This past week I completed the 3000 piece Football History puzzle and I thought it would be interesting to share some of the details over the course of the next few posts. This is basically an admission that coming up with ideas to write about is quite hard and having pretty pictures is a cop-out.
This puzzle comes from Roundhead Illustration and it’s quite fun and produced by a fan off the Hertfordshire Deer team North of the South and South of the North (Watford). It definitely has a bias for those who were there when football became the new professional in the 1990’s and also has a little more Hornets than one would think belongs in a History of Football… I don’t think I’m alone in thinking that the Luther Blissett doesn’t stand up in historical terms to the Kippax, Stretford End, Spion Kop, the Clock End, might bhave been better served as more significant English stands. I’m sure Europe or South America have other stands I’ve never heard of that are more famous than the LB stand.
Here are the picks:
Brighton & Hove Albion vs Everton
Everton have really got off to a bit of a slow start. Ronald Koeman was backed by the chairman this week so I would fully expect another loss to end in another salad type incident.
[Explanation: It’s a Caesar salad being stabbed in the back].
Brighton aren’t a good team and Chris Hughton seems like the nicest manager in the Premier League. Maybe they hand Everton the win or maybe they just aren’t capable of scoring. Either way, Ronald survives another week.
Burnley vs West Ham United
West Ham are still not good and they are 1 point away from home bad. Burnley are reversing last years trend by being better away than at home and I see that trend continuing with a poor home performance. A key player is back in Lanzini and while no one player makes a team, one player can make a team better and so a draw is a fair result.
Crystal Palace vs Chelsea
Palace might never score. Chelsea certainly won’t let them. A walk in the park. A gentle stroll in the country. An afternoon nap. More or less a day off for the Blues.
I expect this to be so boring that it won’t need any commentary [Link courtesy of AB]
Leicester City vs West Bromwich Albion
Despite me thinking Leicester are better than they were last year their position speaks otherwise. WBA are the normal inconsistent team that grafts random results that they always seem to be. It’s not the biggest rivalry of the week but I expect the teams to get a little chippy.
Liverpool vs Manchester United
Liverpool are at home.
Manchester United are a better team.
Liverpool are free scoring.
Jose Mourinho knows how to setup a defense.
Man United will always score at least one.
Coutinho knows how to hit free kicks under the wall.
Final score 1-1.
Of course, we would love it someone beat them…. GGMU is getting old 🙂
Manchester City vs Stoke City
It’s hard to see a team scoring 5 goals every week struggling to beat a team that’s not good travelling.
Southampton vs Newcastle United
Southampton are proving once again you can get some results even with a team that gets reset every year. Newcastle won a couple on the bounce but they’re a bottom six team.
Swansea City vs Huddersfield Town
Getting late so the summary is getting shorter…. this could be 0-0 or any other combination of something-0. I simply don’t see Huddersfield scoring. I’ll give Swansea 1 and let’s make it an o.g. for grins.
Tottenham Hotspur vs Bournemouth
One of the witty comments for the week:
Dad supports spurs.
Dad loves spurs.
He is blinded by his love of spurs.
Spurs are **** apart from Rose, Kane and Dele.
Who will be at old Trafford……
This was based on the discussion that last year ME had the ridiculous prediction that Spuds won 37 of 38 games and won the league by a margin. He picked them again this week and this week he’ll be right…. unless the Wembley jinx is real… the Spurs team again Lithuania was terrible!
Watford vs Arsenal
Watford started well but Chalobah is out and news I was previously unaware of came in the form of another entry form witty….
“Isaac “no” Success just can’t score even when paying for the privilege…”
Nice one ME. Double entendre complete with a dig at his achievements at Vicarage Road. Well Played.
Arsenal, the gunners with a big cannon, will easily dispatch the Moose.
A final note to “AM” – I’m sure your picks will beat ONE of the “E”s. Finishing behind all of us would be embarrassing 🙂
Every week is puzzle week!