⚽ Premier League 2025/2026 Discussion Thread ⚽

[Roseline492]

In the first game of the 4th round of the FA Cup, Man United defeated Leicester 2-1 at Old Trafford.
A win is a win, but the style was not quite what you would expect. Man United conceded a goal in the first half, scored an equaliser in the 68th minute and the winning goal in the additional time. It's pretty clear that Amorim has still a lot of work to do with the club.

Leicester is a very timid club to Manchester United because non of their matches with Manchester United have we seen them pressing Manchester United, is always the United from beginning till when they would win Leicester, actually the strength of Manchester United has not grown so strong that  Leicester City cannot even at least take home with one victory instead of becoming the victim all the time, Manchester United have hold a match with Leicester for three times now and all of them Manchester United has been on home, the first was on EFL, the second was on the premier League and this last one is FA Cup and they still won Leicester City 2:1.

[Pandu Geddon]

Meanwhile, Man City are losing 1-0 to Leyton Orient after Ortega's own goal. Leyton Orient is a club from Football League One. It's not a good look, but there's still plenty of time left.

Leyton Orient played with few chances, and managed to score a goal against Man City seems to be their luck. Pep did leave some of his players, but I didn't expect them not to score in the first half.
Maybe Pep is not serious about this match, but we often see Man City are not at their best. With so many chances that Man City had, they should have been able to score a few goals if they played better in the second half. Not only with ball possession but also with good finishing.

Pep Guardiola seems to want to do a little experimentation, but unfortunately, he could not get optimal results from his experiment. Too many opportunities were wasted, even though their opponent wasn't a big team (or even not from the Premier League) but Man City has had a hard time scoring many goals. Likewise with their defense line which doesn't look very solid, and I doubt they will be able to win against Real Madrid if they keep playing like that.

No matter what experiment he made. I will see it as a tactic to maintain his players' performance in readiness to face Madrid. However, Pep must know how important the match against Madrid is. He will do his best to win and make some tactics to face Ancelotti. Their problem is in the defense line which until now may not be solved and is still a gap. Ancelotti must have seen Man City's current situation and will take advantage of it in the next match.

[ILuckyGuyI]

Manchester United had much bigger difficulties than I waited for. Of course I know how bad they have been in the PL. However I knew they were still different in the FA Cup. By saying different I mean more successful...

However Leicester's scoring first hit their plans hard. It was still a nice comeback. The only thing, which is really important in fact, was that Maguire was offside there. But the referees still confirmed the goal. We see how important VAR technology is here. Leicester were really robbed there.    I don't know why the rules are like this in the FA Cup. VAR is starting to be used as of the semi finals if I'm not wrong. Just why is it that late? Isn't this a prestigious cup in England in the end?

[Palakka]

They blamed anything without even doin' research. In fact, Ode has not become a player who has the lowest rating in that game. So, they're blindly blaming player just to release their disappointment to their club.

It's a normal day for them consider they often trophyless.

The defeat from newcastle in the two legs is clearly the end of their journey in the carabao at the moment, so it is very natural for fans to be disappointed with their team performance which looks very bad in the match, Odegaard actually tried his best in the match so it is not appropriate for the fans to blame him, and I think actually the fans should blame Arteta and the whole squad not just Odegaard, because with the depth of the squad that arsenal has this season, not only the carabao and FA, even the EPL and also the UCL will still be a dream for them, especially if we see their attack line which is fairly blunt after Saka injury.

I was really suprise that Arsenal lost to Newcastle home and away without even scoring any goal, they even beat Manchester City in their previous match but why could they just win Newcastle but I've thought about it and figured out that Manchester City are still recovering from a drop in form moreover every team has their different strategies and maybe Arsenal approach Newcastle like they did with City and it backfired since Newcastle where a quicker team and love to make good use of the chances.

 Odegaard is one of Arsenal's best players his effort for the team over the yest have been outstanding and I know he'll end up being a legend for them in the future but him alone couldn't make it work since it's a teams effort that yields success in a match, well it's normal for fans to show their frustration when things doesn't go well, unfortunately for him he was the preferred choice of some fans criticism.

Losing Saka and some of the other mainstays has really affected Arsenal performance in the match especially since they missed out on the transfer window last winter, so obviously this makes their chances of winning trophies this season very slim due to squad depth and also poor mentality, I personally wasn't too surprised by the defeat but I was very surprised when they weren't able to score a single goal in the match, so this shows how blunt the attacking line they have at the moment and that is actually the main problem they face this season, fans should not blame one individual player for every defeat they get, because however so far Arsenal management does not seem to have a strong commitment to making their team be a champion.

[hahay]

Next in the FA Cup, Brighton vs Chelsea which seems like it will be a tough match for both teams. But even so, I personally will still be confident that Chelsea can win even though Chelsea is playing away in this match. Because after  all, based on the head to head record, in reality Chelsea has a good winning dominance against Brighton. Although indeed, I also admit that Brighton is not a weak team at all, but both teams are still not completely consistent. So basically any result can happen in this match, but I personally will choose Chelsea  to win, because they still have good morale with their  new coach too.

[KingsDen]

Manchester United had much bigger difficulties than I waited for. Of course I know how bad they have been in the PL. However I knew they were still different in the FA Cup. By saying different I mean more successful...

However Leicester's scoring first hit their plans hard. It was still a nice comeback. The only thing, which is really important in fact, was that Maguire was offside there. But the referees still confirmed the goal. We see how important VAR technology is here. Leicester were really robbed there.    I don't know why the rules are like this in the FA Cup. VAR is starting to be used as of the semi finals if I'm not wrong. Just why is it that late? Isn't this a prestigious cup in England in the end?

I quite agree with you that Manchester United has major problem even if they have to qualify in this round against Leicester City. The style of football their new coach is introducing to them is familiar to England and that is why they do not make any headway with that style. This is why I believe that Manchester United has better chances in the Europa League than in any English related League or Cup.

But anyone that is betting against Manchester United should also be careful because, Manchester United is the defending champion of the FA Cup and it will be a shame to Ruben Amorim if he should give up and the FA Cup easily. So, he will surely try his best with some of his motivated players.

[LUCKMCFLY]

 I was really suprise that Arsenal lost to Newcastle home and away without even scoring any goal, they even beat Manchester City in their previous match but why could they just win Newcastle but I've thought about it and figured out that Manchester City are still recovering from a drop in form moreover every team has their different strategies and maybe Arsenal approach Newcastle like they did with City and it backfired since Newcastle where a quicker team and love to make good use of the chances.

This is what makes football unique, you can beat the strongest team or the one that is considered strong, and then you can lose against the team that is dropped to the 2nd division, it may be that Arsenal suffered from a great loss of self-confidence and this cost them a lot, it usually happens, that's why all the teams that you have to face in football must be seen as finals, did you lose points, do you drop in level? maybe not, but it's something that can hit you emotionally, for me Arsenal is the only team in the PL that can give Liverpool a fight.

[blue Snow]

Pep brings so many young lads to the first half, but since it's not working well. He decides to put some key players to go to the squad. They lost the first half, but comeback at the second half. Khusanov and De Bruyne are helping him to secure a win against a mediocre club.

Glad to see they win it. If it's not, they would be blamed by fans from other PL clubs. Whenever Ortega played, it's always scared me.

This may be due to reduced fatigue which resulted in injury then Pep benching their main players on 1st half. but because Leyton played impressive, and made the city concede first, Pep had changed strategy on 2nd half, and it managed to turn things around. It seems like the city doesn't take seriously on the FA Cup. I don't know why when I look at how difficult the city is to reverse the situation on 2nd half, It's like unusual for the team that got the Premier League trophy a year ago. I saw something wrong with the composition, Pep seem admits that, I see he's always shaking his head on the sidelines, I don't know, is it because the scheme is not suitable with the situation or there are players who don't match with his wishes.

[SatoPrincess]

Nottingham Forrest beating Brighton with seven goals is a huge win, they are once again third place, and that's an insane situation to be in right now. This team was barely staying away from relegation zone until very recently like a few years ago, and now they are third place. We need to see a huge docu-series somewhere about how they turned the ship around and got this good, there is really no way that we are going to see anything like this anytime soon.

We are all very surprised to see such an unprecedented improvement of Nottingham Forest. Because usually we have not seen this team in the top 10 of the table in the past seasons. This season, Nottingham Forest is in the top 3 of the table. And the team is playing well consistently.

Nottingham was defeated by Bournemouth 5-0. However, in the next match, Nottingham Forest won against Brighton by a margin of 7-0. If they can continue their performance, it will not be difficult for Nottingham Forest to stay in the top 4 of the table and qualify for the Champions League.

Honestly Nottingham Forest have improved massively and I am sure i sm not the only one being shocked snd surprised by the level of their performance this season. I mean who would have thought Nottingham Forest will be sitting at third position at this time of the season. I would have had same thoughts of Nottingham Forest recreating Leicester’s shocking league victory this season but I doubt it can be possible for Nottingham Forest this season.

[tusandii]

I wasn't a big believer in Nottm Forest being able to finish the season in the top 4, but I have to give credit to them, the 7-0 win over Brighton was a bold statement and the club might be in the top 4 to stay. It was impressive, especially considering they got demolished 5-0 by Bournemouth the week before, and it looked like their luck might have ended, but they bounced back very nicely like nothing happened.
Looking at the game stats other than goals, you could think it was an even game, Brighton even dominated in possession at 63%, but I guess that's just Forest's style.

Likewise me too. Nottingham Forest performed extremely well in that fixture as they were able to win with such a commanding result. Though Nottingham Forest is a relatively smaller team compared to the so called top six, and there are a lot of matches still remaining and many points up for grabs. I’m now a believer that Nottingham Forest secure a Champions League spot for next season.

I also did not expect Nottingham Forest to be able to appear that strong, scoring many goals against a club that is not a weak club, even Nottingham Forest was able to keep a Clean Sheet, that is truly an extraordinary thing, if Nottingham Forest's performance continues like this until the end of the season and does not make any mistakes then Man City or Chelsea have no chance to overtake Nottingham Forest's current position, unfortunately the journey is still long and we will not know what will happen to Nottingham Forest in the future.

[SatoPrincess]

United should beat Leicester easily, I mean that's just what they are entitled to do right now, and if they fail, that's way more than just a regular loss, it's just a proof that what Amorim is doing doesn't work and he needs to change some stuff. I can see that it is not going to be that easy, but it can definitely be something that we can benefit from as well if he changes things a bit. Looking at the odds, it is obvious that Leicester is a much worse situation.

Ruud has managed United a bit, so he knows what the players are capable of doing, he will have inside information and that could benefit him a bit, there is that back story about the situation, and Amorim talked about Ruud too, so it is not going to be an easy situation at all. I am sure that we are going to end up seeing a game where things will be hard for United because they are playing against Ruud, but the team Ruud has is terrible so United should still be capable of getting a win there.

In this match Manchester United will again act as the host, but for some reason I doubt Man United will be able to win the match, even though the opponent they face is not a very strong team.

Previously, before Amorin came to Old Trafford, Ruud was once proud of by the fans because he managed to bring several victories to Man United. And now Ruud will return to Old Trafford with a different status, namely as Leicester City coach. With Leicester City, Ruud did not show that he was able to make significant changes to the team, and even until now they are still stuck in the relegation zone, but seeing how Leicester City beat Tottenham Spurs in an away match, it was a pretty impressive result, and maybe this story will repeat itself in the Leicester City match against Manchester United.

Fortunately Manchester United defeated Leicester but unfortunately they struggled against Leicester City, I hear the winning goal scored by Harry Maguire would have been chopped off if VAR was present in the FA cup game but tge got away with it regardless. I won’t be too quick to condemn Amorim’s tactics just yet because it takes time to make changes like this, it will not be an easy journey but it is certainly achievable.

[Docnaster]

Pep brings so many young lads to the first half, but since it's not working well. He decides to put some key players to go to the squad. They lost the first half, but comeback at the second half. Khusanov and De Bruyne are helping him to secure a win against a mediocre club.

Glad to see they win it. If it's not, they would be blamed by fans from other PL clubs. Whenever Ortega played, it's always scared me.

I'm yet to understand why some people still thinks that Ortega is better than Elderson because I think he doesn't posseses the level of confidence the Brazilian goalkeeper have which is why he finds it differently than to control the ball and build play from the back -a style that's familiar with Manchester City since Pep Guardiola took over. When fully fit, I think it'll be better for Pep Guardiola to choose Elderson ahead of Ortega.
It was a surprise to see that Manchester City struggled again with a League One club and had to rely on the brilliance of Kelvin De Bruyne to get that late win yesterday in the English FA Cup.

[X-ray]

Pep brings so many young lads to the first half, but since it's not working well. He decides to put some key players to go to the squad. They lost the first half, but comeback at the second half. Khusanov and De Bruyne are helping him to secure a win against a mediocre club.

Glad to see they win it. If it's not, they would be blamed by fans from other PL clubs. Whenever Ortega played, it's always scared me.

I'm yet to understand why some people still thinks that Ortega is better than Elderson because I think he doesn't posseses the level of confidence the Brazilian goalkeeper have which is why he finds it differently than to control the ball and build play from the back -a style that's familiar with Manchester City since Pep Guardiola took over. When fully fit, I think it'll be better for Pep Guardiola to choose Elderson ahead of Ortega.
It was a surprise to see that Manchester City struggled again with a League One club and had to rely on the brilliance of Kelvin De Bruyne to get that late win yesterday in the English FA Cup.

If i were Pep, i'd rather ask club to sign a new quality goal keeper. I see Ederson is a bit better than Ortega, but none of them are at their form. I must admit how Ederson has regressed so hard since the rumor about he would leave from the club.

Things worsen for City when Ortega never level up. He always stuck in the same place, and totally failed to be Ederson's replacement. I don't even see a good solution other than replacing those goal keepers with a new one.

[Adiljutt156]

Nottingham Forrest beating Brighton with seven goals is a huge win, they are once again third place, and that's an insane situation to be in right now. This team was barely staying away from relegation zone until very recently like a few years ago, and now they are third place. We need to see a huge docu-series somewhere about how they turned the ship around and got this good, there is really no way that we are going to see anything like this anytime soon.

It happens very rarely, Leicester was barely in the league and won too, but that was nearly 9 years ago and we are seeing something similar again, no titles this time around but still a big achievement. In a league where everyone spends unreal amount of money, they are not spending that much and turning the team into great levels.

We are watching the all matches of Premier League and we saw last match of Nottingham Forest football team which they played against Brighton football team. That was totally one sided match because Nottingham Forest football team did 7 goals in this match and Brighton  team could not do any goal in this match. Wood was the only person who did 3  goals in this match and he was match winner of this match . Nottingham Forest has good standing on the table because that team won many matches and now that team is at 3th position with 47 points on the table and Brighton has low standings as comparison to Nottingham Forest because that team won less matches and that team has 34 points .

[Sandra_hakeem]

I wasn't a big believer in Nottm Forest being able to finish the season in the top 4, but I have to give credit to them, the 7-0 win over Brighton was a bold statement and the club might be in the top 4 to stay. It was impressive, especially considering they got demolished 5-0 by Bournemouth the week before, and it looked like their luck might have ended, but they bounced back very nicely like nothing happened.
Looking at the game stats other than goals, you could think it was an even game, Brighton even dominated in possession at 63%, but I guess that's just Forest's style.

Likewise me too. Nottingham Forest performed extremely well in that fixture as they were able to win with such a commanding result. Though Nottingham Forest is a relatively smaller team compared to the so called top six, and there are a lot of matches still remaining and many points up for grabs. I’m now a believer that Nottingham Forest secure a Champions League spot for next season.

I also did not expect Nottingham Forest to be able to appear that strong, scoring many goals against a club that is not a weak club, even Nottingham Forest was able to keep a Clean Sheet, that is truly an extraordinary thing, if Nottingham Forest's performance continues like this until the end of the season and does not make any mistakes then Man City or Chelsea have no chance to overtake Nottingham Forest's current position, unfortunately the journey is still long and we will not know what will happen to Nottingham Forest in the future.

People are still trying to notice Nottingham Forest in the third position standing. Sometimes I tend to forget that a third position actually exists in the premier league because I didn't believe Nottingham Forest can be this strong defeating weak teams and being a challenge to strong team in that if the play carelessly they stand a risk of losing to them.

Chelsea and Manchester City might have to fight for who ends up in the forth place because Nottingham forest seems to have possessed the third position and are not ready to relinquish it for any reason. Even with the long journey ahead if Nottingham forest can keep up with consistency they might even become a threat to Arsenal.

[SatoPrincess]

Very interesting games to come in the week, first of all Everton vs Liverpool will be an interesting game to watch. I have a feeling Everton will hold Liverpool to a draw in this game. Brighton vs Chelsea another interesting game to come, with Brighton having home advantage I doubt Chelsea will be able to take all three points from that game and if I was to make a stake I will just go for BTTS. Liverpool will then face Wolves again in the weekend which should be an easy win for them, they are in a very good form for wolves to stop them.

[Cookdata]

Pep Guardiola seems to want to do a little experimentation, but unfortunately, he could not get optimal results from his experiment. Too many opportunities were wasted, even though their opponent wasn't a big team (or even not from the Premier League) but Man City has had a hard time scoring many goals. Likewise with their defense line which doesn't look very solid, and I doubt they will be able to win against Real Madrid if they keep playing like that.

Experimentation when he almost broke his nose for being angry at his players. I think it just too much for him to handle the state of the team right now, everything he is doing now is try and error but he trying doesn't mean he expect lose, he want to win. If Guardiola started with losing streaks from the beginning of the season, it would've been understandable but the way they came up and drown on the table is making him not happy and the players aren't helping either.

Walker is gone, Rodri is not feeling better but it seems he will be available on Real Madrid Champions League game but I'm confident that he is still not better yet, he is only forcing it because it's a playoff and he want to make his contribution and then probably go back home but that game might not go well for Manchester City, they will be withdrawn and left in Premier League till the next season again.

[Docnaster]

Very interesting games to come in the week, first of all Everton vs Liverpool will be an interesting game to watch. I have a feeling Everton will hold Liverpool to a draw in this game. Brighton vs Chelsea another interesting game to come, with Brighton having home advantage I doubt Chelsea will be able to take all three points from that game and if I was to make a stake I will just go for BTTS. Liverpool will then face Wolves again in the weekend which should be an easy win for them, they are in a very good form for wolves to stop them.

The Merseyside derby is one fixture in the English Premier League that many people are always looking forward to and that's because it brings so much exciting and entertaining moments. Wednesday fixture will see Everton play at home against to their city rivals Liverpool -a fixture many football fans are already struggling to predict the outcome. Liverpool have been the most consistent team in the English Premier League this season so I'm not surprised that bookmakers are backing them to get the better of Everton but considering the current form of Everton, I think they stand a big chance of getting something out of the game. Like you predicted, I think the option of a BTTS will play in that match and another option I'm looking at is that the game will produce 2 or more goals

[Adbitco]

The Merseyside derby is one fixture in the English Premier League that many people are always looking forward to and that's because it brings so much exciting and entertaining moments. Wednesday fixture will see Everton play at home against to their city rivals Liverpool -a fixture many football fans are already struggling to predict the outcome. Liverpool have been the most consistent team in the English Premier League this season so I'm not surprised that bookmakers are backing them to get the better of Everton but considering the current form of Everton, I think they stand a big chance of getting something out of the game. Like you predicted, I think the option of a BTTS will play in that match and another option I'm looking at is that the game will produce 2 or more goals

I guess that's why the coach rested his first choice players for the derby game. Derby games are too dicey and cagey. Liverpool needs to be in their usual hot form if they want to win that very match this midweek. The game might actually be tough because, both teams have lost in this Round 16 of FA and are already out of the competition, the two teams have lost of recent and might be looking for a way to get back to winning ways.

[blue Snow]

People are still trying to notice Nottingham Forest in the third position standing. Sometimes I tend to forget that a third position actually exists in the premier league because I didn't believe Nottingham Forest can be this strong defeating weak teams and being a challenge to strong team in that if the play carelessly they stand a risk of losing to them.

Chelsea and Manchester City might have to fight for who ends up in the forth place because Nottingham forest seems to have possessed the third position and are not ready to relinquish it for any reason. Even with the long journey ahead if Nottingham forest can keep up with consistency they might even become a threat to Arsenal.

Their target when beginning the Liga is not degraded to the championship division, so when today they were in Champions League zone it is a very extraordinary achievement that was conducted by Nuno Santo. So I think whatever the position while they are in the zone, they will remain happy. I don't think they'll be disappointed to be in 4th place in week 38. but the problem is because they have no experience on top standing, the big clubs that are often there will try to shifted The forest position at all costs. For example The City, they will try to move up its position in all way, there must be a club eliminated from the top 4 in order their position on champions league zone.