A House of Straw

Highlights from second half of Newcastle-Wolves

Last week we said a Newcastle draw with Wolves would be "awesome."  We stand by that assessment after the 1-1 result.  Yes, the Magpies were actually leading for 70 minutes and the prospect of three points lingered in the air.  But, after a decent first half which included a good header goal from Lascelles, Newcastle were totally outclassed in the second half.  Even at 1-0, Wolves were huffing and puffing and looked ready to blow our house in and the game felt headed to a 1-2 result.  After Wolves finally broke through at 73 minutes, that outcome looked even more likely.  Somehow, Newcastle did hang on, though there was a real scare with a VAR review of Lascelles shirt grab in the box in stoppage time.  Since the replay clearly showed Lascelles with a fistful of jersey, we have no idea why it wasn't called upon review.

Positives from the match include a pretty decent first half with more possession than normal and continued excitement from Saint-Maximin.  Lowlights include a second half in which the Magpies didn't do squat.  Through 10 games, Newcastle have just 6 goals, one more than worst-in-league Watford's 5.  More distressing is that only one of these is from a striker. 


South of Awful

Southampton fans at Friday's match vs Leicester

A gale was blowing but that was the least of Southampton's problems on Friday.  I was confused as to why there was a VAR review after Chilwell's goal for Leicester at 10 minutes.  Turns out it wasn't for the goal but for Ryan Bertand's challenge in the build up (referee played advantage).  The upshot was the goal was good and Bertrand was red carded.  Ouch.  Reminded me of an old Rodney Dangerfield bit:

Doctor: You're overweight
Dangerfield: I'd like a second opinion
Doctor: Okay, you're ugly too.

So things pretty much went down hill from there.  It was 5-0 by halftime and the final was 9-0.  The thumping was bad enough to move Newcastle out of the relegation zone as Southampton's goal differential went down the toilet.  South of awful indeed, as the announcer said.


Little Relief for Embattled Managers

Certainly Hassenhutl's situation did not improve after the Leicester result.  Neither did Marco Silva's prospects after Everton saw a late 2-1 advantage over Brighton evaporate with two goals after 80 minutes, including a heartbreaking own goal by Digne in stoppage time.  A midweek League Cup win over Watford may relieve some pressure but Silva is still hanging by a thread.  Unai Emery's Arsenal was robbed of a win over Crystal Palace by a "curious" VAR decision (discussed below) and had to settle for a 2-2 draw.  Tottenham did play pretty well against Liverpool, who managed a 2-1 win with a late PK; didn't help Pochettino but shouldn't be held against him.  Man United's Ole Gunnar did get a 3-1 win over Norwich and saw some improvement for his odds.


Stiletto?

Aston Villa seemed to be holding their own against Man City.  And then suddenly they weren't.  This must be what it's like to be stabbed in the back with a stiletto.  You think you came out of the fight in pretty good shape and look up and see you got beat 0-3.

Pulisic: An American in Burnley

Elsewhere, USMNT star Christian Pulisic fashioned a hat trick to take Chelsea past Burnley 4-2. Yeah, one was a deflection and another was a "header" basically off his back.  They still count and he should get credit for coming through when he was finally given a start.



VAR Fainting Couch

I've been counseling against this but a rash of poor decisions using VAR is getting me worried.  The most recent exhibit was late in Arsenal - Crystal Palace.  I was not watching the match but the score updates in the upper right hand corner of the TV screen suggested something unsavory was going on.  First I saw Arsenal 3 Palace 2 and it stayed up for several minutes.  Then it went back to 2-2.  Curiosity sent me to the highlights and sure enough, this was not good. If I did this right, you can see the incident starting here.  Two Three problems here.  First, do you see a foul by Chambers?  Me neither.  Second, if I read the clock right, the goal went in at 82:19 but play hadn't restarted as of 86:28.  And third, shouldn't the center referee go to the monitor to confirm that a call of that magnitude is going to be overturned? Apparently, the Premier League is concerned enough that some changes may be up for discussion.


Third Kits

Villa in Christmas kit and it wasn't even Halloween yet
Matt West/BPI/Shutterstock

A couple of interesting third kits this weekend.  We saw Aston Villa in their Christmas uniforms and Everton became the Salmons instead of the Toffees.  Wait, toffee isn't blue either.  Never mind.  Man City were home so the Astros throw back jerseys were still at the cleaners.


I Still Don't Carabao It Cup

Everton away kit is actually closer to toffee-colored
 than blue home kit

Looked like there were some fun matches in the round of 16.  Liverpool-Arsenal was 5-5 and went to PKs, with the Reds advancing.  Man United took care of Chelsea 2-1.  Villa are into the quarters with a 2-1 win over Wolves.  The quarters are Tuesday 12/17 and look like this:

Everton-Leicester
Man United - Colchester
Oxford United - Man City
Aston Villa - Liverpool

Wonder how much the managers like the midweek matches in the middle of the holiday season.  The EPL has match days on 12/7-9, 12/14-16, 12/21-22, 12/26-7, 12/28-9, and 1/1-2, as in six matches in 27 days.  More scary is three matches in a week and four matches in 13 days.  I do enjoy having matches to watch during the holidays but this schedule favors the top teams (who have more depth) and increases the likelihood of injuries. 


MLS Finals Set

Heavy favorites LAFC and Atlanta fell to Seattle and Toronto respectively.  Have to say Seattle looked like they totally deserved the result while Atlanta might have had the run of play but fell anyway.  The Atlanta-Toronto match might have been decided in a four minute stretch when Toronto keeper Westberg saved a PK in the 11th minute and Benezet curled an equalizer in at the 14th minute.  They will be this week's co-YouTubeable Moments with the save here and the goal here.  The final is 11/10.


We'll do more of a season wrap-up for the Union during the next international break but Jonathan Tannenwald outlined some of the off-season issues for the Union in an article in Thursday's Inquirer.  He notes that Fabian is most certainly gone.  He was awful in comparison to the price we paid for him but he did have important contributions.  More scary is the assessment that Monteiro's return is unclear; the price to exercise the option to buy may be more than the Union are willing to pay.  The distressing part of this is that once again, instead of building on the progress, the first moves of the off-season may be replacing key losses. 


Schedule

We catch up (fall back?) to England as we end Daylight Savings Time on Sunday but the Saturday games are an hour later.  Hit the snooze button and sleep until 8:30 and you can still catch Bournemouth Man United live on NBCSN.  Probably get a few loads of laundry before the 11 am games (five of them) come around.  The TV choice is Man City hosting Southampton; the Citizens are a two touchdown favorite.  For those who might want a more competitive match up, we might suggest surprise package Sheffield United taking on Burnley on NBC Gold.  Might not be a goal fest but could be a tight contest.  We'll be going with West Ham - Newcastle on NBC Gold; a draw on the road is about all we can ask for here and that could be a stretch.  The "feature" match at 1:30 on NBC is Watford - Chelsea.

Sunday is a short list with Crystal Palace - Leicester at 9 and Everton - Spurs at 11:30.  The latter is a "Managers under fire" special, with both Silva and Pochettino under the microscope at this point.