Barclays Premier League 13/14 Thread Part 'x'

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

First topic message reminder :

Seriously desperate now, please score Norwich

[Mad for Chelsea]

thanks Sunderland

now all we have to do is win our last four games and we'll win the title, simples

desperately poor week for City, with the tiltle race out of their hands now.

Will also be interesting to see how both teams set up in the Liverpool-Chelsea game: Liverpool only need a draw, while Chelsea need a win (or be reliant on a minor miracle). Will Liverpool switch to a more defensive system? They shouldn't for me, as it's their current set-up which has been so successful.

[Mad for Chelsea]

it's unfortunate for Sunderland, as a win would have been a fantastic result for them, whereas the draw, disastrous as it may seem for City's title aspirations, doesn't really do it for them: they need wins more than ever.

Fantastic result for Palace (and a bit of a disaster for Everton, obviously). Arsenal now in pole for fourth. Pullis for manager of the year is certainly a decent shout, a few months in I remember saying I thought Palace would go down simply because they didn't have the quality in their squad, boy am I eating my words now

[mystiroakey]

Mad

Everyone is eating there words when it comes to palace including palace fans.

You are not alone.

Buzzing buzzing buzzing

[The Special Juan]

Moyes - CL QF, Community Shield

Pellegrini - CL L16, ??

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

As well as Pulis has done the fact that being rigid and organised can lift you to 11th in the league is a sad indictment on the standard of the league

[mystiroakey]

I think pulis has shown that the difference between a competent pl player and a bad one is just confidence.

[Guest]

If Brendan Rodgers wasnt now a cert for it you wpuld expect that Pulis would be manager of the year without a doubt

[mystiroakey]

As well as Pulis has done the fact that being rigid and organised can lift you to 11th in the league is a sad indictment on the standard of the league

Did you watch the game.

It wasn't just defend and long ball. There was a lot of retention and decent passing first 60mins

[The Special Juan]

If Pulis jumped ship to Norwich right now and managed to keep them up, would he be MOTY?

[mystiroakey]

We will loan him to Norwich for 4 games for 10 m

Its got to be worth it.

[Liam]

Oh my word gareth bale!!!

[mystiroakey]

I heard someone saying he didn't turn up in the big games. Lol.

[Fernando]

Moyes - CL QF, Community Shield

Pellegrini - CL L16, ??

Your going to celebrate beating a championship side    #IronicHuh   

[Champagne_Socialist]

Moyes - CL QF, Community Shield

Pellegrini - CL L16, ??

Your going to celebrate beating a championship side    #IronicHuh   

hahaha

[The Special Juan]

Moyes - CL QF, Community Shield

Pellegrini - CL L16, ??

Your going to celebrate beating a championship side    #IronicHuh   

One that Man City failed to beat and Arsenal needed penalties to overcome.

[Fernando]

Moyes - CL QF, Community Shield

Pellegrini - CL L16, ??

Your going to celebrate beating a championship side    #IronicHuh   

One that Man City failed to beat and Arsenal needed penalties to overcome.

Atleast that's for a competition with more then 2 sides in. It's like winning the Emirates Cup   

[NickisBHAFC]

Pelegrini what an idiot. Thrown away the league, has the best squad and biggest budget to work with. All he has to show for it is the capital one cup and they only had to beat Sunderland in the final. Can't say i've been impressed with him this year.

FA Cup was handed to Arsenal and now Palace have handed them 4th spot.

Tony Pulis football genius, bloke has to win manager of the year.

[Champagne_Socialist]

Pelegrini what an idiot. Thrown away the league, has the best squad and biggest budget to work with. All he has to show for it is the capital one cup and they only had to beat Sunderland in the final. Can't say i've been impressed with him this year.

FA Cup was handed to Arsenal and now Palace have handed them 4th spot.

Tony Pulis football genius, bloke has to win manager of the year.

fa cup handed to us? we have had to beat tottenham, liverpool and everton to get to the final.

[Champagne_Socialist]

pulis, rodgers and martinez are in the running for manager of the year.

[NickisBHAFC]

All at home. Howard Webb gave you the match against Liverpool.

[Guest]

They havent even won it yet Nick

Obviously dont remember the league cup that was 'handed' to them

Hull will be fired up for that and could very easily upset the odds on the day

[Champagne_Socialist]

All at home. Howard Webb gave you the match against Liverpool.

dont be jealous

[mystiroakey]

Liverpool will go all the way.

Palace season is over. It must be impossible to go down. I hope we finish top 12. That would be a top result.

But gonna jump on the Liverpool bandwagon now. No more stress from palace.

I just hope no one tries to prize some of our players as we don't have a huge pay structure.

Punch, Jerome, Jed, speroni, ward , Led, bolaise and pulls may well be on other richer teams radars....

However I think the main reason we have done so well is the players are happy. Why would they want to leave this buzz and unity. The palace fans as well Need massive plaudits.. They have been our 12th man. Respect....

[NickisBHAFC]

All at home. Howard Webb gave you the match against Liverpool.

dont be jealous

Im a Brighton fan, only team im jealous of is Palace.

[mystiroakey]

Just get in to the pl nick. No more excuses . expect more.

Palace need to seriously think about ripping selhurst park to the ground and putting in a new stadium like you have done..

[NickisBHAFC]

Yeah that would be ideal, Selhurst isn't pleasant visiting. Couldn't sit down even if i wanted to as my seat was ripped out! 

Does generate a superb atmosphere though.

[CFCNick]

Four wins from being champions!!! COME ON THE CHELS!!!! #KTBFFH

[Dolphin Ziggler]

To be fair, the stark difference between Pulis and Holloway is damn damn clear. I predicted a Holloway side to get relegated, I feel in no way bad for Pulis coming in and proving that prediction wrong because Holloway would have got them relegated. He can't handle the defensive side of the game. Pulis drilled the fundamentals into the squad. They can play because there isn't a Holloway side that can't play, its quite a lovely mix of coaching thats happened there really. Group of lads that have had time spent building confidence in their own abilities and then the real manager came along and sorted out the stuff they had let go.

I'd still go Rodgers>Hughes>Pulis. I am not sure any other manager in the league has done that good a job, although Mourinho is too easily lambasted yet has side two games from the Champions League final and could still win the league. He pulls of a Mourinho mastermind performance at Anfield and then gets into the CL final then surely he's on top?

Its a season I can't wait to finish. Such a disappointment for us from start to finish. Consolidation is necessary but just so boring. Can't wait for some new faces to come in and I can't wait to sit back and watch England in Brazil, even if I have to watch one of those games in France.

[mystiroakey]

Mourihio, Martinez. Pullis, Hughes and rodgers have been far and away the best this year.
Just because Everton lost today hasn't taken away how good everton are and improved. Palace are just damm good at the moment . the win v Chelsea was what turned us from hard working kids into men. Martinez probally underestimated us being on a 7 win streak.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Martinez, thats the name I was grasping for!

[Liam]

Cannot believe I want Chelsea to win the league, only time if it means I don't have to watch Liverpool lifting it!

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Theres just a large list of managers who havent performed brilliantly. Pochettino has done fine but blew the cup for no reason, Pardew's league performance below average and his performances on the touchline ridiculous. Sherwood obviously done nothing remarkable and shown himself probably not quite ready.

I think other than Martinez, Pulis, Hughes, Mourinho, Rodgers the rest will be unhappy to some extent. Mourinho will be unhappy if they win nothing.

But the rest will all feel disappointed, except maybe Sam who is too sure of himself to ever feel he hasnt done well. Obviously, if one of Cardiff, Sunderland or Fulham stay up then that manager will be happy. I suppose Mel will feel hes done ok, as will Monk, but I doubt they'll be happy with themselves too much.

[Champagne_Socialist]

I have a feeling chelsea will win the league, mourinho knows how to get a win when he needs one.

[mystiroakey]

I feel a bit smug - maybe overly smug.

But since the chelsea game palace have played a very decent brand of football not to be confused with the stoke pulis team.

I did say after a decent start by Pulis that he wasn't one dimensional yet just a really clever astute manager that could grow with different players. And he has done that. Dolph made a good point that holloway taught the lads how to play and gave them confidence and then pullis drilled in the necessitaties. But tbh although he is right to an extent palace have allways tried to play football - that has allways been our philosophy before Holloway and Pulis hasn't just implanted a system - he has fully integrated him self into palace and palace have fully intergrated into him.

But as allways 'this is palace'- allways fear the worst- Pullis could now get on better teams radars.. Maybe we need to  play some hoof ball last 4 games just to keep the Newcastle's of this world at bay.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Mysti you have nothing to worry about, didn't Pulis sign a long term deal?

[mystiroakey]

yes but how much are we paying him?

we dont pay much- obviously the owners allways looked at us going down and are very prudent.

another team could potentially pay out his contract as he wont be on huge money. 

I hope the owners get a decent contract ready for him soon

[J.Benson II]

Top 5 managers of the season imo:

1) Rodgers
2) Pulis (will overtake Rodgers if Liverpool fail to win league)
3) Martinez
4) Mourinho (will overtake Martinez if Chelsea win league)
5) Bruce
6) Hughes

[mystiroakey]

Yes I think Bruce deserves a mention.. Fa cup final and security.. That is decent.

Big sam in at 7th for me. Had a shocking period when they had to play the youth team. But then got results when it mattered.

[Guest]

Pardew at 8th......  

(no owner backing, the whole joe kinnear thing, lost his best player, no funds, injury list massive & we're still in the top half of the league.

[mystiroakey]

Pardew secured staying up so early but form wise is shocking at the moment.

Not sure where that puts him in fairness. But probally top half.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Good to see Wickham scoring last night, he's got great potential he was always a player I liked at Ipswich (well probably the only one), moved far too early but has had some success on loan this year, hopefully he gets a run in the first xi at Sunderland

He's still only what 19/20? Could be a great player one day

[J.Benson II]

Would probably have Pochettino 7th. Got Soton playing some good football even if the results didnt always match the performances.
Also helped nuture some of the young English lads there into quality players.
Sam and Pardew would make the top 10.

[mystiroakey]

Yeah fair shout. Lol the more we think about it the better the managers are doing.

Southampton did seriously tail off though.

Since pulis came to palace we have picked up quite a few more points than southampton have . which is kind of hurting his overall season. But from a playing and development angle . he has been decent

[mystiroakey]

Since pulis's arrival I think palace are top 6 (at worst)in terms of points won from that point on.which is seriously crazy..

[Guest]

I think they are 8th actually, played 22 & won 10 isnt it? Basically only Chelsea have conceded less since he took over.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Since pulis's arrival I think palace are top 6 (at worst)in terms of points won from that point on.which is seriously crazy..

Since Pulis took over Palace have 33 pts from 20 games which is 8th in that time period, with 20 goals scored and 20 conceded

[mystiroakey]

Trying to work it out. Maybe you are right. When I get time. I will look deeper.

But yes defensively second best.

[mystiroakey]

Yes olly you are right I keep including the other games Holloway wasnt in charge of.
Looking at 37 pts not 33

[GSC]

Good to see Wickham scoring last night, he's got great potential he was always a player I liked at Ipswich (well probably the only one), moved far too early but has had some success on loan this year, hopefully he gets a run in the first xi at Sunderland

He's still only what 19/20? Could be a great player one day

Kinda hoping we'd be able to use Pearces u21 connections to land him but unlikely with Sunderlands impending relegation

[Dolphin Ziggler]

I dont think Pardew or Pochettino can be happy with how they've done.

Bruce another one I forgot. Seems to have kept them up with minimal fuss and got a cup final. Him and Pulis have second season syndrome now to worry about.

Mark Hughes should be getting more credit. He's actually made Stoke a decent side to watch and might outperform anything Pulis did in the league there. Thats pretty impressive work.

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