Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

ManU fans, how many times does the winner of the community shield go on and win the league?

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

Terry out up to a month

Wow...not a good way to start the season for Chelsea.


also
Whats Beef?
Mini brawl between Feyennord and Livershite. To be honest, Pool has not had a good pre-season at all IMO.

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

[ QUOTE ]

Wow...not a good way to start the season for Chelsea.

[/ QUOTE ]

No way as disastrous as last season.

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

so far you mean.

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

From ChelseaFC.com

In response to incorrect speculation about his future, Michael Ballack has the following statement.

[ QUOTE ]
"I am totally committed to Chelsea. I came here to win trophies and be successful in English football, I want to assure the Chelsea fans of that.

I am very happy in London professionally and for my family. The speculation about me leaving is not true. I have no interest in leaving Chelsea and I have had no contact with Real Madrid whatsoever.

I am frustrated by my injury at the moment but I am working hard to be fit and hope to be back very soon to join my team-mates."

[/ QUOTE ]

Damn.

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

Part 1 of Bobby McMahon's EPL season predictions

he has Arsenal finishing 3rd. Other interesting bits, Bolton 15th, which to me isn't surprising. He is also picking Fulham to drop at 18.

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

[ QUOTE ]
so far you mean.

[/ QUOTE ]

Chelsea lost Terry for a month last season. Unfortunately, they didn't have a backup CB, so they also lost their best MF, who had to play CB in Terry's absense. Not coincidentally, that is when they went from 2 points back to 6 points back, from which they couldn't recover.

Now, they have two backup CBs (Ben Haim and Alex). They should be in better shape than last season.

The loss of Drogba may be important, though.

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

[ QUOTE ]
Part 1 of Bobby McMahon's EPL season predictions

he has Arsenal finishing 3rd. Other interesting bits, Bolton 15th, which to me isn't surprising. He is also picking Fulham to drop at 18.

[/ QUOTE ]

Soccernet has its preview up also.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/sto...os1&cc=5901

[ QUOTE ]
1. Man United
2. Liverpool
3. Chelsea
4. Arsenal
5. Tottenham
6. Everton
7. Newcastle
8. Aston Villa
9. Portsmouth
10. Blackburn
11. West Ham
12. Man City
13. Middlesbrough
14. Reading
15. Bolton
16. Sunderland
17. Fulham
18. Wigan
19. Birmingham
20. Derby County


[/ QUOTE ]

LOL at Pool over Chelsea.

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

Here's Pinnacle's odds on winning the EPL:

Soccer Futures
English Premiership: Outright
1001 Manchester United +141
1002 Chelsea +146
1003 Liverpool +590
1004 Arsenal +1121
1005 Tottenham Hotspur +5414
1006 Newcastle United +11765
1007 Aston Villa +11765
1008 Sunderland +25000
1009 Everton +25000
1010 Blackburn Rovers +25000
1011 West Ham United +25000
1012 Manchester City +25000
1013 Portsmouth +40000
1014 Bolton +40000
1015 Middlesbrough +40000
1016 Reading +40000
1017 Birmingham +40000
1018 Fulham +40000
1019 Wigan +40000
1020 Derby County +40000

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

Hirshey from Deadspin about the upcoming season,

Some funny stuff in there.

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

Dont see the top 4 changing from last season, Arsenal may slip out as they may have a Henry hangover plus managers last year and I think they may struggle for goals, Spurs the most likely to replace them although they need to get more consistant.

Newcastle and Alladyce may not be together by the season end already a lot of rumblings that the new owner may be looking to replace him. Dont think they have any strength in depth to make a euro push (or hope not anyway).

Hopefully after the first match on Saturday Sunderland will be top of the league even if its only a couple of hours. After our last two premiership seasons will take survival think Keane is hoping midtable but we havent been able to bring in the players he had hoped for and we may struggle up front.

Relegation think Derby for certain, Birmingham seem to be spending money have to see its effect as its all unproven foreign players. Reading havent really bought anyone so they need a good start the second season can be difficult, Wigan may struggle, Fulham are due to go down. I think West Ham may be more a midtable team this year think they have made solid buys if overpaid a bit. Bolton need to adapt to the new manager so could struggle.

Man City could go either way Sven is spending a load of money but who knows how well they will gel and if he is tactically asute for the PL can see them top or bottom six.

Everton have barely spent any money but suspect they may get a few people in before the transfer window closes, midtable beckons along with Blackburn who have been inactive in the transfer market and Villa and Boro.

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

lol at spurs going to finish above arsenal... just lol

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

[ QUOTE ]
so far you mean.

[/ QUOTE ]

Out of interest, how much depth does Arsenal have in the CB position?

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

We have two pure CB in backup, Senderos and Djourou. Sagna can also play anywhere along the backline. last year Gilberto filled in for a few games back there. Our depth is pretty good back there IMO.

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

I'm looking for a couple EPL websites to add to my favorites. I generally check soccernet and the bbc pages daily. Any suggestions appreciated, perhaps we could get some links edited into the OP?

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

jgunnip, are you looking for team specific news or overall EPL news?

There are some good websites for league wide news.
www.foxsoccer.com is pretty good.
www.skysports.com is another.
The bbc site is pretty classy.
You can do team specific by googling "news now team X". I do that for arsenal. it updates itself every 15 mins or so with any online article about Arsenal. I'd imagine the same is true for other teams. I also hit up certain blogs and message boards.

www.bigsoccer.com has an assload of forums for soccer leagues/teams/topics. Its a bit behind though, I am sure if you find one from Europe it will have newer, potentially better information. example being www.arsenal-mania.com There's probably tons of websites out there for your favorite team.

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

arsenal fans should check out arseblog every day as well. quality blog and quite funny, gives you all the news.

ThaSaltCracka - you go to any games??

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

I go to Portland Timbers games LOL. Never been to London man. I assume you go? I want to some day.

Second your arseblog recomendation. kolotoure posted that last season. Great read every morning.

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

Best news site is www.newsnow.co.uk in the left hand side under football each team list individual, scans all the main news and gossip websites.

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

lol i'll make Portland Timbers my US team whoever the [censored] they are! yeah, i go to most games

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

[ QUOTE ]
lol i'll make Portland Timbers my US team whoever the [censored] they are! yeah, i go to most games

[/ QUOTE ]nice

The Portland Timbers play in the USL Div 1, which is similar in stature to the Championship. MLS is the US's top flight. However, the quality of USL Div 1 is most likely more akin to league 1. The Timbers recently beat Preston North End in a friendly 2-1, so take that for what its worth. Portland is also currently in first in the USL-1 ahead of bitter rival Seattle.

Sorry for the tangent.

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

Who do people think will be the highest impact newcomers this year? Last year's crop included Sheva, Ballack, Julio Baptista, McCarthy, Berbatov, Martins, Kuyt, etc.. Some did very well, some blew.

Candidates: Torres (Pool), Da Silva (Arsenal), Roque Santa Cruz (Blackburn), Nani (Man U), David Nugent (Pompey), Malouda (Chelsea), Bianchi (Man City) and others.

KJS

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

Rumors are flying that Arjen Robben will be going to Real Madrid pretty soon. Not really that big a loss since Chelsea now have Malouda and a healthy Joe Cole.

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

I am not sure if this has been discussed already.

We really should have a weekly premiership thread. I am not a forum regular but I come during the EPL season to read the discussion. The thread gets a lot of traffic, why make it such a long unmanageable mess?

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

about 1/4 of the way through the season it is basically only 4 or 5 people posting. Weekly seems to clunky IMO.

KJS, my votes would go for Eduardo, Malouda, and probably Hargreaves. I don't know how successful Nugent will be, but we will see. As for last year, it had to be Berbatov.

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

[ QUOTE ]
about 1/4 of the way through the season it is basically only 4 or 5 people posting. Weekly seems to clunky IMO.

[/ QUOTE ]And the thing about the EPL is that the games are pretty much weekly anyways, so all discussion about last week's games are all easy to find. This isn't the NBA, with 30+ teams playing 3 games a week.

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

[ QUOTE ]
Who do people think will be the highest impact newcomers this year? Last year's crop included Sheva, Ballack, Julio Baptista, McCarthy, Berbatov, Martins, Kuyt, etc.. Some did very well, some blew.

Candidates: Torres (Pool), Da Silva (Arsenal), Roque Santa Cruz (Blackburn), Nani (Man U), David Nugent (Pompey), Malouda (Chelsea), Bianchi (Man City) and others.

KJS

[/ QUOTE ]

Its always impossible to say although I expect some of the blowing players from last year should make a much bigger impact this year.

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

Think pool will take it this year for some reason

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

[ QUOTE ]


KJS, my votes would go for Eduardo, Malouda, and probably Hargreaves. I don't know how successful Nugent will be, but we will see. As for last year, it had to be Berbatov.

[/ QUOTE ]


Hargreaves should have a good year this year, but I really think that Nani could be a real revelation. Granted, it's extremely hard to base much of anything off of the pre-season meaningless matches, but he really looks like the real deal and should fill in great as Giggs' replacement in the next few years.

as far as nugent, I think he'll be great for pompey. Will he score 20 this year, that I can't say, but this is a guy with serious talent that could find a great pairing for england with Rooney(and hopefully in the future at ManU [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]). There is a reason he cost 7m GBP not having spent a single season in the top flight. I think we'll also be hearing the same kind of stuff about Billy Sharp at Scunthorpe very soon too. Back to Nugent, if you haven't seen him play, get ready to just giggle in delight at some of the great stuff he is capable of doing

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

How much will Voronin likely play for Liverpool? How did he do in preseason matches?

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

he had a very good pre season and will hopefully play alot.

scored 2 in his 1st game http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=g0bnEkbR-l0

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

fwiw

According to my TV, FSC's schedule for Sat. is Man City vs. West Ham, Liverpool vs. Villa, and on tape-delay Portsmouth vs. Derby

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

also FWIW, Sunday Arsenal v. Fulham is now on TV live. 7AM EST.

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

I'm sure a lot of people will agree that how will Torres and Da Silva do will go a long way to determining whether Arse or Pool does better this season.

Also, I'm thinking with Ledley King gone for a while, will Younes Kaboul be able to anchor a half-decent defense for Spurs? If not, there's no way they're cracking the top four... though Gareth Bale should be solid at fullback.

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

Am I the only one who completely missed the whole Torres to Liverpool thing?

[img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

GLORY GLORY LEEDS UNITED!!

http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/2...lcopterts9.gif

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

[ QUOTE ]
fwiw

According to my TV, FSC's schedule for Sat. is Man City vs. West Ham, Liverpool vs. Villa, and on tape-delay Portsmouth vs. Derby

[/ QUOTE ]

Check www.Soccertv.com to see full schedules. Unfortunately, the guy who runs it is infamous in poker circles as the guy who represents Jerry Yang. He's selling soccertv.com and who knows if it will be updated.

But for now, it is still up.
Setanta USA is showing
Sat 7:40 EDT: Sunderland v. Spurs
Sat 9:55 EDT: Bolton v. Newcastle
Sat 2:30p EDT: Everton v. Wigan (Delay)

Sun 8:25 EDT: Chelsea v. Birmingham

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

[ QUOTE ]
GLORY GLORY LEEDS UNITED!!

http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/2...lcopterts9.gif

[/ QUOTE ]


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

We all hate leeds scum, we all hate leeds scum

Re: **** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****
 

leeds getting relegated to league one was the funniest thing since leeds got relegated from the premiership.
plus they're already -15 pts for next season so they're [censored] for that as well.
so sad