A BIG STATEMENT
Newcastle’s win at St James’ Park wasn’t the only Big Statement made by a Premier League football club this weekend. The day after the game, the club they’d beaten issued a Big Statement of their own, backing their manager who had gone on an impassioned and slightly unhinged post-match rant after seeing Anthony Gordon’s winner survive three separate VAR checks before being allowed to stand and calling for an end to the kind of “retrospective analysis” to which most of their statement was devoted. As entitled and pompous as it was pitiful, it was obviously lapped up by Gooners on various Social Media Disgraces but greeted with a mixture of rolled eyes, bemused bafflement and ridicule by folk who don’t sleep in Gunnersaurus-branded jimmy-jams.
Less than a month ago, after the video assistant referee of a game between Liverpool and Tottenham had made what was later acknowledged to be a glaring error due to a lapse in concentration, Mikel Arteta had graciously acknowledged the fallibility of match officials. “They are trying to make the best decisions,” he said when quizzed about the incident. “We need to give support and understand that mistakes happen, and that that pressure is very difficult to manage.” On Saturday, a man who bears a close physical resemblance to Arteta but is clearly in no way related to the Arsenal manager, spat his dummy out and went off on one in his post-match interviews because the curtain-twitchers in Stockley Park had arrived at a conclusion that wasn’t necessarily wrong but just happened to be one with which he disagreed.
Some housekeeping. Did the ball go out of play before Joe Willock chased it down and crossed it? Nobody knows for sure. Did Joelinton push Gabriel in the back as the hapless Arsenal defender tried to deal with the cross? Maybe but it’s an entirely subjective decision and the only people whose opinion matters decided he did not. Was Gordon onside when the ball rolled his way for the tap-in. Nobody knows for sure and on this occasion for reasons beyond Football Daily’s ken the computer was not in a position to say no.
What we do know with a fair amount of certainty, is that if Arsenal scored an identical goal and it had been chalked off by the officials for any one of the three reasons Newcastle’s wasn’t, their manager, players and fans would have completely lost their minds and insisted it should have stood. “It is embarrassing, it is a disgrace, that’s what it is, a disgrace,” seethed Arteta in what could prove an expensive post-match interview. “We’ve been taking it up [with the PGMOL] for months. There is too much at stake, we put in so many hours. I’m here to represent the football club and to get my team to compete at the highest level; the margins are so small, it’s a disgrace, embarrassing.” Etc, and so on.
While Football Daily is wholeheartedly in favour of the kind of entertainment generated by the Spaniard’s post-match meltdown, his tantrum and the endorsement of it by a weird club statement will only serve to legitimise and further fuel the paranoia of the disturbing number of Tinfoil hat-wearing dingbats among the club’s support who appear to genuinely believe referees are conspiring against their team. While there is no question that a number of bad decisions led to Newcastle’s winner, Arteta must know deep down that all the most egregious ones were made by various players on Arsenal’s team.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
“What’s better? La Liga or the Premier League? How about something like a Ryder Cup of football to find out? In the summer, play the champions of the Premier League against the champions of La Liga, second in Premier League against second in La Liga, third against third … promoted teams against promoted teams. Maybe go to the US, play there. Three points for a win, two for a win on penalties, one for a loss” – former Leeds sporting director and current Sevilla director of football, Víctor Orta, gets his mischievous chat on with Sid Lowe and starts throwing out the kind of crazy ideas that someone will now probably try to make a reality.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
Fluminense won the Copa Libertadores on Saturday in dramatic fashion, edging out Argentina’s Boca Juniors in extra time thanks to a belter of a goal by a player named John Kennedy. Don’t ask what football can do for you, ask what you can do for football. This game had it all. A legendary venue (the Maracanã), a seething crowd, fans in tears, players in tears, three cracking goals, two red cards, at least one clear penalty shout, eye-popping tussles, and a slap to the face. But what I found most exhilarating of all was the ages of the bulk of the Fluminense starting XI: Goalkeeper Fabio (43 years old), left back Marcelo (35) of Real Madrid fame, centre-back Felipe Melo (40), right back Samuel Xavier (33), attacking midfielder Ganso (34), winger Keno (34), and centre forward German Cano (35). Age before beauty!” – Peter Oh.
Saturday’s winning goal for Newcastle wasn’t the first time they have scored a dodgy one against Arsenal. Their equaliser in the 1932 Cup final was converted from a cross delivered from behind the line. Sounds like a conspiracy to me” – Gordon Glassford.
I don’t know exactly how many players, like, say, Kevin Lokko of Maidenhead, had the unacceptable gall to have a birthday this same weekend as a loss in an important game, but I do hope not one of them had the unacceptable brass neck to perhaps have some friends down to the local pool and play on the inflatables and have cake and crisps in the party room after or something. I hope they were made to do Spanish homework in their bedroom and didn’t even get chips with their tea like the unacceptably wayward children they are. This, I think it seems, is fair to deem acceptable. Happy Birthday, Kevin, by the way” – Jon Millard.
Thanks for instantly heeding my call to restart letter prizes while Noble Francis hits the North Atlantic beaches. Since that worked, might you also flip back on the TV & Radio listings section? And increase the gratuitous José Mourinho coverage? And since I’m on a run of form—could you give Sid Lowe a raise?” – Conor Williams.
Send your letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Prizes are back! Today’s lettter o’ the day winner is … Jon Millard, who gets a copy of Tinseltown: Hollywood and the Beautiful Game – a Match Made in Wrexham. You can buy a copy here.
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