Three matches are on deck today, and each of them have the potential to be memorable for several different reasons.
The early kick-off today is Manchester City against Tottenham Hotspur. Last season’s match between these two at the Etihad Stadium was an instant classic, which featured two very cruel blows for Spurs — the fierce tackle by Nigel de Jong, and the last gasp miss by Jermain Defoe. If Defoe had gotten his foot on the ball, it could have been Tottenham we were talking about last season as Premier League title contenders.
As for City, they don’t need any more pressure than what they already have on the backs of their players and manager. So, it’s imperative that the team puts in a good performance to try to mend the obvious friction between the footballers and manager.
The second match of the day is Newcastle United versus West Ham United, which is a homecoming for Sam Allardyce, Kevin Nolan and Andy Carroll.
And then last but not least, Chelsea plays Liverpool in the last match of the day. After drawing Swansea in the league last week, can Chelsea bounce back? And what type of game will former Liverpool striker Fernando Torres have? This one should be an eyeopener, for sure.
Before, during and after today’s match, post your rants, raves, observations and questions in the comments section below as you follow along with the matches.
THANK YOU to all the veterans living or dead for the sacrifice you have all made.Thanks DAD
“Friedel has judged it well.”
Music to Dust’s ears. 🙂
I like Spurs’ kits, but they do make me feel like I should be watching Harlequins. 😉
I can hear the whooshes flying over a thousand heads already. Battered Fiji yesterday.
we will see how they do when the take on the all BLACKS.
IAN
we never got a report from the pitch yesterday and your side getting 3 points.
He is still too stunned.
3pts are 3pts don’t matter who you beat the pints all taste sweet.
Hi JTM, I couldn’t give one because I wasn’t there. I had to go to Reading Uni for a revision study day so gave my ticket away.
In fact I had £20 on QPR winning! Obviously the registered charity known as Stoke City weren’t feeling as benevolent as they usually are when a team without a win comes to town.
Ian
you must be down on the home side or had some bad Chinese food to bet on QPR!you would agree the pints were sweet with the 3pts captured.
I did the same last season when we hit a flat spell and backed Bolton (5-0) and QPR (3-2) to beat us. It tends to be against teams in poor form, and my winnings paid for my season ticket last year!From what I’ve heard we were lucky that we were playing QPR.
nice rugby reference so early on a Sunday.
No energy from Spurs at all, Dempsey lazy attempts at challenges…… Let the frustration begin ugghh
Bet you’re tearing your hair out now.
Not now but I expect to experience it quiet a lot as the lack of hustle puts me over the edge.
Caulker gets a header, and it isn’t disallowed!
Don’t sit back… It will be a barrage! Long to go!
Not intentional
Should have been a pen tho
dust
this is just a warmup for next Saturday.
This ref is a d-bag
Freezal gives me heart palpitations EVERY single time, super indecisive, shall I come out, shall I stay back… Oohh can I get there, I’m getting old……aarrrgghh
Surely that’s a yellow for kolorov, jesus
Considering the cards he’s already given, absolutely.
Brad!
this match could get ugly in the second half with this ref.
Kolorov pushing Lennon off the ball after pulling walker, and NO yellow…. Really ref?
This second half is gonna get nasty if the ref doesn’t stamp out the decention of city players. Ade has done a great job, Dempsey has been absent and NOT hustling. A long 45 to go.
Empty seats at the etihad, weak weak fan base can’t fill a stadium at a premier league game
This match was sold out long ago. Entire league season figures to be sold out absent some epic implosion.
Bale has also been MIA today.
Yes he has
Weak fan base, haven’t we been here before don’t compare the two! 47k plus sold out every league game this year and last, stop listing to retards and clean those glasses that seem to think the ref isn’t giving you everything!
Warren Barton getting his usual whack in on Mancini. Don’t know how he was at fault for that Spurs’ goal as was the implication. Didn’t seem to me to be much of a back line lapse there.
Actually this was far better a first half than City has usually had on offer this year. Second halves have been far livelier. Silva looking quite good after a month out, which he needed.
But big up to the Spurs obviously if they can pull off two wins in Manchester this year.
Here comes Dust.
Wouldn’t you hate to be Brad Friedel now!
Freezal what a waste!
Lloris woulda da it!
da=had. 🙂
It’s consistently his inability to get down…. Freezal doing the laundry at home clearly has never happened for fear he comes out in hives when confronted with a clean sheet..
Haha 🙂
I wasn’t sure where you were going with that. Nice
Dust
was it Bale who was running back that knocked it to Kun? could not see number but it looked like Bale.
saw on replay it was Caulker that knocked it to Kun.
i thought it was walker no 28
your right i need to get my eyes checked.
Really YAYA…
HUGO HUGO HUGO!
Looks like Brad’s gonna have to earn his keep for the next 12 minutes or so.
Sack brad
David pleat is a moron
Hugo can get down like p-funk, Freezal just frozen watching balls go passed him…. Uighh
We should have won this 1-0
Freezal got LUCKY
He got down like p-funk!
i think it is generational i have no clue.
Hey, me neither. 😀
parliament baby! “we’ve got the funk” cmon!
Dust
now how about that save.THE BRAD!
Our movement off the ball in attack has been terrible
Yes David pleat Friedal is marvelous for his age. Looked like a handball after that save by Friedal
Dust
i send my condolences
Dust – you have my sympathies. A horrible time to lose a match.
Edin Dzeko – top scorer for Citeh again though.
Really brad through your hands
Marvelous save by Friedal
now you know why Dawson has only played in 6 games.
Oh well, I didn’t expect we would win, certainly can’t expect a clean sheet with brad in goal
Dempsey and Bale should turn back their game check very poor performance in big match.
It was certainly hard to find Clint today.
Bale asked to defend, Dempsey, well… Ade played well tho.
who gets the the yellow first Torres or Suarez?
If we were across the pond we could put something on that! I’m going with Luis.
i agree since the match is at the Bridge.
BET 365 is the place to spend your money. it’ll help fund the signing of a left sided, defensive midfielder who will be played at right back.
You wonder at what point AVB tries Lloris.
I hope from now on, no way would city have equalized with Lloris in goal
some of the blame has to go to Dawson he had the matador defense on Dzeko.OLE
dawson is terrible, who else can he pick at cb? everyone one is injured, i would rather play 3at rge back than put him in
I don’t think Brad had a bad match. Some excellent saves, but you do wonder if a young Hugo mightn’t have made those and stopped a goal as well.
There you go guy, exactly my point!
Very nice work by Maicon, who I’d feared was washed-up.
Keep collecting those points, fellas! Still ahead of the corresponding League fixtures from last year.
No offense to Spurs, who I quite like, but they did not impress me at all today. Seemed to play a bit safe with the lead. Worked against United, but not how I would have worked against that carousel City is running at the back this year.
And by the way, how does this match look with the two handballs on Spurs in the penalty area that should have been called? Officiating is part of the game, but c’mon now. I’d be a bit salty without getting three points from this.
looks like spurs went expecting to counter attack, little surprise silva makes an impact on his return, he is a class player, the only rubbish i think city have is Milner and Zabaleta, aside form that the squad is ridiculous, but then again, it does pay the highest wages so that the reward.
Im sure you will end up with Falcao after selling Balotelli in Jan.
i hate dzeco, sick of him scoring against us.
How many times does an ex-player do that to you!
now the question is will Carroll break his duck for this season?
The fact all that money only buys a close 2-1 win against an injured spurs side at etihad is sad.
Top 3 positions taken by clubs that spend 20 million plus on players without even thinking about it. It’s not really a surprise
“Top 3 positions taken by clubs that spend 20 million plus on players without even thinking about it”
Hmm… In the last 10 seasons Manchester United spent £20M+ on only three players – Rooney, Berbatov, and RVP. Though some may say that Berbatov buy was a flop there is no argument that Rooney and RVP is money extremely well spent.
My point isn’t the value or amount of times they have done it, it’s the fact they have those resources and that many quality players in there squads, also how much was Nani?
Man Utd have spent less than the other 2. But the statement is still true, apparently Mancini will out bid Chelsea & Real Madrid for falcao and pay 50 million. Spurs highest is modric @ 16m
Nani was bought for 13.5M in 07. My point is that 20M+ buy is relatively rare for United and it is about readiness to spend when it matters. Btw if you look at United and Spurs expenditure in the last 5 seasons it is not that different.
MU/Spurs: 50m/57m, 52m/8m, 27m/32m, 21m/87m, 35m/48m.
Who the hell did spurs spend 87 million on 2 years ago, i think your figures are of the madoff variety. the 52m/8m seems right.
Season 08/09
Vedran Corluka £8,500,000
Heurelho Gomes £10,000,000
Robbie Keane £12,000,000
Wilson Palacios £12,000,000
Roman Pavlyuchenko £14,000,000
David Bentley £15,000,000
Pascal Chimbonda £8,000,000
Cesar Sanchez £7,500,000
I was right those players are ‘Madoff’ deal quality players. I quite rightly forgot about 5 of those, thanks for stirring up bitter emotions…
I think those deals are structured in payment plan style, but even so…bbbrrrrrgghhhh
whats up with the hindsight app, its not done yet?
I think that was Camoli right….
Not trying to rub it in but here is another interesting piece of Spurs transfer dealings. They bought Keane and Defoe twice for total amount of 23m and 22m respectively.
Bottom line in the last 5-6 seasons Spurs spent around £300m on players and only managed to build a squad that can barely compete for 4th spot finish.
LOL its not 300 million and when you include sales we have made a profit. Plus you add the wage structure.
whats MCFC and CFC expenditure on players in 5 seasons?
it 202 million for spurs and we sold 199 million in that same period. Look at the following table
Net Spend last 5 Years 3 figures as followed
Purchased Gross
Sold
Nett Per Season
1 Manchester City £537,450,000 £130,300,000 £407,150,000
2 Chelsea £309,300,000 £77,600,000 £231,700,000
3 Stoke City £83,825,000 £8,650,000 £75,175,000
4 Aston Villa £159,100,000 £89,350,000 £69,750,000
5 Manchester United £186,850,000 £124,800,000 £62,050,000
6 Liverpool £241,150,000 £192,050,000 £49,100,000
7 QPR £47,000,000 £850,000 £46,150,000
8 Sunderland £123,900,000 £87,550,000 £36,350,000
9 West Ham £81,150,000 £54,800,000 £26,350,000
10 Southampton £33,450,000 £14,600,000 £18,850,000
11 Norwich City £17,050,000 £1,100,000 £15,950,000
12 West Bromwich Albion £38,725,000 £24,810,000 £13,915,000
15 Fulham £52,800,000 £39,700,000 £13,100,000
14 Tottenham £202,700,000 £199,550,000 £3,150,000
15 Swansea £27,980,000 £29,860,000 -£1,880,000
16 Wigan £47,100,000 £59,250,000 -£12,150,000
17 Everton £60,500,500 £75,816,000 -£15,315,500
18 Reading £9,200,000 £25,850,000 -£16,650,000
19 Newcastle £73,250,000 £109,550,000 -£36,300,000
20 Arsenal £137,400,000 £182,400,000 -£45,000,000
I got these from here
http://www.transferleague.co.uk/league-tables/transfer-league-table-last-five-seasons.html
3rd figure is Net, (paid for- Sold for) NOT Net Per season I deleted that as it is just an average of net over the period
here are the figures ranking with Nett Spend 03/04 – 12/13
1st Purchased Gross
2nd Sold
3rd Nett
4th Per Season average
1 Chelsea £687,000,000 £160,000,000 £527,000,000 £52,700,000
2 Manchester City £605,220,000 £170,400,000 £434,820,000 £43,482,000
3 Liverpool £422,380,000 £264,580,000 £157,800,000 £15,780,000
4 Manchester United £367,250,000 £238,850,000 £128,400,000 £12,840,000
5 Aston Villa £214,850,000 £108,375,000 £106,475,000 £10,647,500
6 Tottenham £365,400,000 £267,550,000 £97,850,000 £9,785,000
7 Stoke City £88,670,000 £15,595,000 £73,075,000 £7,307,500
8 Sunderland £180,280,000 £109,950,000 £70,330,000 £7,033,000
9 QPR £53,350,000 £2,650,000 £50,700,000 £5,070,000
10 West Ham £143,880,000 £108,225,000 £35,655,000 £3,565,500
11 West Bromwich Albion £80,485,000 £50,990,000 £29,495,000 £2,949,500
12 Fulham £96,080,000 £68,745,000 £27,335,000 £2,733,500
15 Norwich City £28,350,000 £17,410,000 £10,940,000 £1,094,000
14 Everton £128,050,500 £122,416,000 £5,634,500 £563,450
15 Newcastle £168,100,000 £164,200,000 £3,900,000 £390,000
16 Swansea £29,470,000 £27,325,000 £2,145,000 £214,500
17 Wigan £88,865,000 £89,000,000 -£135,000 -£13,500
18 Reading £20,120,000 £28,550,000 -£8,430,000 -£843,000
19 Southampton £52,765,000 £60,150,000 -£7,385,000 -£738,500
20 Arsenal £244,200,000 £267,770,000 -£23,570,000 -£2,357,000
again the same source:
http://www.transferleague.co.uk/league-tables/transfer-league-table-2003-to-date.html
I think you are missing the point. If you want to compete in profitability you are not going to beat Arsenal. However, according to your link Spurs spent £365M just two millions less then Manchester United. This is amount of money that was available to build the squad regardless of the source. No doubt Chelsea and City are ahead of the pack but Spurs are right there among the biggest spenders. I must say that ROI has been abysmal for Spurs in terms of the success on the field.
Im not missing the point the above is 10 years, not for the previous 5 years that IS 202m on the site.
As for “competing with arsenal” if its a trophy count for the last 5 years then its Spurs 1 Arsenal 0.
if you are talking about revenue and brand exposure then yes yes, arsenal have more success because of consistent champions league but in the last 5 seasons, they have won nothing.
who has WON the BPL, Champions League, FA, cups, etc…SILVERWARE! the last 5,6,7,8,9 years? the top 4 spending clubs is what MY original post was.
Unfortunately for LFC no league title, bu tthey di
*they did win a european cup.
The bigger thing is, Fans DONT care where the money comes from if it doesn’t effect them directly, they don’t care at all, i’m sure chelsea and city fans could care less about the balance sheet as long as he club doesn’t go into Glasgow Rangers mode.MCFC, MUFC, CFC win trophies end of because they throw money at it. Wengers way hasn’t worked in 8 years, so who cares how profitable they are without trophies?
The better side won i don’t know what ypu saw was close one team came to defend for their lives not win a match! you had two shots on target tried wasting as much time as possible and have spent an absolute fortune on the team yet are trying to portray them up like Swansea the places below should be taken up by those that spend £15m on player without thinking about it but they’re not they’re held by Everton, West Brom and West Ham all have spent a fraction of what your team has yet here you are giving it out about city again even though your team is probably the 4th biggest spender! Priceless lol.
@jtm @ian
Thanks, I was foolish to buy into the hope, especially with no Démbèle, a crocked walker and a Dempsey start. But that’s what fans do, shame bale didn’t show.
The squad available to AVB is just not good enough to crack top 3. It just isn’t, and fourth doesn’t garunteed anything.
My ONLY AVB question outside of freezal is why no just bring in Naughton for Walker instead of Dawson and pushing out gallas, then bringing on Naughton for Lennon.
Oh well, a shame…. Onwards & upwards, still in 6th and onto farcenal next sat
Dust
i think you would feel better if yesterday you hammered the gunners for their display instead of not trying to anger the karma god.
U are right, lesson learned.
Can anyone else here the Liverpool chants of “we’ve WON it 5 times, and you just bought your 1.”
Does Webb get an assist for that goal? 😉
Odds on Suarez matching Terry’s goal?
I should have had money on that!
Good call
Chelski will win and it could get messy (4-0).
What is interesting is the Director General of the bbc resigns over a programs bad journalism saying its the ‘honorable’ thing to do.
Chrlsea keep terry as captain after he admitting the use of racist language and being deemed unfit to continue as England captain by the FA..
I guess Chelsea have no honor.
Dust
now that is the Dust i remember and love bring the fire.
if terry is out the rest of the year i will not shed a tear and might even think justice has been served.just saying
“Chelsea supporting the fight against racism since last Sunday.”
Cracking banner from the Mancs the other week.
I’d argue the BBC have very little with some of the crap they churn out too.
Amen to that!
I hope the injury lasts a long time.
Vile, vile little man.
GUY
will this first half send you,the wife,and the dogs to the pub sooner rather then later? EPLTALK wants to know.
Time to go to the beerfest! 🙂 Enjoy the rest of the match.
good call ENJOY!
First fest here on the coast. 30 craft brewers with 120 taps. Will try to do my best. Cab on the way. 🙂
Guy
don’t get cheated make a dent!
Guy see if anybody’s got any Cider on.
I met a fella from Sacramento this week, he’d never had it before and really fell for it. I met him on a brewery tour so we had a good natter.
Ian
if i ever make it to Jolly old England i am looking you up!
Only if you’re happy watching Stoke.
I spent most of this week in here:
http://tweediesbargrasmere.co.uk/guestalesgrasmere.php
Have a mooch around the website, it’ll prove England isn’t just about London.
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=grasmere&rls=com.microsoft:en-gb:IE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7ADRA_enGB484&redir_esc=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=Dd2fUKrjH-eS0QWl5YGABw&biw=1600&bih=688&sei=FN2fUPnyEIeb1AXXgoHgDA
Looks beautiful. You’re a lucky man, IanCransonsKnees!
Reminds me of Wales, and makes me homesick!
Cheers,
The Gaffer
Wiil do. Out.
Would just like to point out that West Ham stand at 6th above Arsenal and Tottenham in the table.
you beat me to it i was going to note the rise of the Hammers and Nolan with sweet revenge.well done
WHU had a good win @ NUFC
how odd no one went to Suarez to celebrate just seemed odd.
Great result for Liverpool, didn’t see that coming
Neither did I but its a long season and plenty of Football to play. I’m shaking my head that Mata missed at the end of the first half.
Yeah, CFC had the chances to put the game away, hazard was quiet. Torres is proving to have been overvalued by about 50 million pounds.
It looks like a three club race for the title, with 3 clubs fighting for 4th only to be disappointed by man Utd winning the bloody champions league at wembley.
If spurs finish 4 & win a trophy that will be an improvement, iactually we could finish in the top 6 and win a trophy, I would take that in this year.
Odds on Guy getting wrecked here?
http://www.crystalcoasthospicehouse.org/craft-on-the-crystal-coast.php
Its for charity so I hope he has a bad head tomorrow!
Looks a quality event, I’d love to get over there and sample some of your beers. The bloke from Sacremento made it sound worth the trip.
I’d have to try and get the Sounders or Timbers into my journey just to see what the atmosphere’s like.
Still fleshing out my EPL Tailored Tours project – I could include a few brewery and real ale tours if you were that way inclined ;-0 You’d have to be pissed to watch Stoke.
Yeah, that’s the link. Back. Ha! my head is perfectly……well, whatever. Left before my next to last beer! Great event!
ICK….had Angry Orchard cider and two Woodchucks. Their Reserve Ginger would make a cider drinker out of anybody.
Tomorrow will be a lay back for sure. Good thing I am “unemployed”. 😉
I’m starting to wonder what I even watch soccer for. I’ve rooted for Spurs for a while but what’s the point? They’re not going to ever win the league.
What exactly am I rooting for?
David, you need to rethink your priorities. I’m a Stoke fan. Do I think we are going to win the league? Of course not, but that is exactly the point. I love underdogs, so Stoke is my perfect team.
Stick with Spurs no matter what, otherwise you just become another wanderer looking for success first and and rationalizatioin afterwards.
….and and I mean it!……. 🙂
try being a Nottingham Forest fan all i have are memories and i am bound to forget those joys when i mind goes.
i=the see the mind is already going!
LOL…you cant say never! LOL but if you want to support a club because they win, then don’t support any uk clubs, pick form the following, Barca, Real Madrid, or Bayern Munich.
The BPL is going to go through a transition in the next few years, SAF retiring, FFP, it could be the end of 1 team dominating in the BPL. so just chose one of those teams I mentioned above and you will be fine for trophies.
David G
don’t throw away your memories because of a bad result.you could pick a new side and they might win a piece of silver but it won’t mean a damn to you because you have no ties to that side.be glad your side is in the EPL and not fighting to stay in the Championship division.
I’d never follow another team, I’m just starting to wonder what exactly I’m rooting for and why I care about wins/losses so much.
Ultimately Tottenham will never win the Premier League. Spurs goal is to in 10 years time be where Arsenal is at (with stadium built and mostly paid off)…
and look at Arsenal. They have almost no chance at winning a title and the competition (United, Oil $) keep getting father in the distance.
It’s like a non-win rooting for a team like Arsenal or Spurs
Any loss to the club below a top 5 or 6 club is painful because, being a top 4 club means you shouldn’t be losing to Wigan or Norwhich, but on the other hand like the other 17 clubs in the premier league they have no real chance of winning the title with their current ownership.
If I did follow a team like Stoke for example at least wins are fun and losses are just well yeah we’re Stoke we’re not going to win every game.