Premier League 2017-2018

[maclean]

So apparently after the game Mourinho stormed the locker room of City. As a United fan, **** this guy. I understand he did a lot for us and has been good for us but I’m sick of his antics. He should be gone if this turns out to be true. Then United should bring in Tuchel or Blanc.

Apparently he went to tell them to "be respectful and turn their music down"

And when all that was over went to visit the referee to complain some more about some of the calls...

 

[Gecklund]

Apparently he went to tell them to "be respectful and turn their music down"

And when all that was over went to visit the referee to complain some more about some of the calls...

I personally didn’t watch the game. I was at work for pretty much all of it. On the other side of that though, there is no reason for anyone to enter the opposing teams locker room. ESPECIALLY not the manager. I don’t care how loud their music is or how bad the calls were.

 

[les Habs]

So Mourinho pulls that and nobody has anything to say about it? Where are all the Ms Manners that were all over Victor Valdes?

 

[maclean]

Well, you know in these things you have to look at both sides. You have to look at both sides. Sure, he went charging into their dressing room swearing and insulting them, but like, what about them? They were playing their music really loud, why's nobody talking about that?


....

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

So Mourinho pulls that and nobody has anything to say about it? Where are all the Ms Manners that were all over Victor Valdes?

We already briefly discussed it in the matchday thread.

 

[Savant]

Mohamed Salah is the 2017 African Player of the Year!

 

[East Coast Bias]

So Mourinho pulls that and nobody has anything to say about it? Where are all the Ms Manners that were all over Victor Valdes?

He's just passionate like Klopp and Pep. That's all.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Daniel Levy stated at a fan forum yesterday that he is confident that the club and Alderweireld are going to reach an agreement.

 

[les Habs]

We already briefly discussed it in the matchday thread.

Yeah, very briefly, and the hypocrites who screamed "bloody murder" over Valdes didn't have anything to say.

He's just passionate like Klopp and Pep. That's all.

LOL, right.

 

[Hadoop]

The gap is 13 points now over a clearly less talented Man U squad so might as well call it now. Congrats to Man City on basically winning the league before Christmas (with the win today fivethirtyeight.com now gives them a 98% chance of the EPL title). They've been absolutely devastating this season and the results speak for themselves. Would be a fool not to pick them to go deep in the CL as well.

 

[njdevsfn95]

Do not fret, they'll fall back to earth at St James' Park.

 

[Evilo]

When Wenger starts Sanchez+Lacazette+Ozil, Arsenal's record is 5W, 2 ties, 1L (and that loss was that highway robbery by United).
If Wenger doesn't start all 3 together, their record is 5-2-4.

 

[Burner Account]

Not sure if anyone saw this, but hoo boy.

Bienvenue à Burnley, au coeur de l'équipe surprise du championnat anglais

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Racist journalist calling Burnley racist.

 

[YNWA14]

Not sure if anyone saw this, but hoo boy.

Bienvenue à Burnley, au coeur de l'équipe surprise du championnat anglais

Paywall for me, but is it trying to say that Burnley is a racist club because all their players are white?

 

[Burner Account]

Paywall for me, but is it trying to say that Burnley is a racist club because all their players are white?

From Reddit:

L'Equipe describes Burnley as a 100% white team with players with flattened noses and big ears, coached by a ginger english-man, in a city who voted 70% for Brexit and which has been the breeding ground of racial tensions.

 

[Wee Baby Seamus]

From what I'm gleaning/hoping (based on the first few paragraphs before the paywall), it seems to be more a sociopolitical reflection on how the composition of the team reflects contemporary Burnley as a community, as opposed to suggesting that Burnley FC is racist because all its players are white.

a team that resembles the town

 

[Evilo]

From what I'm gleaning/hoping (based on the first few paragraphs before the paywall), it seems to be more a sociopolitical reflection on how the composition of the team reflects contemporary Burnley as a community, as opposed to suggesting that Burnley FC is racist because all its players are white.

No kidding...
It's Vincent Duluc writing here. I don't always agree with him, but he's one of the best writer in the sporting world.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

It's a stupid article and unsurprisingly written by some wannabe French intellectual.

 

[Stray Wasp]

I haven't read this L'Equipe article in full because of the paywall. But I am curious to know more about it.

Does the journalist attach significance to Dyche having red hair? Gingers are a much-mocked bunch of people in England. If anything, traditionally red hair was a feature associated with 'otherness'- the Celtic fringe, particularly the Scots and Irish.

I'd observe that trying to read too much into the composition of Burnley's team is perilous, given that in order to reach the EPL in the first place they broke their club transfer record to sign a black striker (Andre Gray).

Mind, Gray isn't around any more. Maybe he was sold because Sean Dyche sleeps in swastika-patterned pyjamas. Maybe it was because Watford offered £18 million for Gray, whose contract had less than twelve months to run. Maybe it was because the club is awash with bleeding-heart liberals who abhorred Gray's homophobic past.

(Mentioning liberalism, one recalls that between 2010 and 2015, Burnley was represented in the House of Commons by a Liberal Democrat- that is to say, a member of a party caricatured by its opponents as being blindly pro-EU and relentless in its political right-on ness. What happened between May 2015 and June 2016 to sway the hearts and possibly even minds of the good folk of Burnley? Who can say? Perhaps exposure to the Premier League propels you to the political right.)

Years ago, when I still lived in the North East, I used to delight in inflicting the following spiel on anyone who didn't flee fast enough:

'The London media like to imagine the club that best represents their city is Arsenal- cosmopolitan, multiracial, aesthetically pleasing, and progressive. But London's true ambassadors should be Chelsea- functional, ruthless, heavily dependent on foreign labour, and propped up by foreign capital of dubious origin.'

Jealousy? What else? Imagine the shame we Newcastle fans feel, knowing our club is owned by someone who merely uses sweat-shop labour abroad, while using zero-hour contracts and flouting minimum wage laws at home. How I'll rejoice if the club is finally taken over by people with genuine human blood on their hands!

Unless I've missed something, it strikes me that the Premier League is pretty much the sporting PR wing for global gangster capitalist values, so to single out any individual club for criticism for failing to keep the humanist fires burning would rather miss the point.

 

[Evilo]

It's a stupid article and unsurprisingly written by some wannabe French intellectual.

I find it amazing that you constantly show your xenophobia towards anything french and yet you are a subscriber to L'Equipe's paying option.
That's quite hypocritical.

Or maybe you just didn't read the article, which would make you a dumbass to comment on something you haven't even read.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

If one knows where to look one can find the whole article online. I could post a translation here but I'm afraid it is against the rules to re-post material from behind paywalls.

The article is lazy and stupid. It would just be a bland recounting of the fact that Burnley are the surprise team of the year, a little bit of history on the club, some quotes from the team captain, some commentary on the manager (poorly researched at that, Chesterfield was in the FA Cup semifinal in 1997 not 1987 as the article says). The kind of blurb you might find on a random sports website. If it wasn't for the fact that it was 'enriched' with a bunch of stereotypes about the provincial English while written in as condescending a way as possible. The points about race and Brexit are pointless, they serve no wider role in the article other than to make it clear that we - the author and his readers - are supposed to look down on Burnley as a club and town.

30 odd years ago you may have seen articles written this way about African footballers, but it's difficult to imagine anyone today giving us their colorful impressions of the physique of Africans the way Duluc explores the supposed looks of Brits.

A serious and intelligent article perhaps would have explored the miracle that is Burnley being in the Premiership in the first place. A club from a small city that's been economically troubled for decades. No Red Bull, no sheikhs or Russian oligarchs in sight. What money there is comes from local businessmen. Burnley are perhaps unique among the rich man's toys and foreign investment holdings that can be found in the Premier League and investigating that is fine and could be the backbone of a solid article.

But almost everything that Duluc sneers at could also be seen as admirable and something to be emulated by other clubs. Duluc's negativity is solely based on prejudice and his own bias. While Duluc does not have to write positively about Burnley, we should be able to expect him to write fairly about them. He fails on that count in such a significant way that it's fair to conclude he's a bit of a knobhead.

 

[YNWA14]

EPL xG Table and Scorers for the 2017/2018 season | Understat.com

I know it's not the end all be all but it's certainly interesting that, based on how games have unfolded, Liverpool would be expected to be in 2nd.

 

[Live in the Now]

EPL xG Table and Scorers for the 2017/2018 season | Understat.com

I know it's not the end all be all but it's certainly interesting that, based on how games have unfolded, Liverpool would be expected to be in 2nd.

Still think Liverpool will finish there or 3rd. They have the second best finisher in the league and just made a big improvement in defense. Also been really effective against parked buses this season.

 

[Hadoop]

I have Liverpool finishing in the 2-4 range based on their offensive consistency this seasonn and VvD's pending arrival.