looool prolly the latter

Barca are 1.02 to qualify so 98%.

Obviously it'd be great if wenger prioritised the league and fa cup but he'll 100% play the strongest team possible vs barca - I'd expect ozil and sanchez to be on the bench again this weekend tbh

fyp

Yeah, he's pretty incentivised to do so. If you end up losing by 2/3 goals at the Nou Camp it sucks, but nobody was expecting anything and Arsenal are used to going out at this point vs superior opposition. If you get absolutely spanked then narratives start to drive, people start using at as an excuse for future failure etc. Considering most of the starters had a decent rest in mid-week, and a decent number will probably get a rest on Sunday, playing Wednesday/Saturday is not the end of the world.

That being said, I do think that the FA could help CL teams out slightly by not having the early saturday kickoff directly after playing away at the best team in the world on a wednesday night.

Sorry to be a nit, but it's not the FA that schedules Premier League games.

poor schteve

ooh, neil collins has ****ed off to 'murica

Who is it?

joejoe - yeah that's a fair point and is probably somewhere in his thinking (don't want that negative momentum ldo).

Think the Everton game could end up with some ridiculous scoreline, betting over 2.5 is freer than a smalling brace.

He's arrived...

Presume you're directing that at my comment that the FA don't schedule Premier League games?

The Premier League do - with significant influence from Sky and BT Sport.

Sustained.

Yes, I was. I was looking to understand how much influence the TV channels have on the schedule.
Then again, you already have the kickoff times scheduled, it's just a matter of which team plays at what time. - this is correct, right?

Here in Portugal we only have 1 TV channel for all the games, so they schedule as they please with feedback from the teams > league.
Only Benfica has their own channel where they show their home games.

so ridiculous

Pretty much, yeah.

When the fixtures are created all weekend games are originally scheduled for 3pm on a Saturday. The TV companies pick which games they want to show and they are rescheduled.

I don't know the details, but I assume the contract that the Premier League has with Sky/BT Sports gives the TV companies the right to pick whatever games they want (with some restrictions - eg they have to show each team a certain number of times) and the PL has to move them accordingly.

TP

I didn't know it works that way

Never really got the hype around him, probably he only got it because he did the same thing as Riise and got the hell out of Norway at age 17. Has been a regular in the national team for the latest qualifier and has been decent enough.

Not sure how to feel about Rafa, on the one hand good riddance Schteve but I've gotta believe that he faces a mountain of a challenge and will be gone the second we're relegated and then we'll replace him with Carver or someone. It's the hope that kills you

BAIDS theorem is gonna be put to the test with this Rafa appointment

What the hair one or that all managers are worthless?

Newcastle getting relegated will be all the sweeter with Rafa in charge.

Will this lead to tears at Anfield? Or do they no longer love Rafa now that they have a younger chick with lashings of nerd sexiness?

That Villa side has absolutely no chance of going straight back up, it's more likely to get relegated again.

It's quite unusual this season that two of the relegated clubs are two of the best clubs in the championship but that's because the owners were smart and kept Dyche and Bruce in charge to bring them back up.

The championship is a great league, you get Mick Mccarthy teams full of free signings, loanees and journeymen and somehow he manages to turn them into promotion hopefuls, I don't know how.

Flings like Rodgers and Klopp will come and go but the ploppers love for Rafa is everlasting. If FSW gets relegated it will be someone else's fault and that's a FACHT.

West Ham at 4.2 to beat United tomorrow on Betfair, seems like a great price unless I'm missing something.

english "journalism" at it's finest right now, as the daily mail (for it is they, amongst others) has picked up on a troll posting on the local moron forum, citing his outrage at us getting an aldi back in january, reducing our village back down to the lower classes