ealingfox

Lawro reckons 1 each on Saturday

Leicester v Sunderland

If new Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri can get his team playing with the passion they showed under Nigel Pearson in the last couple of months of last season, they will be absolutely fine.

It is the same for Sunderland boss Dick Advocaat, who only took charge with nine games to go.

The Foxes will play good football under Claudio Ranieri and I am expecting Sunderland to do the same.

But Advocaat made the Black Cats hard to beat at the end of last season to get them safe and getting the basics right will be his priority at the King Power Stadium on Saturday.

Lawro's prediction: 1-1

Swann's prediction: This is a tricky one for me - living in Nottingham I am not allowed to like Leicester and being a Newcastle fan I am not allowed to like Sunderland. So I'm going for 0-0. It will be the worst game of the week and the last game on MOTD - don't even bother watching it.

Not looking forward to every pundit, journo and commentator going OMG LOOOL THE TINKERMAN SO MUCH TINKERING every time we make a sub.

Only thing I have learnt from this thread is that I would really quite like to own a private jet.

Mods, have a word.

Surely there has to become a point where Pulis becomes outdated enough to struggle?

Us and QPR turning them over at home is enough evidence that its happening for me. Whacking 4 CBs across the back when 2-1 up with 30 mins left would have got Big Nige assaulted outside the King Power after the match.

The Guardian writers also thought we'd go down and Burnley would stay up last season so I'll take their predictions with a pinch of salt.

Any teams whos players we have been linked to there on pre season ?

In Dubai? I bloody hope not.

You said half decent earlier.

And tennis is more than just the 4 slams. He been to 8 finals and very rarely loses to anyone but the main three. If grand slams were easy to win there'd be more than 7 or so active players who'd won them.

Decent means good these days, do you not read sportsmen's Twitters?

Ah, I see. A two-week-a-year tennis fan (or maybe eight, if I'm feeling generous). Fair enough.

I know it appears the Slams are the only thing that matters about a tennis career, but it's really not the case.

To be honest I wouldn't even go that far, tennis is shite.

H2H vs Federer = 60/40 in Fed's favour.

H2H vs Nadal = 80/20 in Nadal's favour.

H2H vs Djoko = 70/30 in Djoko's favour.

95%, really? Not to mention 2 of the wins against Djoko and 1 vs Federer were major finals.

Have a look at the stats and try not to go in for ridiculous hyperbole, please.

Beating them in the Timbuktu Masters really doesn't count.

Well his career begs to differ.

2 tourney wins in how many years? Youre right, im surprised they havent renamed the sport Murrayball.

How many times has he been dispatched like this by the properly good players?

Said it enough times before but Murray really is merely a flat-track bully. 95% of the time he will get a pasting from anyone half-decent.

Have they started a thread for every manager thats been linked with us?

This obsession is so weird.

What a load of bitter, clueless, faux-moralistic shite that Oliver Brown article is.

Incredible bunch. More petty, bitter and small-time than possibly even the Villa lot.

Can they honestly not process the reality that the only reason they get good crowds is because Newcastle and Boro are the only other Clubs for about 300 miles?

Yes, the banter was truly sensational back in the day.

This lord of light bollocks is so tedious.

Sacking 20 managers between 24 teams in 1 season is a disgrace.

There's no way they would have the World Cup here and not use Old Trafford.

Yeah the impending "Deeney Day" is all us Leicester fans have thought about over the last 6 weeks.

Precious little bunch aren't they? Nobody's beating Stoke but they're putting in a serious challenge to Villa for second most small-time, petty and bitter club in the league.

So have swansea though? if your going on doing above expectations then surely it'd have to be koeman. How many people predicted southampton to finnish in or around the bottom 3

Nobody with a working brain that's for sure. £90-odd million in the bank and three-quarters of a top 8 side still there, you'd have had to be a moron to genuinely think they'd be relegation candidates.

Koeman has taken them from 8th to 7th, not really earth-shattering.

Somehow I got a higher score when I did it the second time. 24 first time, 28 second.

Why's that weird? I had my glasses on the first time....

Fantastic work, can't wait to see it. Next stop doing the Dortmund thing where we pull something up vertically from ground level and make it look 3D.