'Even allowing for inflation, this thread is not worth 198 Terry Francises' - EPL 2017-18

touch wood

Falling apart indeed, but even this breakaway from Watford leads to comedy capers in Pool's defense

i think the problems in the defence are so deep that one player won't fix them, even if they can sign vvd or whatever. there's a rot there for a long time now.

trent aa is v young but he does look p solid to me

he definitely has good delivery

yeah he played a beautiful cross earlier that was well cut out

I hate giving Murdoch clicks, but the BBC don't seem to be capable of providing a functional latest scores page, so fuck them.

can't believe it's going to be another season of butt-clenching scorelines like this in the last 15 mins. some lost, some held.

could be a blessing in disguise, as they might try and get vvd after all now

just need to southampton grant vvd his dream while preventing coutinho from making the worst decision of his life.

Oh dear.

amazing

mignolet own goal it seems.

ffs. surely offside tho

don't think og, he heads it in.

you're right.

Richarlison looks the part btw

Before the injury Watford were looking good for the winner.

think he was level with the ball? Inches in it anyway

Can I say my "sports entertainment" thread title suggestion was entirely otm? This league is pure WWE

It is quite reassuring that two of the big clubs can't defend for shit.

i thought he was way behind the ball, a few feet, he's nearly on the line and the other guy like... isn't. haven't seen it again tho, and in any case the defence shouldn't be allowing somebody to control a shit corner and shoot.

seen it a few times now. It's a square ball

fair enough, think i just saw one angle immediately after. i turned it off at the final whistle, understandably enough. don't need to see analysis of that. i'm not altogether raging - there were some positives - the defence was that bad last season and they still finished top four. and at least they battled back from being behind. but yeah - champions league and even any two-legged tie like hoffenheim is a major problem with such a shit defence.

also - prob could argue attack squandered too many chances to put it to bed

actually...I guess his foot is offside. Tough one to call though

https://i.imgur.com/gpCy71T.jpg

I thought he was offside but Watford deserved that draw overall. There could be some embarrassing European nights with that defence (if we get past Hoffenheim of course)

surely it's time to bury the hatchet with sahko. not saying he's the messiah but at least he's got a spine.

"Martin Keown

Former Arsenal defender on Football Focus
Posted at 15:46

I'm really concerned about Chelsea. Looking at this team, with Alvaro Morata unable to compete and Pedro not available, where are the goals going to come from?

I think they might not even make the top four."

We could've done with some pundit transfers too smdh

Cahill red.

Fucking Elias Kachunga!!!

Burnley 0-1 :)

And Mounier with a 2nd!

Terriers!!!

Bummed I can't find a stream of that

piece of piss this league!

http://www.genti.stream/hd3.php

haha cheers mate

Palace pure panic! De Boer staggering under the weight of new formed forehead wrinkles

'rooney getting stuck in'

Both teams have started with the in-vogue three-man central defence system Everton have Dominic Calvert-Lewin in the right wing-back position. He's normally an attacking player and has already been caught out a few times by Stoke's Erik Pieters overlapping on the visitors' left wing. Wayne Rooney was given a huge cheer when his name was read out over the loudspeakers at the start. The biggest cheer of all Everton's five new signings. Rooney is rolling his sleeves up and getting stuck in as well, his most meaningful contribution so far was a defensive diving header to clear away a Stoke corner.

when words have the rhythm of a joke but are sad, not funny.

ha! ha! Zaha fails to win a penalty from being a persistent diving twat!

Palace are an absolute shambles. If this is De Boer's 'possession football' he'll be out by september.

Huddersfield bright and keen.

Burnley 2-0

(bit of Zanka's well-known non-defending there, whew)

Three!

You knew it was over when Conte went out in a tracksuit.

Burnley cruelly displace Huddersfield from top spot

:D

And Rooney scores. A day of miracles all round.

is this that famous "street football" that Pardew was trying to invoke when he was at Palace? As in disorganised and just turning up to while away 90 mins!

This is the best opening weekend ever.

Otm.

Commentator "Huddersfield may tire towards the last third of the game"

these cunts have done zero research on Wagner's training regime.

If anything Palace will tire towards the last third of the game because they've no clue and are shit.

This is mostly due to Wagner's game plan imo, pressing up really high, making Palace v nervous.

Wasn't he 'AWOL' because he became a dad? Harsh imo.

awpl

horrifying rumours about us signing Smalling this morning, local journo says no but this is the kind of thing that gives you sleepless nights pre-season

yeah lots of rumours about smalling to wolves, not really that bothered about seeing the back of him tbh. also rojo to everton, which i'd genuinely be sad about

everton look terrible. enjoyed watching jagielka bounce off blackburn's prize beefboy dack in their friendly but that defence looks disgraceful

Portugal in 7th?

yeah lots of rumours about smalling to wolves, not really that bothered about seeing the back of him tbh. also rojo to everton, which i'd genuinely be sad about

This is backwards. In terms of our current line-up of defenders, Smalling is the only one who's consistently fit and relatively reliable. He's horrific on the ball but he's actually a decent defender

Rojo's had less than half a dozen good performances for Utd

re: Martial

He's apparently being fined for not reporting back to training in Carrington rather than rejoining the tour

everton look terrible

We also got murdered by Rennes. We may yet finish pre-season with -ve goal diff.

we don't need a defender who's horrific on the ball as long as Danny Batth is still with us

sorry, os lobos in 7th

ok the decline starts here https://www.expressandstar.com/news/local-hubs/wolverhampton/2018/08/01/wolves-sued-by-man-who-says-he-designed-wolf-logo-in-the-60s/

btw it's August 1 somebody start a new thread ffs

Liverpool have 2nd sewn up 2018/19