🤖 Robot referees in the Prem?
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My patience with refereeing discourse is waning, waning … waned. In an effort then to not ruin my Tuesday, and despite the title, I’m going to try and focus on snappy and succinct, VAR-avoidant (aVARdant?) content. New features in this week’s article too, so let’s get into it.
Game of the Weekend 🙌
Tottenham Hotspur vs Liverpool
Curtis Jones’ early red card threatened to ruin a competitive contest. Two in-form teams, head to head immediately after City’s first loss of the season, I was surprisingly engaged even after the Pool went down to 10 men.
Liverpool, for my money, deserved a point. They took (two) chances incredibly well, Spurs didn’t have answers to the rarely seen 5-3-0 defensive block and Alisson pulled out some blinding saves to keep the contest 1-1. I’ve got real sympathy for Matip in the own goal too, as he could hardly leave a ball fizzing across the six yard box in the 96th minute.
There was a lot of quality football on display in this match, despite all attention focussing on the external factors. In the cosmic scheme of things, it’s also unlikely that this have a prolonged impact on either team. Both, at this rate, will qualify for top four, and all will be forgotten. It’s within our gift to instead focus on positive evolution of both sides, so let’s do just that.
Tactical trends 📊
Not so (Aston) Vanilla
Get out the kitchen, Emery’s COOKING in there. Six goals past the neutral’s favourite™, Ollie Watkins on flames and the Spaniard proving once again why he’s an elite manager. They had a game plan to overwhelm Brighton before they could be hit in transition, and it worked perfectly.
But as good as Villa were, Brighton, outmuscled and outmanoeuvred, refused to adapt. They conceded as many goals in the second half as the first despite three half-time substitutions, which may suggest a level of tactical naivety. Brighton haven’t kept a clean sheet all season, in any competition.
I think in a situation where the game is out of sight by half-time, and in the midst of a congested fixture schedule, some practicality should prevail, right? An attacking mindset is admirable, but if there’s an unwillingness from Roberto De Zerbi to defensively adapt, the Seagulls will become unnecessarily accustomed to picking the ball out their own net.
City making a Rod(ri) for their own back
They can lose! Dare I say, great news for everyone. The proverbial carrot being dangled to us that there’ll actually be a title race this year ... tantalising.
A whole lot of that might be the absence of Rodri. Mateo Kovacic is great talent, but even in Pep’s new, evolving system, Rodri is a constant. Fernandinho took years to pass over the gauntlet to Busquets Jr. – perhaps then it’s unsurprising that the stand-in didn’t perform to the godly levels we’ve come to expect.
City’s balance has been off this season, and with Rodri’s (admittedly short-term) absence further upsetting that delicate equilibrium, the chasing pack will surely use this as confidence fuel going forward. Wolves can win, so we can too?
A final oof for Matheus Nunes. What a homecoming - hooked after 45 minutes, unable to make an impact and losing to the club he was so publicly despairing to leave. At least I called it, and I guess it’s nice to know you’re in your nadir at the time? I just bet he wished it wasn’t on the away bench at Molineux.
All that being said, I have no doubt they’ll still pump Arsenal on Sunday. Let’s go 3-1 final score.
🚨 New section! Did both Manchester United and Chelsea win this week?
Two juggernauts of the division. Billions spent. You’d expect them to both win more games than not, right? Well this week:
🥳 NO 🥳
Manchester United lost to Crystal Palace.
Season tally: Yes 1 - 6 No.
(This genuinely baffled me when I worked it out – take a guess for the end of season score in the comments, I’ll give the closest guess a fiver in May).
Player of the Week 🎖
An incredibly straight-forward decision. What else can you say? A brilliant performance by a great player. England can count themselves lucky that there’s another pretty complete striker. He can finish, pick a great pass and press for, well, England. Short and sweet – what a return from Villa’s centre forward.
A personal bugbear, though – Garth Crooks writes a Team of the Week for BBC Sport, and I’ve long thought it’s a pretty lazy attempt at analysis. Take last week, where he picked Phil Foden in his squad and then wrote two-thirds of his explanation about Rodri’s red card. I’ll just include a quote from this week about Mr. Watkins:
“I don't know if Watkins plays the lottery but I suggest he buys a ticket this week, because the way his luck is going anything is possible.”
A baffling hot-take, dude’s just scored a hat-trick and has 7 goal involvements in 7 league games (same as Salah, by the way). #CrooksOut.
I’ve been writing these for a month now, and that time has FLOWN. Most of all, I’ve really enjoyed sharing some thoughts and shaping ideas on (virtual) paper, so thanks for your continued support!
The Cricket World Cup starts this week, so if there’s time I’ll try and pick up some stories on that. In the meantime, here’s an Everton inspired Haiku:
Dyche-ball supposes
Defensive solidity.
Luton (yes, them): "Nope".Catch you later x
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