Barclays Premier League: 2012/13
 

I've been using the Villa Park Bon Jovi thread as a place to talk football these past few weeks so in the hope of not completely ruining that thread...

We're getting to the end of the season and depending on your viewpoint on the strength of QPR, it looks like there are still a number of teams aiming to get away from 18th. I'd say Reading are down.

As for Champions League/Europa League qualification, it's pretty tight too. Arsenal are starting to hit a bit of form, whereas Everton are pretty strong and Tottenham and Chelsea have both had Europa League campaigns to endure with the prospect of injuries and fatigue (Bale is injured, for example).

This weekend is the start of the final lap really, and in all honesty, I'm dreading it. As a Newcastle fan, I feel sick at the thought of playing sunderland and I never enjoy it. Horrible games.

What do you hope for from your team? And how do you see things ending up?

Spurs. Hope we end up 4th and qualifying for the Champions League. Know we are going to have our usual end of season collapse and get overtaken by Arsenal and end up back in the Europa and losing Bale.

Always looking on the bright side of life!

I fully expected Spurs to win the Europa League and was surprised to see them lose out to Basle on Thursday.

I'm looking forward to last few games. I think this season has been pretty naff to be honest. Don't know whether that's because Liverpool have been pretty inconsistent or because Man Utd have pretty much ran away with the league but I just don't think it's half as good as last year.

Everton have been good this season. Considering they don't spend anywhere near as much as the teams above them, they have done really well and I think with a bit more money, they could be fighting for the top four next season.

Spurs have been pretty good too. I think they lack a lot without Bale but we are the same without Suarez/if he has a bad game.

Reading and QPR will go down surely.

Bad result for us (Villa) Sunderland beating the Toon. There were some corking goals though. Manure beat Stoke so that was good for us. I wouldn't like to guess who will go down, but something tells me Wigan. FA Cup Final now and this will be a big distraction.

3rd and 4th will be Arsenal and Chelsea respectively.

Never been so despondent, save for Villa Park, May 24th 2009.

I actually hope we don't get Top 4 this season. Maybe then, our ambitions can change for once.

Wenger & The Board Out !!!

Injuries have finally hit us where it hurts, so I can only see 5th or 6th for Spurs. We've had key players missing for too much of the season. Would be nice to have Kaboul, Sandro, Bale, Lennon & Defoe all fit and playing together!!

I'm a Villa fan and personally I see a straight fight between us and Sunderland to go down. We did ourselves no favours this weekend only picking up a point, was a gutting result. I've got tickets to the Villa v Sunderland game at the end of the month. Its a must win for both teams.

I think despite the cup final, Wigan will do what they usual do at this point in the season and find form and end up a point or two clear. When they actually play they aren't a bad side.

Up the top I think Arsenal will sneak 4th. Spurs have a very difficult run in and its becoming more and more apparent just how badly they need Bale. Spurs really need Chelsea to collapse to give them a chance of champ league.

Going to the Hawthorns on Saturday to see West Brom v Newcastle. Need to win this game. I am a terrible jinx for away games though so can't expect much!

Good luck finding a decent boozer around there. Its handy right off the M5, but the area is a total shit hole. Its in Handsworth, a predominant muslim part of Birmingham, not in West Bromwich itself. Very few pubs around. Take cans. Plenty of

Will be drinking on the way there and obviously in the ground. Ah well. As long as we get something from the game I'll be alright!

Good game between Arsenal and Everton tonight. Jagielka was fantastic.

Well you couldn't have been more right. Awful place.

My away record now reads:

Played 5
Won 0
Drew 2
Lost 3
Scored 2
Conceded 12

Two big games today.

Looking forward to Liverpool v Chelsea match. Rafa and Torres back at Anfield and I can see them both having two VERY different receptions. I can see Torres scoring today, though. Carragher had Torres in his back pocket the last time we played them.

2-2 today. Suarez and Coutinho to score for us. Torres and Hazard for them.

Suarez should be banned after that. The man is an absolute scumbag. I love him as a player, I think he is an absolutely fantastic player but he does no favors for himself and I am sick of sticking up for him.

If he doesn't get banned, I will be surprised.

Ah well, a point against Chelsea isn't bad. Got the score right but not the scorers.

Jesus Christ I'm never getting on a ship with you.

:lol: Don't blame you.

Derby 3-0 Newcastle
Bolton 5-1 Newcastle
Blackburn 0-0 Newcastle
Wigan 4-0 Newcastle
West Brom 1-1 Newcastle

It all makes for pretty grim reading!

Bloody hell, not half. At least Blackburn didn't beat you, that would have been the icing on the shitty cake.

Ha. Who do you support then mate?

Burnley, hence the somewhat adverse reaction towards Blackburn haha. Don't even get me started on our season...

Race for top 4 got VERY interesting over the weekend.
Having said we would finish 6th, I now think we can take 3rd without a problem. Of course, we have previous tendencies to beat the big boys, then screw it up with a dumb performance against the lesser clubs.
Yes, we have to play Chelsea still, but both Arsenal & Chelsea have visits to Old Trafford in the next 2 weeks, meaning Spurs could be a few points ahead and in control.
Effectively Spurs could be a point ahead of Arsenal by next Monday morning and still have the game in hand. Looking at their remaining games, I see them picking up 7 of 12 points (lose at United, beat QPR & Wigan, draw at Newcastle).
Chelsea - I would say between 8 & 10 points (beat Swansea & Everton, draw with Everton, lose to United - draw or beat Spurs).
Spurs - 10/11 points (beat Wigan, Southampton & Sunderland, draw with Stoke, lose/draw at Chelsea)

Based on that, looks like Thursday night football for the Gooners..... fingers crossed!!!

Haha! A day in the life of the Luiz Suarez. The man is sick in the head. He looked like a vampire. Who the hell bites his opponents? Insane! I still can't stop laughing at the whole incident. It's like a scene from a really bad comedy. Then again, his cross for the leveller was sublime. Absolutely magic touch.

You think the guy wakes up in the morning and says - right, what crazy move will I be doing today? Hahah...anyway, I think the whole incident is a bit blown out of proportion. Certainly, there are other players who have actually done properly violent stuff and got away. A bite is mildly innocent, it's just the 'weirdness' of it that makes is so extra-ordinary. 1 game ban should be enough but I suspect it will be longer.

This is not his first time, he did that a few years back in the Dutch competition too. He deserves 10 match ban, bad role model, boo Suarez!

Just because he played for Ajax?? It was an Eindhoven player who he bit in the chest as far as I remember. Apparently, Mike Tyson started following him on Twitter now....that's the world we live in :D

Yeah just because he played for AJAX indeed. Really dumb of him though.

He bit Otman Bakkal a few years back.

He got a 7 match ban in Holland, but it was never fully served because Liverpool bought him.
Can't see how he can have anything less than a 5 match ban (and that's being lenient). People are comparing to when Defoe bit Mascherano a few years back, but at that time the incident was seen and Defoe was booked, so no further action could be taken. This time the incident evidently wasn't seen by the ref, so the FA can (and should) throw the book at him.

It was like watching a 3 year old at nursery school take out his anger on another child - something you kind of expect at that age, but never condone. To see a professional footballer do it!?!? Ridiculous.....

Yeah, completely agree with that. That's why I don't think it's THAAAT bad. Say, a punch, a head-butt, or Aguero's tackle in the FA Cup semi-final against Chelski are in my book a lot worse incidents. This is pure evil, but at the same time quite innocent and ridiculous. He should be ordered to anger management sessions though. A ban won't help him, the man clearly has a problem. But god damn it, football would be a lot less exciting without characters like him.

He could be playing for your team next year pal. Hope for more like the cross (btw, his movement for the second equalizer was great too) than the biting.

Just ban him for next week. I fear what he may do to Newcastle (in a playing sense, not violent)

Yeah, was reading about that, but to be honest, chances are minimal. Bayern put a lot of emphasis on the character of their players. In 2000 they fired Mario Basler for a fight he had in a bar, at a time when Basler was probably THE key-player. Don't get me wrong, I'd like to see Suarez play for Bayern and we were close to signing him from Ajax back in the day, but I think it's highly unrealistic. Then again, should we fail to sign Lewandowski, Guardiola will want a playing attacker. The only real one we have is Pizarro who is a little old...so who knows.

My gut feeling tells me that:

Bayern will buy Lewandowski from Dortmund
Man City will buy Gomez from Bayern
Dortmund will buy Dzeko from Man City

Suarez will stay for another year in Liverpool and shoot them into the Champions League next season!

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that Guardiola wants Suarez.....

Every single half decent striker has been linked with Bayern since Guardiola was confirmed as the coach. I can tell you though, Suarez will NOT play for Bayern Munich. They will never sign a player with that character, it's that simple. Not to mention that we don't even need a striker. Bayern has the best attack in the Champions League and the best attack in the Bundesliga...so all those reports are just fabrications, or methods to put pressure on Dortmund to actually sell Lewandowski. He'll definitely join Bayern. If not this season, next season...and when he joins, Gomez will have to go. City is a good club for him, they don't have a striker with that profile.

Congratulations Manchester Utd on a 20th league title. Van Persie is the game changer from last season.

As for us (Villa) - it was only going one way tonight. We look to Sunderland and pray we beat them and Spurs do us a favour by beating Wigan...otherwise Bon Jovi at Villa Park isn't going to seem like much fun - especially without Richie

LOL - first part maybe, second part no chance!!!
It's highly likely that only top 3 in the Premier League at the end of 13/14 season will be in CL - and Liverpool are a LONG way from being top 3 again.

No, it is not highly likely at all. Europe's top 3 leagues get 4 teams and these are Spain, England and Germany - very FAR ahead of Italy, Portugal and France. Also, the number of participants for the 13/14 season is decided by the end of this season and based on the last 5 years of European performance - so, yes, it can be confirmed with a certainty of about 1000% that England will have 4 teams (3 qualified + 1 playing a qualifier) for the next 3-4 years at least.

See link below and read the text to the right of the page.

http://www.uefa.com/memberassociatio...try/index.html


Having said that, I think Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham will fight for that 4th spot next season. Will be quite exciting.

I don't think Liverpool are far from a Champions League spot at all. Our problem is consistency at the moment but I think that next season, we will be more settled as a team and will make sure we don't make the same mistakes as we did this season.

This season wasn't meant to be about success according to Rodgers from day one. It was just about us playing good football which we have done. Of course we want to win as much as we can, but that wasn't his goal. His goal was to make sure that we pick up on the mistakes we done last season which I think we have done again. Only problem is, we can't finish our chances. I've not seen us get absolutely hammered by a team this season. West Brom was a pretty awful game (first game of the season) and possibly one or two more, but apart from that, I am happy with how we have been. I just wish we was higher in the table but I can live without it for this season.

Ahhh what a nice way to end this week.

Enjoy.....

Haha, sorry mate. :p

What has gone wrong with Newcastle this year in your opinion?

Punched well above our weight last year and ignored all warning signs (small squad, players out of their depth, we were lucky with injuries last year) etc.