These Are Days

 (apologies to 10,000 Maniacs - and is there a more hopeful, upbeat positive song than this?)

Newcastle and Aston Villa beat Man United and Chelsea on the same weekend.  A slew of exciting fixtures - not counting the dreadfully drab Chelsea-Liverpool contest.  The Union? Well, they didn't lose.

Pot Meet Kettle

Pre-match, Man United manager Erik ten Hag suggested Newcastle were a most "annoying" side with the worst delaying tactics in the league.  He warned his players and said the referees would need to take action "to let the game go on."  Hmm, it wasn't our keeper who was dallying over goal kicks 25 minutes into the match on Sunday.  Also, if you tuned in late without knowing who was winning, Man United's total lack of urgency compared to Newcastle's continued press would have you think it was Man United, not Newcastle, who were up 1-0.  

Trash talking aside, this was a complete performance from the Magpies.  They were the better side in the first half that ended 0-0.  With Man United's counterattacking ability, that dominance counted for nothing.  Second half was more of the same. leaving us with the feeling this could easily end 0-1 for the visitors.  Fortunately, Joe Willock made up for a couple of misses with this lovely goal, an easy choice for YouTubeableMoment.  Bruno overcooked the cross but ASM put it right back in front of the goal for Willock to finish.  Newcastle did not let up and got a late second goal from Wilson. The stat sheet confirms what we saw on the screen.  Possession was just 46/54 but shots were 22/6 and shots on target were 6/1.  Expected goals were 3.0 - .7.  In other words, they earned the three points.

Wilson makes good on a pre-match bet with West Hams'
Michail Antonio and does the Macarena after scoring

Wednesday's away fixture with West Ham had all the makings of a trap match.  Coming off a big win,
on the road, facing a side entrenched in a relegation battle.  After the 5-1 final, Dennis gave some stick for that comment.  However, if you watched, you'll know there were several moments when the match could have easily slipped away until West Ham insisted on losing.  Early on, only the post denied Bruno an own goal that would have given the Hammers a 1-0 lead.  Newcastle's second goal was initially ruled out due to offside but VAR correctly restored it.   A less than stellar effort in the box by Pope let West Ham draw closer near the end of the first half.  And the home side had more energy.  Fortunately two howlers - the first just 30 seconds into the second half - allowed Newcastle enough of a cushion to protect against their own mistakes.  The Magpies were the better side, though not by a 5-1 margin.  Trap avoided.  

Parallax Error

Now you know what parallax error is

When was the last time you heard a sports announcer refer to parallax error?  Never, right?  What the heck is parallax error anyway?  See the picture and explanation.  On Wednesday, the term came up in the course of a VAR check on an offside call.  As in, Joe L. Linton appeared to have been offside until correcting for the parallax error. I am not making this up.  

I would really like to see the IFAB add language to the Laws of the Game to say that for assistant referees to avoid parallax error it is critical that they remain in line with the next to the last defender or the ball, whichever is closest to the goal line.

"Getting A Sniff of Europe"

Aston Villa grabbed another two wins and climbed past Chelsea, Fulham, Brentford and Liverpool to go from 11th to 7th in the table.  The 2-0 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge didn't feel all that fluky to me watching but the stats say other wise - possession was 31/69, shots 5/27, shots on target 2/8, corners 2/13 and xG .55/2.40.  Right, they scored on both their shots. Facing Leicester on Tuesday was Villa's trap match.  Leicester were indeed fierce.  The Foxes were undone when a second yellow for Tewsbury-Hall at 70 minutes gave the Villans the man advantage; Bertrand Traore got the game winner in the 87th minute.  

As a reminder, 5th place and the FA Cup winner get spots in the Europa League; the EFL Cup winner gets the Europa Conference League spot.  If the FA Cup winner and EFL Cup winner have qualified for Champions League, it's possible that 6th or 7th can get you to Europe. 

Jesus Rises Again

The man they call Jesus had two tallies against Leeds

That was the actual headline in The Independent - the newspaper that Trent Crimm used to work for on Ted Lasso.  Well, it was a little longer, something like "Gabriel Jesus rises again to bring Arsenal closer to the title but you get the point.  Certainly, Arsenal will be happy that they have a healthy Jesus for the run-in.  He scored twice in the 4-1 win over Leeds.  The victory keeps the Gunners eight up on Man City, who fell behind early to Liverpool before steadily pulling away to a 4-1 win of their own.  City do have a game in hand so the lead might be a touch exaggerated.  The two sides meet on Wednesday April 26.

Hopes Rising and Falling

The relegation battle continues to be a fascinating story.  Big winners this week were Crystal Palace. Their contest with Leicester was a classic relegation duel.  The Foxes were seconds away from grabbing a precious point on the road when Mateta did this.  Daggers.  Leicester's fortunes fell further with the 1-2 defeat to Aston Villa discussed above.  Other big losers for the weekend include Southampton (0-1 defeat to West Ham) and Nottingham Forest (1-1 draw with Wolves, 1-2 loss to Leeds).  I guess it's fair to say there was some treading water too.  West Ham, Bournemouth and Leeds all got a win and a loss.  Wolves and Everton got draws.  The spread from 12th to 20th is still tight (7 points) and Crystal Palace (in 12th) are still just three points above the relegation zone.  And 15th through 18th all have 27 points.

Flip-flops in April?

In August, the 4/4 Chelsea - Liverpool fixture had to look mouthwatering.  No one would have expected it to be a mid-table snoozer.  Which it was.  Klopp tried to send a message by keeping some key players out of the starting XI (e.g. Salah); mostly what it did was make them toothless in the attack.  Chelsea on the other hand generated buckets of chances but couldn't put the ball in the net.  Well, they did one time. Havertz didn't strike the ball well, it hit Alisson, ricocheted back to Havertz and into the goal; but it didn't count as hit struck Havertz's arm.  The season in a nutshell for them.  Anyway, it ended 0-0 and Chelsea are 11th and Liverpool 8th.  

An Interesting Triple

Dennis notes that Everton's Michael Keane had an interesting day at the office on Monday.  In the first half, he cleared a certain goal off the line to keep the score 0-0.  Then, after Doucoure's incredibly stupid indiscretion (shoving Kane in the face), Keane fouled Romero in the box; Kane converted the PK.  To complete his "triple," Keane delivered this incredible strike in 90th minute to rescue a 1-1 draw.

The Year of the Sack (apologies to Al Stewart - whoa, check out the bell bottoms and 70s hair)

Two more managers have exited.  Whether they were technically sacked we can debate but they clearly were under pressure to leave.  Brendan Rodgers departed shortly after the last minute loss to Crystal Palace; there was no new manager bounce for the Foxes as they fell to Aston Villa.  Similarly, after losing to Aston Villa, Graham Potter exited Stamford Bridge.  Questionable as to whether there was a new manager bounce there as well; sure they got a draw with Liverpool but they looked in total disarray, almost comical in how they didn't capitalize on scoring chances.  For those keeping score at home, Rodgers and Potter are the 11th and 12th managers to be sacked.  Already working on the spreadsheet for "before and after" analysis of each change.

And just as I'm wrapping up here, I read that Frank Lampard has been hired as Chelsea's caretaker manager through the end of the season.  WTAF?  Is he going to be Chelsea's Billy Martin?

Union Struggle But Don't Lose

Without this foul from the Atlas keeper, 
the match would have ended 0-0

If that sounds less than awesome, that's because it is.  A 0-0 draw at home to Sporting KC is nothing to cheer about.  They came into the match with just two points in five matches and a goal differential of -5.  A clean sheet but xG was just .85 and they did not look like a team that knows how to score.

Tuesday's first leg of the CONCACAF quarterfinal vs Atlas was a touch better but not all that much.  Atlas handed the Union a gift with a first half stoppage time DOGSO.  But, despite being up a man for the second half, they couldn't score until Gazdag slipped a PK (barely as you can here) in at the 90th minute.  Taking a 1-0 lead to Mexico doesn't sound all that safe.  

And Again

Another action packed week.

Normally, we would be pointing you to the Liverpool-Arsenal match Sunday at 11:30 (Peacock).  It's still worth watching but we don't have it as the most interesting match of the weekend.  We're going with Tottenham - Brighton (Saturday 10 am Peacock).  They are 5th and 6th in the table and chasing spots for Europe; I'm not buying this but 538 has Brighton as slight favorites (41/36/23).  Plenty to look at in the relegation struggle.  Leicester - Bournemouth (Saturday 10 am Peacock) and Leeds Crystal Palace (Sunday at 9 am on USA) come to mind.  

Early birds can rise at 7:30 Saturday (USA) to see Man United -Everton.   With six matches at 10 on Saturday, we're going to miss something.  We are required to take in Brentford - Newcastle; this is no slam dunk for the Magpies.  We already mentioned Spurs - Brighton and Leicester -Bournemouth.  The TV choice is Wolves - Chelsea.  Plus there's West Ham - Fulham; that could be quite close (side note, Mitrovic got an eight game suspension for his actions in the FA Cup match vs Man United).  Wait, almost forgot Aston Villa - Nottingham Forest; we'd love to watch to see if Aston Villa continue their drive for Europe or Nottingham Forest continue their descent into the relegation zone but doesn't look like there's room.

The "feature" NBC Saturday 12:30 is Southampton - Man City.  Even at St. Mary's, this match is likely to simply increase Southampton's likelihood of being relegated.

Champions League and Europa League action returns mid-week.  On Tuesday favored Man City has the home leg of their quarter final tie with Bayern (arguably the second favorite in the competition).  Wednesday, Chelsea face Real Madrid on the road; that doesn't sound like the antidote for a struggling side.  Thursday sees Man United hosting Sevilla in the first leg of their Europa League quarterfinal.

Two matches for the Union as well.  Saturday night at 7:30 they are in Cincinnati.  The U are looking like serious underdogs for that one.  Then on Wednesday night at 10 pm they have the second leg with Atlas.

Whew...