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Are you ready for some Football (Associated)

The last several seasons, the relegation battle has been anything but. Right now, two teams seem assured to be at least visiting Championship next season. Wolves are done. Burnley are in bad shape, but could pull a Wigan. 15-18 is open, but I just can't see Tottenham going down and Leeds are nine points shy of the magic 40 pt threshold. Liverpool and Salah appear to have made up. Liverpool are in sixth currently, performing like I expected them to last season. Villa are still holding onto third in what is an otherwise lower performing top five this year. Manchester United are finally fifth. They won four games in a row which is the first time since, well, no one can remember when... we all assume Alex Fergusson was the manager.

Meanwhile down in League One, Plymouth Argyle have gone from... "Oh fuck, we're relegating to League Two aren't we" to "Can we actually make the playoff?" It is a long shot, but it isn't impossible, they are 6-3-2 in their last 11 league matches.

In Championship, Stoke City are among 4849 teams vying for the sixth playoff spot, all within about 6 points. Their performance this season has been awesome, muddled, and self-defeating. So mid-table finish feels right.

Meanwhile in "Champions" League, five of the top eight teams are EPL squads, including Tottenham "Are we seriously contemplating relegation?!" Hotspur. I know what you are thinking... five EPL teams?! Who isn't in the Champions League these days? I'm uncertain, but I've been told I can put a team in next year when they expand to 8,192 teams.
 
Jimmy Higgins said:
The last several seasons, the relegation battle has been anything but. Right now, two teams seem assured to be at least visiting Championship next season. Wolves are done. Burnley are in bad shape, but could pull a Wigan. 15-18 is open, but I just can't see Tottenham going down and Leeds are nine points shy of the magic 40 pt threshold.
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I see Forest and Spurs both trying to out underperform each other in competition for the third relegation spot, with the Hammers most likely to climb out of trouble, despite currently having the fewest points of that trio.

Leeds look safe from here, unless they implode or run into some seriously bad luck.

Wolves are the only team in the EPL who are mathematically incapable of qualifying for the Champions League, so if you were expecting to see them in Europe next year, I have some bad news for you.

At the top, City and the Arse still have to play each other in the League Cup Final on March 22, then for real on April 18, which is looking increasingly likely to be the game that decides who wins the League (which confusingly is not the same thing as winning the League Cup Final).
 
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Well, Wolves have avoided breaking Derby County's record for lowest EPL points total in a season (11), with nine matches still to play, after they smashed third-placed Aston Villa 2-0, to record their second win of the season, and move to 13 points, two more than they needed.

They still need a miracle to avoid relegation, of course.
 
So the Hammers lept up their run of excellent late-season form, with a strong performance at Anfield, where they made Liverpool look less than impressive, with the final score 5-2...

Wait, what??

One of the strangest games in a long time. The West Ham faithful deserved more, as their team simply played as well as, or better than, Liverpool, who had one of those matches where luck smiles on everything they did.

I still fancy Forest or Spurs as the third team to be relegated. Burnley and Wolves are dead men walking at this point.
 
Arsenal look set to take the EPL. Liverpool is fighting against some Manchester United team we haven't heard much from in my daughter's entire lifetime.
Jimmy Higgins said:
Meanwhile down in League One, Plymouth Argyle have gone from... "Oh fuck, we're relegating to League Two aren't we" to "Can we actually make the playoff?" It is a long shot, but it isn't impossible, they are 6-3-2 in their last 11 league matches.
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The run continues! Argyle have two more matches against other teams up top, and then some mid and lower card opponents. Argyle have something like 19 points from the last 24 available. They took down Stevenage and Huddersfield who are also in the run for the playoff. Seven teams within the playoff by no more than 4 points, excluding games in hand.
Jimmy Higgins said:
In Championship, Stoke City are among 4849 teams vying for the sixth playoff spot, all within about 6 points. Their performance this season has been awesome, muddled, and self-defeating. So mid-table finish feels right.
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Stoke City are completely mid-card by the end of this season. Not a great year, but an improvement from, the are we going to League One?!
Jimmy Higgins said:
Meanwhile in "Champions" League, five of the top eight teams are EPL squads, including Tottenham "Are we seriously contemplating relegation?!" Hotspur. I know what you are thinking... five EPL teams?! Who isn't in the Champions League these days? I'm uncertain, but I've been told I can put a team in next year when they expand to 8,192 teams.
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And in the knockout round, 140% of the teams were from the EPL. Quarter finals are in, two teams left form the EPL, Liverpool and Arsenal. Tottenham will now need to try and not get relegated. Liverpool take on PSG in a rematch of last year where the very high flying Reds met their match in PSG who'd go on to take the Trophy. Arsenal take on Sporting for what should be a walk-in for the semis. Bayern and Barcelona face off in the tightest pairing.
 
Wow, what a cup tie!

Leeds were 0-2 ahead at West Ham after 90 minutes, with 11 minutes of injury time to play. West Ham scored three minutes into that stoppage time; And again three minutes later, to take the match to Extra Time.

After Extra Time (having played 146 minutes, including stoppage time), it was still 2-2, and the West Ham goalkeeper went off injured, leaving their 20 year old substitute keeper, Finlay Herrick, making his debut appearance for the penalty shootout.

Herrick saved the first penalty.

Fortunately for Leeds, the exhausted Hammers strikers couldn't capitalise; Leeds won 4-2 on penalties.

Leeds will play Chelsea at Wembley on April 25th in our first FA Cup semi-final since 1987.

BBC match report
 
Plymouth Argyle took on higher ups Bolton. A cracker of a matchup as both teams were showing why they were in the hunt for the playoff in League One. Bolton managed a 2-1 win despite being down 1 man after a sending off. The loss hurts Plymouth as they really need to win out because there are so many teams in the hunt and they are still making up for lost time. Meanwhile, I just found out Argyle has a fan club in Ohio... centered in the city five minutes from my house. Only 11 members, but man! Following League One isn't the easiest thing to do.

Meanwhile Liverpool were blitzed on the scoreboard against City in the FA Cup quarterfinal match up. It was on ESPN+ so I wasn't able to watch it.
 
Jimmy Higgins said:
Meanwhile Liverpool were blitzed on the scoreboard against City in the FA Cup quarterfinal match up.
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Nah, Liverpool lost 4-0, but Port Vale were the team that got blitzed; 7(seven)-0

I am hoping that Chelsea got the scoring of FA Cup goals out of their system with that one.
 
Jimmy Higgins said:
Quite a bit easier against a League One side.
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Maybe; But this was a League One side that has made it to the quarter finals, so clearly they had some talent above and beyond what you might expect from League One. They beat Sunderland to get there, and Sunderland are 11th in the EPL.
 
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