OT We call it football over here

CPFC1905

At last, we made it!   89 long days with absolutely no football whatsoever but now the Premier League is back, back, back!

OK, there was minor interlude when football did not come home and England politely let the new-comers have a moment in the spotlight. 

Its time to;

Get your fantasy team organised immediately,  I like;

https://fantasy.premierleague.com/a/home

With effort saving research out-sourced to;

https://fantasyfootballanalysts.wordpress.com

Renew your podcast subscriptions, this my favourite;

https://www.theguardian.com/football/audio/2018/aug/09/the-big-premier-league-preview-football-weekly-extra

Kiss your family and friends good-bye as only total absorption in the World’s best league matters for the next for 9 months. 

CPFC1905

To the handful of users even remotely interested, a few ground rules;

1. no such thing as a silly question and any contribution is welcome
2. on here it’s only called football 
3. there is no such thing as ‘the EPL’   You may call it Division 1 as a mark of respect to the era before football was (re)invented
4. players are paid too much - fact
5. players fall over too easily - fact
6. all referees and commentators are biased against your team
7. probably several more, but we’ll make them up as we go along. 

@Eoin    @Foghorn @thetrim  @The_Stache    @lousubcap  @YEMTrey   @nolaegghead

CPFC1905

Just FYI, alternative thread titles I discounted; 

OT It's a game of two halves    

OT It's not a matter of life and death - it’s more important than that

OT On me ‘ead son

OT put it in the mixer

OT Good feet for a big lad

OT Unbelievable Jeff

OT 90 minutes

OT stick it in the onion sack

OT ......and some of the crowd are on the pitch

OT spadehead 

OT Carlton Palmer - discuss

OT Big Fat Sam’s coach tours, our next stop is….

Eoin

First match lost, not a good start for us.

Acn

Excited to see Arsenal with somebody new in charge.  Even though City at home and @ Chelsea is not a great way to start (I fully expect some “Arsenal in crisis” and “Is Emery in trouble already” articles if/when they start with 0 points in their first 2 matches).

United looked a little better than I thought they would yesterday, although I still think they’ve dropped back a little, with City and Liverpool a cut above, and Spurs, Arsenal, United, and Chelsea is a scrum for the last 2 CL spots.

CPFC1905

Eoin said:

First match lost, not a good start for us.

But all the other teams face the prospect of 'a wet Tuesday night at Stoke'.  Stay strong!

Eoin

@acn agreed that MU looked better than expected. Spurs standard defending quality on show at the moment. Just need to see the Arse passing it round in the middle of the park for 15 minutes then concede a stupid goal and we can all relax.

CPFC1905

Vertonghen's in my FF XI, so at least I'm up & running

RockyTopDW

I’m excited about the gunners relegation at the end of this season.  Also looking forward to the sacking of Jose @ MU.  This is the year LFC brings it home.  Jurgen Klopp, he will take us to the top !!!

CPFC1905

Would be very happy for the season to end now.....

@Eoin Reasonable point against a decent Brentford, you think? 

Eoin

CPFC1905 said:

Would be very happy for the season to end now.....

@Eoin Reasonable point against a decent Brentford, you think? 

Better than losing but hoping for a win. I suppose we have to have some time for the new boys/manager to settle in!

Good result for you today.

Acn

Angry Birds is an Everton sponsor?

CPFC1905

Eoin said:

CPFC1905 said:

Would be very happy for the season to end now.....

@Eoin Reasonable point against a decent Brentford, you think? 

Better than losing but hoping for a win. I suppose we have to have some time for the new boys/manager to settle in!

Good result for you today.

With Brighton well beaten by the curates egg of a team called Watford, a proper Bruce Bonus. 

CPFC1905

RockyTopDW said:

I’m excited about the gunners relegation at the end of this season.  Also looking forward to the sacking of Jose @ MU.  This is the year LFC brings it home.  Jurgen Klopp, he will take us to the top !!!

Scousers certainly looked lively today.   Gunners / Citeh underway - could be telling.  
Chelsea had no bother at all yesterday against Huddersfield,  who along with Cardiff - looked completely outclassed. 

Foghorn

What should we make of Man City leaving David Silva at home?  Are they really that loaded?  Just rotating players? Looking to offload him?

There are no slouches on their bench. 

northGAcock

What you have there is just a kick in the grass.

CPFC1905

Foghorn said:

What should we make of Man City leaving David Silva at home?  Are they really that loaded?  Just rotating players? Looking to offload him?

There are no slouches on their bench. 

They're loaded.  Pep has amassed a couple of top quality first XI's.  

The team will play 38 league games plus something like 20 CL and FA & League cup games - assuming decent run in each.  Most of the players are internationals and/or played in the World Cup - so very little downtime, lots of travel and every time they step on the pitch the expectation is they win.

The squad of 25 is capped at 17 'foreign' players - plus unlimited under 21's.  not bad when that means Phil Foden is not counted in the squad.

https://www.premierleague.com/news/465277  

Foghorn

Yep. This may be the year they break through in the cup winners cup (I didn’t see any rule on what to call it but thought I’d go with the historical perspective).

CPFC1905

And I respect you more for that @Foghorn  
It's Champions League for them, Utd, Liverpool and Spurs.  Then Chelsea, Arsenal and Burnley in the UEFA.   

Gulfcoastguy

Ole, ole, ole? 

Foghorn

I'm not counting Chelsea out of the top 4.  Nor am I counting Arsenal among the top 7 just yet.

Foghorn

Oh, by the way, you picked the correct title.

@RockyTopDW, you may be correct.  But getting through Man City is not going to be an easy task.  I could easily see this being a 2 horse race between 'pool and city.  Pep and Klopp have both had some of those in other leagues.

CPFC1905

I very much like Jose : he is an enigma that should have moved to Palace when he had the chance ( ).  It is almost unimaginable that he will do better than last year.   Liverpool are being talked up over here, but City are so strong. 

I know this is leaping ahead, but; with two very strong teams and a couple of very weak teams, the season tends to flatline quite early.

Elijah

Go Tigers

Elijah

My bad

Hans61

CPFC1905

Did you go to any games this Summer?  This report says you guys are not loving the sight of the Premier League's finest.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/aug/14/international-champions-cup-attendances

Attendances used to be regarded as irrefutable evidence of a team's popularity and therefore success.   More recently those stats have fallen in to disrepute as clubs will conflate attendance with 'tickets sold', when it suits.  The latter will include season tickets irrespective of being used, total capacity of corporate boxes, sponsor allocations and others given away.  

In past years ticket sales were the primary revenue stream for nearly every club.  Consequently it was 'helpful' to publish a lower attendance for the purpose of tax.   In the present era, certainly for Premier League teams, ticket sales are a much smaller contributor.    

While teams are not (yet) in a position to balance the books by playing without a crowd, it is causing a shift in approach to 'match day experience'.    Big brand clubs are extending the top end packages with more lavish experiences on offer.  Others are investing - for want of a better term, in future fans by holding season ticket prices and improved concession prices.  Research suggests the average age of fans is creeping up, not to mention to growing proportion of 'tourists' with no affinity to the home club - or in fact football.

As an old-fashioned football fan of a team with undoubtedly the best home atmosphere (trust me, it wasn't always like that!), there's nothing like cheap tickets to encourage noisy fans in a ramshackle ground (I hesitate to use the word stadium for Selhurst Park) to give the perfect match-day experience. 

Eoin

CPFC1905 said:

Did you go to any games this Summer?  This report says you guys are not loving the sight of the Premier League's finest.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/aug/14/international-champions-cup-attendances

Attendances used to be regarded as irrefutable evidence of a team's popularity and therefore success.   More recently those stats have fallen in to disrepute as clubs will conflate attendance with 'tickets sold', when it suits.  The latter will include season tickets irrespective of being used, total capacity of corporate boxes, sponsor allocations and others given away.  

In past years ticket sales were the primary revenue stream for nearly every club.  Consequently it was 'helpful' to publish a lower attendance for the purpose of tax.   In the present era, certainly for Premier League teams, ticket sales are a much smaller contributor.    

While teams are not (yet) in a position to balance the books by playing without a crowd, it is causing a shift in approach to 'match day experience'.    Big brand clubs are extending the top end packages with more lavish experiences on offer.  Others are investing - for want of a better term, in future fans by holding season ticket prices and improved concession prices.  Research suggests the average age of fans is creeping up, not to mention to growing proportion of 'tourists' with no affinity to the home club - or in fact football.

As an old-fashioned football fan of a team with undoubtedly the best home atmosphere (trust me, it wasn't always like that!), there's nothing like cheap tickets to encourage noisy fans in a ramshackle ground (I hesitate to use the word stadium for Selhurst Park) to give the perfect match-day experience. 

I took our Chelsea supporting son to see a match at Stamford Bridge a few years ago, vs. Stoke.  While not completely devoid of atmosphere, the noise all came from the Shed End and the Stoke fans.  The rest of the crowd was a bit subdued.  Where we were sitting was high up (all we could get) in the East Stand and nearly all of the seats around us were taken by tourists.  I guess the 'smaller' teams have the home advantage of a limited number of tourists / armchair fans visiting, so the ground is full of actual fans, even if it means less money coming in.

CPFC1905

I have noticed that on YouTube away fans seem to revel in out-singing the home fans.  Admittedly not hard at Arsenal and there's good footage of Palace doing it to Chelsea (and I'll say it again : Jose will come to Palace) .
I know you'll appreciate that it takes a special kind of tourist to find Selhurst Park, so I think we're less likely to suffer that. 
A few years ago a friend of mine took a Wimbledon season ticket to watch the other 19 teams play.  Proto-tourism? 

Oh, near miss with you lad then - what if he'd been Man Utd????

Foghorn

Will Atleti show us that Real Madrid without CR7 = nothing special?

YEMTrey

Bale looked to be in good form during the last few cup games over here.  I think he’ll step in and fill the void pretty well.  Damn near impossible to replace the output of Ronaldo though.  There’s still enough quality on that team to finish well in that extremely top heavy league.