Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

The 2024-2025 Football Thread

Apple fanboy said:
Beat them 0-1! I’m sure @Scepticalscribe will forgive me! But I do need to catch up with my Arsenal supporter friend this evening. I do suspect he won’t answer though!
Click to expand...
This is on us and well done, you.

Moreover, while I am not one to pile on managers, I do think that Mr Arteta needs to take a long, hard look at himself, his priorities, and how he has performed as a manager since he was appointed.

As is becoming unfortunately - and increasingly - clear, he has some serious blind spots, which he appears unwilling to address.
 
Last edited:
Scepticalscribe said:
Well, Arsenal embarrassed themselves (worse, at home) against West Ham, when we were defeated by West Ham today (and good luck to West Ham, well done them).

Nevertheless, I sincerely - nay, devoutly - hope that this wince factor doesn't evolve into a sense of excruciating embarrassment that may arise from fatuous attempts to blame the ball, state of the pitch (that is on us, of course, as we played at home), the ref, the acoustics, for an unwelcome result.

I don't know why @Apple fanboy was so worried - for, I was worried, too; yes, West Ham have injuries to key players, but so, too, have Arsenal, along with (smother, and stifle an unseemly snigger) Manchester City (among many others).

Quite honestly, I'm not entirely sure that Arsenal could have successfully found (let alone, put the ball in), the opposition goal (in open play, set pieces are different) even with the assistance of an on-field GPS system, or metal detector, or water divining rod this afternoon.

Now, of course, why anyone would entertain the thought that Raheem Sterling would be - could be, should be - any sort of an asset to any team utterly baffles me.
Click to expand...
To be fair I’ve not seen it, but am looking forward to MOTD later.
A very unexpected and (much needed) win.
 
Scepticalscribe said:
Quite honestly, I'm not entirely sure that Arsenal could have successfully found (let alone, put the ball in), the opposition goal (in open play, set pieces are different) even with the assistance of an on-field GPS system, or metal detector, or water divining rod this afternoon.
Click to expand...
Seems to me Arsenal had some bad luck today as a few times the ball should have hit the ‘ol onion bag.
They could have used these 3 points tho Liverpool seem in command this season.
 
MBAir2010 said:
Seems to me Arsenal had some bad luck today as a few times the ball should have hit the ‘ol onion bag.
They could have used these 3 points tho Liverpool seem in command this season.
Click to expand...
No, - and I am an Arsenal supporter - I'm afraid that I'm not buying the "bad luck" argument.

This is because while bad luck most certainly does exist (a catastrophic injury to a key player, for example), a lot of the time, in these situations, with these margins for error, you make your own luck.

In the absence of not just strikers, but players with a killer instinct, an ability to actually successfully finish a movement, to despatch the ball with clinical precision (rather than blasting it in a state of blind hope), there was no way (in either Heaven or Hell) that the ball would have (ever) have hit the proverbial "old onion bag", to quote your own words.

Precisely because Arsenal did not address any of the flaws in their system (such as a lack of proper strikers), or clear deficiencies in some of their players, - a startling number of whom are playing out of position on account of evident gaps in the team - by buying, or, investing in, even as a brief stop-gap, a couple of players - during the recent transfer window, they, in essence, gave hostages to fortune, hostages that fortune is now - entirely unsurprisingly - claiming with a gleeful sense of satisfaction.
 
  • Like
Reactions: brucemr
Watched the highlights. We played well. We got bodies behind the ball as well as forward when we needed. On another day Bowen could easily have had a hat trick having missed two very good chances.
 
  • Like
Reactions: brucemr
MBAir2010 said:
The message was supposed to be encouraging since the gunners gave more effort than disappointment yesterday.
Click to expand...
That may well have been the case, but they are still finding it extraordinarily difficult to score from open play, and clearly lack a clinical (cool, calm, collected, methodical) finisher in front of goal.

My annoyance arises from the fact that this glaring lack is not, in any way, a new problem for the team, or squad, yet they have still failed to attempt to address it.
 
Apple fanboy said:
Liverpool 3-0 up. Thats the league done for me I think.
Sadly Nottingham Forest lost to Newcastle earlier, but still look like they could get a CL spot.
Click to expand...
That third goal was disallowed; they won - defeating a toothless Manchester City - by two goals to nil.

At this stage, I will be astounded if anyone comes close to catching them.

Arsenal may be (currently lying, or placed) second in the table, but, candidly, they have come nowhere close to seriously challenging Liverpool for the title at any stage this season.
 
I had a giggle at West Ham fans expense today. I was doing some shopping in my local shopping centre and in one of the budget electronic stores that among other things sells a large quantity of DVD's, there in the small sporting section of sport DVD's was a West Ham one titled 'West Ham's best Goals'. Reason I giggled to myself was because I did not think West Ham scored enough 'best goal's' to fill a DVD hehe

Sorry West Ham fan's :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: MBAir2010
Scepticalscribe said:
That third goal was disallowed; they won - defeating a toothless Manchester City - by two goals to nil.

At this stage, I will be astounded if anyone comes close to catching them.

Arsenal may be (currently lying, or placed) second in the table, but, candidly, they have come nowhere close to seriously challenging Liverpool for the title at any stage this season.
Click to expand...
Agreed its been Liverpools to lose for a while.
 
laptech said:
I had a giggle at West Ham fans expense today. I was doing some shopping in my local shopping centre and in one of the budget electronic stores that among other things sells a large quantity of DVD's, there in the small sporting section of sport DVD's was a West Ham one titled 'West Ham's best Goals'. Reason I giggled to myself was because I did not think West Ham scored enough 'best goal's' to fill a DVD hehe

Sorry West Ham fan's :)
Click to expand...
Some West Ham great goal scorers you may have forgotten about.

Paulo Di Canio
Sir Geoff Hurst
Tony Cottee
Frank MacAvennie
Carlos Tevez
Michail Antonio
Dean Ashton
 
  • Like
Reactions: Scepticalscribe
Well...as there's nothing to celebrate about being a Saints fan right now (although we may end up finishing the season as record holders, if we can hold on to beat Derby's current lowest-ever-points-haul), I have thrown myself into local football and have been going to as many A-League home games for Auckland FC as I can.
This weekend, the NZ-derby was rounded out with a magnificent 6-1 win by AFC vs Wellington Phoenix.
Broke attendance records for a domestic league match as well - 27k+

I have to say though - football in high summer? Brutal. It was 27deg C outside the stadium - hate to think what it was on the pitch.
1740362176557.png
 
  • Like
Reactions: Scepticalscribe, mvdrl, MBAir2010 and 2 others
I was reading articles about the United v Everton game where football reporters are writing saying that Everton should have won the game in the dying minutes of the match because of a penalty but it was denied due to the intervention of VAR that incorrectly gave the referee the wrong information which resulted in the referee over turning his original penalty call.

Apparently in the dying minutes of the match one of the Everton players went down in the penalty area due to a tackle by two United players. The referee blew his whistle for a penalty but VAR intervened and got him to look at the pitch side monitor. the referee then blew to indicate no penalty. The after game analysis by the games pundits said in their opinion VAR fooled the ref into disallowing the penalty because the views VAR gave the referee showed it looked like the Everton player had dived under the challenge of the two United players but what the pundits said was that if the referee had been shown the footage from the camera that is behind the goal the ref would have seen that one of the United players had tugged on the Everton players shirt hence causing him to fall down. The camera footage behind the goal was shown and you can clearly see the Everton player is brought down due to tug on his shirt by one of the United players. That camera angle was the ONLY angle that showed it was a clear penalty, any other camera would have made it appear the Everton player dived. Question is, why wasn't the ref shown this footage? Why did the VAR operator fail to include this footage to the ref?

This just goes to show how VAR footage can be manipulated to a teams advantage because it should have been a penalty due to the tug on the Everton players shirt but because the ref was not shown this footage he overruled his own penalty decision.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MBAir2010
HandsomeDanNZ said:
Well...as there's nothing to celebrate about being a Saints fan right now (although we may end up finishing the season as record holders, if we can hold on to beat Derby's current lowest-ever-points-haul), I have thrown myself into local football and have been going to as many A-League home games for Auckland FC as I can.
This weekend, the NZ-derby was rounded out with a magnificent 6-1 win by AFC vs Wellington Phoenix.
Broke attendance records for a domestic league match as well - 27k+

I have to say though - football in high summer? Brutal. It was 27deg C outside the stadium - hate to think what it was on the pitch.
View attachment 2485367
Click to expand...
Nice photo,
I wonder if that cardboard guy knew the sign has the entire goal post blocked from your view?
 
  • Like
Reactions: brucemr and HandsomeDanNZ
It is a shame another 200 staff at Man United are going to lose their jobs because of the atrocious handling of the club by the Glazer sibling family. 250 people already lost their jobs last year.

www.bbc.co.uk

Man Utd redundancies: Up to 200 staff to be made redundant

After 250 members of staff were made redundant last year, Manchester United announce up to 200 more redundancies to "return the club to profitability".
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

United chief executive Omar Berrada basically says the sackings are necessary to return the club to profitability. 450 United staff have paid the price due to the incompetent running of the club by the Glazer siblings. There was no problem when Malcom Glazer, the father, was running the club, the kept winning the league and other trophies but the day he died and the club transferred to his children, that's when the melt down of the club began.

I truly feel sorry for anyone who is directly involved with the club for them to see how disastrous the club has become.
 
laptech said:
I was reading articles about the United v Everton game where football reporters are writing saying that Everton should have won the game in the dying minutes of the match because of a penalty but it was denied due to the intervention of VAR that incorrectly gave the referee the wrong information which resulted in the referee over turning his original penalty call.

Apparently in the dying minutes of the match one of the Everton players went down in the penalty area due to a tackle by two United players. The referee blew his whistle for a penalty but VAR intervened and got him to look at the pitch side monitor. the referee then blew to indicate no penalty. The after game analysis by the games pundits said in their opinion VAR fooled the ref into disallowing the penalty because the views VAR gave the referee showed it looked like the Everton player had dived under the challenge of the two United players but what the pundits said was that if the referee had been shown the footage from the camera that is behind the goal the ref would have seen that one of the United players had tugged on the Everton players shirt hence causing him to fall down. The camera footage behind the goal was shown and you can clearly see the Everton player is brought down due to tug on his shirt by one of the United players. That camera angle was the ONLY angle that showed it was a clear penalty, any other camera would have made it appear the Everton player dived. Question is, why wasn't the ref shown this footage? Why did the VAR operator fail to include this footage to the ref?

This just goes to show how VAR footage can be manipulated to a teams advantage because it should have been a penalty due to the tug on the Everton players shirt but because the ref was not shown this footage he overruled his own penalty decision.
Click to expand...
Not a lover of VAR as you know, but if all available camera angles are not made available then it’s clearly not giving the ref the full picture. Why was the additional camera angle shared? Not because the PL know they need to keep Man Utd in the league for the revenue I hope?
 
Apple fanboy said:
Some West Ham great goal scorers you may have forgotten about.

Paulo Di Canio
Sir Geoff Hurst
Tony Cottee
Frank MacAvennie
Carlos Tevez
Michail Antonio
Dean Ashton
Click to expand...
And there was a legendary time when three West Ham players (the aforementioned Geoff Hurst, along with Bobby Moore, and Martin Peters, two of whom scored in the final) actually graced a World Cup winning team.
 
  • Like
Reactions: pachyderm
Well I didn’t like to bring it up…..

You know.

West Ham won the World Cup!


Then there was that header from Trevor Brookin in the cup final, beating Arsenal. I was at the semi, but didn’t get a ticket to the final.
 
  • Like
Reactions: pachyderm
Some interesting (and also some completely expected) results in today's matches.

Very annoying that Saints play well for 20min per game.

Was not expecting to see Villa get hammered today - I also thought Bournemouth might be able to pick off Brighton, too...clearly I know nothing

In the sunny North, Celtic continue their march towards the inevitable title. Smashing the 3rd placed team is probably expected now in the SPL.

Stoke and Hull still flirting with relegation in the Championship. I'll be keeping a keen eye on the promotion/relegation scrpas there as that will be where my focus is next season.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: pachyderm
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back