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I didn’t bother with round ups over the holidays because there were so many games cancelled it was a joke and I just couldn’t be arsed with any of it. I didn’t watch any of the games that were played and part of that was because of the major sulk I had on after we lost to Leicester. I still have that sulk on but I'll crack on with the weekend’s games and I’ll start at the Emirates where Arsenal looked like they were going to ram my taunts back down my throat before reverting to type and going the full Arsenal. As you know, you never want to go the full Arsenal. That being said, there are some mitigating circumstances for what happened and for that reason I won’t go in as hard on them as I usually would. Some of the reaction from their fans afterwards was fucking mental though. It was conspiracy theories galore and they convinced themselves that the refs in this country are taking bungs from Abu Dhabi. I mean, not even I have gone that far and I’ve said some pretty damning things about officials over the last couple of years. I think they’re biased as fuck and they’re also really shit. I think they often give decisions based on what they want to give rather than what they should give. I don’t think they’re on the payroll of City though. Let’s look at this game for example. The decisions they gave and the ones they didn’t. Arsenal got the shitty end of the stick and have a right to feel a bit hard done by. But we’ve seen much worse this season. Shit, just look at what happened to us at Spurs. Then again, I suppose that fits the “refs are working for City” theory so that’s not the best example. The Arsenal penalty that wasn’t given is a really contentious one. I’ve changed my mind on it twice already which tells me that it isn’t a black and white decision and that going with the refs on-field verdict was in fact the only call to be made. If I’m an Arsenal fan I’m not happy about that, but that’s one that really can go either way. Initially I thought no penalty because Ederson got the man and ball together. Then there was an angle that changed my mind because to showed he caught Odergaard’s foot before getting the ball. I was convinced it was a pen and that Arsenal had been shafted, but then I saw the same angle only zoomed right in, and someone was saying it’s actually a foul to City because Odergaard stands on Ederson’s foot. And that’s what I saw when I looked at it. It reminded me of that “red dress / green dress” thing, or that other thing when you look at a word and then you hear that word when you listen to a clip, but if you read a different word and listen to the same clip you then hear the different word. It’s confusing as fuck and I have no idea who fouled who in that incident now. They both fouled eachother I think. So if it’s that confusing it isn’t ‘clear and obvious’ and you have to go with what the ref gave initially. Should he have initially given a penalty? Maybe, but it probably looked like Ederson got the ball so you can’t give that. As for the one City got, well I don’t think that’s a pen either and I don’t really see why VAR ignores one and then gets involved in the other. Stuart Atwell had a good view of it and was adamant that it was a dive, because it fucking was. Not only does Bernardo dive, but it was him that initiated the contact by running away from the line of the ball and instead running into Xhaka. The problem is that Xhaka is thick as fuck and decided to leave his leg dangling and also grab his shirt, which then gives VAR a decision to make. I’d be ok with that penalty if the ref had given it because we know that the bar is supposedly very high for overturns currently (unless you’re Andy Robbo) and that isn’t one that would get over-ruled. My problem here is that this wasn’t ‘clear and obvious’ because Atwell said it was a dive and it clearly is, even though there is also a shirt grab as well. You get a hundred shirt grabs a game and probably 99 of them go unpunished, so it sticks in the throat that City were bailed out here. It’s the point I made repeatedly last season when we were getting fucked by VAR seemingly every week. It isn’t that these decisions are really bad in isolation, but the issue is that there’s no evening out of decisions. Decisions that could go either way are in fact ALL going the one way. Currently everything that can go City’s way is going City’s way. If they were this unbeatable superteam they are being hyped as they wouldn’t struggle to beat Brentford 1-0 and they wouldn’t need the officials to help them out against Arsenal. They’re very good, sure, but this gap has opened up because they’re getting every conceivable break at the moment while we’re getting none (plus we shit the bed at Leicester). The problem is this shit has got them on a roll and the more wins they reel off, the more intimated opponents become and the more the ‘aura’ comes into play. If Arsenal hadn’t pulled an Arsenal and could have taken the three points then the title race would have a completely different feel than it has currently. But Arsenal gonna Arsenal. They were actually really good until they came up against a bit of adversity and then folded like a cheap suit. Gabriel is a fucking moron. Arsenal fans complaining about his sending off need to have a word with themselves. That soft cunt deserved all he got and gave the ref no choice whatsoever. Yellow for dissent (he should have been given one for scuffing up the penalty spot) and then another a couple of minutes later for clattering Jesus. Arsenal could have rallied again at 1-1 and still gone on to win the game, and they should have retaken the lead when Martinelli missed an open goal, but Gabriel’s antics killed them and meant they would have to just hang on and try to hold out for a point. They did for a while but there was nothing more predictable than them giving a goal away right at the end. Absolutely sickening though isn’t it? Fucking spawny, cheating cunts. My contempt for them knows no bounds. Fuck Arsenal too though, the flakey fucking bottle jobs. Next up, West Ham at Palace. Antonio’s close range effort put the Hammers ahead, showing the world why Garth Crooks prefers him to Mo Salah. Lanzini made it 2-0 with a brilliantly taken goal. Remember when he was really good and getting linked with us? That injury he got completely derailed him and now he’s only really a squad player at West Ham. He made it 3-0 from the spot after VAR spotted a handball by Milavojevic. Palace had been enjoying a good spell then too but that killed them. Edouard pulled one back late on and it was no more than they deserved as they’d wasted a lot of chances before that. Olise bagged another one in stoppage time and Mateta was inches away from a last gasp equaliser with an overhead kick. Palace were the better side overall and Vieira said afterwards “We shouldn’t lose the game because we were the better team and…” zzzzzzzz Watford are in trouble and Ranieri is rumoured to be close to the sack already. They’re a funny team. They score plenty but defensively they’re horrendous. They held out for a long, long time against Spurs only to concede in the 97th minute to a Sanchez header from a Son free-kick. Proper kick in the balls for a team down at the bottom, and I’m not liking these developments at Watford because they may end up being the reason Newcastle stay up. Ranieri said “we are alive and we will survive”. Hope so, but we could still see another two managers in charge of them before we know their fate. That Spurs away kit is fucking vile. Can’t believe someone got paid to design that. This might be why Kane was so adamant he wanted to leave this season. If so I don’t blame him. That right back they got from Barcelona is shite too. I heard a Spurs fan on the radio refer to him as “Emerserge Royalier” and I thought, yeah he’s nailed that one. It’s a shame those teams in the bottom four are so bad because otherwise there’d be a genuine chance of Everton going down. They’re fucking hopeless aren’t they? They lost 3-2 at home to Brighton but that scoreline flattered them massively as Brighton bossed it. Alexis Mac Allister put them in front early to start the boos. Dan Burn headed in to make it 2-0 to continue the booing and then Calvert-Lewin missed a pen to crank it up further. Never a pen in a million years that either. Gordon just stood in front of Mwepu and waited for the collision. Cheating little cunt him. Remember his blatant dive in the derby? School of Diving. He pulled one back with a shot that went in via a wicked deflection off Lallana but a stunner by Mac Allister restored the two goal lead. That’s the most goals Brighton have scored in a game all season. A defensive coach whose team can’t defend. Not great that is it? Gordon pulled another one back but Brighton held on. ‘Benitez’ was trending on twitter so I had a look and it was exactly what you’d expect. Blues talking about fat waiters and Reds talking about secret agents. Exactly how this was always going to play out from the second he was hired. That Moshiri is great isn’t he? The only surprising thing to me about this result is that Calvert-Lewin didn’t further antagonise the Blues by dressing up as a nun or something and posting it on Insta. Maybe he’s learning. Burnley are in big trouble after losing at Leeds. They’ve hardly played for weeks and that’s left them right in the thick of it down there because they’d played loads of games fewer than everyone else. Then they lost to the Mancs and Leeds in quick succession and don’t have as many games in hand anymore. Leeds had the better pf the chances but kept missing them. That Tyler Roberts had an absolute Jon Walters. Wretched stuff. Harrison eventually put them in front at the second attempt after Hennesey had saved his initial effort. He’s done fuck all this season after looking pretty good last year. He was getting linked with some big clubs last summer and I even saw one tenuous link with us, which was bollocks because he was still a Man City player and they wouldn’t have ever sold to us. His stock has fallen massively this season though, much like Leeds in general. My boy Maxwell Cornet levelled with a stunning free-kick and they’ll miss him big time now that he’s off to AFCON. Lowton needed treatment after being hit on the head with a bottle during the celebrations. Leeds gonna Leeds. Stuart Dallas is another who hasn’t done anything this year after really making an impression last time around, but he restored the lead late on with a lovely curling effort from the edge of the box. His first goal of the season, although in fairness I think he’s been filling in at the back due to injuries. Dan James wrapped it up with a back post header i9n stoppage time. Huge win for Leeds and a catastrophe for Burnley who couldn’t afford to lose this one. Looking at the bottom of the table and it’s mad that Norwich are still only one win from 17th spot. Of course that win would need to be 20-0 because of their horrendous goal difference, but that’s kind of my point. They’ve scored only eight goals and conceded 42, yet they’re only a point behind Newcastle and Burnley. The widely held perception is that they’re certainties to go down but when you look at the table it really isn’t that straightforward. They are the worst team in the league but all it takes is a result or two here and there and things will look a lot different. I don’t really care who of the four drops just as long as Newcastle are one of them, but I do think it would be funny if Norwich escaped given how we’d all written them off from about September, if not before. Brentford had a big win as they came from behind to beat Villa and leapfrog them in the table. They’ve had a wobble but they’re still grinding aren’t they? Fair play to them. Ings put Villa ahead with a clinical finish on his left foot. Such a good finisher Ings is. Villa felt they could have had a pen when a Brentford defender had hold of Konsa’s shirt for around five seconds straight on a set-piece. You’re never going to get that though, not unless you play for City and swan dive like that Bernardo cunt. Konsa stayed upright the whole time and if you do that you won’t get the decision. Not that I’m even saying it should be, as that happens a dozen times a game and I don’t know how you police it. It’s easy to say give a pen every time it happens and they’ll soon stop, but it’ll cause murder as initially there’ll be half a dozen pens every game. That’s why I think they’re just letting it go now, especially on set-pieces. Wissa equalised with a lovely curling finish on his left foot. That was Brentford’s first attempt of the game and it changed things around completely. All of a sudden they had a spring in their step and Onyeka hit the post after my boy Toney set him up with a back heel. Both teams pushed for a winner and Brentford got it when Roerslev fired him a rebound with seven minutes left. Stevie wasn’t happy and was very critical of the attitude of his players defensively. He said when he first went in there players were putting their body on the line to make blocks but he isn’t seeing that now. Not sure that approach will work. It’s old school and because of Stevie’s legendary standing in the game he commands respect, but the modern footballer doesn’t take well to public criticism and there’s a balance that needs to be struck. Bet there’s players in that Villa squad cursing him after that, even though none of them are even fit to look at Stevie’s majestic fringe. Finally, Monday was great fun wasn’t it? I didn’t watch the game but I caught up on it by taking in “Goldbridge’s best bits” on youtube. Glorious stuff. Phil Jones was back in for Harry Maguire, a move that Goldbridge compared to replacing a bucket with a hole in it with a sieve. Phil Jones was United’s best player, which makes this even funnier. All those ‘stars’ they have and Phil Jones comes out of mothballs and outplays them all. They’re fucking shite but every time they beat some no hopers like Burnley you’ll get some of them clinging to the hope they’re on the way back. Fred and McTominay will look good and all is well. Then the next game they’re shite and they’re all pining for “Donneh”. That Van Der Beek fraud gets better and better with every game he isn’t picked for. Here’s the thing, if he was any good they’d play him. Managers jobs are on the line, they aren’t going to leave out players who are better than the ones they’re picking, so as shit as United fans might think Fred and McTominay (and Matic for that matter) are, Van Der Beek must be worse. Wolves fully deserved to beat them as they created loads of chances. Wolves don’t score though and that was the only reason United stayed in the game as long as they did, the fucking bums. Eventually Moutinho managed to find the net and that was that. The fans booed when Greenwood was taken off and we’re already hearing hot takes about how it “doesn’t look any better than it did under Ole”. It’s fair to say they shouldn’t be this shit with the players they have, but Rashford is doing fuck all, Greenwood seems to have a questionable attitude and Jadon Coutinho must be asking himself just what the the fuck he’s done. The briefing from inside the club against the new manager has started already, with one report claiming players don’t respect him and had to google him when he was appointed as they didn’t know who he was. They don’t like his tactics apparently either. Who the fuck do they think they are? Bet they’re taking their lead from Ronaldo. He’ll be making all kinds of waves because this isn’t going the way he wanted. Mind you, maybe not as he’s happy enough as long as he’s scoring. Where the fuck is Pogba by the way? I don’t remember seeing him since he got sent off against us. *googles* Ah right, when the going gets tough, Pogba fucks off somewhere sunny.