24/25 Match Week 21 Recap & 22 Preview

In Today’s CleanSheet:

• Headlines 📌

• Current Situation📈📉

• Hot Topic 🔥🔥🔥- Mr. Baseball

• Off Island 🏝️ - MLS

• Best Bets 💰

Headlines 📌

• CS Match of the Week. Arsenal 2-1 Tottenham. NORTH LONDON DERBY.

  • 1-0 Spurs. Another early lead, Son at 25’.

  • 1-1 Arsenal. An own goal at 40’.

  • 2-1 Arsenal. Trossard at 44’

  • 2-1 HT and FT.

  • Here are all the emotions of a Derby.

• Diallo. Down 0-1 at 82’ Amad Diallo decided United were not going to lose at Old Trafford to a side sitting on just 6 points. One. Two. Three. Oh, how the turn tables.

• Selz. While Chris Wood is getting the accolades for Forest with 13 goals on the season, lately it’s been Matz Sels DOMINATING in the nets. Here are 45s of saves to keep a point against Liverpool. This effort may put Selz at the top of the PL goalkeeping rankings. He leads the PL with 9 CS’s.

• Not-City. Holding a 2-goal lead at 82’ Man City let another one get away, this time at Bee’s. Points dropped. Wissa at 82’ and Norgaard at 90+2’.

Current Situation 📈📉

• Liverpool leaving the door open with back-to-back draws.

• Seems like a 4-team race to the bottom - not including Southampton who are at the bottom.

• Spurs sitting 14th and keeping Ange is interesting - two reasons why - they really have been decimated by injury, especially on defense, AND they are in the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup.

• Europe (7th or better) is still in play for 15 teams.

• Welcome Newcastle into the top 4 after a run of 6 wins.

What 2 Look 4 👀- Match Week 22

• Traveling Week. Been having a lot of Derby’s lately, not this week. One of the bigger travel weeks by distance.

• 5.4.1 Match Week. 5 Saturday, 4 Sunday, 1 Monday.

Longest to Shortest Trip 🛣️

• Newcastle -158 v Bournemouth +392 SAT 630a - 360 Miles, 6.5 hours - Magpies going for 7 in a row, Cherries haven’t lost in 9 but with Draws in last 4 of 6.

• Man United +103 v BHA +243 SUN 8a - 260 Miles, 4.5 hours - Amazing what 3 gaols in the final 10’ of a match can do. Amorim has United playing hard. BHA got their first win in 9 matches and still sit in 9th.

• Ipswich Town +700 v Man City -312 SUN 1030a - 235 Miles, 4.5 hours - Good news for Tractor Boys, they play a side who continue to give up goals. Bad news, it’s City who have somewhat righted the ship.

• Brentford +448 v Liverpool -198 SAT 9a - 220 Miles, 4 hours - Maybe a little momentum for the Bee’s after their late match heroics at home to City. Liverpool have slightly stalled with back-to-back draws.

• Everton +173 v Tottenham +147 SUN 8a - 210 Miles, 4 hours - Can Everton score a goal this week against a Spurs side that likes to always push up. Not a must win for Spurs but they could sure use it.

• Forest -231 v Southampton +617 SUN 8a - 170 Miles, 3 hours - This seemed like a relegation match when the season started, now it’s a mismatch.

• Arsenal -218 v Aston Villa +533 SAT 1130a - 120 Miles, 2.5 hours - Both sides are doing “as expected” in the Table but seem like they are not playing their “A” games yet.

• Chelsea -344 v Wolves +700 MON 2p - 140 Miles, 2.5 hours - The Blues continue to search for consistency while Wolves have lost their momentum.

• Leicester City +277 v Fulham -109 SAT 9a - TBD - 100 Miles, 2 hours - A chance for FFC to break their Draw streak, 6 in 8 matches, with a win at mistake prone Leicester City.

• West Ham +153 v Palace +175 SAT 9a - LONDON DERBY (East v South) - 15 Miles, 40 min - Great new manager bounce for the Hammer’s but will be difficult to get all three points against a Palace side who has lost just 1 in 10.

CleanSheets Counter & Goal Tracker

Hot Topic 🔥🔥🔥

MLS

It’s the offseason for the US’s top soccer league, Major League Soccer, and some interesting headlines have been written - several with PL or former PL players who may be joining the league.

• Former Palace player and current Galastaray (Turkey) player is heading to MLS - Wilfred Zaha is heading to Charlotte FC. He will be a top 5 player in the league.

• Rumors have been linked to Naymar, Edouard (Palace), DeBruyne (City),

• New Rules for Player Movement - Players moving from one MLS club to another can use UNLIMITED funds to trade for players. Previously the amount was limited. The transfer limit is 2 players.

• Lawsuit. The North American Soccer League was a lower tier league that stopped playing 7 years ago but they filed a lawsuit against MLS and the US Soccer Federation. The suit says MLS bared NASL from competing with MLS and then defied them level 2 status. NASL is seeking over $500M in damages and also importantly is MLS’s League Standards will need to be rewritten.

• Opening play for MLS begins February 22.

• FC San Diego is the newest team in MLS, they begin play this season.

That’s enough on MLS - the culture is so broken the league has a long way to go to becoming more relevant.

Off Island 🏝️

Mr. Baseball

Many may not remember the days of professional sports not really being televised. In the 70’ and 80’s, professional sports were on maybe once or twice a week, and probably not your favorite team. In the 00’s it was more about catching highlights, but it wasn’t until “relatively recently” that EVERY game in every league is televised. Today you can even watch every match of English Soccer in the US but back then you really only had two options - if you were lucky enough to have your team play on Network TV for the game of the week OR you could catch your team on AM radio. In Wisconsin, from 1971 to 2024 (54 seasons), that meant tuning in and listening to Bob Uecker and the Milwaukee Brewers.

Ueck started his playing career in 1956 with his hometown Milwaukee Braves and began his broadcasting career in Milwaukee in 1971. He is in the MLB Hall of Fame. Here is his signature call - “Get up! Get Up! Get Outta Here, GONE!” and Calling several historical moments for the Brewers.

In addition to being the voice of the Brewers it was his “side jobs” that helped him become Mr. Baseball:

• Famous for his Miller Lite commercials and the “Uecker Seats”.

  • “I must be in the FRONT ROW”. Even today there are $1 obstructed view seats called the Uecker Seat at the very top of AmFam Field.

  • I thought you were a lefty.

  • Olympian.

• Did national broadcasts of baseball games weekly including Monday Night Baseball.

• In the 1990’s he worked with Bob Costas and Joe Morgan for World Series Broadcasts.

• In the movies Major League 1, 2, 3 Uecker played Harry Doyle - didn’t even need to act.

  • “Juuust a bit outside”.

  • Harry Doyle - 2 MIN.

• Played the head of the Owens family in Mr. Belvedere that aired for 6 seasons on ABC.

• WWE and WrestleMania host. With Andre the Giant.

• SNL Host in 1984.

• But, it was Ueck’s 100+ guest appearances on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson that got him his “Start”. Bob got a chance to open for Don Rickles at AL Hirt’s Nightclub in Atlanta and it was Hirt who set him up to appear in the Tonight Show. Johnny announced his unknown guest as Mr Baseball.

  • 4 Min of Uke with Johnny

  • Uke on his Cardinals picture

So many memories for CS but what stands out most is Ueck’s ability to tell stories while calling a game. Godspeed.

Best Bets 💰

Match Week 21 Results

Match Week 22 - Quick Turn Around

One foot in front of the other.

Fulham to Win at Leicester City -115. $46

This is a bet against the Foxes.

Spurs to win x-0 x=1,2,3 +339. $40

Placing a CS bet may mean Everton finally score, but if they don’t that’s a big number.

West Ham Palace O2.5 goals -29. $129

Both sides will score, probably more than one.

Forest to Win v Southampton -265. $105

If this were Liverpool, Arsenal, City or Newcastle the line would be -400 and Forest is playing at or above their level.