⚽ Premier League 2025/2026 Discussion Thread ⚽

[Hanadawa]

... And now it seems that we have an intrigue, will Chelsea be able to catch Liverpool and compete with them?

A tough question to answer.    But I can say it isn't a very low possibility of course. There is no guarantee Liverpool will continue perfectly until the end of the season in the end. Chelsea are going really serious this season. In case of an opportunity arising, I believe they will do their best. However there is an important difference between the 2 teams at the same time.

Although it seems that Chelsea has a chance to be the champion this season but I think Liverpool is on a different level. Chelsea does not dominate the game like Liverpool did. I think the competition between Liverpool and Chelsea this season will be like the competition between Arsenal and City in the previous two seasons. Where City dominated the game and Arsenal performed inconsistently so they failed to win the title. I see Chelsea is still inconsistent with their game. But of course I hope Chelsea can put pressure on Liverpool. It will be boring if Liverpool performs dominantly this season without any competitors.

[mamesso]

It was very disappointing seeing that Manchester United lost that match at their home against an unpopular team like Nottingham Forest, that was just promoted to the Premiership. However, this shows that Nottingham Forest is very dangerous when they play away against a team that is obviously bigger than them. I remember they also did similar thing to Liverpool at Anfield, a defeat that demoralized the Reds if not that they were able to get over it and started strong again.

At this point it is difficult to know what will be the fate of Manchester United. Despite the changes they have made so far, it seems nothing have really changed much. SO the best they can do now is to manage the league until the season ends or bring in new players by January.

The reason for Man United defeat was not because Nottingham played well, but they have not found their best form since being handled by Amorim. He seems to have not found the best starting XI in the Man United squad, the rotation carried out in this match was also not effective. Onana blunders were also the cause of Man United defeat, although he could not do much about Nikola Milenkovic goal after just two minutes, he made a big mistake when conceding Morgan Gibbs-White goal and confusion when dealing with Chris Wood header.

Man United vs Nottingham Forest player ratings.

[Oluwa-btc]

Onana blunders were also the cause of Man United defeat, although he could not do much about Nikola Milenkovic goal after just two minutes, he made a big mistake when conceding Morgan Gibbs-White goal and confusion when dealing with Chris Wood header.

I hate to say this but this is wrong. Pay attention to the build up of that goal scores by Morgan Gibbs White, you'd see that Bruno Fernandez caused the error,  Andrea Onana tried to pick up the shot but that was a beautiful shot technique from Gibbs. Now you're on here blasting Andrea Onana, but I didn't see you giving him flowers when he saved Man United 3+ times against Ipswich. I do not like this gutter analysis from United fans. Pathetic. Defenders also did poorly during that game, call them out ( Lisandro Martinez  ) now I'm feeling like you never saw the game.

[Hewlet]

... And now it seems that we have an intrigue, will Chelsea be able to catch Liverpool and compete with them?

A tough question to answer.    But I can say it isn't a very low possibility of course. There is no guarantee Liverpool will continue perfectly until the end of the season in the end. Chelsea are going really serious this season. In case of an opportunity arising, I believe they will do their best. However there is an important difference between the 2 teams at the same time.

Although it seems that Chelsea has a chance to be the champion this season but I think Liverpool is on a different level. Chelsea does not dominate the game like Liverpool did. I think the competition between Liverpool and Chelsea this season will be like the competition between Arsenal and City in the previous two seasons. Where City dominated the game and Arsenal performed inconsistently so they failed to win the title. I see Chelsea is still inconsistent with their game. But of course I hope Chelsea can put pressure on Liverpool. It will be boring if Liverpool performs dominantly this season without any competitors.

the advantage that Chelsea has is that they are playing as an underdog that has been written off as a title contender which is why they have managed to progress this far and are at a point of staying just four point behind the table leaders. the ride is still long and even though Chelsea are still at the second spot, they have not won much of the big teams they have played against and that is something they have to work on if they are hoping to give Liverpool some sort of threat.

the distraction of Liverpool toping the champions league could also play it own role in giving Chelsea some form of advantage in the premier league since they already have depth of players that get enough chance of recovering for most of the premier league while the team B get to play at the conference league. there goal should just be to make it to top four at the end of the season while hoping to contend for the title in tyhe coming season.

[topbitcoin]

team's improvement and at the moment I think Amorim must work more optimally because after all, apart from the great pressure Amorim has at the moment he will also always be compared to Ruud who managed to manage Manchester United's performance well even with the same players so in this case I think it's not just about players that need to be improved but Amorim's way of seeing momentum must be considered because he is the person in charge of Manchester United at the moment.

Ruud was only a quick fix; he was fortunate to have achieved the results he did while still using Erik formation; what he was doing would not be successful for a long time. Amorim was someone they needed, and while he hasn't done much, we can see some positive improvements; it's difficult to bring the best to a club whose players' drive died a long time ago since the former boss did not provide a healthy dressing room atmosphere. Whether Amorim's implementation yields quick results or not, it will take some time before they see results.

But in fact there is no such thing as luck in football and the fact of the match statistics in the first 5 matches between Amorim and Ruud in the end Ruud was much better with 4 matches Ruud ended with 3 wins and 1 draw but Amorim's first 5 matches ended with 1 draw 2 losses and 2 wins from all competitions run.
This means that there is no coincidence just because Amorim has had a good career in the Portuguese league competition he is considered everything because in the end we can see that he in the EPL has not been that good.

Amorim is what Manchester United needs? These words look the same as the previous few seasons in the ETH era but in the end we still can't make a statement as if Amorim is a great coach because until now, the proof he gave is still not seen as expected and the positive changes you said even I didn't see that in the few matches Manchester United did.

[hyudien]

Although it seems that Chelsea has a chance to be the champion this season but I think Liverpool is on a different level. Chelsea does not dominate the game like Liverpool did. I think the competition between Liverpool and Chelsea this season will be like the competition between Arsenal and City in the previous two seasons. Where City dominated the game and Arsenal performed inconsistently so they failed to win the title. I see Chelsea is still inconsistent with their game. But of course I hope Chelsea can put pressure on Liverpool. It will be boring if Liverpool performs dominantly this season without any competitors.

Talking about the level of course I think Liverpool and Chelsea deserve to be compared. Because so far only Chelsea has been able to show consistency compared to its city rival Arsenal and now competitors like Man City are actually experiencing a decline. Therefore, Chelsea existence is very good for the Premier League competition, at least Chelsea is a representative of Man City and Arsenal who can still provide tight resistance for Liverpool at the top of the standings.

[SmartCharpa]

Both Manchester clubs are turning out to be weekend party poopers , I know clubs like Nottingham will give you a run for your money on any given day , but wtf is going on with these clubs always want to chase the game

I suspect the fat cheque's that these guys get has made them lazy otherwise the only remedy to fix this is a wage cut and see how the boys will play better, otherwise looking forward to seeing the boys dig themselves out of the hole...

3-2 let's go...

It was quite unexpected that Manchester United ended up being worse than Manchester City. If Guardiola failed to lift the league title this season, we had no way to blame him for their failure to win the Premier League, as they had won it four times in a row. And what about Manchester United? They didn't remember their last league title, but they still struggled to return to their previous level of performance. During the games played last weekend, Manchester City managed to get one point in the way match to draw with Crystal Palace. However, Manchester United lost at home against Nottingham Forest.

Furthermore, Nottingham Forest has been a tough club this season, with their opponents struggling to win games, yet, I wasn't expecting Manchester United to lose if they weren't winning. I'm not sure about others, but I've yet to understand Amorim's method with Manchester United, a three man defense will not help Manchester United win games this season, Rud Van Nistelrooy used four defenders and won his games. However, Amorim wants to utilize a three man defense with a club that is in poor form.

[Palakka]

Although it seems that Chelsea has a chance to be the champion this season but I think Liverpool is on a different level. Chelsea does not dominate the game like Liverpool did. I think the competition between Liverpool and Chelsea this season will be like the competition between Arsenal and City in the previous two seasons. Where City dominated the game and Arsenal performed inconsistently so they failed to win the title. I see Chelsea is still inconsistent with their game. But of course I hope Chelsea can put pressure on Liverpool. It will be boring if Liverpool performs dominantly this season without any competitors.

Talking about the level of course I think Liverpool and Chelsea deserve to be compared. Because so far only Chelsea has been able to show consistency compared to its city rival Arsenal and now competitors like Man City are actually experiencing a decline. Therefore, Chelsea existence is very good for the Premier League competition, at least Chelsea is a representative of Man City and Arsenal who can still provide tight resistance for Liverpool at the top of the standings.

Come on guys let's think realistically at the moment, indeed at the moment chelsea is the closest team to liverpool in terms of points, but it's too early for us to assume if chelsea will be a team that can provide tight resistance to liverpool compared from arsenal and manchester city, so far chelsea has shown a pretty good performance like in their last match, but they still need to show stability in their game to really be a challenger to Liverpool this season, the season is still too long in my opinion, currently except for Liverpool, the team in the top 4 zone has a very small point difference, so all possibilities can happen before mid-season later.

[Velvet78]

Manchester City are really drowning in the Premier League these days.    If you haven't heard their number of breaches has gone up to 130 recently as well.

https://www.givemesport.com/why-man-city-facing-130-charges-breaching-premier-league-rules/

The result of this big case is expected no earlier than the first months of 2025. They are dealing with a horrible form too on one hand. it isn't difficult to understand how bad situation Guardiola is in now.

Do you think they will still manage to make a comeback from this? This time I started to believe it won't happen. There are really interesting examples in the past of course but I believe this isn't happening again.

[hahay]

Manchester City are really drowning in the Premier League these days.    If you haven't heard their number of breaches has gone up to 130 recently as well.

https://www.givemesport.com/why-man-city-facing-130-charges-breaching-premier-league-rules/

The result of this big case is expected no earlier than the first months of 2025. They are dealing with a horrible form too on one hand. it isn't difficult to understand how bad situation Guardiola is in now.

Do you think they will still manage to make a comeback from this? This time I started to believe it won't happen. There are really interesting examples in the past of course but I believe this isn't happening again.

With this case, I personally will start to doubt Manchester City even though Pep Guardiola is still in the Manchester City coaching chair.But anyway, it seems, as far as I know so far Pep Guardiola has never been faced with club problems like now, which seems like it will be very complicated for Pep Guardiola to make Manchester City rise. Because at least,  when a team has a lot of problems, it will very often have a very bad impact on the team's performance from time to time. But yes, if the punishment is only about fines, maybe Manchester City can still fix it, but if the punishment is about point deductions and the worst thing is relegating the club, then it will take a long time  for them to be able to rise again.

[pawel7777]

New rumours regarding Amorim's plans for Man United resurfaced today.
Media are reporting that United's star, Marcus Rashford, is no longer considered as "unsellable" and some other outlets outright speculate on Amorim wanting to get rid of him, citing his lifestyle and off-the-pitch distractions:
https://metro.co.uk/2024/12/10/manchester-united-superstar-no-longer-unsellable-one-key-reason-22158321/
https://www.caughtoffside.com/2024/12/10/marcus-rashford-transfer-2/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2024/12/10/manchester-united-open-sell-marcus-rashford-lifestyle/

I'm not a big fan of Rashford, but if he is to go away, United needs to find a proper replacement.

[Leviathan.007]

The biggest mistake Erik Ten Hag did was to talk down about his players, these players are either mostly young players who want to have a better future, or players that are already good enough in fame, and when Erik did that, every player started to just not care what Erik says and started to just do whatever they want, and the result was terrible, resulted with Erik Ten Hag getting sacked.

Amorim isn't starting out good at all, he is already talking about how players are not running, and they have to start, he is at least saying they are talented, or hinted at that, or maybe he is even saying they aren't even that talented and still not running. Long story short, we need to realize that we are not seeing the team and staff having love for each other at the moment. Amorim should reconsider his talking points and maybe try to just praise the team for their efforts and talk how he believes they can do better or something to get them fired up.

Erik Ten Hag was not a bad coach like many people talk about him and we can't forget once he joined Manchester United he improved the team a lot but still the main problem about Erik Ten Hag and Manchester United was the bad relationship he had with the player and Sancho was one example of these players. In fact, he wanted to keep players in hard pieces of training and he even punished players for having bad performances.
I remember in the last season when Manchester United lost a game against Liverpool with a bad result, Erik Ten Hag made all the players to stay there and watch the Liverpool players celebrate to punish them. That's why the players of this team did not try hard for this coach.

[Velvet78]

New rumours regarding Amorim's plans for Man United resurfaced today.
Media are reporting that United's star, Marcus Rashford, is no longer considered as "unsellable" and some other outlets outright speculate on Amorim wanting to get rid of him, citing his lifestyle and off-the-pitch distractions:
https://metro.co.uk/2024/12/10/manchester-united-superstar-no-longer-unsellable-one-key-reason-22158321/
https://www.caughtoffside.com/2024/12/10/marcus-rashford-transfer-2/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2024/12/10/manchester-united-open-sell-marcus-rashford-lifestyle/

I'm not a big fan of Rashford, but if he is to go away, United needs to find a proper replacement.

I'm not surprised with such decision though.    Because Rashford was already really inconsistent. I don't know about his life style much but his performance is surely not good enough in general. He isn't an untouchable player at the moment. I agree with Amorim about this action if the source is reliable. He can surely be replaced by a much better and consistent LW.

Manchester United has spent tons of money so far you know. Many transfers turned out to be a flop unfortunately. I hope to see Amorim taking the right steps for the team to make them stand up finally.

[Dzwaafu11]

Manchester City are really drowning in the Premier League these days.    If you haven't heard their number of breaches has gone up to 130 recently as well.

https://www.givemesport.com/why-man-city-facing-130-charges-breaching-premier-league-rules/

The result of this big case is expected no earlier than the first months of 2025. They are dealing with a horrible form too on one hand. it isn't difficult to understand how bad situation Guardiola is in now.

Do you think they will still manage to make a comeback from this? This time I started to believe it won't happen. There are really interesting examples in the past of course but I believe this isn't happening again.

With this case, I personally will start to doubt Manchester City even though Pep Guardiola is still in the Manchester City coaching chair.But anyway, it seems, as far as I know so far Pep Guardiola has never been faced with club problems like now, which seems like it will be very complicated for Pep Guardiola to make Manchester City rise. Because at least,  when a team has a lot of problems, it will very often have a very bad impact on the team's performance from time to time. But yes, if the punishment is only about fines, maybe Manchester City can still fix it, but if the punishment is about point deductions and the worst thing is relegating the club, then it will take a long time  for them to be able to rise again.

Manchester City is seriously facing hard times with their performances, and with the way things are going right now, I don’t think they will get back to form anytime soon, even though, as you said, Pep Guardiola is a very talented coach, and he knows what he is doing. I’m thinking that he has already found it difficult to fix the club back to form this season.

I don’t know about next season, but I have started having that feeling that Manchester City will not get what they want this season because of the way their performance is going. Maybe Guardiola should start preparing for next season to be good for him and the team, but right now Manchester City is experiencing hard times. 

[ILuckyGuyI]

Talking about the level of course I think Liverpool and Chelsea deserve to be compared. Because so far only Chelsea has been able to show consistency compared to its city rival Arsenal and now competitors like Man City are actually experiencing a decline. Therefore, Chelsea existence is very good for the Premier League competition, at least Chelsea is a representative of Man City and Arsenal who can still provide tight resistance for Liverpool at the top of the standings.

Chelsea lost at Anfield once by 2-1 in the PL this season. However the way they fought back was really nice to watch.    Currently there isn't a big difference in terms of performance.

I think Liverpool have a better squad but Chelsea are playing really passionately. Palmer is an amazing talent and he is carrying the club on his shoulders. As long as he doesn't get injured for a long time I don't expect them to drop from the title race too early. Chelsea are the most scorer club also. Their only issue could be their defense. If they start conceding less goals then they can keep up more comfortably.

[blue Snow]

New rumours regarding Amorim's plans for Man United resurfaced today.
Media are reporting that United's star, Marcus Rashford, is no longer considered as "unsellable" and some other outlets outright speculate on Amorim wanting to get rid of him, citing his lifestyle and off-the-pitch distractions:
https://metro.co.uk/2024/12/10/manchester-united-superstar-no-longer-unsellable-one-key-reason-22158321/
https://www.caughtoffside.com/2024/12/10/marcus-rashford-transfer-2/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2024/12/10/manchester-united-open-sell-marcus-rashford-lifestyle/

I'm not a big fan of Rashford, but if he is to go away, United needs to find a proper replacement.

There is nothing to defend, Rashford must put to the market to reduce the salary budget because he is a one player who have huge salary on old Trafford. Amorim's steps are correct, and must be supported by management for the refreshment of the squad. there are many substitutions for him, or if Amorim really want to recruit another player to replace Rashford, Gyokeres is one attacker who suitable for his scheme. He's not good also in the hands of a new coach of Sporting, he is no longer sharp when not trained by amorim, so here's a chance to calling him to old Trafford on January windows transfer.

[ITExpert]

Chelsea lost at Anfield once by 2-1 in the PL this season. However the way they fought back was really nice to watch.    Currently there isn't a big difference in terms of performance.

I think Liverpool have a better squad but Chelsea are playing really passionately. Palmer is an amazing talent and he is carrying the club on his shoulders. As long as he doesn't get injured for a long time I don't expect them to drop from the title race too early. Chelsea are the most scorer club also. Their only issue could be their defense. If they start conceding less goals then they can keep up more comfortably.

I think This was due to Chelsea poor performance. If they played well and pressured the match, not winning the match by scoring more goals, it could have been a draw but Chelsea lost the match by 1 goal.There is a huge difference in perform and record between Liverpool and Chelsea so Liverpool is a very good team and Chelsea are also but can't beat Liverpool.  It is because of their good performance that they are playing well this season that is why until they are able to play they can beat them otherwise they dominate. So they  behind they need to strengthen themselves because Chelsea won a few matches and put themselves in a position where they were weak.

[Lidger]

Manchester City are really drowning in the Premier League these days.    If you haven't heard their number of breaches has gone up to 130 recently as well.

https://www.givemesport.com/why-man-city-facing-130-charges-breaching-premier-league-rules/

The result of this big case is expected no earlier than the first months of 2025. They are dealing with a horrible form too on one hand. it isn't difficult to understand how bad situation Guardiola is in now.

Do you think they will still manage to make a comeback from this? This time I started to believe it won't happen. There are really interesting examples in the past of course but I believe this isn't happening again.

With this case, I personally will start to doubt Manchester City even though Pep Guardiola is still in the Manchester City coaching chair.But anyway, it seems, as far as I know so far Pep Guardiola has never been faced with club problems like now, which seems like it will be very complicated for Pep Guardiola to make Manchester City rise. Because at least,  when a team has a lot of problems, it will very often have a very bad impact on the team's performance from time to time. But yes, if the punishment is only about fines, maybe Manchester City can still fix it, but if the punishment is about point deductions and the worst thing is relegating the club, then it will take a long time  for them to be able to rise again.

Manchester City is seriously facing hard times with their performances, and with the way things are going right now, I don’t think they will get back to form anytime soon, even though, as you said, Pep Guardiola is a very talented coach, and he knows what he is doing. I’m thinking that he has already found it difficult to fix the club back to form this season.

I don’t know about next season, but I have started having that feeling that Manchester City will not get what they want this season because of the way their performance is going. Maybe Guardiola should start preparing for next season to be good for him and the team, but right now Manchester City is experiencing hard times. 

It is a big challenge for the manager, when the team performs well then no one highlights the manager's contribution but when the same team under that manager performs poorly in some matches but that manager's criticism is the most. The Manchester City manager is quite capable but none of his tactics seem to be working as Manchester City is becoming a failed team on a regular basis. Losing against strong teams was normal but now Manchester City are regularly losing against opponents no matter how tough or weak that opponent is. Manchester City's recent run of results in the Champions League has seen them slip down the ranks in the Premier League. I don't know when Manchester City will return to good performance but it is very important for them to return to good performance.

[JeffBrad12]

New rumours regarding Amorim's plans for Man United resurfaced today.
Media are reporting that United's star, Marcus Rashford, is no longer considered as "unsellable" and some other outlets outright speculate on Amorim wanting to get rid of him, citing his lifestyle and off-the-pitch distractions:
https://metro.co.uk/2024/12/10/manchester-united-superstar-no-longer-unsellable-one-key-reason-22158321/
https://www.caughtoffside.com/2024/12/10/marcus-rashford-transfer-2/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2024/12/10/manchester-united-open-sell-marcus-rashford-lifestyle/

I'm not a big fan of Rashford, but if he is to go away, United needs to find a proper replacement.

I'm not surprised with such decision though.    Because Rashford was already really inconsistent. I don't know about his life style much but his performance is surely not good enough in general. He isn't an untouchable player at the moment. I agree with Amorim about this action if the source is reliable. He can surely be replaced by a much better and consistent LW.

Manchester United has spent tons of money so far you know. Many transfers turned out to be a flop unfortunately. I hope to see Amorim taking the right steps for the team to make them stand up finally.

Rashford was only good in his first season, then he's been a liability ever since. His price has been sinking coz horrendous performance consistently shown by him. I remember the last time PSG sent MU an offer for him, but i dunno whether PSG still has interest in him.

They bought him for 100 million, and his price is declining by more than a half. None would buy him if Manchester United still priced him expensively.

[AprilioMP]

New rumours regarding Amorim's plans for Man United resurfaced today.
Media are reporting that United's star, Marcus Rashford, is no longer considered as "unsellable" and some other outlets outright speculate on Amorim wanting to get rid of him, citing his lifestyle and off-the-pitch distractions:
https://metro.co.uk/2024/12/10/manchester-united-superstar-no-longer-unsellable-one-key-reason-22158321/
https://www.caughtoffside.com/2024/12/10/marcus-rashford-transfer-2/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2024/12/10/manchester-united-open-sell-marcus-rashford-lifestyle/

I'm not a big fan of Rashford, but if he is to go away, United needs to find a proper replacement.

Evan Ferguson is already on Manchester United's radar if Amorim doesn't want to use Marcus Rashford's services. When I saw on my twitter feed that Evan Ferguson was a recruitment target that Manchester United would do, for me it was good because Ferguson is still 20 years old but already has good statistics as a striker. In my opinion, that's good because apart from his young age with good statistics, he is also currently playing in the Premier League so he won't have difficulties like the current Manchester United strikers who were recruited from outside the Premier League.