English Premier League 2008-09

Post by **Zidane** » August 16, 2008, 9:49 am

Today sees the start of the new English Premiership season.It seems an age since May 11th since last seasons exciting finale between Manchester United and Chelsea.
Today is the day when many supporters have high hopes for their teams but for most these hopes are soon dashed.
The top 4 looks likely to remain the same but not necessarily in the same order.Chelsea have a new manager,Liverpool have spent heavily,Manchester United have bought no-one,have Ronaldo out till October and have three tricky away trips early on to Portsmouth,Liverpool and Chelsea.
It will be very interesting to see how Arsenal fare this season.They have lost Lehmann,Flamini and Hleb and have brought in three relatively unknown young players.Has Wenger still got the magic touch for producing unknown talent or might they suffer a bit of a hangover from last seasons disappointment after leading the Premiership for so long.
At the bottom WBA,Stoke and Hull face a real battle for survival.There best hope seems to be if Bolton and Fulham struggle like last season.
Believe it or not I think the side with the best chance of survival may be Hull who have invested quite heavily and have signed Premiership players like Boateng and Gardner.Only time will tell.
The first match kicks off at 6.45pm Thai time and is Arsenal v WBA.The other matches kick off at 9pm Thai time barring Sunderland v Liverpool which is at 11.45pm.
Manchester United and Chelsea start their campaigns tomorrow playing Newcastle and Portsmouth respectively.
Anyway,grat to have the most exciting League in the world back for the next 9 months......enjoy !

Zidane

Post by **BKKSTAN** » August 16, 2008, 10:18 am

Heard some rumors about UBC not having the same scheduling as last year!Hope it is not so!I am looking forward to the season,although I hate having Rooney and Ronaldo out initially!

Chelsea seems to be the favorite this year with Scolari at the helm.The handicap given by ManUtd initially will probaly make for an exciting race!

Go Man Utd.

Post by **souness** » August 16, 2008, 10:30 am

this will be liverpools year no problem.
easy first game with sunderland will set us up.
chelsea our closest rivals this season.
rooney is fit for the mancs but yoll be a poor third this year.

sean

Post by **polehawk** » August 16, 2008, 2:44 pm

Rooney fit for tomorrow's game? Hope so. He's in my lineup. Then again, so is Ronaldo. ARRgh.

Post by **BobHelm** » August 16, 2008, 4:05 pm

Then sub him quick Polehawk - you still have time!!!!!!

Post by **beer monkey** » August 16, 2008, 4:17 pm

You are not alone I hab Rooney too.

Post by **Gozzo** » August 16, 2008, 8:38 pm

Rooney...... me no hab. Ronaldo........ me no hab.

But I hate to say it, Chelski should do well this year. They must have beaten all spending records and I don't think they have finished buying more players. They have 5 of the top ten paid players in their team!!

On a happier note, Everton have bought a grand total of ZERO players so far.

Pleeeeease can we get some midfielders soon. [-o< [-o< [-o<

Post by **Zidane** » August 17, 2008, 2:48 pm

Arsenal and Liverpool secured 1-0 victories on the opening day of the season.
Congratulations to Hull who won their first ever game in the Premiership beating Fulham 2-1.
Not such good news for Stoke losing 3-1 at Bolton.After 45 minutes they were down 3-0 and could be a long hard season for them.
West Ham beat Wigan 2-1 with two Dean Ashton goals coming in the first 15 minutes and two mini surprises.....Middlesborough 2 Spurs 1 and
Everton 2 Blackburn 3 (screwed up my Fantasy team alright

)
I bet 747man had some choice words back in the UK !

Three more games being played today....

Zidane

Post by **BKKSTAN** » August 17, 2008, 5:01 pm

Sunderland put up a pretty good game against Liverpool,but Torres with space is to much class!One shot on goal,one goal!

Arsenal way outclassed WBA who hung in there with some defensive ,but no offense!

Post by **BKKSTAN** » August 17, 2008, 10:01 pm

Wow,Chelsea looked absolutely brilliant against Portsmouth,4-0.Portsmouth didn't even get a corner until 62+ minutes and their passing was terrible,constantly giving the ball away in their own half!

Looks like Ralph is going to join 747man to share crying towels while Galee is feeling pretty chipper!

Man Utd. came is coming up now,We will see if I am a happy guy tonight or not!

Little disheartened after watching Chesea!It will be a tough haul to repeat this season!

Post by **Zidane** » August 18, 2008, 8:57 am

United pretty disappointing last night in their 1-1 draw with Newcastle.
They played quite well in the first half but in the second they were very disjointed.
Giggs and Rooney,in particular had poor games.Evra was probably the best player overall and Fletcher did well in the first half.
Full credit to Newcastle who thoroughly deserved their point.

Manchester City conceded three second half goals in 9 minutes to lose to Aston Villa 4-2.
I didnt see the Chelsea game but,apparently,their ageing team played some "attractive" football to win 4-0 and spoil Ralphs weekend

So after week 1 Chelsea top of the Premiership and Galee top of the Fantasy League......well,he deserves some success after last seasons trauma

Zidane

Post by **BKKSTAN** » August 18, 2008, 11:30 am

Man Utd. did look disjointed last night,to many regulars missing I suppose!Kudos to Newcastle ,they are definitely a much improved side and played very aggressively!They were definitely the better side in the second half!

I am very very happy for Man City

Post by **stattointhailand** » August 19, 2008, 11:32 am

All I keep hearing from Man Utd fans here and back home in the UK is :- well done Newcastle, you played quite well and deserved your point, but, if Man Utd had Tevez/Ronaldo/Saha playing they would have scored far more goals and won.
Well for info of all Man Utd fans, Newcastle have currently got 4 out of their 5 first team squad forwards out injured (only Martins is fit... ish), and one first choice centre back, together with the first choice full back are also injured.
Just get on with the game, as we had to last year when everyone was beating us and we had 17 players injured at the same time. Teams like Man U & Chelsea have so much money and so many players they can (should be able to) cover for a few injuries.
Suprised that I havn't seen something from our Liverpool fans on here, after all how many times did you get told by the Mancs that Liverpool were rubbish when Gerrard didn't play last season ........ feel free to return the compliment guys

Post by **Zidane** » August 19, 2008, 1:36 pm

statto,
I think you are letting one half decent result plus joint second in the Fantasy League go to your head a little bit !

Still,a big club like Newcastle United,nearly 40 years without a trophy its maybe understandable

Zidane

Post by **stattointhailand** » August 19, 2008, 2:11 pm

We won the Inter Toto the year b4 last

And i'm sure we won the Newcastle Senior Cup at least twice in the last 40 years

Post by **BobHelm** » August 19, 2008, 6:36 pm

Well after 1 match it certainly looks like Galee will have bragging rights at the end of the season (& I don't mean for the Fantasy League either

).
No doubt Chelsea have made the best signings of the closed season & seem to want to step over that 1-0 scoreline this time around - worrying for everyone else I think...

Post by **souness** » August 19, 2008, 7:01 pm

stattointhailand wrote:
Suprised that I havn't seen something from our Liverpool fans on here, after all how many times did you get told by the Mancs that Liverpool were rubbish when Gerrard didn't play last season ........ feel free to return the compliment guys

with our without stevie g we'll beat the mancs in a few weeks time statto.
but calm down you only drew.to much excitment not good at your age

sean

Post by **souness** » August 24, 2008, 1:43 pm

stevie g 90 mins pool win 2-1.two points clear at the top already.
are u watching mancs,chelsea,arsenal who lost to fulham 1-0.
titles coming to anfield for sure.irish allan hitting the chang beer already.ha,ha!

sean

Post by **stattointhailand** » August 24, 2008, 2:10 pm

Zidane wrote:statto,
I think you are letting one half decent result plus joint second in the Fantasy League go to your head a little bit !
Still,a big club like Newcastle United,nearly 40 years without a trophy its maybe understandable

Zidane

TWO half decent results. The Toon don't get too much to be happy about, so we have to make the most of it ..... "from little acorns".

If anyone would have offered me 4 pts from our first THREE games, I would have jumped at it, so anything at the Emerates next week is a bonus.

Why o why do I put Newcastle players in my Fantasy teams ...... I know as soon as one gets nearly fit, another two will get injured

Post by **Zidane** » August 26, 2008, 12:23 pm

Good win for United last night at Portsmouth with Darren Fletcher getting his second goal of the season.

Chelsea and Liverpool at the top after winning their first two games.
At the bottom,WBA,Spurs (a team looking a bit in dissaray) and Portsmouth who have had a very tough start to the season playing both Chelsea and United.
For me,the shock result of the weekend was Stoke beating Aston Villa so congrats to them......good draw for Hull City at Blackburn also.

Zidane