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So we’re back and it’s kind of fitting that the biggest talking point from the opening game was the exact same thing we were all harping on about before everything was shut down due to Covid19. Fucking VAR. We’ve had a lot of farcical incidents this season relating to technology but the decision not to award a goal to Sheffield United in this game might be the worst one yet. It might also be the reason the Blades miss out on Europe, or that Villa survive at some other poor bastard team’s expense. It was so clearly a goal that everyone near the incident knew it. Players never argue with refs when hawkeye has made a decision but the Blades players were on at Michael Oliver because they saw how far over the line it was and that clearly something must have gone wrong for his watch not to have beeped. Oliver himself probably suspected it was in but that’s not his call to make. All he could was signal that his watch didn’t beep to signal the ball was over the line, and without that he is unable to give anything. Perhaps it would be different if the ball was a couple of yards over (like that hilarious disallowed goal of England’s against Germany in the World Cup a few years back!), but even though this one looked in it was close enough for Oliver’s hands to be tied. He’s blameless in this really as referees can’t really be over-ruling hawked as all hell would break loose. Referees need help in these type of situations. Something like, oh I don’t know, maybe another ref who has access to various camera angles who could let him know to stop the game while they check it out? A novel idea, I know. This is the problem when you rely 100% on technology and believe that it’s infallible. We’ve seen this happen in movies. We trust the technology and then before you know it society is breaking down. Terminator, the Matrix, War Games…. Technology is there to help us, not to fucking call the shots. So this is mostly on Paul Tierney, the VAR official who must have known that the goal-line tech had failed for whatever reason (I’ll get to the ‘explanation’ shortly). Why didn’t he stop the game and let Oliver know that something was up. They could then have tested the hawkeye to see if it was working. Yeah there’d have have been a lengthy delay, but surely the important thing here is to fucking get it right and avoid the grave injustice that we saw. Honestly, it’s a fucking scandal really. Sure, if the goal had stood then Villa might have come back but we’ll never know because we were denied that by a cowardly VAR official and a failure of what we’ve been told is a foolproof piece of kit. When we didn’t see the computer generated ‘no goal’ thing with the ball and the line it was obvious that hawkeye had fucked up. The question I have is was this a failure of the technology, or of the person charged with setting it up? My guess is that someone probably forgot to plug it in. The explanation given later was that the cameras couldn’t pick up the ball because players were obscuring it. Doing we believe that? I don’t. Not for a second. In all the tests they ran and in all the games that have been covered this has never happened. So why now? Like I say, because someone forgot to plug it in (perhaps not literally, although I wouldn’t be shocked if it was that simple). They won’t admit to human error so instead they just blame ‘unique circumstances’ that weren’t really that ‘unique’ at all. And if the cameras really couldn’t pick that up because a few players were in the vicinity, then the system is not fit for purpose. If I’m Sheffield United I’m demanding the game be replayed. This isn’t just a case of a referee getting it wrong, or even VAR fucking up. No this is completely different. For whatever reason, the goal-line technology that football has put 100% trust in, failed, and the consequences of that failure could be worth tens (hundreds?) of millions of pounds to the clubs involved. If the Blades finish one point off the top four it will be because of this. If Villa survive by one point (or goal difference) then it’s because of this. I’m serious, I’d be demanding a replay if I’m Sheffield United, and if I’m one of the other sides battling with Villa at the bottom I’d be equally as furious. The fact I’ve spent so long on this is because it was the only thing of any note that happened. The game was dogshit and while I think the lack of fans made it seem even worse than it was, it was a game so bad that it would have been almost unwatchable even if it were played in front of a full house. I’ve spent weeks counting down the days to football returning and it didn’t even matter to me that the first game was Villa and Sheffield United. I told myself “No matter how shit it is it’ll just be great to have it back”. Didn’t take long for me to realise that was bollocks. I jibbed it after an hour but in truth I was only half watching it from about 15 minutes in. I had it playing in a small window on my computer screen while I was doing some work. It certainly didn’t have my full attention, which is fairly damning given there’s been no footy since March. Couple of things I noticed before I got bored. The fake crowd noise is horrendous. Thankfully Sky did provide the option of watching without it, so that shit was abandoned after a couple of minutes. Can’t be doing with that at all. As bad as that was though, it wasn’t as bad as Jack Grealish’s hair. He probably should have been locked up after his antics during the lockdown, but having seen the kip of his barnet I’d be throwing away the key. Prior to the break I was thinking I’d happily see him at Anfield is the opportunity was there to sign him. Fuck. That. I’ve seen the light now and gone back to my long held view of him. Lee Hendrie wannabe who has Manchester United player written all over him. In fact, if you cut him open he’d have “Yernited” stamped through him like a stick of rock. Fuck Jack Grealish, and fuck me for ever deviating away from that opinion. Another individual who has suffered in the hair department during lockdown is Michael Oliver, who was looking a little rough around the edges. I’m good with that for two reasons. Firstly, this is the fella who a few years back had tramlines shaved into his head, so anything is better than that. Secondly, and most importantly, anyone looking like they’re in need of a haircut has my respect because it shows they’ve stuck to the rules and not had a barber round their gaff on the sly. So Michael Oliver, fair play. Other than I don’t really have anything as like I say, I wasn’t really paying much attention. A bit like hawkeye really. I was a lot more invested in the second game but I ended up with egg all over my face afterwards. To my embarrassment, I’ve been saying for weeks that Arsenal would beat City. It wasn’t just a hunch, I was convinced of it. It wasn’t a vote for Arsenal. I know exactly what they are and few are more scathing of them than I am. The reason I believed they would win is because City have been giving the impression for months that they don’t want footy to come back at all. Someone on the forum (apologies for not remembering who) summed it up brilliantly by saying that City had the equivalent of ten ‘World Cup 3rd/4th place play off games’ remaining. They don’t even have the motivation of securing a top four place as they’re banned from Europe anyway. So their title is gone and they’ve only really got the Champions League to play for now. These games mean little to them, whereas Arsenal are trying to make the top four. Guardiola had bemoaned the lack of fitness in his squad and said they weren’t ready for the restart. So yeah, I’d talked myself into Arsenal winning. And they were doing ok for a while. They never posed any attacking threat and Leno had to keep them in it during a rocky spell when City were slicing them open, but it looked like they were going to reach half time at 0-0. Then they pulled an Arsenal. Fair play to them for somehow managing to come back from the break with a worse starting line up than they had before. How is Nketia their first choice centre forward? Why is Xhaka starting? Who was that turd centre back I’d never heard of? As it turned out, it didn’t matter who he was because he was clearly better than the alternative. He went off injured and the rest is history. David Luiz. What can you say about him that hasn’t already been said a million times? Nothing really. He was somewhat mistake prone at Chelsea and with Brazil, but since he went to Arsenal it’s like he left his brain at Stamford Bridge. It’s just continual stupid decisions and reckless moments, stepping on one rake after another. It’s almost like he’s doing it deliberately. Before I get to his actual performance though, I was a little confused when he was brought on because the PA guy at City started playing Blue Monday by New Order. One of the new changes that have been brought in for the rest of this season is walk on music for substitutes. In other words, players can pick a song they want played when they come onto there pitch. They do this in baseball and it works pretty well for them. You may remember Charlie Sheen walking out to ‘Wild Thing’ in Major League? Well anyway, as Luiz prepared to come on, ‘Blue Monday’ was being belted out. No there’s just no fucking way on earth that was the song chosen by Luiz so I was wondering what was going on. At the same time this was happening, Michael Oliver called for the water break, so I think that must have been the cue for the music rather than Luiz coming on. Really, if the PA guy had been thinking on his feet he could have improvised and played this…. Thankfully so far I don’t think any players have gone with the walk on music. In theory it could be good, but in reality it’d probably just see half of the league coming onto the field to the same song, probably by fucking Drake. Anyway, back to Luiz. I read that he’s averaging a sending off every six games for Arsenal, and if he isn’t getting sent off he’s giving away penalties. I wonder if he’s been sent there as an undercover agent by Chelsea just to see how riled up he can get Troopz and the AFTV boys. He’s doing a hell of a job, I saw a clip of Troops after the first goal and if he keeps that up he’s going to blow a gasket. The thing with the first goal is you can make excuses for that. There’d been a massive storm in Manchester and the pitch was soaking wet. The ball skidded off the turf and he misjudged it. Poor play but it can happen. The second one though. It’s unforgivable. If a player has beaten you and is running into the box, you have to let him go and hope your keeper deals with it. You can’t just grab them by the shoulder and drag them down in the box. Not only are you giving away a pen but you’re putting your team-mates in the shit by going down to ten men. He did the same shit against Chelsea too earlier in the season if I remember rightly. And he was the main reason we spanked them at Anfield. There’s no bigger liability in the Premier League right now. The game was over at 2-0 but Arsenal didn’t buckle and without Luiz hampering them they defended ok until they eventually conceded a third in stoppage time. The only other thing of note to happen was Ederson nearly fucking killed one of his own team-mates when he came flying out and almost decapitated him. That was bad enough but he was standing around grinning like a goon while the poor lad was being treated. Eventually he went over and gave him a token pat on the chest as he was being stretchered off but it was all a bit weird and I can’t imagine Alisson reacting like that. Mind you, Gabriel Jesus and David Silva were in the stands laughing too. I’m assuming Eric Garcia isn’t very popular with his team-mates. Or it could just be that City’s players are uncaring wankers. One final point. It was a bit strange seeing no names on shirts. They all had 'Black Lives Matter' on them which is good and I like the solidarity of it. I'm happy it's not a permanent thing though as honestly, I didn't have a fucking clue who some of these players were, especially the Villa ones. Players all took a knee immediately after the kick off, which was another powerful statement that will have been shown around the world. Good stuff that. Mind you, it was a bit awkward for Kyle Walker as usually when someone drops to their knees in front of him he instinctively reaches for his wallet. What? Come on, that's funny. Note: These two games were the remaining fixtures to get everyone back on the same games played, which is why I’ve covered them in their own round up. From now on I’ll do a round up after every set of ten games, so I don’t think it will be on the same day each week (Thursday) as it’s going to depend on when the games are completed.