Ding Ding...round one.

[Oncy]

I dont know how much of the opening round of fixtures you saw, but it would be interesting to get some insight into whatever you did?

Firstly I though Chelsea were amazing. The De Bruyne kid was fantastic, involved in everything. The reason they are going to be such a good team this year is that you cant stop all of their creative players. They had Torres (yeah I know), Ramires, Lampard, Oscar, Hazard, De Bruyne on the pitch and that left Mata, Lukaku, Ba, Van Ginkel and Shurrle on the bench. When you consider that when Mourinho left last time the worry was the age of the squad, they have done a great job in the last 3 or 4 yours turning that round. They looked great, even taking into account the opposition.

I also watched the Citeh game last night and thought they were fantastic. Their right hand side Navas and Zabaleta was fucking deadly all night. Dzeko was class and yet the goals popped up from all over the park. The only player who dissappointed for them was Fernandinho, who I thought was weak.

Other thoughts.
Stoke and Newcastle are really going to struggle this year. Both teams have nothing going forward.
Spurs werent as good as I was expecting at all.
United are as good as ever.

Interesting start to the premier league. I think we did enough in our game but werent amazing. Arsenal and Spurs were poor and the other three were excellent. Chelsea were the best team ive seen this week.

 

[Oncy]

Oh and my team of the week.
Begovic
Coleman
Vidic
Lovren (although i only saw highlights)
Zabaleta
Cleverley
Lampard
Yaya
De Bruyne
Van Persie
Dzeko

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

I know Utd won 4-1 but the score flattered them. Between City and Chelsea for the title.

 

[Oncy]

I know Utd won 4-1 but the score flattered them. Between City and Chelsea for the title.

I definitely think that Chelsea were the standout team in week one.
Its great that United have to play Chelsea so early, will be a really good benchmark for how the teams compare.

 

[dee]

I know Utd won 4-1 but the score flattered them. Between City and Chelsea for the title.

I nearly 'liked' this to show agreement and then realised how wrong that would be.

Citeh and Che$ki are the class acts this year.

 

[Wizardry]

I didn't see either of Chelsea or City.

Was keen on watching Chelsea as there's something very complete looking about their team - I could see them doing the treble this year; they just look remarkable on paper and with Jose at the helm there's not much you'd think is beyond them.

I thought Spurs were average - very average. Not sure if that was because I was expecting a lot from them or not but they did nothing to impress me. Maybe it'll take them some time to get going.

The mancs; what can you say? As Sheik says it looked like the score flattered them - I think we said that when analysing about 25 of their league matches last season. As was said in the thread, whatever they paid for Van Persie was worth it. They'll be there or there abouts for whole season and they've got enough goal scorers to simply keep winning matches. I'm hoping Moyes puts his own mark on them as quickly as possible.

 

[Dreambeliever]

I watched 10-15 mins live of each of the 3 o'clock games and what I noticed in that short window was.

Barkley looks like he is ready to walk into any team in the league. A real gem with everything in his locker.
Cardiff are tidy side and expect them to pick up a lot of points at home
Southampton have everything needed to break into the top 7/8 places and maybe even higher they play great football and have stand out players all over the park
Villa are building a great side and given a couple of years will be right up the top 8. They looked very hungry.
Fulham and stoke will struggle badly
Our game was hard to gauge as we usually look awesome at home against most teams so Villa and then Utd will really tell us how far we have come

 

[TSD]

My team of the week.

Begovic
Coleman
Vidic
Kompany
Zabaleta
Delph
Barkley
Yaya
De Bruyne
Aguero
Van Persie

Manager: Alan Pardew (to make it fair for the other teams)

 

[Frogfish]

I agree with a lot of Oncey's conclusions above. I watched 4 matches : Liverpool, United, Chelsea, Spurs (City started here at 03.00 so had to miss that one, I hate evening KOs).

Liverpool - a lot to like. We do look good without Suarez, but better with him, and can cope with these 6 matches he's going to miss. Toure looks great and our defence was sound. Enrique and Johnson both had excellent games. We have squad depth to cover most positions. I like where we are going.

United - I know I say this a lot but I can see them struggling to maintain a Top 2, possibly even a Top 3, postion. I see them as weaker than last season (age concerns) unless they get in some serious recruits in the next week. Swansea were a little unlucky, they were certainly on top for 30 mins and if Williams had not chickened out of going in with his head (I think he would easily have won that had he done so, if not then surely a FK against RvP for foot too high) then who knows how that would have ended up as that first goal was the catalyst.

Spurs - I was unimpressed with. Paulhino was virtually anonymous ( or better to say unproductive), until Dembele went off (was it 20-25 mins from the end ?). Chadli was nothing special and doesn't look to have the skills or pace (or maybe it's just the confidence on his debut) to beat his man, he missed an absolute sitter of a header from 5 yds in the last second of the first half. Soldado was quiet throughout and they will need to get on his wavelength to make the best of his quality, superbly taken penalty though. They really miss Bale and without him, or serious investment in 2 or 3 quality players in the next week, I can't see this squad making the Top 4.

Chelsea - the title is between them and City. Just look at their strength in depth. They could field two Top 6 teams. For 30 minute they looked irresistible, however whether it was complacency or not I don't know (Mourinho said he was happy - but I doubt he will have enjoyed the 2nd half so much) but they went off the boil and you felt if Hull had scored in the last 15 mins it would have been interesting.

Swansea & Stoke will be fine this season, especially the former who look every inch top half. Hull need Huddlestone & Chamakh to start every match as he made a huge difference when they came on, still can't see them staying up. Palace have a lot of heart and were unlucky not to get a point, but Gayle looks out of his league at the moment (he's still very young) and they luck a cutting edge. Will be around the bottom but could survive.

 

[TSD]

Agree largely with what everyone's saying. Chelsea and Man City's teams look complete, no visible weakness. Unless Rooney comes round and without other signings, Man U has become the proverbial one-man team. If Van Persie revisits his injury history, they could fall horribly off the pace.

Our rivals for fourth, Spurs and Arsenal, don't look impressive. Early days though.

 

[Frogfish]

Hmm like this team of the week stuff :

Begovic
Johnson
Toure
Vidic
Moxey
Jedinak
Lampard
Coutinho
De Bruyne
Van Persie
Lennon

 

[keniget]

I caught the first half of City and whilst they did look fantastic going forward (Navas is going to be a big signing for them I think) I felt that Newcastle were still able to get through them with surprising ease at times even though they were a complete shambles. I'd be interested to see how they fare against a better side. Their attack is probably so strong it won't matter though.

 

[Ryan]

Re Oncy's first post, having quality creative players across your front 4 or 5 means you can get away with a fairly junk centre midfield pairing.

Ramires and Lampard are meh together and have never proved anything.

It's been the same story in the premier league for about 4 years now yet all this cunting site moans about is "our central midfield is shit."

Carrick, Cleverley, Anderson.
Mikel, Ramires, Lampard
Arteta, Diaby, Wilshere, Rosicky
Toure, Rodwell, Garcia, Barry
Dembele, Paulinho, some others who I've forgotten
Lucas, Gerrard, Allen, Henderson
Osman, Fellaini, again others I can't even fucking remember.

My point? That there's not one top class central midfield pairing in the country. You could argue Toure and Barry. Maybe.

And you can get away with it because as long as you've got disciplined midfielders who can hold shape, maintain tempo, and provide decent defensive cover then your attacking players and your full backs do the damage.

So shut the complete fuck up about central fucking midfield. We need world çlass players in attack.

You may have heard me say that before too.

 

[Oncy]

Re Oncy's first post, having quality creative players across your front 4 or 5 means you can get away with a fairly junk centre midfield pairing.

Ramires and Lampard are meh together and have never proved anything.

It's been the same story in the premier league for about 4 years now yet all this cunting site moans about is "our central midfield is shit."

Carrick, Cleverley, Anderson.
Mikel, Ramires, Lampard
Arteta, Diaby, Wilshere, Rosicky
Toure, Rodwell, Garcia, Barry
Dembele, Paulinho, some others who I've forgotten
Lucas, Gerrard, Allen, Henderson
Osman, Fellaini, again others I can't even fucking remember.

My point? That there's not one top class central midfield pairing in the country. You could argue Toure and Barry. Maybe.

And you can get away with it because as long as you've got disciplined midfielders who can hold shape, maintain tempo, and provide decent defensive cover then your attacking players and your full backs do the damage.

So shut the complete fuck up about central fucking midfield. We need world çlass players in attack.

You may have heard me say that before too.

I didnt mention Central Midfield you Australasian bellend.

 

[LeTallecWiz]

I thought he was Welsh!? Or is that only Rafa4PM?

 

[Oncy]

I thought he was Welsh!? Or is that only Rafa4PM?

Who Ryan?
He's from Canberra the meff.

 

[Ryan]

I didnt mention Central Midfield you Australasian bellend.

It wasn't directed at you, just every cunt that keeps banging on about central midfield.

Probably the same tools who took 6 years to realise that teams don't play 4-4-2, have box to box midfielders, wingers playing on their preferred side, or best fucking 11s.

 

[Rosco]

Re Oncy's first post, having quality creative players across your front 4 or 5 means you can get away with a fairly junk centre midfield pairing.

Ramires and Lampard are meh together and have never proved anything.

It's been the same story in the premier league for about 4 years now yet all this cunting site moans about is "our central midfield is shit."

Carrick, Cleverley, Anderson.
Mikel, Ramires, Lampard
Arteta, Diaby, Wilshere, Rosicky
Toure, Rodwell, Garcia, Barry
Dembele, Paulinho, some others who I've forgotten
Lucas, Gerrard, Allen, Henderson
Osman, Fellaini, again others I can't even fucking remember.

My point? That there's not one top class central midfield pairing in the country. You could argue Toure and Barry. Maybe.

And you can get away with it because as long as you've got disciplined midfielders who can hold shape, maintain tempo, and provide decent defensive cover then your attacking players and your full backs do the damage.

So shut the complete fuck up about central fucking midfield. We need world çlass players in attack.

You may have heard me say that before too.

Well at least you realise how shit Lucas and Allen are.

 

[Fallon]

I know Utd won 4-1 but the score flattered them. Between City and Chelsea for the title.

This, I said it before the weekend and I'm even more convinced of it now.

 

[StevieM]

What I want to know is....

What the fuck the DA head honcho is doing watching other teams play.

Just a two bit tart looking for thrills off any fucker, I'd say.

 

[Oncy]

What I want to know is....

What the fuck the DA head honcho is doing watching other teams play.

Just a two bit tart looking for thrills off any fucker, I'd say.

KNOW YOUR ENEMY.

 

[StevieM]

KNOW YOUR ENEMY.

FUCK THE BITCH ASS ENEMY!

 

[Dirkus_Circus]

I thought Citeh looked amazing apart from Frankenstein esque Lescott who looked shaky at times and the injury to Kompany.