Preview Percy Was spot on with his prediction for last Monday – as he has been telling everybody within earshot. Repeatedly. In fact we wouldn’t be surprised if he were to bring the matter up in his look at Saturday’s visit of Manchester City...
Next up it’s another late-nighter as we face Manchester City at the Ozempic on Saturday. Kick-off is at 8pm so you’ll have a decent chance of avoiding having to take the other half out to the local Palais for dancing or some such nonsense.
Lots of engineering works between Shenfield and Liverpool Street, which will to all intents and purposes be shut save for the tube and Lizzie lines. Lots of replacement busses out that way so you may need the late kick-off just to get anywhere near the ground.
So Man City, then. It’s a shame that they seem intent on not actually winning the Premier League this season. Should they fail to do so, it would mean that the dismal anti-football on display by the likes of Arsenal will prevail - which is a rather depressing prospect for everyone.
The results at either end of their latest six-match run tell their own tale. Somewhat incredibly they started by dropping two points in a 2-2 draw at Tottenham. They recovered enough to win their next four - a bizarre 2-1 win at Liverpool was followed by home wins over Fulham (3-0) and Newcastle (2-1) and an away win up at Leeds (1-0).
Somewhat annoyingly, they dropped two more points at home to Forest in a 2-2 draw that saw us draw level on points with Forest rather than leapfrog them, as would have been the case had City held on to their 2-1 lead.
All of that has left them seven points behind Islington’s version of 1990s Wimbledon, though this effectively translates to but a single point should City beat Arsenal and also win the game in hand they hold. We’ll just have to do them a favour then.
Daisy tells me that they brought in two in the January window. It cost them £64m to bring in Antoine Semenyo from Bournemouth. The 26 year-old Ghanaian international has hit the ground running since his arrival, hitting five in eight league matches which gives him a total of 15 from 28 in the league when you throw in his pre-transfer return from Bournemouth.
Not bad for a player who failed an eight-week trial with Crystal Palace.
The other new boy was Marc Guehi. His transfer caused all sorts of discord down at Palace, leading, indirectly at least, to the end of season departure of the manager. The transfer must have cheesed off Liverpool who appeared to be using all their usual iffy tactics to engineer a move during the summer.
Palace Chairman Steve Parish was of the opinion that, in the absence of the player signing a new contract – and let’s face it, why would he? – he would have to be sold to avoid him going for free at the end of the season. Glasner disagreed.
Having survived the summer window with his squad intact, it became inevitable that Guehi was going to be on his way and as early as October, Glasner had decided he was off next summer. As for Guehi himself, he’s had a couple of slaps on the wrist from the FA over his insistence on writing “I love Jesus” or “Jesus Loves You” over his rainbow armband worn during the FA’s LGBTQ campaign.
Guehi’s Dad was highly critical of the warnings, accusing the LGTBQ community of trying to impose their views on others, somehow ignoring the irony of his son citing a religious message. I guess nobody has ever tried to impose anything on someone else purely because of religion.
Anyhow it’s all academic now – he’s not the captain and next time he has to wear rainbow-coloured laces, the writing will be so small nobody will notice.
And it is to Manchester City we go for our first story in this week’s look at the Wild And Wacky World of Association Football. Rodri has been fined £80,000 for complaining that the referee in the aforementioned 2-2 draw against Tottenham lacked neutrality. He may have a point, but he would have been better off questioning the officials’ competence.
The authorities get very touchy when you suggest they may be dishonest, despite the fact that everyone knows that certain referees would rather have their toenails forcibly removed than see a so-called top six side lose on their watch. Far better to question their competence, so that when you get called before the beak you can simply show a video of them in action in your defence.
Elsewhere, spare a thought for the Barcelona fan who programmed his phone maps app of choice with St James Park rather than St James’ Park, thus ending up in Exeter rather than Newcastle Upon Tyne. As it happened Exeter were at home and the hapless supporter was given a ticket to see them lose 1-0 to future Tottenham opponents Lincoln City.
At least the poor Catalonian or Spaniard could claim unfamiliarity with the country and language, unlike the Tottenham supporter who went to the Boleyn a mere nine months after we had moved. I overheard the phone conversation his mate had with him which contained the immortal line: “They’ve moved you muppet. It was in all the papers.”
And Talking of Tottenham, some wags have started a parliamentary petition to stop them from sacking the hapless Igor Tudor. Rumours that it was started by Tudor himself are nonsense, of course. Why would he want to stay there? Here’s a funny thought: remember that time they were threatening to leave the Premier League? Just saying.
And so to us. To start with, I would like to point out the prediction I made in last week’s preview. ( I was right – Ed) . In case you missed it I predicted not only that we would win on penalties, but also that we would win after drawing 2-2 AET. I also picked up Thiago as the danger man. Not bad eh? The look Mr Winstone at the Turf Accountants gave me as I picked up my winnings was a picture to behold.
I was pleased that a team showing seven changes did more than hold their own against a side that has joined in with the recent trend of giving up on football and playing for the long throw. The kick-off gave it away a bit, the ball being flicked up and booted as high as possible in what Rugby commentators usually refer to as an “up and under” or a “Garryowen”. The only surprise with the long throw was that they didn’t have a line-out.
As for the penalties, well there was some sort of poetic justice in the fact that the chap who took the decisive kick was the same chap who dived when confronted by a challenge that Wan-Bissaka didn’t make. Oh how I long for the days when referees adhered to the laws of the game and issued cautions on such occasions.
Incidentally, I think it’s jolly unfair that poor old Panenka should have his name associated with a penalty that dreadful. I therefore propose a new word be introduced to the football dictionary. Henceforth a rubbish attempt at a Panenka shall be known in these parts as a Wanenka.
The one shadow on the evening was the late injury that Jimmy picked up. It was concerning that he spent the last few minutes hobbling around to make up the numbers with us having used up all our subs. Thankfully the signs are that the injury isn’t as bad as originally feared, though he is still likely to miss the next couple of games.
Jimmy is currently being joined by Ollie Scarles and Adama Traore in the treatment room having picked up unspecified “knocks” on Monday night. They will be taking up some of the room in the Kieron Dyer suite vacated by Pablo, who was sneaked back into the team, the manager not having given any prior indication that the player would be available. Not the first time Nuno has used that particular ruse.
So then to the prediction. This is an interesting one to consider. The best time to play a team is often straight after they have played in Europe in midweek and they did rather get a tonking on Wednesday.
Incidentally whilst the finishes for the first two goals were rather decent, the lead up and finish for the third were on a different level. So they will have all that in their heads and legs. On the other hand the loss of Summerville will be a big down for us. They also have a top-six-o-phile ref in charge.
You know what, I’m going to plump for us to get a draw out of this one. With that in mind I will place the £2.50 out of Wednesday’s winnings back on us to pick up a point in an entertaining 2-2 draw.
Enjoy The Game!
When last we met at the Ozempic: Lost 1-3 (Premier League August 2024)
Not as bad as it sounds. We took the game to them in the second half and it was 2-1 for a long while. The 83rd minute third goal gave the scoreline a slightly misleading air
Referee: Michael Oliver
You know those referees that have a top-six bias. Oliver is top of that particular pile.
Danger Man: Erland Harland
A hat-trick last season. Rarely goes more than one game without scoring – and he didn’t score on Wednesday
Percy and Daisy’s Amazing ManchesterCity Fact Of The Week Type Thing
A Manchester United supporter from (where else) Derbyshire was banned from going to watch Manchester City’s 3-0 defeat to Real Madrid at the Bernabau the other night. So how did City’s ticket police find out that there was an interloper in their midst? Was he grassed-up? Forensic detective work, perhaps? No. As if to underline that Tottenham don’t have a monopoly on supporters whose IQ is similar to their shoe size, the guy gave an email address containing the word “manchesterunited”. “How else can I remember which team it is I support” he probably didn’t complain.
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