[Albion] Premier League 12-14/1

[Weststander]

This has been the usual Palace borefest, why did I bother?

I watched a police doc on Paramount, far more exciting, only tuning in to the soporific match in the ads.

Arsenal are so bang average. Sitting 11th, despite having spent £500m on players in the last 4 years.

 

[LamieRobertson]

Christ that was dull

Ye..I gave up at half time and cleaned the oven instead..slightly less dull

 

[BrightonCottager]

The Khan's made sure that the mistakes of the summer 2018 transfer window weren't repeated. But belatedly. Fulham were awful in Sept/Oct, then your club went on a mega spend/loaning spree belatedly in that last window, your first team is unrecognisable. Recruiting top flight experience, pace and power up front, the hopeless defenders, stalwarts of the last few seasons were ditched en masse.

It worked.

True - remarkable that it worked this time we went up and not the last. Its difficult going up through the playoffs (late) and finding players and getting them to gel. Parker has managed it where Jokanavic and Ranieri didn't. Like Brighton though we need a quality striker to turn draws into wins. Will be an interesting remainder of the season.

 

[Weststander]

True - remarkable that it worked this time we went up and not the last. Its difficult going up through the playoffs (late) and finding players and getting them to gel. Parker has managed it where Jokanavic and Ranieri didn't. Like Brighton though we need a quality striker to turn draws into wins. Will be an interesting remainder of the season.

The £100m spent in summer 2018, the same as Villa’s £146m in 2019, seemed to be naive shopping list of beating other clubs to exalted names circulating. Why did £27m Seri not work out?

 

[Mr Putdown]

Christ that was dull

Odd, i quite enjoyed it.

Obviously from a different perspective, but our approach to their playing out from the back in the first half was quite funny.

IIRC that’s four draws and one win in our last five games v Arsenal, maybe “dull” but possibly effective?

 

[Easy 10]

Benteke

I have not the words on just how terrible a "footballer" this man is. He is absolutely stealing a living. I realise this is not breaking news, but he just doesn't....even...LOOK like a professional. I saw binmen and insurance salesmen at the weekend who looked more effective for their teams than that hapless lump.

And my life, Palace are f*cking woeful. Hump, hump, hump. Yeah they're streetwise enough to skive and snide their way to safety, but holy shit are they an appalling team to witness. Bloody AWFUL.

 

[Icy Gull]

Benteke

I have not the words on just how terrible a "footballer" this man is. He is absolutely stealing a living. I realise this is not breaking news, but he just doesn't....even...LOOK like a professional. I saw binmen and insurance salesmen at the weekend who looked more effective for their teams than that hapless lump.

And my life, Palace are f*cking woeful. Hump, hump, hump. Yeah they're streetwise enough to skive and snide their way to safety, but holy shit are they an appalling team to witness. Bloody AWFUL.

But effective and there are plenty of Albion fans who’d swap our style of football for theirs if it meant safety I think. Some of us are all about results and some are about entertainment. The happy middle would be ideal but when did Albion last do mid table mediocrity?

 

[Uh_huh_him]

There's a lot of hope being put in to the "results will come" theory. However, they haven't come for the best part of a year. Also there's the adage that if you keep doing what you're doing, you keep getting what you're getting.

We took 12 pts from 9 games after the restart.
Played well and pragmatically.

We are currently 1 pt behind the staying tracker having completed the toughest period which has seen our confidence levels hit tock bottom (team and fans) as predicted by [MENTION=3734]Giraffe[/MENTION] at the beginning of the season.
Even the most anti-Potter poster on here has to accept that we are probably 3 pts worse off than our performances deserve.
There will be at least 1 game this season where we pick up undeserved pts, but that is yet to happen for us. I'll settle for a couple of months of just picking up deserved pts.

Now although I often quote the tracker as a reason to be calm about the situation, It is relatively easy to stay on track when the expected pts haul is low.
From now to the end of February is key.
If we fall further behind the tracker, we are going to struggle.

However it is worth comparing our performance vs our competitors.
The latest all teams tracker has the current bottom 3 > -8 on the tracker.
Not to mention Wolves/Newcastle/Palace/Burnley no more than 3 pts ahead of us on the tracker.

As ever in the Premier League, it is more about which games you have played, rather than the number of games left.

 

[Dougie]

Benteke

I have not the words on just how terrible a "footballer" this man is. He is absolutely stealing a living. I realise this is not breaking news, but he just doesn't....even...LOOK like a professional. I saw binmen and insurance salesmen at the weekend who looked more effective for their teams than that hapless lump.

And my life, Palace are f*cking woeful. Hump, hump, hump. Yeah they're streetwise enough to skive and snide their way to safety, but holy shit are they an appalling team to witness. Bloody AWFUL.

It’s enough to turn you to drink, but if we carry on with the boring football and get near 40 points I’ll be ecstatic.

 

[Dougie]

Odd, i quite enjoyed it.

Obviously from a different perspective, but our approach to their playing out from the back in the first half was quite funny.

IIRC that’s four draws and one win in our last five games v Arsenal, maybe “dull” but possibly effective?

I quite enjoyed it as well. We went back to what we’re good at. Solid and well organised at the back , tenacious and energetic in midfield and useless up front.

 

[BrightonCottager]

The £100m spent in summer 2018, the same as Villa’s £146m in 2019, seemed to be naive shopping list of beating other clubs to exalted names circulating. Why did £27m Seri not work out?

Seri was too slow and fragile for the Prem and too similar to Tom Cairney. Anguissa only showed hints of what a great player he's become towards the end of that season when we were already relegated. His season loan in Spain did him good and he's now one of our best players. Seri now being linked with Benfica so hopefully we'll get some money back for him as long as the corruption scandal in Portuguese football doesn't derail everything.

 

[Weststander]

I quite enjoyed it as well. We went back to what we’re good at. Solid and well organised at the back , tenacious and energetic in midfield and useless up front.

I thought you were the better team at the Emirates, more likley to score.

Whilst the commentary team seemed gushing about their beloved Arsenal, until the last 15 minutes when it was apparent to all that they weren't going to win.

 

[loz]

I thought you were the better team at the Emirates, more likley to score.

Whilst the commentary team seemed gushing about their beloved Arsenal, until the last 15 minutes when it was apparent to all that they weren't going to win.

I thought so to...I know we all get a bit precious about our own teams but Alan Smith talked about how good Arsenal where all the way through, I thought I was watching another game.

 

[Weststander]

I thought so to...I know we all get a bit precious about our own teams but Alan Smith talked about how good Arsenal where all the way through, I thought I was watching another game.

He's so biased to his beloved adopted club. I prefer Keown's cutting critique of their many inadequacies.