2022-23 PL season.

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Liverpool won the Community Shield 3-1 over Manchester City at the King Power Stadium.
TAA opened the scoring.
Julian Alvarez scored on his City debut.
Salah scored a penalty after Dias handball.
Darwin Nunez scored late on, also ok debut.

Seems like the media really have to hype up Liverpool for some reason…

Debut to forget for Erling Haaland, largely anonymous. And missed a sitter from 6 yards out late on. Hit the crossbar in fact.

Wild over the top celebrations over a pre season match…genuinely baffling scenes.

Liverpool dressed up to the nines to overwhelm Bournemouth. Seems Liverpool had a bitter vengeance after losing to United. Never good to see such a gap.

City came back from 0-2 to beat Palace 4-2, Haaland with 3. They couldn't beat Palace last season, so that's an improvement.

Chelsea edge out Leicester 2-1, pushing Rodgers closer to an exit that feels closer by the day. Lampard still can't get a first win of the season, drawing 1-1 to Brentford, and Everton have some tough fixtures coming up over their next four games.

Brighton beat Leeds and take 2nd. With the fixtures coming up for Brighton, they can keep it going for at least a small while.

Table beginning to take some proper shape.

Arsenal 2-1 Fulham - the Gunners came from behind to see off the Cottagers.

Seeing the highlights Palace were quite unfortunate. Could have been 3 up, but a subjective call didn't go their way, and Haaland should have seen red in the first half.

Arsenal hype machine is growing with some whispers of the title. It should be remembered they've only played teams that will probably finish in the bottom half so far and, as such, the fixture list will get trickier. Plus they'll be playing Thursday-Sunday soon due to the Europa.

Duty281 wrote:pushing Rodgers closer to an exit that feels closer by the day

Feel like I must have missed something because they seem to have gone from 'stable' to 'on the brink of collapse' without any obvious catalyst.

If Everton continue to hang around the relegation zone after they've played 10 games, there could be a hint of worry.

B&H are doing well, even if they are only 4 games in.

Memphis Depay could be heading back to Manchester United…he’s improved since he left there. But aside from being cheap seems a strange move.

Dutch media reporting Antony has been sold to Manchester United for a deal worth €100m. Extraordinary fee, the highest fee ever received for a player from the Dutch league.

Lowlandbrit wrote:

Duty281 wrote:pushing Rodgers closer to an exit that feels closer by the day

Feel like I must have missed something because they seem to have gone from 'stable' to 'on the brink of collapse' without any obvious catalyst.

Yeah, nothing obvious, I just think it's a combination of few quality signings over the past couple of years, still heavily reliant on a 35-year-old Vardy who's lost a lot of sharpness, and Rodgers appears to have gradually lost influence in the dressing room.

Big game for David Moyes today. West Ham have lost all three of their opening games. Villa today, then Tottenham, Chelsea and Newcastle to follow. If West Ham don't win today they could easily be winless in their first seven, and then Moyes will be under huge pressure, despite the brilliant work he's done in previous seasons.

Pretty poor from Villa again today.
Huffed and puffed, but no end product.
Looked better when Bailey, Ramsey and Buiendia came on. No surprise. They should be starting.

Gerrard is not the man. Clueless, doesn’t look like he cares.

Long old season ahead.  Mid table at best and that’s pushing it, unless something changes.

Good result for Moyes and West Ham. Did watch it, a deathly dull game with both sides lacking creativity. Fitting that the winning goal was a deflected effort.

Three losses out of four for Villa so far. Away to Arsenal next and home to City afterwards, means it'll probably be five losses out of six. Gerrard now 5/2 and second favourite to be the first manager sacked.

Villa are one of those aimless clubs that are just drifting, like Palace. Not good enough to push for Europe, but too good to worry about relegation. Gerrard should try and take the handbrake off, like Vieira is at Palace.

Reasonable performance, a side with the quality Spurs have will punish you if you don't take your chances when you're on top.

Jeff Navarro wrote:Dutch media reporting Antony has been sold to Manchester United for a deal worth €100m. Extraordinary fee, the highest fee ever received for a player from the Dutch league.

Deal done. Manchester United paying €95m + €5m in bonuses. Antony former club gets % of the fee as well.

Duty281 wrote:

Lowlandbrit wrote:

Duty281 wrote:pushing Rodgers closer to an exit that feels closer by the day

Feel like I must have missed something because they seem to have gone from 'stable' to 'on the brink of collapse' without any obvious catalyst.

Yeah, nothing obvious, I just think it's a combination of few quality signings over the past couple of years, still heavily reliant on a 35-year-old Vardy who's lost a lot of sharpness, and Rodgers appears to have gradually lost influence in the dressing room.

I do think Schmeichel going is a big loss. Leicester's reluctance or inability to recruit a worthy replacement doesn't bode well.

Lowlandbrit wrote:Feel like I must have missed something because [Leicester] seem to have gone from 'stable' to 'on the brink of collapse' without any obvious catalyst.

Just to add, I don't just mean how they look on the pitch; they've been making all the noises of a club in massive financial trouble.

Jeff Navarro wrote:Martin Dúbravka close to joining Manchester United on loan according to sky sports.

Done deal. Loan with an obligation to buy determined by a x amount of games played. Final fee would be £5m

Just looking at Leicester's signings, they've only made one this summer and that was a backup GK! Terrible, especially after a poor season last year.

United's signing of Antony is vastly overpriced. The third highest signing in their history apparently (Maguire was £85m including add-ons). It's just another example of United being clueless at transfers, you do think the penny would have dropped by now. United's decline may have been exacerbated by losing Ferguson, but it was losing David Gill that caused it (bit like Arsenal losing Dein).

Antony is a decent player, but nowhere near worth that much. You look at Newcastle managing to make a better signing in Isak for much less and it makes you shake your head.

Maybe they could've done something other than spend 2 months finding out De Jong wasn't interested

GSC wrote:Maybe they could've done something other than spend 2 months finding out De Jong wasn't interested

They should've got Konrad Laimer from RB Leipzig. Arguably better than FdJ anyway - I don't see the hype around FdJ

Scott Parker gone already

Big fan of Scott Parker kicking off about recruitment this summer when he signed a new XI in Jan including Nat Phillips and Todd Cantwell to save a promotion push.

Feel sympathy for Parker. He got Fulham promoted too early and they didn't have a chance in the PL, now the same thing has happened with Bournemouth. He's obviously been sacked for his post-game comments, but they were justified as Bournemouth are miles off other PL clubs. I still like Parker as a manager, though this is getting damaging for his reputation.

Odd list of choices on SkyBet's odds list for next manager - Dyche a 6/4 fav then Wilder 13/2, fair enough. After that, however, it's Woodgate at 8/1, Terry at 10/1, Thierry at 10/1 and Carrick at 12/1. Ole seems to have been forgotten about...

Not sure why anyone would want the job. The owner has as good as said there will be few signings made, so anyone who takes it will be stamping 'relegation' on their C.V. and they might not even make it to season's end.

Hope Dyche doesn't get it, he deserves something better.

Interesting to see what comes next honestly. His Fulham and Bournemouth stints were decent, if what he largely achieved what was expected (should be pointed out a lot of managers fail to do even that). Both ended in fights with ownership.

I suspect he hasn't really been misled over what Bournemouth could invest (particularly given he was very well backed in the championship), in which case he should've walked before the season started if he felt it was unreasonable, rather than his actions since which is where I lose a lot of sympathy tbh.

Longer term he could do with a job where he overachievers I think. Not sure another promotion with a parachute payments club does much for him

I don't know; I was impressed by him at Fulham, but this has gone so similarly it's hard to see it as a coincidence. Although he may have just taken a job too alike, too quickly.

Some bloke I've never heard of is being tossed around as a viable name - Kjetil Knutsen, who is now favourite ahead of Dyche with some bookmakers.

Knutsen, a Norwegian, has worked his way up through the Norwegian footballing pyramid. He began management at fifth tier Hovding in 1995, got through a few clubs, and then ended up at Bodo/Glimt, a top-tier side, where he led them to two consecutive first division titles in 2020 and 2021 (the first two in the club's history), and a run in the Europa Conference League where they got to the QFs, smashing Mourinho's Roma 6-1 en route. However it looks unlikely that they will make it three titles in a row with ten games left in the Norwegian season.

Knutsen favours high-pressing, attacking football with plenty of width, and he has no experience outside Norway. It would be quite a gamble for both the club and the manager if this move went ahead.

Sergino Dest could be the next former Ajax man to link up sign EtH in Manchester. If the hapless Wan-Bissaka leaves.

The way he went about trying to strongarm funds from the board didn't go down particularly well I think. Particularly throwing the squad under the bus.

There's also that Parkerball is a pretty tough watch, especially given he's had strong championship squads to deploy. Hold your nose if it gets the job done, but Fulham fans weren't sad to see him go and neither will Bournemouth fans I think

Southampton 2-1 Chelsea - The Saints come from 0-1 down to beat Chelsea. Southampton good value for the win. Chelsea poor defensively and no real striker = no dice.

The striker thing is overblown at Chelsea. It’s not close to the top of the list of needs, the gaping chasm in midfield is.

Tuchel is gone by next year. There’s already a clear disconnect between the philosophy of the new owners and him. The fact Boehly et al have fought so hard to not permanently sell players Tuchel has no interest in (Colwill, CHO, Chalobah and now Ampadu and Gilmour) speaks volumes I think.

Haaland on 8 PL goals already this season. The record in a PL season is 34, achieved by both Cole and Shearer in a time when there were more than 38 games. That record surely will be broken if Haaland stays fit. Unlike many PL strikers he'll also get a comfortable break over the World Cup period, as Norway failed to qualify.

No one has scored 40 or more in a season in the top-flight of English football since Jimmy Greaves in 1960/61.

Make that 9...

Best team in the world without a striker adds the best young striker in the world

Very late winner for Liverpool over Newcastle, turning around a 0-1 to win 2-1, after Isak made a dream start at his new club. Newcastle only one win in the opening five games, not the best start for Howe this season, but four of their next five games Newcastle will be favourites in.

Arsenal have made it 5 wins out of 5, but they'll have their first test against a likely top-half side on Sunday when they go to Old Trafford.

Leicester-United tomorrow. A loss and it could be the end for Rodgers.

Liverpool are closing in on Arthur Melo to help with their midfield woes.

Aubameyang to Chelsea - €14m + Alonso goes the other way.

Denis Zakaria joins Chelsea on loan

Chelsea's transfer approach this summer has been scattergun. They'll take a bit of everything. Surprised they signed Aubameyang as he's got a broken jaw following a horrific attack.

Leicester City 0-1 Manchester United - Jadon Sancho with the only goal, a nice team goal. United had Leicester covered pretty much all game. The starting XI for Manchester United looking good now. There’s still a question mark over #9 - EtH clearly doesn’t fancy CR7. Rashford I don’t see as a striker. If their owners are serious they would go get Osihmen.
Their main issue is if there’s injuries in the defence - Dalot, Varane, Martinez and Malacia looks a solid setup.
But the backup are mediocre.

Rodgers is surely going to get the sack. He's done a Scott Parker and criticised the (lack of) recruitment over the summer. Justifiable comments, but probably makes his position untenable.

Did see the game this evening. Leicester looked atrocious. Their technical play, defensive organisation and chance creation was barely Championship level.

United had a lovely first 30 minutes, the attack full of confidence, but they faded and ended up having to grind it out against poor opposition. I like Eriksen in the deeper role, Varane is miles ahead of Maguire, and the upturn in technical quality United had when Casemiro came on was noticeable. Lots of things to work on, but it's going in the right direction.

Eriksen is doing the job at Manchester United that I thought van de Beek would’ve done. Even under EtH, van de Beek looks like the odd man out.

Everton 0-0 Liverpool - decent game both sides had chances to win it. Everton hit the post. Liverpool hit the post 3 times. Liverpool just not at it.

Liverpool's intensity is way down, their midfield is non-existent and VVD looks half of the presence he used to be. Both keepers were inspired and made brilliant saves. Liverpool have a big battle on their hands to make top four - Wolves next week is a must win, because afterwards they've got Chelsea/Brighton/Arsenal/City/West Ham, which will be a difficult run of games.

Absolute p!sstake in the game between Forest-Bournemouth. VAR spends around five minutes looking at a penalty call, invites Oliver to look at it, then Oliver sticks with his decision (rarity!). It shouldn't take that long. Get VAR out of football.

About as good as it got sadly

Get VAR out of football. Newcastle and West Ham being denied perfectly good goals today.

Only saw second half of villa game. Much better performance.
Would have taken a point before the game. Shame the officiating was poor again to disallow Coutinho’s cracking strike.

Need to press on now. Much improved.
Gerrard getting it right today.

Delightful hat-trick by Toney in Brentford's win over Leeds. He's one cool and clever customer. Didn't realise he was English qualified until I heard Lineker on MotD.

Duty281 wrote:VAR spends around five minutes looking at a penalty call, invites Oliver to look at it, then Oliver sticks with his decision (rarity!).

It will be interesting to see the (official) response to this (and some other decisions), to see how they think the system is supposed to work.

guildfordbat wrote:Delightful hat-trick by Toney in Brentford's win over Leeds. He's one cool and clever customer. Didn't realise he was English qualified until I heard Lineker on MotD.

Yes, and he rejected a Jamaican call-up because he wants to play for England. With Calvert-Lewin falling off, partially due to injury, Toney has a strong chance of making the World Cup squad as Kane's backup.

The goal of the season was denied by dreadful officiating that denied the Premier League and Aston Villa of a wonder goal by Coutinho and a result that would have sent shock waves around the social media world. The lift it would have given to Aston Villa and their fans would have been immense while for Man City it would have been a small blip along the road to another season of domination and Haaland breaking every scoring record in sight.

Great game of free-flowing football between Brighton and Leicester, Brighton winning 5-2 with some glorious goals on the way, none more so than Mac Allister's majestic free-kick.

Leicester in serious trouble with their lack of investments. Ward, the keeper, is Championship level, and persisting with Ndidi at CB (not remotely a defender) while Soyuncu rots on the bench hints at disagreement between him and Rodgers. It must be the end for Rodgers now - a defence better only than Bournemouth and no wins from six.

Brighton continue to excel and look good under Potter's stupendous stewardship. Lack of squad depth will probably trip them up at some point, but for now they're realistically in the race for Europa League football.