Premier League 2012/13

[porterjack]

No way rednapp can save them

 

[Springsteen]

They fucked themselves essentially with signing all those players in the summer, when they haven't clicked because they were all played together at the same time, coupled with the fact that, well, QPR aren't very good anyway as a starting point. He could keep them up, but it'll take a lot of work. At least QPR didn't wait till March to bring him in. When it would almost certainly have been too late.

 

[Springsteen]

Beat West Ham 1-0 to maintain a 1 point lead at the top of the table. Robin Van Persie continued his scoring run against London opposition (4/5 London teams this season) inside 31 seconds with a deflected effort. After that we dominated the first half whilst being wasteful. In the second West Ham improved but we were still on top in terms of chances, again suffering from sloppy finishing and passing. The two opportunities that West Ham did have came in the last ten minutes, the first from Cole was comfortably saved, the second was an almost chance when Evra's miskick almost let them in, but Evans bailed him out. In the end a performance which won't live long in the memory, but a clean sheet and a first 1-0 win of the season are welcome points to build on.

Man City also win, 2-0 at Wigan. Chelsea, now under new management of course can only draw 0-0 at home to Fulham (interestingly the fourth draw in a row between those two in the league) and go even further behind in the Title race.

 

[porterjack]

i watched qpr at sunderland the other day

dire game, there is a young canadian at qpr (David "Junior" Hoillett), Harry should give a try out, especially with the injury to zamorra nd the fact that cisse is too slow these days

 

[Springsteen]

Hoillett is a very good player but with QPR struggling as they have been he hasn't had chance to show it much. He was at Blackburn last year and a couple of seasons before that and looked good.

 

[Springsteen]

Some game at the Madjeski. Reading 3-4 Man United. Reading went in front early on from Hal Robson Kanu's strike after some dreadful defending. Anderson's strike shortly after brought us level after that, beautiful it was too. Gasper Gorks then clumsily tripped Jonny Evans in the area, the inevitable penalty was dispatched by Rooney to put us 2-1 ahead. Two goals in 4 minutes from Adam Le Fondre and Sean Morrison put Reading 3-2 up, but then they showed why they are 19th. Rooney cleverly dispatched from Evra's cutback before Robin Van Persie finished well after being put clean through. The same player should have had a second when his shot clearly crossed the line, but the linesman didn't give it. I refuse to blame him or the referee, goalline technology should have been brought in years back.

In the second half not much happened.

 

[Springsteen]

Manchester Derby just ended in a 3-2 win for us. A classic game it has to be said. With the importance for City not to lose (with a 6 point gap if they did) they started better with a dominance of possession akin to Barcelona. But the end of the first half ended with us 2-0 up thanks to two Rooney goals. One a scuffed shot, one a smart finish after some poor defending from City. In the second half the introduction of Tevez added spark to the City performance and indeed his assist led to Yaya Toure's goal that brought City back into it on the hour. Pablo Zabaleta's last City goal was the first of 5 on that famous last day. This one seemed to have kept them in this year's Title race. And from then it seemed City would score the fifth. However a free kick from Robin Van Persie deflected into Joe Hart's net. An unfortunate incident at the end where Rio Ferdinand had an object thrown at him and bled.

In the Title race a huge win. A six point lead to take from here until April's next Derby meeting. And the end of Man City's two year home unbeaten run. We have a handy habit of ending those runs.

 

[Springsteen]

Beat Sunderland 3-1 at home to maintain our 6 point lead at the top. A dominant first half was rewarded with a 2-0 half time lead thanks to a controlled Van Persie finish and a superb finish from Tom Cleverley. In the second half Sunderland came into life but were stopped when Wayne Rooney tapped in from a Van Persie assist. Their goal did come from former United striker Frazer Campbell who headed in from a yard. Sunderland then gained some spirit but couldn't get more than that. In the end a good win to get. Can't really ask any more.

 

[Springsteen]

1-1 in a pre-Christmas meeting between Swansea and Man United in South Wales. A good display from United in the opening period gave us the lead from a Patrice Evra header from a Van Persie corner. Swansea's equaliser came from Michu after poor defending from us (despite a blatant foul on Van Persie in the build up). In the second half a dominant display failed to bring us what would have been a deserved win. Better decision making in the final third would have given us that goal, even with a penalty being turned down halfway through. They've certainly been given. But the referee's display certainly won't make any how to referee handbooks. In the end a game we should have won. Swansea have to be happy with a point. It's a bonus. It means a 4 point lead at the top going into the mad rush of festive fixtures.

 

[Springsteen]

Absolutely incredible game between us and Newcastle. There was a time under Keegan where Newcastle were known as the great entertainers. This game was a flashback to that. The 4-3 scoreline in the end tells half the story. Newcastle took the lead early on through James Perch after Carrick's giveaway let Demba Ba in. Ba's shot was parried by De Gea to Perch, who put it away. Newcastle took the confidence from that to create six further chances in the half. We equalised thanks to Jonny Evans, who poked in the equaliser. Soon after that Newcastle retook the lead after an Jonny Evans own goal. However the linesman initally ruled it out, as Cisse was offside But as he didn't touch the ball the goal was given by Mike Dean. Cisse did appear to be interfering with play which should have been enough, however the goal stood. Into the second half and we equalised again through Patrice Evra, his second in three days and second against Newcastle this season. After that the smart money was with us to get the fifth goal. However Gabriel Obertan's cross found Pappis Cisse who slammed the ball home for 3-2. Robin Van Persie however continued his great scoring run to make it 3-3. Pressure continued on Newcastle until finally they cracked thanks to Javier Hernandez's header from a Michael Carrick cross. In the end a sensational game. After all of that we get a seven point lead in the Premier League thanks to Sunderland's 1-0 win over Man City.

 

[Springsteen]

Rounded off a crazy 2012 with a 2-0 home win over West Brom at Old Trafford. On paper the score looks comfortable but for times in the second half, with West brom capitalising on our failure to score again with good possession in the centre of midfield. However goals it didn't turn into despite coming close on a couple of occasions, including hitting the bar. The first goal came just shy of 10 minutes when Ashley Young's cross was diverted in by Gareth McCauley. After that we started to take over and came close to increasing the score, with Carrick having a shot cleared off the line. In the second half the lack of a second goal was offset by the introduction of Van Persie for Kagawa on 65 minutes. In the end though West Brom couldn't make their pressure count and paid for it when Van Persie scored with a glorious curler to wrap up the points.

 

[Springsteen]

Started 2013 as we ended 2012, with a win and a clean sheet. This time the victims were Wigan and a fairly routine 4-0 win at the DW stadium. Wigan had a promising start to the game but couldn't make anything of it (in fact De Gea didn't have a save to make all afternoon). We took the lead late on in the half through Javier Hernandez who typically pounced after Ali Al-Habsi had parried the ball out. 1 became 2 shortly after when we exploited the break and Robin Van Persie smartly finished to give us a good cushion going into half time. Wigan thought they had pulled a goal back in the second half but Arouna Kone's effort was correctly ruled out. After which we took the game by the scruff of the neck and when Robin Van Persie's free kick was blocked by the wall, Hernandez pounced again to make the points safe, and in turn scoring his sixth goal in six games against the Lancastrians. Robin Van Persie made it 4-0 in the 88th minute when he tapped in a Danny Welbeck cross. All in all a comfortable start to the new year.

 

[keano]

Robin Van Persie has basically won you the PLT should of come to Chelsea Hernandez is a great player good to see him hit some consistant form. Although it good to see that Demba ba is coming to Chelsea for 7 and a half million although thought joe might of gone to QPR but instead he going to the hammers wonder how many games they'll give?

 

[Springsteen]

Why would RVP want to waste his time going to that sham of a club? Plus I don't think he gets on with the Chelsea players at all well. Hence why he scores against them all the time. His goals this season have been sometimes huge and the definite difference between winning and not winning. If we do win the Title this season, he'll have been a major part of why. What a sensible decision buying him. Sir Alex knew he's at the peak of his career now.

I'd say Hernandez is worth about 12 extra points a season with his goal poaching technique. Little stat, he's never scored a goal from outside the area at Man United.

The things that benefits us in our pursuit of the Title is that we've been to the toughest away grounds already in my opinion. Won at Chelsea, Liverpool, City, Newcastle. Drew at Swansea. Yeah we lost at Everton but we always tend to struggle there anyway. We still have to go to Arsenal and Tottenham but I'd always back us at both of those places anyway. City still have to go to Tottenham, Arsenal, Swansea, Everton and us. That's where the Title is going to be won and lost this season. If we can pick up 12 wins and 3 draws in the final 17, and not lose to City, we'll win the Title.

Demba Ba can't be any worse than Torres.

 

[keano]

I wouldn't even say Liverpool were that hard not compared to what they used to be like plus Newcastle are nowhere near on form compared to last season and yeah Hernandez is a goal poacher everyone knows that and that stat doesn't surprise me at all to be honest but United are prone to losing to poor teams that is also a well known fact happens every season. Torres was a waste of money ask any true blues fan and they'll tell you the same thing. I'd also back united to win against Arsenal but not Tottenham i rate them as a very good team they are always good for an outside bet. Your defense is leaky as hell which i expect will play a major factor in the title if it comes to goal difference and you know you always got fergie time and him harrassing refs up ya sleeve I belive fergie has also said he is committed to the club for atleast another 2 years which is good but where will united be when he goes thats the big question! I have always thought david moyes would be a good manager to take over at united good manager what he has done at Everton shows that aswell.

 

[Springsteen]

Liverpool away only tends to be difficult for us because they treat it as a cup final these days. Little pedigree at that club.

The defensive thing is worrying because most of them have been preventable goals. At times we haven't had our first choice defence in (early on it was Vidic and Carrick) but most of the time we have. I think better marking would have helped (look at the 3 Reading scored against us for example). We've done better in the last two games, and the two clean sheets will help. I do think we need to play De Gea all the time, because I do think he's the better keeper, and the defence has to get used to one stable keeper being there all the time. De Gea's a good keeper, but I think dropping him would affect his confidence. I will say we're a better defence with Vidic in as opposed to not. He and Evans are probably the best defensive partnership we have.

I also think Centre midfield is a big things for us. Carrick or Fletcher must play every game. Alongside them must be an energetic player like Cleverley or Anderson, because we need them to make runs to help the front players. The best partnership at the moment is probably Cleverley and Carrick. The only way Paul Scholes should play is either when we're starting with 3 in midfield (Carrick, Scholes, Kagawa for example) or when we need someone on to keep good possession in the latter stages of a match. The Norwich game where we played Carrick and Scholes was a nightmare as neither could support the striker well, allowing Norwich to have loads of room to play. Yeah, Norwich.

But at the moment we've got the best goal difference, so that's not a huge issue, and if we can keep scoring a lot then we'll be fine. It stung us last season but I think we'll have learned from that, plus City aren't scoring as many (I think they're something like 20 down on last season)

I'd always back us to win at Spurs, we haven't lost there since 1999 and though we lost to them earlier on this season I'd call that a one off. Plus they're not playing too well. Arsenal I'd expect us to get at least a point at, we've been excellent there in recent years.

I'd expect us to juggle Champions League well enough, we've coped with it in the past and it's not that much of a hassle if you have a big squad like us. I think we'll beat Real Madrid, but they'll be up for it because they can't win La Liga now (well they can, but then a 3 month old baby can also read Crime and Punishment if we go by that logic)

I've always thought Moyes as a little big negative and I personally find Everton a bit boring to watch as a team. He's an ok manager, don't get me wrong, but I think people read into the Scottish thing a bit too much. I do have it on good authority that Sir Alex and Pep Guardiola are on very good speaking terms and he might take over. Him or Jose would fit the bill nicely. Jose is leaving Real Madrid in the Summer anyway.

 

[keano]

I've always rated De Gea as a good keeper and i totally agree with you a stable keeper is always good plus the players get used to what he wants as a keeper and his confidence will also go up i remember him actually saying his confidence had been abit low at times and yeah quite a few of them goals were pretty easy shocking really considering you have so highly rated defenders and it shows when they aren't there i'd expect united to do well at Arsenal all their problems at the min with walcott and people on his back but he has never failed to get Arsenal into the champion league in 16 years i belive it is.

Champions league you should be fine cause as you say you have a big squad so rotation shouldn't be a problem and fergie's good at that. Real Madrid shouldn't be a problem as their fans aren't too happy with Mourinho at the min nor are his players to be honest not compared to what others players have been like for him at other clubs.

Yeah i always knew Moyes was an outside chance and Pep Gaurdiola was fave for the job due to what he had done at Barcalona and Roman Abramovich stuffed the chance to have him for basically being a dick. I also think its a shame what he is doing to Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard people who have done so much for the granted the club has its own rules on players over 30 but god damn they should make exceptions for people who have done what they have done for us its shameful.

 

[Springsteen]

You always need a basis of certain players in a squad. You need those experienced players to help the younger players in the squad and to shoulder responsibility when things aren't going well. I do think Chelsea's PR in this respect is fraught with terrible difficulties because the owner never speaks and is awfully trigger happy when things aren't going too well.

I don't think Wenger can do much more with Arsenal's squad than what he is doing. He's managed to get them into the Champions League for that many years consecutively, sure they'll probably go out to Bayern but I expect them to be in it next season. Their financial model depends on it. As does ours actually. Our profits for the last financial year were great. We're still £300m+ in debt, but we've never been in better shape profit wise. Give it a few years, the debt will be completely gone.

Chelsea offered Pep the job last Summer, but he was committed to this sabbatical he's taking currently. I don't think him going there would do him much good.

 

[keano]

The way Roman going we ain't going to have any manager's wanting to come to Chelsea, and yeah he did say that but also the fact Roman just wouldn't leave him alone and give the man his space.

Aston Villa at the min are a prime example of what your talking about, no experienced players their oldest player who played was only 23 and the rest were either the same or younger. Which is why Lambert's going to be buesy in the transfer window trying to get those players. But to be honest are those new players coming in really gonna want a relegation battle?

Arsenal have always been good at dealing with the money matters of the game, but over the last 2-3 season's they have taken it to a whole new level if they ain't prepared to pay then the big names will go else where to where others clubs will pay their wage demands. But getting the new up and coming players to sign long term contracts was a life saver but as it seems we are agreed they proberly will also need 2 possibly 3 more experienced players if not just to give more depth to the team plus rotations of the players for CL, PL and cup ties.

 

[Springsteen]

Villa have to stick by Lambert. I admire them for going down the youth route and results like the 8-0 at Chelsea are going to happen from time to time. They can buy some players but I think youth is the best direction.

Arsenal can't pay the big wages anymore in comparison to us, City and Chelsea. That's because of their wage structure and financial planning to do with the Emirates thing.

I think City need to sell or something before they buy. They have too many at the clubs and the signings they have made haven't worked out at all. Rodwell's only played once or twice, Sinclair even less. Those players have been wastes.