Remember the time before VAR? When men were men, goals were goals and referees were doing a tough job given the circumstances?
The idea that the technology was supposed to end debates was always false and we all knew it. Football, arrogant to the last, and English football, the epicentre of footballing arrogance, somehow thought they’d fix what both codes of rugby, cricket and all the American sports couldn’t.
The tech has added nothing to the sport, taken lots away and bored everyone senseless in the process. It’s both tedious and necessary to start on this point, given the fiasco that dominated Tottenham’s 2-1 victory over Liverpool, so let’s get it out of the way. Any discussion of that match starts and ends with the VAR’s incompetence. At least they admitted it this time.
Right, that base is covered (for now at least). We can move onto the scheduling, which saw Sunday vacated for golf that was finished by then anyway. (Yes, Forest drew 1-1 with Brentford, but we’ve already forgotten about it.)
It’s not a banner weekend for the organisers of the Premier League, but it was another for those who perform in it, consistently bailing out the brains behind The Best League In The World™ through the competition’s unpredictability, quality and sheer entertainment value.
Man City, unbeatable, lost to Wolves, who are rubbish. Manchester United, beatable, lost to Crystal Palace, coached by a loveable Grandfather. Luton, who haven’t so much as hinted at winning, won away at Everton, becoming the first promoted side to pick up a victory this season.
Brighton, the darlings, got smashed 6-1 by Aston Villa, themselves smashed 5-1 on the opening day, but who are now ahead of the Seagulls – and Newcastle, who did the smashing – in the table.
Who’s good? Who’s not? Who knows? We will attempt to get to the bottom of this, and more, starting, as we must, with Ange Postecoglou and Spurs.
Before Ange came to Spurs, he was heralded as a hero at Celtic. But it wasn’t always thus: his first few months in Glasgow were less than stellar – results-wise, at least – and the whole ‘we never stop’, ‘trust the process’ mantra didn’t seem to be worth much.
The analytics nerds – your columnist is a signed up member of that community – saw it otherwise. All the data suggested that Postecoglou would pay off, mean regression would occur and Celtic would win the title. Eventually, this happened, and we all felt very smug about ourselves.
It’s a sobering thought for Spurs fans, or at least it should be, because this side are currently getting a lot, a lot a lot, of what Celtic didn’t get. Indeed, they’re getting what Rangers got at the time that inflated their real worth against their actual worth.
Saturday’s game was a cavalcade of this sort of thing. Two red cards for Liverpool, of course, which goes a long way to helping any team time.
A VAR decision that was flat out wrong, one of the worst since the technology was brought it, that took off a Luis Diaz goal at a time that could have been fatal.
A late own goal that, realistically, Joel Matip should have defended. An injury to Cody Gakpo, one of Liverpool’s best attackers.
The thing about luck is that you have to take advantage of it when it comes your way. Spurs, undeniably, got several huge slices of it, but were ruthless in exploiting the moments that they were given.
The move for their first could have been drawn up on a whiteboard in the changing room: inverted fullback lays off to James Maddison, a pass inside the opposing channel, a simple cutback and a high-probability chance for the forward.
Angeball is the cliche that refuses to die, and rightly so, because this was as chemically pure a slice of it as you will ever see. Fast, vertical, simple, unstoppable.
Even so, they didn’t see out the half without incident. Gakpo scored and Diaz probably should have got another, missing a big chance.
The second half somewhat inflated the stats and made Spurs look better, and that they got their in the end will cloud judgements on how good they were.
As we’ve said every week though: does it actually matter? Tottenham were meant to struggle, but the point was the performances and style, not the result.
Expectations are very low and Postecoglou’s remit is to change the vibes and make the fans dream as much as it was to win games. Winning games, of course, helps.
The thing about overperformance, which is certainly what Spurs are doing, is that it is generally followed by underperformance. The mean regression will come.
Ange was backed to the hilt at Celtic despite results, and delivered in the end. Now, he will be backed to the hilt because of results, and should be able to ride out the dip when it comes.
It’s better to have the points on the board early, because if you acknowledge when luck is going your way – treat triumph and disaster as imposters etc etc – then you can get ahead of the curve, adapting to issues before they impact results.
Ange has already done this a little bit. We saw Richarlison moved to the left, a smart solution to getting both him and Son into the team without removing the biggest goal threat from the middle.
If this continues to January, he will have a chance to improve the squad from a position of strength.
Most of all, it buys him time. Fans don’t forget these moments. Spurs have now had positive results against Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal, and now get another three highly winnable games before Chelsea – currently the anti-Spurs on the luck front – in a month.
Ride the train when it’s going. It’s a wild one at the moment.
The good thing about being Manchester City at the moment is that you can fly under the radar somewhat – boring, clinical efficiency – due to the shocking state of affairs at the other end of the Metrolink line.
City haven’t really been very good for a while, if you’ve been watching closely, but unlike in previous years, their early season struggle has been accompanied by good results eked out while finding their feet.
They lost 2-1 to Wolves at the weekend, having 23 shots but creating very, very little as they fired most of their attempts into the closest old gold shirted defender. That comes on the back of a League Cup exit to Newcastle, and a somewhat stunted victory at home to Nottingham Forest.
It’s good to win when you’re not playing well, and City do tend to start slowly. They’ll come. The next month, which sees them face Arsenal away, Brighton at home then United away, interspersed with a trip to Leipzig in the Champions League, will probably spark them into life, and not before time.
Pep Guardiola really doesn’t ever feel pressure, because he’s one of the greatest managers ever and has a limitless well of cash, but if there was an inkling of it, it would disappear simply by looking at Erik ten Hag.
The United boss must survey Old Trafford and weep. His lot are a rabble and barely troubled a Palace side who mustn’t have been able to contain themselves.
Roy Hodgson is as experienced as they come and would have taken roughly four seconds to deliver his tactical instructions before the game. Sit tight, score off a corner.
At the risk of being nostalgic, there was a time when teams turned up at Old Trafford expecting to lose and played accordingly. That’s not been the situation for ages, and long predates ten Hag.
Now, they know they will get chances themselves if they sit in, and that there’s something to play for. Doing so denies space to Marcus Rashford, who is well off the boil, and Rasmus Højlund, who will probably come good but is not used to playing against permanent low blocks.
Leaving Alexandro Garnacho on the bench and refusing to talk to Jaden Sancho, a player with the proven quality to create against deep-lying defences, seems madness. It’s settling scores at the expense of the team at the moment.
The booing from the home crowd was well deserved. There’s plenty of scope for ten Hag to turn it around and he should be given the chance – but patience is a limited quality when you’re losing at home to Crystal Palace.
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