Oncall is vanished and I doubt anyone else will step up and run this. If anyone does I thank you and welcome the help because there’s no way I run his every week by myself.

But here goes.

Predict winner: 1 pt
Predict first scorer: 1 pt
I fucking forget the rest. Just trying to keep a PW tradition alive. Someone please help me.

Liverpool
Norwich City

West Ham
Man City

Crystal Palace
Everton

Burnley FC
Southampton

Watford
Brighton

Bournemouth
Sheffield United

Tottenham
Aston VillA

Leicester City
Wolves

Newcastle
Arsenal

Man U
Chelsea

I'm in. HR should be too. I've confirmed my suspicions and gone through last season's results this evening after seeing this thread - and HR was the well-deserving winner last year. Hopefully we can get more involvement this time.

The scoring:

- 2 points for correct result
- 2 points for first goalscorer
- 3 points for correct score-line
- In 1 game per week, you can choose to double your points on a particular game, but if you get nothing correct on that game, you will lose 3 points from your total

I'll get my results in later this week to give this thread a bump if it dies. Hopefully we see some people get their predictions in.

Yep I'm in and am happy to help out with the scoring - maybe we can rotate on a weekly basis so it doesn't fall all on one person?

Can't wait for the weekend - feel like this could be a really interesting season with the real possibility of a challenge to the top 6 for the first time in a while. Here are my preseason predictions just so I can look back in May and see how far off I was:

1. City
2. Liverpool
3. Spurs
4. Arsenal
5. United
6. Everton
7. Chelsea
8. West Ham
9. Leicester
10. Wolves
11. Watford
12. Southampton
13. Bournemouth
14. Burnley
15. Aston Villa
16. Brighton
17. Crystal Palace
18. Newcastle
19. Norwich
20. Sheffield United

Player of the Season: de Bruyne
Golden Boot: Salah
First manager to leave: Roy Hodgson
Total number of goals: 1089
Random prediction: City score 8 in one game at some stage

Arsenal got Tierney. They’re spending money and they signed a talented defender. What is going on?

@hr I’m happy to split this up. I posted this while drunk and nostalgic and hopefully won’t fall way behind :lol:

Could always just go with the “whoever posts the matches/scores first” approach. Also we probably don’t need to start a thread every week either.

8m for David Luiz apparently. Will be finalised tomorrow.

What a strange timeline we live in where Arsenal have three major positional needs and address them frugally, efficiently, and punctually. I'm all in, we're coming for the title boys!

...

4th would be cool. Plus a cup run. I think we've got a good shot at that.

Happy to share duties too btw.

A Luiz & Mustafi partnership should provide some good entertainment.

Good idea with the ongoing thread. Hopefully it lends itself to a bit of discussion rather than having everything broken up each week, even if it is just the three of us.

Best bit of business by Arsenal is getting £35-40m for Iwobi...Tierney is a great signing, he has such potential and could well rival Robertson as best LB in the Premier League (in time).

Hard to look past City for the league again, I just hope we (Liverpool) can stick the pace again.

I’m happy to join the predictions and help out, I’m always floating in the background.

Also, if you can subscribe to ‘The Athletic’, it looks really interesting and they have signed up some good journo’s for the coming season.

I'm a bit surprised Everton have bothered signing Iwobi - he's nowhere near the acquisition Zaha would have been and I don't see him getting in the team much ahead of Richarlison, Bernard, Walcott and Calvert-Lewin.

Liverpool 2-0 Norwich (Salah)

West Ham 1-3 Man City (Aguero)
Bournemouth 2-1 Sheff Utd (King)
Burnley 1-1 Southampton (Wood)
Palace 2-2 Everton (Kean)
Watford 2-0 Brighton (Deulofeu)
Spurs 3-2 Aston Villa (Kane)

Leicester 2-2 Wolves (Vardy)
Newcastle 1-3 Arsenal (Pepe)
Man Utd 2-1 Chelsea (Rashford)

I'm also going to do a $10 multi bet each week for fun (and because I always used to enjoy when wrestlingmvp did this) so for week 1 I'm going with:
Watford to beat Brighton @ $1.91
Liverpool to lead at half and full time @ $1.45
Bournemouth & Sheffield United both to score @ $1.74
$10 will return $48.10

FRIDAY 9TH AUGUST
Liverpool 2-0 Norwich City (Salah)
SATURDAY 10TH AUGUST
West Ham United 1-3 Manchester City (Aguero)
AFC Bournemouth 2-0 Sheffield United (Wilson)
Burnley 1-1 Southampton (Barnes)
Crystal Palace 1-1 Everton (Kean)
Watford 2-0 Brighton & Hove Albion (Gray)
Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Aston Villa (Kane)
SUNDAY 11TH AUGUST
Leicester City 2-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers (Vardy)
Newcastle United 1-2 Arsenal (Aubameyang)
Manchester United 2-1 Chelsea (Rashford)

Aug 8, 2019 19:48:57 GMT thechoke said:

Best bit of business by Arsenal is getting £35-40m for Iwobi...Tierney is a great signing, he has such potential and could well rival Robertson as best LB in the Premier League (in time).

Hard to look past City for the league again, I just hope we (Liverpool) can stick the pace again.

I’m happy to join the predictions and help out, I’m always floating in the background.

Also, if you can subscribe to ‘The Athletic’, it looks really interesting and they have signed up some good journo’s for the coming season.

The Athletic have signed up the journo that covers Wolves in my local rag, he isn't a good journo

Liverpool 3-0 Norwich (Salah) - double

West Ham 1-3 Man City (Aguero)
Bournemouth 2-0 Sheffield Utd (Wilson)
Burnley 1-2 Southampton (Ings)
Crystal Palace 1-2 Everton (Kean)
Watford 2-0 Brighton (Deulofeu)
Spurs 3-1 Aston Villa (Kane)

Leicester 2-1 Wolves (Vardy)
Newcastle 1-2 Arsenal (Pepe)
Man Utd 1-2 Chelsea (Giroud)

Liverpool 2-1 Norwich (Salah) - Firmino

West Ham 1-2 Man City (Sterling)
Bournemouth 3-1 Sheffield Utd (Fraser)
Burnley 1-1 Southampton (Rodriguez)
Crystal Palace 0-2 Everton (Richarlison)
Watford 2-1 Brighton (Deeney)
Spurs 2-2 Aston Villa (Grealish😉)

Leicester 1-1 Wolves (Perez)
Newcastle 1-2 Arsenal (Auba)
Man Utd 1-1 Chelsea (Pedro)

Aug 9, 2019 16:08:36 GMT daveymolz said:

Aug 8, 2019 19:48:57 GMT thechoke said:

Best bit of business by Arsenal is getting £35-40m for Iwobi...Tierney is a great signing, he has such potential and could well rival Robertson as best LB in the Premier League (in time).

Hard to look past City for the league again, I just hope we (Liverpool) can stick the pace again.

I’m happy to join the predictions and help out, I’m always floating in the background.

Also, if you can subscribe to ‘The Athletic’, it looks really interesting and they have signed up some good journo’s for the coming season.

The Athletic have signed up the journo that covers Wolves in my local rag, he isn't a good journo

I guess it’ll be trial and error with the ‘team coverage’, they’ve got Simon Hughes for Liverpool and Phil Hays for Leeds who are both very good.

I started the thread and didn’t even fill in my goddamn picks.

Literally family weekend-work insane hours-family weekend. Barely had time to get my FPL set up lol.

Feel free to check these but after week one I make it:
Davey 18
HR 16
Todd 13
Choke 10

I don't think it was a vintage opening weekend but I had an enjoyable time in front of the TV regardless. A few thoughts on the games I watched:

City are the same efficient machine, and to win 5-0 despite not really having anyone play a particularly outstanding game is a worry. West Ham started off pretty well and there were signs that they'll be better this season than last. I was particularly impressed by Haller in the first half who had some beautiful touches for a big man. He could be the striker they've been trying to find for years.

Sheffield United look a very organised side and I might have been doing them a disservice predicting they'll finish bottom. Bournemouth really struggled to break them down and all of their front three were quiet, and I think a midfield two of Billing and Lerma is lacking creativity.

Leicester and Wolves were both absent of any attacking fluidity which led to fairly surprising 0-0. Leicester got stuck around the edge of the Wolves box time after time unable to make the telling incision, while Jota and Jimenez were surprisingly profligate and lacked the impressive chemistry they showed last season. Boly and Sayuncu were the two best players which tells you a lot.

4-0 really flattered United who were second best in the first half, and things could have been very different for Chelsea if Abraham and Emerson had found the back of the net instead of the woodwork. But this was another reminder that Ole's United are a very dangerous counter-attacking team with the speed Rashford, Martial, Pogba and now Daniel James possess, and this was a big tick in the first box for the Maguire & Wan-Bissaka fortified defence.

Aug 12, 2019 6:23:48 GMT @admin said:

Feel free to check these but after week one I make it:
Davey 18
HR 16
Todd 13
Choke 10

I don't think it was a vintage opening weekend but I had an enjoyable time in front of the TV regardless. A few thoughts on the games I watched:

City are the same efficient machine, and to win 5-0 despite not really having anyone play a particularly outstanding game is a worry. West Ham started off pretty well and there were signs that they'll be better this season than last. I was particularly impressed by Haller in the first half who had some beautiful touches for a big man. He could be the striker they've been trying to find for years.

Sheffield United look a very organised side and I might have been doing them a disservice predicting they'll finish bottom. Bournemouth really struggled to break them down and all of their front three were quiet, and I think a midfield two of Billing and Lerma is lacking creativity.

Leicester and Wolves were both absent of any attacking fluidity which led to fairly surprising 0-0. Leicester got stuck around the edge of the Wolves box time after time unable to make the telling incision, while Jota and Jimenez were surprisingly profligate and lacked the impressive chemistry they showed last season. Boly and Sayuncu were the two best players which tells you a lot.

4-0 really flattered United who were second best in the first half, and things could have been very different for Chelsea if Abraham and Emerson had found the back of the net instead of the woodwork. But this was another reminder that Ole's United are a very dangerous counter-attacking team with the speed Rashford, Martial, Pogba and now Daniel James possess, and this was a big tick in the first box for the Maguire & Wan-Bissaka fortified defence.

I was at the Leicester v Wolves game yesterday, an extremely tight game as you say. Jota had the best chance of the game that he should score, horrible miss. Boly was an absolute beast all game. Watched back the goal that was disallowed by VAR this morning, I'm fine with it being disallowed as long as the ruke stays the same all season. Think we (Wolves) and Leicester will both be comfortably in the Top 10 this season.

2 out of 3 on my first bet - like most I didn't expect Graham Potter's Brighton to be quite such a different prospect.

Tonight's Super Cup looks there for Liverpool's taking given Chelsea's defensive issues, so I'm going with them to win by 2+ goals with Salah to score, returning $48.20.

This is why I don't bet with real money! I'm going with both teams to score in City/Spurs and Aubameyang to score anytime which will hopefully get me back to where I started.

Week 2 Fixtures
Arsenal v Burnley
Aston Villa v Bournemouth
Brighton v West Ham
Everton v Watford
Norwich v Newcastle
Southampton v Liverpool
Man City v Spurs

Sheffield United vs Crystal Palace
Chelsea vs Leicester

Man United vs Wolves

----

Arsenal 2-1 Burnley (Aubameyang)
Aston Villa 1-1 Bournemouth (Grealish)
Brighton 2-1 West Ham (Murray)
Everton 2-0 Watford (Sigurdsson) - double
Norwich 1-0 Newcastle (Pukki)
Southampton 1-2 Liverpool (Redmond)
Man City 3-1 Spurs (Sterling)

Sheffield United 1-1 Crystal Palace (Zaha)
Chelsea 2-2 Leicester (Vardy)

Man United 1-1 Wolves (Rashford)

Arsenal v Burnley; 2-1 (Auba)
Aston Villa v Bournemouth; 2-2 (Super John McGinn)
Brighton v West Ham; 2-2 (Anderson)
Everton v Watford; 1-0 (Digne)
Norwich v Newcastle; 1-1 (Pukki)
Southampton v Liverpool; 1-2 (Salah)
Man City v Spurs; 2-2 (Kane)

Sheffield United vs Crystal Palace 0-0
Chelsea vs Leicester 1-2 (Vardy)

Man United vs Wolves 1-1 (Martial) double

Three 2-2 draws!!
Chance would be a fine thing.

Arsenal 3-1 Burnley (Aubameyang) - double
Aston Villa 2-1 Bournemouth (McGinn)
Brighton 1-2 West Ham (Antonio)
Everton 2-1 Watford (Sigurdsson)
Norwich 2-0 Newcastle (Pukki)
Southampton 1-3 Liverpool (Salah)
Man City 3-1 Spurs (Aguero)

Sheffield United 2-1 Crystal Palace (Sharp)
Chelsea 2-1 Leicester (Abraham)

Man United 2-1 Wolves (Rashford)

Absolutely buzzing for Wolves v United on Monday. Have been to our two home Europa qualifiers and Leicester away, and while they've been good fun nothing beats a Premier League game at home, especially against a big side. Bought my ticket for our final Europa play-off at home to Torino today, and if I can get a ticket (find out at 9am in the morning) to the away leg will be off to Turin on Thursday. Genuinely never thought I'd ever see Wolves play in Europe, for anyone who saw/can remember my rants on the old site 10+ years ago they can hopefully relate.

SATURDAY 17TH AUGUST
Arsenal 2-0 Burnley (Aubameyang)
Aston Villa 1-1 AFC Bournemouth (Grealish)
Brighton & Hove Albion 1-1 West Ham United (Murray)
Everton 2-1 Watford (Sigurdsson)
Norwich City 1-1 Newcastle United (Joelinton)
Southampton 1-3 Liverpool (Mane)
Manchester City 3-1 Tottenham Hotspur (de Bruyne)
SUNDAY 18TH AUGUST
Sheffield United 2-1 Crystal Palace (McBurnie)
Chelsea 2-1 Leicester City (Pulisic)
MONDAY 19TH AUGUST
Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-2 Manchester United (Jimenez)

Some real good predictions from Choke this weekend, kudos.

Arsenal win their first two games for the first in ten years. :lol: WTF. If ever there was an irrelevant yet entirely symbolic indication of our plight over the last decade, that would be it. I'm going to back us to lose against Liverpool next weekend but an alternate result wouldn't surprise me. Liverpool look wide open. That could be a great game of football.

Chelsea look as though goals are going to be hard to come by. Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount, Giroud, Pedro, Willian... where are the goals coming from? It's an awful lot of pressure for the young boys to be playing under.

The new handball rule is retarded. Who thinks of this crap? Do the managers committee and put forth ideas? In case anyone's out of the loop... in the Premier League this season you can get away with an accidental handball defensively but no longer can offensively. Any contact with the arm/hand in the penalty area that leads to a goal will result in a foul. Absolute nonsense.

I do love the Premier League's version of VAR, by far the most aesthetically acceptable. No silly refs looking at screens and making signals when no one knows what the fuck's going on. Quick check, a big screen so the fans understand what's going on, and job done. Thumbs up from me.

The only problem with VAR for me is the lack of info for the crowd in the ground. At the Leicester/Wolves game last weekend we got up on the board that VAR was checking the goal, but no other info. We had no idea at the time on the Boly 'handball' Good to see consistency with the decisions though, as I said further up the thread fine with ours being disallowed as long as it's the same for all. Seeing City have one disallowed for the same gets rid of those fears. It's a silly rule, but at least it's consistent

I don't like the fact that there's two versions of the rule based on the situation. It was already frustrating that there was an unwritten difference between fouls that constituted a penalty compared to anywhere else on the pitch, but to have it now actually defined in a rule is even worse.

Leicester vs Chelsea was a really strange game. Having watched all three of Chelsea's matches so far it seems very clear that they don't yet have the fitness and/or the experience playing the high intensity pressing style that Lampard wants. They were absolutely magnificent in the first 25 minutes and really needed to get at least one more goal during that time because they fell apart after that initial blitz. I'm not a huge fan of Jorginho but when he was taken off the defence was left very exposed, and Leicester could have easily put four past them like United had Maddison, Vardy, Tielemans and Perez not refused to play in whoever of the others were making the line breaking run.

Week 2 Standings
Choke 48
HR 45
Davey 35
Todd 25

thechoke storms up from last to first thanks to a rare and impressive 14-pointer on Monday night!

How was your night daveymolz? Certainly seemed like a great atmosphere on TV. I thought United probably should have killed the game off before half time but Wolves were good value for their point in the end. Beautiful goal by Neves - but you have to question why you'd leave him free on the edge of the box given his track record of scoring bangers.

Aug 20, 2019 6:53:51 GMT @admin said:

Week 2 Standings
Choke 48
HR 45
Davey 35
Todd 25

thechoke storms up from last to first thanks to a rare and impressive 14-pointer on Monday night!

How was your night daveymolz ? Certainly seemed like a great atmosphere on TV. I thought United probably should have killed the game off before half time but Wolves were good value for their point in the end. Beautiful goal by Neves - but you have to question why you'd leave him free on the edge of the box given his track record of scoring bangers.

Was a top night thanks. United dominated a lot of the ball, but created very little I felt. The goal, the penalty, and then not a lot else after that. Felt we were good value for a point despite a poor performance in the first half. Atmosphere was electric, you can't beat a big game under floodlights. VAR still an annoyance, no idea in the ground why the Neves goal was being checked. We made our feelings clear on VAR in the stands  :lol:

Just a quick note on United, they played a much higher pressing game than they did last season and it was pretty effective for them. Their issue is going to be creating chances, especially against sides like us that are solid defensively. Pogba played way too deep to create anything, and Lingard was poor I felt. They need someone that can unlock a defence with a pass, or a bit of skill and trickery. Things look better for them, but still work to do.

We made our feelings clear on VAR in the stands  :lol:



And on Luke Shaw when he was on corner duty!



Surely Utd have to give Fred another chance in midfield, Lingard was very poor last night. Interesting listening to the narrative around the penalty, with Ole saying they have 2 designated penalty takers.
To me that just looks like a lack of authority from the manager, afraid to tell Pogba, you’ve missed 4 pens in the last year, your chance has gone.

Aug 20, 2019 19:22:35 GMT thechoke said:

We made our feelings clear on VAR in the stands 



And on Luke Shaw when he was on corner duty!

Daniel James got plenty of stick for his diving as well, could easily have been sent off last night as he went in late on Jota when already on a yellow. He looks a real talented player, and is absolutely rapid, but needs to cut the diving out now.

Aug 20, 2019 23:43:20 GMT daveymolz said:

Aug 20, 2019 19:22:35 GMT thechoke said:

We made our feelings clear on VAR in the stands 



And on Luke Shaw when he was on corner duty!

Daniel James got plenty of stick for his diving as well, could easily have been sent off last night as he went in late on Jota when already on a yellow. He looks a real talented player, and is absolutely rapid, but needs to cut the diving out now.

His yellow card was harsh to be fair. It wasn't a foul but there was definitely some contact, you could clearly see his foot got clipped.

I thought the refereeing in general was very ordinary in that game. No egregious errors but lots of smaller poor ones. There was a particularly annoying incorrect offside on Martial near the end which halted the potential of a decent chance. Not sure what has happened to the directive of linesman letting the play happen and then going to VAR if necessary. 

Week 3
Aston Villa v Everton

Norwich v Chelsea
Brighton v Southampton
Man Utd v Crystal Palace
Sheff Utd v Leicester
Watford v West Ham
Liverpool v Arsenal

Bournemouth v Man City
Spurs v Newcastle
Wolves v Burnley

--

Aston Villa 1-2 Everton (Kean)

Norwich 1-2 Chelsea (Pulisic)
Brighton 1-1 Southampton (Murray)
Man Utd 2-1 Crystal Palace (Martial)
Sheff Utd 1-2 Leicester (Vardy)
Watford 2-2 West Ham (Haller)
Liverpool 4-2 Arsenal (Salah)

Bournemouth 0-3 Man City (Sterling) - double
Spurs 2-0 Newcastle (Kane)
Wolves 0-0 Burnley

First successful bet of the week last time so hopefully I can start a run. This time I'm on: City half/full time win, over 3.5 goals in Liverpool/Arsenal, and Kane to score vs Newcastle which will return $40.40.