Premier League 2023/24 Gameweek 15 - 5-7th December, 2023

[OrangeKhrush]

Chelsea are in a crisis but somehow will drop another 400m in January and the FA will look away.

man United were not that good, they just played a team with less heart and desire.

[Michael]

2 hours ago, Reluctant Striker said:

Delighted. Honestly, perhaps slightly blemished that we didn't give them the drubbing nearly everyone else has taken at VP.

Arsenal at the weekend.. no reason why not more of the same.

Much like Unai, I don't quite accept we're in the title race. But, we finish where we finish. Good luck to any clubs supposedly wanting to entice any Villa individuals away from this joy ride anytime soon.

You've got a very good squad, the management has done excellently at Villa, to bring in so many quality players. Your win over City today wasn't too surprising for me, but I have to say, I didn't really expect Villa to dominate most of the match. Who knows where Villa will finish this season, but one things for sure, they will be a tough match for any side in the league.

[Dan+]

Pochettino is a busted flush. You could forgive some of this if it looked like there were building blocks being put in place for the future but he plays a 40 year old defender, and they can't defend. Absolute shitshow.

[MUFC]

How are we only 3 points from 4th?

Am glad we won without Rashford in the side.

[OrangeKhrush]

villa can win the league, they have avoided injuries well and have enough quality.   Their squad has been built for 5 years so they are deep into their cycle now.  

Villa should be focused on winning now

[LFCMike]

It's still far too early to say who can win the league. December is such a busy period that a lot will depend on how each team comes out the other side of that. 

You still wouldn't back against Man City winning 10-12 in a row but Arsenal, Liverpool and Villa will all know there's a chance of going deep into a title race

[OrangeKhrush]

23 minutes ago, MUFC said:

How are we only 3 points from 4th?

Am glad we won without Rashford in the side.

All the teams at the top have issues

Arsenal: Goal keeper issues and no genuine goal scoring striker

city: have sputtered all season they haven't replaced key losses only papered over cracks.

Liverpool: Defense is the weakest link in an otherwise great team

Man United: not convinced they are genuine, lots of holes and stats showing they are benefiting from unsustainable xG fortune.

Newcastle: To many injuries and commitments, some players taking on far to many games.

Brighton: No depth

Chelsea: no.

 

 

[MUFC]

7 minutes ago, OrangeKhrush said:

All the teams at the top have issues

Arsenal: Goal keeper issues and no genuine goal scoring striker

city: have sputtered all season they haven't replaced key losses only papered over cracks.

Liverpool: Defense is the weakest link in an otherwise great team

Man United: not convinced they are genuine, lots of holes and stats showing they are benefiting from unsustainable xG fortune.

Newcastle: To many injuries and commitments, some players taking on far to many games.

Brighton: No depth

Chelsea: no.

 

 

@MUFC

[OrangeKhrush]

14 minutes ago, LFCMike said:

It's still far too early to say who can win the league. December is such a busy period that a lot will depend on how each team comes out the other side of that. 

You still wouldn't back against Man City winning 10-12 in a row but Arsenal, Liverpool and Villa will all know there's a chance of going deep into a title race

the only thing that can derail Villa outside a lot of injuries is being poached.  Luiz is wanted by City, Liverpool and Arsenal who are quite frankly the best places to live and play, Arsenal came very close and if they come in again there is no way Luiz turns down London and Arsenal for Birmingham.

Poch and Ten Hag walking the tight rope could see Man U and Chelsea needing a manager and I highly doubt Emery will not be interested, especially now with Yanited getting new ownership.  Man United are not great now but if he could restore glory to Man United he will be a legend given the stupid stature of Yanited.

[MUFC]

It's about the final 6 weeks-2 months of the season where it matters. Even without injuries it comes down to how you handle pressure. The pressure at the business end of the season is different to the first half of the season. I feel even without injuries that if Villa are top 3 round March. They will crumble just like Arsenal did last season.

[LFCMike]

AFCON will play a part too. I don't know how many players the other teams have going but for us Salah will miss Bournemouth away, Chelsea home and Arsenal away if Egypt go further than the last 16

[Stan]

Villa 'can' win the league. But they probably won't.

It'll be Man City or Liverpool. I don't think Arsenal have enough depth to manage the 3 main competitions.

[OrangeKhrush]

4 minutes ago, LFCMike said:

AFCON will play a part too. I don't know how many players the other teams have going but for us Salah will miss Bournemouth away, Chelsea home and Arsenal away if Egypt go further than the last 16

None for us, Yakubah Minteh will be going but he is on loan at Fayenoord with a recall option which there was speculation he will be brought back amid a injury plague.    I see no point in it when we are Linked to a Juventus winger.

[OrangeKhrush]

6 minutes ago, Stan said:

Villa 'can' win the league. But they probably won't.

It'll be Man City or Liverpool. I don't think Arsenal have enough depth to manage the 3 main competitions.

Villa are genuinely good though so while I would not put my house on it, villa don't have the fixture overload the others have.

[Dave]

I cant believe im saying this but im not surprised we lost to Bournemouth last night. I jave no confidence going in to any game looking at our squad. Thats the first time we've booed since losing to Sunderland 4-0 in 2017, and only the third time I can recall in the last eleven seasons.

Theres been a lot of warranted criticism of Roy last night for how passive we were and his choice of substitutions but I'd be more nervous if Roy left to be honest. Jordan Ayew and Jeffrey Schlupp as your wide players would not get you out The Championship, so it's naive to assume somebody else would get more out of them. The name being discussed as a replacement is Steve Cooper, who just lost 5-0 to Fulham. Sadly though, a bit like Paul Heckingbottom, Roy may end up being the fall guy for going in to the season with his hand tied behind his back.

Last night magnified the point we've all been hamering home in the biggest way this season. The board are reeping what they sow by going in to this season with the poor recruitment.

The board have taken the piss. They've absolutely taken the piss. It's unbelievable they've not replaced Zaha, Gallagher or Benteke. They thought we could cruise this season and finish somewhere in mid table. Now we're drawing at home to teams like Nottingham Forest and Fulham which we consider as good results based on the team we're able to put on the pitch.

We've been in this league for over ten years, and we're still not prepared, we're not ready, were not good enough, the squads not big enough, theres not enough pace, theres not enough trickery and theres not enough quality.

If we concede to Liverpool early Selhurst Park could go pretty bad pretty fast.

[Fairy In Boots]

1 hour ago, OrangeKhrush said:

villa can win the league, they have avoided injuries well and have enough quality.   Their squad has been built for 5 years so they are deep into their cycle now.  

Villa should be focused on winning now

We won’t the league but definitely in the Top 4 hunt now

[Happy Blue]

8 hours ago, Michael said:

You've got a very good squad, the management has done excellently at Villa, to bring in so many quality players. Your win over City today wasn't too surprising for me, but I have to say, I didn't really expect Villa to dominate most of the match. Who knows where Villa will finish this season, but one things for sure, they will be a tough match for any side in the league.

When you start the game with 2 defenders and a striker as your midfield the biggest surprise is only losing 1-0   

[RandoEFC+]

8 hours ago, LFCMike said:

It's still far too early to say who can win the league. December is such a busy period that a lot will depend on how each team comes out the other side of that. 

You still wouldn't back against Man City winning 10-12 in a row but Arsenal, Liverpool and Villa will all know there's a chance of going deep into a title race

I don't think Aston Villa will stay in the hunt. Their away form isn't good enough. I would have played down their winning run at home as well because Spurs and Newcastle were the only "top" sides they'd played in that run but to be fair you can't really say that anymore after they've beaten City.

Arsenal and Liverpool are definitely in the hunt. Arsenal have their noses in front but Liverpool have probably proven more that they can really go the distance. The problem is that City can take it out of anyone else's hands. If Stones, Rodri and De Bruyne all come back in and hit the ground running then it really isn't beyond them to win 19 of their last 20 games or whatever ends up being required to get the job done. They've won 3-4 in a row and a treble last season though, that determination to keep proving themselves again only has to dip slightly to let someone else in and they will have that dip eventually.

[RandoEFC+]

Looks like it might be Young in central midfield as Garner and Onana are both out. He's been poor enough in his actual position but at least it looks like no Young vs Gordon.

[Michael]

5 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

Looks like it might be Young in central midfield as Garner and Onana are both out. He's been poor enough in his actual position but at least it looks like no Young vs Gordon.

Young in central midfield spells disaster for me. Honestly, Newcastle look like they will probably win this match at Goodison Park, having looked at the lineups.

[Bluebird Hewitt]

22 hours ago, Stan said:

Jackson misses again from close range. 

We've established that Jackson can only score:

1. Against 10 men

2. When said 10 men continue to attack all game

[LFCMike]

Some miss from Calvert-Lewin that

[RandoEFC+]

Good contest so far. Calvert-Lewin has just skied what should have been 1-0 though.

[RandoEFC+]

Even before the bad miss, I thought Calvert-Lewin had had enough half-decent chances that he probably should have bagged one.

I think we've done alright. Generally think we've edged it. Newcastle have threatened to take control of the game in a couple of phases but we've not let them properly settle in.

It's a familiar story at Goodison though, missing the chances to go ahead and then ending up losing. These have the quality to score out of nothing as well.

[RandoEFC+]

Spurs 1-0 up in the other game.