Another weekend of football, another weekend of controversy.
And I know I’ve been on the anti-Liverpool trip for a while now, but man, they was rrrrrrrrobbed!
OK, we’ve all been screwed by VAR and we’ve all benefited (some more than others), but the decisions that went against them on Saturday were beyond debate!
They probably just edged the Merseyside derby and Jordan Henderson’s “winner” just after 90 minutes seemed like the inevitable conclusion after late pressure.
But man, how the hell was that offside?
Although we can all be like babies every week and demand an official explanation from the Premier League on dodgy decisions, I’m interested to, firstly, see if they get a response and, secondly, what it is!
I mean, what still picture were they looking at to deem Sadio Mane offside? The closest part of his body to the imaginary line was his arm. Madness
Of course, there was Jordan Pickford’s WWE “tackle” on Virgil van Dijk.
Yes he was offside, but how can that not be seen as “dangerous”? So dangerous, in fact, that it put the big man needs surgery to fix a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).
And by the way, all the fans of other clubs celebrating his injury, get a life will ya.
So yeah, a proper game of football which left question marks on the validity of the result.
Surely an extensive review at the end of the season looking at incidents like these (and all the other weekly screw-ups) will see much-needed revision of the current system.
Another system that needs an urgent review is Frank Lampard’s defence!
FFS, 2-0 up, looking like Barcelona in their prime, only to let Southampton grab a point at Stamford Bridge.
I can’t tell you how frustrating that was.
And I’ll let you in on a little secret in case you didn’t know it any big, fit side can get a result against us.
We can play all the football, look pretty and score goals, but we’re missing physicality.
We’re missing a John Terry, a Branislav Ivanovic, a Petr Cech, a Michael Essien players who imposed themselves.
Southampton came out in the second half and bullied their way to a well-deserved draw.
It was a big Saturday of football and I was thankful that the Missus was out for the best part of the day and evening so I could lounge around.
Manchester City v Arsenal was an interesting one. I’ve noticed a lot of Gunners shirts out and about these days and I think the feeling is that Mikel Arteta is pulling them back towards the top.
In my opinion he’s doing a decent job and they are gradually improving, but naaah, as with Chelsea, they’re a long way off where they need to be.
Again, lacking a bit of presence, missing a couple of solid leaders.
It was interesting looking at fans’ comments which, over the course of one game had turned from, “we’re back” to “last season we would have capitulated against City, we only lost 1-0”.
To be fair, they were never REALLY in it, two or three nil would have been a fairer reflection.
My Football Saturday ended off watching the worst game of the season so far!
Somehow United walked off 4-1 winners, not forgetting a missed Bruno Fernandes penalty.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer exclaimed: “This is where our season starts!”
Amazing how a couple of late goals can breed an air of disillusionment.
There was plenty said and written about a “strong performance”.
I guess because of the scoreline?
I watched a game littered with mistakes from both sides, a technical shambles, not dissimilar to 20 blokes having a kick-about in the park.
And as for Harry Maguire “answering his critics”?
What? Because he scored a goal?
No mate, he was k@k again. Poor bloke, he’s totally lost his confidence.
Made a national disgrace of himself for England during the week and looked like a clown at St James.
I saw my mate Chad Saaiman tweet: “Why have United and Chelsea not dropped Maguire and Kepa?”.
Why have United and Chelsea not dropped a Maguire and Kepa respectively?
— Chad Saaiman (@ChadSaaiman) October 17, 2020
And it appears simple.
Transfer fees of £150m (between them) need to be recovered.
To sell them they need to be playing. Unfortunately, they are both consistently bad performers, so it’s a vicious circle.
However, Kepa is definitely the second choice at the Bridge.
But why Gareth Southgate continues to select ‘Harry Ham Head” for England goes beyond me.
As for Spurs “doing a Spurs”. Wow! What an equaliser, goal of the season contender? Even Jose Mourinho had to humble himself at the post-match interview.
Following last week’s international break, we move into an intense period of fixtures. Champions League kicks off again tonight with some tasty match-ups, including PSG v United!
And tomorrow an interesting one as Ajax take on Liverpool.
And then it’s full steam ahead as Chelsea go to Old Trafford on Saturday.
Any bets welcomed on that one?
Hit me up on Twitter: @thehonestnick or e-mail: [email protected]