EPL Relegation | Page 2 | The Boneyard

EPL Relegation

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Wow that field looks beautiful with the mountains behind it. Shame they are in such a crappy state....surprised no one from the outside has come in and dumped money into the team at some point of their free fall. Looks like they have the facilities in place and just need some money to sign players and get back into the game.


Grenoble is an old, fascinating city. Center of the alps, crossroads between Italy and France, major resistance hub (marquis) during the Nazi occupation. Obviously, major outdoor sports hub with skiing in the winter and hiking in the summer. Big college town, too. The school I was at was small (ESC Grenoble); but, U Grenoble and its affiliates have over 30K students in the city. STEM is also huge as Grenoble is trying to be one of the key STEM locations in all of France and already is the headquarters for French National Centre for Scientific Research, the top scientific research organization in the country, plus the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility is in the city - basically a giant X-Ray machine. Grenoble also has France's second largest American community after Paris, which is no surprise as the city's 3, 4, and 5th largest private employers are Caterpillar, Hewitt Packard, and Becton Dickinson respectively. The city itself is about a bit larger than Hartford with 160K residents and a metro area of about 500K (mountains really cut back on suburban sprawl. Grenoble has a small commercial airport, though many fly through nearby Lyon, whose airport lies on the TGV line that connects Paris to Lyon, Lyon's airport, Grenoble, and Geneva, Switzerland. Pro sports teams don't do well overall in Grenoble simply because there is just too much to do int the surrounding Alps. Rugby actually outdraws soccer.

Oh, and that slab of granite in the picture, which is one of the small mountains in the area, was right out my apartment window when I lived there, though I was about 2 km closer to it than the stadium. On the weekends, I would often hike up the Bastille (not the one in Paris) on the edge of the city and on a clear day, Mount Blanc is visible (the pic attached is from the Bastille, but facing the city, Mt. Blanc can be see to the left away from the city).

Grenoble.jpg
 

meyers7

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Burnley helped themselves a little bit today w/ the draw, although they should have gotten 3 points in a match that rivaled paint drying.

Bottom 3 is getting more and more interesting. QPR with a huge win over WBA, Burnley's point, and Leicester hosts City tomorrow. I thnk Leicester is a lock to go down. QPR, Burnley, Sunderland, Villa and Hull are all in the conversation for the other 2 sides.

The top 4 is pretty much locked after this weekends results, barring a huge and very unlikely meltdown by one of City, United, or Arsenal. Now it's a 3 team battle for spots 2&3 to avoid the 4th place finishers UCL Play-In games.
It would be nice not to have to do that for a change. :confused:
 
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It would be nice not to have to do that for a change. :confused:
I think Arsenal is pretty safe from that fate this season. They are playing the best and most consistent football in the EPL right now (just threw up a little). Had they been in this form all season they'd be either top of the table or a least pressing Chelsea pretty strongly. City on the other hand, their wheels seem to be falling off the bus down the stretch. Hopefully that continues the rest of the way.
 

Waquoit

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Villa and Queens Park Raisins play today.

I caught the last 15 minutes. It was a rip-roaring game. Are the other leagues this good at the bottom of the table?
 
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Benteke is a beast and I wish he played for Spurs. Him up front with Kane.... that would be a beast of a front line.

Are the other leagues this good at the bottom? Probably, but really couldn't tell you. As whaler stated previously, today is a prime example of why relegation is so great...you get 2 teams fighting like mad this time of year for their EPL lives, as opposed to mailing it in (like you see in the NBA, MLB, etc...).
 
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I caught the last 15 minutes. It was a rip-roaring game. Are the other leagues this good at the bottom of the table?

Nope. I hope you watched Men in Blazers this week where they predict who gets relegated and who gets the top four "for the privelege of competing in the Champions League only to be eliminated in the round of 16".
 
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Benteke is a beast and I wish he played for Spurs. Him up front with Kane.... that would be a beast of a front line.

Are the other leagues this good at the bottom? Probably, but really couldn't tell you. As whaler stated previously, today is a prime example of why relegation is so great...you get 2 teams fighting like mad this time of year for their EPL lives, as opposed to mailing it in (like you see in the NBA, MLB, etc...).

I wish we could get more of the games from the Championship. I think Bein shows one or two a week. The promotion race is pretty frantic. Plus it's looking like Wigan may go down further.
 

UCFBfan

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I wish we could get more of the games from the Championship. I think Bein shows one or two a week. The promotion race is pretty frantic. Plus it's looking like Wigan may go down further.
Yeah I caught a few on last weekend. Watched Derby vs Watford. Was entertaining and interesting to watch Prem players on loan playing. Bent and Ince both scores for Derby and both are on loan. Was entertaining. Was a different studio host on BeIN and she was way more attractive then the host from El Classico.

Agree I wish they showed more.
 
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Yedlin made his debut for Tottenham this weekend. He looked really fast but really raw in maybe ten minutes of action. He had one really good pass that led to a shot on goal.

Given that I was surprised to see him named to the US squad against Mexico.

Just can't believe West Brom lost like that this weekend. Hurts to lose when you led twice.

Man City is a wreck and I like it.
 
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On the other end, it looks like the top 3 in the EPL have emerged with Chelsea comfortably ahead and red hot Arsenal and Man U vying for second. Man City looks to be free-falling into the Champions play-in slot at #4, though I would love to see Southampton to be able to find their mojo and get ahead of Man City. That likely slots the three Europa slots to the Southampton (assuming my wish does not happen), and the other two falling stars of the EPL - Liverpool and Tottenham. I don't think Swansea has the legs to make a last month surge to steal a slot and the rest are too far behind. The only wildcard could be if Reading (Gunners fan or not, looking forward to see Danny William play for Reading) or Aston Villa pulls a rabbit out of their hats and steals the FA Cup from favored Arsenal or, to a lesser degree, Liverpool, and thus an automatic slot in Europa. As no EPL teams remain in Europa this year, don't have to worry about the Champions play-in slot being stolen.
 
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Top 3 is locked up, only question is who finishes 2 or 3, which really doesn;t matter in the bigger picture. Liverpool winning today pulls them within 4 points of City, with a very favorable schedule the rest of the way, minus Chelsea away. City has a slightly tougher road, with 4 of their remaining 6 matches v teams in the top half of the table. Sprs are done, and Southampton is a long shot.

As for bottom 3 it appears to be a 5 team race for relegation with 5-7 matches to go (7 for Leicester, 6 for Sunderland, Hull and Burnley, and 5 for QPR,) Leicester has the most control of their destiny since 3 of their 7 remaining are against teams in the bottom 5., but still a tough road ahead. Sunderland, Hull, and QPR have the toughest remaining schedules of the 5.

Sunderland - 29 pts: @Stoke, Southampton, @Everton, Leicester, @Arsenal, @Chelsea
Hull - 28 pts: @Palace, Liverpool, Arsenal, Burnley, @Spurs, Man U
QPR - 26 pts: WHU, @Liverpool, @City, Newcastle, @Leicester
Burnley - 26 pts: @Everton, Leicester, @WHU, @Hull, Stoke, @Villa
Leicester - 25 pts: Swans, @Brunley, Chelsea, Newcastle, Southampton, @Sunderland, QPR

I'm predicitng it's Leicester, QPR, and Hull that do down. I'm hoping it is QPR, Sunderland, and Hull that go down.
 

UCFBfan

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I know Swansea had an outside shot for a sot in the Europa league about a month ago but I believe there is no shot they make that push. I'm very happy with their play this year and hope they can sign another striker to compliment Gomis next year (I hope he stays too). That could help them make a push in either a League Cup run or maybe rise up in the standings. We'll see.

As for the bottom three. I really hope Burnley pulls themselves out. I think they're a fun team to watch. Not sure what they'll look like next season as Im positive Ings is on to a bigger club. I agree with you Samcro that I'd like to see Hull, QPR, and Sunderland go down.
 
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I know Swansea had an outside shot for a sot in the Europa league about a month ago but I believe there is no shot they make that push. I'm very happy with their play this year and hope they can sign another striker to compliment Gomis next year (I hope he stays too). That could help them make a push in either a League Cup run or maybe rise up in the standings. We'll see.

As for the bottom three. I really hope Burnley pulls themselves out. I think they're a fun team to watch. Not sure what they'll look like next season as Im positive Ings is on to a bigger club. I agree with you Samcro that I'd like to see Hull, QPR, and Sunderland go down.

Speaking of Swansea. It must really tick you off to see that they sold Bony to Citeh and he barely even plays now.

That's the one thing that ticks me off about the big European leagues. Teams like Swansea should be allowed to have nice things.
 

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Speaking of Swansea. It must really tick you off to see that they sold Bony to Citeh and he barely even plays now.

That's the one thing that ticks me off about the big European leagues. Teams like Swansea should be allowed to have nice things.
It would piss me off more if we didn't already have Gomis waiting in the wings. While he struggled his first few games, he has the resume to back up being a quality striker and he's starting to show it. I'm hoping he wasn't seriously hurt when they pulled him against Everton. I haven't looked since the game for any updates.

As for Bony. It's his own problem now. He wanted to go to a big club so Swansea cashed in. If he sits, that's his problem. It's not resentment that's causing me to say this it's just reality. I think it's dumb that some of these studs wanna go to a place where they won't play just so they can say I'm on a Champions league team. Maybe he'll get his chance seeing how Aguero is often injured.

Who knows but as long as Swansea uses that money smartly, which they've been known to do, I'm ok with the sale. I'm hoping they can keep Fabianski and get another striker over the summer to support/back up Gomis.
 
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Leicester is 35 minutes away from winning their 3rd straight and possibly moving out bottom 3. Holding1-0 lead overSwansea and controlling the play at this moment. Should probably be up 3-0 at this point. I really hope they stay up. They're an entertaining team to watch play.

Burnley shot themselves in the foot with Barnes picking up a second yellow right before the half and down a goal.

Sunderland, Hull, and QPR are all off since Arsenals,Liverpool, and Villa are playing FA Cup semis.
 

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I was glad my Swans could help the Leicester cause. We didn't need the points. Still wish Burnley would make it out of Relegation.
 

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I was glad my Swans could help the Leicester cause. We didn't need the points. Still wish Burnley would make it out of Relegation.

Was there a reason Leicester was such a big favorite today? They were barely even money to win and Swansea was +330.

Great win for West Brom. Without it would have been stressful.
 
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Burnley v. Leicester on right now. Scoreless in 25th minute. A lot at stake here.
Sunderland strikes early @ Stoke with a Wickham goal in 2nd minute, leading 1-0.
Hull @ Palace and QPR v West Ham both 0-0 early.
 
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Insane 60 second swing in Burnley v Leicester at 60th minute. Burnley wins a PK but Taylor hits the post and misses. Leicester immediately attacks off the goal kick and scores on a mishandled cross by Burnley defender which results in a goal for Leicester to go up 1-0.

Hull up 1-0 @Palace
Sunderland tied 1-1 @ Stoke
QPR tied 0-0 v West Ham
Villa @ City later today.

If these scores hold up, Leicester moves out of B3 and Sunderland falls into B3.
 
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Hull and Leicester with huge wins.
QPR and Sunderland with draws
Burnley loses.

Sunderland officially in relegation zone, Leicester moves out of it with their 4th consecutive win.

Hull 31 pts
Leicester 31 pts
Sunderland 30 pts
QPR 27 pts
Burnley 26 pts
 
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Hull is 5 minutes away from picking up a HUGE 3 points, leading Liverpool 1-0 with 5 minutes of stoppage time left to play.
 
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