Futebol

Best 45 minutes of football I've seen LFC play? Quite possibly.

Could have been 8 or 9.

6-0 on the half hour would have been a fair reflection.

Nick wrote:Best 45 minutes of football I've seen LFC play? Quite possibly.

Istanbul? but the quality is difficult to separate from the context in that instance.

That was ridiculous. Koscielny did a good job controlling SAS at the Emirates earlier in the season, but 25 minutes of snoozing her just undid the whole team. The redundancy of Ozil/Wilshere/Cazorla in the side together and the limitations of Arteta really show against better sides.

Liverpool are kinda like the poor man's Atletico Madrid. They continue to impress every time I write them off.

it's my favorite thing every time Wenger goes out and calls his team "naive" for being so open after he sets them up with playmaking wingers and no true holding midfielder (still consider Arteta to be a converted holder). it's naive to think Arsenal won't be extremely open when you're relying on the defensive steel of Jack Wilshere.

i would have to think replacing Arteta with a true holding player next summer has to be a top priority. Flamini has been good on a free, but you need someone much better than him to challenge for anything. Matic is showing for Chelsea just what you can get out of an elite enforcer. he dominates physically, but also has a smooth range of passing and a wicked left foot. still think it was dumb we couldn't agree a fee for Kondogbia in the summer.

fantastic points dropped by Chelsea today

West Brom should've had 3 in the second half

Liverpool can move to within 4 points of Chelsea with a win against bottom side Fulham tomorrow. Which means Liverpool will probably lose 2-1 on an own goal or some weird shit.

whatever happens, it's probably Kolo Toure's fault

Nick wrote:Liverpool will probably lose 2-1 on an own goal or some weird shit

jasperness wrote:whatever happens, it's probably Kolo Toure's fault

 

Jesus fucking Christ

worst Arsenal performance i have seen all year

how you play with that little urgency at home in a must-win game (if you have any title ambition whatsoever) is dumbfounding

tactically, Wenger is still playing for fourth place

Bruegel wrote:

Nick wrote:Liverpool will probably lose 2-1 on an own goal or some weird shit

jasperness wrote:whatever happens, it's probably Kolo Toure's fault

 

this thread is gospel

Are Spain going to win the world cup again.

They are in the conversation. Brazil seem the obvious choice based on form, squad depth and home nation advantage.

I like Argentina next and Spain as the third favorite. It's been an exhausting run for this current group of Spanish players and I don't think they can pull it off.

Men in Blazers podcast this week had Barry Hearn. I highly recommend checking this one out.

I'd put Spain and Germany pretty even behind Argentina. Brazil faves.

Got a feeling about Chile going deep and causing a few upsets.

Those four do feel like they are considerably ahead of the chasing pack. Remarkably, if they win their groups they can't meet until the semi-finals. If they don't it does open it up for a Chile / Netherlands / Portugal / Belgium etc.

despite their status as favorites, which is deserved, i would almost guarantee Brazil won't win this cup

the team plays a pretty open style and has a ton of unseasoned players which suggests to me they'll get upset in the first knockout round

Bruegel wrote:Got a feeling about Chile going deep and causing a few upsets.

they seem more likely to pull an upset than Colombia in my book, even if Colombia had Falcao. Chile is a very tight team that plays an unorthodox style and has a few World Class players of their own.

Chile is probably better than Belgium and Bosnia and Herzegovina, in all honesty. maybe even better than Portugal.

Brazil won't win because the players will be shiting their pants by the q/finals.

Other than South Korea & the US going far in the '02 knock out stage, have any recent World Cups produced many surprises?

The competition is usually straight forward and will probably be the same in Brazil.

There's normally one surprise semi-finalist. This year that requires one of the big teams to go early or finish 2nd in their group.

How about that Euro 2016 draw! Exciting! 23 teams qualify from 53 but 10 of the teams are absolutely useless so really it's 23 from 43. Worth playing nearly 300 games for!

The win today is the first time I've truly felt like Liverpool can win the league. All set up for them now. They look outstanding.

speaks volumes about the relative momentum of Liverpool and Arsenal right now that, after yesterday's results, most Arsenal fans are thinking "phew, we are in the CL next year" and most Liverpool fans are thinking "shit, we can win this" (despite them being level on points)

pretty amazing that Spurs can lose at home to an Arsenal without Walcott, Ramsey, Wilshere and Ozil.

Arsenal are lucky that creative midfield is their one area of depth - an injured centre back or forward right now and they will be limping all through the run-in.