A good time to be heading to the PL?

[unique 435]

With the ‘one player team’ Chelsea likely to lose Hazard in the Summer, Arsenal flattering to deceive, Spurs looking homesick and Man Utd self-imploding, it leaves just two teams to fear in the PL.

All the others are much of a muchness. Everton, Leicester and Wolves are probably a cut above the rest, and the rest are just in an annual fight to avoid relegation.

With enough belief, and an attitude that three points are better than one, the PL should be embraced and challenged head on.

There will also, of course, be the introduction of VAR. Useful to counteract the bias refereeing in favour of the ‘bigger’ clubs.

[Making Plans 936]

11 minutes ago, unique said:

There will also, of course, be the introduction of VAR. Useful to counteract the bias refereeing in favour of the ‘bigger’ clubs.

I'll believe that when I see it. You can have all the technology you like but it still comes down to a human being making the decision.

 

[Fiery Zac 1,066]

16 minutes ago, Making Plans said:

I'll believe that when I see it. You can have all the technology you like but it still comes down to a human being making the decision.

 

Not for ridiculous offsides like Costas against us a few seasons back. For those decisions alone, VAR will be more than worthwhile

[shefcanary 2,402]

Do you think Jerome's overhead against Palarse would have been reinstated under VAR?  That's the test of objectivity for such decisions in my view.

[Bethnal Yellow and Green 1,557]

It’s good going in at the first year of VAR and the first year of a new TV deal - so perfectly timed for Norwich in that sense. 

There will be a VAR learning curve that all players will have to come to terms with. Many behaviours are instinctual, such as diving or hold shirts in the box - will undoubtedly be many caught out by this is the first few months of next season. This was certainly the case in European leagues that introduced VAR this season. Clubs coming up from the EFL in the future (until VAR is introduced) will be behind in this learning and have to adapt while other players are up to speed. 

However, I think next season might be one of the strongest ever Premier Leagues. I don’t buy into the idea that half the clubs in the league aren’t good. Looking at the table I can’t really see any clubs that I expect to be particularly bad next season. 

Southampton have made big improvements under their new manager and I expect them to push on next season again (if they can recruit well). Burnley won’t have European football and will be hard to beat and grind their way to 40 points. Newcastle are intending to spend and Almiron has improved them a lot. Watford, Wolves, Leicester and Everton are a cut above and will be in no trouble. 

The only clubs with question marks will be Bournemouth and Brighton, if Brighton stick with Hughton then they will be in trouble but it looks pretty certain he’ll be off. Bournemouth are unpredictable but have plenty of talent and a good manager. 

There is certainly no club like Huddersfield who seemed doomed before a ball was kicked. 

Hard to see more than two of the promoted clubs surviving next season. 

[SwindonCanary 455]

Hard to see more than two of the promoted clubs surviving next season

That happens most seasons, so we will have to be above one other present day Premiership team. and do what we've do to those going up what we did this season !

[Branston Pickle 3,657]

5 minutes ago, SwindonCanary said:

Hard to see more than two of the promoted clubs surviving next season

That happens most seasons, so we will have to be above one other present day Premiership team. and do what we've do to those going up what we did this season !

Quite - it looks likely to happen this season, for starters.  

Throughout the summer, us and Sheff U in particular will just have to get used to the ‘I can’t see them doing enough to stay up’ guff; I dare say Leeds and Villa would no doubt be largely immune from this despite both coming up well short.  

[Aggy 755]

1 hour ago, Branston Pickle said:

Quite - it looks likely to happen this season, for starters.  

Throughout the summer, us and Sheff U in particular will just have to get used to the ‘I can’t see them doing enough to stay up’ guff; I dare say Leeds and Villa would no doubt be largely immune from this despite both coming up well short.  

In many ways, I think Sheff Utd might have that even less than us... their defence is better than ours and I think most pundits seem to go with the idea that if you can grind out the occasional clean sheet you can scrape enough points to stay up.

I think we’ll either stay up comfortably or go down easily. Our defence and the way we play is never going to grind us out too many points against quality sides, so really it will all come down to whether our attack can be as (or somewhere near as) effective as it has been this year. A lot of that will be about whether Pukki can cut it at the higher level. If he can, and our attack is almost as effective as this year, I could see us staying up comfortably. If it isn’t, then I don’t think we’ve got enough defensively to stay up. But a few decent signings to help bolster the attack (and possibly give us a bit more defensive cover to prove me wrong!) and we could be alright.

[Indy_Bones 441]

Hughton went for grinding out clean sheets, gave us our worst period in recent memory in terms of play on the pitch...

I'd rather go down again, than even witness cr4p like that again.

[Bethnal Yellow and Green 1,557]

1 hour ago, SwindonCanary said:

Hard to see more than two of the promoted clubs surviving next season

That happens most seasons, so we will have to be above one other present day Premiership team. and do what we've do to those going up what we did this season !

It doesn’t really.

In fact since the 2009/2010 season it has only happened 3 times (assuming Cardiff go down this season). Last season no promoted teams were relegated. 

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

It would be nice for financial reasons to stay up for at least two seasons.

I assume the OP is thinking that we do have a chance of staying up due to the apparent lack of quality in the Prem. I think it is evident that many overrated, overpaid prima donnas who slide to the corner flag when they score their fifth goal of the season in April, do not give full value to their clubs.

I also assume that we will not be looking for that sort of player. Burnley are doing OK with their own style and their team ethics. And they do have an emphasis on defence. Fair enough.

I doubt we will adopt that style but rather stick with what we have. And I can see that being good enough to compete with many of the teams in the bottom half of the Prem. Whether our defence will be able to cope is arguable so we may have to rely on the Wolves and Watford approach of worrying more about attacking.