PREMIER LEAGUE: ROUND 1

Who reckons that the people who backed Chelsea from 20/1 into 10/1 for the league on the strength of one game over-reacted somewhat!!, regardless of how this game ends up that was crazy

Forest 2-0

Brentford are doomed

thought there would be goals in this, tbh. but Palace not giving Chelsea any time on the ball.

Chelsea are going to bet a right bollocking at HT

Forest 3-0

3-0

Wood (2)

Forest hit the ground running and we have them next week.
We must get a point today to get on the board.

get rid of best players and appoint a "set-piece coach" as manager. geat plan Brentford.

who is brentfords manager?

"not an easy one for the ref, but an easy decision" what?

Deliberate fouls like shirt holding should be a red

Reds kill games

some Irish guy, "set-piece coach" not going to go well , I suspect.

Chelsea seem scared to put the ball in the box

Estevao on

Two reds then, the offender + the captain

15/8 to go down on here

Opportunity for Leeds or Sunderland to stay up, maybe.

Richards is a good player.

Brentford have reached an agreement with Keith Andrews to become the club’s manager following Thomas Frank’s departure to Tottenham Hotspur.

Andrews, who has served as Brentford’s set-piece coach since July 2024, is now poised to take his first managerial role in senior football.

The 44-year-old has impressed within the club over the past year, earning trust through his tactical input and behind-the-scenes leadership.

His promotion follows Brentford’s preference for continuity, similar to their decision in 2018 when Thomas Frank was elevated from assistant after Dean Smith left for Aston Villa.

Brentford held talks with several external candidates, including Kieran McKenna and Francesco Farioli, but ultimately decided that Andrews’ familiarity with the club made him the ideal successor.

Andrews is widely credited as the architect behind Brentford’s set-piece success last season, with the team scoring 13 goals from dead-ball situations.

Only two Premier League sides outperformed Brentford in expected goals from set pieces, with Andrews’ schemes consistently giving them an edge.

He also played a key role in the club’s explosive starts to matches, helping Brentford score inside the opening minute of three consecutive Premier League games last October.

Those routines showcased not only Andrews’ attention to detail but also his ability to align tactical preparation with Brentford’s broader sporting model.

The club are currently finalising a new coaching structure around Andrews, with experienced staff expected to support the former Ireland international in his first full-time managerial post.

Before joining Brentford, Andrews held assistant roles at Sheffield United and with the Republic of Ireland national teams at Under-21 and senior levels.

Estevao a bit too keen, first touch let him down.

some one can't spell tyre properly.

Pen Brentford

3-1

been a good disciplined performance by Palace. Chelsea haven't been able to create anything.

santos scoops it over

Notts Forest 3-1 Brentford FT

Chelsea 0-0 Crystal Palace FT

Bad start for the Chelsea.  A lot of people have been overhyping them.

not a great watch, but Palace will be quite happy. Nullified Palmer quite easily.

Decent 0-0

Palace players giving 100% despite chance of transfers.

No rats.

Yes Des, very pleased with a point today.

We're a tough side to break down and despite Chelsea having 71% possession we were good value for the point.

Agreed yhtl.

Aug 17, 2025 -- 3:58PM, sofaking wrote:

Bad start for the Chelsea.

I'm Looking forward to going to see Palace v Forest next Sunday, should be a good one.

good to hear, slippy. Enjoy it.

Good man Slippy.

im going to risk man utd to open with  win

New season, same $hit

Man U are looking better and should've gotten something from this game. I can't see them being in a relegation scrap again this season. Top 10, top 12, I'm thinking.

leeds v everton this evening . surprised to see leeds as 7/5 favs with everton 9/4. lay leeds back everton wd be my bets

everton only lost 7 away games last season out of 19 and they were mostly to top half teams

Really tricky one, my initial lean is always to oppose the promoted side especially against an organized Moyes led side, but then, Elland road, first game of the season back in the Premier league, going to be some atmosphere!!!! tricky one

yup duffy only small bets to give an interest from a gambling perspective

i agree, bit surprised at prices shifting that way. small lay of leeds at 2.48

lay is 2.42 now

Do Everton have a striker these days?

Everton striker is called Norberto

Goes by name of Beto.

The toffees have been very slow starters in recent years, so would be wary of backing them tonight.

Branthwaite a big miss and no proper RB playing either although Jake O'Brien did well in that position last year. Tim I is a bit of a strange choice on the left, i would have liked to see Dwight McNeill there if no LB was fit. Midfield looks ok, good mix of grit and flair. Goals may be a problem again as Beto is not exactly prolific but hope springs eternal.

Don't really know enough about Leeds so hard to weigh them up but relieved DCL isn't playing ! Hard place to go all the same.

I know its  dodgy betting overs in everton game but they been two or more goals when they meet a leeds

Sounds like a Beta player
They need an
APLHA bloke

It's a very tricky tie to have a solid opinion on, well me anyways.
Unders is 1.78 which is too short for me so I'll pass on this punting wise.

30 m bet on the oval invincibles game. 638,000 on this

slight drift on leeds

I'm also suprised to see Leeds clear favs. A score draw looks likely. a few bob on 1-1, with 2-1 either way as cover

Not surprised so little bet dragon.

It's almost impossible.

Small lay of Leeds for me,

Slippy probably has best strategy

2.56 to lay now, quite a bit of movement at the end, was 2.38 at one point

Cashed out on the drift

Just watch it.

Leeds bossing this

Cashed out my lay of Leeds

Why if Everton start playing look good when they went forward

Leeds well on top, but not really looked like scoring. Surely Everton will come out of their shell at some point, then the sucker punch is a possibility.

that said, Everton look dreadful. They'll need a massive kick up the backside at HT

Surely not another main event game -0-0

I did say EFC were notorious slow starters, but that first half was poor even by our previous standards of mediocrity

Grealish surely needs to come on to give us some attacking threat

Everton look like they are set up not to concede.

Everton win this game if they play leeds look clueless when it comes to scoring

very strange performance by Everton, very disjointed and playing like they've never met before. Grealish must be wondering what he's let himself in for.

Pickford is asking for someone to charge one of his kicks down, seems to leave it very late to kick the ball away.

Tanaka coudn't hit a barn door

pen?

ball travelled too far to claim it hit him

1-0, only way Leeds were going to score.

Pickford too busy fannying about on the line to dive

Tarkowski gives away more than his fair share of crucial free kicks, imv.

VAR shows its ugly heart
First blooper of the seasun

worrying for Everton, but not exactly encouraging for Leeds that they struggled to beat a really bad team at home.

Pelanty connected to low Leeds price at kick off?

Ya never know with this bet football looks to me results were known before games started

That was like going back to the Sean Dyche days, awful stuff.

That said it was a very poor decision by Kavanagh to give the penalty and VAR are fecking useless if they don't ask him to look at it again.

Kavanagh has form with Everton - he was in the VAR booth against City 3 years back when Rodri clearly handled in the box but he "saw nothing" . denying EFC a chance of a late equaliser. City won 1 nil and won the title by one point from....Liverpool.

Couldn’t fathom why Moyes played McNeill as a sub./ on the bench.  His ability to take a ball and hold it, even if not playing too well, is a team plus for me.
Still what do I know?  I’ve never won a European Trophy like Moyes. 

I said before kick off that i though McNeill should have played Honcho.Put Garner as holding midfielder which he's best at. Tim Iroegbanaum was a surprise selection for me as i thought Moyes didn't rate him and he was going off on loan for the season.

Moyes will be lucky to last to November, a few more results like this and the Yanks will dispose of him sharply of that I'm certain.

Bit of an over reaction Mr S.

Apart from not playing McNeill there wasn't much else that Moyes really got wrong imo.

Not really Dixie, just come off Toffeeweb and the majority are blaming Moyes for the tactics and his usual negativity. Leeds weren't very good but we made them look half decent.The lack of signings doesn't help but at least set up to try and win the game. That first half performance was as bad as I ever seen in my 60 years of watching them.

He started with Alcaraz and Ndiaye as well as Dewsbury Hall Mr S, all like to play on the front foot. He then brought Jack on for the last quarter of the game  so there was plenty of attacking potential there, maybe the players need to take more responsibility.

Or maybe DM just needs to find the right combination of the above ?  It's far too early to be blaming the manager - remember when he came in last year we then took 31 points from 19 games. Injuries and lack of squad depth is not helping but DM will get it right i'm sure.

I know he saved us from almost certain relegation last year but I would have put him upstairs and brought in someone with fresh ideas and had a whole new change along with the stadium. Time will tell whether he makes a success of it and you are right the players need to take responsibility but they've looked crap in the friendlies and hardly much better tonight.

And lest we forget Mr S, in 23/24 we lost 1 nil at home to Fulham first match  and got 1 point from the first five games.
In 24/25 we got hammered 3 nil at home by Brighton first up and again only got 1 point from the first five games.

So losing the first game away from home is not the end of the world. But we need to get going earlier than the last two years !

I know its only the first game but the signs were there in pre-season. I hope I'm wrong and a lot will depend on who we can get in the next few weeks because currently this squad will struggle if we don't get some quality soon.

I made a whole 61p on Round 1

Not as much as Chris Kavanagh then Nobby

Mr S - i don't know why it is but the last few years pre season results have been poor and the first few games even worse. It's a head scratcher.

Yes we never seem to hit the ground running.

Remember in 1984/85 we lost 4-1 at home to Spurs and then 2-1 away at WBA first two games.

Then ended up winning the league by 13 points !

If you want a 999/1 for that happening again I'm sure you'll be accomodated.

Amazing Dixie.  Those were great Everton days.

They were indeed Honcho, and they lost the last two games as well after the league was wrapped up, played in late May with mainly reserves after others had finished their games. That side were as good as any we have seen in the English top flight, complete lack of egos and played as a team, superbly put together by Howard and co.

Total transfer fees for the usual first eleven that season was under £2m, bit different to today !

We met a bunch of Everton fans on a Spanish holiday and one of them who we nicknamed Denis because one of our wags reckoned he was a Denis Law lookalike invited us down to his gaff after we got back.  He was terrific and moved heaven and earth to find tickets for about ten of us for a packed Goodison match.  I look back and wonder how he did it and marvel at his brilliant hospitality itself.  Really, we must have taken tickets away from desperate Everton fans which I now regret a little.  I remember Andy Gray scoring.   A brilliant experience.

The toffees fans were always friendly to all in my experience Honcho, my friend and i went to the Cup Winners Cup final in Rotterdam that season and a married couple we were talking to on the ferry to Vlissingen had a car and immediately offered us a lift to the ground, an 80 mile trip, rather than us having to get the train .
Ok they were going to the match anyway but it was really nice of them and they wouldn't even let us buy them a drink !

Andy Gray wasn't a prolific goal scorer that season but he was worth his weight in gold to the team.  He only scored a few goals at home in the league but i remember he got the first in a 2 nil win over Arsenal in March and then in early April Everton hammered Sunderland 4-1 in a sublime performance which was on Match Of The Day, the goals were all crackers and Andy got two of them including a trademark diving header. Maybe it was one of those games you were lucky enough to attend ?