Luck-o-Meter (10)

 

Damn, have we finally seen a Saturday without any refereeing cock-ups?? Well, almost.... (Andy Madley was guilty of a couple of very dubious yellow-not-red decisions in the game at Southampton. And Tim Robinson made a couple of game-changing howlers within a few seconds of each other in the dying minutes at Ipswich.)  It's been a long time coming.... and we're still not quite there. Hope springs eternal - yet eternally likely to be disappointed.

Bournemouth could reasonably feel they might have had two or three more goals against a lacklustre City - if their own finishing had been a little better, or Ederson a little less sharp and defiant.

Kalvin Phillips was surely a bit lucky to escape any punitive action at all for his unnecessary rushing into the back of Buonanotte (and clubbing him across the back of the neck with his forearm!): the kind of 'challenge' that is invariably seen as a yellow card if the ref notices it, and quite often as a red, if - as here - an element of deliberate thuggery is to be suspected. However, his later dismissal for a supposed second yellow offence was a travesty: the Leicester player was kicking towards him as he ran in towards a 50-50 ball, and he actually tried to pull out of the contact; it was either an 'accidental collision' or a foul by the Leicester man - no fault attaching to Phillips at all. But that controversy perhaps distracted VAR from taking a proper look at the stone-cold penalty that had been ignored a few seconds earlier when Fatawu charged into Chapman and smashed him to the floor. WTF??

Welbeck came very close to maintaining his scoring streak against Liverpool, particularly with that excellent free-kick that curled into the side-netting. Van Dijk somehow missed an open goal. And then Gakpo had one of those hopeful, floaty, curling crosses that somehow floated all the way into the top corner....? Lots of strange stuff going on in that game!

You have to feel sorry for poor Ryan Yates - obviously destined never to be allowed to have an EPL goal stand! This call was probably 'correct' under the current crazy rules - but it was very difficult to clearly see everyone's relative positions in a crowded penalty area; and I never like to see goals chalked off for a supposed margin of inches.....  And Ola Aina looks likely to claim the prize for the unexpected screamer of the week!!  (There's only been one so far.... Well, OK, I suppose Leif Davis mertis an 'honorouable mention'. And then perhaps Janelt's drive from outside the area on Monday night...!)

I thought Tarkowski was lucky to escape a straight red for his horrific tackle on Archer. He probably only got away with that because it was so early in the game; but thus the impact of his exclusion would have been all the more massive, if the referee had decided that way. Very, very strange that VAR didn't suggest the second look. Perhaps that dubious call was somewhat balanced out by the even more clearcut mistake - though much later in the game - when Bednarek chopped Beto when clear through on goal 20 yards out. The covering defender, a very heavy-legged Harwood-Bellis, was at least five yards away, and the attacker would have been able to crack off a shot immediately from the edge of the box, so of course it was a clear 'goalscoring opportunity' - bonkers decision!

Still, at least Southampton got a probably deserved win (earned on their solid attacking form all season, as well as in having the majority of the good possession in this game) - with another very late turnaround: Armstrong converting on the breakaway only seconds after Beto had crashed one against the crossbar at the other end. Beto is no doubt aggrieved that his apparent last-minute equaliser was adjudged off-side; again a very tight call, but it looked like the correct one. Ramsdale being in excellent form also helped to secure the points - with fine saves from Mangala and McNeil, and a brilliant reflex double-stop from Michael Keane.

Dean Henderson was also somewhat fortunate to get away with clattering into Sarabia's legs a fraction of a second before getting his hand on the ball - that should certainly have been a penalty, and perhaps a sending-off for the keeper; and, coming so early in the game, it would surely have turned the result completely in Wolves's direction. Perhaps Palace might have felt they should have a similar call go their way in the dying minutes when Sa clashed with Munoz; slow-motion replays did suggest that Sa's hand was just about on the ball before two players clattered into each other, but it was a very, very marginal call; and to the naked eye, I certainly thought it looked more as if Sa had been guilty of the foul (though, of course, that kind of decision just about never goes against keepers!). Either way, I hold Anthony Taylor at fault for taking so long to blow his whistle - allowing Mateta and the Palace fans to believe for a moment that they had nicked a (probably deserved?) last-gasp winner. And TWO goals from defenders in this topsy-turvy match (and really, a striker's finish from Trevoh Chalobah!) - that doesn't happen very often.

Solanke's first goal looked, to me, offside. I hate to see good goals ruled out for such tiny 'infringements', and have often said I think the rule should be redrafted to allow attackers a lot more leeway; but... under the current harsh definition, he looked definitely an inch or so offside. And there was something very odd going on with the VAR decision on this: they failed to display their customary lines on the pitch to demonstrate how their decision had been reached. I wonder if this was just a transient technical difficulty. or if they'd found it impossible to lay down distinct lines because the call was so close? Either way, it rather undermines the public's confidence in the process.

Ange Postecoglou pulling Son off the field just 10 minutes into the second half will have been a cruel blow to any FPL managers who played him this week (although he was a slightly doubtful starter going into the gameweek, so they should count themselves lucky they got anything from him...!). This might be have been a one-off to spare his talisman the risk of re-injury (although he pulled Betancur at the same time), but the Spurs boss picks up an FPL black mark as yet another manager who's prepared to make substitutions very early.

At old Trafford, Fofana and Rashford hit the woodwork, Neto and Garnacho had very near misses, and Garnacho, Bruno Fernandes and Enzo had terrible misses (the game might have been a lot more exciting if one of these efforts had gone in...), and Caicedo scored with a bit of a pinger. And Cole Palmer may perhaps have given the best-ever performance not to receive any Fantasy points at all (had the BPS not deigned to grant him a solitary bonus point!). I really could not understand how he did not earn at least 2, if not 3 bonus points there. And there were a few other strangenesses in the bonus allocations this week - most notably Morgan Rogers being given 2 points.... in a match in which his team ended up getting thrashed, and he was withdrawn after 65 minutes?? Something going wrong round here....

Chelsea fans may feel aggrieved that Lisandro Martinez didn't get sent off for striking Palmer above the knee with his studs. I felt the referee's call on that was right, as the contact wasn't very heavy, and probably entirely accidental - Martinez slipped, lost his standing foot as he stretched to make the challenge. However, there's an issue of consistency and transparency in the VAR process again; surely this was a significant enough incident to have warranted a 'second look' on the pitchside monitor? This needs to happen every time there's a challenge like this... not just whenever the VAR official of the day randomly feels like it. And it needs to be established that the recommendation for a 'second look' is entirely neutral, it does not presuppose that there has been an offence of a particular nature, just that it's an incident that ought to be considered closely. (In order to achieve that, we really need to have a small range of set phrases to be used for different kinds of review, rather than just letting the two officials banter freely with each other. Ideally, these cues should be pre-recorded rather than spoken live, to preclude the possibility of any emotional loading in the voice towards a particular outcome. This is why VAR is such a mess; there is no clear and consistent process for addressing these issues - every week, the officials seem to be making it all up as they go along.)

There were few moments of outstanding personal skill - or misfortune - and once again, few of the big names came up with anything, making it an exceptionally low-scoring gameweek. The 'Team of the Week' is comprised of players for whom there is a reasonable case for inclusion, players who probably mostly have an ownership somewhere around 5% (although it is a massive surprise to find Joao Gomes and Harry Wilson making the selection!). Overall, then, not a very 'lucky' week; just a disappointingly subdued one from the big teams. However, two fairly clear penalties ignored, and three or four potential red cards not even given a second look still make this a very poor week for the officiating, and thus at least a 5 out of 10 on the 'Luck-o-Meter'.