Solidarity With Strikers
Kick Off
Happy Monday gang! What a wild few days in the world of football huh? I know I often say this but this time it really is true isn’t it?! The entire game colliding with the BBC and the government.
Anyway, more of that later. For now I mention it solely to explain that there may be a lack of any kind of sensible commentary on the action this weekend, aside from the three games that were on Sky (I was also out for the early kick off and much of BT Sport Score).
So to start let’s quickly whizz around the Saturday afternoon games. First off, Liverpool came unstuck against wily Bournemouth. Bournemouth didn’t manage to get off to quite the start they did against Arsenal but they got the goal and held on. My Liverpool correspondent called them ‘woeful’ and ‘dreadful’.
A lovely thing from that game however was that David Brooks was back in the match day squad, just 592 days after his last appearance due to receiving treatment for cancer. Truly wonderful to see.
The 3pm games were, unfortunately under the circumstances, a good bunch. We’ll perhaps ignore Everton Brentford, another win for Sean Dyche at home, and move straight to Leeds Brighton. Brighton are flying high and Leeds are in trouble but they were able to fight back and get a 2-2 draw in what sounded like a brilliant game.
Chelsea and Tottenham, both of whom have been suffering at the moment, managed convincing 3-1 wins, and both with some degree of VAR incidents which I cannot comment on because, well...
Of the games I watched, let’s start with Palace City shall we? It was, without bias or agenda, a terrible game. City huffed and puffed and felt wasteful and lacking either their usual urgency or fluidity. Palace were bad, really bad (no shots on target for three whole games!), but they still managed to frustrate City. If it hadn’t been for an act of stupidly in the penalty area it could have ended 0-0.
On Sunday, skipping for a moment the 2pms, Newcastle hosted Wolves in what I would dub a game of clown football. This isn’t to say the teams were bad, however we were witness to a large number of goalmouth scrambles and various nonsense, including a very clear penalty ignored by VAR and a genuinely comedy goal from Wolves. Newcastle eventually came out the winners after a Miggy goal to lift them from their slump, but there were definitely points when it could have gone either way.
Are Wolves in trouble now? Quite probably. From 12th down, i.e. from where we drop from a team on 35 points to a raft on 27 there are only five points between safety and the drop. It’s so very compressed down there that any change of fortune, in either direction, could make a massive difference.
In the untelevised matches the battle of the claret and blues ended 1-1 after a goal from Ollie Watkins and a penalty from Saïd Benrahma. And in Manchester, United were held by lowly Southampton and had salt rubbed into their wounds after a red card for Casemiro, his second this season so a four game ban.
So then, to the Cottage, where Arsenal attempted to regain their five point lead at the top of the table. I know I say this every week but Fulham had me nervous. Soloman was on a hot streak, they’re punching way above their expected weight and after last week I felt almost certain we were due a fall.
However, what transpired was one of the most comfortable, silky, commanding performances of the season. Where we stuttered against Sporting, we glided against Fulham (yes the personnel was different but even so). Three (four if you consider the own goal that was offside) goals came easily. A header for Big Gabi, a header for Gabi, it was all teed up for Jesus to come on and get the Holy Trinity but instead it was Captain Ø, my love, my darling, Martin, who put home the third, rather rudely with his foot and not his head, but it was a great goal so we’ll forgive it.
On hand to provide the assist for every one of those goals? Pocket rocket Leandro Trossard (more on him later). He’s been such a gift since he signed and with his hattrick of assists in one half he was part of two Premier League records as well as it being Mikel’s 100th win with the club.
There was also a dominant performance from the women in the WSL who beat Reading 4-0 at Meadow Park, though they remain in 4th. However the goal difference is closing and they have a game in hand on the Manchester clubs in 2nd and 3rd, after Chelsea’s win over United put them top.
In Europe I really only paid attention to the Revierderby which seemed so promising for Dortmund until Schalke managed to get back into the game and draw 2-2. Is that the title race over? There’s still only 2 points in it at the top after Bayern’s 5-2 demolition of Augsburg so there’s hope but only time will tell.
La Liga, Serie A and Ligue 1 are all basically done (La Liga being the tightest of them) so yeah, that’s that.
And helpfully that is that! For we’ve reached the end of this week’s round up. To come we’ve got Milan tonight at home to Salernitana and Girona host Atleti, UCL tomorrow and Wednesday and UEL and UECL on Thursday (I will be at the Emirates to see Hector, my sweet baby!) and on Friday it’s Forest v. Newcastle.
Half Time
Really, there can only be one topic for this week’s Half Time section.
Yes, I’m going to talk about what I’m regretfully going to call GaryGate. Sorry.
It shouldn’t shock you to know that I have extremely strong, negative, feelings towards the current government in the UK. I’ve never liked a Tory but this crop seem even more cruel and craven than ever before. I’m certainly not going to romanticise past Tory governments who have always done something particularly repulsive but this lot? I won’t use one of the Big Four swears here but you can guess which one I’m thinking of.
For years politicians of all colours have been using immigrants and refugees to scare people into ignoring their own failure to look after their fellow countrymen and last week it reached a high point of evil with the small boats policy.
In a conversation about it, Gary Lineker tweeted the following:
At that point all hell broke loose. It became the biggest news story for what is coming up for six days now. On Friday it really kicked off and honestly, having missed the original due to be asleep, this was my Pig Gate. The tweets were flying, pundits were refusing to work on Saturday in solidarity (starting, I believe, with the great Ian Wright), then commentators did the same, then players and managers said they wouldn’t speak to BBC journalists.
This is what was so beautiful and so inspiring to many of us who have become so utterly jaded with how things are at the moment. It was a genuine and spontaneous display of collective action that saw football coverage across the BBC on Saturday reduced to a 20 minute highlights package with zero commentary and little graphics input.
That those who rely on working, in other words not what we would refer to as ‘the talent’, were prepared to stand up for what they believe to be right and true and sacrifice their wage for the day and to have any plans made disrupted was what we need. We need people to stand up and be counted when push comes to shove and in many cases before the aggression has even started.
It showed that, as with the Super League and the taking of the knee in 2021 you should never mess with footballers. They’re a lot more switched on and aware and intelligent than you think and we as fans are legion.
We may well see nothing come of it. Gary has already been reinstated (who after all his good work gave some flimsy praise to Tim Davie, hopefully contractual!) and the Corporation will be examining their social media policy for those outside of news. A lot of people will forget about it the moment it’s no longer headline news, but let’s hope that many people don’t, let’s hope that people who hadn’t previously thought about this kind of thing have had their eyes opened. Revolution may not be quick but if we keep chipping away we can get there.
Full Time
Bologna Lazio was notable for one thing and one thing only
Daniel Sturridge was fantastic on Sky
This is a brilliant thread on blackout shirts, I just lovelovelove a blackout shirt
Kai Havertz’s little dog (and his outfit) is adorable
Shirt of the Week
This week I salute Foudy’s Football v. Transphobia shirt. The rights of so many vulnerable people are under threat at the moment and it seems like trans people are being made the scapegoat of all of it, while also having to deal with that same erosion. So it’s important to stand up for and support our trans brethren in word and deed, even if some of those deeds are bowing down to our capitalist overlords and buying a cute shirt.
Thirst Trap
I love this little guy*
*we’re the same height
Look at him, what an adorable cutie he is. But, he is also a spectacular player. Don’t want to get all Musa-Okwonga-was-at-the-World-Cup-in-Brazil about my one (1) game watching Arsenal men but when you see him in the flesh he’s truly astonishing. So quick, such a fighter, gets into such great positions. We’re so very lucky to have him and as Poorly Drawn Arsenal says:
That’s all for this week. Enjoy the feast of football on its way because we’re coming up for an international break and oh god no, make it stop!
Take care and until next week, ciao! x