Morning.
This round of Premier League fixtures finished last night with Man Utd losing at home to 10 man Everton, which might have made this one of the funniest weekends of all time. The fact Everton had a man sent off in such odd circumstances makes it even more so. Idrissa Gueye was given a 13th minute red card for slapping Michael Keane, his own teammate.
I have to say I thought it was a bit harsh. Teammates clash on the pitch with regularity, and while technically he did strike Keane, it wasn’t like he laid him out with a haymaker or anything. I don’t think anyone would have complained if it had just been a yellow and the ref gave him a stern warning, but refs are gonna ref, as we well know. I don’t think it even stands up when you look at the rules which say a player should be sent off if he ‘deliberately strikes an opponent or any other person on the head or face with the hand or arm, is guilty of violent conduct unless the force used was negligible.’
I think it was pretty negligible to be honest, especially when you see what has been let slide in terms of violent conduct in the past. I would argue that Bruno Guimaraes elbowing Jorginho in the back of the head as he ran by him was far more worthy of a red card, but on that occasion they made up a new rule about how he didn’t use his arm like a weapon or something. Never heard that one before or since.
Nevertheless, Gueye was stupid to give the ref a decision to make, and it probably should have been the end of the game from an Everton perspective. Instead, they scored a really good goal, then defended brilliantly against a United side who looked like they had no ideas at all with the extra man. Get it, cross it, play it sideways, cross it again, maybe the big woolly-headed fella gets a head on it, and that was it. Repeat to fade. Repeat to 90 minutes. Game over.
And I don’t think there’s any doubt Everton deserved the three points. Sometimes, it can be tough to play against 10 men, but in the end when you have that advantage for as long as United did, to not score or even really cause the opposition too many problems is pretty, pretty, pretty bad. Ruben Amorim will come under the tactical microscope again after a reasonably decent recent run, and the rest of us will just continue to enjoy their abject, baked-in, mediocrity.
From an Arsenal perspective, there’s just still so much fun stuff to consume after the win on Sunday. Whether it’s your favourite podcasts, articles, YouTube, Match of the Day, it’s all there. I like to go back afterwards when I’ve downloaded the game again and watch the goals properly, because when I’m doing the live blog, I have to work on posting the updates, getting the video links to use, post to BlueSky etc, so I don’t always catch everything in the celebrations, and the interactions between the players.
I said on the Arsecast Extra yesterday that my favourite of the goals was Eberechi Eze’s second, just because the timing of it right after the break – when Sp*rs had made a change to try and work the game back in their favour – absolutely obliterated the effectiveness of that. I spoke about the finish in yesterday’s blog, so there’s no need to highlight that again, despite the fact it’s better than it looks when you break it down. Then in the huddle Declan Rice says ‘Let’s kill ’em, let’s f*cking kill ’em’, which was more or less what I was thinking. And on top of all that, just as the second half kicked off, Peter Drury on Sky Sports commentary wished absent Sp*rs player James Maddison a happy birthday, and to my mind this was the best present Arsenal could have given him. Unwrap that you see-through backpack, big man at the roast, darts-chucking twat. It’s the small things, you know.
Another slightly underrated moment for me is Piero Hincapie absolutely monstering Richarlison in the air to help set up the fourth goal. I know other players caught the eye a bit more on Sunday, but given the player he came in to replace, he did a really good job, and it’s not a surprise to me that Mikel Arteta took a moment in both his post-game press conference and his interview on Sky Sports to give the Ecuadorian international a mention.
Anyway, there’s enough good stuff there to keep us going for another little while, and I’m sure you all have your own favourite bits, but obviously the focus internally will now 100% be on the Bayern Munich game tomorrow night. This is one of those where I think what people want Mikel Arteta to do with his team selection, and what he’ll actually do with his team selection given we play Chelsea at the weekend, might well differ a bit, but we’ll wait and see what he says in his press conference later on today.
We’ll bring you all the stories from that over on Arseblog News, and if you want to join us for what promises to be a very enjoyable round-up of all the weekend’s Premier League action, we’ll have an episode of The 30 over on Patreon before lunchtime.
Right, I’ll leave it there for now. I think I might just watch the goals again though, because why not? There’s no good reason not to, and who am I to argue with reason, or the lack of reason? Exactly.
Let’s f*cking kill ’em’.
