for years, and has caused at least three of their more recent managers to be sacked .... yet the team has done well over all those seasons.

I'm pretty sure he's sorted out to play for them again, but I could be wrong.

Adebayor isn't a hot shot, but he's a raging inferno compared to those two.

[The Nal]

I agree with Neil on this one, chelsea are a team who have a history of bad runs of forms but generally always come on strong. For all the flaws in the team, they have probably been more consistent than liverpool and arsenal in getting results against the poorer teams. I personally think the QPR result was a bit of a freak due to the 9 men, there are a lot more average/poor sides in the league than good and if they keep winning these games, they will do well. Also as I said earlier while they have lost games to man u, arsenal and liverpool, its not like they have been outclassed.

Edited November 22, 2011 by The Nal

[TheGayTent]

Im not sure about these rumours, theres not much of a record of top german players going abroad in recent time. They all seem to end up at Bayern Munich!

[jammy2211]

Togo didn't qualify for the African Nations so Adebayor won't be leaving in Jan...

[The Nal]

Togo didn't qualify for the African Nations so Adebayor won't be leaving in Jan...

[kaosmark2]

They key here is yourself and Neil have said “history of bad runs” and “have been” etc. And while you're right of course, they’re not the same team, or squad, that came through those bad spells in previous seasons. They’re older, Cashley (31), Drogba (33, nearly 34), Fatso (33), Malouda (31), Ferreira (nearly 33), Anelka (32 and could be leaving in Jan) etc.

And their squad is the weakest since Ranieri when he had Crespo, Makelele, Joe Cole, Gallas, Desailly, Fatso and Terry.

If Mourinho or Ancelotti were in charge, Essien was fit and they still had a Makelele type player then maybe yeah, but I dont think so with this squad.

That said, they may spend in January. Abramovich has to do something with his time. He may as well spend some of his 13 billion on players. Keeps him out of Russia and away from the bullet in the face that hes due to get at some stage.

[pink_triangle]

Todays games show the gap between the top premiership sides and the top european sides outside barcelona and madrid is not as wide as sky would have you believe. Man Utd should still qualify easily enough, but are putting themselves in to the lap of the gods as its unlikely they will win the group. Unless they get apoel/zenit then they will be in for a very tough last 16 games.

As for City, they had lots of possesion but couldnt convert to decent chances. They have been very unlucky with the draw and would probably have qualified easily from nearly every other group.

[The Nal]

Todays games show the gap between the top premiership sides and the top european sides outside barcelona and madrid is not as wide as sky would have you believe. Man Utd should still qualify easily enough, but are putting themselves in to the lap of the gods as its unlikely they will win the group. Unless they get apoel/zenit then they will be in for a very tough last 16 games.

Edited November 23, 2011 by The Nal

[The Nal]

Cracking game in the San Siro already. Proper European football.

[pink_triangle]

What effect is Thursday footie going to have on City now though? Id send out a second string team and coaching staff to away games if I was Mancini and concentrate on the league.

[Ed209]

Chelsea - Valencia is looking a bit tasty now. Knowing Abramovic, you can't help but think Villas-Boas future at Chelsea is going to be decided that night.

[the_hedge]

Chelsea are a dull team to watch and Ramires reminds of Tynchy Stryder. The whole balance and shape looks wrong.

[Gre]

Go American Samoa!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bft_ChykJGg

[Steve P]

Well our revival continues. Good result last night against a very good team. We were certainly helped by them losing 2 players to injury in the first half, but it was a very professional performance. Vermalen has certainly made us look more solid at the back in the last few games, and Koscielny looks more the part too.

Great skill from Song in the build up to our first goal last night - best player in his position in the Premiership?

[eFestivals]

Well our revival continues. Good result last night against a very good team. We were certainly helped by them losing 2 players to injury in the first half, but it was a very professional performance. Vermalen has certainly made us look more solid at the back in the last few games, and Koscielny looks more the part too.

defo a great result.

And given how Arsenal started the season it's a bit surprising that they're the first English team to qualify for the next round - I bet there'd have been great odds on that back at the end of August.

Great skill from Song in the build up to our first goal last night - best player in his position in the Premiership?

At his best he's excellent - but he's more than a little inconsistent I'd say.

[kaosmark2]

Well our revival continues. Good result last night against a very good team. We were certainly helped by them losing 2 players to injury in the first half, but it was a very professional performance. Vermalen has certainly made us look more solid at the back in the last few games, and Koscielny looks more the part too.

Great skill from Song in the build up to our first goal last night - best player in his position in the Premiership?

[strummer77]

Great skill from Song in the build up to our first goal last night - best player in his position in the Premiership?

Edited November 25, 2011 by strummer77

[kaosmark2]

FUCK YES!

Lucky with the penalty (although we, like most teams, are long overdue a dodgy decision our way at Old Trafford), defended amazingly to hold on when bombarded after Gutierrez got sent off, I think we just about deserved the draw. Fabio should have been sent off, I feel he deserved 3 or 4 yellow cards. Simpson, Steve Taylor and Collocini were all fantastic, and still Krul has to get MotM.

Ben Arfa looked good, complaints about Rooney's petulant kicking aside (which should have got a yellow). One thing that really surprised me, I felt Carrick was by leagues the best Man U player today. I thought, that on form, we probably had the better midfield coming into the game, but Carrick was pulling a lot of strings to really help their attack in the second half.

We'll miss Gutierrez against Chelsea. His incredible defensive work is a huge part of why we've been able to keep Ryan Taylor at left-back. I'm a bit concerned about how well he'll be able to cope with one of our more inconsistent wingers in front of him.

Great result though, be fantastic if we can nick something against Chelsea next week. Nice to see the loss hasn't hit morale.

[modey]

Carrick did have a good game today which is actually long overdue because he's been terrible for a while now, utd on a whole were looking good aswell and only for newcastles keepers performance we could have had a few...very dodgy penalty, but can't complain really

[sifi]

Gary Speed has died. So young, and a class player.

[TheGayTent]

Shocking. RIP

[TheGayTent]

Telegraph saying suicide, hung himself.

Can't quite believe it