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

[petp_the_greek]

sheva is comin to the MLS within the next 2 years

[JaredL]

I need to do some more work and haven't got a lot of time, but I'm doing some analysis on how teams get their points. I'm not giving any conclusions yet, as I said it's unfinished. However, a couple of things stick out from last year that people may find interesting.

West Ham finished last season with 41 points, 3 more than the top relegated team which was Sheffield United at 38. They got all 6 points from the two matches against Manchester United. No team below them got even a single point. Excluding West Ham, the average team in the league got .78 points in their two matches against Manchester United. They also got all 6 points against Arsenal. If you break the league up into 5 groups of 4 teams (1-4, 5-8, 9-12 etc.) they did better against teams 1-4 than any other group including the bottom four.

Only two teams beat the relegated teams both times - Man United and Chelsea. Both also beat Wigan.

Comparing the top 2 and continuing with the 5 groups, Manchester United mainly gained points in matches against teams 5-8. They got an ungodly 22 of 24 points from these teams, while Chelsea got 15 which ordinarily wouldn't be considered too bad. Those 4 teams are Spurs, Everton, Bolton and Reading. Excluding the top 2, the average team got just 9 points from those 8 matches.

[ThaSaltCracka]

Jared, I am interested in seeing that info.

[gusmahler]

From the news reports, seems like Shevchenko had a really good game in Euro qualifier. Any chance it will reverse Jose feelings about him?

[ThaSaltCracka]

to be honest, Jose needs him to play well. Chelsea's front line isn't that good IMO.

[gusmahler]

[ QUOTE ]
to be honest, Jose needs him to play well. Chelsea's front line isn't that good IMO.

[/ QUOTE ]
Drogba doesn't have last year's form and Pizarro has been crap. Then again, it's only 5 games into the season.

[Fletcher19]

weeeee thank god the premiership is back

[ThaSaltCracka]

NLD in 2 days.

[KDawg]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
to be honest, Jose needs him to play well. Chelsea's front line isn't that good IMO.

[/ QUOTE ]
Drogba doesn't have last year's form and Pizarro has been crap. Then again, it's only 5 games into the season.

[/ QUOTE ]


to be honest, I've never been a fan of pizzaro. Drogba is usually a slow starter, I have no doubt that he'll have 25-30 in all competitions by year's end

[mosdef]

[ QUOTE ]
to be honest, Jose needs him to play well. Chelsea's front line isn't that good IMO.

[/ QUOTE ]

At this point, I would prioritize developing Kalou. Both Kalou and Shevchenko have the potential to turn in great performances, but their career trajectories are heading in opposite directions.