Premier League 17/18

Newcastle have Tottenham first. Knew we'd get a top team, we usually do for the opening game. Still, if we can perform like we did on our last game in the Prem, I wouldn't mind a repeat of the result as that would mean we've beaten Tottenham in back-to-back Premiership games 5-1. Yeah... definitely wouldn't say no to that.

And let's hope that we're firmly in the Prem come the final game of the season. Chelsea... that would be tough.

September 9th is our first clash of the season, Ben. Swansea v Newcastle 😉

Chelsea first? For fucks sake, there goes my hopes for a good start. As long as we put up a fight I can accept defeat I suppose.

Arsenal 4-3 Leicester

Substitute Olivier Giroud headed in a dramatic late winner as Arsenal fought back to beat Leicester City in a thrilling start to the 2017-18 Premier League season.

Was a great game with some nice goals. Super excited for tomorrow's fixtures.

Also here's my predictions for what the table will look like come the end of the season:

1. Manchester United
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2. Manchester City
3. Tottenham
4. Chelsea
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5. Arsenal
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6. Liverpool
7. Everton
8. West Ham
9. Swansea
10. Leicester
11. West Brom
12. Southampton
13. Newcastle
14. Stoke
15. Burnley
16. AFC Bournemouth
17. Huddersfield
------
18. Crystal Palace
19. Watford
20. Brighton & Hove Albion

We beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge! Let's fucking riot!!!

Friday
Arsenal 4-3 Leicester

Saturday
Watford 3-3 Liverpool
Chelsea 2-3 Burnley
Palace 0-3 Huddersfield
Everton 1-0 Stoke
Southampton 0-0 Swansea
West Brom 1-0 Bournemouth
Brighton 0-2 Man City

Sunday
Newcastle v Spurs
Man Utd vs West Ham

It's been a pretty exciting weekend so far. MOTD should be eventful.

Disappointed with our game today. Kane should have been sent off. Shelvey is just a twat - even if it was unintentional, which I can't see how it would be, it's just plain stupid. We hadn't offered too much in the game before then anyway, but he's arguably cost us the game as it just opened things up for Tottenham.

Overall though, I can't complain. Didn't expect anything from this game, given that we've just come up and we're playing a team that just finished second. Bit of a difference in quality, so I'm just happy we didn't get hammered. Need to improve though.

That's always been Shelvey's problem, he still acts like a kid. Man needs to grow up and be professional.

Kanes tackle looked alright at first viewing. Rough, but alright. So you can't blame the ref for it. Second viewing, with one angle in particular, shows that it was actually a bad tackle and should have been a red. It's a shame the FA can't retrospectively red card him since he got a yellow for it. A shame really. Retrospective punishment for diving, but not for bad tackles that leave players injured for a few months. It wouldn't even be difficult, just show the ref a replay after the game and ask him if he'd seen if differently at these angles, would he give a red or stick with a yellow or no foul. Keeps it in the refs hands instead of overruling him.

Shelvey is an idiot as well. Like Kanes, at first I didn't think it was too bad. Replay though, the one that shows the ref looking right at it, shows that Shelvey knew what he was doing and was deliberate. Wouldn't really cause injury, but you can't be doing that. Clearly one of those players that is smart with a ball at their feet but that's it. Absolute fucking moron or a player.

Watching MOTD last night, they mentioned that Southampton had 29 shots at goal against Swansea, more than any other game this weekend in the Prem. Of all the high scoring games, the one that has the most shots has none at all. Crazy. You must be relieved with a point Rhys?

I'm still buzzing about our result. We were pretty shit in the second half, like what I was expecting us to be against the champions. Although, that was how I was expecting us to be against the champions at full strength, not with 10 and then 9 men. Thankfully our first half was very impressive. Just need to work out how to maintain that over a whole game.

Watching MOTD last night, they mentioned that Southampton had 29 shots at goal against Swansea, more than any other game this weekend in the Prem. Of all the high scoring games, the one that has the most shots has none at all. Crazy. You must be relieved with a point Rhys?

They had 29 "shots" but only like 4 were on target. I was glad to see us get a point away from home but personally I would have went all out attack for the last 10 mins to try and snatch a win.

Everton are showing that it's really not hard to play Rooney right. Play him up top and get the ball to him in or around the box... not expecting him to pick the ball up on the half way line and still score.

Man City piss me off. Their fans are whiny little bitches and their players play act. A perfect game to see whether the FA actually have some balls and follow through with what they say about retrospectively punishing players for play acting. Otamendi went down and rolled around like he'd been punched. Calvert-Lewins fingers had barely scraped past his face. Aguero rolled around like he'd had his leg snapped at the end, and it really shouldn't have been a second yellow for Schneiderlin. What are the bets that the FA do FA?

Also, because I'm not completely bias in my dislike for Man City... Calvert-Lewins should be in trouble too for the way he went down holding his face when there looked like no contact at all to his face.

So that's three players that deserve retrospective bans. I'd accept Otamendi and Calvert-Lewins getting bans for their reactions.

I doubt they'll do anything about it. They'll wait until someone get's a straight red from something like this before they act. In the mean time, players will continue to play act and everyone will laugh at how weak the FA are as they yet again don't follow through with what they say.

Their own rules:
"attempting to deceive the referee by feigning injury"

Although people talk about it like it's only with penalties, but it really shouldn't be. Going down holding your face when barely touched or not touched on your face at all it "attempting to deceive the referee by feigning injury." A panel is meant to meet every Monday to go through it, but nothing about what happens if a game is played Monday evening. Do they meet Tuesday then? Or wait until next Monday?

Knowing the FA, they'll wait until there's a high profile complaint about this happening before doing anything.

I heard that they are testing using video during and after games for stuff like diving and fouls retroactively and will be fully implementing it next season.

Beat Chelsea at home. Draw with Tottenham away. Couldn't be happier really. Much better start than I thought we'd have considering the teams we start with.

Also great to see Wood scoring already. I was going wild!

Four points and two clean sheets from two away games from us, as well as a solid cup win (and a thrashing by United but let's forget that lol). I'd have taken this at the start of the season.

Anyone see the Liverpool vs Arsenal game yesterday? Arsenal have gone to shit. They barely attacked and defensively were all over the place. Really they were lucky that it was only 4-0. Liverpool could easily have scored 6 or 7. If it wasn't for Cech they probably would have. And they spent all that money on a striker and bench him for Welbeck. Must be nice to have that much money to spend on players for the bench.

Arsenal have been sub-par for years. When Swansea goes there, it doesn't have the same "oh shit" feeling than when we play Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea etc.

Boy did we get lucky yesterday. Crystal Palace basically handed us the game early on with an awful backpass that our new wonder striker expertly put away (was seriously impressed with that first time finish). Palace then controlled the rest of the game. If they actually knew how to score there's no way Palace would be bottom of the table. But long may that continue as it keeps relegation away from us.

Liverpool got owned by Man City on Saturday lunch time. Like proper owned. Their defence was shit before the red card and was shit afterwards. I don't buy being down to 10 men as an excuse either. They lost an attacker, not a defender, so there's no excuse for that sort of defending as their first choice defence was still intact.

Talking of that red card, something in the Swansea vs Newcastle game made me happy. People are trying to compare the Mane incident to the Ritchie one. Don't see it myself. But I thought the Swansea players handled themselves brilliantly with it. Yeah they put their hands up for a foul, which it was, but they didn't go screaming for a red and the player didn't hit the deck screaming like I thought he would. Was good to see. Was like some kind of actual professionalism from a football team. Fans (and general football fans and pundits) have been the worst, saying that it was a red. It wasn't. Just no. The Mane one I'm a bit iffy on, as it was clearly an accident and he didn't see the keeper, but it resulted in a big whack to the face. Can forgive the ref who only saw it in real time without the benefit of replays - not that they'd have helped as even with replays everyone seems torn on whether it was or not. Ritche one definitely was not worthy of a red, and well done to the Swansea players for handling that foul in a professional manner (unless of course I missed them asking for a red, in which case well done to just the player for not hitting the deck and rolling around holding his face that wasn't touched).

I don't think they asked for a red. I didn't see it anyway. It was probably a booking for being reckless but not a red.

Yeah I don't remember seeing anyone asking for one. Was good to see.

Didn't see them complaining either. Can't see why people are saying it was a red either. Funny thing is, we've seen similar incidents this season already, before the Ritchie or Mane incident and there was no question of a red and no talk like there has been with these two. Granted, the Mane one messed up the keepers face - saw a picture earlier and he has some nice stitches - but was unfortunate. Seen people saying that it's because he caused a serious injury. Really? Seen tackles cause serious injury and not get red cards. Seen some this season and there wasn't this fuss.

Anyway, agree with Ninjak, was great to see the Swansea players reaction, especially the player that was caught. Too many players would go to ground and roll around making a real meal of it... so was good to see someone not do that for once. Need more players to act like that.

The Football Association simulation panel just proved that they're absolutely worthless. For some reason this is the first time they've been used this season (should be like third time)... but they've found Richarlison didn't dive to win a penalty against Arsenal, proving that they're absolutely useless. What is the point in the panel if they're not going to look at a dive and say "yes, that's a dive"? Waste of time.

The sack race is on between Bilic and Koeman. West Ham are in the bottom 5 - above Everton on goal difference, who are in the relegation zone. Both teams were backed in the transfer window... Everton spent a ridiculous amount. Both teams are losing games that they should be winning, even before the Summers investment.

Happy with how things are going with Newcastle tho. Didn't play great on the weekend - we were pretty shit actually... but those are the kinds of games you need to be able to win. In previous years, we'd play shit and lose. Rafa can get us to grind a result where needed.

Burnley are doing well, just below Newcastle.

Swansea are not doing too well, and are above West Ham on goal difference - meaning they're also above Everton in the relegation zone because they've scored more/conceded less.

Watford are the surprise package so far. Was expecting them to be where Everton are now.