Football – 2023/24 Season

Battle of Stamford Bridge took place on 25 September 1066.
It has sweet FA to do with 22 over-paid prima donnas kicking an inflated pigs bladder around on a piece of manicured grass in London.

I hate Spurs obvs. But you have to hand it to them. A really aggressive, confident performance. I don’t think this game is doing anything for Chelsea’s self belief whatsoever. 

Entertainment no doubt.  Although tnt injuries and suspensions have brought the fairytale ‘we can dream’ ride to an end now.  Still….2 more transfer windows before next season and we can look to improve

Battle of Stamford Bridge took place on 25 September 1066.
It has sweet FA to do with 22 over-paid prima donnas kicking an inflated pigs bladder around on a piece of manicured grass in London.

Well that’s literally your opinion.

I know Frank, but a game of football that sealed Leicester winning the prem got the nickname.

What I meant was: Nicholas Jackson. What a goal scoring machine 😕

Well that was amusing 😳

Battle of Stamford Bridge took place on 25 September 1066.

It has sweet FA to do with 22 over-paid prima donnas kicking an inflated pigs bladder around on a piece of manicured grass in London.

Was it on Sky Sports?

No, BBC 2.

Not an opinion; it is, literally, a fact.

Not an opinion; it is, literally, a fact.

Woosh.

Woosh.

A failed attempt at ‘humour’.
Oh, your spelling is piss poor – whoosh.
If you have anything meaningful to say, don’t hesitate to post – I really can’t wait; yawn.

A failed attempt at ‘humour’.
Oh, your spelling is piss poor – whoosh.
If you have anything meaningful to say, don’t hesitate to post – I really can’t wait; yawn.

There’s really no need to be so unpleasant. For the record, Chelsea’s ground name being the same as the place in Yorkshire is purely coincidental, and figuratively, a tough game between rivals is often described as a battle. So your comment about “sweet FA” was incorrect, unless you’re dull enough to insist that language must be purely literal.

Anyway, back to the football. Commentary suggested that Spurs took plenty from it despite the defeat, but I disagree. They lost four key players to injury or suspension, and I don’t think their squad is deep enough to cope. Time will tell.

That high line was suicidal. A squad with some in form strikers would have run rampant through that and maybe got into double figures

Before Christmas a number of teams seem to be in with a chance, after Chrimbo Man City win it.

I went tonight (not a Spurs fan but never liked Chelsea). It was a nutty and very enjoyable night and Spurs did themselves proud. That stadium is something else…

Spurs did themselves proud

🤣

Really? Here’s another one 😂

Missed a lot of this but one thing that needs correction. Eddie Howe has not made Newcastle into a tough, niggly, just about the right side of the line side, where every man has his mate’s back like you need to have to be competitive, and to say he has is very unfair.

Jason Tindall deserves the credit for that.

I admire Spurs for continuing to make the second half a great watch. I certainly didn’t expect to it be especially after the second red. Maybe I’m being harsh, but I’m not sure I understand the praise being heaped on them. To continue to defend as they did when they were down to 9 men and at that moment they were still at 1-1 so not like they needed to chase the game. Getting a point out of that would have been a moral victory, getting beat 4-1 is definitely not. 

but I’m not sure I understand the praise being heaped on them

If any other side had played that ridiculous high line with 9 or 10 men then we’d be reading about schoolboy naivety, but because of the hype around Postecoglou instead it’s brave and gritty. The stupid thing is that Chelsea’s front line were so profligate that had they simply parked the bus around the penalty area Chelsea wouldn’t have won.

^That!

Jason Tindall deserves the credit for that.

Lol’d.

Maybe it’s Howe who is the one responsible for the 2nd best GD in the Prem then? I find all that talk about grit a bit patronising. We’ve play some of the best football I’ve seen at the Toon – including when I had a season ticket in the Keegan years.

I see Arteta is still rattling on about the injustice of it all like some toddler who’s had his sweets taken off him. He’s not doing himself or Arsenal any favours with his incessant whining. Can’t see many 50/50 on-field calls going their way any time soon.

That high line was suicidal. A squad with some in form strikers would have run rampant through that and maybe got into double figures

Thankfully Postecoglou was well aware of Chelsea’s capabilities. I detest Chelsea and aren’t a massive fan of Spurs but thought Spurs were superb/Chelsea laughably poor. If only Dier had stayed a foot onside for that “goal” at the end. The 2 late Jackson goals (jeez, how bad is he?) made the scoreline a total non-reflection on the actual game.

Romero is an absolute loose cannon isn’t he? Whenever I watch Spurs he does something mental…

Arteta just needs to stop with the complaining, he’s making no favours for himself, that goal was allowed simply because VAR couldn’t provide conclusive proof otherwise, that’s not robbery, it’s just the lack of camera coverage.

Think Arteta needs to work out why he’s messing about with his team so much that they barely had a shot at goal at the weekend, and how they can win against the big 4 or 5 clubs, all good and well rolling over the smaller teams, but Arteta doesn’t seem to do that well against the big boys.

Arteta is doing what Fergie used to do – put pressure on refs so although the big decisions might go against them they’ll get lots more decisions in the game. They’ll be awarded soft freekicks & the ref’s will go easier on their side when they’re pushing what an acceptable tackle is.

Yeah, but Fergie was doing it 20 years ago.

If you wanted to win yourself same soft reffing decisions, I’d say that nowadays it has the opposite effect as refs have now had more than enough of it.

Still banging on about it in the press days later is just embarrassing

Although I personally think the opinion on the foul for the Toon goal was wrong and it is very regrettable that it wasn’t able to pronounce for certain on the two items of fact (was the ball over the line and was Gordon offside), at least the VAR could be seen to be going through the decision making process unlike the problem of a hurried and unstructured wrong decision around that disallowed Liverpool goal against Spurs earlier in the season.  Unlike some other sports with technological assistance such as rugby or overseas football leagues, our referees come across as a bunch of jumped up twerps with an over-developed sense of self-importance who want to be a part of the game yet without any degree of empathy for how it is played; it’s less about a failing of the system but more those operating it.

I thought the Havertz “tackle” was a straight red.
Bruno’s elbow to the back of tyhe head also a straight red, not sure the ref saw it, var absolutley should have brought him to the screen. Also IMO that was violent conduct and should have been an extended ban by a couple of extra games.
The goal decision, specifically the foul, was the wrong decision IMO, however it wasn’t a terrible decision, it was one of those that I can see the point of view of those who say it wasn’t a foul, but two hands onn the back seems to normally be automatically given as a foul so it is inconsistent with what we normally see.

The Spurs/Chelsea game reminds me of when Chelsea played Man City in 2016. Some poor refereeing made it a niggly match with Aguero and Fernandinho being sent off for City. That result derailed City’s title aspirations – wonder if Monday’s game will have a similar effect on Spurs.

WRT the Bruno incident one of the pundits thought it wasn’t pulled up because it was forearm rather than elbow, and that is OK.  So it isn’t a case of assault if you use the appropriate part of your body.  Work that one out.

The biggest thing i couldn’t understand, in this day and age with VAR, why the hell is Raheem Sterling diving at every opportunity, he had 2 or 3 worth yellows in that game, do the footballers forget that in the box there’s pretty much full coverage?!

Derailed spurs’ title aspirations? We didn’t have any mate.  Squad not deep enough.  The damage from that game has now decimated us. 

Yes I agree,  attacking football=ange ball = how we play mate… but there comes a time where a compact and deep defensive unit has a place.   Just because we finally managed to break through Liverpool’s excellent efforts doesn’t mean it wouldn’t have worked better for us yesterday. 

I’m not turning on Ange, I think it’s right to start ambitious and not lose faith but when at 9 men … trying to do energetic attacking ball, playing through the opposition is a big up hill battle. 

Oh and if Messi says cuti is the best cb in the world I listen BUT even I know  step one in the ‘how to be a world class defender 101 manual’ is BE ON THE PITCH!  Destiny dawg needs to read that first page of the manual too.

I’m sure Big Ange said words to that effect to him. From a neutrals point of view he’s a quality player to watch as he’s either a match-winner or an absolute liability!

I know this because I’ve had him in my FF team for most of the season – I transferred hi out before last night though

I think Nunes must have found Sterling’s slippy soled boots in the Etihad broom cupboard 

He’s struggling to stay upright tonight 

I’m not turning on Ange, I think it’s right to start ambitious and not lose faith but when at 9 men … trying to do energetic attacking ball, playing through the opposition is a big up hill battle.

Maybe its the coming from Scottish football where Celtic could probably quite easily do that and still win with 9 on the pitch. Learning curve in a proper league… its probably similar to what led to Bielsa’s downfall, plan A and if that doesn’t work, stick with plan A 😀

its probably similar to what led to Bielsa’s downfall, plan A and if that doesn’t work, stick with plan A

^ Trudat

Bit of a lesson for the toon last night but CL this year was always going to be a learning process rather than a real ambition (it’s already made us a better team IMO). Not sure it’s much of a priority TBH so really won’t be disappointed if/when we go out at the group stage with all the injuries we’ve got. Europa League might be a more realistic opportunity as long as we can clear the injury list. And we desperately need another forward in January, Wilson is out of his depth at this level.

I think the injuries have done for Newcastle.

last night, there was a young lad on the bench, Ben Parkinson, who hasn’t played in a competitive 1st team game yet.

Not sure if I think finishing third and playing in the Europa league would be a good thing.

The priority has to be the league and pushing for CL again and try to have a go at the domestic cups.