Author: footballphilosophy.net

Premier League previews of the games coming up this weekend

A big fixture this weekend is Swansea’s game with Chelsea, where both teams are on good form. If Swansea were to win, it would be a big shock, but don’t discount it because Swansea are doing very well under new manager Paul Clement.

Also, Everton play Sunderland with the Black Cats in a bit of a shock after their 4-0 loss last week because the week before that loss they had won 4-0. But Everton are vulnerable against the so-called smaller teams as showed last week against Boro.

Also on Saturday, Watford play West Ham, and the Hammers have improved a lot in the second part of the season and they have got themselves into 10th position in the league. Getting there after the first few months of the season looked to be a distant dream, but they are on form with their tall striker Andy Carroll playing exceptionally well upfront.

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Andy Carroll has been good in the past few games, but there’s a chance he won’t play against Watford after an injury he picked up.

The last Prem fixture of the weekend is Tottenham’s game against Stoke, where Spurs won’t be in the happiest of moods after their Europa League disappointment on Thursday, but Stoke on the other hand will be delighted after their win against Palace the week before last.

Why Leicester’s decision to sack Ranieri was a bad one

Yes, Leicester’s form this season has been utterly awful, but I don’t see how Leicester can think that sacking Claudio Ranieri is going to make their results better, because if you look at the managers that are being rumoured to replace him, you see nothing near to the managerial quality of Ranieri.

Ranieri inspired Leicester to do the impossible and win the Premier League last season, but this season he also looked like he was going to do the impossible and get relegated with Leicester, so that’s why they sacked him.

Another reason why Leicester shouldn’t have given Ranieri the boot is that he won the Foxes the Premier League last season and even though the results this season haven’t been good, you should never sack a manager who has won you the Premier League at the odds of 5,000 to 1!

Some people say that the reason Ranieri has been shown the door by Leicester is because he’s lost the dressing room. However, Leicester caretaker boss Craig Shakespeare has denied those claims.

But an odd thing about the sacking is Leicester issued a statement a few weeks back giving Ranieri their ‘unwavering support’ and also he was given a contract after winning the league which was meant to last until June 2020. But contracts and supportive messages seem to count for nothing in this day and age of football.

Round up of the FA Cup fifth round

This is almost definitely going to be the most remembered FA Cup fifth round, and that’s just because of one game, Non League Lincoln’s incredible victory over Burnley where Sean Raggett scored the winner in the 89th minute. The reason that this victory was so special is that it’s the first time a non league team has reached the quarter finals of the FA Cup since 1914, and also another reason is because Burnley are eighty-one places above Lincoln.

Sutton would’ve loved to join Lincoln in the quarter finals of the FA Cup, but Arsenal were just the bit more dominant and the game ended 2-0 to them. Arsenal’s second goal came from captain Theo Walcott and that goal was his 100th Arsenal netting, so congratulations to him.

Another fixture from the weekend was Millwall versus Leicester. The game finished 1-0 with the sole goal coming from Millwall defender Shaun Cummings. Millwall will face Spurs in the next round, which will be a hard game for them.

Shaun Cummings is the hero for Millwall after grabbing a dramatic late winner
The Millwall team celebrate after Cummings goal.

On Sunday Blackburn nearly managed to beat Manchester United after going ahead, but United fought back to win and book a tie with Chelsea in the next round. Blackburn have to be disappointed about the result, but they have done exceptionally well considering their league position and United’s league position.

Football podcast with Jack- Wednesday 22nd February 2017

Down below you can listen to Jack and I discussing Wayne Rooney’s future at United, Manchester City’s eight goal thriller with Monaco and Arsenal’s convincing 2-0 over Sutton.

I apologise, as there are a few mistakes in this podcast, Jack got confused with Sane and Mane as they both rhyme and I also confused a Sutton centre midfielder with Top Gear co-presenter James May.

Previews of the FA Cup fifth round fixtures

This FA Cup weekend, non-league teams Lincoln and Sutton take on Premier League oppositions, Burnley and Arsenal with a big dream: to be the first non-league teams to reach the sixth round ever, but Sutton need to keep a clean sheet against the menacing Arsenal attack, and Lincoln need to keep Burnley’s strikers, Gray and Vokes at bay.

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It’s a nervous few days for Lincoln manager Danny Cowley and Sutton boss Paul Doswell.

On Saturday at 5.30 the league leaders Chelsea play Wolves, who hope to replicate their perfect performance from the last round in this game, but Chelsea will be hard to beat as top players such as Hazard, Costa and Kante could be playing in the affair.

Also on Saturday Huddersfield take on Manchester City, with Huddersfield improving massively in the league since last time and their current position in the league now (3rd) is sixteen places better than their Championship place last year (19th), so Huddersfield will be harder to beat than City will expect.

One of the last FA Cup fixtures of the weekend is Blackburn Rovers against Manchester United with United just recovering from their game against Saint Etienne where they won 3-0 and Ibrahimovic scored a hat rick. But United surely have to beat Blackburn because of the quality of their players and Blackburn’s awful league run.

Champions League and Europa League round up

PSG shocked the world by beating Barcelona 4-0 at the Parc des Princes. The defeat is one of many heavy ones for Barca in the Champions League, and some people are saying that there’s a new era coming at the club. In the game, Di Maria hit a free kick from the edge of the area and he also curled a shot into the top corner to kill the game for the Catalans. I don’t know why United ever let him go.

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Angel Di Maria celebrating after scoring for PSG.

On Wednesday, Bayern Munich crushed Arsenal in an all round wonderful performance. Arsenal had some hope that they could get themselves at a good standing point for the next leg when Alexis Sanchez finished low into the corner after missing his penalty, but Bayern replied maliciously with four goals after half time.

Thursday evening was when the Europa League fixtures were played and one of them was Gent’s surprise victory over Tottenham. Gent’s single goal came from their top scorer Jeremy Perbet. With Spurs getting knocked out of the Champions League, they went directly to the Europa League and they could get knocked out of that with such a loss.

The other English team participating in the Europa League is Manchester United, who played Saint-Etienne last night with Zlatan bagging a hat rick to almost definitely seal the tie between the two clubs.

The Premier League’s top strike forces

The Premier League is filled with many great strike forces, so below I thought it would be good if I rated them.

  1. Manchester United

Attack: Martial, Mata, Mkhitaryan and Ibrahimovic

Backup attack: Lingard, Rashford and Rooney

United have got an absolute perfect attack with Ibrahimovic giving height, strength and power upfront and Mata and Mkhitaryan giving pace and creativity on the wings. The depth is also reasonably good.

2. Manchester City

Attack: Aguero or Jesus, Sterling, De Bruyne, Silva

Backup attack: Navas, Aguero or Jesus, Iheanacho, Sane, Nolito

City’s attack’s main strength is their playmakers- De Bruyne, Silva and Sterling who can create chances all day for either Jesus or Aguero to get on the end of. Furthermore, the sky blues attack has incredibly good backup if ever any of the first team get injured.

3. Chelsea

Attack: Costa, Hazard and Pedro

Backup attack: Willian and Batshuayi

The Costa and Hazard partnership has been the key to Chelsea’s attack this season with both of them scoring just under half of Chelsea’s Premier League goals this season. But that’s not even mentioning Pedro, who’s been a secret weapon for the blues, setting up six of their goals this year in the league and scoring six for himself. The only thing that could be improved in Chelsea’s attack is their depth because if there’s an injury to Costa, Hazard or Pedro, they will struggle majorly for goals.

4. Arsenal

Attack: Sanchez, Walcott, Ozil, Iwobi

Backup attack: Perez, Giroud, Welbeck, Oxlade- Chamberlain

Arsenal’s attack is very pacy – meaning when they play oppositions which have an old defence, they do very well but sometimes they can find themselves unstuck against solid defences.

The depth of the Arsenal attack is good because when the game needs some pace and energy Wenger can bring on strikers Perez and Welbeck, who have a natural ability of changing games.

5. Spurs

Attack: Kane, Alli, Eriksen and Son

Backup attack: Lamela, Janssen and N’Koudou

The Spurs attack is very much like the City attack with Alli, Eriksen and Son making the assists for Kane who has already scored 16 this 2016/2017 season.

Spurs need to get Janssen and N’Koudou (both summer signings) going because if Kane or Alli gets injured then Spurs will struggle.

Here are my views but I would like to know who do you think has the best strike force in the Premier League in the comments section.

Premier League round up of the past two days of action

On Saturday at 3pm, Manchester United beat Watford 2-0 with Martial impressing by setting up Juan Mata for the first goal of the game and then neatly slotting the ball to the left side of Heurelho Gomes to seal the win for United. United had many chances in the game but poor finishing and strong Watford defending held the scoreline at just two goals.

Also at 3pm, Southampton beat Sunderland 4-0 with Manolo Gabbiadini scoring twice which means that he’s got three goals in his first two starts for the club. The Southampton striker is the Saints’ most expensive signing and he’s repaying his £14m fee already.

The last Premier League game of Saturday was Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Spurs. Mane scored both goals for the Reds and he had a short spell of time where he could’ve got lots more goals. With injuries to Rose and Vertonghen, Spurs had to make do with Dier playing in an unnatural position at centre-back and Davies- an inexperienced player – was left to operate as a left back. Those changes of the team was a major reason of why Spurs lost.

Sunday’s first game saw Burnley shock Chelsea with a 1-1 draw. New clarets signing Robbie Brady scored a fabulous free kick from a long way out to level the scoreline and keep Burnley’s impressive home form going. Chelsea missed out on a chance to go twelve points ahead at the top of the table but are still a decade of points higher than Spurs and Arsenal who are in second and third.

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Robbie Brady celebrates scoring his free kick.