A FINE MESS
WHETHER or not postponing last weekend’s fixtures nationwide in respect of the Queen’s passing was the correct decision (I don’t think it was), what we are left with now is an unholy mess regarding when to play that round of games.
In an unprecedented season with fixtures, particularly for the clubs involved in Europe being played every three or four days, there is no way that Spurs, for example, can fulfil their match at Citeh before the 1st or the 8th of February. The use of either date would see Spurs and Citeh meeting each other in back-to-back matches.
Clearly this situation is far from ideal and could have been avoided by allowing clubs and fans all over the country to pay their respects in the timehonoured way as seen at West Ham and Old Trafford on the evening of the Queen’s passing, where both sets of fans and those of their foreign visitors behaved in an exemplary fashion.
On the other hand
Allegedly the main driver for the nationwide postponing of fixtures was the potential for embarrassment should fans of certain clubs express antiestablishment/royal sentiments before, during, and after the games. OK, I can understand that, but surely the answer would have been simply to just postpone the games featuring both Liverpool clubs, Hibs, Hearts, and Celtic. Job done.
Hmm!
Cricket, rugby union and league, golf, and of course horse racing all took place in the UK last weekend but footie didn’t. Can’t have the oiks who follow our national sport enjoying themselves, can we?
Odd behaviour
Your manager wants a striker, the striker he wants is a troublesome, Arsenal reject the wrong side of 30 (33), the manager wants that striker because they worked well together at Borussia Dortmund, six days after buying that striker for the manager you sack said manager. Seems strange to me but nothing should surprise anyone when it comes to Chelsea.
Speaking of which
Damned if he stayed damned that he went, Graham Potter really had no choice but to leave Brighton when Chelsea came calling. It’s an automatic assumption that when a “big” club seeks a new manager then Europe is the first port of call, particularly at Chelsea where, Frank Lampard aside, who was only ever going to be temporary, the origins of managers since Roman and his Rubles came along are the following: Portugal two, The Netherlands one, Brazil one, Spain two, Italy four, and Germany one with Thomas Tuchel.
Potter has done an excellent job at Brighton without setting the league alight but he fully deserves the opportunity to play with the big boys. Is it a gamble? Yes, for both the club and Potter, who had he turned down the Chelsea gig would have found himself accused of lacking ambition. But if things don’t work out then he’s pretty much assured of getting another job with a mid-table club while also having a much healthier bank account to fall back on.
This week’s games (If any at all)
At the time of writing there is some doubt about matches going on in London this weekend but the rest of the country should be OK: Premier League today 2:30; Wolves vs Citeh. 5pm; Newcastle vs Bournemouth. 7:30; Spurs vs Leicester. Tomorrow 2pm; Brentford vs Arsenal. 4:15; Everton vs West Ham. Palace vs Brighton, Chelsea vs Liverpool, and United vs Leeds are definitely off. Selected Championship today 2:30; Swansea vs Hull. 5pm; Norwich vs West Brom, Preston vs Sheffield United, Watford vs Sunderland. 7:45; Middlesbrough vs Rotherham. Friday 10pm;
Hull vs Luton.
Selected Scotland today 5pm; Hibs vs Aberdeen, Rangers vs Dundee United. Tomorrow 2pm; St Mirren vs Celtic. 5pm; Motherwell vs Hearts.
Game of the week: Wolves vs Citeh. Not only do we get to see the latest instalment of Erling Haaland’s march to superstar status, but as a bonus we should get to see whether or not Mr Nasty, aka Diego Costa, has calmed down in the years since he left Chelsea. I’m betting he hasn’t.
What a farce
I continually bang on about how test match cricket is the pinnacle of the game and yet once again the authorities score a massive own goal with their silly rules and steadfast ways.
Last Sunday the Oval was packed out as day two of a truncated test match with South Africa played out and with England just 33 runs from victory with all second innings wickets standing the umpires took the teams off for bad light.
The light couldn’t have been that bad because the batsmen were scoring at a fair old lick but even if sighting the ball was a problem why couldn’t they have just turned on the floodlights?
And why with time being of the essence was the day’s play starting at 11am rather than 10.30am or even 10am as they do in the County Championship every September?
Why were lunch and tea taken on day one immediately following rain breaks? I think rugby union is eating itself with too many inexplicable rules, sometimes golf looks particularly daft re the laws of the game, footie has its VAR issues, but for me at least cricket takes the biscuit if only because their issues are so easily addressed.
Now they get it right?
So Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won the Italian Grand Prix under the safety car, unsatisfactory but them’s the rules. And they were also the rules when Lewis Hamilton wasn’t allowed to win in Abu Dhabi last season when he should have won his record eighth title. Sometimes the conspiracy theorists get it right and I think they got it right last December.
And finally
Last week’s question: most footie fans can name the Premier League’s first goal scorer but who scored the first own goal in the Premier League? That would be Forest keeper Mark Crossley, who had comfortably taken a Colin Hendry header before rolling over and seeing the ball squirm from his grasp and roll into the net.
Blackburn went on to win the game in September 1992 4-1.
This week: which team currently not in the top division has twice conceded a hat-trick of own goals in Premier League games?