Yeah I kind of agree with you, though the relegation battle is very competitive. It's the title race that is the most depressing ever!

I don't want to say it's over because you never know what could happen in the future but realistically the league was finished last week when we lost to Man City. Ever since then I've lost a lot of enthusiasm for the Premier League and I didn't even watch Match Of The Day or take much interest in the scores of today's matches. I didn't expect Man United to win the title before the season started but after our good start to the season I was hoping that even if we weren't top that we would mount a close and sustained title challenge which is something that hasn't happened since Fergie left. We've still made a lot of progress though compared to last season which is encouraging.

For the sake of entertainment it would be nice to have a season where top spot changes hand several times and it feels rare for a league title to be decided on the last day so that would have been nice as well.

 

I can deciyfer you and Dobbos post as 'I'm not enjoying the premiership this year because our team isn't winning' lol. I always watch motd every week and as a Liverpool fan have never seen them win the league in my 34 years on this planet(I can't remember he 1990 season).

 

 

It's not even that specifically though. Of course to see us so far behind is saddening but it's the more that everyone is so far behind. Even when we had our worst ever season in 13/14 I can admit that it was a pretty spectacular title fight that year all the way through the season which made it actually quite exhilarating to watch with not having to worry about us screwing it up like 2 seasons prior :lol:

Ha true like even I enjoyed that season even with the disappointing end because Suarez Sturridge and Sterling were a joy to watch!

I can deciyfer you and Dobbos post as 'I'm not enjoying the premiership this year because our team isn't winning' lol. I always watch motd every week and as a Liverpool fan have never seen them win the league in my 34 years on this planet(I can't remember he 1990 season).

That is definitely not the case :lol:, the 2015/16 season is my favourite season of all time and that is despite Man United being out of the title race before Christmas and finishing outside the top 4. That season was full of surprises, especially within the first three or so months and it seemed like any team was capable of beating anyone then. Also having Leicester & Tottenham battling it out for the title was very entertaining and refreshing to see and it guaranteed that a team that had never won it during the Premier League era would be champions.

 

And just as Dobbo said the title race in the 2013/14 season was very entertaining as well because first place changed hands a lot of times and it went down to the final day of the season which doesn't happen often now.

 

 

I normally always watch Match Of The Day as well even when Man Utd don't play or they lose but yesterday I just didn't feel like watching it, I think that is because they would make the show mainly about Manchester City again :lol:, the battle to avoid relegation is exciting though but they wont pay too much attention to that until the end of the season is near. A battle for top 4 never excites me though which has played a part in the reduction of enthusiasm as it's looking like a repeat of last season as far as that goes.

It's probably best you didn't watch it then lol because Martin keown called Kevin De Breynes Feet paintbrushes because he's like an artist with the ball at his feet 😂

 

It was good tho for the Stoke Vs West Ham game or should I say Stoke vs Arnuatovic game - he was desperate to score against his old club and certainly enjoyed it when he did finally - when he was substituted the place was in uproar and Mark hughes was slabbering away to him lol

I'll catch brief highlights of that Stoke vs West Ham game on Match Of The Day 2 tonight. I imagine that Arnuatovic got booed by the Stoke fans even before he scored?

Yes every time he touched the ball and he made a mistake there was a big cheer - the uproar when he was subbed was hilarious, especially Mark Hughes!

That'll prob be one of the 2 good 2 bad moments too

Easy enough for Liverpool today - Salah again immense - hope we leave some for Friday vs Arsenal - what a great start to the holidays that will be!!

Easy enough for Liverpool today - Salah again immense - hope we leave some for Friday vs Arsenal - what a great start to the holidays that will be!!

 

We were delightful today, then again we have for a while. The Everton game was sheer hard luck and poor decision making. West Brom is the first game we have been terrible in for a while. Arsenal-Liverpool could go either way, depends what Arsenal turn up really.

 

Everyone has 4 huge games now, the key really is to stay in fighting touch as all teams will have it in them to drop silly points.

We have a decent record at the Emirates recently so hope Mane and Salah start and are lethal!!

We have a decent record at the Emirates recently so hope Mane and Salah start and are lethal!!

 

Hopefully, especially Mane, he loves Arsenal. Also our defence has really shored up since the Spurs debacle.

Not the greatest game but for the majority of it we were in control and took our foot of the gas and it almost cost us, United just seem flat at the moment but a win is a win and it's 3 points in the bag and that is the important thing,

Why do we need Phil Neville as a pundit moaning about Lukaku not celebrating his goal in this afternoons game on MOTD2?

Lanzini has been charged by the FA for diving during West Ham's win over Stoke on Saturday over the penalty.

 

Also Crystal Palace's Jason Puncheon has been charged with assault and carrying on an offensive weapon following an incident at a nightclub on Sunday morning.

 

 

 

 

Does anyone have any idea how the expected goals figure shown on MOTD is calculated? At Old Trafford tonight Bournemouth had more shots overall and a lot more shots on target. However, Man U had the higher EP figure. OTOH, when Brighton lost 5-1 to Liverpool, the stats and the reports on Final Score suggested that the result was uncomfortably close to a fair one. However, the difference oil EP figures was a lot less than one goal.

Expected Goals is a measure of trying to measure the quality of chance that's created, rather than just shots on target. I'm a big fan of it as a stat, obviously there are limitations to it and it can't take into account the relative quality of the player shooting and the goalkeeper. It does seem to wind people up, Jeff Stelling went on a rant about it the other week saying it was the most pointless stat ever, but I think it has a bad name, and that chance quality or something like that would be better. How many times do you hear people say "he should've scored that" or similar, it's just a way of trying to quantify that, and is certainly a much better way of looking at it that simply shots/shots on target.

 

I remember reading something about half way through last season around West Brom massively outperforming their xG and it wasn't likely to be sustainable, safe to say they've regressed to the mean since then.

 

Reading are a good case too, last season they got into the play-offs but every statistical model had them as a mid-table side who were outperforming where they should be. This season, they've regressed to where they 'should' be.

 

This is a useful starter on xG from Opta (the video): http://www.optasports.com/news-area/news-expected-goals.aspx

 

I really enjoyed this about Burnley too, who have exceeded their xG scoring and conceded since they've arrived in the Premier League. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/25/sports/s...ier-league.html

Edited December 19, 20177 yr by RabbitFurCoat

Swansea have sacked Paul Clement as their manager.

Swansea have sacked Paul Clement as their manager.

 

Tony Pulis time I reckon..

Swansea will get relegated this season I think, even if Tony Pulis takes over.

Same here they just have no quality!