speeeeeeedie

I had a look at some prior season's final tables. 35 looks like it will be enough. Over the last 10 years only 3 teams have been relegated with 35 or more; Newcastle had 37, Wigan, 36, and Hull 35, with Newcastle's being the most recent in 2016. I said last week that Chelsea's win again Leicester in March has saved them from being involved. I doubt that they'll win another game but 39 points is enough.

Chelsea have enough players in their first team squad to field 3 teams. It matters not which 11 steps onto the pitch. All 30 odd of them are shorn of confidence, and they are working with a temporary manager who's not up to it. They've lost 6 in a row. It's Bournemouth away next who have won 5 of 7. I'm sure the betting odds will favour a home win. Lampard should never be given another Premier League job, and at this juncture I'd be hard pressed to advocate for him at League One level. Starting Aubameyang was baffling. Maybe he thought that because Arteta bombed him out he'd go out and show what he can do. Wishful thinking. It also showed that Arteta, a good manager, did right by getting rid of him. Chelsea's owners have their own set of problems, but they have enough cash to fix it, if they listen to the right people.

The board's prevailing tactical thoughts at half time are either Brereton or Dolan off, with switching their positions next up. I'd take Dolan off. He's too lightweight, and Luton's best opportunities have come when he loses it - although Brereton has done it a couple of times too. Brereton down the middle, Dack in behind. Hedges to find a final ball. Rovers should be 2 up.

Why? I don't know anything about them.

I was writing the same. Their defending is comical. Southampton look cooked too, Newcastle ran all over them in the second half. It didn't help that Southampton's subs were terrible. Walcott scored an own goal, and Maitland-Niles slipped twice to allow Wilson to score the 3rd.

Chelsea's win against Leicester 2 months ago now looks like it was a 6 pointer. They have just enough points to be above the fray. Liverpool were on the right end of 2 VAR decisions. Bowen was offside. As to the handball, it hit Thiago's arm twice, but it fell into the VAR clear and obvious error grey area. If it had been given it wouldn't have been overturned either. Forest had a very good win. They missed a pen and went 1-0 down too. City-Arsenal is men v. boys. Arsenal have been outclassed.

Ah, Ok. I did wonder.

Lots of permutations as to who will get 5th and 6th. Here is who everyone has to play. Coventry are the only team who's fixtures are against sides who aren't in the hunt (Boro are already assured a playoff spot). 5 Coventry City 44 +10 66 B’ham (H), Boro (A) 6 Sunderland 44 +10 65 Watford (H), PNE (A) 7 Millwall 44 +7 65 B’pool (A), Rovers (H) 8 Blackburn Rovers 44 -3 65 Luton (H), Millwall (A) 9 West Brom 43 +8 63 Sheff Utd (A), Norwich (H), Swansea (A) 10 Preston North End 44 -8 63 Sheff Utd (A), Sunderland (H) 11 Norwich City 44 +5 62 WBA (A), B’pool (H), 12 Swansea City 44 +3 62 Hull (A), WBA (H) 13 Watford 44 +1 59 S’land (A), Stoke (H)

I had to laugh during the second half that every time there was a corner the crowd really started making some noise. I wondered what for as there was no chance one would amount to anything. They were either hit too low and didn't make it past the first man, or looped in high for an easy catch or clearance. If Rovers have a set piece coach his CV needs to be looked at for misrepresentation.

The game had 0-0 written all over it until Carter decided he fancied a dribble, lost it, and their sub scored a cracker. It was over after that. Rovers have struggled to score lately, and it's much much worse trying to come from behind. As others have said Jack Cork should have been sent off. Either 2 yellows, or a straight red for the second tackle. Alas it was not to be. Although, if he had gone off Burnley would have shut up shop and Rovers wouldn't have been able to break through anyway. It's not much solace but Burnley are going to get a good few shoeings next season. Kompany has a job on his hands. The threadbare squad was let down badly by the off field management team not signing enough players, both last summer, and in January. Young academy are a great success story but a team isn't getting out of the league with them alone. They need older heads to help, and there aren't enough of them. They were also let down by the lack of sorting out Brereton. He should have either signed a contract or shipped out when he said no. He's been poor but is relied on as he can play. Rovers have been very unlucky over the season - last week was the worst - and now need 2 wins against solid, gritty, well drilled teams. Let's see what happens.

Rovers are awful at set pieces. They never look like scoring from one. Far too many free kicks are wasted.

I've seen headlines today linking Vincent Kompany with the Chelsea job. He may well turn into a good manager but 1 season at Burnley wouldn't convince me to hire him.

From the first post. Here's the state of play with 4 to go; Stoke (A) Lost Reading (H) Won B'ham (A) Lost Norwich (H) Lost H'field (A) Draw Hull (H) Draw Coventry (H) Draw Nobbers (A) _____ Dingles (H) _____ Luton (H) _____ Millwall (A) _____ 1 win in 7. Hardly play off form. However, destiny is still in Rovers hands despite a difficult set of fixtures to end the season. I predicted 73 points. 3 wins will get to that number, and probably a playoff spot.

His style is that he can't set up a back 4 to consistently keep clean sheets. He should not have left Derby as soon as he did. He may have got them up. I'm sure that Chelsea would have given him a few more loan players. Alas, he jumped to the most volatile high profile job in the Premier League and was found out pretty quickly. Transfer ban or not. The problems that Chelsea are experiencing in his current stint aren't his fault though. There have been many column inches written about the new owners' haphazard signings but they haven't had a strong consistent goalscorer since Diego Costa, and he signed nearly 10 years ago. Morata, Lukaku, Abraham, Werner and others were all signed to be the 20+ goal striker yet none of them succeeded. If this team had Haaland, Kane, or Rashford, they'd be in a Champions League spot.

It was actually working quite well. Kroos and Modric couldn't settle. Cheslea were making Madrid uncomfortable, although Madrid in Europe don't seem to care about that. If either Kante or Cucurella finished their chances in the first half it may have ended differently, probably with an extra time loss instead. I think Lampard actually thought about it and had a plan. Chelsea don't have a forward who can score, and Cucurella has been taking lessons in positioning from Trent Alexander-Arnold. AC Milan beat Napoli so unless Benfica win by 3 in Milan tonight there will be an Italian team in the final.

This is Rovers most important week of the season. Rovers are playing two promotion 6 pointers. 4 points minimum are needed.

I think it's 3 from 6; Leeds, Everton, Forest, Leicester, Southampton, and maybe Bournemouth. West Ham and Wolves should be out of it. I can see Everton staying up. Dyche will grind out a couple of wins. These 3 games will go a long way in figuring out who drops. 25 Apr - Leeds v. Leicester 1 May - Everton v. Leicester 8 May - Forest v. Southampton Bournemouth can make it easy on themselves as their next 3 are against West Ham, Leeds, then Southampton. There is potential for a nail biter on the last day though if their form slides as they play Everton away.

A good summation from the manager. Far too many times, especially late on, players weren't brave enough to shoot. Hull never looked like winning it. Dolan's miss in the first half proved costly.

It's not more than that, unfortunately it's pure incompetence. Incompetence aided by ineptitude from the Premier League. When VAR started the FA decided to adopt an NFL style central system - manned at Stockley Park - with 1 official sat in a room full of TV's in charge of reviewing all VAR decisions. Add in the lack of adhering to the FA's own "clear and obvious error" language (also used in the NFL) and it ends up being where we are today. Howard Webb took over the PGMOL in December. He hooked Mike Dean from VAR duties this week. It will take him time but I think that he'll improve VAR. I don't understand why the 4th official can't do VAR duties. I've aid that having an ex player involved would help too. I also wonder why referees do it. Someone (Tyrone I think) posted a really good article about Prem referees. It said that they only get paid 35 grand a year. I'd triple that for a start.

I shouldn't be replying but I can't help it. You have to be doing this for the attention. Me and others pulled you up time and again for your ridiculous support of Lampard's managerial ability, especially when he was floundering at Everton. He is not good enough to be a Premier League manager. Tuchel took his Chelsea team and won a Champions League less than 6 months after Lampard was fired. Dyche has managed 9 games for Everton. He already has as many wins as Lampard had in 20.

It was an awful game. It should not have been a surprise though. It was the 6th draw they have in a row (excluding penalties), and the 4th straight without a goal (although the League Cup final last year was a cracker of a game). Arguably the 2 draws against Chelsea cost Liverpool the league in 2021-22, especially the 2-2 at Stamford Bridge. Liverpool were 2-0 up before Kovacic scored a beauty to equalise. then they stopped trying to attack. Last night had nothing. Both teams need a reboot. I'm not sure if this will help Chelsea; Sky Sports; Lampard back as caretaker.

I watched the City-Liverpool game. It was embarrassing for Liverpool. They were thoroughly outclassed. Liverpool's midfield has run out of legs which in turn leaves the defence exposed. If you take out their 9-0 and 7-0 wins they'd have a negative goal difference. Fabinho was a class operator. He's now painfully slow. Henderson can only do it in patches. Thiago is wonderful to watch but is injured too much. Elliott doesn't look like he has it either. Firmino, Oxlade-Chamberlain, and Keita are off at the end of the season. Milner may be too. They all need replacing. TAA needs to be either moved into midfield or moved out. His defending was never good, but it's got worse, quickly. To Chelsea. I don't think that their biggest problem is Potter. They have too many players, and no striker. They weren't bad yesterday, but they have no cutting edge at all. I have no idea if Potter will finish out the season. Could they cut their losses and go for Nagelsman whilst he's still free?

Sutton would still have signed. Heskey would have been in the youth team. As well as Shearer, Rovers still had Mike Newell and Kevin Gallacher. Dalglish even played Ian Pearce up front now and again. A mate of mine played against Heskey at YTS level, he said that he was an absolute handful.

England has what Spain doesn't, and vice versa. Give Spain Kane or Rashford, and they'll win more games. Give England Gavi or Pedri and England will. Spain, like Portugal, produces fantastic footballers but haven't produced relatively similar numbers in the goal scoring department. Torres, Villa, Raul were top class yet after that I'm struggling to think of any off the top of my head (I'm sure there are, but I'd have to look). Barcelona and Real Madrid usually have a non-Spaniard up front.

Portugal produce some very talented footballers. Whatever they did to their youth programs in the 1980's worked. Since then it's been an endless procession of class players. They tend to produce good creative players, but come short at goalkeeper, central defence, and - Ronaldo aside - central striker. If talent in those positions matched the others they'd have a World Cup trophy on their shelf. As far as who gets in over who, it's subjective. Using England's team from last night Dias would be in for Maguire. Who would shift for Silva and Fernandes? Saka had a bad game but I'd keep him. Maybe one of them for Grealish, but they are different types of players. Besides, England has Foden and Sterling. I'd have Bellingham in every time over the pair of them. Rice does a different job, and is very good at it. Maybe Silva for Phillips, as he works harder than Fernandes. No to Cancelo too. He's not as good as Walker or Shaw (certainly not the England version).