Premier League Thread

Red card: Jason Puncheon.

 

Arsenal 2-1 Crystal Palace Ramsey

 

Piss. Arsenal score 2-1

 

unlucky there. he only just caught him.

 

Ramsey got the touch.

 

12 year old, Arsenal supporting George just phoned BBC606. 5 minutes of logic and well thought comment.

I've heard him speak on 606 before and he's a delight. They all love him on the show.

 

The problem is that we don't know whether we want the top teams to lose or the bottom teams...which depends on the season we have.

 

My default stance is that I want the smaller teams to beat the bigger teams. I am absolutely 100% sure of that unless there are exceptional circumstances. There is no confusion here.

Of course, I want Saints to win every game.

 

It's the first day. It doesn't matter.

 

It always matters. I really don't get the early-results-don't-matter attitude. If you don't win the title by 1 point, or don't get into Europe by 1 point or get relegated by 1 point, having lost or drawn on the first day, does it still not matter..?

Of course it matters. Every result is of equal importance.

Tell you what, explain to me why it doesn't matter.

 

It's a World Cup year. you've got players coming back to their squads at weird times, window still open, and new teams not quite on the same page. Getting all wound up about the first weekend results is a waste of time.

 

OK, I can see the point you are making, but to my mind it is an incorrect attitude. It doesn't matter about the circumstances. The first result of the season yields the same maximum amount of points that the last result does. Therefore it matters just as much.

Anyone who doubts that need only look at the attitude of winners like Jose Mourinho. He got all his essential transfer business finished early. From a personnel perspective, he was ready for the new season weeks ago. He knows that good results early in the season takes the pressure off a team later on in the season, and that to win a league one needs to get as close as possible to yielding the maximum points from every game. Which starts at the first game.

When you hear managers of top teams talk after a bad early result saying it's early in the season and we'll get better, it may be accurate, but it's their own weakness in being under prepared that they are admitting to. It's a platitude covering their own attitude, if you like. They're saying what they think people want to hear. Personally, I never want to hear crap like that because it's empty talk. Funnily enough, I've heard Mourinho say these things. He doesn't mean it though. It's just part of the fog he likes to create because he likes his mind games. He desperately wants to win every single game.

 

The 1st game matters......we've got City on the last!

 

By then it won't matter.

 

Oh come now, be positive.

 

Just me who sees Pulis as the WBA boss before the season is out?

 

I cannot for the life of me imagine why anyone thinks Gareth Barry should have been sent off.

 

Some pretty crap decisions out there today.

 

I'm glad Walker was punished, the un-natural position handball really annoys me, it doesn't matter how blinking close you are if your hands are in the air like a 13year old girl at a Take That concert!

 

That QPR penalty was ridiculous.