Emery’s still an enigma
A POINT away at Brighton is hardly an unmitigated disaster but if a game marked the end of Unai Emery’s honeymoon, it might have been the tea-time match on Boxing Day.
Arsenal are four points better off than they were at this stage of last season but their performance at Brighton was strictly average and, more significantly, Emery’s decisions slightly mystifying.
Neither had set the game alight but withdrawing Mesut Ozil (above) at half-time and Alexandre Lacazette not long after did not smack of adventure.
Emery will need time to impose his philosophy on the club but, right now, it is not easy guessing exactly what that philosophy is.
NICE to see Sir Andy Murray touching down in Brisbane to begin his preparations for next month’s Australian Open, but slightly disconcerting to hear him say he still feels pain in his hip.
Tennis has a history of comebacks but if Murray ever returns to his imperious best, it will be a minor miracle.
EVERY football fan knows Rafa Benitez has a fiendishly difficult job on his hands at Newcastle. Every football fan knows Benitez (left) is a fine coach and that Mike Ashley is extremely lucky to have him. But to suggest it will be a “miracle” if his team can “be better than three teams” this season hardly seems like man-management of the highest order.
His comment came ahead of the trip to Anfield. It must have given the players one heck of a lift.
FOR someone who generally stays on his feet when possible, Mohamed Salah’s collapse when touched by Paul Dummett was disappointing but any danger of being punished retrospectively for diving was soon eliminated.
The panel that decides whether a player should be charged is made up of an ex-player, an ex-referee and an ex-manager. Maybe it would be better if the official who might have been deceived – in this case, Graham Scott – had his say. I suspect Scott might have come up with a different answer to the panel’s. IN an interview with Adam Gilchrist, Cameron Bancroft discussed the infamous ball-tampering incident and, basically, said it was David Warner’s fault.
He told me to do it, was the gist of the Australian’s explanation.
“Dave suggested to me to carry the action out on the ball … and I don’t know any better,” said Bancroft. Talk about throwing a team-mate under a bus. In the continuing fallout from a crime committed nine months ago, it is becoming obvious not only opponents have a dislike for Warner (left).
Even though his suspension will be finished in time for the Ashes, it seems unlikely we will see Warner in a baggy green any time soon. If ever again.