football ⚽
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refereeing is more art than science, often more subjective than objective
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they need the VAR referees to be VAR specialists
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the system by which they score referees is ‘interesting’
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I still don’t really know why they do it
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Malo Gusto made a big difference when he came on
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we need to get the ball to Mudryk earlier and oftener
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Nkunku and Reece James on at the end is a glimpse of what might have been this season
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Nottingham was a much nicer place than I remember from 30 years ago
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I particularly enjoyed the Bombay Delicatessen
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I’ll be glad to see the back of that Eton Blue kit. It looks ok on people walking around town, but it’s a bit icky on a football pitch
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Nicholas Jackson vaulting over the wall into the crowd after scoring the winner was daft, and probably a bit dangerous, and it got him booked again…but it was a totally Nicholas Jackson thing to do and I loved it
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the Forest support was great. ‘Mull of Kintyre’ is random, but i loved the Shakira tune they do….and beginning the “Hudson-odoi, he left ‘cos you’re shit” chant within seconds of him scoring was quality, and more amusing in retrospect :)
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I thought Cole Palmer had a relatively quiet game, and I was surprised he got MOTM….but I hadn’t appreciated that first assist until I saw it on the telly
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I am going to miss Thiago Silva. One of my favourite recent book titles is ‘The Beatles are under-rated’. Well, I’d also say that Thiago Silva is under-rated. Massively.
Allez les bleus!
Don’t vote for the far right, French sports stars urge public
Would’ve liked to have been at Stamford Bridge for SoccerAid again - it was a good afternoon out last time
i’m sorry to be a dreadful football snob, but for me the highlight of an international friendly is when the Chelsea player goes off uninjured
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Only 13 more CLs and Chelsea will actually be level with Real Madrid ⚽
Alan Shearer finishes every other sentence with ‘and rightly so’….and rightly so. ⚽
Harold Wilson, Leonid Brezhnev, and 'all the football'
This is fun, although the first bit is a tad unfair on Rishi, who does seem to be a proper football fan ⚽
This is on Harold Wilson and Leonid Brezhnev
“So there was no posturing towards the common man in his carrying around a postcard of the 1924 team, but it was a bit weird how often he got it out of his wallet to show it to people.
Anyway, he did that to Brezhnev, and Brezhnev thought he wanted an autograph, and signed it for him. So after that, he was carrying his beloved team, signed by the general secretary of the Communist party. This is really Brezhnev’s gaffe.”
One guy I’ve not seen mentioned in relation to the vacancy at Chelsea
Hopefully I’ll be proved wrong when we win the Premiership at a canter next season……but letting Pochettino go seems like a daft decision ⚽
The Most Grim-Faced of Churls - #AnyoneButArsenal
“Only the most grim-faced of churls would refuse to recognise the progress Mikel Arteta’s outstanding Arsenal side have made this season.”
Thinking of changing my bio to “the most grim-faced of churls”
#AnyoneButArsenal ⚽
Premier League: 10 things to look out for on the final day of the season
This is well worth a listen if you’re at all interested in football
The main things I got were:
The Audio Long Read: The impossible job – inside the world of Premier League referees
Thoughts on yesterday (includes swears)
Chelsea's pre-penalty playground squabble dissected by The Athletic
I thought this was amusing
The Athletic has a typically nerd-level-detail bit about Cole Palmer’s wonder goal on Monday
Branthwaite lunges desperately and does get a foot on the ball as Palmer continues his advance towards the Everton area, but the 21-year-old centre-back does not make enough contact to stop Chelsea’s top scorer.
Palmer carries on under pressure from Amadou Onana, while Garner is also now in the frame after sprinting from Chelsea’s half. As both men threaten to make Palmer the meat in an uncomfortable Everton sandwich, the Chelsea man produces an audacious back-heel flick behind Onana towards his team-mate Nicolas Jackson.
…and then they’ve done the same thing for the playground-style squabble over who should take the penalty later on.
Both embarrassing and funny ⚽
… Madueke’s momentum carries him slightly past Gusto, while Jackson’s superior judgement of space and speed enables him to cup the ball in two hands.
It looks for all the world as if Jackson now has control of the situation, but Madueke — who allowed himself to be discouraged from taking the match-winning penalty off Palmer in the closing minutes at home against Manchester United 11 days earlier — knows strength of will, not quality of technique, is the most important factor here
I ❤️ the NHS part 103
I’ve been fixed up after a spot of comedy goalkeeping earlier in the week
