Results Over Performance Only Works So Many Times

Newcastle's mantra had been we may not be pretty but we get results.  Yeah, how'd that work out this week?  Other BFS sides fared much better.

Loaf A Half

For the second straight week, Newcastle sleepwalked through the opening 45 minutes.  This time - against Fulham -  it cost them an 0-2 halftime deficit.  Barnes got one back right after the break but the Magpies never found the equalizer and a stoppage time goal made the final 1-3.  Newcastle could have no complaints about the scoreline.  

Gordon thinking "damn we're not as good at we thought"
Getty Images

Multiple sets of fingerprints were found at the crime scene.  Joelinton's give away and tepid response set up the first goal.  Schar probably could have closed Jiminez down better on that first goal plus he missed a golden opportunity to level things in the second half.  Nick Pope should have stopped Fulham's second goal.  Anthony Gordon displayed incredibly poor body language every time things did not work out as he wanted, which was often.  Bruno Guimaraes put the ball on a platter for the third goal; ironically this came after a morning reffing U12 games and listening to coaches plead with their kids not to clear the ball to the middle.  

This match exposed Newcastle as the team I thought they were - a side with talent but also some holes and a penchant for inconsistency.  Generously, we will call them a work in progress.

Talking Points Good and Bad

Much to digest from the 2-2 draw between Man City and Arsenal.  The quick takeaway is that City rescued the point with a 98th minute goal from John Stones against a 10-man Arsenal side.  But a lot of water had passed under the bridge before that moment.  Haaland put City up early with his 100th goal for the club, in just 105 appearances.  Calafiori leveled it shortly thereafter with a beautiful shot but the goal was not without controversy.  With play stopped for an Arsenal free kick, Michael Oliver called Kyle Walker, as team captain, over to discuss something.  As Walker started to retreat back to a logical defensive position, Partey quickly took the kick to Martinelli who passed to Calafiori who deposited it in the back of the net. Not to take anything away from the strike, which you can see here, Man City protested vigorously that Oliver should not have allowed the kick to be taken so quickly.  For my money, they have a point; once Oliver has called Walker over, this has to be what they call a "ceremonial" restart (i.e. you can't take the kick until the ref blows the whistle).  On the other hand, Walker would have gotten back faster if he hadn't raised his arm to complain (for offside - which it wasn't - or for the quick kick); also, he was essentially in position to defend against Martinelli's pass.  As we found out earlier this year, VAR cannot intervene on restarts.

Arsenal took the lead late in the first half but that goal had some controversy as well; was Ederson fouled on the play or was he simply out-positioned by Arsenal attackers?  I saw it as the latter and so did VAR.  But we weren't done with first half talking points.  As the half wound down, Trossard (already on a yellow) barged into the back of Silva.  Oliver quickly whistled for the foul (which it was) and almost immediately showed Trossard a second yellow, then the requisite red.  The timing led us to believe the card was for a reckless challenge, which looked like a harsh decision, but we were later told it was for delay of game for kicking the ball away.  There was some question as to whether the story changed to make the call more palatable.  Gooner fans see it as a continuation of the league conspiracy against them.  There is some question about the consistency with which this yellow for delay of game is being displayed but my advice to the players is stop doing it and you won't get called.

The sending off did ruin the second half, as Arsenal could do little but bunker in.  They did defend gamely but Stones got the late equalizer for City.  But the "fun" was still not over.  As seen here, Haaland took the ball out of the net and "threw" it at the back of Gabriel's head.  Very classy.  He appears to have escaped any punishment as the VAR was probably reluctant to conclude that it was thrown with excessive force and by rule couldn't intervene to suggest Oliver show him a yellow card.  Still a dick move.  

For me, a draw between the light blue fascists and the red fascists was okay.

Meanwhile...

Random observations on the other results.

- As we suggested, Man United found that Crystal Palace at home is no walk in the (Selhurst) park.  Maybe they deserved better but all they got was a 0-0 draw.

- Everton are no longer pointless after a 1-1 draw at Leicester.  Also, looks like there is an agreement to transfer ownership to the Friedkin Group.  That could be bad news for Sean Dyche.

- Undefeated sides Brighton and Nottingham Forest remain unbeaten after a riveting, back-and-forth 2-2 draw.

- Aston Villa are quietly cementing their position as a top four side; this week they calmly recovered from a 0-1 deficit with a second half comeback 3-1 win.  Watkins and Duran were on the scoresheet again, both assisted by Rogers.

This Week in Refereeing - Even Jesus Was Shown A Yellow Card

By my count, the EPL broke last week's record total of yellow cards (not counting coaches), ending up with 66 this week.  Notably, Anthony Taylor was not the referee for any of the matches and Newcastle didn't get any yellows - the only team to escape with none this weekend.  I have not seen any articles on this, which may be partly due to how the EPL seems to count cards.  There were two players sent off for second yellows this weekend and it appears that those show in the stats as two red cards but no yellows.  That would lower the count to 62, which still seems noteworthy to me as it would have broken the old record.  

Apparently attempted murder only gets you a yellow
Martinez flies in on Kamada (photo: BBC)

We already highlighted Michael Oliver's fun day at The Etihad.  Note that the Key Match Incident
(KMI) panel agreed with the call on Trossard, though not unanimously.   Lisandro Martinez somehow escaped a red card for a full-blooded, two-footed challenge on Palace's Kamada.  I couldn't find a good video but the picture gives you some idea how ridiculous it was.  Martinez was given a yellow.  The KMI unaminously backed the referee and the VAR on this one.  For me, this is in the same category as why is the punishment different for murder and attempted murder; intent is the same, it's just that in the latter case you failed.  

I don't remember specific cases but both Dennis and I noticed that the supposed higher threshold for VAR interventions is resulting in fewer overturned calls.  As Dennis put it "now we can get back to our roots of just criticizing the center ref."

Always One Game Away From A Crisis

That was the announcer's assessment of Man United as they faced FC Twente in their Europa Cup opener.  I think it's more accurately always one goal away from a crisis.  Despite pushing the visitors all over the pitch, the Red Devils were unable to add to their early 1-0 lead.  Eventually they paid for it as Twente got the equalizer at 68 minutes.  Man United did have some good chances in closing but never got the game winner.  Fortunately for them, the new format which mirrors the Champions League approach is probably more forgiving of a misstep like this in the opener. 

Tottenham on the other hand made lemonade out of lemons.  As explained here, the requirement that there be eight home grown players on the roster meant that Spurs could only name 23 players and had to leave Reguilon and Spence out.  Then, Ragu Dragusin got himself sent off for DOGSO in the 7th minute.  None of this seemed to rattle Spurs, who calmly went out and beat the Azerbaijan club Qarabag FK 3-0.  

Conversation That Could Have Taken Place and Did

Steve (late in the Man United - Twente match level at 1-1):  Here's my hierarchy for the result

    1) Twente win on a Maguire mistake

    2) Twente win

    3) Twente draw

    4) Twente lose but Fernandes is not the goal scorer

Dennis: This late in the match, probably can't have 2) without 1)

Apologies to Jeff H.

Still Too Early To Caraboa It

This week was the third round and people might notice that I didn't even mention it in last week's post.  Newcastle did not play because the pitch at AFC Wimbledon was basically ruined; they will play next week.  Several EPL squads crashed out in this round, though mostly they lost to other EPL sides.  Fulham lost 15-16 on PKs to Preston while Everton (Southampton), Wolves (Brighton) and West Ham (Liverpool) also bailed out.  Round of 16 matches are all on Tuesday October 29.  

Head Above Water

Sullivan's two assists give him 10 for the year
Caean Couto-Imagn Images

Weeks of treading water paid off as the Union's dominating 4-0 win over DC United finally put them back in a playoff position.  This was pretty much a total beat-down and the score fully reflects what happened on the pitch (i.e. not like the luckier win over NYCFC).  A quick double from Uhre (whose scoring form is improving) and Gazdag had Philly up 2-0 by 16 minutes.  Baribo (yeah, him again) made the margin 3-0 early in the second half.  Check out the work of Quinn Sullivan to set up the goal and Baribo's textbook header form in this week's YouTubeableMoment; this might have been Sullivan's best game as he was a constant offensive threat and deservedly came away with two assists.

The good news is that the U now hold the last playoff spot but the bad news is how tenuous that hold is.  There are four teams below them within three points.  The remaining schedule has pluses and minuses.  We finish with Atlanta, Orlando, Columbus and Cincinnati so that's not great.  But at least the chase pack has some matches among themselves so there will be dropped points along the way.  

Don't Blink

The next week is a veritable blizzard of action, with a full slate of EPL and MLS matches over the weekend, an extra full MLS match week on Wednesday, Champions League on Tuesday/Wednesday, Europa Cup on Thursday and Europa Conference League on Wednesday and Thurday.  

Ominously, the whole thing kicks off at 7:30 Saturday morning with Newcastle hosting Man City on USA.  Not counting a League Cup win, you have to go back to Jnauary 2019 to find the last Magpie win over the Citizens.  I can find no reason to think this time will be different; I'm surprised Opta has it at only 56% for City.

There are five choices at 10 am.  The USA option is a London derby between Brentford and West Ham, which might be decent.  I'd go with Everton - Crystal Palace as the most competitive, though Nottingham Forest - Fulham will likely be pretty good too.  Arsenal - Leicester looks like a blowout and Chelsea look poised to pin a first defeat on Brighton. The 12:30 feature match (on USA as NBC goes for President's Cup golf over soccer) doesn't look all that great either with Wolves hosting Liverpool

Two games on Sunday, both on USA.  At 9 we have Ipswich - Aston Villa; Opta has Villa at 49% for the win - a little lower than I expected - so they're saying there's still a chance for the Tractor Boys.  Looking forward to the second match at 11:30 with Man United playing Tottenham at Old Trafford.  United are a slight favorite at Opta but I think Spurs will be tough opponent.  To make sure we don't have a day off, there's a Monday match with Bournemouth - Southampton; that's 3 pm on USA.

We will be at Subaru Park Saturday night (on TV behind double Apple pay wall) for the critical Union match against Atlanta. Like last week, I tried to frame this as must-not-lose but it's really must-win, given the three games after this.  Montreal and Nashville have easier contests against San Jose and New England respectively.  Not so much for DC United as they must face Columbus.  Eighth place Toronto get Chicago.

The Wednesday slate is a mixed bag as well.  The Union have a tough away match against Orlando.  The chase pack has to play each other with Atlanta facing Montreal and Nashville hosting DC United.

Busy mid-week in Europe.  EPL participants in the Champions League include Man City at Slovan Bratislava, Arsenal hosting PSG onTuesday,  Aston Villa entertaining Bayern on Wednesday and Liverpool vs Bologna at Anfield on Wednesday.  The Europa Cup action on Thursday includes Spurs at Ferencvaros and Man United at Porto. The Europa Conference League participant is Chelsea, who host Ghent on Thursday.

This is seriously going to test my stamina.