Mans Down

Mostly overwhelmed by the volume of results, which means I resort to my trusty stand-by of random observations from the two matchweeks.

Manchester Parlay

Newcastle and Aston Villa had matching 1-0 wins over the Manchester franchises.  In both cases, the final scores flattered the losers.  In their win over Man United, Newcastle outshot them 22/8, shots on target were 4/1 and xG was 2.90/.42.  United really only threatened in the final 10 minutes.  The replacements - Livramento, Lascelles and Miley - continue to impress.  The downside was that Nick Pope separated his shoulder late in the match and will likely miss about four months after having surgery.

Aston Villa were possibly more dominating.  They outshot City 22/2, with shots on target 7/2 and expected goals 2.19/1.  I do remember a big save Martinez so City did threaten at least once but Villa hit the post once and had several other good chances as well.   They were simply the better side.

We'll gloss over that neither won their other match this week.  A clutch header from Ollie Watkins in the 90th minute allowed Villa to sneak out of Bournemouth with a 2-2 draw.  Newcastle were nowhere near that fortunate in a 3-0 loss to Everton at Goodison Park.  Neither side played very well but the Toffees displayed more passion in their play and the win was totally deserved.

Conversation That Could Have Taken Place and Did

Steve (after Nick Pope picks up separated shoulder like teammate Jacob Murphy): How many teams have two players out with separated shoulders?

Dennis: How many have one?

McNeil Leads Everton Out of the Drop Zone

Everton are not taking their point deduction lying down, on or off the field.  Their appeal has been filed and they've won two matches in a row.  Dwight McNeil was key in both.  Here is his laser from the left side of the box that was the difference in the 1-0 win over Nottingham Forest.  He followed it up with this rocket to put Everton up 1-0 late against Newcastle.  Yes, they added two more but his blast was the killer that sent them on their way.  

The only other sides to win both games this were were Arsenal and Liverpool, though perhaps not as easily as we predicted.  The Gunners underwhelmed in a 2-1 win over Wolves, then needed a 97th minute header from Declan Rice to snatch a 4-3 win against Luton Town.  Reluctantly, we make Rice's goal this week's YouTubeableMoment.  Similarly, Liverpool needed an 88th minute goal from Trent Alexander-Arnold to complete a last minute comeback against Fulham.  You can see the strike here.  They followed up with a workmanlike 2-0 win over relegation fodder Sheffield United.  As expected, Arsenal and Liverpool stay 1-2 in the table.

Heck of A Game Plan

I wish I could have been in the Burnley dressing room to hear Vincent Kompany lay out the strategy for their relegation contest with Sheffield United.  "Okay guys, here's what we do.  First, score in the opening 13 seconds.  Then get a second one quickly,  Then get one of the Sheffield United defenders sent off just before half time."

Though it ruined what we had expected to be a tight match, it certainly worked out okay for Burnley as they cruised to a 5-0 win and lifted themselves out of the basement.  I don't know if he tried the same speech on Wednesday but they went down 0-1 to Wolves.  

The game winner in that match came from Hwang Hee-chan.  Don't look now but he's tied for fourth on the scoring table: 

1. Erling Haaland, Manchester City — 14
2. Mohamed Salah, Liverpool — 10
3. Heung-min Son, Tottenham — 9
4. Jarrod Bowen, West Ham United — 9
5. Ollie Watkins, Aston Villa — 8
6. Hee-chan Hwang, Wolverhampton Wanderers — 8

Mr. Haaland's O-fer (apologies to Richard Dreyfus)

Haaland erupted but not with goals

After being held scoreless in consecutive matches, Erling Haaland saw his Premier League goals per game sink to 1.00.  He's now at 50 goals in 50 matches.  He did find time to lose his sh get excited near the end of the 3-3 draw with Spurs when Simon Hooper blew the whistle for a foul rather than playing advantage.  Though Grealish was surrounded by three Spurs defenders, it looked like he might have had a breakaway on goal for a potential last minute game winner (which would have been crushing for Spurs, who had just leveled the match with a Kulusevski header).  From Hooper's perspective, he might have thought the pass wasn't going to be anything special so he whistled the play dead to give City the free kick.  Possibly the best play would have been for Hooper to wait a few more seconds; however, if he did so and the pass was the bust, he would not have been able to bring the play back for a free kick.  He probably would have gotten crap if that had happened too.  Also, it's possible that Spurs held up when the whistle blew, making it look more like an advantage than it really was.  Hard to say.

What is not hard to say is that Haaland blew his top.  Aside from getting in Hooper's face on the pitch, he later posted a short and sweet "Wtf" on social media.  So far, it looks like he will not face any sanctions, though the club may for the collective actions of the players swarming Hooper.  Guardiola, while making it clear that he did not agree with the call, was more measured, delivering a new quotable quote we might use going forward:

When asked about the incident, he said: "Next question. I will not do a Mikel Arteta comment."

Did You Know?

A couple of refereeing points from the weekend.  First, the ball is dead not when the referee blows the whistle for a foul but when he makes the decision that it is a foul.  Late in the Chelsea - Brighton match, Anthony Taylor called handling against a Chelsea defender in the box; the ball bounced off the player and rolled over the goal line before Taylor blew his whistle.  The handling call was overturned after the VAR sent Taylor to the monitor.  The restart was a dropped ball for the Chelsea keeper, not a corner for Brighton.  The announcers (and ESPN referee review) mistakenly thought this was a mistake.  But, the ball is dead when Taylor decides it's a hand ball, not when he blows his whistle.  So the restart is a dropped ball.

Which leads to the second point.  When play is stopped with the ball in the penalty area, the restart is a dropped ball for the keeper, regardless of why play was stopped.  That leads to the crummy potential scenario in which the attacker takes a shot, it hits the referee inside the box and goes into the goal.  Not only is it not a goal, it's a dropped ball for the defense.  That would piss me off but it is the law.  Put together with the previous point and you have the reason it was a dropped ball for Chelsea's keeper.

Let My People Watch

By every account, the Cincinnati - Columbus Eastern Conference Final was one for the books.  Too bad it was behind a paywall so none of us saw it.  Cincy held a 2-0 lead through 75 minutes only to see Columbus grab two goals (the second at 86 minutes) to get the match to extra time.  Columbus got the game winner in the 115th minute so it didn't have to go to kicks from the spot.  The other conference final didn't sound quite as exciting though it was close most of the way, with LAFC grabbing a 2-0 over Houston.

The good news if you're interested is that you will be able to watch the Columbus - LAFC final at 4 on Saturday on Fox or "free" Apple.  

Note that once again, the club with the best regular season record will not win the MLS Cup.   It's only happened in 8 of the league's 23 seasons and only twice since 2011.  

Another Solid Week

BFS sides again offer the big matches for the weekend.  Aston Villa host Arsenal at 12:30 on Saturday in NBC's feature match of the week.  On Sunday at 11:30, Newcastle will take on Spurs at St. James' Park on USA.

Saturday early birds can go for Crystal Palace - Liverpool at 7:30 on USA.  Crowded again at 10 am with no obvious choice.  TV went with Brighton - Burnley.  Bournemouth have been pesky lately so we might check them out against Man United.  Or you could go with Wolves - Nottingham Forest or Sheffield United - Brentford.

You also have choices Sunday at 9 am.  Probably skip Luton Town - Man City in favor of a London Derby (Fulham vs West Ham) or Everton hosting Chelsea.  Actually, given how ferocious the Toffees have been lately, that match with struggling Chelsea could be interesting.

Last of the group stage matches in the three European competitions.  Newcastle must beat AC Milan and hope that PSG don't beat Dortmund.  The good news is that a Magpie win and PSG draw is enough to advance given that Newcastle was better head-to-head against the French side.  That match is 3 pm on Wednesday.  Man United's prospects are even more daunting.  They must beat Bayern on Tuesday (3 pm) and hope for a draw between Galatasaray and FC Copenhagen.  Man City and Arsenal have already clinched first in their groups.

In Europa Conference League action on Thursday, Aston Villa can clinch first with a win or draw over Zrinski.  They could also win the group with a loss provided Warsaw does erase the Villans' goal differential advantage.

In Europa League, all the EPL sides will move to the knockout rounds.  West Ham face SC Freiberg needing a win or draw to clinch first.  Brighton play Marseille and must beat them to get first in the group.  Liverpool have already clinched first.

Heads up.  You get Monday off then it's six straight days, another Monday off, then games every day until Christmas.  Almost as good as an Advent Calendar.