2024-2025 English Premier League

[mytreds]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Is this the year Everton finally runs outta dice? Back-to-back L's after 2-0 leads. They've not beaten anything outside of Doncaster in the second-sparklingest cup.

Not that I'm rooting against Everton. It's kinda neat that they've played in the top league uninterruptedly since before my parents were born, and they just reached retirement age. Sadly they seem to be managed like the Mets, which is bothersome in a relegation league...

Way too early to make that determination.

[Amazin69]

Speaking of blowing 0-2 leads…

*incoherent rage, which only calms down after I watch South Carolina completely blow their game, too. Only the Mets left for a possible trifecta of choke…*

Hell of a way to make your Prem debut with the side, Conor Coady! FFS.

(Yes, at least we got a point. If that's the summit our ambitions, it's going to be a loooooong season.)

[Boomcoach]

In a pub ordering a Guinness and a breakfast sandwich, surrounded by Gooners, singing and chanting getting ready for the derby is a helluva good way to start a Sunday!

[Amazin69]

Presumably, the environment a few hours later was even better. Congrats to Arsenal.

And to Nottingham Forest, with their first win at Anfield since 1959. Beats not even being able to win at Selhurst, grumble, mutter.

[Westheim]

Bremen is getting absolutely punked by the Red Pest today (0-5 with 20 minutes to spare ) but at least we're not losing to EVERTON.

[pauwoo]

A good result for Palace - though, I'd have loved 3 pts.

[Boomcoach]

Michael Oliver had a pretty awful day as an official in the MC Arsenal game. Not biased, just bad.

[Amazin69]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Bremen is getting absolutely punked by the Red Pest today (0-5 with 20 minutes to spare ) but at least we're not losing to EVERTON.

Nor did we, of course. A lovely equalizer by Stephy Mavididi in the 74' drew us level, and then we had another chance when Mavididi was wide open for a second on the left and then when the defenders swarmed on him, he slipped the ball towards…Wilfred Ndidi, who had no idea what to do with it, and the chance fizzled.

At least this time Steve Cooper had restored Ndidi, who's as useless on offense as a porpoise on a bicycle, to his natural midfield position. (Argen-teen Facundo Buonanotte played between Mavididi and Jordan Ayew, with Vardy of course leading them.) Ndidi has simply gotten used to going forward, to no good purpose.

So we settled for giving Everton their first point of the season (the Toffees won their next match, so I guess the draw is a middish result), but we didn't fall.

Of course, that was two weeks ago. Last week Leicester went to Arsenal, where we've not won in front of fans since 1973 (Peter Shilton in net, Alan Birchenall on defense…) and of course fell behind 2-0 by half.

But we came roaring out of the interval and tied it up (two goals by right back James Justin, the second a great curving volley off of an excellent Mavididi cross) and took the Gunners deep into extra time…and lost when a corner fell to Leandro Trossard, who banked into the net off of Ndidi's knee. (Credited as a own goal, but it wasn't as though Ndidi, who spent the match at wing, ffs, flubbed it; he literally stood there and it was an unfortunate bounce.) The Arse added one more as we tried to claw it back in the final seconds, so it was 4-2.

And thus 0-3-3. And 17th place. A win at some point would serve us well, I'm just saying. (We're hosting Bournemouth as I type, but the download won't be available until later, so we'll see then.)

[Westheim]

Meanwhile, the Wolves goal seems to be an open house event. How do you get four in a half from Brentford??

[Amazin69]

International Week, but I should note that Leicester did, in fact, get their first win against Bournemouth, who left far too much open space between the lines and allowed young Facundo Buonanotte to have a Buonadia (or whatever) cutting across the pitch and get off two shots, one that Kepa tipped over the bar and one that he didn't, and thus we had our goal.

We could have had a second if the official had decided that Mavididi's shot off of Zabarnyi's hand was indeed a handball (his arm was straight out as a scarecrow's and one would think that the term "handball" was fairly descriptive, but…) and the commentary thought that the pass Buonanotte slotted to Vardy should have resulted in a goal, but Vardy seemed to be offside (we'll never know, of course) and I thought that Kepa came up quickly enough that Vardy couldn't dribble past him and a chip shot is always tricky work.

And then we survived the 2nd half, even though they out-shot us by 10-1, but most of those weren't on target. Bournemouth did get a nice chance when a corner found substitute Danko Ouattara with an opportunity for a header into the corner, but Outtara sent it well wide. The Play-by-Play man noted that it would have been a nice goal, whereas the goal Ouattara was credited with against Everton "barely ticked off his shirt", which earned him a firm "they all count, Rob" from commentator Courtney Sweetman-Kirk, in case you don't follow the English WNT and forgot that Courtney is a striker, lol.

(Courtney had her moments, ngl. I liked when Vardy was taunting the traveling Bournemouth fans by holding up a 1 and a 0 with his fingers and "Rob" wondered if that was perhaps a bit much, and Courtney cheekily said that Vardy was "simply performing a public service. He's making sure that everyone in the stands knows the score." Lol. She may have a future with the WWE; Corey Graves couldn't have said it any better.)

Later, Buonanotte got trucked over by two Bournemouth players, but no foul was called. Which apparently irritated Leicester's James Justin, who just grabbed angrily at his man when the Cherries brought the ball back upfield, giving away a dangerous free kick near the box. Bournemouth's Lewis Cook sent a lovely curling shot into the net…but it was ruled off, as the official said that striker Evanilson (who started from an offside position and then tried to drop back onside) had been offside and had just given it a glancing touch with his head. Honestly, it looked as though it barely whisked off of the Brazilian's impressive head of hair.

But a hair is a hair, and any Bournemouth attempt to deny the touch was rather ruined by the fact that Evanilson was jumping up and down and claiming the goal before it was waved off. And so LCFC survived and held on for the 3 pts. Next time, bro, make sure they give the goal before you celebrate. And get a haircut, ya hippie!

Next game is at Southampton, where the Saints will be motivated by that 0-5 we dropped on them in the Championship (when we had already clinched the top spot and they were resting players to prepare for the play-off). And we will, I presume, be motivated by the fact that it's Southampton, and we need all the points we can get.

[Westheim]

Man United is trailing last-of-the-last Southampton because of an own goal.

And Harry Maguire isn't even on the field!

[LD84]

Erling Haaland just got a massive 10 year deal.

Around £260 million base
Another £25-30 million signing bonus
And all sorts of incentives for matches played, goals and assists and trophies won.

[Westheim]

Wolves lose to Fulham, and over here Channel 2 actually showed the game of my favorite green-and-white tire fire of Werder Bremen, who entered today's Cup quarterfinals game against third-league Bielefeld on a run of one win from eight games - and lost, both the game (2-1) and arguably their best player (to injury).

For you US people, that's like the Red Sox playing the Binghamton Rumble Ponies and coming up with the short end of the stick. And Rafael Devers pokes himself in the eye and will miss four weeks.

I will now go to bed angry.

[LD84]

Not exactly EPL
But FA Cup is close enough

There was no intent to injure, but Roberts tackle on Jean-Philippe Mateta was one of the most reckless and dangerous I have ever seen watching football.

https://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/44065177

[Westheim]

I must say I am utterly fascinated by how Man United and Tottenham can be 16th and 17th in the Prem, yet are set to contest a European Cup final.

Tottenham still has a positive goal difference

[Winnermi]

If you're tweaking your sim setups for the new season, I’ve found it helps to compare your modeled league flow with real match pacing. I usually keep a tab open with live football scores and match results so I can sanity‑check how often wild swings or boring stalemates happen in real fixtures. It gives a nice gut feel for whether the sim engine is behaving or drifting into fantasy mode.