Premier League 2024/25

[Gribz 919]

9 hours ago, Ted McMinnime said:

All 10 are on TV.  Amazon Prime.

Ah ok. Im overseas so not aware of that. 

[Gribz 919]

Perhaps a wee theme we should run is to pick the best Premier League Era XI. With the talk of Salah's contract there was an article to rank Salah with some of the best Attackers the league has seen, the list was quite phenomenal. Shearer, Henry, Drogba, Cantona, Bergkamp, Cole, Rooney, Ronaldo, Salah, Giggs etc etc. 

 

I pretty much had a set n stone XI for a number of years but it can be changed easily now but I usually like to only include players who have hung up their boots. 

 

They ran a similar one about Van Dijk to rank the best centre halfs but they got this list way off and included Stones when he couldnt get near a host of defenders. (Ferdinand, Terry, Kompany, Desailly, Adams, Campbell, Stam, Vidic, King)

 

My original best XI was this:

 

Schmeichel

 

Neville Adams Stam Cole

 

Ronaldo Gerrard Vieira Giggs

 

Shearer Henry

 

Kyle Walker will definetely go ahead of Neville, De Bruyne will have to get in the midfield and Salah has got to be knocking on the door. 

 

I think I will come up with an English XI v a Foreign XI. 

[Scott7 6,170]

1 hour ago, Gribz said:

I think I will come up with an English XI v a Foreign XI. 

Good idea. The foreigners will win.

The best XI is a near impossible task. There is no right answer. Where do Silva and Aguero fit in?

 

[compo 7,217]

An eleven of decent players

Seaman

 

Carragher

Adams

Ferdinand

Cole

 

Ronaldo

Silva

Giggs

 

Salah

Shearer

Henry

[compo 7,217]

Goals make football 

by

 

[Uilleam 5,963]

20 hours ago, compo said:

Goals make football 

by

 

FROM THE ARCHIVES

How The Times covered 66-goal Boxing Day bonanza of 1963

Spurs waste lead, Man United in a muddle and free-scoring Liverpool – believe it or not, this story is not about this season but about a remarkable day of festive football 61 years ago

 

How The Times covered 66-goal Boxing Day bonanza of 1963

 

Charlton was one of a huge list of goalscorers during a record-breaking set of festive fixtures

 

Tom Clarke, Sports Editor

Wednesday December 25 2024, 12.00pm, The Times

 

Boxing Day football. Whether just another match for a loyal fan, a yearly tradition for the family or just an excuse to get out of the house, it’s a wonderful fixture in the festive calendar.

Apart from last year, when I sat in the cold, watching my team lose 1-0, in the 89th minute, at home, while playing with ten men. But the less said about Lincoln City 0 Bolton Wanderers 1, the better.

Far more remarkable and interesting results occurred on Boxing Day 1963, a set of scores often shared on social media each year. So this year we decided to see how the Times reported on these results with the help of The Times archive team.

What we found was a Tottenham side throwing away a two-goal lead, a Manchester United team making tactical changes and paying the price and a home win for free-scoring Liverpool. I would say some things never change but I’ve personally never known Fulham to win 10-1 and it’s been a while since Blackburn were 1st in the top flight.

Transcribed below are extracts from the reports on those matches and images from the page of The Times, edition Friday December 27 1963…

First Division

Blackpool 1 Chelsea 5

Burnley 6 Manchester United 1

Fulham 10 Ipswich Town 1

Leicester City 2 Everton 0

Liverpool 6 Stoke City 1

Nottingham Forest 3 Sheffield United 3

Sheffield Wednesday 3 Bolton Wanderers 0

West Bromwich Albion 4 Tottenham Hotspur 4

West Ham United 2 Blackburn Rovers 8

Wolverhampton Wanderers 3 Aston Villa 3

 

‘Sixty-six goals in First Division alone’

From Our Association Football Correspondent
A mixture of icy conditions in some places, rain and slush in others, five matches postponed, another abandonment at Bristol at the interval, and a rush of goals to the head — particularly in the First Division — provided a Boxing Day feast for the Football League.

It is a long time since there was such free scoring. The ten matches of the First Division alone provided a haul of 66 goals. Outstanding here was Fulham’s 10-1 victory over poor Ipswich Town.

This was Fulham’s best win since their 10-2 triumph over Torquay United in the Third Division back in 1931, and the first double figured score in the top drawer since Tottenham Hotspur beat Everton 10-4 at White Hart Lane in season 1958-59.

 

‘Tottenham’s polish cracks under pressure’

West Bromwich Albion 4 Tottenham Hotspur 4

 

West Bromwich Albion goalkeeper Ray Potter, right, saves at his near post from Tottenham Hotspur’s Bobby Smith

ALPHA PHOTO PRESS AGENCY

 

Tottenham Hotspur managed to secure one valuable point from their match against West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns yesterday, but only after a desperate struggle.

Early in the second half the visitors were two goals ahead and seemed to have the game well within their grasp, but as the pressure increased, their smooth polished play disappeared. Only by grim determination and, occasionally desperate tactics were they able to prevent Albion from stealing victory.

 

 

‘Revised attack muted by rampant Burnley’

Burnley 6 Manchester United 1

 

The most perplexing aspect of yesterday’s match at Turf Moor was, perhaps, not the surprising result, nor its bearing on the Championship, nor the dismissal of Crerand, but the strange formation of the Manchester United team.

Charlton, England’s outside-left, played at centre forward, Herd, once Scotland’s centre forward, was at inside left, and Brennan, usually a full back, played on the left wing, a position he filled temporarily in the days immediately after Munich. This reshuffling of the pack caused a few anxieties to the Burnley defence, in which Miller and Elder in particular dealt capably with almost every thrust that came their way.

There were fleeting moments in the first half when Charlton drew Talbot and slipped dangerous passes through to Herd, but that was rarely a forward line of telling ability.

It was even less potent in the last quarter of an hour or so, after Crerand had been sent off for an infringement against Towers. Crerand is the fifth Manchester United player to be dismissed this season in competitions of one sort or another.

 

 

‘Seasonal fantasy at Fulham — apprehension drowned in goals’

Fulham 10 Ipswich Town 1

 

“Allow me”: Graham Leggat, right, picks up the ball for tired Ipswich goalkeeper Roy Bailey after the third of the four goals he scored in Fulham’s ten

ALAMY

 

Conditioned though they are to surprises Fulham’s supporters could scarcely have expected the pleasant shock that came their way after a quarter of an hour’s play at Craven Cottage yesterday. The four goals that arrived in the next five minutes were an excuse for the thumbing of records for the season. But the thought that, by the end, the history books would also have to come out to find the last time Fulham scored ten goals was in the realms of fantasy.

But they did it — for the first time since the 1930s — and it might have been 11 or even 12. For Leggat, having scored three goals in four of those five almost unbelievable minutes, shot wide of an open goal, a shot by Cook stuck in the mud as it was crossing the line and Key hit the bar. They had considerable assistance from the Ipswich goalkeeper, Bailey, who had a most miserable afternoon, helping a corner from Howfield into the net and seeming too encumbered by a soft pitch to move smartly out for the centres. But Fulham deserved a wide if not prodigious margin.

 

‘West Ham defence riddled’

West Ham United 2 Blackburn Rovers 8

 

Blackburn’s Bryan Douglas slides the ball past Jim Standen to score his team’s second goal

S&G AND BARRATTS/EMPICS SPORT'

 

It was a murky Boxing Day morning at Upton Park, but the football was never in the shadows. Blackburn Rovers, who have crept almost surreptitiously to the top of the Football League, demonstrated that they have an attacking potential equal to any team in the country. They produced a feast of goals, four in each half, which was unpalatable only to the weak West Ham defence.

West Ham, who have not won a League match since November 2, were outclassed, of course, but not outpaced. Their forwards, with Byrne as leader, were as persistent as those of Blackburn, but the difference lay in the opposition which faced them.

The Blackburn defence was rugged and quick-tackling, whereas West Ham’s was slipshod, slow and thoughtless. “Too much Christmas pud”, was the succinct summing up from one frustrated supporter.

 

‘Liverpool change their tactics’

Liverpool 6 Stoke City 1

A tactical move ordered during the interval by their discerning manager, Mr W Shankly, completely turned the tables in Liverpool’s favour yesterday after their had been held to 1-1 in the first half. Mr Shankly clearly took the view that the Stoke right back, Asprey, was not showing the balance or confidence of his partner at left back, Allen. In any event, Liverpool turned their attentions to their left wing and were amply rewarded with five goals and an impressive victory.

[compo 7,217]

The toffees holding the champions at half time one goal apiece 

[compo 7,217]

Think someone has put a curse on City mind you it doesn’t help when you’re striker misses the the most pathetic penalty I’ve seen in some time .