Reply With QuoteCoutinho signs a permanent deal with Villa. Transfer fee of £17million is £125million less than Barcelona paid 4 years ago!
Well the penalty was given but IMHO was a tad harsh. Holding is an absolute idiot and that was a definite red and he cost Arsenal the game. Arsenal were on top before the Kane penalty but that's life - Spurs will want 5 here. Still in Arsenal's hands re top 4.Originally Posted by tango
Last edited by ryanb741; 12th May 2022 at 21:12.
Coutinho signs a permanent deal with Villa. Transfer fee of £17million is £125million less than Barcelona paid 4 years ago!
liverpool made a killing on him. He was never worth anywhere near that fee. Good player but not consistent enough.
You beauty! COYS
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Penalty was harsh I absolutely agree.
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Fantastic atmosphere and should’ve scored 5. COYS!
Pep to make last minute decision on contract extension apparently and will let contract run down if press reports are to be believed.
Very, very good performance last night - we overpowered Arsenal and are looking now every inch a CL side.
I really can't believe that we could be denied a place by that stupid stoppage time goal against Brighton last month, when Romero fell over and gifted Trossard the winner. I'd left a couple of minutes before the whistle, and didn't even know they'd scored until I'd got back to my bike
Well that was disappointing, a solid start ruined by stupidity and bad tactics. The pen was harsh but at the same time a stupid push, Holding was a joke, no composure what so ever, I gather Arteta told him to get stuck into Son but still a poor game. No idea why Arteta did not bring on White before the free kick.
Arsenal still have the advantage but have the harder fixtures, Newcastle's last game at home wont be a easy place to go, Everton should be safe before the last game so could be easier. Spurs will 100% will win both their matches.
Wonder if there’s an element of trying to unsettle the Manchester City camp ahead of the weekend. FFP and Prem League stories have mysteriously also re-emerged.
I assumed that Haaland would have wanted assurances before signing.
Would be interesting if true.
Nope .
The majority of the sports writers in this country wouldn’t know their arse from their elbow.
I can thoroughly recommend subscribing to The Athletic - best football reporting available. Introductory offer of £1 per month for 6 months too, I believe!
For example...
Tottenham were streetwise and smart. Arsenal imploded
The latest north London derby had almost all of the ingredients of an instant classic. The incredible atmosphere, Harry Kane scoring twice, and a crushing victory of enormous significance for Tottenham Hotspur over loathed rivals Arsenal in the race for that precious top-four finish.
The only thing missing was a competitive match. Thanks to Spurs’ masterful game management compared to their naive opponents, last night was completely one-sided. Amid all the pre-match fretting and nerves, could anyone have imagined this game being so stress-free? And when picturing Spurs’ biggest margin of victory in a Premier League game against Arsenal, as this was, could you have pictured it feeling quite so, well, routine?
Arsenal came into the game with a four-point lead over their fifth-placed neighbours and hosts and a supposed air of superiority, but the game played out as if Tottenham were the older brother — knowing exactly what buttons to press, suckering a younger sibling into traps and then laughing as they trigger them.
Mikel Arteta’s side had been praised going into the game for their supposed street-smarts, the fact that they were no longer a soft touch. And yet in their haste to try to wind up Spurs, they only succeeded in harming themselves. It was Tottenham who showed all the nous, all the mastery of the dark arts.
Take the duel between Rob Holding and Son Heung-min. Holding had clearly decided, or had been instructed before the game, to try to get under Son’s skin. There were a couple of flashpoints early on when, in fairness, a frustrated Son lashed out with a bit of an elbow. Spurs’ South Korean forward is no saint, but he did it in such a way that was just about ambiguous enough not to be deemed worthy of any punishment. He was also then savvy enough to try to run at Holding at every opportunity, sensing that he was up against a player who wanted to make his mark and was playing the occasion rather than the game.
Holding duly received two quick-fire bookings — both for fouls on Son — and was sent off with barely half an hour played. In total, he committed four fouls, all on Son and the most he has ever made in a single Premier League game in 83 appearances over six years — and that’s despite lasting less than a half.
As Tottenham cleverly kept their heads, Arsenal’s misguided attempts to show how much they were up for the fight resembled former leader of the Labour Party Ed Miliband’s famously limp claim: “Am I tough enuss (sic)? Hell yes, I’m tough enough.”
Spurs were massively ready to compete too, but in a way that hurt the opposition rather than themselves. When Bukayo Saka nicked the ball off Ben Davies and headed towards the Tottenham penalty area with the game still goalless, the Wales defender pulled him back before he could get there. It was a tactical yellow that he knew he had to take — and at half-time, Antonio Conte and the other Spurs coaches stressed to Davies that he had to be extra careful in the second half (if Holding received such a warning after his initial yellow, it fell on deaf ears). Nothing came of the resulting free kick following Davies’ caution, and, a couple of minutes later, Cedric conceded the penalty from which Kane gave Tottenham the lead.
As the flares went off, and the decibel level went up a few notches, Arsenal looked frazzled — misplacing passes and making panicked fouls. Spurs just kept doing what they had been doing, with Rodrigo Bentancur and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg bossing the midfield and providing just the kind of calmness that was needed in such a potentially fraught occasion. “We managed the pressure,” Conte said, twice, after the game.
Holding was sent off 10 minutes after that opening goal (itself a consequence of Cedric trying and failing to get away with a little nudge on Son), and Spurs then did what Conte had urged a month ago. “We had to show in this moment that you start to feel the blood of your opponent,” he said after the 4-0 win away to Aston Villa, and that was what his team did here, too. Four minutes on from Holding’s dismissal, Spurs scored again — rightly sensing that their opponents were rocking and their composure had deserted them.
In the second half, tactical fouls by Ryan Sessegnon and Dejan Kulusevski were indicative of the way Tottenham took the sting out of the game once 3-0 ahead and cruising. The ability to “feel the blood” of their opponents wasn’t the only way Spurs’ played in their manager’s image last night. Conte is a master at motivating his teams, but also at giving them such clear, detailed instructions they trust that if they concentrate on performing their individual tasks and working hard, they will get their rewards.
So it proved, and while Conte was revved up enough to pick up a first-half yellow card himself and spoke afterwards of how he and his players were stirred by the passion of a local derby and the injustice of this rearranged fixture’s January postponement, by the end of the game his aggression on the touchline was as controlled as his players’ on the other side of the white line. Opposite number Arteta, meanwhile, spoke in a manner reminiscent of one of Conte’s predecessors at Spurs, Jose Mourinho. “If I say what I think, then I am suspended for six months,” Arteta said.
Conte, using all his experience and very much continuing the theme of the big brother knowing how to wind up the little one, stuck the knife in. He used the word “complain” eight times in relation to Arteta, half of those times saying that the Arsenal manager “complains a lot”. Conte added: “This is the advice, if you want to accept the advice. If you don’t, I don’t care.”
It all contributed to the image of Arteta being as rattled as his players, with Conte and Spurs the ones completely in control of the situation. Even if, in a broader sense, it’s Arsenal who remain the ones in control of the top-four race, clinging on to a one-point lead over their north London rivals heading into the final week of the season.
Spurs produced a performance of poise and clear thinking against opponents who completely imploded. And the extent to which these two teams exhibit those characteristics over their final two games in the next 10 days will decide who ends up with that top-four prize.
I subscribed when it initially started Tony.
It came out of the blocks well but , it too, soon descended into farcical misrepresentation of City, their owners and the club in general .
The ‘City’ correspondent is Sam Lee , a United fan who dropped a few good handfed stories but his little barbs were never far behind. His dismay when City were cleared at CAS was evident in his backhanded reporting and column writing.
The whole thing IMHO of course descended into another clickbait driven read overpopulated with writers eager to blow smoke up the ‘history clubs’” backsides .
I’ve taken to podcasts lately .
If you’ve got the time or inclination, there’s a football one called Undr The Cosh . Three ex pros interviewing footballers past and present. It’s a no holds barred laugh . There’s one with Clive Allen which is hilarious but also quite eye opening about football in the 80 s .
I'll take a look at that. Of course, if you want humour there's also The Fiver and The Upshot - no subscription charges, just a matter of registering with your email address. Both should make very welcome inbox additions to anyone who doesn't receive them, though.
The Aguero statue, speechless
Come on mate , it’s been ten years .
Let it go , you’ll feel liberated . ;)
Aguero - genuine legend.
I had made my peace with it by the time I got home (was on the autobahn in Germany at the time)
But if you’d shown me the statue and asked who it was I’d have never guessed
It’s so City, the whole thing
It’s right up there with the 3 stars on the club badge imo
EDIT: fabulous player, no argument there
Agreed on the three stars thing . An ill thought out embarrassing episode from the club . They did, however quickly consult fans and revert back to the original badge .
I’ve not seen the statue in the flesh yet but the Kompany and Spanish Dave efforts are very good . I could only imagine the difficulty in making them lifelike with the materials the artist had used .
Not sure why you’d say it’s so City to honour three players who dragged us to the highest level of football . They are deserving of it in a football sense .
And let’s not forget , United have a statue outside their ground depicting an alcoholic wife beater , a ticket tout and a City legend .
Lol.
We're going down.
I was only referring to the Aguero statue, but I don’t disagree with much of the rest of what you said lol
Peps response to Evra & Berbatov’s criticism, in his press conference was quite spiky, but what he stated was true.
I found it most amusing.
Worthy winners
Sure we’re. Though as always it could have gone either way once it got to penalties and I thought Chelsea would edge it once Manes was saved and it gave Chelsea a new lease of life.
Boring game but happy to take the victory. Not ideal but hey ho till next year
RIAC
Thought it was an excellent game in normal time
Awesome game and Liverpool worthy FA cup winners ..... Brilliant.
Not sure I would call it a boring game. Granted it did not quite get to the level of the Carabao Cup Final but I thought it was close. Could’ve gone either way.
Extra time clearly took its toll on both teams. But running up and down for 120 minutes in 23 degrees was bound to do that.
Win or lose it’s a crap way of deciding a final. Personally would love to see a return of replays but hey ho, not going to happen.
No complaints over the result once again we did not put the chances away and came second in the shoot out.
Good to see consistency from the media and Liverpool fans. Once again the Scousers disrespect Abide With Me, The National Anthem and the attending Royalty just as they did 10 years ago in the last FA Cup Final they were in. Once again the media ignores it
And they wonder why other clubs fans dislike them so much….
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Not a Liverpool fan but booing the national anthem is hardly cause for condemnation.Not sure I would call it a boring game. Granted it did not quite get to the level of the Carabao Cup Final but I thought it was close. Could’ve gone either way.
Extra time clearly took its toll on both teams. But running up and down for 120 minutes in 23 degrees was bound to do that.
Win or lose it’s a crap way of deciding a final. Personally would love to see a return of replays but hey ho, not going to happen.
No complaints over the result once again we did not put the chances away and came second in the shoot out.
Good to see consistency from the media and Liverpool fans. Once again the Scousers disrespect Abide With Me, The National Anthem and the attending Royalty just as they did 10 years ago in the last FA Cup Final they were in. Once again the media ignores it
And they wonder why other clubs fans dislike them so much….
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Damn OG by West Ham!! Great pen save mind
Maybe they think that after 97 years God can be given a break…
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Well looks like City really want Liverpool to have a chance at the prem. If anything is going to get Liverpool riled up to have a go its that result. TBH there is no way but that result is going to pump Liverpool for the prem and champs league.
Didn't watch the game and don't know what happened, just saw the result and shocked it was a draw.
Will the title have a final twist?
Will Stevie G win Liverpool a league after all?
Put it this way. No one would ever forget it.
Headlined in the Mail on Sunday https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-61452948.Not sure I would call it a boring game. Granted it did not quite get to the level of the Carabao Cup Final but I thought it was close. Could’ve gone either way.
Extra time clearly took its toll on both teams. But running up and down for 120 minutes in 23 degrees was bound to do that.
Win or lose it’s a crap way of deciding a final. Personally would love to see a return of replays but hey ho, not going to happen.
No complaints over the result once again we did not put the chances away and came second in the shoot out.
Good to see consistency from the media and Liverpool fans. Once again the Scousers disrespect Abide With Me, The National Anthem and the attending Royalty just as they did 10 years ago in the last FA Cup Final they were in. Once again the media ignores it
And they wonder why other clubs fans dislike them so much….
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Any reason for their antipathy towards William and the rest?
Maybe ask the question another way. Why would they (or we) support and cheer the royal family?
Apparently to do with the Tory government’s treatment of Merseyside in the 80’s. Quite what that has to do with the Royal Family and Abide With Me is beyond me. But hey no doubt it was someone else’s fault
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Even if you don’t agree with something is it not better to remain silent?
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I don’t think anyone is asking them to cheer the Royal Family on .
Maybe they could just keep quiet instead of roundly booing a non political traditional hymn.
I’m surprised Chelsea fans haven’t been blamed yet
I suppose it makes it stand out? I don't know but they looks like they stick to their principles. Pretty sure the Sun newspaper sales in Liverpool are near to non existent.
I think everyone has the right to boo a family of parasites.
Using that logic we should have no idea that you disapprove of their booing.
Fair point.
Everton completely lost their heads!
Yep, always the victim.
Yup, first sending off was a farce though.
I still think they will stay up.
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