Premier League Round Up (Apr 29 - May 4 2023)

[tlw content]

 

 

You know by now my criteria for a successful weekend: Are Everton any closer to the drop after the round of results, and if so then it's a success. I'm not sure what to make of this week though. They got a point I hadn't been banking on them getting, and Leicester dropped two points I had been banking on. 

 

On top of that, Leeds got hammered, then appointed Allardyce, and Forest lost in stoppage time at Brentford after leading with less than ten minutes to go. So I think it was a bad weekend, but the Blues are still in the bottom three so I don't know. I'll get to their game in a bit, it was a cracker actually.

 

I'll start elsewhere though. I'll kick things off at Selhurst where there was a surprisingly rip roaring (my words, sadly not Roy Hodgson's as that would have been class) contest between Palace and West Ham. The Hodge and Moyesy serving up a seven goal thriller? Who could have seen that coming? 

 

Soucek put the Hammers in front early when he lashed in a loose ball from a corner. Remember when this fucker was scoring every other week? Feels like that's his first goal for about three years though. One man who you could never accuse of scoring every other week is Jordan Ayew, but he's managed a few since Magic Man Roy took over (if you take exception to that, take it up with Klopp, not me, he's the one who said it first).

 

Ayew levelled and then the returning Zaha made it 2-1. It got worse for West Ham when Schlupp took advantage of some dozy play by Soucek to make it 3-1 but Antonio headed in from a corner to get West Ham back to 3-2.

 

West Ham are good at corners like, but Palace have been bad at defending set-pieces for a few years now. They're like a Brendan Rodgers team. Or a Steve Cooper one.

 

Then came the biggest moment of the game when Palace were awarded a hotly disputed penalty. I hadn't seen this until now but I had heard a lot of people talking about it. Everyone I'd heard had said it was an absolute joke and it was never a pen. Everyone except Gaby Agbonlahor, who has never been right about anything in his entire life. He said he thought it was a penalty because the defender pulls his shirt and that's enough to make a player moving at speed fall down.

 

I expected to be firmly in the opposite camp to Agbonlahor but I'm not. I don't necessarily agree with him (hell will freeze over before that happens), but I'm on the fence on this. Eze does go down very easily and I'm sure he could have stayed on his feet. He wasn't pulled to the ground and the grab of the shirt probably wasn't enough to cause him to go down.

 

The thing is though, what the fuck is the defender doing reaching out and grabbing hold of the shirt of a forward who has gone past him? What's he hoping to achieve by doing that? He's wanting to impede him, to slow him down. So it's a foul, surely? 

 

I do think you're probably only getting a penalty there maybe two or three times out of 10, but I don't think it's some scandalous decision either because the defender grabs him when he has no business doing so. Usually you'll get away with it but if you do get punished then tough shit, accept the consequences and next time don't grab someone's shit when they've ran past you.

 

Eze converted the spot kick and although Aguerd pulled another one back (from a corner, of course, oui) Palace held on.

 

Moyes wasn't happy about the penalty. I know, I was shocked too. He's usually so accepting of decisions that go against him. He said it was "soft" and it was. He also referenced the Thiago 'handball' from a few nights earlier. He's only happy when he's unhappy. He loves decisions going against him, it's like heroin to him. 

 

West Ham are still not completely safe yet but Palace are comfortably in mid-table. Hodgson now has more wins this season than Lampard, and he's only been in charge for six games. What a guy. And he's got Palace above Chelsea too, which is hilarious given the respective positions when he replaced Vieira. 

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[alles ist gut]

Top, top Home Alone reference there, Dave.

[sir roger]

United's goal difference is about 15 worse than anybody else in the top 7.

 

Think Ten Haag will be gone before the end of next season.

[Rushies tash]

As part of the lino union, I have to agree with the offside calls and linos being good at what they do.

 

Apart from 2013-14 when City benefitted quite a few times from some outrageously bad lino calls.

[dylstar]

Usually you'll get away with it but if you do get punished then tough shit, accept the consequences and next time don't grab someone's SHIT when they've ran past you.

EUUUUGH !!!!......HAHAHA 

[Peter Cormack]

Opposite of top top analysis on Wellcrap Dave, once a manc always a cunt

[King Kenny 86]

Wip Woaring article as ever Dave

[dave u]

16 hours ago, dylstar said:

Usually you'll get away with it but if you do get punished then tough shit, accept the consequences and next time don't grab someone's SHIT when they've ran past you.

EUUUUGH !!!!......HAHAHA 

 

I'm going soft in my old age.

Well either that, or Richarlison is hogging so much of the hate I have in my heart that there's just not enough left to go around for the likes of Moyes and Welbeck.

[gkmacca]

Arsenal and Newcastle. It's like Nazis against Stalinists. Actually, that's a bad analogy, because, in that sense, I'm quite inclined to Stalinists. But all the same, they're both shites.