24/25 Match Week 22 Recap

After a busy weekend of matches it’s back to European Competitions mid-week with some big England (EPL) - France (Ligue 1) matchups. While the “Chunnel” is a great option going from England to France for the fans I’m sure the teams will be taking their hour or less flights. Check out Off Island🏝️🏝️🏝️ for more.

In Today’s CleanSheet:

• Headlines 📌

• Current Situation📈📉

• Hot Topic 🔥🔥🔥- AFC Bournemouth

• Off Island 🏝️ - Europe Competitions

• Best Bets 💰

Headlines 📌

• CS Match of the Week. Newcastle 1-4 Bournemouth. It’s time to talk Cherries as the manager that took the floundering club to the PL in the 2010’s, Eddie Howe, hosted his former side as Newcastle manager and lost to this overachieving club. The medium/small club on the south coast has had quite a run. In 2009 Bournemouth fell to League 2 (Level 4) and former player Eddie Howe took over as manager and through 2015 took the Cherries to League 1 in 2010, and after a stint with Burnley came back and led them to the Championship in 2012 and then their first ever PL season in 2015. Bournemouth now sit in their highest PL position, 7th, and have beaten Arsenal, City, Spurs, @United and @Newcastle. They have a chance to finish ahead of their highest ever finish, 9th, and are just 1 point off of a European spot.

  • Cherries 1-0. Justin Kluivert gets it going early at 5’.

  • Magpies 1-1. 20’ later it’s Bruno Guimaraes in the sun off a corner with a header at St James’ Park to even it..

  • Cherries 2-1. It’s number 2 for Kluivert off a turnover by the Magpies at 44’.

  • HT Cherries 2-1.

  • Cherries 3-1. Throw your hats on the pitch, it’s number 3 for Kluivert at 90+1’.

  • Cherries 4-1. At 90+5’ Kerkez finishes it off and it’s all three points for the Cherries.

• For More on Bournemouth FC check out Hot Topic🔥🔥🔥 below.

• Spurs. Tottenham went into Everton who had scored 1 goal in 6 and just 15 for the season and gave up 3 1H goals and giving them just their second win in thirteen. Ownership is sticking with Ange for now.

• Title Race. Unless a side really slides it seems we have 4 teams in the relegation race, Wolves, Ipswich, Leicester and Southampton.

• Liverpool’s Chances. With a game in hand (@Everton), Liverpool sit 50 points and a 6-point lead with 17 matches to play for them. They have earned 2.38 points per match so far. IF they continue on that pace they will finish with 90 points. In the history of the PL the average number of points of the second-place team is just under 81 points. Per @sam_millne, here are the last 10 PL finishers and points. Just one side had finished over 90 points, Liverpool with 92. Will take a BIG collapse for Liverpool to not win the league AND/OR a big run by a contender. IF City were to win their final 16 matches, they would finish with 86 points. IF Arsenal or Forest win out, they would finish with 92.

• Worst of All Time. Man United lost at Old Trafford again which prompted their new-ish manager Ruben Amorim to say the following…

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.

• Chelsea back into the top 4.

• Feels like 12 points is too far for City to make a run, but they look like they could now run the table.

• Forest and Bournemouth fans are loving the season and dreaming of Europe.

• Spurs are really struggling.

• Feels like Everton will do enough to stay out fo the relegation race.

CleanSheets Counter & Goal Tracker

Hot Topic 🔥🔥🔥

AFC Bournemouth

Started as Boscombe, renamed Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic Football Club and then in 1971 renamed AFC Bournemouth. “AFC” recalls the previous name but is not an official abbreviation.

About the Culture

In 2009, AFC Bournemouth was 1 match away from being relegated out of League 2 (Level 4), out of the EFL and down to Level 5. SEVEN years and three promotions later they were celebrating their first ever promotion to the PL. This was great news for other PL team’s fans, as Bournemouth is the first away match the fans look for as they can turn the trip into a seaside getaway.

AFC B has a relatively big fanbase given the stadium’s size of 11,000. The supporters were voted the best-behaved fanbase in the PL and seem to go by several nicknames: Red & Black Army, Cherries Red Army, the Cherries.

While the club has been around for a long time, it feels like the fast rise to the PL may be changing the culture, along with the new ownership. Two years ago, the Cherries did not sell a player from the previous season and added over $100M in acquisitions is quite a statement. Also, one look at the AFCB website and you can see the new owners focus - We Keep Moving.

Off Island 🏝️

Champions, Europa League Match 5 of 8 with EUFA Conference League on match 4 of 8.

(all matches on Paramount+ cst)

• Liverpool host Lille (France) Tuesday, 2pm. Both sides hoping to secure round of 16 spot.

• Man City travel to PSG (France) Wednesday, 2pm. Paris is not where they thought they would be. Really need a win or elimination is a strong possibility. Not who you want to be playing in a must win.

• Aston Villa travel to Monaco (France) Tuesday, 1145am. Both sides hoping to stay/get into the top 8.

• Arsenal host Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia) Wednesday, 2pm. Gunners looking to stay in the auto bye into the round of 16 while Dinamo Zagreb are hoping to avoid elimination.

Europa League kicks off Thursday.

• Spurs travel to Hoffenheim (Germany) Thursday, 1145am. Spurs and Hoffenheim may be in the worst form of any other teams in this tournament as both sides sit near the bottom of their tables.

• Man United host Rangers (Scotland) Thursday, 2pm. Both sides hoping for bye’s into the round of 16.

EUFA Conference League played 6 matches to determine the knockout phase teams and the teams who went straight to the round of 16.

• Chelsea will wait for the knockout winners to be determined in February to see who they play in the round of 16.

Best Bets 💰

The Golden Age is the turning point - new manager bounce MBBGA.