Players whining. Managers ranting. Announcers complaining. So much nonsense about refereeing for one weekend. VAR did this. VAR didn't do that. What's a blogger to do? By Monday evening, the announcer and pundits were claiming that COVID started in the VAR facilities at Stockley Park. I kid but barely. We'll try to unpack it with a minimum of ranting from me but no guarantees.
Magpies Undo Arsenal
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| The goal that launched a thousand rants IMAGO/Sportimage/Nigel Roddis |
And then there was the goal. You can see it here as this week's YouTubeableMoment. It's a long one because the VAR review took four minutes. During that review they checked whether the ball had crossed the end line, whether Joelinton had fouled Gabriel and whether Gordon was offside. The answers were eventually no, maybe but it's not an obvious error and there's no way we can know. So under the rules of the game, the goal stood and the final was 1-0.
The win was an unexpected three points but it came with some negatives. Dan Burn and Jacob Murphy picked up injuries to add to the long list already out. And there is Guimaraes's increasingly concerning behavior. He did pick up his 5th yellow (ironically on a play where he arguably did little or nothing wrong) and will serve a one-game suspension. But the bigger issue is stuff like the arm to the head of Jorginho. He puts the team in jeopardy with actions like that and Newcastle were lucky not to have spent a big part of that game a man down.
Afterwards, Mikel Arteta was surprisingly gracious in his comments about the referees:
At some point as well we need to give support and understand that mistakes happen. We’ve made mistakes as well and if the pressure is so much then it’s very difficult to manage."
Oh wait, that was Arteta after VAR mix-up in the Liverpool - Tottenham match a few weeks ago. Arteta's comments after Saturday's match were:
Praising my players for the way we played, we didn't deserve to lose the match playing in their ground and we lose because of clear and obvious decisions. It is embarrassing, it is a disgrace, that's what it is, a disgrace.
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| Conclusive proof that ball was out? Only if you don't know the rule about the ball being completely over the line... and parallax error (see photo below right) |
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| Close, but not out. In other words, they got it right. |
As for the offside, there was no video - none - to show conclusively whether Gordon was off. Maybe he was, maybe he wasn't. But declaring it was obvious that he was offside is putting you in close company with 2020 election deniers. As to the foul, that's highly subjective. The fact that many pundits argued that it wasn't sugguests there was no clear and obvious error.
Also try this thought experiment. Imagine that this was Arsenal's goal to level the match at 1-1 and it was ruled out by VAR for any of the reasons Arteta claimed were obvious. Cue the exploding head.
Nice to see many publications call Arteta out on his rant. I liked this one from ESPN:
It was a remarkable reaction and completely removed from the reality of the situation. You could understand Liverpool's anger when Luiz Diaz's goal wasn't allowed against Tottenham, but this isn't remotely close to that. It's a series of situations that are fully explainable. There's no smoking gun over a VAR error. Arsenal's reaction was over the top and unnecessary, creating added pressure when unwarranted.
The five-person panel that reviews these things voted 4-1 in favor of Atwell's decision not to change his on field calls on the goal. Note however that the panel voted unaminously that Havertz should have been shown red for his challenge on Longstaff and 3-2 that Guimaraes should have gotten a red card for his elbow on Jorginho. Details can be had here. For the record, I was okay with Havertz getting yellow and the Newcastle players getting yellows too. Didn't see much physical gesturing but if Atwell told them enough and they kept yapping, the yellows are justified. I was leaning towards a red for Guimaraes. I feel like VAR can be a big help on these off the ball, behind the play incidents and I'd be fine if referees were really tough on those calls. Players do respond to how the games are officiated (how often have you seen a player wave the imaginary yellow card lately?) so if they get the message that there's a crackdown on this type of shithousery, we might see less of it.
Not Always Good To Be King
Four of the five top sides dropped points over the weekend, with only Man City getting a win (6-1 over Bournemouth - yawn). We already discussed Arsenal. On Sunday Aston Villa put up a real clunker against Nottingham Forest, falling 2-0 on the road. I remember not being too worried when the Villans gave up a goal at five minutes but becoming increasingly concerned as the match dragged on. A second goal to start the second half didn't help. Reviewing my conversation with Dennis during the match, the single word text "Embarrassing" from him likely says it best.
Then we had Liverpool at Kenilworth Road, the home of Luton Town. The announcer said it had "the feel of a 3rd Round FA Cup in January." Translating that, he's saying we've got a lower tier team facing one of the top teams and the underdog home fans are cheering wildly like they have a chance. In other words, he was basically insulting Luton Town. They almost had the last laugh and definitely got the next-to-last chuckle. After holding Liverpool scoreless for most of the match, Luton Town grabbed a 1-0 lead in the 80th minute. They were denied the win by a Luis Diaz goal in the 5th of eight stoppage time minutes. Still the point against Liverpool had to be satisfying
Tottenham's run as the last undefeated side ended on Monday. Kulusevski got Spurs up quickly but things went south pretty much after that. This was curious stuff no doubt. Udogie got a yellow for an "orange" card challenge on Sterling. Chelsea had a goal ruled out only to have it replaced with a penalty kick for a straight red on Romero in the box. That could have been his second red as earlier he had petulantly kicked out at Colwill but somehow escaped sanction. That made it hard to have much sympathy as to whether this challenge was red or not.
So Chelsea level the match with the PK and now have a man advantage. Which they proceeded to do not much with. Spurs tried to make it even easier as Udogie (whoa doggie?) got his second yellow at 55 minutes. Still no response from Chelsea. Finally in the 75th minute, Nicholas Jackson at last got one of his shots on target and put the Blues up. Amazingly the Spurs responded and looked to have leveled it with Dier's goal a few minutes later but that was ruled offside. Chelsea added two in stoppage time to post a 4-1 final that is completely flattering to them. Other fun items for Spurs were that Van de Ver and Maddison both had to leave with injuries.
Oh, and we had John Champion whining for most of the game about VAR, noting at one point "all we've come for is a decent game of football." His concluding remarks referenced something like "a VAR-scarred match." I've always liked Champion but not if he's going to whine like this. You know that without VAR, Champion would be the first to highlight the controversial nature of a play if there was a hint of uncertainty. You're talking out of both sides of your mouth John. As Dennis put it "they act like they want to go back to the days when you could get away with anything."
That said, I wouldn't mind if the ARs were told that they can raise the flag right away if there's space between the attacker and the last defender. Dennis is willing to go with half a yard as being far enough offside. The point is, these guys are pretty good - how often do you see false positives? - so the definition of what's close can probably be narrowed.
The Manager Who Cried Wolves
If there's anybody who maybe has some legitimate bones to pick with the refereeing this year, it's Wolves manager Gary O' Neil. Thus far, three referees who made controversial decisions in Wolves' matches have been "dropped" from Premier League assignments the following week. In week 1 Simon Hooper didn't call a PK against Man United and refereed a Championship Division game the following week. In week 6 Josh Smith made a questionable handling call in favor of Luton Town and found himself doing lower level games since. Two weeks ago we noted that Anthony Taylor's call in the box on Hwang might have been soft. Howard Webb thought so and gave Taylor a week in the Championship Division.
It was deja vu all over again on Saturday as Robert Jones (with no apparent dissent from VAR Chris Kavanagh) decided to award Sheffield United a PK for this play in the 10th minute of stoppage time. That looks softer than the foul called on Hwang last week. The PK was converted and Sheffield United got all three points with a 2-1 win. As of publication, Jones is set to be the 4th official for West Ham - Nottingham Forest while Kavanagh will be in the center for Bournemouth - Newcastle.
Around the League
Man United's last second 1-0 win over Fulham probably didn't do a whole lot for ten Hag's long term prospects. On the other hand, a 0-0 draw would have been worse. Everton got another point with a 1-1 draw at home to Brighton. Burnley's struggles continue as they dropped another one, 0-2 this time to Crystal Palace. The match to watch was probably Brentford's see-saw 3-2 win over West Ham.
After 11 weeks, Man City has worked their way back to the top, with Tottenham, Liverpool and Arsenal close behind. The biggest gap right now is the five point spread between 16th and 17th. Everton have slowly forged this gap, leaving Luton Town, Bournemouth, Burnley and Sheffield United all tightly packed in the bottom four spots.
Europe Stuff
Newcastle weren't awful in a 2-0 loss to Dortmund away. Well, not in the second half anyway. After a moribund first half, they did manage a few scoring chances after the break. The starting XI included Livramento, a fullback, as right forward, such is the depth of injuries right now. AC Milan's win over PSG does mean the group is still up for grabs but with a depleted squad, I"m not seeing Newcastle take advantage of that.
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| Yeah I know it's a freeze frame but that's not a good look |
More Ugly
The pitch at our "favorite" venue - Gillette Stadium - was not looking as white as the last time the Union played there and you had to look real hard to see the NFL lines. You also had to look hard for some attractive football. The U were clearly caught on the back foot for the opening 20 minutes or so but then managed to make things a bit more even. They got a big break when Kaye stomped on Gazdag's chest to earn himself a red card just before half time. Didn't seem to give the U much of an advantage and it felt like New England were as, or even more, likely to score. A set piece late from McGlynn to Donovan in the 79th minute broke the deadlock. You can see that goal here. That would be it for the scoring.
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| McGlynn: Creating chances |
Not the greatest of games but when you break some things down there were some positives. They were without Glesnes (injury), Carranza (injury) and Wagner (three game suspension for racial slur at Bobby Wood in the first game) but got solid performances from Lowe, Sullivan and Harriel to cover. And Jack McGlynn played one of his best matches this season.
And so it's on to the conference semi-final against Cincinnati sometime after Thanksgiving? WTF? MLS goofball playoffs are only part of the problem; there's an international break that takes the weekend of 11/18-19 off the table.
A Break?
Well, sort of. There's a full slate of EPL matches crammed into Saturday and Sunday. On paper, not looking like a set of highly competitive fixtures. Hmm, no derbies for the first time in awhile as well.
Back to the old 7:30 start with Wolves hosting Spurs on USA. Figure Tottenham bounces back here. Three choices at 10. I'm going with what should be a highly competitive contest between Crystal Palace and Everton. TV chose Man United vs Luton Town; figure ten Hag still on the hot seat so they must win. Or you can go with Arsenal - Burnley, which also doesn't look too close. We finish Saturday with Newcastle remaining in the limelight, getting the 12:30 NBC feature match as they travel to Bournemouth. They'll be depleted - even more so without Guimaraes - but they are still solid favorites.
We have that Sunday 9 am logjam again, with four to choose from. No choice for us as Aston Villa is hosting Fulham; we actually recommend that one to the neutral as well because it looks like the most competitive. TV went with West Ham - Nottingham Forest. Brighton - Sheffield United or Liverpool - Brentford are the other two choices. The matchweek concludes at 11:30 with what we would usually expect to be a decent match up between Chelsea and Man City. Maybe not so much any more. Even at Stamford Bridge, Opta has City at 50% to win and 27% to draw.
Three MLS matches to wrap up the first round, one each day, all on MLS Season Pass. Friday is Seattle - Dallas, Saturday has Houston - Real Salt Lake and Sunday is Columbus - Atlanta. So far just one favorite (St. Louis) has gone down but these last matches offer three more chances for upsets.
Euro qualifiers starting Wednesday and running through Monday. A quick check on FS1 and FS2 shows some interesting matches will be available on TV.
Yeah, I know I missed a lot of stuff. Ranting takes up a lot of space.
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