24/25 Match Week 20 Recap

MJ was the best ever Basketball Player of all time.

Not an opinion, fact.

In Today’s CleanSheet:

• Headlines 📌

• Current Situation📈📉

• Hot Topic 🔥🔥🔥- Load Management

• Off Island 🏝️ - Captain America Strikes Again

• Best Bets 💰

Headlines 📌

• CS Match of the Week. Tottenham 1-2 Newcastle. That’s 5 wins in a row for the Magpies and a solid jump into European positions and it’s not just the 5 wins, it’s that they won by a combined 15-1 goal difference. Spurs, on the other hand, have just 1 point in 4 matches and Ange is getting to must win territory in the Semi-Finals of the Carabao Cup.

  • Spurs 1-0. Solanke gets Spurs rolling at 4’.

  • Newcastle 1-1. Gordan with the touch after the turnover, although a questionable no call allowed the play to continue.

  • Newcastle 2-1. Isak puts Newcastle in the lead in the 1H at 38’.

  • That was it, what looked like the start of a high scoring match, Newcastle did enough to hold Spurs goalless for the final 86’.

• Nuno Espirito Santo. Wolves 0-2 Forest. The Tree’s manager went back to his old club and beat them at Molineaux. Always feels a little better beating a team who sacked you. Forest have now won 6 straight matches in the PL, the most they’ve had in the top league since 1967.

• Draws. Many US sports fans just can’t understand how a major sporting event can end in a tie. Won’t get into how important earning a point can mean in the table here…. but we had some great drama in great matches that resulted in good points for several sides.

  • Palace 1-1 Chelsea. Palace deserved at least a point, waited to 81’ to get it with a beauty.

  • BHA 1-1 Arsenal. Look at this 17-year-old for Arsenal, speed. AND, should this have been a penalty? Yes, and BHA scored on the PK for the draw.

  • Liverpool 2-2 Man United. Chelsea & Arsenal catch a break Liverpool didn’t take all three points, Forest are the BIG WINNERS of the weekend. This match has too many highlights to link to.

  • Fulham 2-2 Ipswich Town. 3 “soft” penalties for the final 3 goals in this one.

    • To Fulham at 65’ and then to Ipswich at 69’.

    • To Fulham at 89’.

• Bye-Bye. So many great ways to consume sports out there. One of them is NOT ESPN. CS will no longer be engaging with ESPN except when a live sport is playing and the only option. Anything else (website, social media, programming) - no more.

• Yikes. Everton have had the FEWEST “Open Play Goals” since the start of last season BY FAR.

Current Situation 📈📉

NOTE: Green Up Arrow means a club jumped UP 2 positions in the table or moved into a European spot. Red Down Arrow means a club moved DOWN 2 positions or more in the table for fell out of a European spot.

• First time all season no team moved up or down in the table into a Europe/Relegation position, or moved 2 spots in the table.

CleanSheets Counter & Goal Tracker

Hot Topic 🔥🔥🔥

Load Management…..

Lots of discussion in the US about NBA players not playing for “load management” purposes. You can make a case guys need some breaks over an 82-game season and that so many teams make the playoffs that most teams can afford to sit stars knowing they will make the playoffs anyway. But, it’s gotten pretty out of hand and former player Tim Hardaway did not mince words about it….basically calling today’s players “soft”. While the CS agrees with Tim, part of the issues with today’s NBA and MLB is that the regular season matters less and less.

This is NOT THE CASE with the Premier League. Typically, on the last day of the season 12+ teams have something big to play for, whether it’s for the title, European qualification or to avoid relegation. The rest have something to play for too, typically money as where you sit in the table impacts your club’s revenue.

Why is this a topic for discussion?

As we come out of a busy run of games over the last month, some teams are going to get back to a more “reasonable” schedule while other will need to keep the gas pedal down full speed. PL managers have been complaining for the last several years on the ridiculous schedule the players need to endure between League games, European, International and Domestic Cups. And now a new money grab is on the schedule, The Club World Cup. A new tournament in the off-season. 2025 will be contested in the USA where 32 lucky teams will complete their regular season and then continue into the off-season.

Players and managers have been pretty vocal (skysport article) of late on the non-stop schedule. Man City player Rodri was quoted, “I think we are close to a strike”. Spurs striker Heung-Min Son and Liverpool GK Allison has similar sentiments.

Is Everyone Really Playing More Matches?

No. It’s really just the top clubs. The top clubs with the top players are signficantly impacted, while the remaining clubs are not. In fact, their impact has been reduced because the focus on increased international tournaments has meant domestic tournaments have actually cut back the scheduling. Those not playing in the international tournaments have fewer matches. While the “top clubs” are impacted by the scheduling, the remaining clubs actually benefit from it.

What’s the Impact to the Premier League?

The impact is the top teams from LAST season, who qualified for this year’s tournaments, face a much more daunting schedule than the others. Look at the top 3 teams in the PL between Liverpool, Forest and Arsenal.

Off Island 🏝️

Captain America Strikes Again

Interestingly, those two sides played in the Finals of the Italian Super Cup, aka Supercoppa Italiana. This cup is a 4-team tournament, as the winners and runners up of last season’s Serie A (Italy’s EPL) and Coppa Italia (Italy’s FA Cup) paly in a short tournament.

This year’s tournament was held in Al-Awwal Park Stadium, Riyad, Saudi Arabia. This is the fifth time Saudi Arabia has hosted the Italian Super Cup. The Kingdom is focused on Saudi’s quality of life program which is focused on enhancing the country’s sports profile. So, if you wonder why it’s held there - they paid to host it.

Onto the Match

Best Bets 💰

Right picks, wrong betting approach.