TFF chit chat 20th, 21st and 22nd April

Post by **morganb** » 19 Apr 2019, 08:48

Saturday 20th April

Manchester City 12:30 Tottenham Hotspur

Saturday’s early fixture is the re-match of Wednesday's Champion's League game between Man City and Spurs. Who needs Harry? Spurs won both games in Europe so will it be third time lucky for City? No VAR involvement today so expect the winner to be a dodgy offside / handball goal.

AFC Bournemouth 15:00 Fulham

The first of the 3pm matches has relegated Fulham travelling to the South Coast to take on Bournemouth. Neither team has much to play for - the Cherries have exceeded the magical 40 point mark and Fulham have reached half that amount and been relegated for their troubles.

Huddersfield Town 15:00 Watford

Uddersfield are another team who are already down. Today they welcome a high-flying Watford team to the Kirklees. Watford are battling for a place in Europe but may have one eye on the FA Cup Final. No Deeney for this one after he saw red again Arsenal.

West Ham United 15:00 Leicester City

West Ham versus Leicester is up next. Both teams lie in mid-table obscurity and have little to play for. Leicester probably have the more desirable players from a TFF viewpoint in Vardy and Tielemans though their run in gets tricky after today.

Wolverhampton Wanderers 15:00 Brighton & Hove Albion

The final 3 o'clock game features Wolves against Brighton. Will the recent FA Cup defeat affect the rest of Wolves season or will they still be able to replicate their early seaaon form? Brighton have been poor all year and it looks like it will be between them and Cardiff for the drop.

Newcastle United 17:30 Southampton

Saturday's late match sees Southampton travelling a long way north to take on Newcastle. Both teams are at the wrong end of the table but are fortunate that there are worse teams in the division than them. A hard game to predict.

Sunday 21st April

Everton 13:30 Manchester United

Sunday's early game is at Goodison where Everton play Man United. United were unceremoniously dumped out of the CL in midweek and Ole will be looking for a positive response today. Everton are part of a group of four teams who could possibly finish 7th which is probably the best place to finish in outside of the top six.

Arsenal 16:00 Crystal Palace

A game week wouldn't feel complete without a London derby and here's one now. The first of the late matches has Arsenal taking on Crystal Palace. The Gunners are still in the race for a top four place so might be too much for the Eagles. Miliojevic is the stand out performer in this match.

Cardiff City 16:00 Liverpool

The second of Sunday's late games is a real top v bottom clash. Cardiff recorded an excellent victory over nearest rivals Brighton on Tuesday to keep their slim hopes of survival alive. Manchester City have already played so the Reds will know exactly what they have to do, though you sometimes get odd results at this time of the season.

Monday 22nd April

Chelsea 20:00 Burnley

And finally, the Monday night fixture takes place at Stamford Bridge where Burnley are the visitors. Chelsea are another side dreaming of a top 4 finish. Sean Dyche must know that after a tricky season that his side has done enough to ensure Premier League survival for another season. Chelsea B won in the Europa League on Thursday.

Extra games in midweek for 8 teams - Watford, Arsenal, Southampton, Wolves, Spurs, Man Utd, Man City and Brighton. Will do a separate write up for these on Tuesday.

Post by **Maldini** » 19 Apr 2019, 08:50

Great summary as usual but Spurs didn’t win both games in Europe.

Post by **SamD** » 19 Apr 2019, 17:24

Stats quirk:
The last time the Premier League saw a draw was 34 games ago on 16 March: Bournemouth 2-2 Newcastle.
There have been 58 draws (17%) in 336 fixtures to date. Last season there were 94 draws in 380 matches = 25%.

West Ham v Leicester this Sat is own choice to break the five-week draw draught.

Post by **brencarr** » 19 Apr 2019, 22:44

Maldini wrote: ↑19 Apr 2019, 08:50 Great summary as usual but Spurs didn’t win both games in Europe.

.... although it sure felt like it

Post by **happyhoppy** » 20 Apr 2019, 09:29

We’re going to win the league next season morganb

Southampton under Ralph Hassenhuttl:
8 wins in 18 games.

Southampton under Mark Hughes & Mauricio Pellegrino :
8 wins in 52 games.

Post by **murf** » 20 Apr 2019, 11:09

SamD wrote: ↑19 Apr 2019, 17:24 Stats quirk:
The last time the Premier League saw a draw was 34 games ago on 16 March: Bournemouth 2-2 Newcastle.
There have been 58 draws (17%) in 336 fixtures to date. Last season there were 94 draws in 380 matches = 25%.

West Ham v Leicester this Sat is own choice to break the five-week draw draught.

Hadn't noticed the lack of draws lately - I think (as an impartial observer) that this run should end as soon as possible, Man City v Spurs sounds a good candidate to me.

Post by **gutshot** » 20 Apr 2019, 11:10

murf wrote: ↑20 Apr 2019, 11:09
SamD wrote: ↑19 Apr 2019, 17:24 Stats quirk:
The last time the Premier League saw a draw was 34 games ago on 16 March: Bournemouth 2-2 Newcastle.
There have been 58 draws (17%) in 336 fixtures to date. Last season there were 94 draws in 380 matches = 25%.

West Ham v Leicester this Sat is own choice to break the five-week draw draught.
Hadn't noticed the lack of draws lately - I think (as an impartial observer) that this run should end as soon as possible, Man City v Spurs sounds a good candidate to me.

Please lord

Post by **gutshot** » 20 Apr 2019, 11:12

happyhoppy wrote: ↑20 Apr 2019, 09:29 We’re going to win the league next season morganb

Southampton under Ralph Hassenhuttl:
8 wins in 18 games.

Southampton under Mark Hughes & Mauricio Pellegrino :
8 wins in 52 games.

Need to be more optimistic, surely your boys have done enough to stay up buddy

Post by **happyhoppy** » 20 Apr 2019, 11:16

gutshot wrote:
happyhoppy wrote: ↑20 Apr 2019, 09:29 We’re going to win the league next season morganb

Southampton under Ralph Hassenhuttl:
8 wins in 18 games.

Southampton under Mark Hughes & Mauricio Pellegrino :
8 wins in 52 games.
Need to be more optimistic, surely your boys have done enough to stay up buddy

We’re going for 11th this season. No problem.....

Post by **murf** » 20 Apr 2019, 11:33

Manchester City make three changes from Wednesday night, with Phil Foden, Oleksandr Zinchenko and John Stones all coming into the starting XI.

Tottenham make five changes as Paulo Gazzaniga, Davinson Sanchez, Juan Foyth, Eric Dier and Ben Davies come into Mauricio Pochettino's side.

Man City
31Ederson
2Walker
5Stones
14Laporte
35Zinchenko
17De Bruyne
8Gündogan
47Foden
20Bernardo Silva
10Agüero
7Sterling

Substitutes
19Sané
21Silva
25Fernandinho
26Mahrez
30Otamendi
33Gabriel Jesus
49Muric

Tottenham
22Gazzaniga
4Alderweireld
6D Sánchez
5Vertonghen
21Foyth
20Alli
15Dier
33Davies
23Eriksen
7Son Heung-Min
27Lucas Moura

Substitutes
3Rose
9Janssen
12Wanyama
13Vorm
16Walker-Peters
18Llorente
52Skipp

Post by **happyhoppy** » 20 Apr 2019, 11:38

Happy with that MC team now need 5-0!

Post by **Maldini** » 20 Apr 2019, 11:55

Yep, all my City players start.

Mendy not in squad. Assume he’s rested after lengthy injury absence.

Fingers crossed for a City backlash.

Post by **buttonphobic** » 20 Apr 2019, 11:57

Interesting Fernandinho on the bench. Maybe can't manage a whole game but useful if Man C have a lead and need to tighten up the midfield later.

Post by **buttonphobic** » 20 Apr 2019, 12:03

This is probably the only game City could lose points on. Unluckily for Liverpool I think after the midweek result they will be fired up. All those Spurs defenders are gonna get in each other's way leaving Aguero and Sterling to fill their boots.

Post by **SamD** » 20 Apr 2019, 12:07

But that didn't work out on Wed though?

Fernandinho came on for D Silva after 63 minutes, soon after Aguero had scored to make it Man C 4-2 Spurs.
Llorente's goal on 73rd minute put the Londoners through.

Post by **Darbyand** » 20 Apr 2019, 12:08

Desperate for a Spurs win in the week, now hoping for a City rout....it's a funny old game.

Post by **SPR** » 20 Apr 2019, 12:12

City goals would be good for me but would like Spurs to get a point for the league. If City get six in the next two I think they win the league.

Post by **Maldini** » 20 Apr 2019, 12:38

1-0 Foden (Aguero, Bilva)

Post by **SPR** » 20 Apr 2019, 13:24

KDB off injured.

Post by **Maldini** » 20 Apr 2019, 14:25

Clean sheet for City.

Not sure how but I’ll take it.

Post by **LenH** » 20 Apr 2019, 14:50

Damn, didn't notice Schlupp was out for the season. Was thinking Laporte but maybe I'll just go all in with VDV now.

Post by **happyhoppy** » 20 Apr 2019, 14:52

LenH wrote:Damn, didn't notice Schlupp was out for the season. Was thinking Laporte but maybe I'll just go all in with VDV now.

Is Van der Vaart still playing....

Post by **LenH** » 20 Apr 2019, 14:56

Too early, not enough coffee.

Though, would be interesting if he still was!

Post by **brencarr** » 20 Apr 2019, 14:58

.... over to you Liverpool, easy win at struggling Cardiff

Post by **Maldini** » 20 Apr 2019, 16:21

#uneventful

Deulofeu (-)

Antonio (Noble)

Mitrovic (-)

Bournemouth are a funny team.

Vardy just equalised for Leicester (Chilwell)

Post by **happyhoppy** » 20 Apr 2019, 16:43

So nearly put Delifaywho in damn

Post by **Maldini** » 20 Apr 2019, 16:44

Deulofeu again (Success)

Got to hand it to Siewart, he’s managed to turn a terrible team into a truly abysmal one.

More chance we’ll go down again than bounce back next season.

Post by **SPR** » 20 Apr 2019, 16:49

I thought about Deulofeu but thought the next few will be harder for him.

Mind you I have Brooks who's losing to Fulham!!!

EDIT: Tempted by Brooks

Redmond, thoughts Hoppy?

Post by **SamD** » 20 Apr 2019, 17:03

West Ham v Leicester this Sat is own choice to break the five-week draw drought.

You wait for more than a month and then two come along:

Manchester City 1 - 0 Tottenham
Bournemouth 0 - 1 Fulham
Huddersfield 1 - 2 Watford
West Ham Utd 2 - 2 Leicester
Wolverhampton 0 - 0 Brighton

Post by **Maldini** » 20 Apr 2019, 17:05

SPR wrote:I thought about Deulofeu but thought the next few will be harder for him.

Mind you I have Brooks who's losing to Fulham!!!

EDIT: Tempted by Brooks Redmond, thoughts Hoppy?

Personally, I wouldn’t be wasting transfers on enablers this late in the season but if you’ve plenty in the bank, Southampton have decent fixtures so might be worth a punt.

FISO