Count Chelsea out of making a run for the top spot. Top 4. MAYBE. They have too many issues of their own to sort through. I still think Jose doesn't last the season before he gets launched. Ancelotti return????

Rumour has it if Villa cant take points from their next two matches (Chelsea and Swansea). Tim Sherwood is going to get the sack and Brendan Rogers takes his place.

yeah shit didn't ancelotti already go through the chelsea merry go round? avram grant took over mourinho's first team in like nov/dec and went on to win a double (albeit a FA/LC double) and make it to the CL final and he didn't even start the next season as chelsea manager. didn't di matteo win the fucking CL and get sprung the next season? i dont think ancelotti himself lasted another year or two....

only thing i can think of is if managers get to keep their $$$ from their managerial contracts when they're sacked, maybe carlo had another 1-2yrs left @ RM and then if chelsea signs him to a 2-3yr deal that he'll likely never see out, maybe he can extend the gravy train for another year or two as the ultimate backup in case he's never able to get another top job? i know people think pep might walk from buyern after this year and go to city (where he's not gonna have a bunch of righteous oldschool german guys on the board disagreeing with his style of football... he'd have all the $$$ and since there's no 50yr giant history of success @ city it'd be 100.0% the pep guardiola show) which would open up buyern for ancelotti? idk.... but maybe he'd take on another 1-1.5yrs at chelsea to extend his unemployment benefits, unless he thinks doing that and technically lasting beyond the offseason would mess up his next ready to win gig.

of course, all these managers are hypercompetitive and dont wanna be 75+ years old wondering "what if?" if they turn it down so that might factor in even more than my idea where he'd at least extend his unemployment for another year or 2.

_________________

DiMatteo didn't "coach" Chelsea. Terry was basically the manager and that team is regarded as one of the worst to win a CL (not quite as mediocre as 2005 Liverpool YNWA JFT96).

_________________
Back off, Warchild. Seriously.

ok so ronaldo was on holiday with some kickboxer dude, and they shared this picture that claimed they were "married" --- and evidently this was on some sort of "national coming out day"--- YOU TRYING TO TELL US SOMETHING RONNIE?!?!

_________________

Don't you think it's safe to say Ronaldo has had sex with many, many participants over the years? When you can get whatever you want, I'm sure one would start to experiment.

Where is that puppet of Ronaldo that they had on Special One TV. I miss Setanta Sports. That show was awesome

that show's been gone since like 2011 or something, but here's everything they ever did on setanta sports / web / bbc 3 in a convenient youtube playlist.

_________________

Now would be a great time for that show to return. Mou is in the middle of a meltdown and says something insane every week that is great comedic fodder. The one problem is that Sven is no longer relevant in England or anywhere for that matter. They would need some new puppets.

_________________
Back off, Warchild. Seriously.

so yeah, after some dude named "gomez" was lost for the year for 18/5 (you know, THE MOST DECORATED SIDE IN ENGLAND) now danny ings is out for the year? crikey m8.... liverpool's capital one cup chances just took a huge hit cuz who's gonna lead the line for their B-team now?

go figure der kloppo is gonna be there front and center for the 6:45am game on saturday, but hey at least thats a proper reason to get up early and watch.... then i think united and city go @ 9am on saturday (but of coruse we're all gonna be watching palace /west ham, right? =) and of course good ol arsenal makes us wait til 11:30am on saturday..... i guess it beats sunday, especially when there's a solid chance that there's going to be a lot of sunday games in arsenal's future cuz of fucking thursday football.

ah well, idk if it's officially off now that ings is gone.... but hey it's not like LFC doesn't have a 30+mil striker, so it's nigh time for some WE GO AGAIN action IMO.

_________________

You've got that English media bias addling your thinking, lips. They already have him canonized. Ings was a Championship try-hard who has played in five matches this season for Liverpool. I guess it's bad in the sense that striker is already a weak spot on the roster but this guy was no world beater.

_________________
Back off, Warchild. Seriously.

in fairness i did say "liverpool's capital one cup chances just took a huge hit cuz who's gonna lead the line for their B-team now?" because 15-16's danny ings is 14-15's rickie lambert.... i mean idk if origi was technically ahead of him on the depth chart (i wanna say in the last COC round he started on a wing with origi @ CF?), but you figure they prolly think there's more of a chance for development there as opposed to ings, who was just gonna be some sort of a championship player who at absolute best could be charlie austin or something, but most likely ended up being another rickie lambert..... jsut without all the liverpool-proper bonafides.

still, it's going to be interesting to see how much the klopp factor gets this liverpool side ready to go out there and run an extra 2-3km each cuz maybe now that they have a rockstar mancrush of a coach instead of a literal AND figurative muppet they might be prone to go out there and cover more km busting ass trying to cement some sort of role in the team when it's back to perennial contention in the next few years.

IIRC, kloppo said that liverpool is gonna win a title in the next 4 years, right? i read that as "liverpool WILL win the prem in the next 4 years" and NOT just "liverpool will win a trophy in the next 4 years" cuz i've already seen some people walking that quote back to say that klopp only meant they'd win a FA cup or capital one cup, if not the prem, in the next 4 years..... but i swear to god he said they're gonna win the premier league within the next 4 years. how did you/all read that?

_________________

OH SHIT....

_________________

I assume he meant the Prem. I guess that means this season is just waste because they aren't winning this thing. Maybe 4th place. All depends on what happens with Chelsea. Got to figure Arse, City, and Utd will be there. A Jose super implosion/sacking might happen soon if their tailspin continues. Mourinho to replace Klinsmann if that occurs. Imminent.

It seems like this international break has been going on forever.

_________________
Back off, Warchild. Seriously.

i've been talked down off the ledge by some /arse/nalites who tell me that arsene simply reiterated how long his contract was and said he'll do all he can do and blah blah blah, but it was construed/sensationalized by the rags as OMFG ARSENE GAVE HIS STEP-D0WN DATE just because he gave a time period for his contract when waxing philosophical about his duties as manager and setting things up nicely for his eventual successor and etc.... obviously the guy is gonna manage there as long as he wants, and hopefully he doesn't leave enough rotting deadwood like fergie did to where you have moyes come in to take the fall and then you gotta go sign the legend-in-his-own-mind LvG to come in and spend 500mil on players to get you back where you belong!

ah well, hopefully arsenal doesnt have any 4-6 week injuries pop up as a result of this last int'l break (as the chilean manager said that he played sanchez despite not being fully fit.... man anyone remember that video where pep was chewing out sanchez for his lack of fitness cuz of playing for chile? caled him a mothrfucker or something.... i guss history repeats itself, eh?

_________________

welp, that arsenal magic happened again yesterday..... arsene doesnt care about the league cup so you often get youth/backup players for a lot of your capital one cup (nee league cup) arsenal squads, except yesterday arsene sprinkled in cech @ goalie, ox on a wing, and giroud starting.... so it was like he was trying to get some first team/ish quality out there (cuz ox was penciled in to start @ RW whilst ramsey has his 4-6 week hammy) and try to get through to the QFs and then maybe then or the semis you start using a nromal/ish team to try and get a mickey mouse cup set for jan/feb.

welp 3-4 mins into the game ox catches a "muscle" knock, so a "precautionary" sub was made.... and it was theo walcott! its like "wow i guess arsene DOES want this game" and then at roughly 18-19' walcott goes down with an injury, so now your right wing situation without ramsey/ox/walcott is looking like.... campbell? man some people are saying to temporarily put bellerin up @ RW and try debuchy (whose form has crumpled to shit since bellerin/injuries took his job last year) or chambers @ RB.... tho idk about all that noise.

so basically it's a cup that arsene isnt too keen to go out and win, and yet despite that he was kind of on the fence and he ended up losing 2 key players in the match.... now dont get me wrong both ox and walcott are injury prone and you COULD think if not yesterday maybe within a week or 2 they catch the knocks anyways (unless you think resting them on tuesday after saturday lets their muscles recoup and even if they do 60-90' on saturday they'd be ok, maybe even ok with buyern a week from today)

now? arrrghhhh. i mean its arsenal and technically we were lucky to survive 2 int'l breaks withut the usual 4-6 week kncks picked up then, and yes with ox and walcott you know they're going to miss games at some point.... but it still sucks to technically lose them in a meaningless game going forward with a tricky fixture @ swansea (they took points from us, especially @swans, last year and maybe even 13-14) and then the big huge @buyern match in the CL on weds (arsenal really needs to somehow get a point if they fancy getting out of the group, lest they be dumped into europa or something)

so we'll see what happens.... tho right now how can you not be talking about chelsea and their inability to beat a 10 man stoke side and ultimately lose on pens? the announcer said "surely eden hazard will convert his penalty" and i turned to my brother and said "he just jinxed hazard.... watch him get stuffed" and sure enough.... wow. dont get 3 on sat morning and maybe "mouyes" is out on saturday? c'est la vie, no?

_________________

EURO Busting through the 1.10 drop...

Look for a 1.08 Euro soon....Ride that shit down!

_________________
"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

_________________

So much for Palace's Champions League place contention!

I wouldn't be surprised if Palace takes all three points from Man U this weekend. They're reeling, injured, can't score, and van Gaal is slowly losing his mind.

_________________
Back off, Warchild. Seriously.

this is peak trolling time for manutd fans. i wasn't even trying to do that after the manchester derby.... on IRC after 0-0 FT i was asking if manutd had enough goals in their side and kind of laughing at the master plan of "let's hoof it to fellaini" when all else fails..... and then a united fan got super pissed and called me a clown show and claimed he's ignored me (good ol "efucksiah" =) since cuz he can't put up with the clownage, including such insults as asking him who he had winning the derby on sat night ("WHO DO YA THINK?!?! YOU'RE TRYING TO RUB IT IN!!!")

keep in mind, not only did i say ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to him or any of the manutd ppl there after 3-0 arsenal (and they're always quick to lol @ arsenal, esp since the moyes era began) and i wasnt even trying to "troll" manutd.... i was asking a very real question about goals in this side, and if trying to hoof it to fellaini for your final form ("IT ALMOST WORKED!!!!!") was a cromulent thing to do.

methinks united ppl secretly thought with the 2nd summer of huge spending and the early !!! of martial that they were back to perennial winning-the-prem by default status, and right now they're starting to realize that this isn't the case, and i think there's a lot of pain there cuz all these new/ish manutd fans (ones who didnt support in the 80s or 70s or etc) are used to winning by default and if they have like 2yrs without a prem that's about as bad as it gets, so after 2 unthinkable years (akin to barca finishing 2nd) they kind of didnt want to say they were back and contending for sure, but after a 2nd season of giant $$$ and a quick start and henry was the first martial and all, i think they really thought they're back to SAF-era levels.....

...but then when that arsenal match happened any ?s they had got exacerbated, and since then it's becoming more and more obvious that team isn't at that city/ish level (blame rooney!) and right now there's a whole lot of pain and primo trolling opportunities if you want them.

_________________

mannnn coutinho with that blooter at 47:22 of 1H (of +2! klopp time! =) to tie it with chelsea @ 1-1

MOURINHO WATCH: it's a timex but dammit it's been in the trenches with me! battery still ticking away..... but for how long?

_________________

awwww shit, not only did chelsea go from 1-0 up to ultimately losing 1-3 (on the NBCSN broadcast one of the NBC announcers said that after chelsea got their goal they looked lifeless and "out of it", which is ultimately a reflection on/of their manager.... daaaaammmnnn.

but then coutinho happened and that third goal just sealed it... i think jose had to know he was a dead man walking, and now after 1-3 @home to a scouser side that isn't really gonna contend for the CL..... man oh man. you just wish arsenal coulda got some points against them, especially after city got a late go-ahead goal after norwich city tied it late.... c'est la vie, no?

MOURINHO WATCH: it's one of those $5-10 watches you buy off of a guy on the street that's supposed to look like a flashy watch, but the piece of shit breaks down on you after a few weeks of using it. goddamn indeed.

also hey how about that crystal palace, eh? i believe it was predicted in this very thread that they were game to get a result/points against manutd, and i'll be damned if they didnt engage manutd in another one of their goalless draws. mannn and to think i had manutd fans roaring with buttmad when i only asked the ? if this side has enough goals in it to for-sure-CL/contend/etc.... c'est la vie, no?

so yeah even tho arsenal missed a chance to gain a cpl points on city, they still got their 3 (campbell even scored!) and it's on to face tottnumb either here or there next weekend b4 the international break. oh yeah and there's some little barnstorming tour to munich for either a friendly or a testimonial or some sort of a "no big whoop" match on wednesday.... i wonder if i should even bother watching? =D

_________________

btw, who wants to bet that france voted YES for the qatar world cup?

_________________

soooo yeah guys i fell in a coma during the last workweek, so i'll just assume that arsenal lost a hard-fought battle to buyern like 0-1/1-2 or something and theres no need to go look back and confirm that, riiiiight?

today we got another manutd clean sheet/3pts, and now it's stoke v chelsea. there were rumors going into the game that mourinho is getting sacked after this match no matter what (using the int'l break to install a new manager like liverpool did) even tho he isnt there today, and hey whaddya know even without mourinho chelsea is down 0-1 @ 70'.... i guess they didnt need the feather after all, eh dumbo?!?!

but yeah tomorrow we get man city / arsenal v tottnumb / liverpool and REAL/BARCA..... buyern had a squash match today so it looks like barring more delicious chelsea plastic tears we're on hold til tomrrow. does anyone think mourinho's gone after today, esp with a loss @ stoke?

_________________

Arsenal were a bit lucky to get the draw yesterday. Klopp suffered his first loss. See ya next August. 2016 is our year.

_________________
Back off, Warchild. Seriously.

Palace freight train is back on the tracks.

aaaand the arsenal trainspotting express is back on the trackmarks, what with crystal pulis.... no, that fucking Caller Bob shawcross and that penis pulis....no, with west bromwich albion (who has my favorite name in the PL: sessegnon; dramatically/emphatically pronounced "CESS SEH YAW") managing a 2-1 victory over the gunners today i was just awwwww fucking hell.

was it because arsenal looked flat coming out of the int'l break, alexis sanchez looked to be in his ~holiday-time dogshit form where he's clearly knackered and running around trying to force greatness 100% of the time but usually making wrong/bad decisions? no. was it because coquelin got hurt early in the game and then arteta came on and proceeded to shit up the joint to the tune of an own goal b4 he too got hurt and got a standing ovation from us in #arsenal when he went off the pitch to bring on flamini? no. was it because arsene actually decided to give "170 mins for costa rica over the last week" joel campbell a break in favor of starting kieran "i can see why he's a back" gibbs @ RW/LW? no.

IT WAS BECAUSE SANTI CAZORLA FUCKED UP THAT POTENTIALLY EQUALIZING PENALTY CIRCA 85'.... THAT'S WHAT FUCKING DID IT.

so i was left seething and contemplating my opening line there as i was just down in the dumps and all kind of "fuck this" exacerbated by my own personal/irrational pick of the football death stars getting 0-4'd in el clasico.... and i was just YEEEEARRRHVGAKLDFHAHSDFLJHASD

but then i come and i check the scores to make sure that we're now third in the table behind manutd (who were THIS close to dropping points b4 a nazisteiger (roughly translated to "nazimaster" as opposed to "swinemaster" from "Schweinsteiger" --- theirt fans are SUPER-EXTRA cunty this year btw... they're so quick to UMAD?!? entropy fans rooting against them like this is pre-moyes and everyone is rooting against manutd... and they're HUGE on jumping on arsenal failures like secretly i think they view arsenal as at their level (not city/top-of-the-table but that notch below them, and manutd wants to be the king of the 2nd tier so they can say ITS ON NEXT YEAR, IMO)) --- AHEM. yeah and i do a quick check of @soccer manchester and what do i see?

FT - Manchester City 1-4 Liverpool

my reaction was literally



(disclaimer: that is SO not me IRL. i can fill out that dress even better than milady the beIN chick aka "good ol whatsherpuss?"

sooooooooo yeah, now manutd is either 1-2pts clear atop the table and get ready for smug arrogance a-gogo from their fans, who want it both ways this year with "hey we're not quite back to our full standard yet, but we're right on schedule" and of course "WE'RE BACK BITCHES, EVERYBODY PAY FEALTY TO THE UNDISPUTED KINGS OF THE PREMIER LEAGUE" and now have all the more reason to crow even tho i think they started juan mata at striker today and still have a 300k/week mascot to deal with front and center in their oft-nonexistant attack.

it woulda been great for arsenal to gain 1-3pts on city, especially with them losing so emphatically to a team i'm probably going to fear this season, if not definitely next season and beyond. it woulda been great for manutd to not get that last own/goal and remain 1pt behind arsenal/city.... but seeing as i think in the end city is the championship standard that the 2015-16 champions will ultimately have to finish better than, it was still bonafide GOD IS GREAT GOD IS GOOD LET US THANK HIM FOR THOSE SCOUSERS territory to see that city also dropped 3 so arsenal picked a wonderful time to drop 3pts as they're still on pace with city and now only 1pt behind a team i honestly think they're better than (ESPECIALLY when arsenal gets ramsey/walcott/wilshere/welbeck and now coquelin back. and ESPCIALLY with arteta gone for awhile =) so yeah, seriously THANK YOU JESUS that arsenal isn't sitting 3pts behind city today, as 1pt behind manutd on 11/21 is far from the end of the world.

that said, everyone enjoy some smug chirpy manutd fans this weekend and we'll see you come tuesday for the next outing in the arsenal BDSM circuit, a must win game against dinamo zagreb. you just know that somehow arsenal's going to end up with thursday football fucking up their schedule and any unrealistic/pipe-dream fantasies of winning a weak/er prem, and playing football on thursdays/sundays en masse will likely do a part in helping that, tho i spose you could argue that giving kids like jeff reine-adelaide a chance to run with the second/"B" squad would be far from the worst thing in the world. c'est la vie and of course je suis third place.

_________________

btw i just wanna point out that the #JFT96 and #YNWA in the topic aren't meant to be shots at liverpudlian culture/style as much as they're meant to signify that this thread is now having a ceremonial liverpool FC edition cuz given what happened today @ the emptyhad i think it's fair to say that we're all scousers tonight! well done, LFC and of course managerial mastermind jurgen klopp, who no doubt had his finest day in a LFC fleece today.

in honor of mr. <spmack>Would.</spmack> i think we all have to not shave for 2.75 days and get some stylin specs and rock that baseball cap cuz holy shit this right here was a marquee win and likely the first of many of those for liverpool, cuz if kult/koach-kloppo can start to get a higher tier of signings into liverpool this january/summer, man, watch out prem.... there's going to be 5 teams vying for 4 (and still possibly 3 at some point? *nervous chuckle*) CL spots starting next season, and if spurs/west-ham, get their act together and leicester rides the rainieri wave of vardy-a-gogo (13/10-straight-games-with-a-goal-now, right? i remember laughing at the guy in /arse/ this summer who was saying that >we should get vardy =) yeah..... the prem's about to be a whole lot more interesting and that means arsenal better step their game up.

that said, once again WE ARE ALL SCOUSERS TONIGHT! godspeed, LFC, godspeed.... you truly did the lord's work today!

_________________

Leicester muthafuckin' City, bitches.

_________________
Back off, Warchild. Seriously.

Citeh was so thoroughly outclassed it looked like some of the guys didn't want to be there. So weird seeing Milner and then they sub in Toure...Hart kept them close but they missed so many opportunities. Oh well, didn't think they were this good anyway.

Man U is due for a loss.

_________________
Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.