Sportsbet.io's English Premier League Football Pool Discussion Thread

[leea-1334]

GL against Arsenal, we need your help to catch Top 4 spot

So are you going with Arsenal tonight 😉?

Spurs needed Arsenal to lose to have hopes of Top 4 as I mentioned,,, and more importantly, I am Spurs. How does a Spurs fan ever support Arsenal unless we need them to help us defeat someone else we need to lose more?

United is worse compared to Arsenal by probably all metricks but they will take points against top sides almost regularly. That is maybe the part Arteta has to learn. Sometimes against better teams leave the ball to them and try countering. Arsenal is great but still not on the level to go head to head against City or LFC.

And we have title race once more. I guss there is alot of happy reds this morning.

100% correct. We saw it already with many stubborn managers,,, do not want to play tactics and play to team strength. If it works to play your game great but if the other team gets better like City or LFC, then defend, let them make mistakes and use everything to break. Bielsa never wanted to learn and Arteta must pay attention to this. They had a great run against lower teams but everybody knows you win leagues by defeating those closest around the top

[casperBGD]

~snip

United is worse compared to Arsenal by probably all metricks but they will take points against top sides almost regularly. That is maybe the part Arteta has to learn. Sometimes against better teams leave the ball to them and try countering. Arsenal is great but still not on the level to go head to head against City or LFC.

you have a point here, but United did not take much points with top three teams either this season (or that is just my bias, did not check the facts)
Arsenal was solid last night, but lost on experience, which was widely expected and odds were great for Liverpool, but I had to take Juventus last night

one more tonight, my Everton is playing Newcastle, and relegation fight is reality for us, one win/five loses since Lampard took over

[hilariousetc]

Why is there only 4 games this weekend? A lot of teams still have 2 and some even 3 games in hand so I'm surprised they didn't try squeeze some of them in.

It's getting worse and worse for Leeds. Getting beat 3-0 by Villa at home and it now looks like Firpo will be out for the rest of the season. The game on Sunday against Norwich is going to be interesting. A loss against them would be devastating and Norwich desperately need to start grabbing some points and Leeds are looking like their best bet right now.

Ah this one gets my attention for real. Hate to see that they are in shit situation currently but firing Bielsa was not the solution imo. If Bielsa cant make Leeds rise, no one can. Such a disgrace thing to do to their 'saviour'.

Usually I am against changing managers but in Bielsa case it is a bit different. He is great manager but he has some strange methods and conceptions for modern football. For instance he never rotates his squads and that results with diminishing performance in second part of the season. Leeds is running 5 km less per game now than at the begging of the season. Stuff like that is felt on the pitch. Granted he had injury problems which limited his rotations even if hew wanted to do it, but this happens with all his teams.

It worked when they got promoted to the PL and it worked when they finished 9th last season against all odds. As for the running less, as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago they've been missing Bamford and Phillips from very early on in the season so that's probably why the stats will look bad. People just like to scapegoat managers these days as they're an easy target. Their poor performance is almost certainly down to all the injuries. Phillips is by far their best player and whilst I think Bamford is mediocre he's still their top scorer. They should have just stuck it out with Bielsa. What is Ted Lasso gonna do? I think they're more likely to get relegated with him than Bielsa. If Bielsa stayed and he saved them from relegation it would have only bolstered his standing with the club and fans but I'm assuming the American owners were calling for his head and I'm guessing they had something to do with hiring the American manager as well. Money overrules everything these days.

[Trofo]

Why is there only 4 games this weekend? A lot of teams still have 2 and some even 3 games in hand so I'm surprised they didn't try squeeze some of them in.

I wanna  say FA cup. Did not check actual games yet but since I am playing fantasy I know for about month that this will be blank game week. I guess all other teams are having games in the cup. They could have squeezed something during the working days maybe but it gets complicated. Chelsea has especially full schedule and their postponed game will very though to fit in somewhere due to them being alive in most competitions.

[Welsh]

Yeah, it'll be the FA cup, although I didn't realise so many Premier League teams were involved still? Anyhow, very happy with the performance yesterday. To be honest, watching that first half I just thought it was inevitable that we drop points yet again after Man City give us a little bit of hope. My fault for not believing in the boys, they've definitely pulled it out of the bag so many times in recent years I should know better.

Manchester United will always be a tricky fixture though, since a lot of the times form goes out of the window. Plus, I do think they've been playing a little bit better as of recent. I would still expect has to win that game, but we definitely have a more difficult fixture list than Manchester City, although they've looked anything, but invincible recently.

[darxiaomi]

I dont know if anyone has talking this here.

Do you thing its fair winning the Highest Yellow Cap having 3 more games in a round?. I think No.
I know for one game its ok but 3 games more its a lot.

I do not take away merit because you still have to get it right, but if you have that round your best GG even if one people take the 10 in exact result cant catch, i think its a mistake from Superbru.

I know its not easy and i dont put any vote but its for thinking

[Trofo]

I dont know if anyone has talking this here.

Do you thing its fair winning the Highest Yellow Cap having 3 more games in a round?. I think No.
I know for one game its ok but 3 games more its a lot.

I do not take away merit because you still have to get it right, but if you have that round your best GG even if one people take the 10 in exact result cant catch, i think its a mistake from Superbru.

I know its not easy and i dont put any vote but its for thinking

Yeah it is a bit unfair but it is PITA to sort in a completely fair way. For the pools I run I just pay out the highest yellow cap and don't care about number of the games. I thought about it several times and there simply isn't any good way to do it. Call it RNG and try to do your best on big game weeks

What about next game week for instance? There is only 4 games and let's say somebody gets all correct results, meaning 12 points. He will not have highest yellow cap even though he has 100% of possible points. Then we will have game week 37, this is known double game week where most teams will have 2 games, some even three, there is no more European matches and all postponed games must be finished before last game week. I believe we will have at least 18 games in it and maybe even more.

[BitcoinGirl.Club]

What about next game week for instance? There is only 4 games and let's say somebody gets all correct results, meaning 12 points. He will not have highest yellow cap even though he has 100% of possible points. Then we will have game week 37, this is known double game week where most teams will have 2 games, some even three, there is no more European matches and all postponed games must be finished before last game week. I believe we will have at least 18 games in it and maybe even more.

It turns out that the luck lord is not with me in this round. All close result and without a correct score LOL
At least in four matches I missed exact score for one goal margin that sucked up 6 points from me.

[Joca97]

What an important win for most of the people on Everton match. When i saw that red card i was thinking that Everton cant possible win and that i lost some really important points. But this 1.5 points for me is huge and im so close to top 5. Also this round gaved us so many leaders on first place. It will get even more intresting now.

[buwaytress]

Everton, just couldn't stomach how bad the football last night was -- from both teams.

Still feels like yesterday when Everton were bouncing with Ancelotti and DCL look like the anointed one. Haven't really been following what's been happening but what happened to that castle?

@darxiaomi yeah there's no fair way to do it. There are rounds even with 5 games IIRC, and that's ugly but it is still fair that everyone has the same advantage/disadvantage right?

Oh and welcome everyone to the fight for Top 5. This is the most competitive this pool has ever been, in any pool I've joined, in any season. What a group of dirty bastards we have.

It worked when they got promoted to the PL and it worked when they finished 9th last season against all odds. As for the running less, as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago they've been missing Bamford and Phillips from very early on in the season so that's probably why the stats will look bad. People just like to scapegoat managers these days as they're an easy target. Their poor performance is almost certainly down to all the injuries. Phillips is by far their best player and whilst I think Bamford is mediocre he's still their top scorer. They should have just stuck it out with Bielsa. What is Ted Lasso gonna do? I think they're more likely to get relegated with him than Bielsa. If Bielsa stayed and he saved them from relegation it would have only bolstered his standing with the club and fans but I'm assuming the American owners were calling for his head and I'm guessing they had something to do with hiring the American manager as well. Money overrules everything these days.

I know it's a little bit of a disservice to Leeds to say so but the Covid break helped them in that instance. They had their bright start to the Championship, just like the season before, but once the season wore on, they were already running on fumes well before the home stretch. Then football got interrupted and everyone had an unexpected months of rest. Season resumed and Leeds powered on.

But you're absolutely right, this has less to do with them running out of energy and more to do with missing players they've been relying on to score goals. I still recall how in Liverpool's title win season, James bloody Milner was our top runner (most distance covered) and by the way some months before also the league's #1. For many seasons Salah's still the top runner among front 3 men, Firmino too when he was fully fit, that's because our attackers run back all the time to defend.

Since KO-ing Arsenal in Carabao Cup, we've played 7 more games than them before the London win and still looked the more energetic in the final stages, so clearly, there is a physical ability to sustain.

My issue was less about Bielsa running his men down, but his refusal to manage games. That's still not enough for me to replace him with Lasso too though. Huddles on the field is not going to magically conjure points because Leeds are anything but not a team oozing with unity and solidarity that is now in question because they lost their unifying soul in Bielsa.

Side note: I found out from new Football Observatory stats that Premier League is not even the top 10 most running-intensive league in the world... I always believed they ran more but you apparently run 3kms more per team per game in La Liga.

[swogerino]

What an important win for most of the people on Everton match. When i saw that red card i was thinking that Everton cant possible win and that i lost some really important points. But this 1.5 points for me is huge and im so close to top 5. Also this round gaved us so many leaders on first place. It will get even more intresting now.

I had it 0-2 for Newcastle based on the really bad form of Everton recently but yesterday they played well and never gave up until the very end of the game and were then rewarded with that 100 minute goal.Only in Premier League we see this much additional time compared to the other major European leagues and that is also something unique that makes the Premier League stand out from the other major competitions in Europe.

Well done Joca97,lately you have been climbing like no other.

[LTU_btc]

I saw many pitch invaders - some try to hug player or take selfie, some trying to promote something on their shirt, or running naked to get attention. But I never saw that pitch invader would tie himself to goal post as sign of protest, When I turned in game on TV and saw that's interruoted, I didn't even understood what's going on:
https://www.eurosport.com/football/premier-league/2021-2022/everton-v-newcastle-halted-by-a-protester-who-decided-to-tie-himself-to-a-goal-post-in-the-second-ha_sto8849000/story.shtml

What an important win for most of the people on Everton match. When i saw that red card i was thinking that Everton cant possible win and that i lost some really important points. But this 1.5 points for me is huge and im so close to top 5. Also this round gaved us so many leaders on first place. It will get even more intresting now.

Yeah, it seems that many backed Everton. Don't know why I predicted Newcastle win, during game I was sure that I had draw, so, when Everton scored I wasn't very happy . Anyway, not bad round for me, up to 19th place, season high for me so far.

[Joca97]

What an important win for most of the people on Everton match. When i saw that red card i was thinking that Everton cant possible win and that i lost some really important points. But this 1.5 points for me is huge and im so close to top 5. Also this round gaved us so many leaders on first place. It will get even more intresting now.

I had it 0-2 for Newcastle based on the really bad form of Everton recently but yesterday they played well and never gave up until the very end of the game and were then rewarded with that 100 minute goal.Only in Premier League we see this much additional time compared to the other major European leagues and that is also something unique that makes the Premier League stand out from the other major competitions in Europe.

Well done Joca97,lately you have been climbing like no other.

Thanks,its been pretty rough but the last 3-4 rounds have been amazing for me,was always in the top 5 for the weekly predictions and that has boosted me from 11th position to now 7th position and only 7.5 points away from first place. But now its difficult i aint only chasing 1 player im chasing 5-6 for that first place because all of them are so close. I just hope i can continue this run in the upcoming rounds aswell. Also i think the next round will be a challenge for all.

[examplens]

What an important win for most of the people on Everton match. When i saw that red card i was thinking that Everton cant possible win and that i lost some really important points. But this 1.5 points for me is huge and im so close to top 5. Also this round gaved us so many leaders on first place. It will get even more intresting now.

Yeah, it seems that many backed Everton. Don't know why I predicted Newcastle win, during game I was sure that I had draw, so, when Everton scored I wasn't very happy . Anyway, not bad round for me, up to 19th place, season high for me so far.

I watched the last two Newcastle games (against Southampton and Chelsea) they were very good. I really had a hard time expecting a team that played hard against Chelsea to lose to Everton, but it happened. it is PL.

whether anyone noticed the way the referee conducted the match? they played so hard without interruption, it was only a matter of time before a foul like Allan's would happen.

one more tonight, my Everton is playing Newcastle, and relegation fight is reality for us, one win/five loses since Lampard took over

You lost 1st place because you haven't enough faith in your Everton. Karma is a bitch.

[leea-1334]

What an important win for most of the people on Everton match. When i saw that red card i was thinking that Everton cant possible win and that i lost some really important points. But this 1.5 points for me is huge and im so close to top 5. Also this round gaved us so many leaders on first place. It will get even more intresting now.

I had it 0-2 for Newcastle based on the really bad form of Everton recently but yesterday they played well and never gave up until the very end of the game and were then rewarded with that 100 minute goal.Only in Premier League we see this much additional time compared to the other major European leagues and that is also something unique that makes the Premier League stand out from the other major competitions in Europe.

Well done Joca97,lately you have been climbing like no other.

Meanwhile,,, guys like me are doing our best and we just cannot get close to the top. But anyway, well done to everyone up there, the games are getting so tough to predict, well they always are anyway, and it is very good and healthy I think to see this happen. It means we have great experts and it means we have now the identities of all the good gamblers  

One day should make a big service of tips and we all start making money

[Welsh]

Everton, just couldn't stomach how bad the football last night was -- from both teams.

Still feels like yesterday when Everton were bouncing with Ancelotti and DCL look like the anointed one. Haven't really been following what's been happening but what happened to that castle?

DCL fell of a cliff in terms of form from what I can gather, and they've just not played as a team when I've watched them. Rafa obviously didn't have a great time after they got rid of Ancelotti, and he sold one of their better players. Richarlison or arguably is their best player, just strikes me as an individual rather than a team player. They were building up the foundations pretty nicely I thought. Lewin's form was always going to be temporary though, they likely needed to hold onto Ancelotti, and let him build up a team over a couple more years, instead they ruined that by tossing him to the side at the first sign of struggle. Now they're paying that price.

Everton must be so frustrating if you're a fan of them, since they pretty much nail the appointments they needed to make to better themselves, but then they pull the trigger way too soon, and undo everything they've actually built.

[Trofo]

I saw many pitch invaders - some try to hug player or take selfie, some trying to promote something on their shirt, or running naked to get attention. But I never saw that pitch invader would tie himself to goal post as sign of protest, When I turned in game on TV and saw that's interruoted, I didn't even understood what's going on:

There were more interesting things happening around the pitch then on the pitch between the teams. First we had that tie to the post incident and then later on Lampard broke his arm celebrating the goal. If that did not show how much it means to him....

I was quite sure Everton is not winning this one, so another ticket went down the drain. My pool rank fared even worse Good thing we have only 4 games this week.

[casperBGD]

~snip

one more tonight, my Everton is playing Newcastle, and relegation fight is reality for us, one win/five loses since Lampard took over

You lost 1st place because you haven't enough faith in your Everton. Karma is a bitch.

agree, it is always a booger to play on your team
at least we are in a bit better position regarding relegation fight

TBH, we did not deserved to win, I was satisfied with a draw, since Newcastle is in really great shape lately, but was sure than it will not finish 0:0 when referee showed 14 minutes add time, as one overtime half

[buwaytress]

DCL fell of a cliff in terms of form from what I can gather, and they've just not played as a team when I've watched them. Rafa obviously didn't have a great time after they got rid of Ancelotti, and he sold one of their better players. Richarlison or arguably is their best player, just strikes me as an individual rather than a team player. They were building up the foundations pretty nicely I thought. Lewin's form was always going to be temporary though, they likely needed to hold onto Ancelotti, and let him build up a team over a couple more years, instead they ruined that by tossing him to the side at the first sign of struggle. Now they're paying that price.

Everton must be so frustrating if you're a fan of them, since they pretty much nail the appointments they needed to make to better themselves, but then they pull the trigger way too soon, and undo everything they've actually built.

Thought Ancelotti was prised away to Real but seems you were right. Did a quick lookup and he appears to have felt like the club lost faith in him after a 10th place finish (but really, that was also a run of bad luck) and then decided he'd go before he was pushed out.

Richarlison - I regularly settle with him if picking a player to score and he's even in my fantasy team (abandoned long ago) but yeah, he's more of a lone wolf than a team player, though he was among the first to run to Iwobi to celebrate and can't say he doesn't give work rate. You just don't feel like the team rally around him when they need to dig deep.

Definitely something wrong with them. Ancelotti was a coup and, arguably, even Rafa. Now they're stuck because they stepped into the mud.

agree, it is always a booger to play on your team
at least we are in a bit better position regarding relegation fight

TBH, we did not deserved to win, I was satisfied with a draw, since Newcastle is in really great shape lately, but was sure than it will not finish 0:0 when referee showed 14 minutes add time, as one overtime half

Sorry, casper, but they were so bad. Iwobi's goal only just made up for his wayward play the entire game. And 14 mins extra time yeah, I was even expecting more also because of the red card VAR that took 5 whole bloody minutes.

Tonight Wolves also got 8 minutes 1st half injury time -- which ended up being 11. Allowed the only corner of the game to happen, and a yellow leading to a goal, otherwise regular time was full of Wolves chances that Jimenez screwed up.

Notice a lot in the pool went for 1-0 wins, and that had been previous picks for me but forgetting Sunday win, Wolves have been scoring 4-2-2-2-3-3 goals in their previous 6 wins!

[hilariousetc]

I dont know if anyone has talking this here.

Do you thing its fair winning the Highest Yellow Cap having 3 more games in a round?. I think No.
I know for one game its ok but 3 games more its a lot.

I do not take away merit because you still have to get it right, but if you have that round your best GG even if one people take the 10 in exact result cant catch, i think its a mistake from Superbru.

I know its not easy and i dont put any vote but its for thinking

Whilst maybe they shouldn't count Sportsbet have paid the shorter rounds out before.

Leeds players are dropping like flies. 2-0 at half time. Bamford has gone off and looks like it's serious. Wouldn't surprise me if he's out for the rest of the season now. Lorente limped off with what looks like a back injury and then Klich off with a nasty head injury at just before half time. They've only got one sub left now going into the second half. Phillips is on the bench but hoping he doesn't make an appearance as they can't afford to have him back out injured.

Edit: now their keeper Meslier has gone off injured.

Well that was certainly an interesting second half. Didn't expect Leeds to get any goals and then they went and got 3 to grab all 3 points. It's going to be interesting to see the aftermath of all the injuries and how long the players are going to be out. Bamford was crying on the bench so I think he knows he's going to be out for a while. Hopefully Meslier was just winded as they can't afford to lose him.