They just lost to old rivals Arsenal at home for the first time since 2006, in the process getting eliminated from the FA Cup and thus ensuring a trophy-less season for the second year in a row. Their style of play has enthused fans about as much as an unplanned colonoscopy, while LVG's controversial tactical decisions, like playing Fellaini out front or Di Maria on the wing, have been a struggle for most of them to get behind. It's fair to say this isn't exactly where United were hoping to be with 10 games left in a season that is quick threatening to finish in irrelevancy for them. Arsenal are but 1 point ahead of them, but somehow it feels like more than that. And with Spurs coming to town on Sunday, themselves just 3 back of the Red Devils, things could get even trickier. Tottenham is about where most people would have pegged them, though it's been a season filled with much unsatisfaction this far (aka a normal Spurs season), except for EPL player of the month Harry Kane of course, so stellar have been his statistics. Another brace last weekend brought his total to 25 goals on the year, and it'd be foolish to think he'll be stopping there.
Arsenal and West Ham meet at the Etihad as the Gunners start preparing mentally for the return leg in Monaco, and Alex Song gets an opportunity to show Wenger what he missed by not picking him this summer. There are some good relegation battles too as QPR go to Crystal Palace needing an away win, a thing which hasn't quite been their thing this season. Sunderland and Villa promises to be tense, as the Villains are now on two straight runs while Sunderland edges every closer to the danger zone. City have a trip to Burnley that will be tougher than the respective rankings might indicate, while presumed title winners Chelsea will have to lick their wounds quickly from their Champions League exit as they host dynamic Southampton. Later the Everton relegation-watch continues when they play Newcastle, while on Monday Swansea and Liverpool tussle as the Red try to extend their great 2015 run.

Spain: Now that Barca are on top and Real in the middle of one of their famous fan-induced "crises", everyone's attention is turned to the Clasico on Mar 22. Atletico has their own struggles as they are only 1 point ahead of surging Valencia

Italy: Roma have essentially drawn themselves out of the title picture, but they need to watch out for Lazio and Napoli who are edging closer and closer

Germany: somehow someway Dortmund is now 10th in the league (though just 6 pts above the drop), and hungry for more as a late push for Europe looks like a possibility, which is insane when you see where they were just a few weeks ago

France: after a great start to the season Marseille have been lagging a bit, though they aren't entirely out yet. Their game against Lyon this weekend is made even bigger by the fact they'll be playing PSG next weekend in the traditional clash of Le Championnat' big rivals

EPL
Saturday 14 March 2015
8:45a Crystal Palace v QPR
11:00a Arsenal v West Ham
11:00a Leicester v Hull
11:00a Sunderland v Aston Villa
11:00a West Brom v Stoke
1:30p Burnley v Man City
Sunday 15 March 2015
9:30a Chelsea v Southampton
12:00p Everton v Newcastle
12:00p Man Utd v Spurs
Monday 16 March 2015
4:00p Swansea v Liverpool

------------------------------
For the record, my teams:
MLB: Mets / Soccer: PSG
NCAA BB: Arizona / NCAA FB: Michigan
NBA: Spurs / NFL: Jets

what interesting party that would be.

strangely confident about sunday. united ain't what they used to be.

Arsenal players seem to be lacking a little focus in the end result today, might they be thinking ahead to Monaco?

Ozil's been good though, hadn't paid too much attention to his resurgence but he seems quite comfortable out there

------------------------------
For the record, my teams:
MLB: Mets / Soccer: PSG
NCAA BB: Arizona / NCAA FB: Michigan
NBA: Spurs / NFL: Jets

you're welcome, Arsenal fans

------------------------------
For the record, my teams:
MLB: Mets / Soccer: PSG
NCAA BB: Arizona / NCAA FB: Michigan
NBA: Spurs / NFL: Jets

Great body shape to balance himself

---------------------------------
<--The drought is over

"have fun reveling in your pettiness tho" (C) Dula summing up 98% of OKS

"I didnt finish a damn thing...matter of fact I jerked off after she left."
-Kobe speaking to investigators

L D E A

That's not an easy rebound, a lot of pace on that ball over a small distance. However, he certainly should have done better on his earlier chance when he was released, also a clear penalty when he was bundled into. He has to do a better job of tracking back though, leaving a whole lot of space between him and Chambers.

Speaking of Chambers....just really poor blatantly. 3 times he's been caught out by Jarvis, each due to poor positioning and decision making. The first time he tries to spring an offside trap when there's no chance, second and third times he gets dragged too far forward by Jarvis who then easily makes the run behind him...he has to realize the tactics and the speed differential.

We've had some great chances...but have been sloppy on the final touch (and on a lot of first touches as well, not our best half obv).

Giroud, even before the goal, was playing really well. Had a great back heel for what should have been a Walcott penalty, and holding the ball up extremely well.

---------------------------------
<--The drought is over

"have fun reveling in your pettiness tho" (C) Dula summing up 98% of OKS

"I didnt finish a damn thing...matter of fact I jerked off after she left."
-Kobe speaking to investigators

L D E A

------------------------------
For the record, my teams:
MLB: Mets / Soccer: PSG
NCAA BB: Arizona / NCAA FB: Michigan
NBA: Spurs / NFL: Jets

Cutting out play and then linking up the counter beautifully.

---------------------------------
<--The drought is over

"have fun reveling in your pettiness tho" (C) Dula summing up 98% of OKS

"I didnt finish a damn thing...matter of fact I jerked off after she left."
-Kobe speaking to investigators

L D E A

------------------------------
For the record, my teams:
MLB: Mets / Soccer: PSG
NCAA BB: Arizona / NCAA FB: Michigan
NBA: Spurs / NFL: Jets

I like Rudi. A whole lot, quite honestly. He's an intelligent dude who says the right things, brought a really positive culture change to Roma and has jokes too (cue violin). Cant put last year on the same level as any of the Scudetto campaigns, but it was easily the best Roma I've seen in the decade or so that I've been a fan.

He's been without Mehdi, Strootdogg and Castan for the entire year, who were easily our best players along with Gervinho and Francesco last year, and we haven't really replaced any of them. DDR's been out of form all year and you can only play Totti so much. So he has valid excuses, even looking at things with the harshest objectivity. And he's still in 2nd place. Tentatively.

I was unfamiliar with Rudi's stint in Lille but I've been reading some criticism coming out around the time of his departure there. Basically that he was showing a woeful tactical inflexibility - 4-3-3-or-bust, pointless substitutions, over-reliance on talent (Hazard & Yao, specifically). And it sounds pretttttay damn familiar. Was this more or less the case?

I'm really trying not to write my dude off here, but if I cant continue enduring our trio of redundant holding midfielders back-pass the fucking CL away. I might just have to spend the rest of the year hoping Madrid flames out so we can bring Carletto home.

>I was unfamiliar with Rudi's stint in Lille but I've been
>reading some criticism coming out around the time of his
>departure there. Basically that he was showing a woeful
>tactical inflexibility - 4-3-3-or-bust, pointless
>substitutions, over-reliance on talent (Hazard & Yao,
>specifically). And it sounds pretttttay damn familiar. Was
>this more or less the case?

people really like him, and want to like him even more because he does stand for some things that are good in football (the anti-Mourinho, if you will), but he does not strike me as having a lot of solutions when things go against his teams. That was the context when he left Lille in 2013, although it must be said that it wasn't acrimonious or anything, as say Laurent Blanc's was from Bordeaux, just an overall impression that people were a little tired of him and not mad to see him go.
I think the dude is cool, and as an off-and-on Roma follower I've liked watching the team these past two years, however I don't see a lot of stability for Rudi if things keep going the way they are headed. If they manage to hold onto their 2d place and automatic CL qualification he might pull through, but you get the sense Napoli are finishing strong.

What makes you think Carlo would entertain coming back to Roma though? Do you think ownership will make him an offer he can't refuse? That's not the image I have of Pallotta but I'll admit I don't know a ton about him aside from the fact he's a hedge fund dude.

------------------------------
For the record, my teams:
MLB: Mets / Soccer: PSG
NCAA BB: Arizona / NCAA FB: Michigan
NBA: Spurs / NFL: Jets

We're some bullshit and he's out of ideas. The end.

Regarding Carlo... it's a long shot but I think that he could probably see that we are ostensibly on the right track under Pallotta and hopefully we could entice him with lots of promising players and a shiny new stadium coming soon. Plus the hometown thing. Plus, I don't know, maybe he doesn't want to manage every big club twice. But I definitely think Jimmy would spend the money, at any rate.

Impeccable hold-up play, movement, vision and touch throughout the game, and then created 5 distinct scoring chances: Setup Walcott on a one touch backheel for what should have been a penalty, released Walcott down the line for a clean look, a dummy to put Ramsey in a great position and then the eventual assist on Ramsey's goal, beautifully weighted one touch chip over the backline to Santi in the box which is what gave him the chance to center the ball for the Flamini goal, and then a perfect cross to Welbeck resulting in a diving stop by Adrian.

Just a great 90 mins from him...and then a great goal to boot. Clear MotM, Kosc was second...beautiful balance of challenging and positioning and covering for Per (who needs to be slapped by someone, just really poor decisions in which he got caught out).

Clear clear difference between Chambers and Bellerin...and another solid outing for Coq. 5 straight W's...cmon Burnley!

---------------------------------
<--The drought is over

"have fun reveling in your pettiness tho" (C) Dula summing up 98% of OKS

"I didnt finish a damn thing...matter of fact I jerked off after she left."
-Kobe speaking to investigators

L D E A

people love to throw around the notion that he doesn't show up in the important games, and while that's quite true when he plays for France (though a lot more explainable when you see how big of a role Benzema has), I feel like it's a little unfair with Arsenal. At least this year; look at the games he's played and he scored or assisted in a lot of games against top 6 opponents (and in the two where he didn't, against United and Southampton, Arsenal won). That doesn't mean that he's beyond reproach, but anyone using the old trope about him only showing up against the minnows is not looking at reality.

------------------------------
For the record, my teams:
MLB: Mets / Soccer: PSG
NCAA BB: Arizona / NCAA FB: Michigan
NBA: Spurs / NFL: Jets

City only one point ahead of us now

---------------------------------
<--The drought is over

"have fun reveling in your pettiness tho" (C) Dula summing up 98% of OKS

"I didnt finish a damn thing...matter of fact I jerked off after she left."
-Kobe speaking to investigators

L D E A

there wasn't a single angle from which that didn't look like a penalty, bizarre decision. Only thing that I could think of is that Zabaleta goes down easily, almost like he expected the contact, but that's beside the point when there actually was contact

------------------------------
For the record, my teams:
MLB: Mets / Soccer: PSG
NCAA BB: Arizona / NCAA FB: Michigan
NBA: Spurs / NFL: Jets

and its absolutely hilarious. thats our captain yall.

<--- Big Baller World Order

------------------------------
For the record, my teams:
MLB: Mets / Soccer: PSG
NCAA BB: Arizona / NCAA FB: Michigan
NBA: Spurs / NFL: Jets

<--- Big Baller World Order

not a good time for either team pull these turnarounds if we were hoping to sniff CL still.

best performance of the season so far.

<--- Big Baller World Order

and Ibra can bitch about the ref all he wants, it's all on the team. Horrible defensive lapses.

>and Ibra can bitch about the ref all he wants, it's all on
>the team. Horrible defensive lapses.

>and Ibra can bitch about the ref all he wants, it's all on
>the team. Horrible defensive lapses.

------------------------------
For the record, my teams:
MLB: Mets / Soccer: PSG
NCAA BB: Arizona / NCAA FB: Michigan
NBA: Spurs / NFL: Jets

Easier for Zlatan to bitch and moan about that than to honestly assess his own performance (which can only be described as 'less than inspired' if you're willing to be nice, more like 'quite shitty' if we're being honest)

Also easier than trying to explain why there was no defender in the vicinity of the scorers on all 3 goals

is he done at PSG after this season? I need to see that blown call.

----------------------------------------------------------------
respect the gift.

------------------------------
For the record, my teams:
MLB: Mets / Soccer: PSG
NCAA BB: Arizona / NCAA FB: Michigan
NBA: Spurs / NFL: Jets

----------------------------------------------------------------
respect the gift.