The English Football Thread

[NikkiCFC 7,942]

6 days before facing Real. They are playing tonight without so many injured players. Ramos, Valverde, Modric, Hazard, Kroos, Lucas and Mendy. 

[Vesper 28,775]

1 nil Villa after 20 seconds

[ZAPHOD2319 4,477]

Villa score early!

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imagine Citeh bottling the title

[Vesper 28,775]

if they lose this game and Manure win Sunday, it is down to 5 points

Edited April 21, 2021 by Vesper

[NikkiCFC 7,942]

1 minute ago, Vesper said:

if they lose this game and Manure win Sunday, it is down to 5 points

Something similar happened when City won title in 2012 I think. United had 8 more points with 6 games to go. 

[Vesper 28,775]

if we beat Citeh again, and Manure win out, then Citeh would still have to cock up against (as in lose) to either BHA, Everton, Palace or NUFC

if they lose to us, and draw one of those and manure wins out, Citeh would likely win on GD

[Vesper 28,775]

imagine Citeh blowing 4 trophies in a month or so (and in reality a shot at 3 more, CS, Super Cup, FWCC)

would, IF it happened, be the biggest one month cock up ever that I can think off

7 blown trophies (4 in reality, 3 that they would be huge favourites for)

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1 1

Foden

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Stones straight Red

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2nd yellow red for Matty Cash

10 v 10 now

[Magic Lamps 11,653]

Villa really bottled this. Anyway, Stones was a straight red so he should miss the match vs us, right?

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5 minutes ago, Magic Lamps said:

Villa really bottled this. Anyway, Stones was a straight red so he should miss the match vs us, right?

they said he misses cup final and palace

[Magic Lamps 11,653]

12 minutes ago, Vesper said:

they said he misses cup final and palace

Ah well. I thought it was 3 games banned. 

[Vesper 28,775]

2 minutes ago, Magic Lamps said:

Ah well. I thought it was 3 games banned. 

may be, not sure

[Magic Lamps 11,653]

Straight red cards for dissent will result in a two-match ban, while dangerous tackles or violent conduct will result in a three-match ban which can be raised to four or more games in extreme cases.

Did not see the game. Was it a dangerous tackle?

[Vesper 28,775]

The €$£ and why you have to enjoy the little victories while you can    The six English clubs’ scarves tied to a crossbar on Hackney Marshes, earlier. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA Scott Murray MAN GOES OVERBOARD After three days of his boorish nonsense, the world of football is back to where it was before The Man started throwing his weight around like a great big ignorant greedy fat get. He and his pals – those self-appointed blue-sky thinkers and over-promoted white-collar yes-men, turbojobbies one and all – have been firmly put back in their box. For a month or two at least. Let’s face it, we’re not totally guaranteed to have heard the end of this, they’ll be up to no good again the minute we take our eye off the ball and give them an inch. But still, with Atlético and both Milan clubs following the shamed English sextet out of the €$£, you have to enjoy the little victories while you can. So: yay. A reserved, qualified, no exclamation-mark yay. Agnelli admits Super League cannot go ahead after nine clubs pull out Read more See, it’s a great relief … until you factor in the complete and utter destruction of the few thin slivers of trust that remained between fans and the institutions they support. And the queasy sensation of having agreed in principle with an argument put forward by Boris Johnson. And the uneasy feeling of still having been played, given that under cover of this going off, Uefa quietly ratified its all-new, really-rubbish, mega-distended Swiss Cup, which we’ll probably now have to suck up and like too, while the performatively reluctant Chelsea and Manchester City appear to have emerged from this entire fiasco as heroes, despite their spendthrift oligarch overlords having pied-piped everyone towards the precipice in the first place. To be scrupulously fair to the likes of Chelsea and City – and indeed PSG, sitting there, just out of shot, equally doe-eyed and innocent – they only accelerated a process that had been heading this way for years, superleagues of various domestic and continental hue having been mooted in one form or another since the 1950s. So when apportioning blame, it’s all about timing your run, which explains why Everton, prime movers in the superleagueification of English football as one of 1992’s preposterously arrogant Big Five, can sit proudly atop their high horse now. Yet there’s only so much fun to be had by wagging a self-righteous finger at someone with dirtier hands, and The Fiver hopes fans of all clubs will soon band together for the greater good, and fight the good fight for the structural change that’d make football a fairer game: SALARY CAPS NOW! Or failing that, class war. Either will do. LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE! Join Scott from 6pm BST for hot Premier League MBM coverage of Tottenham 4-0 Southampton, before Nick Ames weighs in on Aston Villa 1-2 Manchester City, while Simon Burnton will also be covering Manchester City 2-2 Chelsea in the WSL. QUOTE OF THE DAY “Once the team arrived and stepped off the bus there were severe protests. Eggs were thrown at the players, who were also verbally attacked” – German police respond after Schalke players and staff were threatened by their own fans, as a 1-0 defeat to Arminia Bielefeld relegated them from the Bundesliga for the first time in 33 years.  Schalke defender Timo Becker sits alone on the bench after the team were relegated. Photograph: Friso Gentsch/AP FIVER LETTERS “Hi, I’ve been away for a couple of days. The last thing I saw was the Dulux dog ripping Spurs a new one. It can’t have got any worse for them, surely?” – John O’Donnell. “I applaud man-of-the-people Boris Johnson’s description of the €$£ as ‘offend[ing] the basic principles of competition’ and a protectionist ‘cartel’. Maybe things would have turned out differently in 2016 if he had been around to help ward off a disastrous and irreversible breakaway from a fabled European institution with ideals of openness and fair play. Oh” – Ian Potter. “If the €uropean $uper £eague is looking for an anthem, I nominate Gimme Some Money by Spinal Tap” – Simon Riley. “Ben Fisher was explaining recently how the Canaries had got their strategy bang on for making their quick return to the Premier League, with their catchy ‘the future started yesterday’ slogan. Are they blessed with clairvoyant powers ? This season’s ‘future started yesterday’ was the promotion-confirming 3-1 home defeat to Bournemouth, followed up by a 1-0 home defeat to Watford. Are they already preparing their bang-on strategy for a quick return to the joy and unity of the Championship?” – Jeremy Boyce. Send your letters to [email protected]. And you can always tweet The Fiver via @guardian_sport. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’the day is … Ian Potter. NEWS, BITS AND BOBS Won’t somebody think of the poor banks? An apology of sorts at Liverpool. “I alone am responsible for the unnecessary negativity brought forward over the past couple of days,” parped John W Henry. It’s something I won’t forget. And shows the power the fans have and will rightly continue to have.” Ed Woodward is heading out at Manchester United. The tombola for the women’s football tournament at Tokyo’s Big Sports Day has thrown Team GB into Group E with Japan, Canada and Chile.  Some tasty ties ahoy. Photograph: Harold Cunningham/Fifa/AFP/Getty Images A new report has found that an increase in the accessibility of women’s football could lead to viewing figures sky-rocketing by more than 350% globally. Watford boss Xisco Muñoz is warning his upwardly mobile Hornets to stay “100% focused” after that defeat of Norwich took them within three points of automatic promotion. Derby are in the deep doo-doo after a 3-0 loss at Preston left them three points clear of the Championship trap-door, where Rotherham loom with three games in hand. “It wasn’t good enough,” sniffed manager Wayne Rooney. “It is out of our hands.” In case you missed it: Chelsea 0-0 Brighton. And the O’Irish government doesn’t expect to meet Uefa’s demand of filling the Arriva Stadium to 25% capacity for Euro Not 2020 games in June. “We’re just too cautious about that, we just think June is too soon,” sighed deputy PM Leo Varadkar. STILL WANT MORE? This isn’t over, warns Barney Ronay. An entertaining timeline of 36 breathless hours in the world of $uper £eague.  Don’t we all. Photograph: Paul Terry/Rex/Shutterstock Proper Journalism’s David Conn on whether the UK government’s involvement was mere political opportunism. American fans love European football precisely because it isn’t like sport in the USA! USA!! USA!!!, whoops Dave Caldwell. The Knowledge is keeping on keeping on. And here’s an article about actual football! Why Kai Havertz is Chelsea’s best option to lead the line. By Ben McAleer. Oh, and if it’s your thing … you can follow Big Website on Big Social FaceSpace. And INSTACHAT, TOO! RECOMMENDED ATTENDING

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Wednesday April 21 2021 Matt Law's Chelsea briefing   You are receiving a second Chelsea Briefing newsletter this week, to reflect the extraordinary events of the past 24 hours.

Supporters' group demands answers over original decision to join European Super League By Matt Law, Football News Correspondent Chelsea are not planning for any heads to roll over the club’s climbdown from the European Super League, despite calls for chairman Bruce Buck and chief executive Guy Laurence to resign. The Chelsea Supporters’ Trust have demanded that Buck and Laurence should be held accountable for what proved to be a huge miscalculation that resulted in protests outside Stamford Bridge, but the club are not currently anticipating any major changes at board level. Buck, who has been accused of defending the ESL at a fans’ forum 24 hours before Chelsea pulled out, is not expected to resign over the fiasco and owner Roman Abramovich is not thought to be planning to sack him. The situation could change if the upset and anger among supporters does not dissipate. It was Abramovich who ordered the board to withdraw from the ESL on Tuesday night, ahead of the other five English clubs involved, and Chelsea released a statement confirming the decision shortly after midnight. Unlike Liverpool and Arsenal, the statement did not include any apology to the club’s supporters, which has also angered the Supporters’ Trust, who issued their own statement calling for individuals to pay the consequences. “It has been confirmed that Chelsea Football Club is officially withdrawing their intention to join the European Super League,” said the CST statement. “Whilst this is a huge win for supporters worldwide, our fight to secure the proper future of the club will continue. “The Chelsea Supporters’ Trust is appalled with the tone and insincerity of the statement issued by CFC today. “We request a full and in-depth explanation as to why the board took the decision to turn their back on the European competition and for CFC to explain why they signed up to the Super League without prior consultation with their loyal supporters. “We are disappointed that an apology has not been included in the statement. The legacy of our club was put at risk for what appears to have been solely for financial gain. “The CST presently have little or no confidence in our current leadership at board level. On Monday, Bruce Buck extensively defended CFC's plan to remain in the Super League at a fans' forum meeting. “Buck, alongside Laurence, appears to have given no consideration towards the loyal supporters, so their positions would seem untenable moving forward. “Our relations with CFC will remain frayed until we have a better understanding of why this decision happened and we are assured that change and safeguards are put in place. “The CST will not rest until we are comfortable that change and protections are put in place, because 116 years of history was jeopardised. This is our club and will remain our club.” Chelsea’s statement said: “As reported earlier this evening, Chelsea Football Club can confirm that it has begun the formal procedures for withdrawal from the group developing plans for a European Super League. “Having joined the group late last week, we have now had time to consider the matter fully and have decided that our continued participation in these plans would not be in the best interests of the Club, our supporters or the wider football community.” Got a question on Chelsea? Get in touch on Twitter @Matt_Law_DT or by emailing [email protected]