The Premiership 2005-2006 thread

[St Helens RLFC]

Discuss the up and coming Premiership season in this thread. Will Chelsea retain their ***le? Will they score as many deflected goals? Will Liverpool bridge the gap on the top three? Are Man USA doomed for yet another trophyless season, and failure in Europe? Will Bolton continue to be a comedy football club, yet get it right on the field? Will Wigan, Sunderland and West Ham plunge back through the Premiership door? And who will consolidate?

For what it's worth by the way, I think that this is the worst Premiership, quality wise, that there has ever been.

 

[el_tk]

Does anybody here have a fantasy football team on premierleague.com?

 

[Bullitt]

I did a team for the Telegraph;

1. P Cech

2. L King
3. J Terry
4. W Gallas
5. K Toure

6. F Lampard
7. D Duff
8. D Murphy
9. N Solano

10. Robbie Keane
11. JF Hasslebank


http://tfft.gfm.co.uk/tfft/appform.pdf

http://tfft.gfm.co.uk/tfft/playlist.pdf


-------

My thoughts on the season;

Chelsea will prove again that ***les can be bought,
Arsenal will fall over without Vierra,
Man Utd will get Owen and score a record number of goals, but still leak far too many,
Liverpool will do bugger all,
Teddy Sheringham will have a good half-season until he retires,

And finally,

England will not win the World Cup. Instead, they will be beaten in the first knock-out stage. As usual.

 

[An Tarbh]

I honestly can't see things being much different than last year, or even 2003 to be honest, Arsenal and Chelsea fighting it out for the ***le, Man Utd a shade short again, Liverpool and Everton will still most likely end up fighting it out for that final champions league spot and a bad team will win the champions league for a third season in a row.

As for Newcastle, getting in the top 6 will be an achievement imo, can't see it happening though, Souness really needs to put a big effort into the Carling Cup as that's out only realistic chance of winning anything.

Relegation will be the most interesting tussle again with only West Ham being good enough out of the promoted teams to avoid getting involved, Sunderland will put up more of a fight than last time and along with the likes of Fulham and West Brom will have some battle to avoid that final spot.

 

[loratadine]

i predict that united will win the ***le, with chelsea finishing second and liverpool third


winner - man united 92 pts


relegations
west ham - 42
wigan - 39
sunderland - 36

 

[SaintsFan_Webby]

Slightly disappointing opening day I thought, bit of an anticlimax in the end. Some awful tackles went in, and it was nice to see West Ham get off to a good start, but other than that there wasn't the amount of incident you would expect to see.

On a side note, irritating Man City performance, played some decent football, just couldn't put away chances. Cole and Vassell need to improve as the season goes on, although Kirkland did have a very good day in goal to deny them.

 

[An Tarbh]

Heartbreak for Wigan today after losing 1-0 at home to Chelsea thanks to a last minute winner from Hernan Crespo, quality goal though. Bit of a pisser considering they'd just hit the crossbar only 10 minutes beforehand.

Newcastle put in a decent enough performance at Highbury but were still short on quality. Looks like Souness was gonna have a mighty whinge about the ref, never one to take responsability. It was a penalty, maybe Jenas' red card was harsh but it was an idiotic challenge. Arsenal never looked overly threatened from Newcastle and ended up handy 2-0 winners in the end. Just hope the first day standings have no relevance on the final outcome.

Results of Day 1

Sunday, 14 August 2005

Arsenal 2 - 0 Newcastle
Wigan 0 - 1 Chelsea

Saturday, 13 August 2005

Aston Villa 2 - 2 Bolton
Everton 0 - 2 Man Utd
Fulham 0 - 0 Birmingham
Man City 0 - 0 West Brom
Middlesbrough 0 - 0 Liverpool
Portsmouth 0 - 2 Tottenham
Sunderland 1 - 3 Charlton
West Ham 3 - 1 Blackburn

Barclays Premiership : Table

Home

Away

Team
P W D L F A W D L F A GD PTS
1 Charlton 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 3 1 2 3
2 West Ham 1 1 0 0 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 3
3 Arsenal 1 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 3
4 Man Utd 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 2 3
5 Tottenham 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 2 3
6 Chelsea 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 3
7 Aston Villa 1 0 1 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
8 Bolton 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 2 0 1
9 Birmingham 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1
10 Fulham 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
11 Liverpool 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1
12 Man City 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
13 Middlesbrough 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
14 West Brom 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1
15 Wigan 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 -1 0
16 Blackburn 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 3 -2 0
17 Sunderland 1 0 0 1 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 -2 0
18 Everton 1 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 -2 0
19 Newcastle 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 -2 0
20 Portsmouth 1 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 -2 0

 

[St Helens RLFC]

Absolutely infuriating result for us - we absolutely destroyed Boro. Two points dropped already.

 

[An Tarbh]

Yeah Gerrard certainly spurned a hatful of chances.

 

[wigan_rlfc]

I see the first of many losses for Wigan there

 

[An Tarbh]

Jermaine Jenas has had his red card downgraded to a yellow, while it wasn't the worst tackle of the weekend it was idiotic and it wasn't surprising to see him get a red card. Good thing that Souness kept his mouth shut afterwards otherwise I doubt the FA would have overturned the decision.

It reminds me of a tackle that Vieira put in on Gerrard 3 or 4 years ago when he slid in from behind, took the ball cleanly and still got sent off. Don't see the difference between this and that.

 

[St Helens RLFC]

The tackle you're on about was McAllister tackling Vieira. It was still a farce, but with another 2 players sent off that day you can tell that Graeme Poll was in TV Referee mode.

 

[An Tarbh]

No it was definitely Vieira on Gerrard that I'm talking about.

 

[St Helens RLFC]

I don't remember it - any chance you could remind me of a score?

 

[An Tarbh]

It was the same match where McAlister got sent off for his tackle on Vieira where the press went mental on Vieira and McAlister came out smelling of roses. Vieira's tackle was on Hamman not Gerrard, my mistake.

Arsenal won 2-0.

 

[St Helens RLFC]

Yeah, rings a bell actually. Hamann was also later sent off, although Mr Poll was definitely having a TV day. The Chinese had a word in his ear, no doubt.

 

[An Tarbh]

I just remember being ****** off at the reaction to Vieira's dismissal cause he actually won the ball so there wasn't any malicious intent as the press were making out in the aftermath. That'd be the same element of frustration with Jenas as well, although they know they can't put in those tackles so why do it in the first place.

 

[An Tarbh]

Looks like Chelsea have finally landed their man after agreeing a fee with Lyon for â'¬38 million for Michael Essien. Bit short of the â'¬45 million they were originally looking for. Shows the madness of Abramovic's billions, don't think any other club would spend that sort of money on a player like Essien, despite him being a decent player.

 

[St Helens RLFC]

I hear that Essien is a very talented young man - and so he should be for that price. Stupid money but that's what the Russians have to pay.

 

[Hypnotised]

Spurs win first up, always pleasing. Thought we were lucky however, from could have been better. Hopefuly King and Davids back for the Boro game.

Felt pretty sorry for wigan, thought they played pretty decently first up against Chelsea and deserved a point. Another person I felt for was indeed Gerrard, so many chances and none converted into goals.

Glad to see Jenas' card downgraded, if he's to sign for spurs like it's being rumoured, don't want any overhanging suspension.