Re: Rival Watch

by Sri Mon Jan 26, 2015 6:43 pm

Naww.. I know it is Independent, but still..

'They get their definitions direct from Oxford Dictionaries, published by Oxford University Press.'

Pretty sure that's the Oxford in UK Laughing

by MJ Mon Jan 26, 2015 6:48 pm

Time is referred to, more often, by the quarter a game is in rather than the half in basketball.

So that's our friendly neighborhood Spuds getting bantered off.

by El Gunner Mon Jan 26, 2015 6:51 pm

Ahh that is true.

by Sri Mon Jan 26, 2015 6:52 pm

But, but, but...

Two quarters make a half?

No?

Ok, bye.

by Sri Mon Jan 26, 2015 8:17 pm

If United beat the lowest ranked team left in the FA Cup they get to play the next lowest ranked team left in the FA Cup.

by Great Leader Sprucenuce Mon Jan 26, 2015 8:57 pm

El Gunner wrote:could be the San Antonio Spurs

Rival Watch - Page 12 63eba2baf70fd9db5531c283960f8b6f3361fb4569d766817766b8f76918e9e2

by Chumlum Fri Jan 30, 2015 4:30 pm

Not thrilled about Cuadrado to Chelsea. I feel like he's gonna have an impact this season.

by RealGunner Fri Jan 30, 2015 4:38 pm

They will just win the title faster now Laughing

Won't make any other difference.

by MJ Sat Jan 31, 2015 9:53 pm

No favorable results besides maybe Chelsea v City. Liverpool, United, Spurs all win. Southampton play tomorrow.

Win takes us 11 off 1st and 6 off 2nd.

by Sri Sun Feb 01, 2015 6:06 am

I was thinking about it after the games. Theoretically, it sounds possible that we can make up the ground, at least to City. However, teams aren't dropping any points - that might happen only during the big games, which is when we usually drop points ourselves.

Imagine losing the NLD. That's going to mess things up a lot! We need 3 points in every game, pretty much, to be in the top 4, the way things are going.

by Sri Sun Feb 01, 2015 10:08 am

Apparently the two clubs sizing each other up at Stamford Bridge on Saturday “ain’t got no history” if you believe the different variations of the song that follows them around the country now they are threatening to turn the Premier League into a duopoly.

Perhaps this might be an appropriate time, then, to point out that Manchester City won their first FA Cup 26 years before Arsenal and their first League Cup 17 years earlier. Their first European trophy, the 1970 Cup Winners’ Cup, arrived before any of Liverpool’s. They broke the attendance record for the first time in 1924 and there are 110 years between the first and last of their major honours. Only two clubs, Blackburn Rovers (118 years) and Liverpool (111), have a longer span of success.

Likewise, Chelsea’s supporters can probably be forgiven for feeling slightly bemused about the kind of chants that could be heard at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday. As it happened, Chelsea also lifted a European trophy before Liverpool. A plastic new-age club? Chelsea had the best average attendance in England 10 times from 1908 to 1955. They were the first team to average more than 40,000 during one season and their FA Cup final replay against Leeds in 1970 pulled in a television audience of 28 million, the best there has been for a club game in England.

City have not done too badly either given that the crowd of 84,659 to watch an FA Cup tie against Stoke City in 1934 is still a record in English football. No history? Well, King George V chose Hyde Road, City’s first ground, when he became the first monarch to attend a game and if you go back even further into the Manchester Evening News archives you will find sepia-tinted clippings from 1902 when the club were raising money to keep Newton Heath going (and if you know your history, you will be aware what became of Newton Heath).

What cannot be disputed, though, is that Chelsea versus City – Abramovich against Mansour, royal blue versus royal funding – is a very modern kind of rivalry. There is no great nostalgia here. Both teams endured slump periods before the money started pouring in – City losing to Lincoln, Wycombe and York to fall to 12th in the old third division in 1998; Chelsea drawing their lowest crowd, 6,009, against Leyton Orient in 1982 – and the clubs have shared few stand-out moments apart from one of Wembley’s great custard-pie finals.

That was in the Full Members Cup in 1986 when both clubs were required to play a First Division match the previous day. Chelsea won 1-0 at Southampton while, for City, there was the small matter of a 2-2 draw at Manchester United before hotfooting it down to London. A strange set of events became even stranger when Chelsea ran up a 5-1 lead, then conceded three goals in the final six minutes and almost blew it. David Speedie had scored a hat-trick for Chelsea. Both teams wore their away kit and Colin Pates lifted a cup that is presumably kept somewhere near the back of Chelsea’s trophy cabinet these days. Gary James, the author of several distinguished books on Manchester’s football history, remembers the local paper laughing at City for even entering the competition.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jan/30/chelsea-manchester-city-history-jose-mourinho-manuel-pellegrini

by Sri Sun Feb 01, 2015 10:12 am

United, for example, might have been tempted, one assumed, to bring down their ticket prices for the FA Cup replay against Cambridge on Tuesday, in the same way that City routinely do for their cup ties. That assumption was plainly wrong. Supporters started receiving texts that the full whack, up to £53, would be debited from their bank accounts, under the terms of the club’s “automatic cup scheme” within minutes of the final whistle at Cambridge.
...
Sir Alex Ferguson was paid £2.165m in retirement last season because of his new role as a “global ambassador”. To put that into context, it would be more than Roy Hodgson earns as England’s manager, more than Antonio Conte’s basic salary when he won three successive scudetti with Juventus and even more than Joachim Löw earned, before bonuses, in the year when Germany won the World Cup.
...
Sir Bobby Charlton is paid £105,000 a year as another of the club’s ambassadors and, though you would naturally expect Ferguson to get an extra chunk on top, it certainly prompted a double-take here to discover his salary is at least 14 times that of the prime minister. In fact, you could add the chancellor of the exchequer, the home secretary and almost every other cabinet minister together and their combined pay might be roughly what he comes out with in a year.
...
But equally, is it not legitimate to consider it an extraordinary amount of money when it appears he might not just be earning more than a World Cup-winning manager but also more than the guy who actually runs the club?
...

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/jan/31/sir-alex-ferguson-manchester-united-ambassador-salary

by MJ Sun Feb 01, 2015 5:53 pm

First favorable result of the weekend comes with the last match as Southampton lose 1-0 at home to Swansea.

We're now level with them on points for 4th but just behind on goal difference.

Our win today gave us a healthy GD boost.

by Sri Sun Feb 01, 2015 5:56 pm

Despite our healthy boost, they are still ahead, which is mainly due to their 8-0 drubbing of Sunderland in October.

They have only scored 37, to our 44.
Also must note here, they have conceded 17, to our 25.
They are ahead of us on GD by ONE.

by Jay29 Sat Feb 07, 2015 5:02 pm

Man City 1 - 1 Hull
QPR 0 - 1 Southampton

Table at the moment:

1. Chelsea - Pl 24, 56
2. Man City - Pl 24, 49
3. Soton - Pl 24, 45
4. Man Utd - Pl 23, 43
5. Spurs - Pl 24, 43
6. Arsenal - Pl 24, 42
7. Liverpool - Pl 23, 38
8. West Ham - Pl 23, 36

Games to come:

Soton: West Ham (H), Liverpool (H), West Brom (A)
Man Utd: West Ham (A), Burnley (H), Swansea (A), Sunderland (H)
Spurs: Liverpool (A), West Ham (H), COC Final
Arsenal: Leicester (H), Palace (A). Everton (H)
Liverpool: Everton (A), Spurs (H), Soton (A), Man City (H)

by MJ Sat Feb 07, 2015 5:15 pm

Need to take advantage of the fact that Liverpool, Spurs and Soton all play each other while we have more favorable games.

by VendettaRed07 Sat Feb 07, 2015 5:50 pm

How about we change this thread title to "watching rivals walk all over us"

by Jay29 Sun Feb 08, 2015 7:04 pm

West Ham 1 - 1 Man Utd means it's not a completely disastrous weekend.

Nigel Pearson has been sacked by Leicester. Can't think of a better time to play them than Tuesday.

by Sri Sun Feb 08, 2015 7:31 pm

Following up what I was saying in the stats thread:

CHELSEA
Home (8 ) : Everton, Burnley, Southampton, Stoke City, Manchester United, Crystal Palace, Liverpool, Sunderland
Away (6) : Leicester City, West Ham United, Hull City, Queens Park Rangers, Arsenal, West Bromwich Albion

=> I think it is safe to say that they have the title wrapped up. At the very least, they have one hand on the title already.

LIVERPOOL
Home (7 ) : Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City, Burnley, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Queens Park Rangers, Crystal Palace
Away (7) : Southampton, Swansea City, Arsenal, Hull, West Bromwich Albion, Chelsea, Stoke City

=> Death run apart, that's a lot of big games.

MAN CITY
Away (7 ) : Stoke City, Liverpool, Burnley, Crystal Palace, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Swansea City
Home (7) : Newcastle, Leicester, West Bromwich, West Ham, Aston Villa, Queens Park Rangers, Southampton

=> No tough home games really, though they have wobbled at home recently

MAN UTD
Home (7 ) : Burnley, Sunderland, Tottenham, Aston Villa, Manchester City, West Bromwich Albion, Arsenal
Away (7) : Swansea, Newcastle, Liverpool, Chelsea, Everton, Crystal Palace, Hull City

=> Not too easy, that. Last home game against Arsenal would be a 6 pointer in all likelihood.

SOTON
Home (7 ) : West Ham, Liverpool, Crystal Palace, Burnley, Hull, Tottenham, Aston Villa
Away (7) : West Bromwich Albion, Chelsea, Everton, Stoke City, Sunderland, Leicester, Manchester City

=> Koeman could well have a shot at Europe here

SCUM
Home (6 ) : West Ham, Swansea, Leicester, Aston Villa, Manchester City, Hull City
Away (8 ) : Liverpool, Queens Park Rangers, Manchester United, Burnley, Newcastle United, Southampton, Stoke City, Everton

=> Hope they get ripped apart away from home. That's not too hard otherwise.

by Sri Sun Feb 08, 2015 7:32 pm

Overall Fixtures with dates:

by SamuelJayC Mon Feb 09, 2015 11:10 am

We have a good opportunity to bounce back this week.

by Sri Mon Feb 09, 2015 1:42 pm

Yes, all rivals have games where they could potentially drop points. Although I expect United to get easily past Burnley. Soton should also get past WHU at home.

by Raptorgunner Mon Feb 09, 2015 3:30 pm

I hate it when our Rival drop points, it means that we will drop points also. Mad

by El Gunner Mon Feb 09, 2015 4:33 pm

Except we did it first this time :coffee:

by Sri Tue Feb 10, 2015 9:53 pm

Pool 3-2 Shite

That's how you put scum in their place.

by Jay29 Tue Feb 10, 2015 10:12 pm

Table as it stands:

1. Chelsea - Pl 24 56
2. Man City - Pl 24 49
3. Southampton - Pl 24 45
4. Arsenal - Pl 25 45
5. Man Utd - Pl 24 44
6. Spurs - Pl 25 43
7. Liverpool - Pl 25 42

Starting to get really tight now.

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