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Match Week 18 Preview
A23, Scrooge McDuck & Christmas Movies
nick lochner
December 22, 2023
In Today’s CleanSheet:
Headlines 📌
What 2 Look 4 👀
Hot Topic 🔥🔥🔥- It’s A Wonderful Life
Off Island 🏝️ - Scrooge McDuck
Best Bets 💰
Headlines 📌
Merry Christmas!🎄
11 of 13 Days. There is a PL match every day but two over the next 2 weeks.
9 Match Weekend 1.1.6.1. 1 Thursday, 1 Friday, 6 Saturday, 1 Sunday.
City v Brentford is postponed as City is in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia playing in the Club World Cup.
Pencil This One In. Liverpool v Arsenal Saturday 1130am cst on NBC. Top of the table on the line. The Reds played Wednesday in the Carabao Cup beating West Ham in the quarterfinals 5-1. Jurgen Klopp made an appeal to the fans to show up (X 50s). The Gunners had a week of rest and are really focused on this match - here is Mikel Arteta talking about playing at Anfield and what he did during practice. Key stat: Jurgen Klopp at home against Arsenal is 6W 2D 0L.
A23 Derby. Palace v BHA. Kicked off the Christmas weekend early on Thursday with a 1-1 Draw. Good result for both sides, Palace may feel like they gave away 2 points. But how is this a Derby?
The A23 is a major road connecting London and Brighton - a 40 Mile stretch.
The rivalry dates back to the 1970s when both clubs were fighting for promotion out of League 2. They both ended up getting promoted to The Championship and then again to the Premier League all within 3 years.
Interestingly, Palace was the closest club in the Top 4 leagues to Brighton until 2011 when Crawly made League 2.
In 137 Matches played Palace has 50W 48L 39D.
Sacked. Forest’s Steve Cooper was fired this week and will be replaced by Nuno Espirito Santo.
Cooper was a popular manager among fans and players. He brought Forest to the PL after a 22-year absence and kept them up last season. Forest sits 17th in the table and have only 8 points in their last 13 matches.
Nuno spent 4 years at Wolves and 3 months at Tottenham before going to Saudi Arabia where he led a club to the title in 2022 but got off to a slow start this season and was fired.
Competition Overlap.
Club World Cup. City beat Urawa (Japan) 3-0 and will play Fluminense (Brazil) in the Championship 12/22 at noon cst.
Carabao Cup. aka The EFL Cup, aka The League Cup, aka the Moose Cup. This is a competition for the top 4 leagues in English Soccer. This is not the highly respected FA Cup - the competition for ALL clubs in England. This is a tournament most of the clubs, coaches and players dislike. The Carabao Cup is considered by many a money grab that just adds to an already crazy schedule. The tournament just advanced to the semi-finals this week.
Quarterfinal Results
| Semifinal Schedule
|
Speaking of Competitions - European Super League is back in the news. Check out the Off Island 🌴 section for the latest.
What 2 Look 4 👀- Match Week 18
Grade A Roast Beast
Liverpool v Arsenal (Sun) - See Above.
West Ham v Man United (Sat) - Both sides looking to improve their European Competition standing in the Table. Man United got a great point at Liverpool last weekend and head back out on the road looking for more points.
Tottenham v Everton (Sat) - Interesting game and clash of styles. Spurs have scored 35 goals this season, Everton have allowed only 20. The Toffee’s may be the “hottest” team in the League while Spurs have been playing well sort some key players.
Cheesy Potatoes - Can’t Get Enough
Wolverhampton v Chelsea (Sun)- Wolves have been struggling and hope to rebound at home while The Blues have the potential to run away with this one. Seems like this comes down to which Chelsea side shows up.
Forest v Bournemouth (Sat) - Will the Tree’s get a bounce from new manager Nuno? The new manager bounce is a real thing, but The Cherries have been in top form and look to get another 3 road points having won their last 3 road matches.
Luton Town v Newcastle (Sat) - The Hatters could be a little shaken after their captain went down last weekend. Newcastle has been a different team on the road than at home. Could be a tough place for the Magpies to get points if Luton Town is ready to play.
Christmas Sugar Cookies - Great way to round out a great meal
Fulham v Burnley (Sat) - Took a questionable red card early at Newcastle and got beat, hoping home cooking will get them back on track against a Burnley side who have looked outmatched all season.
Villa v Sheffield United (Fri) - Potential let down game for Villa. On paper, this should be 4-0.
Leftovers - Results Already Known
Palace v BHA (Thur) - See Above.
Man City v Brentford (Sat) - Postponed.
Hot Topic 🔥🔥🔥
If Your Team Were A Christmas Movie…..
Brentford Thomas Frank took a small little old building and…..sorry, football club, and continues to take down the big boys including Mr Graham Potter’s Chelsea.  | It’s A Wonderful Life  |
Everton Aside from looks - Everton has avoided relegation on the last day each of the last 2 seasons and now has to overcome a 10-point deduction.  | Die Hard  |
Man United Erik ten Hag has the Hat, the bald head and the ability to get his fans hopes up and then let them down. Like the Charlie Brown Christmas Classic, hundreds of millions of fans, so much good - yet you can’t help but feel sorry for ten Hag and Charlie Brown.  | A Charlie Brown Christmas  |
West Ham A London club who decided not to give their manager the $ needed to build the club the way he wanted, yet he is finding ways to win both in Europe and the PL. Just like the story of Rudolf not being the same without Hermey, who wanted to be a dentist, The Hammers would not be the same without Moyes. (Or Yukon’s Hammer).  | Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer   |
Liverpool While you may be left at home not once, not twice, no thrice, not four times, not five times, but SIX TIMES - you know, you’ll never walk alone. YNWA!  | Home Alone  |
Arsenal The Gunners  | A Christmas Story  |
Aston Villa The Logo speaks for itself. It's pretty self-explanatory where “The Villains” name came from, but how about “The Lions”? If you go to Villa Park - there are Lions everywhere and the crest has always been the Rampant Lion. The Rampant Lion is a symbol of Scotland and is on the flag known as the Royal Standard of Scotland. Two of the founding club members, William McGregor and George Ramsay, were both from Scotland. They wanted to keep a connection to their heritage.  | Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone There is debate on if Harry Potter should be considered a Christmas movie. Die Hard is probably more of a Christas movie and that is debatable - but - not debating Harry Potter is one of the more watched movies around Christmas by kids and adults everywhere.  |
Wolverhampton People are more important than money. This is one of the key lessons from the movie Miracle on 34th Street and this fits Wolves. They were one of the first clubs to create a Fan Parliament, a one of its kind connection between the supporters and the club. Also, Wolves cut back on spending this year to ensure they would not break Financial Fair Play rules. It’s a miracle they continue to stay up 😉.  Molineaux Stadium holds close to 34k | Miracle on 34th Street  |
Newcastle United The “Toon Army” is derived from the local dialect for “town” and represents NU Fans. The nickname for the people of the Tyneside area in Northeast England is Geordie. The area is a blue collar, gritty, group and its as far north as you go in England. Sounds like Sombertown, the town run by Burgermeister Meisterburger - an gray industrial town where no one was allowed to play with toys, just focus on your chores. And it took a Kris Kringle, who went by the name Claus to change all that.  Eddie Howe - Newcastle Gaffer | Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town Even the Topper is wearing a Newcastle Scarf  |
Crystal Palace Glad all over - something Buddy the Elf would sing - and also the song sung at Selhurst Park by the supporters since 1969 when The Dave Clark Five performed there. Palace is a “big city” club in the South of London, and many consider the fanbase the most “fanatic” in England with a combination of their songs, chants, banners and the Crystal Girls - the only club to have “NFL” style cheerleaders similar to the Dallas Cowboys.  | Elf The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.   |
Off Island 🏝️
European Super League
Scrooge McDuck - The irony of this announcement during Christmas
Context
Over two years ago a “European Super League” was announced – and then collapsed.
Basically 12 of the biggest clubs in Europe announced they were going to break away from the current structure of European Soccer and create their own 16 team league (in place of the Champions League). They would play mid-week and would expect their clubs to continue in their own countries leagues in parallel. Why do this? Money. The big clubs wanted to guarantee the estimated $500m+ per team the league would bring in, and not have to “play-in” to the champions league, etc.
The Super League was spearheaded by the President of Real Madrid, Florentino Perez, who also was named president of the Super League.
TWO days after the announcement, the League was put on hold, and within 48 hours all 5 EPL teams that were part of the announcement backed out. (Man City, Man United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham). The first was Man City.
Significant pushback from fans, FIFA and EUFA put an end to the Super League push, that is until this Thursday.
The Latest
A European Court ruled that EUFA’s and FIFA’s governing body, including the banning clubs from joining a Super League, was unlawful.
What Does It Mean?
It does not mean a competition like a Super League will be started up, but it does open the door to possibilities and some clubs have already released their opinions. For example, Barcelona (one of the original 12 clubs) said the verdict “paved the way for a new competition”. And, a proposal was already released for a 64-team league across Europe.
Meanwhile Spain’s La Liga released a statement - “Today, more than ever, we reiterate that the ‘Super League’ is a selfish and elitist model. Anything that is not fully open, with direct access only through the domestic leagues, season by season, is a closed format.” England and Germany also released statements basically saying, “the door to the Super League remains closed.”
Best Bets 💰
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CleanSheet Picker Standings
CleanSheet Season Gains/Losses:
Lots of matches to choose from over the next 2 weeks, let’s find some winners. |  |
Week 18 Picks
Villa to Win v Sheffield United -475. $95.
Villa to Win v Sheffield United 4:0 +725. $10.
West Ham to Win v Man United +160. $20.
Fulham to Win v Burnley -150. $30.
Luton Town to Win v Newcastle +400. $20.
Longshot of the week
Parlay - Villa, West Ham, Fulham all to WIN. +420. $10.
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