NAMING RIGHTS THREAD: Liverpool really won't win the Premiership 2010-2011

Don't think anybody will trot out the 'he's not that kind of player' line with Carragher.

Fergie has fielded two attacking line-ups in a week and got done very badly. Don't think he'll be trying that again for a while.

It's all come a bit late for this season and I still can't see anybody other than United winning the title, but next season could see six teams at the top of the table with very little to give between them.

Nani is the most productive player in the Premier League this season and he's not good enough for Arsenal?

Maybe that's the problem, the Arse not used to players actually being productive

Fergie has fielded two attacking line-ups in a week and got done very badly. Don't think he'll be trying that again for a while.

I think not fielding a referee in the lineup was his mistake

Yawn

League table since 1st January, sorted on Points Per Game. Suggests Man U aren't exactly the lock for the title people here are saying - Liverpool much improved under Kenny - West Ham top half! - Blackpool sinking like stones.

 	 		P	W	D	L	CS	FtS	F	A	GD	Pt	PPG
1	Arsenal		9	6	3	0	7	2	18	5	+13	21	2.33
2	Man United	11	7	1	3	3	1	24	13	+11	22	2.00
3	Liverpool	11	6	2	3	4	0	18	13	+5	20	1.82
4	Chelsea		8	4	2	2	3	3	15	8	+7	14	1.75
5	Man City	9	4	3	2	4	2	13	9	+4	15	1.67
6	Tottenham 	9	4	3	2	3	1	12	11	+1	15	1.67
7	Fulham		10	4	4	2	4	3	13	8	+5	16	1.60
8	Everton		9	4	2	3	1	2	16	15	+1	14	1.56
9	West Ham United	9	4	2	3	2	3	16	16	0	14	1.56
10	Newcastle 	10	3	5	2	4	2	16	10	+6	14	1.40
11	Aston Villa	10	3	4	3	1	1	17	16	+1	13	1.30
12	Sunderland	9	3	2	4	3	2	12	13	-1	11	1.22
13	Bolton 		9	3	2	4	2	2	10	14	-4	11	1.22
14	Birmingham City	9	3	2	4	2	3	8	17	-9	11	1.22
15	Wolves		10	3	2	5	2	4	14	17	-3	11	1.10
16	Stoke City	10	3	1	6	2	5	9	14	-5	10	1.00
17	WBA		10	2	4	4	0	3	14	20	-6	10	1.00
18	Blackburn	9	2	1	6	2	4	11	18	-7	7	0.78
19	Wigan Athletic	10	1	4	5	0	4	10	19	-9	7	0.70
20	Blackpool	11	2	1	8	0	2	16	26	-10	7	0.64

Most pundits reckoning on 41-43 points to stay up - Blackpool continuing on 0.64 ppg gets them 38-39

If we win our games in hand we can take the Since Jan 1 table easily! Is there a trophy for that?

Half a trophy

a place in the uefa cup

I genuinely have no idea who's going to go down now. There are a lot of "play open attractive football and then get smashed" teams down there that could go either way.

Are Tottenham safe yet?

The bottom three in that table look a decent bet. Birmingham too. Poor Venky's.

Wish Stoke would GET TAE FUCK

feel like spurs had best make the most of their year in the cl

Love Stoke. Love love love. Best thing about modern football, along with snoods, Ashley Cole, Sam Allardyce and badge kissing.

Yeah could happily lose Blackburn this year, waste of space club. Stoke are hilarious.

Yeah could happily lose Blackburn this year, waste of space club.

For some reason, this made me think of Colonel Gadaffi casually dismissing the residents of a small hamlet outside Tripoli. 24,000 dreams dashed in a deft turn of phrase.

What exactly happens to Blackburn next though? Their innocents-abroad owners must've been relieved of their £5m by now.

I think what happens next is a hilarious failed bid for Kaka followed by a successful one for Jimmy Bullard who is inspirational for the three games he plays next season.

Bullard's already got Championship experience tbf

His debut at Bournemouth will have them glued from Dhaka to the Khyber Pass.

It'd be alright for Stoke to stay up next year if they sack Pulis after a season-long relegation battle.

Pulis wd just refuse to leave, they'd have to take him down with a tranquilizer gun and one of those Hannibal Lecter masks.

A hostage situation could quickly develop

Can see crossover potential in a Pulis/Big Sam MMO-football league

Would they replace him with Allardyce or di Matteo I wonder

MMA I meant

Pulis feels closely identified with Stoke in a way you don't really get with bottom-half clubs. It'd be like Arsenal sacking Wenger.

Seriously Stoke shd make all their home games cage matches, wd set a good tone for visits from Arsenal

It has been mentioned

Pulis feels closely identified with Stoke in a way you don't really get with bottom-half clubs. It'd be like Arsenal sacking Wenger.

Amusing on breakfast TV this morning, 'Ol Misery Guts Wenger is on moaning about something or other and the caption underneath read "Tony Pulis, Arsenal Manager"

― Tom D (Tom D.), Thursday, 24 February 2011 12:06 (1 week ago) Permalink

Pulis feels closely identified with Stoke in a way you don't really get with bottom-half clubs. It'd be like Arsenal sacking Wenger.

overdue?

I liked the chants of "HOOF!" in the Stoke-WBA game.

That form table's interesting, didn't think Arsenal were doing so well. They always seem one game away from catastrophe, where other teams can ride a slump. Hoping that ManU go against type and their season dribbles out instead of their usual strong second half of season.

So, Pastore being heavily linked with Utd today. Anyone with more knowledge of Serie A want to tell me if he's any good?

That form table's interesting, didn't think Arsenal were doing so well. They always seem one game away from catastrophe, where other teams can ride a slump.

i know, it's strange. maybe some hairy cup performances added to the impression? (failure to beat leeds, ipswich, leyton and birmingham first time round) or just that wenger seem to take slip ups so badly that they stand out?

"hairy cup performances"

I lolled too.

New ILF board description.

crediting ken that it was entirely deliberate btw

xpost oh excellent Matt u changed it

http://www.sapdesignguild.org/editions/edition6/images/oppen_large.jpg

Arsenal haven't looked particularly convincing for a while, but they've picked up points. Lots of crappy cup draws. But the Barcelona result obscures everything. I had wondered how Wenger got Manager of the Month in Feb, but looking at form nobody else really deserved it - no idea how Chelsea are so high when they've still been largely awful.

Maybe Avram Grant shoulda had it.

United strong second half of the season is a bit overplayed. Didn't help them last year, when Chelsea came from behind with a tougher run-in.

Though somebody did once tell me that United under Ferguson since about 1992 have never had more than five bad results in a row, and that has proved to be amazingly accurate.

Still, if they lose to Marseille, they'll all suddenly start remembering how much they hate the Glazers again.

5 bad results in a row is bad.

This united spell is v similar to the 08/09 one, thrashing from Liverpool included. So yeah they'll still win the league. They're horrendous tho, Chelsea, Arsenal, anyone, don't let this happen.

Hadn't realised that United still have to play Arsenal and then Chelsea back to back in the league, could be huge. Although Arsenal's next fixture after than United game is Stoke away and we know how much they like that.

CAGE MATCH CAGE MATCH

Yup, Arsenal thumping United then losing to Stoke, Villa and Fulham seems almost inevitable.