Premier League Saturday, Gameweek 11: Open Thread
In today’s Premier League action, there’s plenty of promise in store for good soccer matches. Tottenham’s visit to Bolton’s Reebok Stadium should be a good one to watch with all eyes on Gareth Bale to see if he’ll be tired from his mid-week marathon when he ran laps past Maicon.
In other games today, Fulham against Aston Villa should be one of the matches of the day. For Americans, you have the battle between Clint Dempsey and Villa goalkeeper Brad Friedel. But it’s also a battle of wits between Mark Hughes and Gerard Houllier.
It’ll be interesting to see if Wolves can come close to beating Manchester United at Old Trafford like they did a fortnight ago when Mick McCarthy’s side were beaten 3-2 by a late Javier Hernandez goal.
In the other games, there are plenty of interesting matchups in store such as Blackpool versus Everton, Sunderland against Stoke and, last but not least, Blackburn versus Wigan.
Read the complete US TV schedule of where to find Premier League matches.
In the meantime, either before, during or after the matches today, post your rants, questions and observations about the games in the comments section below.
16 Responses to Premier League Saturday, Gameweek 11: Open Thread
Looks like Gretar Steinsson is going to try to contain Bale today. Let’s see how that battle ends up.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
Great production by ESPN both before the match and at half-time. Definitely feels more personal than the generic international feed.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
I’m enjoying the game in HD via the ESPN3 feature on Xbox. Thanks to this site, I found this feature the other day. Closest I’ll come to attending a match for some time I think.
Any word on whether or not Nani is playing today?
Poor Gareth Bale. Must wait 2 1/2 more weeks to be relevant again.
(OK, that’s a slight exaggeration, but still…)
Hmm… could that be the last time we see Owen Hargreaves play professional football? Definitely a gutsy move that backfired for Ferguson today.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
…the way this match has started so far, Wolves could cause an upset against United today. Some puzzling line-up decisions by Ferguson today. He’s trying to rest some of his top players and give the other ones a chance to prove themselves.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
When was the last time we saw a performance as poor as this one by Manchester United?
They’re playing like it’s a friendly.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
Honest question from an EPL newcomer this season: Does Fergie always use such a B-team mentality when playing (supposedly) lesser sides? Seems like he’s treating some of these like they’re Carling Cup matches or something.
Patricio, good question. Fergie doesn’t always do it, but it seems like he’s doing it more and more lately. Very risky, but it paid off in the end. When Scholes came on in this match, he definitely made a big difference and improved the shape of the team, as well as threaded through many chances for United to try to score.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
Well, as a (mostly) neutral observer, I hate it…
…but if I were a United supporter, I’d love it.
The FSC feed of Wolves/MU just skipped from minute 86 to 89 with no explanation.
Park with the bailout for MUFC at the death. He was fantastic today.
Same here DGS. Lucky that nothing happened between the 86th and 89th minute. Otherwise Fox would have had some egg on its face.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
And why isn’t FSC showing these games live? We really have to watch it on a 5 minute delay? I don’t understand how they can’t start their broadcast before the hour mark and show the players in the tunnel and pre-game stuff like ESPN.
Wow! What a fantastic match betweee Manchester United & Wolverhampton. Obviously as United supporter I am on cloud nine. I really think United have started their push. These types of victories happen to squads that are on a roll. A month ago, Man Utd would have just drawn this match. There is just nothing better. I wait all week for the slate of EPL games and this week the matches were fantastic! I just love the EPL.
Its more like fantastic last 10-15 minutes. Anyway, 3 points taken and rested players for the derby on Wednesday.
I am really tired of seeing Fulham draw so many matches, but I will definitely take this one. Brede!!