No Points For Moral Victories

A lot of teams played well but got nothing for their efforts.

So much to get to and so little time.  You know what that means - mostly random observations of the week's action. Coverage a mile wide and an inch deep.

Ninth Place Says It All

Welbeck slips the ball past Pope for the game winner

The Magpies scoring drought from the run of play continued in their 0-1 loss to Brighton.  For those keeping track at home, that makes six hours and 44 minutes since the last non-PK goal.  Brighton are a decent side so a tough match was expected.  And Newcastle actually played pretty well in all aspects except for scoring.  But, to paraphase Jerry Seinfeld, that's really the most important part, the scoring. Isak was clearly rusty in his return after injury, though others were culpable as well.  Brighton, on the other hand, took advantage of their one big chance.  So, at the end of matchweek eight, they sit deservedly in ninth place.

Text Messages to Dennis That Could Have Happened and Did

Steve at 10:23 am: I expect to report in 10 minutes that Brighton have scored against the run of play.

Steve at 10:35 am: I was wrong.  It was 12 minutes.

 

I Made That Happen 

Here comes the Son; Hueng-min was part of the 
Spurs scoring outburst

Spurs were pushing West Ham all over the place but early in the second half they were still stuck at 1-1.  When Bissouma put them up in the 52nd minute, I texted Michael "blow out from here."  Sure enough, within eight minutes, the score was 4-1 and Spurs were fine from there.  Michael texted back "keep up the good work."

Relegation Six Pointers

Teams at the bottom of table have limited chances to pick up points so when they face one of their relegation rivals, it's a critical match regardless of whether it's August, October, May or whatever.  You simply don't have many matches to work with.  

Everton's 2-0 win over Ipswich gave the Toffees a five point cushion from the bottom three. Even bigger was Leicester's comeback against Southampton. Come May, we may look back on Southampton's collapse here as a key factor in their relegation.  Watching the highlights, this was probably the match of the week.  Never underestimate how compelling those relegation six pointers can be.  The Saints carried a 2-0 lead well into the second half but saw the deficit cut in half at 64 minutes.  The match then really turned at 73 minutes when Ryan Fraser was sent off for DOGSO (no sympathy from us as you could clearly see the shirt pull) and Vardy converted the PK.  The collapse was completed in the 98th minute when Jordan Ayew put in the corner from Harry Winks.  You can see the play here as this week's YouTubeableMoment.  Southampton stay winless, with one point, level with Wolves at the bottom of the table.  Yeah, that'll leave a mark.

No Points For Moral Victories

Speaking of Wolves, they were resolute at Molineux and looked to be ready to nick a point from Manchester City.  John Stones killed that notion with a last second header goal to seal a 2-1 win for City. Wolves argued that Silva was interfering from on offside position but that argument did not pass muster (correctly we think) with the VAR.  Yep, you played well against one of the league's best but it still counts for zero in the standings.

Interesting Result and Compelling Watch Are Not the Same Thing

I know there were several matches that we pooh-poohed as likely blowouts.  Wolves - Man City and Bournemouth - Arsenal come to mind.  I did see the former, which turned out to be a surprisingly close match as noted above.  Though the result hung in the balance, I can't say I was glued to the TV.  I didn't get to see the Bournemouth - Arsenal match in which the Gunners got their first defeat of the season.  Dennis told me not to be fooled by the 2-0 final in favor of the Cherries; yes, it was a surprise result but the game "was kinda boring."

This Week in Refereeing

The big call of the week was the DOGSO against Arsenal's William Saliba for fouling Bournemouth's Evanilson.  You can see the play here.  The call on the field by Rob Jones was just a yellow card for Saliba.  VAR Jarred Gillett sent him to the monitor and Jones changed his call.

We are less than convinced this was the right result, as it hinged on judgments (two separate ones actually) as to what constitutes "obvious."  The first O part of DOGSO - Obvious - looks at four factors:

• - distance between the offence and the goal

• - general direction of the play

• - likelihood of keeping or gaining control of the ball

• - location and number of defenders

Two and three look pretty good but does the distance between when Evanilson will likely gain control of the ball give Saliba (assuming he doesn't foul) or Ben White (the other defender in the picture time to intervene?  That is, are one and four obvious?  The second use of obvious comes in the overturning of the call.  It is supposed to be a clear and obvious error for the call on the field to be reversed.  Was that an obvious mistake?  Our conclusion is that we would have been fine with whatever the referee called on the field but not completely cool seeing Jones' initial call overturned. 

Draught excluders; even the kids are doing it now

On a personal note, while doing a U12 match, I saw one of the teams employ a draught excluder for a free kick about 25 yards from goal.  That was a first for me.  

The Ownest of Own Goals

The Union got some help from Charlotte, who beat DC United, but failed to do their part, falling to Cincinnati 2-1.  The winning goal came on an own goal off the foot of Jakob Glesnes. Seen here, this captures the season in a single moment.  I only saw the low lights but it was reliably reported to me that they really did not look like a side intent on making the playoffs.  They finish 12th out of 15th in the East.

In one sense, this team's fate was sealed when management decided to roll the dice one more time with basically the same side as the last few years.  That gamble was not helped by the mid-season departures of key components of the team like Carranza, Martinez and Lowe.  The Inquirer's Jonathan Tannenwald wrote a comprehensive obituary on the season, which you can read here (hopefully the Inquirer part isn't behind a paywall.)  We think he does a good job of laying out the key factors.  

On Top of the World (or at least the Champions League)

No baloney; Duran scores in Champions League too

After a convincing 2-0 win over Bologna, Aston Villa find themselves at the top of the Champions League table through three matchweeks.  Second place is Liverpool, who along with the Villans, are the only two undefeated and untied sides at this point.  Man City are third and Arsenal, hampered by a weak goal differential, are 9th despite two wins and a draw.  Five more match weeks to go but a good start for the EPL sides.

In Europa Cup, Tottenham remained perfect with a 1-0 win over AZ Alkmaar and sit second in the standings based on goal differential.  Man United could only manage a 1-1 draw with Fenerbache, their third straight in this competion and they languish in 21st right now.

And the EPL's seventh side in European competitions - Chelsea - dispatched Panathinaikos 4-1 to stay top of the European Conference League.

Turning the Clocks Back

If you're in England that is. 

Know how to tell a fixture is really important?  It's only on Peacock.  That is the case for Sunday's 12:30 contest between third place Arsenal and and league leader Liverpool.  Opta has this as a close one, with the Gunners slightly favored.  

There is a Friday afternoon fixture between Leicester and Nottingham Forest.  Eighth place Forest have just one loss against three wins and four (!) draws while Leicester have won their last two; sounds like a good enough reason to blow off work early and turn on USA at 3 pm.

No Saturday 7:30 match; that's a damn shame.  Four matches at 10 am.  The TV contest (USA) is Aston Villa - Bournemouth, which shouldn't be too difficult for the Villans unless they've been reading their press clippings and lose their focus.  Still, it may be the best of the lot.  Man City hosting Southampton, Wolves at Brighton and Brentford - Ipswich don't sound all that appealing.  The feature 12:30 on NBC however should be good with Everton hosting Fulham.  The Toffees have rebounded from a horrible start with two wins and two draws in their last four while Fulham have not been an easy opponent.

Three matches on Sunday at 10 to warm us up for the big one, except they all reek of mismatches.  USA gives us Chelsea - Newcastle; eesh, off of recent form this feels like a blowout for Chelsea, especially at Stamford Bridge.  Crystal Palace hosting Spurs isn't any better.  The neutrals may do best to go with West Ham - Man United; the Hammers are slight underdogs which sounds about right since the match is in London and Man United haven't really been overwhelming anybody this year.

No European action mid-week.

I was going to ignore the MLS playoffs assuming that everything was going to be double paywalled but maybe they are getting smarter.  Every playoff match is either FS1 and/or "free" Apple. The full bracket can be found here.  Oh wait, they still have the dumbass best of three format in the first round.  Recall that this format requires a penalty shootout for any first round match that ends is a draw.  Lots of product for the Apple Overlords.  Why yes, I am cynical about a soccer playoff system that puts 18 of 30 teams into the playoffs, then does a best of three in the first round.  Might be the only action mid-week so there's a chance I'll watch anyway