StatesideToffee14

Ipswich Town defeats Huddersfield Town 2:0 and clinch the 2nd automatic promotion spot to the Premier League. 2nd straight season Ipswich Town has been promoted and first time since the 2001-02 season they'll be playing in the Premier League. Hull City lost at Plymouth Argyle so West Brom and Norwich City get the final two playoff spots. Playoff matchups will be Leeds United-Norwich City and Southampton-West Brom with the first legs of the playoff matches played next Sunday.

I'm satisfied with the draw. Yeah it would have been great to get the win but Luton has more to play for than us. They did bring up on commentary that no team that has lost 23 PL matches in a season has ever avoided relegation. Had we won today, that would have been Luton's 23rd loss of the season.

Saturday is the final day of the regular season in the Championship. Leicester City has already clinched the points title in the Championship. It's down to Ipswich Town and Leeds United for the 2nd automatic promotion spot. Ipswich Town is ahead of Leeds United by 3 points and would only need a draw vs. Huddersfield Town to get the 2nd spot. Leeds United would have to defeat Southampton and hope Ipswich Town loses as Leeds would have the tiebreaker on goal difference. Southampton is 4th in the table and have already qualified for the playoff. It's down to Norwich City, West Brom, and Hull City for the final 2 playoff spots. Norwich City has all but clinched a spot as they are 3 points ahead of Hull City would only need a draw away at Birmingham City to get one of the remaining playoff spots. West Brom is only 2 points ahead of Hull City so Hull City would get the final playoff spot if they win away at Plymouth Argyle and West Brom loses at home to Preston North End. If Hull City wins and West Brom draws, then Hull City would have to make up a +11 goal difference that West Brom currently has.

With the way things are looking at the bottom of the table, Burnley-Forest at Turf Moor on the final day could potentially be a match that decides who stays up.

Depending on the season, it can go as low as 7th in the table.

Gonna be such a relief to not have to sweat out the final match day this season.

True though you never want to assume anything, especially with this squad lol.

Sheffield United officially relegated following their 5:1 defeat today at Newcastle.

Luton just lost at Wolves 2:1 so a win by us would clinch safety.

Today's starting XI:

Leicester City clinched promotion back to the Premier League after Leeds United lost at QPR today 4:0. Leeds only has one match remaining while Leicester has 2 and is up 4 points on Leeds. Ipswich Town is 5 points behind Leicester and has a match in hand but would only be able to top Leicester for the points title in the Championship.

2020-21 we finished 10th. I remember that season because we still had Ancelotti as manager and we still had an outside shot at a Europa League Conference Playoff round spot heading into the final day. Ended up getting thrashed 5:0 at the Etihad. 2018-19 we finished 8th.

My initial thoughts on today's result: -Going into this one, I would have been satisfied with a draw. If we won, great. But I've gotten used to, in my nearly decade of watching this club, that a draw is probably the best we'd get against the Shite. Was more concerned about us getting the 3 points against Brentford this weekend. Now that we've gotten the win, I've been nothing but overjoyed. -Pickford was absolutely huge for us. I know we get frustrated at his play sometimes but matches like today's shows how he can be one of the best keepers in the league. -I have no idea where the overall performance from this club came today. Especially a mere 9 days after the performance at Stamford Bridge. If we had played at this level for most of the season, we wouldn't have been fighting off relegation like we had been. I hope we can keep it up and that Dyche can keep the team's focus in check as I could see an emotional letdown on Saturday after what we saw today.

In a sign of how long it had been since we had the Merseyside derby at Goodison (some of you probably know this already), the Everton manager that day was David Moyes. Tim Howard was the starting goalkeeper. The Everton goals were scored by Tim Cahill and Mikel Arteta. The starting XI that day (and who they were later subbed off for): Tim Howard Sylvain Distin Phil Jagielka Leighton Baines Phil Neville Mikel Arteta (subbed off in the 74th minute for Jermaine Beckford) Johnny Heitinga (subbed off in the 72nd minute for Tony Hibbert) Tim Cahill Leon Osman (subbed off at half for Diniyar Bilyaletdinov) Seamus Coleman Yakubu Ayegbeni Among players that remained on the bench included: Jose Baxter, Jan Mucha, Shkodran Mustafi, and Magaye Gueye

We're effectively safe though, according to commentary in the states, we only had a .96% chance of being relegated before the match today. So the only way we get relegated now is if we lose our last 4 matches and Luton win at least 3 of their last 4. Luton are at Wolves in a mid-afternoon kickoff UK time Saturday so we'll know what we need to be secure by then.

Jon Champion and Lee Dixon called the match today here in the states, which was only on Peacock streaming rather than USA Network, and which showed Palace-Newcastle instead for some reason. Champion at one did mention that Simon Hooper (who was today's 4th official) would probably enjoy not having to hear Klopp yell at him in his left ear anymore since Klopp had done it so much over the years.

I really enjoy it. I have it for two reasons. One is Premier League (obviously). I do enjoy when they show Goal Rush on Saturday mornings here in the states (these would be for the mid-afternoon kickoffs in the UK) where they focus on one match and then bounce around to the other matches if a goal or a key moment happens. The other is WWE but that's only because I had the WWE Network previously and anyone who had that got grandfathered in when it moved to Peacock in March 2021.

This one is going on during the afternoon of my workday in the states tomorrow. Luckily, I have the Peacock app on my devices so I'll have a way to watch it.

This one does work here in the U.S.:

Gonna make this as a couple separate posts since I know this first one can't be viewed here in the states:

Perhaps he's a Notts County supporter.

I was surprised they had 3 or 4 of their bigger players on the bench to start today though I guess the argument that Klopp would make would be about the rest coming off the Europa League match at Atalanta. And I guess those players would need a little bit of rest though with how slim the margin is for the title, I guess he'd get critiqued now about sitting them much as he would if he sat them early in the season.

Sour grapes from Forest or are they just grasping for straws at this point?:

Great result for us to get, especially coming off the match at Stamford Bridge. Would love to see us get the win against the Shite but even if we don't, I'll be satisfied so long as we get a positive result next weekend against Brentford.