Premier League 2024/25 - Gameweek 14 - 3-5th December, 2024

[Rick]

A point at St.James’ isn’t the worst in the world, but doing it in that fashion is shocking. Kelleher has saved us plenty over the last few weeks, so I can forgive him but that’s a shocking decision from him. 

[RandoEFC+]

That's a horrific performance from Wolves. A team with the talent they have really shouldn't be going down but the same was said about Leicester when they had Maddison, Barnes, Ndidi, Vardy etc.

Not getting ahead of ourselves. Anything other than a win tonight would have put us right up shit creek ahead of Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City.

But we have teams between us and the drop zone again, and we're 5 points clear. It's important because we might well get no points at all from the next four but it gives the new owners time to decide what they're doing with the manager situation without the pressure of us starting to get cut adrift of safety.

Tonight had all the hallmarks of what was good about us last season. We can probably forget about Arsenal and Man City away, but Liverpool and Chelsea at home are fixtures these players won last season. Both of those sides pose a greater threat this season than last but it's not impossible we could scrape a point or two from those.

[Rick]

Also, the sooner Jota is back the better. Nunez seems like a nice fella, but he’s frustrating as fuck to watch. I’m not arsed if he is sold at this point. 

[Dr. Gonzo]

22 minutes ago, Rick said:

Also, the sooner Jota is back the better. Nunez seems like a nice fella, but he’s frustrating as fuck to watch. I’m not arsed if he is sold at this point. 

Love his workrate… but that’s about it.

[MUFC]

1 hour ago, Gunnersaurus said:

@MUFC

Good observation.

[Dan+]

Don't think O'Neil can survive that.

[LFCMike]

I thought the referee probably got the three (?) penalty calls correct but overall he was just awful. The yellows for Mac Allister, Gravenberch and Quansah were fair enough but he let Newcastle players who made the same fouls get away without a yellow card. He also fell for Gordon's antics far too often. 

Anyway, not a great night for us but I thought after the second equaliser we were really good in parts and could have done enough to come away with three points. A draw isn't a bad result there if we come away with three on Saturday

[Dan+]

13 hours ago, RandoEFC said:

 

There are no lengths this guy won't go to to defend a Spanish manager. 

Every single person who told Everton fans Rafa Benitez would be good with us actually admitted they were wrong but this guy just kept on making excuses for him to the bitter end. Looks like he intends to do the same for Lopetegui because he's presumably advocated for him at some point, so he'd rather write an essay about why he's still right and everyone else is wrong than just admit the guy's not done well enough.

Bloke is a cretin. Least subtle client journalist going.

[OrangeKhrush]

We seem to only show up against the big teams.  I felt we should have been 2-0 at half time and at the end we had chances to steal it.

Murphy gives the best balance on the RW, we have tried Gordon, Barnes and Joelinton there and they dont work at all.   

 

We need to take that performance to Brentford,  something we havent done consistently which is why we are bouncing mid table.

 

[RandoEFC+]

3 hours ago, Dan said:

Bloke is a cretin. Least subtle client journalist going.

He's obviously got a niche in his eyes of being that Spanish intellectual who educates the sunburnt, beer-swilling Brits about Spanish football and he can't cope when they tell him a Spanish manager is shite and they turn out to actually be right.

[Dave]

13 hours ago, Stan said:

Dirty from Van Dijk. Shoulder into Gordon's face. 

If that and the Guehi shirt pull get given we are probably talking about Van Dijk costing his team with silly lapses in judgement rather than Carragher claiming he's the best Premier League CB ever.

[Dave]

On a happier note it's nice to be the winner of a dreadful game. A Chess match with teams on the counter is never a fun watch for the neutral but this was a must win fixture and has given us much needed breathing space ahead of City, Brighton and Arsenal.

Cautiously looking forward to Saturday now. Ipswich did well to nullify Sarr but he'll probably be our key player with his pace this weekend against Man Citys high line.

One other thing, i disagreed with Glasner's comments that we're creating chances and that isn't a problem. I'd argue the quality of chances were creating is the reason as to why we have the lowest chances conversion rate in the league. The final ball isn't where you want it to land so we're not generating enough power in our shots. The Munoz chance against Newcastle being the exception to the rule.

[Happy Blue]

12 minutes ago, Dave said:

On a happier note it's nice to be the winner of a dreadful game. A Chess match with teams on the counter is never a fun watch for the neutral but this was a must win fixture and has given us much needed breathing space ahead of City, Brighton and Arsenal.

Cautiously looking forward to Saturday now. Ipswich did well to nullify Sarr but he'll probably be our key player with his pace this weekend against Man Citys high line.

One other thing, i disagreed with Glasner's comments that we're creating chances and that isn't a problem. I'd argue the quality of chances were creating is the reason as to why we have the lowest chances conversion rate in the league. The final ball isn't where you want it to land so we're not generating enough power in our shots. The Munoz chance against Newcastle being the exception to the rule.

We lost 2 more defenders last night, good chance you are going to destroy us on the counter. only senior defenders we have fit are Walker, Dias, Lewis & Gvardiol. Walker is finished at the top level his defensive awareness is shocking at times and has lost a yard of pace, Gvardiol is in bad form and Lewis isn't that great at defending, it's going to be a tough watch 

[OrangeKhrush]

That is a red card and a penalty that may change the game entirely.   Schar got a red card for pushing Diaz,  there was nowhere near the same impact or maliciousness,  if you follow Van Dijk he is side eyeing up Gordon and he is feeling for the impact.    That would be an illegal check in ice hockey. 

[RandoEFC+]

I'm all for battering Gordon but Van Dijk does have a propensity for unnecessarily "leaving one on" players and it's not the first time he's been slightly fortunate not to get sent off.

There was the clash with Havertz just last month where he fully kicked out at him off the ball and VAR inexplicably just ignored it.

https://www.skysports.com/football/video/30998/13243100/arsenal-vs-liverpool-virgil-van-dijk-clashes-with-kai-havertz-off-the-ball

I expect at some point he'll see a couple of red cards in quick succession and people will finally start criticising him for taking unnecessary risks just to try and play the hard man. When that happens it'll be overdue.

[OrangeKhrush]

Van Dijk may face retrospective action as the incident was reported.

This result will only matter if we can take it into the Brentford game and beyond,  we have a decent fixture list.

 

 

[Dan+]

9 hours ago, RandoEFC said:

He's obviously got a niche in his eyes of being that Spanish intellectual who educates the sunburnt, beer-swilling Brits about Spanish football and he can't cope when they tell him a Spanish manager is shite and they turn out to actually be right.

We've had a lot of it from him ourselves because he's mates with Maresca. He bizarrely only lives about two miles from me and I've no idea how that's ended up happening.

He knows his stuff on some things to be fair, but his bias is painfully obvious. There's just zero objectivity. Nobody could possibly make a case for Lopetegui's performance this season.

[Reluctant Striker]

A long overdue & much needed win. Southampton (h) next, so chance ahead to really forget about the last month or so.

Good to see both Kamara & Mings starting. Kamara really does a unique job in the middle. And although Pau is a spectacularly under rated long precision passer, ball playing CB, Mings is more commanding defensively & in the air. Usually.

I'd be very surprised if the current Top 4 are not there at the end. Feels like enough is finally sticking now at Chelsea that they look very good for the 4th spot alongside the other 3.

[Stan]

Nearly another goal conceded from playing out the back. Lucky for Spurs it's ruled out for offside. 

[6666]

Iwobi is having a great season for Fulham. Maybe his best season.

[Dan+]

Spurs must be absolutely infuriating to support.

[OrangeKhrush]

7 hours ago, 6666 said:

Iwobi is having a great season for Fulham. Maybe his best season.

Quite an arsenal connection there.  Antonee Robinson is underrated and probably the best LB in the prem right now,  Muniz and perreira are also quietly underrated 

[LFCMike]

21 hours ago, Dave said:

If that and the Guehi shirt pull get given we are probably talking about Van Dijk costing his team with silly lapses in judgement rather than Carragher claiming he's the best Premier League CB ever.

What would get given? Because neither are penalties

[Stan]

16 minutes ago, LFCMike said:

What would get given? Because neither are penalties

You don't think he purposely went to hit Gordon? 

[LFCMike]

33 minutes ago, Stan said:

You don't think he purposely went to hit Gordon? 

It was a nothing incident. When I mentioned the three penalty incidents in a previous post I completely forgot about that one. Just another example of Gordon throwing himself to the floor