The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Wednesday 18th May)

Whilst it is easy to complain about the likes of Burnley and Everton still having to play games that were postponed back in Dec/Jan, and I somewhat do agree with the sentiment, and whilst this doesn't exactly meet the requirements that your question asks Jammy, Burnley played 5 games in 18 days during February, so the same amount of games as ourselves, for one day more, or you could say they played 6 games in 21 days.

So we played a game every 3.4 days in Feb, Burnley played a game every 3.5 games, so they weren't exactly given any special preferential treatment over ourselves during that period. In those 5 games we earned 1 point. In the 6 games Burnley played, they earned 9 points, 4 of those points against 3 teams that we played in the same period and lost to

Saturday 26th February
Crystal Palace 1 Burnley 1
Wednesday 23rd February
Burnley 1Tottenham Hotspur 0
Saturday 19th February
Brighton & Hove Albion 0Burnley 3
Sunday 13th February
Burnley 0 Liverpool 1
Tuesday 8th February
Burnley 1 Manchester United 1
Saturday 5th February
Burnley 0 Watford 0

Everton played the same number of games as ourselves in 21 days, although one of those games was in the FA Cup

5 Feb Brentford W 4 - 1 (FA Cup)
8 Feb Newcastle L 1-3
12 Feb Us W 3-0
19 Feb Southampton L 2-0
26 Feb Man City L 0-1

So whilst we can still moan about them having to play a game more than ourselves at present, it's not exactly as if they received any special dispensation when we had to play a large number of games in a small period, they both did too.

Crystal Palace also had to play 5 games in 17 days in February, or again like Burnley 6 in 21 days, given they played in the FA Cup on 5 February

9 Feb Norwich (A) 1-1
12 Feb Brentford (A) 0-0
19 Feb Chelsea (H) 0-1
23 Feb Watford (A) 1-4
26 Feb Burnley (H) 1-1

After finding the above 3 teams from the bottom 8 of the league table playing just as difficult number of games in the same or almost the same number of days as ourselves during February, I stopped looking for any further evidence to see if there is any bias against ourselves, because I couldn't find any.

I will accept that both Everton and Burnley could have played their game in hand at some date before now, I can't be bothered to check to see the availability, but we were no more disadvantaged as our opponents during the month of February.



Edit - Just for accuracy, Brentford played 5 games in 14 days during January, although one of those was in the FA Cup

 

I'll quite happily accept that what you say is correct there Jammy, I am all statted out after checking who played what in February , and I will totally agree with you that you would have expected a date to have been available to play those games prior to now.

 

All true Aski but why hasn't Villa v Burnley been played when it was postponed before xmas ?

As just posted Burnley have had 4 possible mid weeks since the beginning of April and Villa have been available to play on 5 mid weeks from April 2nd onwards.

 

Think I've answered that in my second post Jammy, I agree with what you say, I can't provide an answer, nor can I be bothered to look into greater detail to see I can find an answer. (Edited, because of who I am, I of course then went and had a look to see if I could provide an answer )

Although Burnley did play 7 games during April, so not much scope to arrange a further game that month, 14 and 27 April probably the only two dates available that month for another game.

March I will agree with, both Villa and Burnley only played weekend games so would have been easy to slot that one in as a midweek game. (this is incorrect, Villa played us in one midweek game)

Palace played 6 games in April, so they may have been reluctant to agree to another game during that month, given that the original game was cancelled due to Everton's involvement in the F A Cup. Given that this game was due to be played on 20th March, and an international break followed there would have been no opportunity to play that game in March, hence why its being played tomorrow.


Actually having looked at the March schedule, only the 1st or 16th March would have been possible dates, due to Villa played us midweek on the 10th and the international break commencing 21 March.

So for both March and April, I would say at best there were 4 possible dates that the Villa v Burnley game could have been played

 

Only 4.

Glad we cleared that up then

Seriously though there's a reason no games were originally scheduled between what should have been matchdays 37 & 38 and that's to protect the integrity of the competition. Now because of Liverpool and Chelsea being heavily involved in both the FA Cup & CL then you can understand why they had to make an exception for those two sides when the covid cancellations were also taken into account.

However whichever way you look at it there was no reason, other than end of season drama and therefore commercial gain, for Burnley & Everton to be playing this week and I'm not saying we're necessarily at a disadvantage as it may prove that playing 2 games in 3 days ends up being to the detriment of either Burnley or Everton.

What I'm saying is the League is not planned this way for good reason so as to make it fair for all.

 

I also agree with SW. Burnley win and we’re gone. I just don’t see us beating Brentford so we need them to lose their last two really. Bloody hell what a crap season

 

Well the four relates to both March and April, not the 5 you said Villa had in April. Talking just about April, there were two potential dates

I'll disagree slightly there Jammy . The date for the Villa v Burnley game was announced on 15 March, Everton - Palace was announced on 2 April. The relegation places could have quite easily been all resolved between then and now, so there would have been no drama. The fact that there is, is pure luck due to both Everton and Burnley getting results that no one would have expected, and us just being crap.

Everyone keeps telling us how inept the FA, Premier League and EFL are when arranging things, so why credit them with pulling of this masterstroke of fixture arrangement, they are not clever enough. I would find it more believable that someone threw darts at a calendar to sort out the dates for re arranged games

 

I second that

 

I'm sure we went 16 days between matches whilst other were playing recently

 

Bottom line is that if we’d got enough ****ing points to be safe, it wouldn’t matter how many ****ing games left they’d have to play.

 

I will get a for sale sign put up

 

I can make it

 

Biggest footy headline of the week so far?

Black Blackpool player comes out as gay. And every media outlet have got the horn over it and the BBC are having a ****fest on every page of gheir sports website. Usual suspects applauding it, Lineker, Smyth, Hay. Who actually gives a fk if the lad is gay…..

 

Anyone know who was the first football player to come out as heterosexual?

 

Was it Ivor Biggun

 

No his partner Ivor Sorbum