24/25 Match Week 24 Recap

Takes, Championship & Let 'em off the Plane

Author

nick lochner
February 04, 2025

In Today’s CleanSheet:

  • Headlines 📌

  • Current Situation📈📉

  • Hot Topic 🔥🔥🔥- Championship Race

  • Off Island 🏝️ - Hot Takes

  • Best Bets 💰

Headlines 📌

  • CS Match of the Week. Bournemouth 0-2 Liverpool. Statement win for the Reds. Bournemouth has been on an epic run and were coming off the dismantling of Forest last week. While the Cherries had their chances this result was the right one. Liverpool got 2 goals from Salah, one off a PK and their defenders were in shut down mode for all 90+ minutes. Liverpool have lost just 1 match in the PL this season while Bournemouth had not lost in 11 PL matches, yet the home side could not find the net.

    • LIverpool 1-0. Gakpo is QUESTIONABLY fouled in the box and Mo Salah hammers the penalty home.

    • Liverpool 2-0. Salah makes it look so easy, yet there might be 4 players who can see and execute this angle. And EVERY team knows the drill - keep Mo off his left foot, yet time and again he sets himself up to get there.

    • Salah. Mo Salah leads the PL with Goals (Haaland 19) and 13 Assists (Robinson and Saka 10). Just Cole Palmer is also on both lists, 5th in goals (14) and tied with 7 people for 8th in assists (6).

  • PL Back In Two Weeks. Newcastle host Arsenal and Liverpool host Tottenham in the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup mid-week. Newcastle have a 2-goal lead and Tottenham have a 1 goal lead. L and the FA Cup is on tap for next weekend. Liverpool travel to Everton in the Merseyside Derby the following Wednesday to play the postponed match from earlier this season due to hurricane force winds. Everton are on a 3-match win streak under new manager David Moyse while Liverpool can go 9 points up on second place Arsenal with a win. PL picks back up Friday February 14.

  • Seven. Forest put a 7 spot on BHA at home - here are all 7 goals.

  • 10 Seconds. The 4th fastest goal ever in the PL - Doucoure.

  • Interesting PL Transfer News. Might not be the most important - but interesting.

    • 180+ Moves. As of this writing roughly 180+ moves have been made by PL teams and includes Transfers IN, Transfers OUT, Loan Outs, Loan INs and Loan Recalls.

      • Breakdown of where players who LEFT a PL team went to

        • Another PL Team - 18

        • An English Team below the PL - 100ish

        • MLS - 3

        • Saudi Arabia - 1

        • Other - The Rest, across Europe and around the world

    • $200M. Depending on how you score, City picked up maybe the best transfer with Omar Marmoush from Frankfurt for $70M. City brought in 4 players totaling $200M+ in transfer fees. 3 of the 4 moves are top 10 in this window for transfer fee’s spent across Europe.

    • Mathys Tel. Joining Spurs on loan for the remainder of the season from Bayern Munich. But the news is Man United were in play as well but pulled out over a $6M transfer fee.

    • Pass. Three teams (as of this writing) did not bring anyone in - Arsenal (some think they need a striker), Liverpool (not surprising), Newcastle (surprising).

    • Rashford. United star Marcus Rashford is on his way to Aston Villa and most likely played his final match with his original club.

    • Villa. Made 19 moves (5 IN - 4 new players and recalled a previous loan out), more than any other PL club this window.

    • Bournemouth & Southampton. Brought in 6 players each, more than any other club.

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.

  • Great weekend for Wolves as they win and the bottom three lose.

  • Great weekend for Everton, as they get their third win in a row and create space from relegation.

  • Great weekend for Arsenal, Forest and Chelsea as they create space with City, Newcastle, Bournemouth and Villa losses.

  • Shite weekend United, Newcastle, Brentford losing as big favorites at home.

  • Shite weekend for Ipswich who lost at home to relegation contender Southampton.

CleanSheets Counter & Goal Tracker

MW24 Clean Sheets

6

  • Liverpool, Forest, Everton, Wolves, Palace, Spurs.

  • Forest and Liverpool each have 10 CSs to lead the PL.

  • Everton sit at 9 with back to back CSs.

  • 11 teams have more CSs than being shut out.

  • 9 have been shut out more times than keeping a clean sheet.

MW24 Total Goals

34

  • Lots of goals considering 6 Clean Sheets.

  • 16 goals by 3 teams - Forest (7), Arsenal (5), Everton (4).

Hot Topic 🔥🔥🔥

The Championship

Time to check in on what teams are looking to punch their ticket into the Premier League next season.

REMINDER

The Championship of English soccer is Level 2, the league below the PL. Three teams will be promoted to the PL - the top 2 finishers in the table plus a 3rd team who will need to win a playoff among teams 3-6.

There are 24 teams in the Championship, and it’s a gauntlet, playing each team home and away, 46 matches, 8 more than the PL.

The Bottom 3 teams will be relegated to League 1 (Level 3).

BUT FIRST - “Let ‘em off the plane”. Great Stuff from Burnley on securing a transfer.

Click the link and hear managing director/owner Alan Pace “announce” a key new signing - 26 yo Sporting (Lisbon) player Marcus Edwards.

That’s the 4th signing of the window for Burnley, hoping to make their way back to the PL.

Up The Clarets!

Given current rumors - just can’t look at Jen the same anymore.

Currently seems to be a 4-team race for the 2 automatic bids.

  • Leeds United was in the PL 2 years ago, got knocked out of the Championship playoff last season, and now lead the way with 16 matches to play.

  • Burnley and Sheffield United were in the PL last season and are hoping for a bounce back.

  • Sunderland had a 10 year run in the PL that ended in 2017. Since then, they fell to the Championship (1 season) AND League 1 (for 4 seasons) and back to the Championship for 3 seasons. Last season they just avoided relegation by finishing 16th.

Leeds United

Elland Road - 38,000 capacity

The Whites

Balance. Some say defender Junior Firpo is Leeds best player, but this club is really about balance. There are several organizations that rank players and while Leeds sit atop the table they do not have one player ranked in the top 15. The teams goal differential is +41, 14 more than next best Burnley.

Main rival is Man United, as the animosity between fans dates back to the 1400’s and the “War of the Roses” - a civil war to control the throne of England.

They’ve won titles - 1969, 74 and 92.

Won the FA Cup in 1972.

Seems like forever ago Jamie Marsch (American) was the manager of Leed’s in the PL. Daniel Farkle (German) has them playing at a high level.

Burnley

Turf Moor - 22,000 capacity

The Clarets

While the Clarets want back into the PL it sure is nice to be in the same league as their main rivals, Blackburn Rovers. The East Lancashire Derby is also known as the Cotton Mills Derby. Both clubs are original founding members of the EFL.

They’ve won titles, but it’s been a while. 1921 and 60.

Won the FA Cup in 1914.

Vincent Kompany, the former Man City player, took the club to promotion to the PL 2 years ago but led them to relegation last season. Kompany left for Bayern Munich in the offseason and Scott Parker took over and has them rolling.

CS is impartial to Goalkeepers and Burnley have a good one in James Trafford. Been a Clean Sheet stat stuffer - 20 this season already.

Sheffield United

Bramall Lane - 32,000 capacity

The Blades

Avengers. It was recently announced Avengers movie director Joe Russo has joined the board of the club. He will join the new American-based ownership group who took over the club in December.

While the blades sit top 5 in scoring in the league no one has more than 6 goals, but 12 players have scored. Great balance.

Chris Wilder took over management of the club in 2023 and couldn’t keep them up in the PL but he does have the club challenging to get back this season.

Main rival is Sheffield Wednesday, also in the Championship, for obvious reasons.

Sunderland

Stadium of Light - 49,000 capacity

The Black Cats

Young Stars. You’ve might’ve heard of Jude Bellingham, the England national star and Real Madrid player. Well, his brother, 19-year-old Jobe Bellingham has played every minute of every match this season for the Black Cats (minus one for a red card). But he’s not the youngest, 17-year-old Chris Rigg is showing he is going to be a force.

Regis Le Bris (French) took the club over this year and has turned things around, and when this club gets going at the 9th largest stadium in the EFL they can get quite the home advantage.

Main rival is Newcastle, and some consider Middlesbrough a rival as well as all three are geographically close.

Lots of success in the early years at Sunderland with 6 titles, all before 1936.

They did win the FA Cup twice, 1937 and 73.

Apologies to Blades fans but CS would love to see Burnley, Leeds and Sunderland back in the PL next season.

In addition, there are a number of teams in play for making the 4-team playoff between teams 3-6.

  • Blackburn Rovers, West Bromwich Albion (currently in positions 5/6).

  • Middlesbrough, Norwich City, Bristol City, Sheffield Wednesday, Coventry City, Watford, Millwall are all within 4 points.

Off Island 🏝️

Hot Takes Du Jour

(agree/disagree - send you thoughts by replying to email)

  • Arsenal and Liverpool will tighten up as the season goes along but the Reds will pull away and clinch at Home against the Gunners on May 5.

  • For the second year in a row the newly promoted sides will all be relegated. Down go Southampton, Ipswich and Leicester.

  • Forest will make the Champions League.

  • The PL will 2 of the 3 European competitions and will qualify an additional side to the Champions League next season.

  • Palace will finish top 10 in the PL.

  • Man United need to completely clean house on players in the offseason.

  • Ange will be at Spurs if he loses in the Moose Cup and doesn’t going on a winning streak that gets Spurs into the top 10.

  • Everton (currently 16) will finish ahead of Brentford (11) and BHA (10) in the table.

  • Kansas City 27 - 25 Philadelphia. Mahomes MVP.

  • The US Soccer Federation needs new leadership. Their TV/Streaming approach, structure and social politics all act as anchors to a league that could take off.

  • Snoop Dogg is/was a Crips gang member/daily MJ smoker/Gang rap lyrics is now telling everyone we need to “stop hate”. Not saying I don’t think Snoop is an interesting personality and fun to listen to at times….but, I don’t think I need hime running a commercial telling people who don’t have that past to “stop hate”.

  • Tom Brady’s in the same commercial, he should keep working on his broadcast career. Got a ways to go.

  • Over/Under 54 arrests at the Waste Management Open. Last three years, 0, 18, 54. OVER.

  • Over/Under 211 ejections at WMO. Last three years 90, 102, 211. UNDER.

  • Anyone else find interesting when Amanda Balionis interviewed Rory McIlroy 2 minutes after his Pebble Beach win on CBS and Jim Nance didn’t bring up all the drama and rumors surrounding Rory’s potential but then canceled divorce. Don’t get me wrong, love Rory and happy for him, but that interview was awkward.

  • The race for promotion in The Championship is on the “Mount Rushmore” of most interesting races in all of sports. Why? $300M+ on the line. Typically involves 10 teams down the stretch. Comes at the end of a true home-away schedule grind of 46 games. Give 2 automatic bids and then a playoff that culminates in a game in an iconic 90,000 seat stadium. Other contenders, in priority order:

    • NCAA March Madness.

    • World Cup.

    • NFL Playoff’s leading to the Super Bowl.

    • Race to avoid relegation in the PL.

    • Cricket World Cup (for many, but out of my lane).

    • NCAA College Baseball Tournament culminating in the World Series in Omaha.

    • MLB Playoffs culminating in the World Series.

Best Bets 💰

Reminder - the goal is not to fall below $0, and to come back to $1000. Will spend what is necessary to get there. MBBGA.

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