Key dates; Fixtures announced 16th June 2022 (9am) Season starts 6th August 2022 (matchday 1) Last matches before Qatar WC 12/13th November 2022 (matchday 16) Season recommences 26th December 2022 (matchday 17) (WC Final 18th Dec) Season ends 28th May 2023 (matchday 38)
Going to be a very different season next time around due to the Nov/Dec World Cup in Qatar. How will players not involved in the WC keep match fit during the 6 weeks break and then the other side of the coin is players like Phillips & Raphinha who are likely to be involved in the latter stages and then straight back into PL action ?
Our season is totally fkd because FIFA got a huge bung from Qatar. There is absolutely no other reason to host the World Cup on such a backward country that has never ever done anything to give anyone the impression that they were even interested in football. If they hold it in China or India you can accept that they're introducing the game to billions but no one will give a **** in the Middle East. So utterly, openly corrupt.
Then you also have to factor in the transfer windows. Would you want to buy in the summer and risk them at the WC or wait until after and risk paying far more?
It's always been my view that players won't really be pushing for a move before the WC. Obviously tranfers will happen, as money talks, but settling into a new club and perhaps even a new country as well will possibly be seen as too disruptive. Guess we're about to find out if that theory holds water.
Hopefully we get a chance at a winning start next season. Liverpool away and Scum away aren't exactly fixtures that we can get off to a flyer in. Man City away anyone?
The opening fixture is always rigged as Top 4 teams don't play each other and it's the same for the the last round of fixtures as well. Totally unfair of course but maybe now that we're in our 3rd season someone else will get the short straw. Southampton at home would be nice
I was going to say that I love an early game against the Wallies. But we ****ed that up oh well. Old Toilet away would be nice especially with all the hype and bollox regarding their new messiah manager/coach.
Fulham away would be good for the first game. Large capacity for away fans. We can wear our lucky kit which we wore at Brentford. Never lost in it, something like won four and drawn one. If we do lose we can have a good old lilac whine.
As I've said elsewhere on here, IMO it's totally wrong. Just gives the money-bags teams a helping hand.
some decent insights thanks for the input guys, looking forward to the season and more exciting football oh and fek the world cup
Can we opt out of playing the top six next season or play under 18's against them. Means our squad would have only 26 games to play in total. They'd surely be able to remain fit for most of that wouldn't they?
You can't help but wonder if it's worth risking your best players, especially in the away games. All clubs rest rotate and rest players in the cup competitions so why not in these practically unwinnable games. Depends on fixture scheduling as well of course as the last 2 seasons we've had runs of very difficult games against the top sides which makes competing with them even harder.
Surely our expectations for the new season have to be much lower this time around ? This time last summer most fans we're hoping for a Top 8 finish as a minimum, with European qualification as a possibility. As it turned out if we'd repeated our points total from 2020/21 that would have been enought to finish 6th but clearly that was never going to happen. After a sluggish start to the season and then so many injuries PL survival in itself turned out to be a massive achievement. Some fans even voiced concerns about decades of being mid table also rans...talk about learning to walk before you can run. What should we hope for in season 2022/23 and have we now learnt our lesson and will happy as long as we retain our PL status ?
**** that. If we don't qualify for Champions League next season then we should revolt against the way the club is run and demand change.
Not so sure about that, opening 2 weeks of last season Arsenal v chelsea, Man city v Arsenal, Liverpool v Chelsea.