Topic: Sportsbet.io's English Premier League Football Pool Discussion Thread - page 192. (Read 140734 times)

That's excellent odds for Arsenal for sure. If it was City though I think even their second squad is good enough the odds wouldn't move but even Arsenal without Gabriel Jesus is probably going to win this easy unless West Ham have something up their sleeve.

Definitely my pick in the pool and also a pick on my bets Spurs is playing now already and it's almost a full team at the front but Lloris as expected only on the bench.

Yeah I think they can skip the boxing day game and then be ready for their teams in order for their teams to capitalize on their awesome performance they showed with their team Argentina during the World Cup.It is not that there are difficult or very important encounters in tomorrow games,I have seen the favorites having from 1.32 to 1.53 odds with Arsenal having this 1.53 odd against West Ham which I think every one of us should capitalize on Arsenal form as based on their recent forms for me Arsenal is going to have an easy win tomorrow night.

Left my predictions for Boxing Day games. Damn, it was really difficult, I have no idea what to expect from teams after more than month break. And even in usual seasons, Boxing Days usually comes with many upsets and lot of goals.

It would be interesting how Argentina players would look playing now just week after World Cup final and all these celebration. But I think it's logical decision to let them to rest for some time. After such emotional final and marathon of celebrations, I doubt that they're physically and mentally ready to play now. It's not an end of word if they will miss one round.

More of a celebration and reward kind of break rather than resting I guess, and clubs usually allow their players time off to celebrate, just like Sarr and Mane after they won African Cup of Nations. I think also if you force players to come back earlier they play with sour mood or are still drunk from celebrating lol.

I do agree though, shame not to use their form and motivation.

I mean, the English had a bad track record of managing a team, and most of them sold it off after messing with the club; during the Chelsea selling era, no English fan wanted an English owner; of the 20 EPL clubs, only three are owned by Englishmen (Brighton, Brentford, and Tottenham), while the rest are either owned by Americans or Asians. In terms of finance and club success, both clubs owned by Americans and Asians outperform English-owned clubs. The English regard a club as a business in which they are only concerned with profit rather than club success. Liverpool is owned by Americans, making it very easy to transfer ownership to another American. You are correct about nationality, but recent statistics show that a club owned by Saudis is well-funded and managed.

I'm not sure what you mean by "a play thing for champagne parties like Abramovic." I guess we're overlooking the fact that he was the most successful owner since he took over, he put Chelsea on the map, he loved the club, and he left us debt-free. I'm not sure how many owners would walk away from the club and still clear the debts without taking anything home.

I believe they had enough days to recover,as almost 10 days is a good time to be playing the next game and I am also of the opinion that both players performed really well during the World Cup with MacAlister for me performing better as he has had a more difficult job that of a midfielder trying to support the attack while Alvarez just waited as a true attacker the balls to put in the back of the net.I think both players are used to the intensity of the Premier League schedules and so they will be used directly in the upcoming games by their respective coaches.

agree, most of them will probably play more matches in EPL and cups than on world cup, but it is due to winning world cup, and they mental preparedness to play at the moment, or at least that is mine point of view
hopefully, they will continue to play like on WC in their respective clubs

not sure what other players will not be with their squads for first round, but that is more on FPL topic, than this one, FPL team will be hard to lock until Monday

I really don't understand what the break would have been for though, because they played a total of 7 games through the course of the world cup, and it could have been more than that if it were to be club side football over that same period, but I'd totally understand in the case of MacAlister and perhaps Alvarez since they both had a huge load of playing time, but given how effective and brilliant they were during the tournament, I see no reason why their respective coaches wouldn't want to capitalise on their form right away, while the confidence is still pretty much over the roof for them.

Argentians could be out till New Year, at least MacAlister, that will be back first match next year for Brighton
yeah, this could the round to catch some surprise, since all teams had more than a month break, and this is almost the same as first round, you never know who keeped up the form, and who will blow

I've not even made my picks yet, I'm still trying to get see what each teams have available, there have been couple of players said to be already injured or have picked up a knock, so I'll just make them later tomorrow after all possible findings and team news, I'm expecting a couple of upset, at least two, but I really don't want to be too forward yet, I'll rather just have them on my picks.

I already had my picks but revised them a few hours ago. Hopefully Liverpool will restart with a win. We need to be at least in the top 4. Still 23 rounds left so we can hope to improve on the point table. It's hard to race with City but Arsenal and Newcastle will start straggling sooner and later. Premier league needs consistency. City is doing it from years. 

From middle of the January Arsenal will start losing point according to my calculation. They have upcoming matches against Tottenham, Man U, City, Livepool. They will be tested soon. Very similar with Newcastle too but from the middle of February.

I definitely have to do this for January games as I will be too busy at office, got the holiday shift and we're not really allowed to do much other than keep on the systems. I find it actually works great sometimes too, when you only make picks without being affected by results and news as those have a way of playing with your psychology!

Everton might do well I believe, but Spurs is probably the team with the most affected main players.

yeah, it is probably better to put prediction before weekend, and eventually polish them after, than forget to put them at all after weekend

regarding round, there is no super-interesting matches, few easy to guess wins, that could go either way due to break, and some middle-team fights, no real derby in this round
waiting to see how Everton is going to play after break, should be a month of trainings, Pickford was in Qatar and had good performance, hopefully a clean sheet next week as well

It's true that the success of a team is not necessarily tied to the nationality of its manager or leader. It's important to focus on the skills, experience, and abilities of the individual rather than their nationality. It's also worth noting that the success of a team can depend on a variety of factors, including the talent and abilities of the players, the overall strategy and approach of the team, and other external factors such as injuries and luck.

We are 3 days away from the resumption of the EPL, it will be great to watch the matches and enjoy betting on them. Don't forget to set expectations

To successfully own football team these days requires just not a large pool of funds, neither should it been seen from just a business perspective, because that what brought Arsene Wenger under enormous pressure despite making money for club annually via players transfers, but the fans will never be appreciative of an underperforming club, while they'd not give two fucks how much or little the clubs makes annually in as much they get their bragging rights which is to play decent football, and win important rivalry matches, we've seen a lot of European clubs with household names declined a lot of the past decade and become of little or almost no significance to young kids of foreign countries these, I mean the likes of AC Milan, and Inter Milan only being recently able to appear in the UCL, despite being taken over by rich owners, and Arsenal if not for being in the premier league, they also lost huge relevance to UCL competition, Liverpool have only just gotten that huge relevance back as well after having Klopp in charge, it will be a huge shame to see them fall back to such slumber, because in football it's not everyday you come across a bankroll like that of Manchester City and Manager like that of Guardiola....

Even in the country where I am whenever things do not go well for a certain top team,all the supporters immediately point the finger toward the manager when he is a non native but history has shown just like in Liverpool that native coaches did not bode that well compared to their non native counterparts.

I think that it does not mean anything if the man is Saudi,English or American as long as he can bring Liverpool back on track to their glorious days,once this man no matter what nationality has it means that nationality is not at all relevant.

I know it's not a question to me but...

...as a non-native supporter, but I hope as a sincere supporter, I've never seen nationality as a prerequisite -- we've had plenty of spiritual Scousers over the years (even poor Benitez, who made the city his home and the attention of his life work). King Dalglish is another prime example, as is Klopp -- true Scousers the Kop hail as their own... never mind the "mini-Scousers" like even Tsimikas and Naby lad show it's never where you come from, but where you put your heart.

That's always applied to players, always applied to managers, and while no Liverpool supporter might ever bestow the same admiration for their owners, they might at least afford the same spirit of respect.

So there's a difference not in who the owners are but how the money comes and what motivations back it. Is the club going to be a play thing for champagne parties like Abramovich? Is it just a trophy wife to brag about at dinners like Venky's when they first bought Blackburn Rovers and aired their players eating fried chicken?

So that's oil money and franchise money from overseas. But do Englishmen fare better? Ask Newcastle about Mike Ashley, who treated talents like Keegan like crap and appointed his own mates to manage the club (not to mention all the tacky stuff he did for his actual business while allowing his club to get relegated, for example renaming St James Park to... Sports Direct Arena). Oil money bought Newcastle but they seem to be learning a lot of lessons... and it doesn't yet appear they're going to treat the club like a toy. Time will tell.

Having wealthy owners does not solve most of the problems if the club's scouting system is poor. Liverpool has one of the best scouting systems in the league, which is why you rarely see any player flop, they always get the right player for Klopp's style of play and it has been he3lpful all these years. That being said, I believe the owners have been putting a good amount of money into transfers in the last three seasons, not to mention they paid 100m pounds for Darwin, i don't think any other EPL club spend that much on a single player in the last transfer.


I had no idea the club was for sale, it was one of those random rumors' news, club sales are a lengthy process because it involves a lot of politics, finding the right guy for the job, and making sure you don't sell to a rival billionaire fan. Every club wishes to have the Saudis because they are the only people who can invest millions of dollars in the team, bring good sponsorships, and ensure the team competes, but biased English politics will prevent this from happening.

Will you prefer a Saudi, an Englishman, or an American?
will you prefer a Saudi, an English man or American for the job?

15 points behind Arsenal to me is not such a big gap, it's City everyone still has to worry about. Arsenal will put doubt in everyone's mind until final few games, whereas City is expected to rarely lose or even draw.

So yes, it is like me last couple of seasons, accepting Barcelona top 4 (and yet they went broke and trying to win it this season, I am still not convinced).

You think you will be another state owned club?

I would shake hands on acceptance of finishing 4th this season, no problem. I would definitely be happy with that. Our team needs big money spent on it but we have the cheapest owners around. We need an entire new midfield, Klopp is hamstrung by his employers. I hope the sale of the club happens quickly, it’s painful watching our midfield right now.