No More Harry - Premier League 2020/21

[MarkF]

What a strange attitude.

Being a Villa fan, there are probably many attitudes that you find strange.

Being kicked all over the park week in week out makes you a 'cheating cunt of a showpony'? Well I never.

Seriously? Does he get fouled? Yes. Does he play up to it? Oh christ, yes. Then on top of it, he's a snide bugger as well. When St. Jack felt that the mighty V were losing time, he pushes Solly March off the field so hard that anywhere on the pitch, he'd get at least a booking. Then, after Veltman got caught in the throat (which he did make a meal of, granted), Grealish goes up to drag him off the floor. Now, if a player did that to him after his interminable Swan Lake moments, we'd never hear the end of it. He is a great player when he focuses but he is indeed a cheating cunt of a showpony. IMHO. (Mind you, we have Maupay who is clearly learning from the best, but the difference is we openly identify him as a snide bugger.)

Maybe supporting Brighton doesn't give you much to celebrate?

Ooh burn.

As for today's game, I thought Villa were quite poor, Brighton had a plan and made the most of it. Lamprey was possibly unfortunate to be sent off, and VAR denied Villa a penalty- no surprise there- which might have given us a draw. Personally I think a draw would probably have been a fair result on balance.

We had no fish on the park, sorry. Villa got taken down a peg or three by a better Brighton side.

[Lobachevsky]

call me biased but i really enjoyed that Spurs performance.

[Lobachevsky]

Kane is playing in a very similar way and to similar standard as the 22 year old Wayne Rooney.

the only other comparable english forward is sheringham who wasn't as good.

[1974ddr]

To MarkF:

Bizarre opening comment. The attitude I referred to was your strange need to crow over the opposition's manager and captain, neither of whom I would consider to be particularly offensive, rather than praise your own team's performance. Like I said, Brighton came with a plan and it worked, fair play, even if they were helped by a dodgy VAR decision.

Thanks for picking up on autocorrect. I nearly fell over laughing at your 'fish' joke, once I realised. We had a Lamptey at the Villa years ago, yours looks a significantly better prospect. I suspect we'll be seeing more 'bitter tears' though when he joins a bigger club.

Of course Grealish takes advantage of being fouled, the way to avoid this is to stop fouling him. Glad to see you've spotted Maupay is in some ways a nasty piece of work. Who's he learning from? He was the same at Brentford. He's a good player, but like many others, the type who'll only ever be loved by his own team's supporters.

Still, it was a good result for you today- enjoy it

[Jah Womble]

call me biased but i really enjoyed that Spurs performance.

Good to see us where we should be - but those kind of performances are going to age me massively this season.

[EIM]

Good to see us where we should be - but those kind of performances are going to age me massively this season.

You can't get much older if you think top is where Spurs should be, surely?

[Jah Womble]

Well, even if I’m going a bit senile I still have the stats on my side.

[Lobachevsky]

assume you mean the year end one or the 60 year cycle one.

[Satchmo Distel]

Kane is playing in a very similar way and to similar standard as the 22 year old Wayne Rooney.

the only other comparable english forward is sheringham who wasn't as good.

I think Kane is in the same conversation as Lineker, Shearer and Rooney. Each on his day is an awesome player.

[Lobachevsky]

its his all round game. the goalscoring as well as the ability to find space in front of centre backs and make chances for others.

i remember seeing Rooney take us apart at WHL showing the playmaking ability of sheringham but with more pace and dynamism.

Kane's all round game is in that class. He' both a fabulous scorers and playmaker and whol
hearted contributor.

[Mr Beast]

This site used to be a safe haven from shit bantz but obviously everything moves on. When’s Jumbo coming back?

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

I reckon the current top seven or eight, plus the Manchester clubs when they find proper gear, are going to continue taking points off each other, and dropping the odd point besides, all year, to the extent that this year, 80 points or even as few as 75 or so might be enough to win the whole thing. I can't see anyone setting off on a 12-game winning run like Man City or Liverpool have been doing the last three seasons.

[Jah Womble]

assume you mean the year end one or the 60 year cycle one.

Well, the current table rather bears me out on its own, but, sure, we can add those if you want to.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Right, enlighten me OTF.

Prompted by yesterday's penalty controversies but a question that I've been meaning to ask for a long while, what is the law or rule as to what constitutes a fair or foul attempt to win the ball? It seems to involve the degree of contact with the ball, the degree of contact with the player and which comes first. Intent doesn't appear to be a factor.

I've seen a toenail on the ball followed by the sweeping away of the standing leg called a fair attempt to win the ball and a hooking away of the ball and then mild contact penalised.

Is there any clarity on the matter, either in the rules of the game or in the advice and guidance provided to referees?

[Tony C]

Curious statistic I have just come across. Manchester City have recorded 41 attempts on goal in their last two away games against Tottenham. Spurs have recorded 7. Yet Spurs have won both games by an aggregate score of 4-0.

I imagine Mourinho would love those stats.

[Lobachevsky]

in last 3 games between the two

city 71 shots 2 goals

spurs 9 shots 6 goals

[torres]

I think Spurs will win the title this season with Liverpool and Chelsea in close pursuit.
Liverpool will suffer from having too many injuries in the one position, we’ll probably need the forwards to score three a game to have any chance of taking the three points.

[Lobachevsky]

yes its a shame that for the first time in the history of the Premier League THE VAN DYKE DISASTER has struck.

its completely invalidated the competition.

id put Spurs chances at about 10%.

[hobbes]

yes its a shame that for the first time in the history of the Premier League THE VAN DYKE DISASTER has struck.

its completely invalidated the competition.

id put Spurs chances at about 10%.

And people say Liverpool fans are unbearable when they're winning...

[Sporting]

Right, enlighten me OTF.

Prompted by yesterday's penalty controversies but a question that I've been meaning to ask for a long while, what is the law or rule as to what constitutes a fair or foul attempt to win the ball? It seems to involve the degree of contact with the ball, the degree of contact with the player and which comes first. Intent doesn't appear to be a factor.

I've seen a toenail on the ball followed by the sweeping away of the standing leg called a fair attempt to win the ball and a hooking away of the ball and then mild contact penalised.

Is there any clarity on the matter, either in the rules of the game or in the advice and guidance provided to referees?

I have the same questions.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Liverpool will ... probably need the forwards to score three a game to have any chance of taking the three points.

Ooh goody, another season like Brendan's title chase in 2014.

[Lobachevsky]

well at least you dont have to.put up with us winning often.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Curious statistic I have just come across. Manchester City have recorded 41 attempts on goal in their last two away games against Tottenham. Spurs have recorded 7. Yet Spurs have won both games by an aggregate score of 4-0.

I imagine Mourinho would love those stats.

Not as much as Gary Neville or the Gammon Pundits. Apparently the earlier you grab the goal, and the more you pack your box, and the less you do to grab a second goal, the bigger the tactical genius you are. It really shows up those managers who have their ideas about attacking and thinking that they're better than us. He said something that was pretty amazing in the course of last night's game. There was a moment in the first half, where spurs went up the pitch for a corner, and man city were able to launch a counter attack which didn't quite result in a goal, but Gary opined "That's got to be the template for the second half" which struck me as really bizarre, as that sort of move is kind of hard to pull off when there are six opposition players in their own penalty area, which they only vacate briefly for corners.

You hear this kind of idea in a lot of games. I'd say as a man city fan you get to hear it quite a bit. You know, when things aren't going well for your team, and they have been labouring to claw back a goal, stringing together a load of passes, which result in a shot that doesn't go in. Then the opposition are able to create a chance by just booting it into your empty half and running really fast. You'll hear pundits opine how one team is able to make a better chance out of just two passes, while the other team spends all their time shilly shallying around getting nowhere. Fuck the intellectuals and the experts, with their Failed 'philosophy' and their tactics that are too clever by half. It's a victory for common sense, and for the manly virtues of defenders defending like real defenders, and scoring goals by running very fast.

It's so fucking grim.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Right, enlighten me OTF.

Prompted by yesterday's penalty controversies but a question that I've been meaning to ask for a long while, what is the law or rule as to what constitutes a fair or foul attempt to win the ball? It seems to involve the degree of contact with the ball, the degree of contact with the player and which comes first. Intent doesn't appear to be a factor.

I've seen a toenail on the ball followed by the sweeping away of the standing leg called a fair attempt to win the ball and a hooking away of the ball and then mild contact penalised.

Is there any clarity on the matter, either in the rules of the game or in the advice and guidance provided to referees?

It's the same as any other tackle. If you get a touch on the ball, before making contact with the opponent it's not a penalty, as long as it's not dangerous play, in which case the ball doesn't matter. So situations like yesterday where you got mild shin on shin contact after making contact with the ball are not penalties, but if you clear the ball and your followthrough boots the attacker like he was a second football, that's a penalty.

[Lobachevsky]

this is probably the all or nothing year for Jose at Spurs. i imagine that next year the exhaustion of the players with his method will kick in.