With the long awaited return of football comes the even longer awaited crowning of Liverpool as champions. For all those who don’t support Liverpool it brings to an end the forlorn hope that the season would be declared null and void and the Merseysiders would have to continue their wait for at least another season.
Liverpool took a very small step nearer to getting their hands on the trophy by drawing with Everton at Goodison Park and Jürgen Klopp will be confident of becoming the first Liverpool manager to win the title since Kenny Dalglish in 1990. In fact, it ‘s difficult to see anything stopping them now except maybe a global virus pandemic, oh wait…we already tried that one!
Manchester City took on Arsenal at The Etihad and immediately continued where they left off, particularly when it comes to Arsenal. The Gunners don’t look any better under Arteta than they did under Emery or, indeed, under Wenger during his final years!
A 3-0 win was comfortable enough for City but Arsenal continued their prolonged fall from grace with a bad-tempered 2-1 loss down in Brighton. Their shenanigans after the final whistle, despite a little prior provocation, were disrespectful and a reminder of a famous day at Old Trafford a few years back! Michel Arteta has a job on just changing the attitude of his players before they can even think of success!
Meanwhile Manchester United’s much anticipated return against Tottenham was a bit of a damp squib. A dull game ended 1-1 and, if Tottenham continue to approach games at home the way they did this one, then their new stadium will remain empty even when fans are welcomed back.
One noticeable aspect of the game was Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s reticence, yet again, to make substitutions to try and affect the result. At present he is allowed 5 substitutions yet still waited until the 57th minute to make his first! At this stage of the game United were 1-0 down and had been since the first half.
Pogba and Fernandes celebrate Fernandes scoring from the penalty won by Pogba, simple stuff eh?
Pogba and Greenwood coming on immediately changed the mood and intensity and soon resulted in the penalty from which United equalised.
Another strange substitution from United’s manager was bringing Matić on for Lindelof when he sustained a slight injury. This meant McTominay dropping to centre back to accommodate the change. As Spurs were now seeing more of the ball, this change didn’t last too long and McTominay was replaced by Bailly with around 3 minutes to go. Why didn’t Solskjær just put Bailly on for Lindelof in the first place? The United manager still has that “baffling decision” element to his game, particularly with substitutions.
Other than that football’s return was welcomed by all armchair fans which, at present, is ALL fans and, despite the empty stadia, there were some good games.
And finally…..
Scottish football has decided to settle it’s differences in court. The premature end to the season has proven, as everyone thought it would, to be a totally unsatisfactory way to decide important things such as promotion and relegation.
Less important things, such as the SPL title being handed to Celtic, have only upset Steven Gerrard and a few thousand Rangers supporters but, if he is honest, it is highly unlikely they would have caught the Hoops anyway.
Still, the majority of opinion in England was against the season ending and Liverpool being handed the trophy as it was not mathematically impossible for them to be caught. Maybe the same should have been the case in Scotland. We certainly don’t know, what do you think?
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 