Down the stretch they come...

The Price Is Wrong · Apr 25, 2016

Yeah, he ended up showing why he's on the squad and not a SoSHer in the end, didn't he?

Meanwhile, McClean seems like the only member of West Brom who is really trying. Gardner and Rondon are in 2nd gear at most, out there.

edit:

DrewDawg said:
All the internet chatter is that it was a ridiculous free kick by Eriksen.

He put it to about the 5-yard line. The WBA keeper was a statue - anyone with some professionalism would have been in there to punch it, if not catch it. It then became an 18-car pileup that he let dribble between his legs.

In my view it was, at best, a B+ kick. Not much spin action on it, decent pace and height but poor location. From that angle you maybe score on a free header 10% of the time; he put it into a 3-4% zone, and got very lucky on those odds.

CodPiece XL · Apr 25, 2016

Maybe it's the microphones...but this crowd is really quiet. Given they are one goal up and the how significant the game is...I thought fans would be a little more "animated". Maybe its the nerves of a one goal lead.

CodPiece XL · Apr 25, 2016

WBA score...

DennyDoyle'sBoil · Apr 25, 2016

Holy cow. Leicester are 20 minutes from a title.

CodPiece XL · Apr 25, 2016

Plenty of time...

Schnerres · Apr 25, 2016

German tv guy is making a case for a foul. I don´t see much of an effort from Dier to get to the ball and nobody complaining. In Germany or Spain, you can have a foul call maybe

CodPiece XL · Apr 25, 2016

Absolutely. They have a great manager and young team.

CodPiece XL · Apr 25, 2016

He punched a player in the gut

CodPiece XL · Apr 25, 2016

Ovahhhhh

SoxFanInCali · Apr 25, 2016

Well, there goes a lot of pressure off of Leicester City. Now they can afford a bump (or two) in the road.

CodPiece XL · Apr 25, 2016

I'd love to be a pub in Leicester right now...

fletcherpost · Apr 25, 2016

Leicester can limp over the line, if Spurs can't beat Chelsea, with a draw against Everton. I reckon Man U will do Leicester at Old Trafford. The Spurs crowd really started to feel the tension. Fair play to Leicester, time and again they've dug out results down the stretch. Title winning form. But credit to Spurs, they've been great down the stretch as well.

fletcherpost · Apr 25, 2016

CodPiece XL said:
I'd love to be a pub in Leicester right now...

Foxestalk is a lot of fun.

"Thanks tony. Always admired your wonderful style of football. You're a credit to the game."

coremiller · Apr 25, 2016

That makes four home games this year where Spurs dropped points after leading with 20ish minutes to go:

Stoke (led 2-0, drew 2-2)
Newcastle (led 1-0, lost 2-1)
Arsenal (led 2-1 against 10 men, drew 2-2)
West Brom (led 1-0, drew 1-1).

I think overall Spurs have the best team this year (and most of the peripheral stats support that) but their inability to close out games has been a real weakness and it's going to cost them the title.

swiftaw · Apr 25, 2016

Alli probably played his last match of the season. He'll have a nice little rest before the Euros.

DennyDoyle'sBoil · Apr 25, 2016

swiftaw said:
Alli probably played his last match of the season. He'll have a nice little rest before the Euros.

If he's suspended more than 3 games, does the domestic ban carry over and preclude him from international duty? Because I'm not sure that's only 3 games.

I guess 3 is probably right, but if it had been spotted on the pitch and he'd been sent off, they might have added more than 2.

swiftaw · Apr 25, 2016

DennyDoyle'sBoil said:
If he's suspended more than 3 games, does the domestic ban carry over and preclude him from international duty? Because I'm not sure that's only 3 games.

I guess 3 is probably right, but if it had been spotted on the pitch and he'd been sent off, they might have added more than 2.

No, bans are separate. Last similar incident (Conner Wickham) was a 3 game ban.

The Price Is Wrong · Apr 25, 2016

Nobody knows how to grind out an unattractive draw, with the help of an occasional lucky bounce off a corner, like Tony Pulis.

On a more forward-looking note about the rest of the league: Southampton is currently in 8th, 1 point behind Liverpool. What would have to happen for them to qualify for the Europa league?

I can't follow all of the scenarios about what happens if Liverpool wins the Europa (5 teams in the CL, right?), or if City win the CL but fall to 5th. Hell, I'm not even sure of whether the 8th-placed team can make it to Europe absent a UEFA penalty on one of the higher clubs. If the League Cup winners (City) and FA Cup winners (assume United for the sake of argument) are already qualified for the CL, you'd normally bump in the 6th and 7th place teams for the Europa, right? So as best I can tell, if Liverpool win the Europa, they become a 5th English team in the CL (regardless of Man City's finish), and if they don't, then the 7th-place team will make the Europa (unless Palace beat United to take that spot, in which case they'd have to finish 6th).

Apologies if this should be obvious to me.

swiftaw · Apr 25, 2016

The Price Is Wrong said:
Nobody knows how to grind out an unattractive draw, with the help of an occasional lucky bounce off a corner, like Tony Pulis.

On a more forward-looking note about the rest of the league: Southampton is currently in 8th, 1 point behind Liverpool. What would have to happen for them to qualify for the Europa league?

I can't follow all of the scenarios about what happens if Liverpool wins the Europa (5 teams in the CL, right?), or if City win the CL but fall to 5th. Hell, I'm not even sure of whether the 8th-placed team can make it to Europe absent a UEFA penalty on one of the higher clubs. If the League Cup winners (City) and FA Cup winners (assume United for the sake of argument) are already qualified for the CL, you'd normally bump in the 6th and 7th place teams for the Europa, right? So as best I can tell, if Liverpool win the Europa, they become a 5th English team in the CL (regardless of Man City's finish), and if they don't, then the 7th-place team will make the Europa (unless Palace beat United to take that spot, in which case they'd have to finish 6th).

Apologies if this should be obvious to me.

Each country can have a max of 5 teams in the Champions League. Thus, unless both Liverpool and Man C win their European competitions AND both finish outside of the top 4, then the top 4 will all qualify for the Champions League. If Man C and Liverpool both win their European competitions AND finish outside the top 4 then the team that finishes 4th will be in the European League.

There can be a max of 3 entries into the Europa league, these are granted to the team that finishes 5th, the team that wins the league cup, and the team that wins the FA Cup. If the teams who win either the League Cup or the FA Cup qualify for the Champions League, then their place goes to the team highest in the league that haven't qualified for Europe via the league.

fletcherpost · Apr 25, 2016

Check this shit out:

http://www.foxestalk.co.uk/forums/topic/105832-win-it-for/

In 2004 the baseball team I am a fan of, the Boston Red Sox ended an 86 year title drought, becoming the first team to come back from an 0-3 deficit in a best of 7 series against the New York Yankees. Everyone had written them off. Most thought they were cursed and would never win again. But after winning that series they swept the World Series and became champions. That team of lovable misfits, nicknamed by themselves as "The Idiots," reminds me a lot of this Leicester City side. With one game to go, a member of their forum started a thread simply titled "Win It For." The thread ended up being over 50 pages, with members sharing how the team impacted their lives, along with close friends and family members' lives. It's actually still archived, and you can read the entire thing here: http://sonsofsamhorn...or#.Vx6KaPkrKM8

It ended up being in the news all over, even fans of their arch rivals, the Yankees saluted them for it. A short time later it was actually all compiled and published as a book: http://www.amazon.co...s/dp/159670084X

That's pretty fuckin cool guys.

CodPiece XL · Apr 25, 2016

Wow.....effin brilliant.

The Price Is Wrong · Apr 25, 2016

swiftaw said:
Each country can have a max of 5 teams in the Champions League. Thus, unless both Liverpool and Man C win their European competitions AND both finish outside of the top 4, then the top 4 will all qualify for the Champions League. If Man C and Liverpool both win their European competitions AND finish outside the top 4 then the team that finishes 4th will be in the European League.

There can be a max of 3 entries into the Europa league, these are granted to the team that finishes 5th, the team that wins the league cup, and the team that wins the FA Cup. If the teams who win either the League Cup or the FA Cup qualify for the Champions League, then their place goes to the team highest in the league that haven't qualified for Europe via the league.

OK, so for 8th place to qualify for Europe, you'd need to have 5 teams in the CL (= Liverpool wins Europa this year), and have United beat Palace in the FA Cup final. Unless Man City wins the CL and also falls out of the top 4 (a near statistical impossibility at this point), in which case there's a 5th CL qualifier regardless. If Liverpool fails to win the Europa League, then only the top 7 qualify for European football (or top 6 + Palace if they win the FA Cup).

Betting markets currently have Liverpool at 32% to win the Europa (after adjusting for the vig; Sevilla's at ~31%), and United at 65% to win the FA Cup. That makes for an interesting dilemma for Liverpool, then, these last few weeks: if you go all-in on the Villarreal matches this and next Thursday, do you jeopardize your 7th place finish and possibly Europe for next year? Southampton's form has been 4-1-1 in their last six, with the only loss being 1-0 to Leicester. Remaining they have: vs City, @Spurs, vs Palace - and Spurs may have nothing left to play for.

That may be the most interesting part of the league table left after Leicester clinches the title.

SoxFanInCali · Apr 25, 2016

Liverpool also have a game in hand on Southampton. If they would have gotten 3 points against Newcastle, they could have passed the Hammers for 6th and been right behind the Mancs.

DennyDoyle'sBoil · Apr 25, 2016

That's amazing Fletch. They are close enough to taste it now.

bosox4283 · Apr 26, 2016

fletcherpost said:
Check this shit out:

http://www.foxestalk.co.uk/forums/topic/105832-win-it-for/

That's pretty fuckin cool guys.

That's really excellent. Thanks for sharing.

Down the stretch they come...

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