Morning all.
Oh how I cannot wait for the blue skies and sunshine to return. The temperature is irrelevant, I just wish it would stop raining. I’m sure we all do.
Football is a funny old game. When the fixtures come think and fast, I/we moan but when they don’t, I miss it. That’s a good sign though, because I’m pretty sure if Arsenal Football Club was still in the mess in was a few years ago, watching them play would be painful. These days though, it’s not so bad is it? Lol
There a full Premier League fixture list this week and two managers are under pressure to keep their job. Thomas Frank and Eddie Howe. Spookily, they go head to head tonight. The result means nothing to us of course but I’d rather Totts didn’t have a new manager in place when we play them on the 22nd. We don’t face Newcastle until the 25th April so even if Howe does get the sack, they’d have had enough time to rise and then fall again.
Fulham are another club who are struggling a bit this season but they did ok at the weekend against Villa. But for Martinez, they could have won. Hopefully their trip to Manchester tomorrow will end with another point in the bag for them.
This last weekend was another full of controversy with officials again picking and choosing who gets punished and how. Romero was sent off for Totts, a decision he could hardly moan about but what about the challenge by Sunderland’s Bryan Brobbey on Martin Zubimendi? Only a yellow was issued and the decision was checked and cleared by VAR who deemed it a natural movement but it was no such thing. Brobbey was nowhere near the ball and should have received his marching orders. The kind of challenge which broadcasters like Sky Sports should be talking more about. This is the kind of inconsistency which gets all football fans frustrated, angry even. If roles were reversed, an Arsenal player committing such a bad challenge on Brobbey, you can bet your bottom dollar he’d have been off in a millisecond.
Zubimendi could so easily have been seriously injured from that challenge, he could have been ruled out for the remainder of the season. I know he wasn’t and isn’t but where is the punishment for committing such a dreadful challenge? VAR said it was fine so Brobbey gets to carry on whereas he should be missing the next three games. I’m pretty sure Sunderland’s next three opponents would rather face them without Brobbey than with him.
What about this one on Viktor Gyokeres? Talk about “spot the ball”, this is spot the boot!
That’s perhaps what Howard Webb doesn’t think about. He might think his officials are doing us damage but it’s not just us, it’s other clubs too because of the knock on effects. European places, relegation places and financial numbers can be different for clubs too.
This isn’t a “same old Arsenal, always moaning” it’s about fairness in the game. For every club rather than a select few.
Catch up in the comments.
Good morning Rico.
I hope that one day soon PGMOL will publish a definitive set of laws, rules, protocols, whatever they wish to call, so that we can all read and understand them. At the moment they seem to be making them up as they go.
In the recent WSL game against City, any player suffering a knock to the head, wether they needed treatment or not, was sent to the touchline for thirty seconds. Where has that rule come from? When was it introduced? When and where was it published?
If a player goes down with cramp and the game stops for him/her to be given treatment that player has to go off for thirty seconds, but only if the treatment is carried out by a trainer or physio, if it’s carried out by another player he/she can jump up and carry on. As Spock would say “illogical”
Listen carefully next time Var officials are checking a decision, you may well hear the tossed coin hitting the desk.
Morning Cicero, I saw that in the women’s game, terrible decision.
I read this morning that there’s a suggestion to turn the VAR mics off..
Wouldn’t make any difference to the tv audience Rico, the constant drivel from the commentators drown out the Var comments anyway. ☹
Very true, I wish they’d all be turned off Cicero and play music instead. I often do.
Amazon give you the option of turning of the commentary and have crowd noise only. I wish the others did.