English Premiership has started.

Chelsea has already lost to Liverpool, but they never beat liverpool. I'm pulling for Newcastle. This saturday should say alot.

What're your thoughts?

Liverpool
Chelsea
Man Utd
Tottenham
Arsenal


and then everyone else.

Pulling for Fulham obviously but I am a realist and know they won't crack the top 5. I was watching the EPL Preview Show last night on FSC and am curious to see how the Spurs do and also Portsmouth.

If I had to pick I would say this is Liverpools year with Chelsea close behind.

Great way to start off the season. 2-1 win over Wigan.

Liverpool already throw away two points that they're going to need somewhere down the line. And look like they've lost Riise for a while too.

Yeah, we can't be giving away points like this. Not with the way Chelsea looked and they were without Joe Cole and Ballack. It is not going to be easy for anyone to stop Chelsea from winning thier third in a row.

Liverpool are always listless at the beginning of the season. I'm still picking them to win it b/c I don't think the other teams will be able to hold them off afterwards.

Interesting bits from the weekend:

Bolton big: they're probably going to have another consistent season. Not a good start for Tottenham.

Reading! Reading! Reading! Stop giving up stupid goals and we finish in the top 1/2!

Chelsea is so stacked their bench would probably finish top 6.

Man U looked great with Rooney. Minus Rooney for the next three: good luck.

Newcastle wasn't convincing, but, unlike last season, they found a way to win against an inferior team.

The forward for Watford that scored, forget-his-name will get picked up by a top 6 club after this season.

I totally missed the Reading game. Looks like it was a good one.

I though Newcastle looked good. There were definately times where they looked lost but pulled it out in the end. Caught something on picking up some Martin guy who should help out. Don't know if that has been confirmed.

Fulham got their a.ss handed to them. Sheesh, I knew ManU would prevail but not like that. Though good to see Rooney and Ronaldo settle their differences. Looked like they had fun out there together.

Why is Rooney out the next 3 games?

How many points did you get so far Donk? I have 60. Wished I didn't sit Rooney out.

He and Scholes both picked up reds in a pre-season "friendly". The automatic suspensions carry over to league games. I think they got to play the first game because of the time they had to appeal or something.

lol at both of these. Liverp**l aren't going to win the league and ManU will finish above them again. Picking up Kuyt was good, but Bellamy is the definition of streaky and other then Carragher and Gerrard, they posses little in the way of top class talent.

ManU will be fine w/o Rooney and scholes. Its not like we don't have Rossi and Saha to play along with ROnaldo, Giggs, Carrick, Van Der Saar, Rio, O'Shea, Neville, and Keiran RIchardson. Way too much talent to struggle even without rooney and scholes

I know! I sat Rooney too and he plays?? ugh. I got 48, and i took a minus 4 when i let go Lua Lua and replaced him with that Kirsten guy from reading.





Good luck.

west ham will shoot to first after their victory today

Giggs--old
Carrick--overrated
O'Shea--crap
Richardson--crap

Man U will struggle just like Liverpool and my Arsenal.

PS thanks Boro for sticking it to Chelski.

Ugh, this past week destroyed my pool AND my fantasy stats. No one showed up to play except Man U. My Reading did until they got knocked down to 10-men. Blah. It's going to be a very difficult season to predict.

So I just read that Newcastle did pick up Obafemi Martins from Inter. Should be a good addition to the team.

Yep, didn't see that one coming. And now they've got Barca in the Champs League group stage (and a tough Werder Bremen). Mourinho's gonna be pissed.

Yeah, but when isn't he pissed?

You know what really grinds my gears? The fact that those cheats from Milan got the easiest group.

lol. Have u ever watched richardson, and O Shea was played OOP the entire year last year. Carrick will also be a wonderful addition to the squad

Did anyone see that elbow that Thatcher (Man City) put on Perdro Mendes (Spurs) the other day. Damn that was sick. Guess Man City suspended him for it but the league has had no reaction to it yet. Can't believe he only got a yellow for it in the first place.

Probably one of the most vicious things I've ever seen on a pitch. Here's the youtube link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTRaS7ffyWg

The Premier League may not be able to suspend him because he was only given a yellow card. He was disciplined on the pitch, so they technically can't use replay.

what's nuts is if you watch it closely Mendes is KOd before he hit the ground

hey, look, again I was right, what a shocker. 3 games, 9 pts, and top of the prem, with two of the games sans scholes and rooney.

Aresenal not looking so good early. Damn shots hitting the cross bar left and right.

So what have we learned thus far in the season:

Manchester United doesn't seem to be missing Ruud (or Scholes and Rooney, for the time being).

Chelsea isn't unbeatable, but after the Blackburn game is rounding into form.

Liverpool is looking much like they have in other years: inconsistent but able to do just enough when the moment calls for it. Squeaked by Maccabi Haifa. Looked pretty good against West Ham.

Arsenal seem to have some issues. At least they made it into the group stage of Champs League.

Spurs are in a real mess. Losing to ten-man Everton (my choice to have a real bounce-back season).

Villa are also looking very solid. The appointment of Martin O'Neill and the stability of new ownership seem to have helped the team on the pitch. Newcastle on the other hand looks to be in a bit of a mess again. Sign a new striker (Obafemi Martins) and he goes out and gets hurt in his first match.

I'm interested to see how 'boro does tomorrow. See if they look like the side that beat Chelsea or the side that lost to Reading.

Blah.

Right about what? Have they awarded the cup yet?

no, they haven't, but u claimed that they'd struggle w/o rooney and scholes, I said they wouldn't, I was right that they didn't. Reading what I wrote may help

Spurs for the league.

You're easily the most defensive person I've ever posted with.

I said "w/o Rooney for the next 3 weeks: Good luck."

Didn't say they would struggle. In fact, my OP on this thread has Man U finishing top 3.

Eaaaasssy..

Arsenal needs to learn how to finish. They should have scored at least 4 or 5 goals against City and failed to even get a shot off on their great chances. They definately have the ability to be a great team but they are missing a key ingredient.

Bummer about Newcastle. I was hoping hard for a win this week.

Yay! Fulham gets their first win. I will be happy with a top half of the table finish this year so they are currently doing that. Too bad there are like 30+ games left.

lol, you over react to a lot of stuff don't you. If I'm easily the most defensive person that you've ever posted with, then you haven't either seen most of my posts, or don't go to that many other internet sites. Lest we also not forget you jumping all over my jock over saying what region a poster's IP came from, so pot, kettle, black

I make a post gloating about my team doing well and you come in saying that they haven't won the cup yet, all I was doing was pointing out that I was happy that they still kicked *** w/o scholes or Rooney. Again, reading and contextual comprehension may help before posting

Apologies. I will try to read what you meant to mean and not what you said.

Watched the Portsmouth game last night. They looked really good against Boro.

gkunit, any word on how Martins is?

Yeah, Portsmouth all of a sudden pwns and if they could go .500 against the big teams this year, may have a shot at the UEFA.

Apparently, they have some money over there too and could keep it up. How did they originally get into suckdom and have to climb out of that?

they've almost always sucked. Until like 2 or 3 years ago, they hadn't been in the top flight in something like 20 years and were very close to relegation a few times down to the not as old division 2. Milan Mandaric came in and bought them in the late 90s and they became a decent division 1(now championship) side. 'arry Redknapp got them promoted and they've been in the top flight the past couple of year. Now a new russian owner came in and bought out Mandaric's shares, and voila, lots o money to spend= doing better in teh standings. Their stadium will still hurt them as it only holds slightly over 20K and they are in a crap town, so few top players will ever want to go there

Yeah, they have some former stars like Kanu starting now...wonder if a new stadium happens, more players would be willing to come in. European soccer is pretty luring..

even if they made a new stadium, it would be hard to convince a lot of players to spend their time in portsmouth. most top clubs exist in cities that at least have something going for them(well, maybe except for turin, gelsenkirchen, and dortmund), portsmouth is a POS town in each and everyway. Pompey will never be more then a team that will sometimes make a run for a european place and bounce between the top two tiers of football

How about Tevez and Maschiano to West Ham?!

I'd be running from Corinthians too...

I don't know why they went to Brazil in the first place!

Seriously, the EPL is going to be so strong by the end of the year, it will be far-and-away the most superior in Europe. AINEC.

here's a hint, it has a lot to do with abramovich

Man, Abramovich is one dodgy ******* (if it is him behind it). The whole thing must be completely illegal.

Yeah, that is why english teams completely dominate the CL.

I'm sorry, you seem to be talking in the past tense while I was speaking in future.

Ha, point taken. The prem could be the strongest league by the end of the year but I seriously doubt it. The way english teams play atm just doesnt suit the styles of Italian, Spanish..and maybe German teams, to their disadvantage. I doubt it will change in the near future.

Gallas and Julio "The Beast" Baptista? Yes please!

--------------Lehmann
--------------------------------
Eboue----Toure----Gallas---Clichy
--------------------------------
--------------------Gilberto
-----------Cesc
Hleb------------------------Rosicky/Walcott
--------------------------------
---------Baptista
------------------Henry

Yeah, that's nice.

Demarcus Beasley to Man City. It will be interesting to see how he does in England. I think with his pace he could be a hit as long as he can handle the physical play.

Good manager for him too... because from what little I've seen of him, he seems to drift in and out of matches. Psycho will make sure he's committed.

Yeah, I like that guy. He get's more out of his players than a lot of others could.