Moneyball won't win the Premiership 2012-13

was strange in that at no stage did it look like utd were particularly interested in closing the game down. They played pretty much the same way from minute 1 to 90.

4.57pm: We're into injury time at Old Trafford where Fulham have been pushing and pushing for an equaliser. Wayne Rooney is stretchered off with a dreadful gash in his knee. More extra time to come.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cock_and_Bull#Bull

He's out for a month apparently

twrvp

Villa perked up a little towards the end but tbh they looked fucking awful. Struggled to create a single proper chance on goal for the second week running, looked bereft of both confidence and ideas on the ball. Unfortunately Bent, our best player, brings nothing to the table unless those around him are up to scratch. N'Zogbia is worse than useless. We need to bring in a creative presence and a good winger to feed Bent. Otherwise it's gonna be a relegation fight all over again.

how come the first search result for ivanovic is ana, 12th best on the wta right now, rather than branislav who must be at least the sixth or seventh best footballer in the world

or even the third best given that he is now scoring more often than daniel alves, previous 3rd best player in the world (c) sid lowe 2009

interesting to see what sources close to frank lampard will be saying if chelsea don't win this

Woah Lukaku looked a fucking handful, we just couldn't cope with West Brom after he came on at all.

Spurs were all over West Brom for 60mins or so of that game and then they caused complete chaos. Taking VDV off and depriving our midfield of some passing composure probably did it. Definitely more threat needed upfront but Vertonghen looks quality already.

I dunno, weirdly encouraging signs despite the equaliser. We definitely need more competition upfront and more everything in midfield.

Is Old Trafford located on a ship? Never noticed how much Jol moves about when interviewed, he's making me seasick watching the video here http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19304316

Vertonghen did look great. and i'm still impressed with Livermore, even though he is not the regista the team needs. sandro was great tackling and running down balls but didn't contribute going forward, not sure jenas ever touched the ball after he came on.

wait jenas is still there? did levy hand him a 6 year modric contract too?

think this is the last year of the contract extension he got under Ramos

blimey

when will clubs learn? WHEN? etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFpa4h495YM

the buildup here is almost as impressive as the goal

this season could see chelsea playing good football with generally non-hateful players and who knows maybe even terry being supplanted by luiz & cahill

chelsea fans still all irredeemable fucking wankers though

Luiz and Cahill are not good enough to supplant EBJT, if Terry is eventually pushed out of the team it'll be by a commanding mega-signing at the back.

watching MOTD this morning and some of the goalkeeping in the prem so far has been laughably bad.

terry is ridiculously slow now, cahill and luiz are much better suited to the way they play

it mostly depends on luiz levelling out his more stupid mistakes cuz potentially he is a pretty complete defender (not quite lúcio, but closer than most)

if that happens (as it seems to be) and he no longer needs terry to hold his hand, then the justification for terry's inclusion is more as a sentimental sop to the lovely chelsea fans than any kind of footballing logic

gervinho is still useless

*Nods.* This is pretty dire, I think Giroud looks promising though.

right after he does that?

You mean that hopeful lob from well outside the box? It wasn't a bad effort. More a comment on his overall showing though.

there was a simple pass on and he didn't even see it. I'd be very worried about this strike force if i were an Arsenal fan

You're not criticising an Arsenal forward for shooting instead of passing?

Liverpool: Reina; Kelly, Coates, Skrtel, Johnson; Gerrard, Lucas, Allen; Borini, Suarez, Sterling.

Sterling IN, Carra OUT. Hope this isn't the highpoint of the afternoon.

xxp Why, did they lose a player in that department who was responsible for a decent amount of their scoring last season?

By which I mean that of course their attacking threat has been decimated. Yet I think Giroud might reach the lofty heights of 'better than Gervinho' in short time.

Amongst v strong competition Stoke fans may be the most hateable of the lot.

For the haters, here's a piece on Lucas' excellent marking of Silva and Yaya Toure last season: http://fourfourtwo.com/blogs/statszone/archive/2012/08/24/the-one-liverpool-player-brendan-rodgers-couldn-t-do-without.aspx

Nobody doubts his negating ability.

Sterling... he beats the man, he actually dribbles down the wing.

do you just close your eyes and stick your fingers in your ears the rest of the time. embarrassing.

I wasn't comparing Sterling to Lucas btw, was just separately astonished at wing play.

there was a simple pass on and he didn't even see it. I'd be very worried about this strike force if i were an Arsenal fan

― Number None, Sunday, 26 August 2012 15:22 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

TWO CLEAN SHEETS IN A ROW!!!! Oh yeah the other end...

tbh i'm fine with giving two new strikers a couple games to blend in, especially if we aren't conceding (and against two set-play teams! us! not conceding!).

arsenal were generally quite impressive, they looked solid throughout and arteta showed that they don't really need sahin, who might be a better player but needs time to adapt etc

giroud was getting involved and is pretty quick for someone his size, podolski fits in well

gervinho is trash oxlade chamberlain can pick up the slack on the wings til he is sold back to france for £4m next year

it's a solid sort of arsenal team, a bit more like an earlier wenger side & with only cazorla likely to do anything really amazing

What a beautiful goal.

This sounds like a decent game

It's a bit scrappy. Liverpool have wasted a lot, the City goal was fairly embarrassing. Reina all over the place.

oh squirtle.

gerrard-esque from the big man.

FFS, bet they lose now.

i sort of hate skrtel

playing sterling was a good choice imo, all the dalglish era shite on the bench

also raheeem sterling is a good name

dalglish era shite warming up.

Good performance overall, tho they never really stopped doing well against the top sides.

Nothing yet to distinguish this season from last season afaict

The style was a little different today. Sterling is really exciting too.

tbh I've only seen the last hour v WBA and the Hearts game, I think everything else will've been better than those. I'm going next week though, should be interesting

I actually thought shelvey was good today.

the radio was talking up Joe Allen