Luck-o-Meter (7)

Gosh - did we actually just have a week without any egregious refereeing screw-ups?? Well, very nearly...  And only a couple of VAR interventions (both, a little strangely, directing the ref to take a second look at an incident), which, for once, were both obviously correct. Things are looking up!

Brentford's penalty was perhaps a little dubious: I thought Collins threw himself to the ground a bit hopefully after minimal tangling with Lemina. And it was again a bit of a strange decision-making process, where VAR recommending the ref take a second look was tantamount to awarding the penalty themselves.... and yet we've seen several far stronger penalty shouts this season that didn't seem to get reviewed at all, and it is mystifying why some (only a few so far) get returned to the referee for a second look, but most don't. Wolves might feel a bit hard done-by that Cunha's apparently much stronger appeal near the end of the game was also apparently ignored (it may have been just outside the area, but I didn't see any announcement to that effect; the key thing with VAR is that we need full disclosure about what it's doing and why - but it all still seems a bit vague and chaotic most of the time).

Robertson and Diaz getting 'rested' for no stated reason, and then Macallister getting withdrawn at half-time, and then Alisson picking up a (possibly quite serious) injury half-way through the second-half caused a lot of misery for FPL managers with Liverpool assets (not just the ones direcly involved: every Liverpool player was negatively affected by those absences). And Palace can feel aggrieved they didn't get a penalty when Van Dijk grabbed Guehi's wrist with both hands while he was trying to go for a cross. PGMOL's justificatory statement that the incident was not 'sustained' or 'did not have a sufficient impact' was particularly bizarre: since when have those ever been criteria for awarding a penalty, are those phrases anywhere in the rules??

The disallowing of Lewis Cook's free-kick goal for Bournemouth was rough for him, but an entirely correct call - Evanilson was a mile offside, and trying to get on the end of the ball across the six-yard box (might actually have got some hair on the ball??), so unquestionably 'interfering with play'. Very hard luck on Cook, though, who had looked so surprised and delighted to register such a rare goal.

I also thought Arsenal's second goal - probably the decisive moment in the match - was a bit iffy, since, exactly as in the Lewis Cook instance, there was a player in the middle of the six-yard box (Gabriel, I think?) who was clearly offside and tried to get on the end of Saka's cross, before it went through to Martinelli beyond the far post - and, although he didn't get that near it, this was a substantial enough action to distract the goalkeeper, in my view. But the big clubs almost never have a decision like this go against them - particularly not from VAR!

I didn't see anything remotely contentious about either of the penalty calls in the Everton v Newcastle game. Tarkovski executing a judo throw on Tonali (and almost tearing the shirt off his back in the process) was about as clear-cut as they come. The only mystery there was that the on-pitch officials didn't spot it immediately. And perhaps that this was another instance where VAR recommended a 'second look' (do they not have the authority to award the penalty themselves in a case this obvious??). Similarly, there's no way - except in Sean Dyche's damaged brain - that Calvert-Lewin losing track of where the ball is and kicking Dan Burn instead can lead to an Everton penalty. However, the large number of squandered chances from Newcastle - including a failed penalty conversion from Gordon - was outside the realm of the normal and expected, and so again a small tipping of the scales of the Luck-o-Meter.

We didn't have quite such goalkeeping heroics as last week - except in the Chelsea v Forest match! Although Pickford's penalty stop, and a couple of great saves from Areola and Pope were also outside the bounds of the normal.

Not quite such a feast of spectacular goal-scoring - or near-missing - as in recent weeks either; we had a couple of scorching solo goals from Buonanotte and Doku, and Bruno Fernandes clattering the crossbar with a free-kick, but.... that was about it.

And again a few goals from defenders: Collins, Pinnock and Ait-Nouri - in the same match?!

And just about none of the most popular players came up with anything much this week. In the 'Team of the Week', most people will only have had Saka - and, maybe, Bowen and Ait-Nouri. So, it was a major upset week for many FPL managers (myself included!), but not, I think, a particularly 'lucky' one. In fact, in terms of the really vexing quirks of Fate like bad officiating or bizarre selection decisions, this is probably the best week we've had yet; but the uncanny failure of all the big names to produce in the same week does get it up to about a 3 out of 10 on the Luck-o-Meter.