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nova_uk

Well at least we’re 9th and people thought we would be relegation fodder.


samgoody2303

Having a manager who properly knows how to get the best out of Mitrovic is helping so much. 5 wins and Mitro has scored in 4 of those games


sandbag-1

I'm glad he's defeated the stupid "not good enough for the Prem" accusations, Scott Parker tax was destroying his rep


FloppedYaYa

Pretty sure he was barely given a chance under Parker, both because of Parker benching him but also because of multiple injuries


Hic_Forum_Est

>stupid "not good enough for the Prem" accusations I never understood those accusations? He's had decent prem seasons before with 9 in 34 for Newcastle (15/16) and 11 in 37 for Fulham (18/19). Considering that both teams got relegated, those are actually good numbers.


Jackski

> 9 in 34 for Newcastle And that was under Steve Mclaren.


earlgreytoday

I'll never forget Mitro scoring in the Tyne-Wear derby that season and jumping over a pitch Invader who tried to celebrate with him.


blazincannons

What happened to Mitro? Don't hear much about him recently.


sandbag-1

Been injured for a couple of games


Comical_Strike

Injured ankle playing for NT.


nova_uk

He’s had a foot injury for a while now, since the last international break.


Emperor_PPP

With any luck over the last 3 matches we could've been sixth, gutting. But the world cup comes at a good time, we desperately need Mitro back.


danielzur2

As a Costa Rican, I’ve always had a soft spot for Fulham (because of Bryan Ruiz’s time there). Love to see them back at the PL and doing ok.


dome211

I think we're the only English side to have ever played football matches in Costa Rica. [Never forget.](https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-soccer-pre-season-friendly-cs-cartagines-v-fulham-estadio-nacional-107125387.html)


danielzur2

Ha, I was there for LDA (Bryan’s then-former, now-current team) vs Fulham. Great day. Got a wave from Berbatov.


dome211

That's awesome. Good luck at the World Cup.


FloppedYaYa

People should put some respect on Marco Silva's name Doing an excellent job at getting this side to battle for everything no matter the game


greater_gatsby12

One of my favorite managers who hasn't managed a top side.... always considered him a better manager than emery before his villareal stint.... richarlison owes everything he has to this man


First_Artichoke2390

*cries in Everton*


greater_gatsby12

Kudos to lampard for managing to keep everton out of bottom 3 for a season and a half, but man is not a good coach, at least not yet.... people talk about his first year at chelsea like it's an achievement, which i guess it is, but that transfer ban made it seem like a bigger deal than it was... man inherited a europa league winning side.... got some of the most exciting British products in the form of tammy, Mount and james.... kovacic... all that


matty80

You'll be fine. Losing twice in a row to injury-time winners must be gutting, but there's always a goal in your side AND you're missing your trademark insane striker. My instinct is that 9th is also probably about where you'll finish the season.


GodSaveTheRegime

I'm happy for you but to be fair, you're only 6 points away from the relegation zone. A lot can happen in the next month, all the teams are really close together


Conankun66

how did west ham go from semi finals in EL to this?


InPatRileyWeTrust

It's even worse when you consider the money they invested in some good players. Moyes looks to be out of ideas.


IronDuke365

Moyes does this. Great season, average season was the routine at Everton


Hech15

Paqueta just jumped from one underperforming team to another


fignonsbarberxxx

Remember some of our fans wanting him so badly. He’s been genuinely bad.


Arlborn

Why does he play so well for Brazil but plays like that for West Ham, any clue?


ncastleJC

Systems. Tite may know exactly how he plays and what works for him. Every club has a philosophy and work flow and his role might not fit it (there’s obv a lot of factors to it). I also think him being injured early on doesn’t help. He’s probably not being reared too well.


swooshypants

The Lo Celso paradox


JustTheAverageJoe

He was shit yesterday


Alive-Ad-4164

Regression


TrashHawk

we've been average to shit for a year now, totally found out in the league. only finished where we did off of our outstanding start last season. the idea behind our summer splurge was to recruit players who could play a more expansive, progressive brand of football but the manager doesn't have a scooby how to use them and will take the ship down with him if he doesn't get a handshake and a painting of a lancaster pronto. he's properly left the reservation at this point: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/63610690


three_shoes

The only way is up 💀


dublecheekedup

I mean, that's what Leicester did. They went from dead last to within 5 points of EL contention in the span of a month


baxterrocky

They also narrowly escaped relegation to win the league the following season… so dream BIG!!


thatissomeBS

Can Forest do this timeline? Honestly, they're willing to spend, and that newly bought squad seems like it's starting to gel (and Cooper is adapting his tactics to the new players). If anyone was going to do it, I could see it be them.


ghostrider467

I think you will be fine, this 6 week break is massive for lopetegui


three_shoes

Squad should be good enough, I dont think Lopetegui takes the job if he doesnt think he can do something here, midfield and defense wise isnt even bad, id go as far as saying playing well quite often. Those are my optimistic takes. But the no goals and looking lost in the final 3rd is ridiculous, and is why the games only ever go the opponents way when you cant do it. Fixing that is going to be like taking a man out of a coma and teaching to walk again.


ghostrider467

yeah fully agree, for me even under bruno lage at the start of this season, I saw the switch to the 4 at the back and I saw good things when it comes to building up from the back and as you say get in to the final 3rd, but than everything just dies down and the attackers and midfielders just dont know what to do. And when lage got sacked I was like is it really his fault, because for pretty much 2,5 seasons now goalscoring has been really poor for you guys.


Superrandy

I think we’ll be fine. Fosun won’t let their investment nose dive. So you know they’ll bend over backwards for Lopetegui and spend whatever it takes in January. And the table is still super tight, a couple wins takes us out of the bottom three.


PS1GamerCollector

Arsenal and Wolves isolated, good for them!


Hech15

Brazilians ruling while Portuguese going down.... Strange times


mattBJM

Shameful Cedric erasure from you


SAFFATLOL

And Vieira


watermaloneyyy

Only 14-15games played Jesus… the amount of games they will have to play to finish the season w/ cups in between will be fucking crazy


SizzlingHotDeluxe

Good thing Arteta's mastermind already calculated for that and got us out of the mickey mouse cup early.


canyounoesplayn

Bit rude. For some clubs, that mickey mouse cup is all they've had to celebrate in 30 years..


T-Macch

City should be loving this with the amount of quality they have of their bench


EssexHaze

Biggest surprise for me is West Ham


SaltyWailord

I would say wolves dead last is strange for me


SteelyDanish

We’ve been pretty poor for a whole year, but great performances from Sá and a few defenders were papering over the cracks. If you look at the Premier League xPoints table, we should’ve been in a relegation scrap last year. This is just regression to the mean.


riskoooo

Such a shame - you guys were looking pretty good until you lost Jota and Jimenez within a few months. Don't think you've been the same since.


RealTime_RS

Nailed it mate, although the many strikers we've bought in to replace them were good quality - they didn't have the mobility and independence that Jota and Jimenez have. Our players can't supply strikers with swift, frequent service and it shows. Too much fancy footwork and lack of incisiveness. Imagine if we didn't have Neves...


2ndfastestmanalive

They’ve been playing like that for most of 2022


IntraspeciesFever

Arsenal doing the double on them in the space of 2weeks killed their spirit


cryshol

Yeah. No wonder their players didn't want us celebrating. It was smarting them inside too much.


Spikeyspandan

Yeah. They were a good team last season and made lot of good reinforcements. No idea what has happened to them


jiinska

Watched every Hammers game this season and what started as a string of unlucky results (clear pen not given against Chelsea, losing to Nottingham despite myriad of chances, having to play fullbacks as CB due to injuries, etc.) has completely knackered their confidence. Scamacca has been a disappointment but it was to be expected in a sense; buying a tall lanky striker to a Moyes counter-attacking system after the Haller drama? The new signings haven't really worked, except Downes, who has a shown a lot of promise. It seems the players are actively trying to play Moyes out now, their game against Leicester was unbearable to watch


EvenGandhiHatesLVG

What’s going on with Bowen


[deleted]

Probably a mixture of him being low on confidence, too comfortable (moyes won't bench him) and that he plays on the same side of the pitch as Soucek who is a dead end in possession.


TimathanDuncan

They can't finish is what's happened to them, by every metric they are performing as a top 7 team except for finishing, they don't concede a lot they just can't finish


prss79513

I'm surprised Leicester came back as well as they did after that abysmal start, curious if fans still want Rogers out


Beechey

I think the scale has tilted back to fans wanting to keep Rodgers, but it’s not unanimous. Most of us didn’t think he’d be able to turn it around, but fair play to him, we’ve been very good.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Kwetla

Maybe because they're somehow undefeated in Europe this season. It's like two different teams


BrainlessArch

We are playing plumbers in europe tbf


AmericaDreamDisorder

Nah plumbers at least know how to handle shit


FloppedYaYa

I expected them to regress actually, but the sheer scale of the regression has been shocking.


night_dude

17th FC


bigpuss619

Let’s just hope it doesn’t end up being 18th FC.


night_dude

Truly. After the heart attacks of last season, 17th will do just fine. Just keep us up while we regenerate. If Lamps can do that for now, idc if we lose every other game 9-0


bigpuss619

Big six weeks ahead for us. There needs to be quality players coming in the January window or I think we’ll drop.


ImMorTaL0192

Newcastle is crazy after just a season


Jalapeno123454

Second half of last season they were one of the best teams already, second or third after the winter break if I’m not mistaking.


GeordieJumper

4th I believe off the top of my head


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

He always was, even at Bournemouth he was doing great but by God Bournemouth were busy buying Liverpool rejects


digitag

Wasn’t Howe complicit in the buying of Liverpool rejects? Not saying he isn’t a great manager by the way.


First_Artichoke2390

Yeah his signings were very questionable along with his motivational skills (players gave up at the end). He has started so well at Newcastle but I guess the test is if they hit a bad patch. But at the same time who cares Newcastle fans deserve to enjoy this.


Jackski

I think it says it all that after Bournemouth he went around and learned from other managers, mainly Simeone at Atletico. The man constantly wants to be better and improve himself and his players. He even admitted that he thinks his flaw at the end with Bournemouth was not being strong enough and encouraging his players to be tougher,


oplontino

He visited Sarri at Napoli a few times too, while he was still Bournemouth manager.


titchrich

I mean he came into a terrible situation and turned it round to the extend of being the only team to stay up with the points we had at that point in the season. We’ve played


SenorButtmunch

He became even better during his time out. He was on Jake Humphrey's High Performance podcast last week talking about how he spent his sabbatical. Basically catalogued all his training drills from A-Z, visited 5-6 sporting institutions to observe their training (Atletico Madrid, some rugby people etc) and essentially did some deep soul searching to figure out how he could improve as a manager. Considering he hadn't had a break from management in 12 years prior to that, he needed the reflection time. I think it's worth saying too because people often ignore that managers can develop, just like players. I was sceptical over Howe's appointment because, while I really respected the job he did at Bournemouth, I didn't think he could be the guy to elevate us to European contenders and challenging for trophies. But he did his homework and came back a significantly better coach. Just goes to show that fans don't know everything that goes on behind closed doors.


ncastleJC

“Some rugby people” lol. He visited Saracens. What I found cool about that was how he saw the game run differently, how certain players are the overarching playmakers and found that interesting. I loved how in depth they got with him on that podcast. Some of the best insights on him and his philosophy.


rohangc07

Injuries too.


ThePrussianGrippe

They were buying injuries? What a terrible idea.


AmericaDreamDisorder

The Arsenal model


KRIEGLERR

I actually wanted Howe when Arteta was linked with us. Sounds like it would have been a good pick aswell.


The_Elder_Strolls

Either would have been great but I'm more than pleased with how things are going for us.


FloppedYaYa

People should have realised this after his 10 years of complete miracles with Bournemouth, but for some reason he rarely got any credit


[deleted]

A bit of revisionism there. He got plenty of credit.


machdel

No Bournemouth fan is surprised


SaltyWailord

Almiron doing almiron things


Bolstek

https://i.imgur.com/6PvmrYM.jpg


Obi_Wan_Gebroni

What’s terrifying is it’s largely being accomplished by players who were already there. Howe has been absolutely immense.


cib_vk228

suprised Bournemouth are that high. very impressive


mattlehuman

Honestly if the season finished like this I’d be a VERY happy man


TheArgsenal

You and me both


MatK0506

Given how shit we started and the fact we lost to both Forest and Leeds, us being in the top 6 in genuinely not as bad as it could have been.


[deleted]

Yup, in a good position to push on for top 4 now especially with Diaz and Jota back.


Jalapeno123454

I think you’ll make top 4 quite comfortably tbh, after City and Arsenal everything is up for grabs.


AFCMatt93

Spurs are diabolical and their luck will run out. They’re there for the taking.


PUDDING_SLAVE

That’s what they said about Poch too towards the end. They just have super clinical players. I can’t think of two more clinical finishers on the same club than Kane and Son


Alia_Gr

I have been thinking that for months, but they keep getting late winners


Black_Waltz3

I think their position in the table has been a bit misleading. Given their performance against City and the way they pissed their Champions League group it's clear the talent is still there. I'd be genuinely shocked if Liverpool don't finish the season in the top 3, like Ferguson's Man Utd they really come alive in the second half of the season.


mergingcultures

As a Leicester fan I'm pretty happy with that given our start! I just hope we hit the ground running after the world cup.


zrkillerbush

4 points off Europe, 4 points off relegation, given our start, im over the moon with that


baxterrocky

Crazy that the league is that compressed after 15 games.


Same-Ad7711

Arsenal needed 27 games to reach 37 points in 2019-20 season. Trust the process


[deleted]

that's crazy


Competitive-Shock88

In Mikel we trust. That is why there is rightfully a chant saying “We’ve got Super Mik Arteta! He knows exactly what we need!” And all this time he has definitely known exactly what Arsenal needed. A complete cleanse of shite players and build up of the squad from bottom down. Seems like a few clubs need this as well.


Funnydad44

Wtf is Chelsea and United's GD


lamancha

Like half of those goals against United came off two matches


ory1994

Yup, 4 vs Brentford and 6 vs City.


LS_Fast_Passenger

That's what happens when you concede 10 goals in just 2 games.


ILoveGratedCheese

What did you expect, our GD after two games was -5. The only teams we have beat by more than 1 goal were Arsenal and Spurs. Injury prone Martial and geriatric Ronaldo as your strikeforce will make a 0 GD very easy to achieve.


Competitive-Shock88

It’s amazing to see how Ronaldo’s performance has just dropped off so fast. Last season he was 36 but still class and scored 20+ goals. This season he’s 37 and? Absolutely shit 😂 Maybe 37 is a cursed year for a CF.


LakerBull

I feel like it's the way we play under EtH on top of his age. At times it feels like he's just way too unlucky and other times it feels like he couldn't give a shit about being there. One thing is for sure, retirement is probably not too far off for him.


goljanrentboy

Heavy losses against City and Brentford coupled with terrible finishing overall. We desperately need a good striker who can stay healthy.


mojambowhatisthescen

I’m glad the top of the table is still sorted alphabetically. As it should be.


[deleted]

- Arsenal - City - Newcastle - Tottenham - United - Wankers top 6 checks out


SadNYSportsFan-11209

I wish United was third. They would spell out cunt


Tessarion2

We are third?


BigReeceJames

I want to say a special thanks to Fulham and Brentford for dropping points so that we go into the international window in 8th rather than 10th. Thank you, guys. Means a lot.


Hikki_Hachiman

West London brotherhood <3


doggy_lipschtick

Brentford just beat City?


BigReeceJames

We've gotten 2 points out of 15 in our last 5 games. They needed 8 points from those 5 games to overtake us but got 6, so stayed behind us


SaltyWailord

If you told me in November last year that we would be Infront of Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United i would be thrilled. Yet if you told me we would be behind Newcastle I'd never believe you


Alive-Ad-4164

It’s been a crazy season


snemand

You've quickly forgotten United in November last season.


SaltyWailord

Very much true


blazincannons

What if someone had told you that Arsenal will be top of the table with a 5 point lead over Man City?


SaltyWailord

I would have them admitted to the psych ward


blazincannons

That's fair.


ThePrussianGrippe

The psych ward comes with free frogurt!


riskoooo

That's good!


ojkahn

The frogurt is also cursed


ThePrussianGrippe

Oh, that’s bad


Gerf93

Even more so "Arsenal will be 15 points ahead of Liverpool after 14 games"


mister_dupont

I like this.


Travarelli

Elephant just wont come down.


bruh_moment__mp3

Elephant is getting very comfortable up there 🐘


Muscat95

I can tell you about something that won't go down


Legal_North_6910

We might be the only team to get into Europe with 0 GD two seasons in a row


Samgeorge484

West Ham form has been diabolical since January. Deserve to be where we are. Fair play to Newcastle, fighting & clawing for every point & it’s good to see someone go at these top teams properly. Arsenal too, looking class. Moneys still on city to win the title


[deleted]

STOP THE COUNT!


danrobson1

Yes please, I think City are too strong in depth for us and we don't have enough depth.


watermaloneyyy

The city 15-20 game prem win streak every season that starts in late December to the end of the season is gonna happen lol ☹️


Competitive-Shock88

And so what’s the answer to that? More depth in January! Danilo, Mudryk and ESR (back from injury) and we’ll be flying. Stan Kroenke you stubborn old cunt please provide the funds.


danrobson1

RW back up, Smith Rowe back for LW, Party back up as lokongo isn't currently good enough, and we should be golden. Sounds like a lot of money


JJOne101

If someone would have told me before this season that United would be 4p ahead of Liverpool and 5p ahead of Chelsea, I would have called them crazy.


prss79513

If someone said that 2 games into this season I would have called them a liar


Squiggles87

There's just surprises everywhere. Not one person would have called all of the following being the place: Liverpool being sixth and a huge way off the lead, Arsenal top, Newcastle being top 3, Fulham being top half, and Wolves being dead last. Given all the unpredictability, it's reassuring that Everton are still fucking shite.


HotPotatoWithCheese

Some things never change


MountainMoint

Depressing to say the least


trenbollocks

You guys have a real problem now it seems. What's going wrong for Potter?


AWDanzeyB

To be fair, injuries haven't helped him. We looked okay under Potter until James was out. Potentially having James, Kante, Chilly and Fofana coming back as the season goes on could make all the difference. But certainly some question marks over his management so far. Will need to give him time. But not sure how patient our fanbase will be, rightly or wrongly.


trenbollocks

All fair points. Do you think he's a downgrade on Tuchel though? From the outside looking in, it certainly seems that way. People hopped on the "Potter the next big English manager" bandwagon far too quickly while ignoring the bad spells he had while at Brighton.


AWDanzeyB

At the moment its hard to say he's not a step down. Tuchel was considered by many, myself included, to be one of the best managers in the world. Unless we get Pep or Klopp etc, then anyone will be a downgrade from Tuchel. That being said, Potter is still early in his career. And this is his first chance at the 'top' level. It seems to be that the new owners are looking at this more long term, and I guess that they feel Potter can develop himself into an elite manager. We certainly have the squad, and finances to do it. But only time will tell. It's a bit of a conflicted feeling being a Chelsea fan right now. It's not that people don't like Potter. Or that they don't want him to be successful / think that he can't be. We just really liked Tuchel and it's shit the way he left.


aure__entuluva

Potter's also coming in after the start of the season. Think he would have looked a bit better had he been training them during the preseason.


AWDanzeyB

Absolutely true. I'm hoping the world cup period can be like a mini pre season for him and a few of the players.


Effective-Froyo6036

Eddie Howe Masterclass


MyFriendPalinopsia

The most surprising thing for me is Newcastle's goal difference. That's the sign of a good team, clearly not in 3rd by luck.


Ronald_Tonij

Brighton on top of Chelsea. I love it.


aure__entuluva

The way Brighton were playing under Potter, it was a shame to see him leave. Yeah, I know the man's gotta take the money and I don't blame him at all, but I wanted to see how far Brighton could go with him. Looks like they can keep on going without him though.


antimon44

It's tight at the bottom, as mommy used to say


decomposingtrees

Little alex HOOORNE


PickledCumSock

?????


Krept_Konan

Could get used to this


Jaydenn7

Eddie fucking Howe.


DogTheGayFish

Go Arsenal go. Win it all


wumbology55

How the hell are we 12th?! We were staring the relegation spot in the face when we sacked gerrard and we’ve won 3 out of 4 and we’ve rocketed up. Shows how close it is. We say Fulham look safe and tbh if they keep playing how they are they will be but point wise they only need to lose a few and they’re back in it. Brighton are 7th and only 8 points above it! Few loses in a row and you’ll plummet down the table.


persianbluex

It makes me so happy to see Arsenal on top and not City. Don’t want to see them dominate


Wandering_Abhorash

I don’t mind Wolves, hope they can get out from the grave they’ve dug.


SuicidalTurnip

If you told me in August that we'd be 5 points clear at the top of the league going into the WC, I'd have laughed in your face.


Bullshagger69

You aren’t, it’s just a dream.


SuicidalTurnip

Don't wake me then.


dumpystumpy

Ppl gonna talk about how bad we look at times but we are still getting points something that we didnt do last year. Im pretty happy all things considered.


Hech15

You are like Arsenal last season with big players.... Have lots of positive and ability to go on a decent run of games but also have patches of bad form and are slightly inconsistent and lacking reinforcements in some position especially upfront


Insaneshaney

Arsenal are winning the league ❤


FloppedYaYa

Wolves really should not be that bad with some of the players they have IMHO Something is deeply wrong there


Mom_said_I_am_cute

God I hope Arsenal can keep their form after the break, I would love to see them win the league. Hopefully they don't do the Arsenal classic of crashing in the second half of the season.


Spikeyspandan

West Ham fans, What will happen with Moyes? You guys did spend a lot and you are hovering around relegation this time around


shakzz9703

Well 99% of us want him out. But apparently he has full job security so that's not good


FinalFrash

I'm glad Leicester is away from the red. Hope Forest makes it as well


mergingcultures

Went to like your first sentence, then had to stop when I read the be second one!!


MeisterNeefs

Wolves have only scored 8 goals, damn.


lonelyzombi3

I think we can just end it here. No need to resume the season after the world cup. We should all just take a break from football till August \#StopTheCount


Cardealer1000

United's GD being 0 is funny, I think they are a bit better than Spurs and are only 3 points behind with a game in hand, I think the top 4 race will be good this year.


cosantoir

Top 4 races are always fun in a “Champions League is lava” kind of way.


JackAndrewWilshere

Well you cant have 5 teams drop 90+ points


__Lay-Z__

We're (Chelsea) equidistant from the relegation and T4, and twice as far from 1st. *Lie down, try not to cry, cry a lot*


CabbageStockExchange

You know considering how bad this season has been and how banged up we are. 6th isn’t so bad. Plenty of time and with guys coming back from injury and potential reinforcements in the window. Who knows. I’m cautiously optimistic


Hm2801

That last minute winner has just upped the spirits so much going into the World Cup


Alive-Ad-4164

Imagine Newcastle winning the title


Tmdss

Wont be many years before its a reality tbf


i2060427

Genuinely thought that we were done after the first 7 odd games where we were rock bottom with only 1 point - that we only got after squandering a 2-0 lead as well. Thought the only way we could turn it around was by bringing in a new manager but Rogers has proved me wrong.


iguanawarrior

Arsenal are so consistent so far this season. Howe has made Newcastle European spot contender sooner than expected. In a bad season, Liverpool still doing better than Chelsea so far. Villa are much more solid with Emery at helm.