8/23 - 8/25 gamethread (Week 3): Friday Afternoon Footy

OCST

Sunny von Bulow
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Jan 10, 2004
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The 718
Get those fantasy picks in by 2:00: this weekend’s action starts with my Toffes visiting Villa Park for the next chapter of the most played fixture in league football history.

A win sends Everton to the top of the table, just like yours truly in SoSH FPL SILVERWARE BABY

Mrs O and I are playing hooky and decamping to Manhattan’s Everton pub for a pint or two and a beat-down of those Villains.
 

DJnVa

Dorito Dawg
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Dec 16, 2010
53,837
Ndombele out for Spurs this weekend with a "minor" knock picked up in training. Alli back in training and Son is eligible to play.
 

OCST

Sunny von Bulow
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Jan 10, 2004
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The 718
It may impact his match fitness but the involuntary time off may have helped Son. He looked terrible at the end of the season- of course they rode their stud horses hard with the CL etc but he really got worn down I thought.
 

67YAZ

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Dec 1, 2000
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Iwobi looked dangerous. Clearly, Silva has a plan for how to get the most out of him.
 

PedroSpecialK

Comes at you like a tornado of hair and the NHL sa
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Dec 12, 2004
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Cambridge, MA
Goes from bad to worse - Gbamin now has a “significant” right quad issue.

Schneiderlin’s looked awful, their only shot seemed to have been Gbamin with one of Delph / Gomes in midfield as pivots
 

OCST

Sunny von Bulow
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Jan 10, 2004
24,483
The 718
Was with 100+ watching the game today. Brutal.

Gomes and Schneiderlin were awful.

Actually, everyone except Pickford, Mina, and maybe Bernard for a half were awful, and they rate maybe a 5 at best. Keane ball-watched the Villa goal. Calvert-Lewin hit a chance from eight yards out right at the keeper. Iwobi played Walcott in with a gorgeous ball in the 89th minute and Walcott blazed it 20 feet over the bar. Sigurdsson was anonymous.

The defense is there, today's goof notwithstanding. The attack was very good at the end of last season. It sucks now. I've been a Calvert-Lewin backer because of the quality of his hold-up play and pressing but FFS a striker has to put the ball in the back of the net which he doesn't do. Sigurdsson seems at sea this year. Richy caught the mumps at Copa America - maybe that's why he's been awful.

This side is soft in the middle. Attack up the wings is Digne/Bernard and Coleman/Richarlison, that's very good to great depending on the day. They can't build up anything in the middle of the park.

Team is making steady progress but me and the Mrs are drunk and angry right now so fuck them.
 

DJnVa

Dorito Dawg
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Dec 16, 2010
53,837
Chelsea with early goal from Abraham. Pulisic with the “hockey assist”.

EDIT: Norwich ties it up 2 minutes later.
 

DJnVa

Dorito Dawg
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Dec 16, 2010
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Pulisic gets a real assist on nice little ball to Mount—2-1 Chelsea.
 

67YAZ

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Dec 1, 2000
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Oooofff. Classy work by Abraham, but Keystone Cops from the Norwich CBs. Also think that shadow across the 18yd box made it tough on Krul.

Anyway, am really excited to see how Pukki equalized.

Edit: and Godfrey hits the crossbar on a corner that he himself earned. Norwich is the most fun EPL team since...?
 

67YAZ

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Pulisic has a cross cut out after an invisible 20 minutes. Chelsea just don’t attack down their right nearly as much as their left. Is that by Lampard’s design or poor play by Pulisic?

Norwich with the triple sub ah 80 minutes. Love it.
 

teddykgb

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Jul 16, 2005
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Agree that Chelsea attack almost entirely down their left.

Norwich plays with it on the ground a bit more than I expected. Chelsea will be happy to win and Norwich May be better than expected but I’m still pretty pessimistic on this Chelsea side. It’s not fair to say Chelsea are hanging on for life here but they’re engaged in a very even battle and that’s probably not a great sign
 

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Sunny von Bulow
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Jan 10, 2004
24,483
The 718
I’m going to Everton-Norwich at Goodison in November.

If it were to be played today I’d not favor Everton.
 

OCST

Sunny von Bulow
SoSH Member
Jan 10, 2004
24,483
The 718
Agree that Chelsea attack almost entirely down their left.

Norwich plays with it on the ground a bit more than I expected. Chelsea will be happy to win and Norwich May be better than expected but I’m still pretty pessimistic on this Chelsea side. It’s not fair to say Chelsea are hanging on for life here but they’re engaged in a very even battle and that’s probably not a great sign
I think you’ll be seeing a lot of 3-2 games.
 

DJnVa

Dorito Dawg
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Dec 16, 2010
53,837
Pulisic has a cross cut out after an invisible 20 minutes. Chelsea just don’t attack down their right nearly as much as their left. Is that by Lampard’s design or poor play by Pulisic?

Norwich with the triple sub ah 80 minutes. Love it.
He wasn’t all that poor. Assists on 2 of 3 goals and was involved in the other.
 

coremiller

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Jul 14, 2005
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United-Palace has been embarrassingly one-sided so far. We're 23 minutes in and United have had 76% possession. Palace haven't attempted a shot yet.
 

coremiller

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Jul 14, 2005
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Aaaand Palace score with their first shot on a Route 1 flicked-on header putting Ayew through on goal.
 

coremiller

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That was shockingly poor defending from Man Utd's CBs. 80m man Maguire failed to track Ayew and Lindelof lost a straightforward header.
 

Cellar-Door

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Aug 1, 2006
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West Ham must normally be at or near the top of the league in dropping points after getting a lead.
What generally happens when you can score, but your defense is shit and you're not that good at holding possession.
 

teddykgb

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Jul 16, 2005
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Pogba takes a lot of responsibility for United which is great but he’s playing so deep now which seems a waste of his talents. He’s also a little too casual passing to the feet of his forwards. He looks good there, though. Weirdly he’s sitting deep in the left channel collecting the ball from his CBs but I. Can’t help but feel that Maguire is more than capable of carrying the ball those 15 yards and Pogba could occupy space forward and look to turn. It’s very counter to the way football is played right now to have the CBs essentially handing the ball off to someone else to drive the attack
 

67YAZ

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Dec 1, 2000
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Liverpool will be sending out there first choice 4-3-3, but Arsenal are being shown in a 4-4-2 set up with Xhaka on for Lacazette compared to last match. Should I’m guessing this plays more like a diamond with Ceballos at the top of the midfield in order to provide more passing options through Liverpool’s midfield congestion.

And James curls one very nicely to tie it up. Just a poor give away by Palace in their own half and lackadaisical getting back to cover.
 

OCST

Sunny von Bulow
SoSH Member
Jan 10, 2004
24,483
The 718
Pulisic has a cross cut out after an invisible 20 minutes. Chelsea just don’t attack down their right nearly as much as their left. Is that by Lampard’s design or poor play by Pulisic?

Norwich with the triple sub ah 80 minutes. Love it.
Pusilic, Mount, and Abraham look bright (Barkley odd man out IMO).

Just not sure they can stop anyone.
 

DJnVa

Dorito Dawg
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Dec 16, 2010
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Why doesn’t var look at the foul on Martial? I genuinely don’t understand.
Premier League has said that if VAR buzzes ref and ref says he say it clear they will not review.
 

SoxFanInCali

has the rich, deep voice of a god
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Jun 3, 2005
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California. Duh.
Well, if you ever wanted to know what the view from the top of the main stand at A field looked like, now you know.
 

SoxFanInCali

has the rich, deep voice of a god
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Jun 3, 2005
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California. Duh.
Never saw what that VAR check was about, wonder if Sideshow Bob benefitted from the camera problem.

Pepe gets in the clear, and hits it right at Adrian.