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So after the derby I switched off from footy completely until today. Ignorance is bliss and I’ve had four days of it. I barely knew any scores before writing this and I certainly haven’t looked at the table. I genuinely don’t know where are and I don’t want to know. I’m back to it now though, watching MOTD and getting pissed off at teams around us picking up points. Or at least that’s what I expected. In reality, I’m feeling surprisingly calm about it all. West Ham are above us and I no longer care. I’ve accepted our fate and I’m almost detaching the Reds from any of this now. Usually I see everything from the perspective of ‘how does this affect us?’ but I’m not feeling that now. Our season is done. We might have the Champions League to keep things interesting for a little while (I’m not even looking beyond Leipzig even with a 2-0 lead) but other than that, there’s no point to any of this now. I'm not going to let what West Ham or Chelsea or Everton or United or anyone else do get me down. Our season is a car crash, if we somehow managed to rally and salvage something then great, but I'm not pinning any hopes on it. Not with players dropping like flies every other week and all manner of other shit continually being heaped on them I’m holding out no hope for that. We defied the football gods last season by winning the league and now they’re just throwing everything at us. This week alone we’ve lost to Everton at Anfield, lost Hendo for months and now Alisson’s Dad died tragically in a freak accident. It’s just fucking relentless. So I’m not living it day to now as it’s too depressing. There’s no diary his week because of that but I’ll do this round up because it’s almost as though I no longer have a horse in this particular race. I just want our season over so we can reset, regroup and start afresh. I’m hoping that next season will be different because we’ll have fans back and hopefully a fully fit squad, but we’re still going to have the same cunt refs so that’s a concern. I’ve said a hell of a lot about the officiating this season and it’s mostly been about how we’ve been screwed by it. I’m leaving that aspect out of it out completely in this and just talking about it from a general viewpoint and not looking at it through red tinted glasses. So I’ll start with Fulham’s win at home to Sheffield United. Lookman broke the deadlock on the hour mark but Sheffield United were denied a stonewall penalty late on when the Fulham keeper booted a Blades player. He did (unintentionally) block the ball with his standing leg, but the other leg (the one he was trying to tackle with) was high and reckless and just smashed into the opponent’s shin. I don’t give a shit about Fulham or Sheffield United so I have no preference as to who won or lost and I can look at this from an entirely neutral perspective. And that failure to award a penalty to Sheffield United is just inexplicable. You just can’t explain that. It’s incidents like this which have really brought home just how much VAR has fucked the game and warped our perspective on it. I don’t necessarily blame the ref on the pitch for that one as he might not have seen it clearly. It was a packed penalty area and I don’t know what his view was like. It used to be that an incident like this would happen and we’d complain a bit and say “I can’t believe he missed that” but we’d also know that a referee only had one look at it, at normal speed, sometimes not from a great position or with players obscuring his view. So you’d feel aggrieved but you could also understand how it could happen. Now that’s just not the case. These things can’t be excused. They have someone else reviewing it with the best technology available and the ref has the chance to look at it again himself in case he’s missed it the first time. So really, appalling decisions like this should have been removed from the game. Instead, it’s gotten worse. And the absolute worst part of it is when we have to listen to Peter fucking Walton or that bald headed little fucking weasel Dermot Gallagher telling us how the decisions were in actual fact correct and that we don't have a clue what we're talking about. You can argue it’s because they’re just shit and that’s certainly not something I would dispute. They are shit, relatively speaking. But that doesn’t explain it fully. We can all say that these fellas are fucking useless but these are the best referees we have. They’ve worked their way up through the system to the top level. Here’s the thing. All of these refs are fucking miles better than me or you would be if we were in the middle. Whoever was on VAR for this game is a much better referee than I am, yet he still saw that challenge and said 'no penalty'. How come they keep making these inexplicable decisions even when they have the benefit of replay? It makes no sense, and "they're just shit" doesn't cover it. Seriously, someone please explain to me how come they can make decisions that are so bad that 99% of everyone else who watches it can see it’s wrong? I’ll use this incident as exhibit A but I could just as easily use the Man City offside goal against Villa the other week. Literally everyone who saw that said it was wrong and they’ve since said that they’re changing how offside is going to be interpreted so that can’t happen again. It didn’t need changing as THERE WAS NO EXCUSE FOR IT HAPPENING TO BEGIN WITH!! There are countless other examples I could list if I could be arsed. I don’t need to because you’ve all seen them. It’s not like I’m making this up. VAR was supposed to reduce these mistakes but instead they seem to be doubling down on shit decisions. Chris Wilder was rightly furious but he’s wide of the mark when he said that the small clubs just don’t get the decisions. It’s not a big club v small club issue. Shit, so many small clubs have benefited from scandalous decisions against us this season and we’re the fucking champions. There is no bigger club than us and we’re suffering more than anyone. Wilder is right to call out the officiating but he’s undermined his argument by playing the ‘downtrodden little club’ card. Just call them out for being egotistical cunts who are making it up as they go along and that they are virtually untouchable. That’s the point he and every other manager should be making. They should be campaigning weekly about getting rid of VAR because it’s managers and players who can force that issue. There’s fuck all the fans can do other than refuse to go back into stadiums, but that’s just not going to happen. Anyway, moving on. Taki scored again as Southampton drew with Chelsea. Lovely finish it was too. Not sure about him patting the badge though. What’s that all about? Bit weird I thought. He’s been playing in midfield for them and he looks really dangerous. Bit annoying that we hardly ever played there for us and was often stuck out wide. Chelsea wanted a penalty when Abraham went down in the box. It wasn’t given because these things are just completely arbitrary now. I’m not saying it was a penalty and I wouldn’t have given it either, but I’ve seen loads given for less than that and I know I keep saying this, but ultimately it’s now all about what the person looking at it “wants” to give. So many of these decisions can be given either way and there’s no consistency to any of it. Officials know they can either give it or not give it and there’ll be no comeback either way. So it comes to down to whether they want it to be a pen or not. Anthony Taylor didn’t give it and Stuart Atwell was the VAR and he also said no pen. Next week they’ll see the exact same incident and may well give it, because for reasons known only to themselves one (or both) of them wants to. Officials are deciding more games than players are these days. Chelsea did get their pen eventually when Ings recklessly dived in on Mount. Clear pen, no doubt about that one and Taylor immediately blew his whistle. Mount dusted himself off and buried the pen and 1-1 is how it finished. The big talking point after this was Tuchel bringing Hudson-Odoi on at half time and then subbing him half an hour later. When asked about it he said he didn’t like his body language and he didn’t think he was working hard enough when he didn’t have the ball. Ooof! Bit Mourinho-ish that. Onto another game heavily influenced by the officials as West Brom drew at Burnley despite having Ajayi sent off by Mike Dean after a VAR check. He handled on halfway as Vydra tried to go past him. Difficult one to call really as although his arm was going that way naturally due to his running motion. It does look like he handled deliberately though. My grievance with it would be that Vydra isn’t beating Ajayi in a 40 yard race so is it a clear goalscoring opportunity? Not for me, but Dean loves a red card so no-one will be surprised by this. Bet he had a little semi on when he came away from that screen. It’s like porn to him. If that decision was harsh on West Brom then Dean & VAR balanced the books by not giving a pen when Bartley handled. Dean and the lino were both unsighted but Michael Oliver was on VAR and he didn’t give it. That looked blatant but everyone knows Burnley don’t get penalties. Except against us, obviously. Maybe with 11 men the Baggies would have claimed all three points? They were the better side and probably should have won even with one less player. They missed two glorious chances late on and Dyche said afterwards he was happy with a point because his team were well off it. Leeds completely dominated at Wolves and should have won easily. They lost 1-0 to a complete fluke as Adama finally did something of note when he cut inside and let loose a fucking rocket that came back off the bar, hit the keeper and went in. You see him do that and it just highlights how annoyed you’d be if you were a Wolves fan that he’s basically done fuck all this season. No goals, no assists. He used to be my boy but he’s not any more. I washed my hands of him a while back. Patrick Bamford is my boy now and he thought he’d equalised when he ran through and finished brilliantly. It was given offside by a gnat’s pube but that finish was just crisp as fuck. He strikes the ball so cleanly when he’s in those situations. The whole ‘my boy’ thing started as a joke because he’s a fellow Bon Jovi fan but I genuinely love watching him play now, he’s class. Onto Sunday now. I won’t waste any time talking about the Mancs beating Newcastle. The only thing I have to say about this is that they were awarded a penalty for a clear dive and they avoided conceding a penalty when Maguire deliberately elbowed someone in the face. Draw your own conclusions from that. Of course Dermot Gallagher defended both decisions. “A modern penalty” and “that’s a defender blocking off, as they’re entitled to do”. They’re trolling us all now. There’s absolutely no way he believes a word of what he’s saying, the weird little creepy peado looking fucker. Also on Sunday, Spurs lost again, this time to West Ham. They don’t even have injuries as an excuse anymore. They’re just in a huge slump, which we can relate to. They’re wanting the season to end almost as much as we are I imagine. Antonio scored after only five minutes and Lingard made it 2-0 early in the second half. That was initially ruled out by the linesman but a VAR check showed there was nothing wrong with it. A rare occasion where it actually righted a wrong. Has to be said too that the finish by Lingard was fucking boss. He’s playing out of his skin since he went there. The Moyes effect eh? Of course he had to go and ruin it all with a stupid fucking celebration, the annoying little cunt. I saw someone on Twitter saying “how come people still see Lingard as some young prospect even though he’s 28?”. The answer to that is because he still acts like he’s fucking 12, the knobhead. Moura got Spurs back into it and they pushed hard for a an equaliser but fell just short. The closest they came was a stunning drive by substitute Bale that hit the bar. Son hit the post in stoppage time too but the Hammers held on as Tottenham’s misery continued. Not Jose’s fault though. He made sure to point that out afterwards. “We have problems in the team that I cannot resolve. No coach can resolve”. Fuck off you buck passing egotistical fuck. Speaking of egotistical fucks, Pep is smelling himself a lot again now they’re having things their own way again. He’s even started being smug about their spending power, having previously spent years downplaying it. Now he’s fucking carrying on like Harry Enfield’s “Loadsamoney” character just because everyone else is skint because of covid. “We have a lot of money to buy some incredible players”. Twat. They beat Arsenal 1-0 at the Emirates. Nothing further to add. Villa took on Leicester without their talisman Grealish. At least we were spared the boring “Maddison v Grealish for England” debate. Not sure why it needs to be one or the other but this always happens with England because they’re dickheads that never have any idea how to use their better players. Maddison put Leicester ahead and Barnes managed to stay on his feet long enough to make it 2-0. Diving cunt him. He got Elmohamady booked soon after for a typical dive. Not that it’s ever pointed out by anyone. Young and English, you see. Traore did pull one back for Villa but they never looked the same without Grealish and just didn’t have enough to get back on level terms. Villa without Grealish is like games without fans. Monday night now and Palace beat Brighton after a dramatic ending to the “Gus Poyet took a shit on the dressing room floor” Derby. Brighton absolutely bossed the game but Palace had the cutting edge that Brighton lack. Some cat named Mateta put Palace in front with a brilliantly improvised back heel to convert a cross by Ayew. Pure Palace that, in their own half, one pass to release a pacy frontman and then a goal. They’re not big on patient build up play but I like that. Palace are like a shit version of the Leicester side that won the league. A really shit version. Brighton equalised through Veltman. You know what I said last week about Lowton from Burnley being like half the Brighton team in that you know the name but have no idea what he looks like? Veltman is one of those, along with MacAllister, Webster, March, Gross, Alzate, Jahanbakhsh and other random jabronis. Couldn’t pick any of them out of a line up. Where’s my boy Lamptey at though? Haven’t seen him for ages. He was tearing shit up earlier in the season. Palace won it five minutes into stoppage time with a brilliant back post volley by Benteke, who ruined it by then doing that lame thigh slapping celebration of his. I’ve figured out what his problem is and why he hasn’t been scoring. If I was his coach I’d solve that in no time. How? I’d tell him to only ever volley his shots. He can’t do anything else but he’s amazing at volleying. So any chance he has, he needs to flick it up and volley. Simple this management lark. Finally, Leeds beat Southampton 3-0 on Tuesday night. It could have been different but for VAR making a key intervention early on. A good one too. Tella dribbled into the box and went down under a challenge. It looked a blatant pen and Andre Marriner pointed to the spot. The reply showed that Tella deliberately kicked the defender to make it look like a foul. The defender didn’t actually make a challenge at all. Marriner over-turned the decision. Southampton were furious though and that anger only intensified when Marriner disallowed a goal by Adams soon after. This was ridiculous. He blew for a free-kick to be taken and at that exact moment Ward-Prowse took it. Adams ran onto it and scored but Marriner had blown his whistle again to stop it. My boy Bamford took full advantage of that let off by rifling a shot into the bottom corner. Dallas doubled their advantage with an old school toey (don’t see enough of those) and Raphinha’s free-kick wrapped up what on the surface looks like a comfortable win for Leeds. It wasn’t though. This game was well in the balance until Marriner intervened. He told Southampton players he wasn’t ready for that free-kick but if Ward-Prowse did go early it was no more than fraction of a second, so how wasn’t he ready? Ward-Prowse was probably waiting for the whistle to go to Marriner’s lips so he could catch Leeds napping, and he did. Technically Marriner can argue he’s right but morally that was a horrible decision. That was a game changer. It isn’t just close games that are decided by the decisions of officials. Even ones like this, which ended 3-0 and looks like a Leeds rout, you can put down to the influence of the officials. If that goals stands it’s an entirely different game. As I said earlier, the most influential people on the pitch are no longer players and the game is in a fucking terrible state because of it. Football is currently at an all time low. It’s never been worse than it is right now, and while I won’t deny my mood is heavily influenced by our current sorry predicament, I’m fairly sure I’d feel the same even if we were well clear. Referees are running roughshod over everything at the moment and VAR has only empowered them to make the decisions they want to make instead of the ones they should make. I wish I didn’t have to keep talking about this but when every other game is being decided by controversial decisions it’s impossible to ignore it. Now I’m back to pretending footy doesn’t exist until our next game.