Lucas Bergvall from Spurs ran behind the goal on a corner kick. Referee didn't allow it. Don't think I've ever seen that before.
I think technically you're not supposed to (blatantly) leave the field of play without ref permission. On the sideline or touchline to avoid a collision or attempting to elude an opponent, a brief stepping out is ok.
Should’ve been yellow carded. Law 12: “A player is cautioned if guilty of: entering, re-entering or deliberately leaving the field of play without the referee’s permission”
I fancied Chelsea to beat Man Utd, draw at worst. Had a few Chelsea players on my fantasy team. Maybe at some point they will turn it around (hopefully not) but surprised to how bad they are playing given their summer buys and their summer performances. Another team we should be beating when we play them but being the 2nd biggest derby for us, there is always that derby factor.
Preferred a 0-0 draw. I had transferred in their keeper and Caecido into my fantasy team. 0-0, works out all the way around. Chelsea are by far the bigger threat and their losing is better for us overall.
...on another note. I hear Arsenal must win the league or a trophy. I think the Kroenkes wouldn't sack Arteta for 2nd place and no trophy, the fans won't like it (i among them) and we will get roasted by the other fans (dont care what they think). I do think if we only won the League cup it wouldn't be enough. The FA Cup would be a bare minimum that would be barely acceptable as a decent season. Its title and/or CL for everyone. Maybe...maybe...a CL final where we lose on PKs to a very strong side might and points for just getting there.
Chelseas record at Old Tramshed is poor, I didn't expect the game to play out like it did but Chelsea just aren't that good their squad has massive gaps in it. In their last 5 games at OT they are now 3L and 2 draws. The last time Chelsea won there was in 2020 in an FA Cup tie. Last time they won at OT in the league was in 2013. Chelsea just suck at OT. The sub choices were weird, then Palmer injuring himself cooked their chances. They are really lucky that Casemiro is an idiot but even then the best Chelsea team in the last few years was dominated by the worst United team in years for the first half and were lucky they weren't 4-5 goals down.
Chelsea's record at Old Trafford is similar to almost every other side , Arsenal included. The away records at OT is massively influenced by the 20 some odd years of Man Utd domination in the league. The last couple years has changed all that. Chelsea are much better and Man Utd are much worse. Man Utd hasn't been this consistently bad in anyone's memory, so that was the logic and reason. Similar to us winning at Old Trafford recently compared to our history there. On another note, I'm curious how Woltemade will do at Newcastle over time. I was hoping we'd take a serious look at him as an alternative to Sesko when it seemed like Arteta wanted a tall striker for some tactical advantage he was cooking up.
This match at Sunderland feels like Unai’s Villa version of our game against Watford in 2019. Just getting completely outplayed even though Sunderland has been down a man for 40 minutes.
Watching Bournemouth and Newcastle . Castle midfield rather elementary but woltenmade is like a scarecrow out there getting completely outdueled at every turn
We are 2W 1D 1L in our last 4 at OT, City are 2W 1D 1L in their last 4 at OT, Pool are City are 2W 1D 1L in their last 4 at OT and even Spuds have a recent win there. We might look shaky at OT but we still have got the job done recently. Chelseas record there is absolutely dire. Most top teams have a pretty good recent history against Man U, even the Spuds again, but Chelseas results are rough even at home against them. I think what happened to Chelsea end of last season where they dropped off badly looks to have already started and we are only 5 match days in. And if Palmers groin causes him to miss significant time they will struggle for top 5.
Man Utd have mainly sucked the last few years. 6th, 3rd, 8th and 15th in the league. Everyone is taking points from them. Even so, before 2024 we hadn't won at OT in a while I think, draw at best, winning there is a very new phenomena.
Its been a rough match to watch. Basically Newcastle just getting bodies behind the ball and long ball clearance and hope. Tall orc defenders just getting heads to it and not much else. Bore draw in the end. Barely threatened.
I'm gonna need a citation for that one, or at least a more specific timeframe. They had 34 points in the second half of their 69-point season, and from the March international break on they had the joint-most points in the league (20, tied with City). They had a bad run from Christmas through February, but they finished last season very well.
Gives interesting introspect into some teams. Palace are performing at an insane level to the point they are expected to be in 1st, and sit in 5th, and considering the turnover of players they have had that is wild. Meanwhile Liverpool are first, but a lot of metrics have them in 6th. So the question is do Liverpool manage to continue or do they eventually have their drop off. City in 4th, metrics suggest 9th, which considering how bad they looked and had to defend to grim death against us makes you wonder how the game would have gone had we scored first. And Spuds in 3rd but probably should be 11th is funny, zero chance they sustain that over the season. I expect the second Richarlison gets an injury, because he is made of glass, and thats when the season unravels.
I don't have the stats on hand but it was to do with their shot volume, where they took their shots, errors, the fact that the league was weaker last year meaning an average Chelsea was taking points in close wins against teams like Leicester, Spurs, Everton and Man U, but weren't above draws to teams like Brentford and Ipswich. Then out of the good teams, they lost to Arsenal and Newcastle and only beat Liverpool with 4 games to go because they needed to win for CL football and Pool were insanely hungover/still drunk from winning the league. So they accrued points in the run in, but they weren't very good while they did it especially compared to their first half of the season. They were helped massively by a good defence and being able to knick a goal.
Sort of interesting. Fine print says "calculated from game outcome simulations based on individual shot xG"... makes me wonder how close it is to straight-up xG extrapolation vs some kind of vague "simulation"? Also, there are only 2 out of the 20 teams whose expected position equals actual: Everton and... Arsenal. Hmm.