VAR: Yes or no?

LAST week I alluded to the reasonably quiet introduction of Video Action Replay in the Brighton-Palace thirdround Cup tie. VAR was then used a few days later in the League Cup semi-final first leg between Chelsea and Arsenal, again with no complaints from the managers, which considering who they are was remarkable.

Encouraged by this, it was then announced by the FA that it will continue to be used for Cup games that are played at Premier League grounds. So far, so good. Crucially, though, we will not see VAR in the Premier League itself until next season at the earliest, which means that poor decisions erroneously made will continue to enrage managers, players and fans until season’s end.

That includes decisions such as those which befell struggling Southampton and Swansea last weekend. With the Saints 2-1 up in injury time at Watford the home side’s Abdoulaye Doucoure took it upon himself to punch the ball into the net. The referee and his assistant didn’t see it: 2-2, two valuable points lost for Southampton. Up at Newcastle, meanwhile, the Swans were somewhat aggrieved to see Newcastle’s Mohamed Diame knock the ball off the line with his left arm. It was clear as day and the referee had a clear line of sight; no goal and like Southampton two precious points down the Swanee. (Pun intended.)

Precious Moments

The passing away of Cyrille Regis earlier this week at the ridiculously young age of 59 brought forth masses of newspaper column inches in praise of the man and what he did to advance the cause of the young black English footballer. While it’s undoubtedly true that Regis had to face terrible racism from players and fans, it’s also true that his great dignity and superb footballing skills gradually won the racists over. I was a huge admirer of that West Brom team and their “Three Degrees” — comprising Regis, Brendan Batson and the mercurial Laurie Cunningham — but not enough credit was given to Ron Atkinson for his role in developing the players and having the moral courage to play them in his team that also included Brian Robson, Len Cantello, Ally Robertson, Tony Brown and the under-rated John Deehan. How ironic was it that Atkinson later saw his broadcasting and punditry career ended because of an off-mic alleged racist remark?

Cyrille Regis was a fine player and a credit to the game and that, primarily, is how he should be remembered. Everything else is just polemics. (I’ve even forgiven him for the 1997 FA Cup final.)

Number of the week

Zero-0-nada-none — coming off last week’s loss at Spurs, Everton have had no shots on target in three of their last four games. Alan Pardew and his West Brom side must be quaking in their boots today. (Stick your money on the Toffees to score three.) By comparison, before this run Everton failed to trouble the keeper just three times in 222 matches.

Internet post of the week

“If anyone can do a deal with the South Korean government which sees Son Heung-Min safely at the new stadium while Moussa Sissoko does Son’s two years’ national service, running head-on at North Korean tanks, it’s Daniel Levy.” I suspect I’m speaking for all Lilywhites when I say: “Get it done, Daniel.”

Team of the week

Acimir Begovic, Bournemouth; Andy Robertson, Liverpool; Davinson Sanchez, Spurs; Jonny Evans, West Brom; Jan Vertonghen, Spurs; Alex OxladeChamberlain, Liverpool; Manuel Lanzini, West Ham; Matty James, Leicester; Marko Arnautavic, West Ham; Harry Kane, Spurs; Son Heung-Min, Spurs. Manager: Jürgen Klopp, Liverpool.

This week’s games

Today: 2.30pm Brighton v Chelsea; 5pm Arsenal v Palace, Burnley v United, Everton v West Brom, Leicester v Watford, Stoke v Huddersfield, West Ham v Bournemouth; 7.30pm Citeh v Newcastle. Tomorrow: 6pm Southampton v Spurs. Monday: 10pm Swansea v Liverpool. League Cup semi-finals second legs — Tuesday: 9.45pm Bristol City (1) v (2) Citeh. Wednesday: 10pm Arsenal (0) v (0) Chelsea. FA Cup fourth round — Friday: 9.55pm Yeovil v United.

Apathy reigns

Perusing the UK press last weekend I came across an opinion poll which asked people to rank the most exciting sports along with what the populace considered to be the most boring. The most exciting, from one to five, were: athletics, tennis, gymnastics, rugby union and football, while the most boring from one to five were: golf, American football, cricket, darts and snooker.

Naturally this gave me pause for thought, because in my world athletics and gymnastics would be in the “most boring” section, while golf and cricket would be in the “most exciting” — though fair enough on the rugger and I certainly can’t find fault with the positions of darts and snooker.

But each to his or her own and my preferences are undoubtedly due to my sportsmad father’s influence, plus the fact that his solution to keeping me off street corners and out of trouble was to get me to partake in footie, golf and cricket out of school while doing tennis and rugby along with footie in school.

But seriously: gymnastics — exciting? The mind boggles. Surely a better question would have been: “Name your favourite sports”?

After all, lots of football matches are boring; golf can be boring if the protagonists are taking forever to take their shots; and cricket is a law unto itself, while watching Usain Bolt strut his stuff was always spectacular.

If that were the question then I would go for footie, rugby, cricket and American football and baseball. The last three of these are, by nature, interminably slow but punctuated at times with breathtaking action.

And finally

Last week I kept it simple and asked which Scottish team had a famous five and asked you to name them. It was, of course, the great Hibs team of the late Forties and early 1950s and the five players were Willie Ormond, Eddie Turnbull, Lawrie Reilly, Bobby Johnstone and Gordon Smith. During that golden spell the Edinburgh club won three championships and were runnersup twice. My very English old mucker and fellow Spurs fan Steve Langbridge was first with the answer, while to his eternal shame wee Jimmy the Hibby was conspicuous with his silence.

This week: Nottingham Forest entertained Aston Villa in the Championship last weekend — what makes this particular fixture unique in European football?

I noticed a lot of papers making a fuss about Jordan Speith hitting four trees on one hole en route to a quadruple bogey eight in Hawaii last week. Personally I don’t see what all the hoo-ha is about, as this is the sort of thing that can be seen at Korineum and CMC every week.

I don’t believe it! Well actually I do. Incredibly, Robert the dodgy bingo caller (or his delightful Mrs) has won every week since he gave up the job. Which means that not only does he do a cracking Roger Whittaker impersonation at the karaoke, he’s also a remarkably lucky so-and-so.

If anyone out there thinks something’s missing this week, a confession: in order to spare my mate Peter Monk’s feelings I decided to not mention the junior north London club in this week’s column. Next week: a different story.

I’d just like to say that the Cyprus Today photographer is a really nice chap . . . for a Newcastle supporter.