They’re having a laugh
E X-LIVERPOOL stalwarts Jamie Carragher and Jason McAteer opined last week that the reason for Liverpool’s lacklustre title defence is the fact that they are handicapped by not having the “most passionate fans in the game” roaring them on and intimidating the opposition in Covid empty Anfield. Putting aside my natural tendency to mock them, I have to say that while I agree that football in empty stadiums is a crime against humanity I have to call rubbish to the pair of them. Every club in the land is handicapped by not having fans in their grounds and Liverpool’s fans are not the only ones who are fervently passionate about their team. Does anyone seriously think that Jose Mourinho would get away with his stifling tactics in front of 60,000 Spurs fans? Would Sheffield United be relegation certainties if they had an audience at Bramall Lane? Every club, with the possible exception of Arsenal, who are used to playing in silence, is suffering from losing their fan base and not just financially. One of the most popular sports shows on UK TV at the moment is The Big Match Revisited on ITV 4 and it’s an absolute joy to look back at a time when there was no VAR, tackles were hard but didn’t end up with an overpaid prima donna rolling around in agony, and the referees were just men in black with a whistle. It also harks back to when the pitches were rubbish, away fans were treated worse than cattle on British Rail, the grounds were ramshackle, and you if you weren’t street savvy a trip to A&E was a distinct possibility. It wasn’t perfect but I loved it and truth be told, to me it was a better watch than today’s sanitised game.
Shocker . . . not!
The biggest surprise in Fulham winning at Anfield last week is that it really wasn’t a surprise at all.
Righting a wrong
Last week Fulham, despite playing out of their relegation threatened skins, lost 1-0 at home to Spurs in a game where they deservedly equalised only to see the goal chalked off for handball. The decision to disallow the goal was by the letter of the law correct given that the inadvertent handball led to a goal but for many observers, myself included, in the spirit of the game the goal should have stood. The circumstance was that following a defensive clearance the ball hit a Fulham forward’s arm before falling to a teammate who then dispatched the ball into the net. There was absolutely no questioning intent on the Fulham player’s part, but according to the rules mandated in 2019 the goal had to be discounted, although prior to then it would have stood. So how ironic then was it that the very next day football’s rule-makers decreed that accidental handball leading to a goal will not, from July 1 this year, be cause to disallow a goal? Too little too late, and why can’t we just go back to the old rules about ball to hand and hand to ball? Life was so much simpler then.
Team of the week
Alfonse Areola Fulham, Erik Pieters Burnley, Ben Mee Burnley, Joachim Andersen Fulham, Luke Shaw United, Scott McTominay United, Lucas Moura Spurs, Gareth Bale Spurs, Harry Kane Spurs, Ademola Lookman Fulham, Jessie Lingard West Ham. Manager: Scott Parker Fulham. Player of the week: Joachim Andersen Fulham. Brilliant against both Spurs and Liverpool, I would love to see him in a Spurs shirt next season.
Hypocrites of the week
June 2020 – thousands of people are on the streets of Glasgow showing their support for a recently deceased career criminal in Minneapolis. Not a peep was heard from the SNP over this flagrant flouting of Covid social distancing. March 2021 — thousands of people are on the streets of Glasgow showing their support for a recently deceased football club who have successfully reincarnated themselves. The SNP and Nicola Sturgeon are all over this “disgraceful and dangerous” behaviour like a rash. Call me cynical, but would there have been such a fuss made if the club in question, along with its supporters, were by and large supportive of Scottish independence?
Wally of the week
Alexandre Lacazette Arsenal; see ‘And finally’.
This week’s games
Premier League today 2:30; Leeds vs Chelsea. 5pm; Palace vs West Brom. 7:30; Everton vs Burnley. 10pm; Fulham vs Citeh. Tomorrow 2pm; Southampton vs Brighton. 4pm; Leicester vs Sheffield United. 6:30; Arsenal vs Spurs. 9:15; United vs West Ham. Monday 10pm; Wolves vs Liverpool. Friday 10pm; Fulham vs Leeds. Champions League last 16 second legs Tuesday 10pm; Citeh (2) vs (0) Borussia Monchengladbach. Wednesday 10pm; Chelsea (1) vs (0) Atletico Madrid. Europa League last 16 second legs Thursday 7:55; Arsenal vs Olympiakos, Dinamo Zagreb vs Spurs. 10pm; AC Milan vs United, Slavia Prague vs Rangers.
Six Nations
Today 4:15; Italy vs Wales. 6:45; England vs France. Tomorrow 5pm; Scotland vs Ireland;
And finally
Last week’s question: one April evening in 1965 a team featuring names such as Jimmy Greaves, Johnny Haynes, Bobby Moore, Alan Gilzean, Cliff Jones, Denis Law, and Bobby Charlton faced off against opponents featuring Lev Yashin, Ferenc Puskas, Jim Baxter, Willie Henderson, John Charles, Eusebio, and Alfredo Di Stefano. What was the occasion and who was in goal for the first named team plus, what was this game’s connection with It’s a Knockout? The game was Stanley Matthews’ Farewell Testimonial and the many stars from around the world were honoured to play in the great man’s final game. There were 35,000 fans in attendance at Stoke’s Victoria Ground that night and such was the interest around Europe that the game went live to an estimated 112 million households around the continent and beyond. As for It’s a Knockout? The referee at Stoke that night was Arthur Ellis. John Grundey and Steve Langbridge nailed the question big time. This week: what connects cricket and football with the High Sheriff of Mid-Glamorgan? “What the (expletive deleted) is that? For (expletive deleted) sake turn it down.” The cause for this untypical language from Mrs Walker being the banshee wailing of Arsenal’s Alexandre Lacazette when he was seemingly butchered in a tackle by Burnley’s Erik Pieters last weekend. A few years back I found myself spending an hour and a half inside an MRI scanner and the cacophony of noises I was subjected to didn’t come close to those that were emanating from Lacazette. Yet the strange thing is that as soon as Pieters was yellowcarded for his heinous assault, Lacazette was up and running around like a gazelle and waving the stretcher bearers away. Still, at least some good came out of this distasteful episode: referees have now been given the power to discipline those who vocally exaggerate injuries, which may go some way to muting such abhorrent behaviour in the future. (Dream on.)