TFF chit chat 7th, 8th and 9th December

[morganb]

SATURDAY 7 DECEMBER

Everton 12:30 Chelsea

After a hectic set of midweek fixtures, Saturday's early game features Everton at home to Chelsea. Silva was sacked on Thursday evening. They lost 5-2 in the Merseyside derby but Richarlison was on the scoresheet. Chelsea welcomed Abraham back from injury on Wednesday. Pulisic has gone off the boil of late after a couple of good games in November.

AFC Bournemouth 15:00 Liverpool

The first of the 3pm matches has Bournemouth welcoming table topping Liverpool to the Vitality. The Cherries are on a very poor run of form at the moment, their latest defeat was against 10-man Palace on Tuesday. Liverpool won the Merseyside derby with Mane putting in a good performance and could have scored a hat-trick. Their defence couldn't keep a cleansheet again though.

Tottenham Hotspur 15:00 Burnley

Spurs versus Burnley next. Mourinho suffered his first defeat on Wednesday at the hands of his old club, though handily Alli managed another goal. Burnley also lost but as they we against Man City it was understandable. Burnley lie in 12th but are 3 points off of both 6th and 17th! It feels like Kane has not blown any doors off for a while now, time to get rid?

Watford 15:00 Crystal Palace

To Vicarage Road next where Watford welcome Crystal Palace. The Eagles have a real issue in defence as their back line has been ravaged by injuries. Watford have no such excuse for being so poor, but one of the recent positives was that Troy Deeney is back from injury. Palace don't score many so expect a low scoring affair.

Manchester City 17:30 Manchester United

Saturday's late game is the Manchester derby. Manchester City welcome Manchester United to the blue side of Manchester. Aguero is still out but Jesus has proved an able understudy. KDB is also one to watch and appears to be fairly rotation proof. Man United will be happy after beating Mourhino's Spurs last time out with Rashford being the man of the moment.


SUNDAY 8 DECEMBER

Aston Villa 14:00 Leicester City

The first of Sunday's early fixtures has Leicester City visiting Villa Park to play Aston Villa. Villa are one of two teams on 15 points but have a good goal difference and a decent goals for column. Leicester lie second and are 8 points behind Liverpool. All the team around them will have played by now so they will know what they need to do. Guess everyone has Vardy and at least one defender by now. Chilwell missed out on Wed night.

Newcastle United 14:00 Southampton

The second game is Newcastle versus a resurgent Southampton. The Saints are undefeated in three now and Ings is their star man, though Ward & Prowse has also been racking up the points. This could still be considered a relegation clash even though Newcastle played and won on Thursday evening and unlike Southampton have no stand out performers.

Norwich City 14:00 Sheffield United

Last season this would have been a Championshop clash. And Pukki scores! has started to ring out again across the land, where would they be without him - possibly even lower than 19th. Sheffield United are this season draw specialists but it has got them up to 9th in the table. Mousset has been a real eye-opener this season but was benched v Newcastle.

Brighton & Hove Albion 16:30 Wolverhampton Wanderers

Sunday's late match sees Brighton welcoming Wolves to the Am Ex. Brighton are hovering around the relegation zone and after a slight resurgence in mid November had slumped to three defeats in a row before beating Arsenal. Wolves had a slow start but are now up to the heady heights of 5th in the table. A couple of randomers scored in mid week though!

MONDAY 9 DECEMBER

West Ham United 20:00 Arsenal

And finally, the Monday Night Fixture is one of those London derby type affairs. West Ham are another team who have been under performing this season but the manager is clinging on in there. No such luck at Arsenal where Freddie is the caretaker manager of an Arsenal team sat in 10th place. Aubameyang has been scoring well recently but the side is let down by a poor defence.

[Darbyand]

Everton XI: Pickford; Sidibé, Holgate, Keane, Digne; Walcott, Scheneiderlin, Sigurdsson, Iwobi; Richarlison, Calvert-Lewin

Chelsea XI: Kepa; James, Zouma, Christensen, Azpilicueta; Kanté, Kovacic; Willian, Mount, Pulisic; Abraham

[happyhoppy]

Really regretting Pulisic transfer now and can’t decide whether to just reverse it. What is everyone else doing?

[murf]

Really regretting Pulisic transfer now and can’t decide whether to just reverse it. What is everyone else doing?

Personally I'm regretting it!

Beyond that not sure.

No reason he won't play/score well today....

[happyhoppy]

Yep I’m going to stubbornly stick rather than correct what feels like an error. We shall see. Did manage to get him back for James in one team so have him somewhere at least to soften the blow.

[Spinynorman]

I think I will probably stick with Abraham.

[happyhoppy]

I think I will probably stick with Abraham.

Nobody likes a smart arse

[happyhoppy]

Richarlison (Sidibe, poss who passed to him, dunno don’t care)

[happyhoppy]

Chelsea very wasteful in that 1h.

[Sieben]

Richarlison (Sidibe, poss who passed to him, dunno don’t care)

Richarlison - Sidibe - Richarlison

[murf]

2-0 Calvert (Lewin.)
2-1 Kovacic (-)
3-1 Calvert (Lewin, Davies.)

Or to summarise.....

All - Notabraham (Notpulisic, Notmount)

[murf]

TAA, Mane (and others) benched

Liverpool make seven changes for this afternoon’s Premier League encounter with Bournemouth.

Alisson Becker returns from suspension in goal, while Joe Gomez comes into defence.
Jordan Henderson and Naby Keita begin in midfield, with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino leading the attack.
Georginio Wijnaldum and Adam Lallana are both ruled out due to minor knocks.
Liverpool: Alisson, Gomez, Lovren, Van Dijk, Robertson, Henderson, Milner, Keita, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Salah, Firmino.
Subs: Adrian, Mane, Shaqiri, Origi, Jones, Alexander-Arnold, Elliott.

[happyhoppy]

Mane and TAA both benched. Former doesn’t matter as everyone has him. But latter is annoying as I’ve only recently gone 100%.

[murf]

Really regretting Pulisic transfer now and can’t decide whether to just reverse it. What is everyone else doing?

How much is Alli.....

[Spinynorman]

I think I will probably stick with Abraham.

Nobody likes a smart arse

Didn't seem much of an advantage to having anyone from Chelsea today.

[Spinynorman]

Clippety decides to remove two of my team which is a bit disappointing.

[Spinynorman]

Kane scores from long distance. (Son)

[murf]

Sounds like Ake has done his hamstring.

Meanwhile Spurs are 3 up
Kane (Son, ?)
Moura (Alli, ?)
Son (Vertonghen?)


And Liverpool go 1 up: Oxlade (Chamberlain, Henderson)

TAA comes on for injured Lovren (Gomez to CB)

[murf]

Liverpool 2-0 Keita (Salah(!).)

Think it was a 1-2 so no 2nd KC (TAA)

[murf]

Liverpool 2-0 Keita (Salah(!).)

Debt repaid

3-0 Salah (Keita) - no 2nd KC I think

Kane gets Spurs 4th (Alli?)

Salah and Kane racking the points up - are we back in 2017/18???

EDIT 3 more pts - Sissoko (Kane. (I think))

[LenH]

So pleased I took Kane out.

Auba to run riot on Mon please!

[murf]

Good one for a Spot The Ball competition!

[Darbyand]

Rashford (-)
Martial (James, -)

[happyhoppy]

Could be 6!

[brencarr]

Well now - that wasn't a nice result to wake up to!

[murf]

Well now - that wasn't a nice result to wake up to!

Indeed

[happyhoppy]

How does Vertonghen get a KC for Sons goal of the season

[Spinynorman]

High: 95

Low: 92

Best team: 95

[brencarr]

That's 3 clean sheets in a row for Palace - and they have an amazing run of games coming up too ....

Brighton (h)
Newcastle (a)
West Ham (h)
Southampton (a)
Norwich (a)
Derby (h) FA Cup

.... I'm going to put a stop to that and get a couple of them in my team

[Darbyand]

#AstonVilla XI Heaton; El Mohamady, Konsa, Mings, Targett; Douglas Luiz, Nakamba, McGinn; Grealish, Wesley, El Ghazi

#Leicester XI Schmeichel; Pereira, Evans, Söyüncü, Chilwell; Ndidi, Praet, Tielemans; Maddison, Vardy, Iheanacho.

No Guilbert again.