I’m guessing that the teams we will be playing early on won’t be too delighted either. From our perspective, we will have a lot of new players in the team (compared with none last season) so that will create a bit of a bedding in period. On the other hand, we will have a proper pre-season.
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Well, that’s an outrageous thing to say. I’m sure we can take care of Bournemouth without resorting to underhanded dealings! 
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I was going to say “fixed by the broadcasters”, but that makes it even worse.
I’ve still got to set up my football subscriptions for next season. I had the update from Telekom and their sports package is now outrageous. I’m planning to get it directly from Sky again and worry about the other matches as and when.
Equally, wouldn’t be a massive surprise if 9 out of 11 of our starting lineup for the opening game were here last season.
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From a quick scan earlier, a tough-ish start, but facing the likes of Arsenal and Newc early is also an opportunity to start strongly.
Christmas / festive period looks half decent, particularly knowing Mo will be away for AFCON.
Tough end to the season - hopefully, like the season just gone, we have it wrapped up by then (and focusing on the CL).
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AFCON is right at Christmas this year…
Assume it’s related to CL dates, Arsenal probably the biggest game in that period. Also Spurs.
Sort of knew there would be a big fixture that first weekend what with both Spurs and Man Utd being shit it allowed the random computer to generate one 
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Both our Man City and Chelsea games back on to European weeks. Also the Derby does which means that it’s going be on TNT at 12.30pm
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First 12 games are pretty brutal, play virtually all of the teams who finished top 10 last season plus Man U and the blueshite. Hopefully the CL draw will be a bit kinder this season and we can rotate a bit.
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I think this is more a reflection of how the league is now rather than a difficult draw. There are a lot of sides tightly packed in the “with a bit of luck they could earn CL qualification” and a few of big hitters who arent at that level but who still jump off the page as a challenge.
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Also who knows how it will play out. The forest game was seen as an early point in which to question Slot.
But it turned out they were better than most people thought.
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Fuck me, I forgot Grav will be suspended.
That’s a pain in the arse.
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There is a summary of rule changes for the new season here. I would expect most of these (including the limit of goalkeeper control times) to be applied precisely once, to us, before being quietly forgotten:
Law 3 – The Players
- Competitions have the option of implementing the ‘Only the captain’ guidelines
Law 5 – The Referee
- Signal to be used by referees to count down the last five seconds of the eight-second restriction on goalkeepers controlling the ball with their hand(s)/arm(s)
Law 8 – The Start and Restart of Play – Dropped ball
- If, when play was stopped, the ball was:
- inside the penalty area – the ball is dropped for the defending team goalkeeper in their penalty area
- outside the penalty area – the ball is dropped for a player of the team that has or would have gained possession if this is clear to the referee; otherwise, it is dropped for a player of the team that last touched it. The ball is dropped at its position when play was stopped
Law 9 – The Ball in and out of Play
- Indirect free kick and no disciplinary sanction when a team official, substitute, substituted or sent-off player or player who is temporarily off the field of play touches the ball as it is leaving the field of play and there is no intention to interfere unfairly
Law 11 – Offside
- When the goalkeeper throws the ball, the last point of contact should be used for the purpose of determining an offside position
Law 12 – Fouls and Misconduct
- A goalkeeper who controls the ball with their hand(s)/arm(s) for more than eight seconds will be penalised, with a corner kick being awarded to the other team
Law 16 – The Goal Kick
- Reference to other Laws detailing situations which result in a goal kick
Law 17 – The Corner Kick
- Reference to other Laws detailing situations which result in a corner kick
- Kick to be taken from the corner area nearest to the goalkeeper’s position when penalised
Video assistant referee (VAR) protocol
- Competitions have the option for the referee to make an announcement after a VAR ‘review’ or lengthy VAR ‘check’
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I like the 8 seconds and the captain concept. Except for Bruno.
Nothing worse than crowding the ref after a decision and badgering him when he is listening VAR.
Another one - get rid of 4th official the poor bastards just get smashed!!
“Respect and fairness are core values of football”….PC waffle yeah right OK….but I don’t often see that.
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I suspect we will see a lot more keepers keeling over and needing the physio at around the 7 second mark.
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You play all teams twice.
We won’t know who the best teams are until May.
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The one I dont like is about drop balls for incidents in the box. I have seen a few incidents where a defender, or goalie will go down in the box in expectation the ref will bail them out of having to defend the situation. This rule doubly rewards the defending team by also giving them the ball.
However this is my understanding of what the rule already is so from that description I am not sure what has changed.
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I can see Arseteta complaining about it like he always does probably learnt it from baldiola.
No matter how hard they concoct the schedule it inevitably backfires on them as by the end of December I am hoping they will get egg on their face.
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