Everyone is apparently missing why Liverpool should be viewed as favourites in the title race, despite Arsenal finding their ‘final piece’. Also in the Mailbox: refs; conspiracies and cartels…
Get your views in to theeditor@football365.com…
Advantage Liverpool
Now that the ‘inevitable that City will win 16 in a row’ nonsense has fallen at a pretty early hurdle (weirdly not mentioned in 16 conclusions by the zealots at F365) and with a third of the season left, surely it’s time to start the ‘what fixtures do the contenders have left?’ discussion.
Surely the most important difference in this race is that City’s quite thin squad, with a pair of seemingly injury-prone talismans that look and are currently acting like not Kevin and Erling but Kevin and Perry (one for older readers), have a run of very tricky games between now and the end of March. Two slippery games against Brentford and Bournemouth are followed by five games in a row against teams currently in the top seven.
They will, of course, be helped by a mysterious flu bug ruling half their squad out of international duty in March, but the reality of a three horse race and that set of fixtures makes some combination of injuries and dropped points much more likely than in previous years. I assume the Champions League draw will somehow leave them facing Newport County in the quarter finals, but even that will only give them a brief respite.
Arsenal also have a tricky run from mid-March, with seven in a row against teams currently in good form. Liverpool, despite their bad luck with injuries and the challenge of four fronts, seem to have a fixture list that involves easier alternating with difficult.
As a Liverpool fan, I’m also perplexed that more has not been made of the fact that the remaining top three mini-league fixtures are (only) City at Anfield and Arsenal at the Etihad. Advantage Liverpool, you would think.
Shappo
The heat is on
Assuming (when?) Man City wins their game in hand, the 3 teams at the top will be separated by 2 points. Each team and their fans will surely be optimistic about their chances:
Liverpool: They’ll be happy to be top and confident about their ability to handle anything that happens. Plus they’ve got City at Anfield
Arsenal: They’ve got all the momentum since beating Liverpool and will believe no one else can stop them
Man City: They’ll be confident about their experience and know-how of being in a title race and coming out on top.
As a neutral, it’ll be an exciting race to follow as all 3 teams look like they can carry on all the way.
Jason (As a Man U fan, watching this is the pits)
Raya the final piece
I keep reading comments regarding certain Arsenal fans’ preference to Ramsdale over Raya. Opinions are opinions so fair enough. Very rarely does Raya have to make spectacular saves…so he has nothing to do? Arteta sings his praises by saying he is dominant in his penalty area and feeds his teammates regarding counter attacks preventing opposition getting possession to attack his goal, hence the lack of shots to face.
Raya’s catching is excellent. I am a converted Ramsdale fan. My brother used to criticise Ramsdale all the time over various things which I wouldn’t have. Maybe he was right as Raya seems the last piece of the jigsaw in our defence.
Chris, Croydon
Take of the season
Sheffield United captain Anel Ahmedhodzic;
“The red card killed the game, killed our plan and killed everything we worked for.
“If you ask my opinion I don’t think it is a red card. I don’t want to say more.”
Continues to say more.
“From what I saw on the pitch I don’t think it was [a red card]. Maybe the replay seems harsher than it is.
“But from my view on the pitch I thought it was a fair tackle.”
Anel. My guy. Holgate tried to separate Mitoma’s upper and lower body parts.
Will
Read more: Brighton accept Holgate gift as Sheffield United remain the most generous of Premier League hosts
Blue Monday
Just a view on blue cards really. There has been much discussed on the consequences of a blue card, the million permutations of what happens if a keeper gets put in the sin bin and how it’s bad for football and life in general. My personal view is the laws of the game are fine to deal with dissent and cynical fouls are fine, the referees just need to actually bloody implement them consistently.
What hasn’t been discussed is the actual real solution to all of this.
How about, you know, the players don’t mouth off at the referee and don’t hack each other down cynically.
It’s a bold, out of the box thinking suggestion but why don’t we put the onus on the players. Even a deviant sport such as rugby with half crazed, beer swilling, emotionally stunted, public schoolboy brutes can train their players to behave properly towards officials. Why can’t football?
Players (and managers) need to be taught to take more responsibility for their actions. If they stopped acting like man babies over every throw in it would probably filter down to the crowd. Every mistake from a referee is highlighted and castigated yet every mistake from a player like a missed chance/missed tackle/stupid yellow for kicking a ball away is shrugged off yet these surely have just as big an impact on a game. A 50/50 penalty decision in the first 10 minutes is not going to decide the whole game, there’s still 80 minutes for your team to sort its life out.
By and large footballers escape a lot of criticism for their on field actions (online cesspits notwithstanding). One pundit yesterday said Kalvin Philips was “a bit silly” in getting sent off….. that’s part of the problem right there.
Funstar (still loving the AVFC) Andy
Mark of stupidity
Regardless of whatever else people think about the officiating situation, can we agree that hiring a “refereeing consultant” is an incredibly pathetic thing to do. Especially when the person they’ve appointed is the man off Gladiators who keeps emphasising the wrong word when giving commands.
Ed Quoththeraven
Man in the middle
Watched the Man Utd vs Luton game and apart from it being surprisingly entertaining, it felt like the ref was in the way nearly all of the time. I’ve watched thousands of games and I’ve honestly never noticed this before, did anyone else notice this or was t my imagination?
I was half expecting him to start putting tackles in he was that close to the ball. Seemed odd.
Kieran (Scotland)
Read more: Hojlund hot streak continues to save Man United from themselves and their own thickness
Such a drag
Clearly Anthony from Dublin is just shaping for a response and I do feel a bit sick taking the bait, but if anything this highlights the idiocy of select individuals who navigate their world behind blinders. Below is a ranking of Premier League sides and how much each have benefitted from referee and VAR calls to date (as of 12 February per ESPN). Mind you, these are an aggregate of the number of calls for and against, and not points totals.
Nottm Forest +4
Brentford +3
Fulham +3
Manchester City +2
Chelsea +2
West Ham +2
Luton +1
Bournemouth 0
Everton 0
Newcastle 0
Tottenham 0
Arsenal -1
Aston Villa -1
Burnley -1
Brighton & Hove Albion -2
Crystal Palace -2
Manchester United -2
Sheff United -2
Liverpool -3
Wolves -3
Eric, Los Angeles CA (One wonders which of these clubs Anthony might support… or has he just tired of his Bohemian FC fandom and come to troll the more nutritious prem waters, yawn)
…Having read the mailbox for a very long time, it never ceases to amaze me how many people write in claiming conspiracies that Liverpool/United/City/Arsenal are favoured by the refs or that Liverpool/United/City/Arsenal are harshly treated by the refs. Honestly, if you’re over the age of 16 and you genuinely believe that there is a conspiracy against or in favour of a certain club, you need to have a word with yourself. It’s embarrassing.
Take Anthony, Dublin yesterday. We found out that the Klopp leaving conspiracy resulted in Liverpool having one less yellow card than Brentford. Call Interpol guys! Crime of the century revealed.
Despite Anthony saying Liverpool “once didn’t get a decision against Spurs” there’s a couple of others I remember. There was Alexis Mac Allister who was sent off, who then had his red card rescinded after the match, because the decision was wrong. There was Curtis Jones who was sent off and had well known Liverpool fan Gary Neville insisting it shouldn’t have been a red. That one was borderline against and definitely would not have been a red if the shadowy powers were at work.
Those are the ones I remembered so I did a quick Google and found that (according to ESPN) the team with the most VAR decisions go against them is Liverpool (tied with Wolves) and the team with the most incorrect VAR decisions go against them is…Liverpool. That’s obviously subjective. I don’t know whether it’s true and I really don’t care, because I’m an adult and I don’t go around wailing about conspiracy theories in favour of certain teams. But it seems pretty unlikely that a team deemed to have had the most VAR calls wrongly judged against them is benefitting from the powers that be being determined to win the league.
Honestly, I get that we all like football but some fans really need to grow up a bit.
Mike, LFC, Dubai
…Hi Anthony, thanks for your balanced contribution. You certainly come across as very level headed.\
Bit odd that you’re flagging the apparent bias in the Brentford – Liverpool game and that it was actually LFC that are the beneficiaries of that imbalance, when LFC have lost two players to reckless challenges that hadn’t even been given as fouls, let alone bookings (or in Nørgaard’s case, contention for a red). Bradley also had an insane challenge go on him that had Klopp with his head in his hands. But regardless, might I politely suggest that the somewhat easy-counter argument to your view could be that (shock, gasp) LFC fans would have a growing exasperation that a series of ‘enthusiastic’ Brentford challenges were seemingly being utterly ignored and yet the ref is blowing for every possible infraction from the team in purple. That little of those fouls ended up with cards could (could) be a reflection of bias as you say, or, conversely, that another ref wouldn’t have even put whistle to lips for the foul, so a card on top would have been ludicrous.
To add to your mail by then picking Chelsea games from two years ago (odd?), when you could have had the Chelsea game from a few weeks ago where they had two very strong claims for pens from VVD, suggests you’re hankering after foregone conclusions. I wonder what that might be.
Perhaps you didn’t cite the game from last month because their manager’s post-match equated to ‘yeah I disagree with that decision but we didn’t deserve to win; Liverpool could easily have scored more’. In the same way that Brentford’s own manager, after the game, said: “In the end we can’t argue too much, we lost to the best team in the Premier League right now.”
Every team gets beneficial refereeing decisions (the lack of a red for Konate at Everton, that Robbo didn’t give away a penalty at Brentford, Palace could have had a shout for a second pen I think….) They all went in Liverpool’s favour. I’m sure there are loads more.
But clubs also get decisions that are mind-boggling insane and against them. I could very easily write a long, long list from an LFC’s perspective. But no-one would bloody care. And I say that without value judgement. Quite rightly, no-one would bloody care. If you are being so disingenuous and petty to tot up every instance of something in favour of your world view, but only adding ‘that game against Spurs’ in the other column, you tend to lose all credibility. Similarly, if you have a pre-populated list of every injustice you’ve ever faced across a season, it’s a clear sign you’re a bit of a wrong’un.
Name every cup winner and I can likely do a search and find a ref’s call that went in their favour. If I named every LFC success, given the tone of your note, I think it highly likely you’ve already committed to memory every infraction and unfair advantage. No doubt they profited from a foul throw in the 67th minute, that was actually in the build up to a goal….
Ye gods no-one cares. But more than that, even when you present a detailed list, no-one would change their mind. If I gave you 10 instances of LFC getting shafted, you’d not listen.
I can think of several calls Arsenal have got in their favour (I can’t see any contact at all, to warrant their penalty against Burnley. And fully agree with how vociferous Burnley challenged it, it seemingly alarmingly soft given the bar for penalties for Forrest etc) but we’ve all heard in laborious detail for 12+ months now, in every mailbox nearly, that there is a systematic bias against Arsenal, so that’s not possible.
Ultimately I don’t think i know what the laws are anymore. Which makes all this whataboutery a bit pointless.
Seems you don’t need contact for it to be a foul (Saka), but if there is contact it has to be ‘enough’ contact not just any contact (Forrest). But that’s not defined. And if a player is literally wiped out (Ivan Toney), then you should also factor in whether they stopped to ‘engineer’ the contact. And grappling at corners is a penalty, unless it’s not (Jota). And refs shouldn’t, but also fundamentally should, factor in whether they have awarded or ruled out a 50/50 shout earlier in the game (Luis Diaz)
adding clarity this, isn’t it
even the pundits are no longer trying to say what is a foul, they just talk about the mitigating things that could make it a call either way.
just a massive massive shame they didn’t do that when it was just a guy in the middle making the call
Tom G
Arsenal, Alonso, City and more…
It’s a Sunday morning and I am in full ADHD mode as I put off the mundane chores I’m in denial about having to do today. So writing this email feels way more important to me right now.
Firstly, people talk a lot about Man City having a second half of the season where they get better. I don’t know if that’s definitely the case, more likely it is that all the other teams have burned themselves out jostling for their position, and in some cases survival. The deep squad rotation means they have the ability to maintain a consistency, which other teams simply can’t match. Arsenal showed this last season when they ran out of puff. Arteta has clearly worked hard on the longer term strategy for this term, plus somehow managed to wangle in a warm weather break. That’s actually why I believe Liverpool will fall away this season, because they all look knackered to me. That’s been shown by the latest injuries they have incurred.
The celebration police thing is fascinating from a psychological perspective. I think the main cheerleaders of this (Sutton, Neville and Carragher) are following an agenda. And that is to create a PR narrative to try and derail Arsenal. That’s not me being a conspiracy theorist, I just can’t see any other explanation as it is so bonkers. I watched the highlights of Bayer Leverkusen thrashing Bayern and when Frimpong scored his goal, they all went mental in celebration. Why didn’t anyone say that about them? Anyway, I know enough has been said about it and I’ll leave it there, other than to say anyone who heard Gunnerblog James will have been able to join me in laughing my bollocks off (Sutton…).
I can’t see Alonso doing well at Liverpool. There, I said it. The guy is a novice and Bayern look like they’re in transition this season. Bayer had a decent squad already and added to it by bringing in the God that is Xhaka. He has a Brendan Rogers air about him (playing style, not personality). This will be good to start with for Liverpool, but will no doubt end in tears. The Premier League is a very competitive league. Yeah he’s no doubt good, with loads of potential, but not yet ready for Liverpool (in my opinion). Whilst many may suggest hypocrisy on my part regarding Arteta, there is just a different feel I have about him. Of course I may be totally wrong, but being interested in football means we are all wrong from time to time.
Finally, we (Arsenal) look super sexy right now. The lack of goals we were scoring now seems like a red herring, and even has had the effect of inspiring better finishing (another PR conspiracy..?). We are purring and I think it feels ominous for the rest of the League. We may well not win it, but I do believe we will make a seriously good challenge at the very least this season.
JazGooner (Trossard is this season’s Ljungberg…)
….Good win against Brentford who really were the better team in the first half. MOTD showed how they pushed up and in for the first goal. A good old fashioned clearance from a centre back, lovely header from Jota then no one catching Nunez. The lad can’t score a tap in but what a cracker.
Going to need to start calling Endo Hando. How the ref and then VAR missed that is beyond me. Was obvious from my sofa. VAR explicitly says it’s to stop the hand of god goals. Another one for the list of VAR not being as sold.
I thought Robbo’s clattering of a player in the box was a pen. Same for Sterling on Walker for City. But what do I know.
Injuries piling up. I thought maybe it would be getting better but Jones and Jota really changes that. Almost at a point where the players on the treatment table would make a strong XI. Nearly twice as many games left in the season for us than Spurs for example (hopefully) so long season to go yet.
Hmm… maybe that’s why Spurs wage bill is so much less. No overtime pay.
My tuppence worth on the blue cards. It will only work with a stop clock. The institutional cheating at top level clubs means that the ball will not be in play for ten minutes. Their shoe will come off and need to be tied, then ball boys will be throwing extra balls on the pitch, head injury checks, cramp the lot. The blue card will just mean a ten minute bit of nonsense plus an extra 5 minutes time added on.
Alex, South London
Cody Gakpo celebrates scoring a silly fourth for Liverpool.
The red cartel
What a convincing argument Bert.
Liverpool and Manchester Utd ARE an all powerful cartel making the PL (and UEFA) dance to their tune because representatives reportedly met with prospective candidates for the PL Chief Executive role. But the appointment was decided upon by the committee made up of representatives from Chelsea, Leicester and Burnley. Surely any self-respecting cartel would just be that committee, you know the ones who actually make the decision. Because it does seem a little circuitous to vet the appointment and then have to influence the other 3 club representatives as to which one they appoint to ensure the red cartel dominance over the league. You know, the league that those representatives from Chelsea, Leicester and Burnley participate in. And where were Arsenal in all this? Had they not paid their cartel subs that year?
I also note that you’ve failed to address my question of the purpose behind FFP rules in lower leagues if the whole point of them is to allow the red cartel to maintain their place.
On the theme of ridiculous conspiracy theories, Anthony from Dublin has a doozy. Referees/VAR are dragging Liverpool to victory or something because the fouls to yellow card ratio. Nothing to do with the fact that Brentford were throwing themselves about at the slightest touch to engineer set piece opportunities.
VAR shafted Chelsea in the other finals is a good one. Pretty sure the controversially ruled out goal was Matip’s.
But hey, 20% of this season’s VAR mistakes have been against Liverpool.
Seems VAR are as bad at engineering outcomes as the red cartel.
James Outram, Wirral
