EPL 2011/12 Thread - English Premier League

Sunday, 28 August 2011

Man Utd 8-2 Arsenal
Newcastle 2-1 Fulham
Tottenham 1-5 Man City
West Brom 0-1 Stoke

Saturday, 27 August 2011

Aston Villa 0-0 Wolverhampton
Blackburn 0-1 Everton
Chelsea 3-1 Norwich
Liverpool 3-1 Bolton

Swansea 0-0 Sunderland
Wigan 2-0 QPR

* * *

Not going to say much about Arsenal, but in the words of Alan Hansen, "comedy defending."

The Magpies got a good win against Fulham in a messy kind of game.

Spurs werent at their best really, but Dzeko was amazing scoring four. Who was that guy last season? Man C look a better at teamplay this season.

A still goaless WBA got pipped at the end by a late goal by the Potters, not loooking so good for Hodgson.

Chelsea got a bit of a shock and looked a bit out of sorts, but still got the win against Norwich. (Major goalkeeping error by Hilario, come back Cech.)

Liverpool looked good against Bolton, not quite back to their best yet, but better than last season. (Not so difficult, in truth.)

:)

Chelsea started to come alive when Mato arrived on the pitch, I think he will be a key signing.
 
Chelsea started to come alive when Mato arrived on the pitch, I think he will be a key signing.

Yeah, he could well be, but they looked unsettled by Hilario in goal, which made the team play look unsure. Cech is so good, I usually take for granted how solid they can be at the back and in defensive midfield.
 
:lol: I admire your silver lining approach!


Seriously, that was surreal. I know Arsenal is plagued with lack of manpower, but still. Hopefully they can bounce back quickly.

It really is all we can do. I'm a fan of the club through and through, until the end; but at a certain point you really just need to start to laugh. I don't think we're in serious danger of relegation... but if things stay similar or even get better with out a GIANT leap forward, we'll be a bottom half of the table team. I don't have any hope of Europe next season. Someone on twitter brought up a great point and its one Arsene will have to deal with I feel:

Arsenal used to be able to sign players at will. You wanted to come to Arsenal. It may not be like that anymore. Its not "who we want" but "who wants us?" now.

Crazy, but I'm not sure if I trust Arsene's view of the future of the club... and neither do older experienced players it seems. We keep signing younger and younger, but maybe we're not reading between the lines. How many transfers have gotten turned down? How many of our quality veteran players left? Not good. Not good at all.
 
It does seem chaotic. I respect the man a lot, but maybe he really is behind the times, so to speak. I perceive Arsenal as one of the powerhouses of football, and yet you bring an excellent point with transfers. Powerhouses usually don't have too much trouble bringing in talent.
 
young signings are usually a sign of a rebuild with a long term plans. Lets just hope the performance does not drop too much when rebuilding..
 
young signings are usually a sign of a rebuild with a long term plans. Lets just hope the performance does not drop too much when rebuilding..

Didn't they do the same after 2005, and now the young and experienced are being sold off. Arsene seems to run Arsenal more like a business then a sporting team.
 
Football is (or should be) a business - 'Mega Rich' owned teams (Man City and Chelsea spring to mind) excepted.
 
This whole cycle might just repeat with a 5 year cycle. Young guy comes, young guy grows, young talented guy wants to leave.
 
As a United fan of over 35 years at the same time I would hate to see Arsenal do a Leeds but I can see it happening. They owe a hell of a lot of money on the Emirates Stadium and much of that debt is being financed by annual Champions League football. Trouble is with Liverpool resurgent under Dalgliesh, City and Chelsea with seemingly unlimited financial resources and United looking as good as they do that is already looking unlikely. Europa League possibly next year and relegation fodder 2-3 seasons after that unless things change massively. No club is too big to go down and Arsenal are no exception.

Arsenal were contenders from the off last season and then faded. I really don't see where the kind of performances necessary to pull that back are going to come from. Wenger has his work cut out both in the transfer market for the next day or so and in the dressing room until January when he might be able to bring in some more quality.

Sorry, FG Gooners, I've enjoyed the rivallry over the years but right now your goose is looking very cooked indeed.
 
Well, rumors has it that they will make at leads two signings very soon, Peter Mertesacker and Andre Santos (I believe that's his name). Both sounds to be significant improvements. Then they need to strengthen the midfield.

They apparently also had a bid rejected for Mario Goetze from Dortmund, so they are trying.

I think it's too early to spell doom for them, they do have the finances to make some big signings. Losing players like Fabregas (who is really shining in Barcelona btw) and Nasri would be bad news for any team, and that combined with the amount of injuries they have suffered.. It does look grim, and their performance against United was appalling, but I do believe they will bounce back.
 
Trouble is they have faffed about for too long. Contrast that with Ferguson who went straight out and bought De Gea, Young and Phil Jones in short order, and from the look of Cleverley so far they don't need Sneijder or anyone else to replace Scholes.

And now they have sold Nasri and Fabregas anyone they approach knows they have the money and will be asking top dollar.

Wenger has spent far too much of the transfer window Arsene arsing about.
 
And now they have sold Nasri and Fabregas anyone they approach knows they have the money and will be asking top dollar.

There is the issue... if Arsenal are paying top dollar, that is like 1/8th the asking price. Got to pay up in Pounds Sterling!

Apparently twitter will be abuzz tomorrow, so I'll see what Arsenal does tomorrow before lamenting a season wasted.
 
So far today so good I suppose. The rumor mill is still flying about the possibility of signing a midfielder at this time (as of current its speculated to be one of 3 players: Kaka, Dempsey or Benayoun), and our D is appearing to get the bolstering it needs (Santos and Mertesacker).

I, personally, really want to see a midfielder deal get done. I am not as sour on our prospects as I was a few days ago. I think we can finish Top 10. Hope we can finish "in Europe (Realistically, Europa league... fanboy in me hopes UCL). Its the realistic start to a rebuilding that SHOULD of been happening years ago.
 
Santos and Mertesacker have both been confirmed, the latter in the last few minutes.
 
So far today so good I suppose. The rumor mill is still flying about the possibility of signing a midfielder at this time (as of current its speculated to be one of 3 players: Kaka, Dempsey or Benayoun), and our D is appearing to get the bolstering it needs (Santos and Mertesacker).

I, personally, really want to see a midfielder deal get done. I am not as sour on our prospects as I was a few days ago. I think we can finish Top 10. Hope we can finish "in Europe (Realistically, Europa league... fanboy in me hopes UCL). Its the realistic start to a rebuilding that SHOULD of been happening years ago.

Pleased that you have cheered up a bit.

Santos and Mertesacker have both been confirmed, the latter in the last few minutes.

Good stuff, more here:

BBC Sport - Sportsday Live - Transfer Deadline Day

In thirty minutes, the BBC News channel is having a special football transfer show, so if you can get it on your TV probabaly worth a watch. Also, on Twitter on #BBCFootball.

BBC News Channel (UK only)

You may be able to watch this elsewhere using Internet magic.
 
So Raul Meireles went to Chelsea in the last minute. Fuck my life.

...we got Bellamy though. He might bring some aggressiveness.
 
Arsenal signing 4players in one day: mertesacker, santos, benayoun and arteta. Some pretty decent signings :) definitely improvements.
 
Arsenal signing 4players in one day: mertesacker, santos, benayoun and arteta. Some pretty decent signings :) definitely improvements.

31 AUGUST

Mikel Arteta [Everton - Arsenal] ?10m

Yossi Benayoun [Chelsea - Arsenal] Loan

David Bentley [Tottenham - West Ham] Loan

Villyan Bijev [California Odyssey - Liverpool] Undisclosed

Villyan Bijev [Liverpool - Fortuna Dusseldorf] Loan

Joel Campbell [Arsenal - Lorient] Loan

Joe Cole [Liverpool - Lille] Loan

Scott Dann [Birmingham - Blackburn] Undisclosed

John Guidetti [Manchester City - Feyenoord] Loan

Owen Hargreaves [unattached - Manchester City]

Pablo Ibanez [West Brom - Birmingham] Undisclosed

Gael Kakuta [Chelsea - Bolton] Loan

Henri Lansbury [Arsenal - West Ham] Loan

Raul Meireles [Liverpool - Chelsea] Undisclosed

Per Mertesacker [Werder Bremen - Arsenal] Undisclosed

Damian Mozika [Bury - Scunthorpe] Undisclosed

David Ngog [Liverpool - Bolton] Undisclosed

Scott Parker [West Ham - Tottenham] ?5m

Christian Poulsen [Liverpool - Evian] Undisclosed

Gilles Sunu [Arsenal - Lorient] Undisclosed

Patrick Van Aanholt [Chelsea - Wigan] Loan

BBC Sport - Football transfers - August 2011

* * *

Arteta, Benayoun and Mertesacker are three good players for Arsenal. Also, Nicolas Bendtner has left the Gunners for Sunderland, another good move for the club.

Scottie Parker is a very good move for Spurs, who seem to have kept hold of Modric for now and may have some other deals to reveal yet. Peter Crouch has probably left Spurs for Stoke, who have themselves been very busy in the transfer market and getting players in at some rate.

:smile:
 
So Raul Meireles went to Chelsea in the last minute. Fuck my life.

...we got Bellamy though. He might bring some aggressiveness.

Didn't like to see Meireles and his million tattoos go...I'm happy about Bellamy, hopefully he can stay healthy.
 
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