There's Always Next Year

Actually Newcastle weren't awful. Still a home loss though.  The Union were awful too but they stole a win anyway.

Ruing Rafa

Benitez certainly wasn't perfect but his mid-game adjustments and subs often made a difference.  Steve Bruce got off to rough start in that regard in the 0-1 defeat to Arsenal.  His named line up left him with no mid-field subs so when Shelvey had to go off with an injury, the resulting sub-optimal lineup possibly led to the only goal and certainly killed momentum for a while.  Some of the confusion may have been down to Willems not understanding where he was supposed to go but even once that was sorted out, the team looked lost.  Haven't seen an explanation for why Ki wasn't on the bench except that it wasn't an injury.

You never score from the top of the box...seats.
Andy Carroll in the stands at St. James' Park
(Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Sure an 0-1 to Arsenal doesn't sound too bad.  Except this wasn't exactly the highest caliber Gunner squad on the pitch. Ozil and Kolasinac were out due to security concerns (whoa, that is really messed up - looks like a continuing problem involving London-based gangs - details here).  Their big signings were on the bench, making inconsequential late match appearances.  Newcastle did have a shot off the post but the offense was generally underwhelming and they were often careless in possession.

Going glass is 1/8th full, there were positives.  Except for that shocking break-down on the goal set up by a poor pass, the defense does look solid.  Joelinton appears capable of being a legitimate replacement or even upgrade from Rondon.  Saint-Maximin could be a real live wire based on what we saw from his short stint.

Frankly, the team looked like what I expected.  Unfortunately my fears for relegation are up because based on what I saw this weekend, there are no obvious easy marks in the bottom half of the table.

Everybody Might Be Better Than Newcastle

As I said, not so confident about Newcastle's chances of avoiding relegation after seeing the weekend's results.  Aston Villa looked competent against Tottenham even though they ended up losing 1-3.  Spurs had the run of play but Villa led for much of the time after a nice smash and grab counterattack.  Sheffield United played tough at Bournemouth and came away with a point thanks to a late goal.  Brighton and Burnley, never offensive cogs, got 3-0 wins over Watford and Southampton respectively.  Crystal Palace held Everton scoreless in a 0-0 draw at Selhurst Park, though they were helped in that the Toffees did spend the last 15 or so minutes a man short.  No, of the usual relegation suspects, only Norwich played the part, falling to Liverpool 1-4.  Down 0-3 in the space of 28 minutes, Michael B texted to ask if these were the Canaries in the coal mine.  But even they managed a goal.  I guess maybe Southampton didn't shine either.  Not seeing obvious wins for Newcastle; they will have to fight for every point.

At the north end of the table, the biggest news was Man United clobbering Chelsea 4-0.  That final is misleading as it was 1-0 until 65 minutes.  Reminds me of Dennis's review of The Chronicles of Narnia - it was a good movie until it started to suck.  Red Devil fans must be thrilled though.  Man City wasn't really tested by West Ham, but again the final (5-0) makes it sound worse than it really was, with three of the goals coming after 74 minutes.  I didn't get to watch much of Leicester vs Wolves but at 0-0 that had to be a disappointing affair.

VAR Fainting Couch 

I forget where I read this but there were something like 70 VAR checks in the weekend's 10 matches.  I happened to see the three that resulted in on-field calls being changed.  Somehow every one of these will be controversial even though they really aren't.  First of all, the flow of the game argument has to stop.  In a sport where players regularly disrupt play with minor, or worse, imaginary injuries, waiting 30 seconds to review a critical play is the least of our problems.  Second, more often than not, the complainant's issue is with the rules, not VAR.  This is definitely the case for the goal taken away from Wolves because the VAR noticed the ball came off an attacker's arm.  Santo is unhappy but the new rule is very clear; even accidental and unintentional handling by an attacker in the box that leads to a goal is going to be called.  Further, this did not look like re-refereeing but a case where the referee didn't see the contact.  

I confess I was ready to jump on the fainting couch when Fabianski's stop of Aguero's PK was about to be retaken for not having one foot on the line.  But, but, you guys said you weren't going to use VAR for that.  And indeed they aren't.  The retake was because of Rice's encroachment, which was not inconsequential as he was the first player to the ball to clear it.  Again, not a different interpretation of what the referee saw but notification of something he didn't see.  So we're good there too.

Which leaves us with Sterling's offside which resulted in a goal being taken away.  Somewhat more sympathetic here.  The argument is that it's not a judgment, you are either on or off.  The picture (left) says Sterling is offside.  Except this is not quite like the more exact science of goal line technology.  The line is drawn based on when the reviewer believes the ball was struck.  It's also drawn based on the reviewer's interpretation of where the relevant body parts are.  Move the red dotted line back a little bit more on Sterling's torso and he's not offside.  This is arguably a bit of re-refereeing.  So close the AR didn't call it but the video guy gets a second, closer look.  But I don't see how you modify the VAR approach to offside.  How do you come up with objective criteria to let a call stand even when your best evidence shows it shouldn't.  Put me down as "in for a penny in for a pound."  I'll take VAR if this is its worst aspect.


Answer to Last Week's Test

In case you didn't look it up:

Club	Manager
Arsenal	Unai Emery
Aston Villa	Dean Smith
Bournemouth	Eddie Howe
Brighton	Graham Potter
Burnley	Sean Dyche
Chelsea	Frank Lampard
Crystal Palace	Roy Hodgson
Everton	Marco Silva
Leicester	Brendan Rogers
Liverpool	Jurgen Klopp
Man City	Pep Guardiola
Man United	Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
Newcastle	Steve Bruce
Norwich	Daniel Farke
Sheffield United	Chris Wilder
Southampton	Ralph Hasenhuttl
Tottenham	Mauricio Pochettino
Watford	Javi Gracia
West Ham	Manuel Pellegrini
Wolves	Nuno Espirito Santo

Defending First Place

For the second weekend in a row, the Union retook first place after briefly losing it to Atlanta.  This time was more difficult, especially given that Houston managed to keep 11 on the field for the whole match.  Actually, I don't think that's true.  Can't find it and erased the video but pretty sure a Houston player got hurt after they had made their three subs and spent the last few minutes down a man.  What also made it more difficult was wretched passing by the Union.  But there they were at full time, 2-1 winners.  A scruffier pair of goals you'll not find.  The first, by shuh-BILL-koh, went through the keeper's legs.  The game winner from Jack Elliott came from some lucky pinballing.  Still, it is a game winner and is this week's YouTubeableMoment.  Is it a sign of a new attitude that the post game sentiment was "We better play better" instead of "We'll take three points any way we can get them?"

For the most part, scoreboard watching continues to be a pleasant pastime.  The Red Bulls lost, Orlando drew and while Atlanta did win, their victim was NYCFC.  Another week at the top of the table and another week closer to a good finish.



Chester Alums

Perusing the opening day rosters for the EPL squads, I saw no current Chester Blues.  There are a few alumni sprinkled around including:

Josh King - Bournemouth
Gylfi Sigurdsson - Everton
Paul Pogba - Man United
Luke Freeman - Sheffield United

We did finish out the regular season with wins to capture our 4th straight EPL title, outdistancing Liverpool by 10 points.  Now come the Champions League final (vs Man United) and the FA Cup Final (vs Man City).

Week Two

An immediate test for Newcastle with a road trip to Norwich.  What a barometer this will be.  According to 538, expect bad weather – they have Norwich at 39%, Newcastle 33% with a 28% chance of a draw.  A draw seems a likely result which would not be terrible but not great.  That match is 10 am on NBC Gold.  Dennis and I will be watching that one as well as the Aston Villa Bournemouth match (10 am Saturday on CNBC) together.  Something about misery loves company.

Key contest of the weekend is Man City hosting Tottenham on Saturday at 12:30 on NBC.  Not real optimistic about Spurs’ chances here but remember what they did last year in the Champions League.  Other TV matches include the early bird special at 7:30 am Saturday featuring Arsenal vs Burnley, Southampton Liverpool (10 am on NBCSC) and two more on Sunday – Sheffield United hosting Crystal Palace (9am NBCSN) and Leicester heading to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea (11:30 am NBCSN).  Will be interested to see how Chelsea respond after last week’s spanking by Man United.  And speaking of the Red Devils, we get a bonus Monday match with Man United traveling to take on Wolves at 3 pm on NBCSN.

Full schedule for MLS too.  The Union, DC United and Atlanta are listed as underdogs at 538 for their road contests with Chicago, Vancouver and Portland respectively.  Facing Cincinnati, this may be a chance for NYCFC to gain ground on the others.  Same for the Red Bulls, who host New England.

In short, another crowded weekend.