 |
| Newcastle season in a nutshell |
Plus it's not like that point really helped the cause all that match. Coupled with Fulham's 0-0 draw with Palace, Newcastle's relegation prospects barely improved at all. We did get help midweek when Spurs handed Fulham a 1-0 defeat despite looking more like a bottom half of the table side. So we maintain a three point lead (with a game in hand!) and the 538 percentages are 29% and 55%, an improvement from last week's 35/47. And yet, prospects for staying up look dim.
No CL For You. Come Back, One Year
Aston Villa likely put paid to their chances for making Champions League with a puzzling 0-1 loss to Sheffield United. Puzzling in that even though they were without Grealish and Cash again, 1) they had shown they could manage without the duo in a 1-0 weekend win over Leeds and 2) Sheffield played a man down for over 30 minutes. Dennis did not seem distraught. A top half of the table finish one year after nearly being relegated is progress enough for him plus the loss reduces the likelihood of dreaded Europa League qualification.
City Rule
Man City managed two more wins while many, though not all, in the chase pack were dropping points. They have a 14 point lead heading into the Manchester derby. As we suggested they would, Man Tied United got a 0-0 draw with Chelsea but also came up flat in the misty mists of Selhurst Park and could only manage a 0-0 draw there as well. Leicester dropped four points with a draw to Burnley and loss to Arsenal. Liverpool got their win versus Sheffield but then came up scoreless at home against Chelsea in a 0-1 defeat. And West Ham took a 2-1 loss to Man City that slows their roll down a little
Though they technically dropped two points, a draw with Man United and win over Liverpool have to go down as a good week for Chelsea; in fact, they might be the best bet for third place right now. Everton and Tottenham both came away with six points and kept themselves in the mix. Newcastle fans appreciate Spurs' wins over Burnley and Fulham and Everton taking the measure of West Brom and Southampton was helpful too.
Style Matters
Lee Mason got himself into a big mess in West Brom - Brighton match. You can see the incident here. It is not pretty. Sounds like Mason blew the whistle to allow the kick, then realized that the West Brom keeper was still setting up the wall and blew the whistle again. My sense is that after blowing the first whistle he realized he didn't mean to do that so he quickly blew the second whistle. What followed was not pretty. First, he disallowed the goal. Then he changed his mind and allowed it. Then, with VAR assistance, he disallowed it. The official reason given was that the ball had not entered the goal at the time of the second whistle.
We are left with two questions. Should the process have been better and was this the "right" decision? Clearly the process sucked. No where have a read that the important thing as a referee is to get the call right on the third time of asking. Mason needed to slow everything down before he made a final ruling; changing a call twice just doesn't cut it. I am of two minds as to whether they ultimately got to the right place. On the one hand, I'm not aware of any requirement that the referee has to hold up play just because the defense isn't set. The only limitation that I'm aware of is that the attacking team can't take the kick until the referee blows the whistle. On the other, I seriously doubt I would have blown the whistle to proceed in that situation. It's not a quick kick anymore so I probably wait until the keeper is in position.
Watching West Brom Is A Football Manager Scouting Opportunity
We are into April in the virtual reality of Football Manager and Forest Green have just clinched promotion to the Championship Division. We have an annoying tendency to play down to the level of the opposition but also come up big against the key rivals. Most recently we effectively ended the race with a convincing 2-0 win over Barnsley.
With promotion we now get vastly improved salary and transfer budgets, meaning players that previously turned their noses up at playing for Forest Green now have some interest. Surprisingly, three of them play for West Brom in the real world. We are hoping to land Grady Diangana and Conor Gallagher on loan for help in the midfield and are taking a long look making a transfer bid on center back Kyle Bartley - yeah the one who scored a nifty header goal versus Brighton on Saturday. At first I'm thinking how can it make sense to be looking at players from the 19th place side in the EPL but it actually makes sense if I'm trying to strengthen a Championship Division side.
We All See It. We All See It.
 |
| He has blue hair. Blue |
Yellow Balls Are Gone
No, it's not a ad slogan for a masculine hygiene product. Rather, it should replace the robin as the first sign of spring. On 2/19, the EPL switched back from the yellow "winter" ball to a white and blue model. I had read last fall that the yellow ball was to be in use until late March when the clocks move forward. Apparently, they felt they didn't have to wait any longer.
My Mistake
 |
| Man City right back Kyle Woolka |
mispronouncing their right back's name for all these years. I that it was Kyle Walker but Drury has set me straight - it's Kyle Woolka. BFS regrets the error and apologizes for any confusion we may have caused.
Separated at Birth?
Charles Nelson Reilly would be perfect in the role. The fact that he passed away in 2007 presents a slight problem but we'll figure something out.
Dennis: Did Chelsea just score?
Steve: No, but Giroud hit the post [the Frenchman literally collided with the post after an attempted diving header]
Dennis (with Villa about to lose to Sheffield): I guess this is payback for the Great OcclusionSteve: At about 10 cents on the dollar
No comments:
Post a Comment