The first game of this round of fixtures saw Norwich lose yet again. This time Burnley were the ones benefitting from the Canaries’ generosity. Norwich had two players sent off in the first half and scored an own goal in the second.
Buendia was a little unfortunate as although he did leave a gentle elbow on Westwood, he was needled into it and the Burnley man made a huge meal of it. And here was me thinking Burnley’s players weren’t allowed to do that because it goes against the moral code of St Sean.
Some other bum then saw red for an over the ball tackle and then Wood opened the scoring with an overhead kick. Godfrey put one in his own net and a season that started so promisingly (remember them beating City?) is ending pathetically.
Bournemouth look like they’ll be joining them in the Championship now after a home loss to Southampton on Tuesday. They started the game really well and had their chances before falling behind to goal number 21 on the season for Ingsy.
Goal number 22 should have followed soon after but he missed a pen after Harry Wilson had handled. Harry just hasn’t got going since the restart has he?
He missed two good chances to equalise as did fellow sub Solanke, but it looked like a third sub, Sam Surridge, had equalised in the fourth minute of stoppage time. VAR ruled it out for offside against Callum Wilson, and Southampton rubbed salt in the wounds when Che Adams made it 2-0 with the last kick of the game. They need a miracle now.
Spurs’ win over Leicester was a weird one. 3-0 suggests they were comfortably the better side but Leicester had 71% possession, 24 shots to 7 and 13 corners versus just four from Spurs. You wonder how that’s possible, then you look at who the two managers are and those numbers all make perfect sense. Will Brendan ever figure out how to beat this negative cunt?
The goals all came from counter attacks against the run of pay, but you get the feeling that’s exactly how Mourinho drew it up. Still, 29% in a home game is not going to fly when fans are back in the stadium. Mourinho must be loving this as he can be as negative as he likes and there’s no-one there to complain.
Son’s off target shot was deflected in by young Leicester full back James Justin and then two brilliantly taken goals by Kane finished them off. Had Leicester managed a goal of their own they may have been able to appeal this result as you could make a strong argument that Kane’s goals shouldn’t count due to this social media post made by him this week.
Honestly, what the fuck?? Surely some sort of points deduction is justified here?
Leicester looked to have it sewn up prior to lockdown but since the restart they’ve found it difficult due to injuries. The lack of squad depth has really hurt them. They’ve really missed Ricardo while recently Chilwell has also been out. Now Soyuncu is suspended and they’ve got some bum who was out of his depth at Norwich playing in a back three with 92 year old Wes Morgan.
It’s easy to criticise Rodgers but in fairness we wouldn’t be the same without Trent and Robbo. Leicester’s full backs are a huge part of how they play and that’s as big a reason as any why they go into the last game of the season in 5th place and in danger of losing the Champions League spot they had done so well to be in for virtually the whole season.
I think I speak for everyone when I say I hope they fucking smash the mancs everywhere this Sunday.
There could have been another top four head to head game this weekend too if only Wolves had picked up just one more point. They’d have been facing Chelsea this weekend knowing that victory would secure a place in the Champions League. But they didn’t pick up that one extra point so fuck them. Yeah I haven’t forgotten their fans being massive knobheads on the final day of last season.
That being said, they might still get in via the Europa League, which I’m ok with as it would mean United not winning it. Ideally Stevie will pull off a miracle with Rangers. Yeah I know, no chance, but just imagine if he beat United. It’d be one of the funniest things ever.
Wolves beat Palace 2-0 with goals from Podence and Johnny. My boy Adama was in scintillating form and Palace couldn’t cope with him. They aren’t the first and they won’t be the last.
Palace had gotten themselves within smelling distance of a European spot a few weeks back and they’ve since lost seven on the spin. I have a sneaky feeling Hodgson will call it a day now. He should do, because he’s done a top job there all things considered but it’s only heading in one direction now.
No doubt Zaha will be angling for a move and it will be interesting to see if anyone other than Everton wants him this year. All depends on the price tag really, and with most teams likely to be skint this summer it seems likely that he’ll have to stay put.
Elsewhere, Brighton and Newcastle played out a goalless draw at the Amex. I have nothing else to say about that, because why would I?
Amazon Prime had Sheffield United v Everton. They tried to plug it as though they’d actually got something worth watching. It’s pathetic really. Like getting the rights to Wimbledon, making a big song and dance about it and then having to show a 1st round mixed doubles match that no-one gives a fuck about.
I can’t understand why anyone other than Sheffield United and Everton fans would watch that. The viewing figures must have been miniscule. For anyone who’s interested, the Blues won 1-0 with a goal from Richarlison who managed to stay off the floor just long enough to head in a free-kick from the original Bruno Fernandez, Gylfi Sigurdsson.
I totally called Villa beating Arsenal. Admittedly I said it would be coming off the back of Arsenal getting spanked by City in the cup, which incredibly didn’t happen, but I looked at Villa’s remaining fixtures in comparison to Watford’s and I liked Villa’s chances of staying up. I like them much more after what happened this week.
Trezeguet got the only goal of the game and Villa were just about good value for it. They’ve been playing alright since the restart even if results weren’t great. Recently they’ve been scrambling some points together and incredibly they go into the final game having moved out of the relegation zone on goal difference.
That was such a huge win for Villa and they’ve got all the momentum now for their last game against West Ham. I wouldn’t bet on them winning it but they might not need to. They’ve given themselves a great chance to stay up now and you know what, I hope they do.
Because as much as I’ve wanted Villa down since the moment they came back up, I have to say right now, fuck Watford, the manager sacking whoppers. If anyone truly deserves to go down it’s them. Sacking Pearson with two games left is just bonkers. No other word for it.
They haven’t been on a great run but what benefit is there in doing this now? Pearson’s record is better than any of his recent predecessors and they had more chance of surviving with him than without him.
If they wanted to fuck him off at the end of the season that would have been fine, but doing it now is just stupid and irresponsible and deserves relegation. One rumour was that he had some sort of confrontation with the players after they lost to West Ham last week. Another was that he had a bust up with the sporting director.
Given that all of the players and the sporting director are still alive and haven’t been gutted like fish with Pearson’s hunting knife, I think we can safely dismiss those rumours. If there was any truth in them at all then the Watford dressing room would have looked like a scene from First Blood.
It’s genuinely one of the most ridiculous moves I can ever remember a club making. When Pearson took over they were virtually dead and buried. The fact they even have a chance to stay up is because of him. Marco Silva, Javi Gracia and Quique Sanchez Flores are all no doubt sitting by the phone with a list of wage demands at the ready.
If Watford go I certainly won’t miss them. City hammering Watford is as close to a guaranteed result as you’ll ever get, which is another reason to want the fuckers relegated. I mean, these clowns gave us a beatdown to (deservedly) ruin our unbeaten season but look what happens whenever they face City. Since they were promoted the aggregate score in games they’ve had with City is 46-4!!
It’s 18-0 for the last three games alone. It’s incredible. So hopefully in a few days time I’m writing “off you fuck, Watford”.
I see that Sterling took a penalty in that game because “it would be massive for a winger to score 20 goals in the Premier League”. Newsflash pal, Salah is on the brink of doing it for the third year in a row and Mané has done it as well. In fairness, I doubt that is on Sterling’s mind. It’ll be the off the books bonus he’ll be getting for it.
He missed the pen which will have surprised nobody but he scored the rebound so got away with it. Honestly, he’d be the last player in the league I’d want taking a penalty for me. I’m not exaggerating. He’s a top player and I’m not going to deny that just because I don’t like him, but when it comes to penalties he’s quite literally the last player I’d want taking one.
Speaking of penalties, United didn’t get one this week and they didn’t win. Co-incidence? I think not.
They did concede one though, in the most hilarious of circumstances. Imagine your star player doing that? Isn’t he the captain too? Or did they take it off him and give it to Maguire? Doesn’t really matter because when you watch the video of it Maguire is doing the exact same thing as Pogba, he’s just fortunate that Pogba got in the way.
The free frame of the incident shows that three United players are fucking petrified of getting hit with the ball. It’s times like these when Roy Keane is badly missed. I don’t mean on the pitch, I don’t give a fuck about that. No, I mean in the studio. I’d have loved to have seen his live reaction to that. In fact, imagine if Souness was there alongside him?
I think the only way to ensure this doesn’t happen again is for Sky to have both of them in studio for every single game that Pogba is playing in.
West Ham weren’t even taking the game seriously, as shown when regular spot kick specialist Noble let Antonio take the pen. Antonio later revealed that Noble said before the game “you’re on nine goals and I want you to reach double figures because of how well you’ve played, so you can have any pen we get”. In fairness he put it away very well, but it just shows that West Ham weren’t really too arsed.
Yet despise this, United were in serious danger of losing to David Moyes before Greenwood equalised. For all the eulogising over Pogba, Martial and Fernandez, Greenwood is the one genuine superstar talent they have over there.
The two points dropped meant that we could beat Chelsea without helping United too much in the process. For them it all comes down to a one off game at Leicester now. Win or draw and they’re in, lose and they’re down to fifth as long as Chelsea don’t fuck it up against Wolves (which I wouldn’t rule out).
Really want United to miss out for so many reasons, but mainly so I can see @RobbieOR bust out his regular “United are back lads. Back in fifth place” tweet.
Final point on this week. You may have missed this but I couldn’t let it go as it wound me right up. Jon Moss actually has ‘Mossy’ inscribed on his boots. This is worse than that time Michael Oliver had tramlines shaved into his head. There’s nothing more cringey than a referee trying to be cool.
You’re not cool. If you were cool you’d be playing. Referees aren’t cool so just accept that.
Here’s the thing, I often chastise myself for slating refs because it really is an incredibly tough job and I couldn’t do it. It’s the easiest thing in the world to sag off referees and we all do it to some degree, but it really is an incredibly tough job.
As a rule I try not to be too insulting towards them unless there’s good reason (I’m not saying I succeed at this, just that I do try), which is usually related to them being arrogant in some way shape or form, or if they show a clear bias towards one team or against ours.
Despite him repeatedly awarding penalties to United I’ve occasionally felt bad about constantly ripping Moss and calling him “Fat Jon Moss”, but when I saw ‘Mossy’ on his boots my reaction was….
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