It’s been a while. Two or three weeks. We are five matches into the 24/25 season. Arsenal are in fourth place with 11 points, one behind Aston Villa. Manchester City are in first place with Liverpool in second. It’s all rather familiar, given results of the past two or three years. The exception is Aston Villa in third.
As mentioned elsewhere, I would be massively surprised (and happy, of course) if Arsenal won the league, but I think top four will be the final outcome of the season. City look really great. Liverpool seems to have stabilised under Arne Slot. I would place money on Villa to be the surprise of the season. We seem to forget that while everyone has been focusing on Citeh, Liverpool, the awful times at Stanford Bridge, AngeBall loosing air and the creepy-cringe of Ten Haag, Villa have been stabilised by Unai Emery. For what it’s worth, I also think Chelsea will come charging towards a European place.
In no particular order, I would not be surprised if the six places at the top will go to Citeh, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Aston Villa and either one of Spurs, Man United or Brentford.
Conspiracies are Bunk/Play to the Whistle
There has been a swirl of conspiracies about referee Michael Oliver being on the payroll of Manchester Citeh. I’m not a conspiracy theorist. Referees can and do make mistakes. The red car for Leandro Trossard, for kicking the ball after the whistle, seemed unfair, but the referee applied the rules. It was harsh, and there was justified anger when Oliver ignored Jeremy Doku’s kick of the ball after the whistle. But it’s all water under the bridge. I would, of course, be tempted to defend Arsenal and the players – unless there are obvious cases of violence or bigotry, or stupidity for that matter….
While I dabbled in ice hockey (I was hopeless) I attended two refereeing course; in Western Ontario and one I Johannesburg. Among the stand out lessons I learned in refereeing class (and as a player) is that you do not touch the puck after the whistle has gone. The referee will retrieve the puck for the face-off.
Football appears to be different because stoppages can occur far from the referee who should, anyway, collect/place the ball unless it goes off the pitch. That is probably all too confusing and…. I don’t know. The point is that you play to the whistle, and when the referee blows the whistle, you don’t kick the ball. It would help if there was consistency in refereeing.