Liverpool have 2nd sewn up - EPL 2018/19

my expectations for Man U largely revolve around them having a new manager by January

agree Chelsea will do poorly, Arsenal is an interesting situation waiting to reveal the form that its lulz will take

Liverpool unluckiest Premier League team & Manchester United luckiest, says study

However, the study found Huddersfield should have been relegated instead of Stoke when 'incorrect' refereeing decisions were taken into account.

:D

Sarri's plan appears to involve playing David Luiz in a 442 with the fullbacks not pushing too far up the pitch, which sounds like the absolute worst way to get the best out of the resources available.

xp
just like how some of our players can barely even control a ball at times, sometimes destiny is just as intractable;p

i think chelsea could be on for a good season tbh if (and it's a huge if) the fans / roman show a little patience. sarri knows what he's about.

kante / jorginho is as good a midfield base as any in the world, hazard is still hazard, there is a fair scattering of talent throughout the rest of the squad and they're apparently about to splurge on a couple of big new signings (kepa on his way in as a courtois replacement tonight im reading)

batshuayi is a weird one, apparently he's likely to go out on loan but it was only a few weeks ago that sarri was saying he's in line for a shot with the first team. wouldve thought after his form for dortmund he'd have earned his shot as the returning prodigal who's "like a new signing for us"

building the defence around david luiz looks like risky business though, yes

Generally Liverpool hype and optimism pre-season would be an obvious recipe for disaster and disappointment but with Klopp I'm not so sure. City for the title obviously.

Chelsea will do alright but I suspect it will take a while for Sarri to make his presence felt

Giroud/Morata are both problematic

I was very wary of this earlier because of the money involved but Chelsea have agreed to pay a world record £71m to sign goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga. Full story on @TeleFootball #cfc

— Matt Law (@Matt_Law_DT) August 7, 2018

Well that'll take a little bit of pressure of Alisson, if nothing else

pressure *off* Alisson, obvs.

Highly recommended watching the clip where Pep tells Carragher and Gary Neville that he'd "never forgive them" for not winning a trophy with England's golden generation. And then calls Gary 'Phil' to compound the matter.

"Shaqiri is not as supremely talented as Coutinho was but he possesses the same invention and guile as the Brazilian. With the forward trio of Mo, Mane & Bobby, a reborn Sturridge, Shaqiri's invention and the ever industrious midfielders, Liverpool are frightening"- #bbcfootball

— Esther Agbarakwe (@estherclimate) August 7, 2018

Liverpool fans getting excited about Shaqiri. Sturridge on fire in pre-season. That's Liverpool probably fucked then!

My gut says Liverpool are going to be decimated by injuries and not have a particularly good season.

all it'll take is one to VVD tbh

i'm sure athletic club will have plenty of other gk options if kepa goes :/

lol when aduriz finally retires theyre gonna have no keepers or strikers of la liga quality

p sure aduriz will never retire tbh

Herrerín's not too bad iirc.

http://e1.365dm.com/18/08/16-9/20/skysports-premier-predictor_4383576.jpg?20180808080626

The stats-based Sky Sports Predictor outed as bitter Leeds Utd fan-bot.

From what I can tell Kepa pretty much kept Bilbao in La Liga last season so they're right to extract such a ridiculous fee from Chelsea.

#thfc first bid for Jack Grealish was £3M plus Joshua Onomah. [Daily Mirror]

— Hotspur Related (@HotspurRelated) August 8, 2018

villa have told spurs to shove it according to sky

tbh

sounds about right

that Sky predictor some kind of fake?

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11096/11465325/tottenham-finish-as-runners-up-ahead-of-liverpool-manchester-united

nope

lol always thought the football media had something against us

If Cardiff finish above Town then we'll surely deserve to go down, but so not happening Uncle Neil!

Is there any chance that Wolves could just QPR this?

Anything is possible. I'll take a bet with anybody who thinks we'll go down tho.

"Spurs to make big money deadline day bid for Ryan Sessegnon..."

they'd probably be wise to not fuck this one up as well, by offering derisory bids with dud player swap options so close to the deadline. And especially when dealing with a super rich club under no pressure to sell.

Wolves are closing in on a deal to sign Belgium international Leander Dendoncker, according to Sky sources.

The Anderlecht midfielder is travelling to England to discuss personal terms and undergo a medical.

Looks like suddenly Dendoncker's back on? If this does go south it'll be an order of magnitude beyond QPR

Lol just got here same time

sessegnon, grealish, id take that but seems unlikely.

rose and alderweireld out, youd need to raise 100m and replace with a good centre half, doable but again seems a lot at this stage

not much point finishing top four against the odds every season to then refuse the platform tho

Thrilled and terrified at what we're spending. Unifying link is this is a young squad bar Moutinho

Dendoncker makes me wonder if Nuno's gonna persist with Saiss as a centre half tho. By all accounts not his favoured position, and nobody thought he looked comfortable there on Saturday.

glad we've managed to palm off Malone to the Lampard Project. Jesus, we spent 6m on him just because he give us the runaround in 2 champo league games - always the most dud criteria for a signing. He looked like Jim had fixed it for him in the prem.

city have signed another attacking midfielder for some reason, 19yo arzani, who looked decent in the wc.

floggin the ukranian lad to wolves?

looks like kovacic to Chelsea

hard to get excited about us signing jermaine defoe again tbh

Are Spurs fans generally as 'it's ok if we sign noone shrug' like you are?

eh they'll get rojo or smalling as a makeweight for anderweireld

this is apparently true

xp im not happy but at the same time idk.

we are as likely to sign shite as not, we are actually better off without aurier or sissoko and thats 55m, and probably more like 75m if bought today. fuck that.

if pochs ok im ok

if hes not then levy has fucked up hugely

but, if poch has forgotten how to make squad and youth players better, thats a strange turn of events too

Kovacic to Chelsea is already official

damn quick work

He went as part of the Courtois deal

It's only a season-long loan. No option to buy

wait theres a courtois deal now

poch out

So no players either in or out today?

jose: The information I have is no.

out of all the big dogs I wish we were playing Man U first game rather than Chelsea

The absolute best we could hope for at this point is another CB anyway

Not exactly going to get pulses racing