Premier League '22-'23 Season

Howdy hey, footy fans!

The English Premier League is due to kickoff the first weekend of August, earlier than usual; the Qatar World Cup November 21st through December 18th is fuzzing up the entire world football schedule. There will be an extended winter break and a frenzy of tight scheduling weeks, much like the 21-22 season when games were rescheduled regularly and packed in tighter because of COVID outbreaks.

So, that being said, how are your teams looking? Manchester City’s doing the usual “buy everything in sight” (:roll_eyes:), Newcastle the same, Manchester United with a major shakup, and the usual plundering of good midtable teams by the richer teams.

My Leicester City is doing okay; Vardy and Maddison look to be fit and so far there hasn’t been a wholesale turnover. Brentford is going to be wounded by the poaching of Christian Eriksen by Manchester United, and Brighton has seen several of their top players bought away by others, particularly by Man City. :roll_eyes:

Liverpool and Tottenham look to be staying strong. Manchester United has a new manager, a new system, a ton of new players, but the same old expectations (and apparently an unhappy Ronaldo). Chelsea is…hanging in there I guess? Everton is a huge wildcard. Fulham, Nottingham Forest, and AFC Bournemouth return to the top flight.

Who ya got? Anyone but Man City. :roll_eyes: I’d love to see Liverpool get one. And if Tottenham gets their act together, they have the manager and personnel to be a dark horse.

I dunno how I’m going to be able to keep up with EPL, my home league USL, and the bike race Vuelta a Espana at the same time, but I’m gonna try!

4 Likes

Rangers season is just about to kick off against Livingston in the league. As I suspected, a couple of key players have been sold - Joe Aribo to Southampton and Calvin Bassey to Ajax. Would have been good to keep them but they got good money for them. Bassey has a 10% sell-on clause too so if an English club pay over the odds for him Rangers will benefit lol.

New players have come in so hopefully they’ll hit the ground running, especially with a Champions’ League qualifier on Tuesday.

2 Likes

Congrats on the win! Always good to get a win to open the season!

I just finished watching the FA Community Shield. HAHAHAHAH. Manchester City lost. That may be my new favorite way to start an EPL season ever. :joy:

Oh, and my Brighton told City to take a walk after a lowball offer for Marc Cucurella. And apparently Newcastle is trying to buy James Maddison from my Leicester for less than he’s worth. Get outta here, the both of you with your Saudi oil money. I hate when teams just waltz in and buy up everyone good just because they can. :roll_eyes:

2 Likes

Here we go!! (This is the US broadcast schedule. YMMV)

And how are my four favorite sides all playing each other! ACK!

2 Likes

Phew.

Rangers lost the first leg of the Champions’ League qualifier in Belgium last week 2-0 but won 3-0 at home tonight to squeak through. There’s still another tie to get through though against PSV Eindhoven which won’t be easy.

Scottish team Dundee Utd managed to beat Dutch outfit AZ Alkmaar last week in their European Conference League qualifier which was a massive result for them and I hope they can finish the job on Thursday.

Anyway, intriguing first weekend of the season in England with another big win for Brighton against Utd. I’m largely neutral but I’m gonna root for Bournemouth this year just because they signed Marcus Tavernier, younger brother of Rangers captain James. As good a reason as any I guess.

2 Likes

unnamed (1)

Ride or die I guess…

2 Likes

Oh, oh, I’m sorry. :laughing:

Don’t get me wrong, I like United (and hate Man City), and David de Gea has been my boy since he was a scrawny 19yr old playing for Atlético Madrid….but woof. MU’s a bit of a dumpster fire. They have the pieces, but they’ve never come together.

And Brighton is one of my teams, so I was happy with this weekend, but hopefully United can get their act together.

Leicester and Brentford drawing was the best I could hope for, I was super impressed with Fulham, and I’m already over all the Man-City’s-going-to-win-everything storyline.

Nice! I like Bournemouth; I’m a big Scott Parker fan, so I’m happy with their win. But boy, you could tell Gerrard was furious with his team!

Buckle in, everybody!

2 Likes

It’s OK. I’ve been with United as my Premiership team since they had Sharp branding on their jerseys. All teams go thru bad parts, not going to jump on/off the bandwagon for convenience. If I was, My selection of Hockey clubs needs major revisions.

As an ankle biter living in Canada, I realized that Bristol City (born in the shadow of Ashton Gate) would never be top tier, so gravitated to MU as one of my best friends at the time was from Manchester so United gave us something to talk about or focus on when we would get the rare Shoot magazine (cause the robins wouldn’t get much coverage).

3 Likes

My sister and BIL have been following United for years, and when de Gea signed with them, I kinda fell into supporting them.

But I got hardcore into EPL during the pandemic (I had the time), and left to my own devices, I chose Brighton, Leicester City, and Brentford. I like the others well enough except for Man City and Newcastle.

Of course, my real love is my local side Louisville City FC…:purple_heart::white_heart::yellow_heart:

2 Likes

My coworker is a hardcore Man U fan even though she’s originally from Leicester. It’s made for some odd moments since I’m an Arsenal fan.

Still we can agree on feeling bad for an older coworker is a Norwich City fan. He’s got the double whammy of the Canaries being in the ECL this season and already they have an unhealthy amount of own goals.

3 Likes

Arsenal, eh? They’re one of those sides I’ve never really formed an opinion on. Gotta say though, they could easily challenge for a Champions League berth if they keep their act together. Young squad, but a heck of a lot of talent.

And I feel bad for all the teams that go down; Norwich just had an absolutely dreadful season all last year, and too bad it sounds like they’re already off to a bad start in the Championship. checks I see Dean Smith’s still in charge; he’s a very capable manager, but I don’t know if they have the personnel to challenge for, well, anything this year.

2 Likes

You can never tell with Arsenal. Brilliant one week, absolute murder the next. They should have finished in the top four last season but bottled it in the run in. They can be great to watch when they’re playing well though.

I just noticed that Malik Tillman, the player that scored the goal that put Rangers through last night is a US national team player. I thought he was German but he has an American dad and opted to play for the US team. He’s still just 20 so keep an eye on him.

2 Likes

Ahh, announcers. This guy just said the game was gonig to end with nary a whimper. and THEN they tie it in over time, and ‘DRAMA to the VERY end…’

re writing a little history there :).

Premier league just ended in, what, June? just like Hockey in the states, they seem to have the shortest down time.

1 Like

The Jets are consistent here in the states :). Tuned in to their first pre game of the year. down 14 points halfway in. yep. consistennnnnnt.

1 Like

Day to forget for De Gea on Saturday. Fair play to him for facing the cameras and holding his hands up.

Awful start to the season for United but Arsenal lost their first three games last year. The fans were starting to turn on Arteta but the board stuck with him and look at them now.

Malik Tillman scored again at the weekend for Rangers. Looking like a really good signing already. He’s just on loan at the moment but he has a buy-out clause to make it permanent.

2 Likes

I’m still catching up on EPL action; I spent almost all day Saturday with my own side LCFC in a huge home game that we won in front of a complete sellout and it was MASSIVE. But I am sooooo behind.

Playing catch-up; currently on Leeds / Southampton. I did see the United / Brentford game…at LEAST 2 of those goals were de Gea’s fault, but really, he shouldn’t have been tested as much as he was. Maguire is still an anchor (in a bad sense) and the midfield is just DREADFUL. But fair play to Brentford; they are one of my squads and they are utterly FEARLESS. You love to see it!

The Brighton/Newcastle game was so frustrating; it should have been 3-0 and maybe more, but the Albion were thwarted by a good performance from Nick Pope and some terrible goal line luck. I am so buoyed by Brighton’s start to the season.

Arsenal is looking SUPER freaking scary right now. And I am really looking forward to the Chelsea / Tottenham replay…I’ve managed to not get spoiled on the result, but I heard about the froufrou on the sidelines. TBH, Tuchel and Conte are two guys I wouldn’t want to fight in a bar, so this will be spicy to see!

2 Likes

The season started early this year because some idiots who were in no way whatsoever bribed or offered any other cash or non-cash incentives to do so decided to schedule the World Cup in the desert this December.

3 Likes

I wish I could say you’re wrong, but you’re not wrong. This whole World Cup makes me feel squicky…I called it a “corrupt bargain” the first day I heard about it, and nothing has changed my mind since.

4 Likes

Quite a week. Arsenal top of the league, Man Utd shock Liverpool, Man City drop points to Newcastle, Leeds thump Chelsea, Brighton win again and Fulham get knocked out of the League Cup by a team 3 leagues below them.

And Rangers just qualified for the Champions League too, knocking out Dutch outfit PSV Eindhoven in qualifying with a 1-0 win away after a 2-2 draw at home. Tillman again influential although he didn’t score but set the goal up. Another American player James Sands in defence had a good game too. That makes two Scottish clubs (Celtic the other) in the Champions League draw tomorrow.

2 Likes

As with last week, I was out all of Saturday morning, so I missed all 7 games yesterday and I had to wait for them to go up on replay this morning. Just saw Harvey Elliott’s gorgeous goal for Liverpool against Bournemouth. After this, I’ll move on to the Brighton / Leeds game and hope for the best!

It’s been rough, avoiding all of my football social media so I don’t get spoiled. I did, however, look up the Man City score because I don’t watch them unless they lose (or are in some sort of final I have to watch). Guess I won’t be watching the Crystal Palace game, natch.

3 Likes