Luck-o-Meter 25-26 - Gameweek 37

The big hassle this week is the FA Cup Final between Manchester City and Chelsea being scheduled on the penultimate weekend of the season. This means that they can't play their GW37 league games against Bournemouth and Spurs until next Tuesday evening. (I suppose we should at least be grateful that the League didn't decide to declare GW37 a Blank Gameweek for these four teams, and GW38 a Double!)  Having a Friday evening kick-off between Villa and Liverpool was an additional irritation, meaning that we got very very little time on Friday to finalise our team changes. And of course, with City and Chelsea, we have no idea what shape they'll be in for the Tuesday return to league action: elated by success, drained/distracted by celebrations, demoralised by defeat - or perhaps just thoroughly knackered by a tough game (that might have gone to extra time and penalties...). With an especially heightened risk of rotations, it's very dangerous to be relying on players from either of those two clubs this gameweek.

But at least there haven't been too many new injuries this past week!

These weekly 'summaries' have been getting a bit too involved - and excessively time-consuming for me! - so I've been aiming to keep them briefer recently. I made just about zero progress on that resolution for the first few weeks, but.... now I've hit upon a new 'format', which might help: a tabulation of the major types of 'lucky' incidents. 

I will try to resist any extended commentary (although I probably will still indulge in a few diatribes about any particularly egregious penalty or handball incidents).

Red cards awarded: 

Red cards not awarded:  

Penalties awarded: The early penalty award against Kelleher was extremely harsh: he barely touched Ismaila Sarr, who was already going down; contact, yes, but trivial, not enough to bring the player down.

Penalties not awarded:  Soucek was lucky to escape an early penalty shout: the ball into the box clearly did hit his hand, and he had plenty of time to see the flight of the ball and get out of the way of it, but actually appeared to move his arm slightly towards the ball. Another utterly baffling decision from the VAR room: there is no consistency on these calls this season. Brennan Johnson should also have had a penalty, for a brief but very obvious tug on the back of his shirt at the edge of the box.

Tight/dubious offsides: 

Goals wrongly allowed/disallowed: Michael Salisbury made one of the weirdest decisions of the season, even when sent to the pitchside monitor for a second look, somehow ruling that there was nothing wrong with Bryan Mbeumo briefly catching the ball between his upper-arm and chest to bring it under control, in the lead-up to Cunha's goal. Significantly, Cunha didn't celebrate because he knew the goal shouldn't have been able to stand - and briefly looked surprised and embarrassed when it was finally given.

Surprise omissions/early substitutions/injuries: Jeremie Frimpong and Alexander Isak were unexpected omissions from Liverpool's match squad on Friday night. Kevin Schade was dropped to the bench, in favour of Dango Ouattara. Kieran Trippier was reinstated at right-back for a farewell appearance at St James's Park - although that might have been down to an absence of anyone else fit to play in that position rather than any sentiment on Eddie Howe's part. Nuno surprisingly gave a start to Callum Wilson over the recently impressive Taty Castellanos - and that availed him nothing; although he brought the Argentinian on after just 15 minutes, and he did contribute a spectacular late goal.

Near misses:  Bryan Mbeumo hit the foot of the near-post at the end of an early breakaway, and in the follow-up Casemiro put an effort inches wide. Ismaila Sarr relished starting as the main striker for Palace, and soon followed up his coolly taken penalty with a fierce near-post drive that smashed against the woodwork. Soon afterwards, his partner Strand Larsen also curled a good effort against the far-post. Jake O'Brien nearly equalised for Everton with a powerful header, but Roefs somehow flung his shoulder at it to deflect it away. In the closing minutes at Old Trafford, a great move ended with Diogo Dalot seeing a cracking cross-shot come back off the far post. Castellanos was nearly a hero for West Ham, almost grabbing a second goal when he smashed a near-post effort past Pope in the closing minutes but saw it hit the angle of post and crossbar.

Big misses/big saves: Karl Darlow made a fine finger-tip save from a long-range effort from Pascal Gross. A little later Joel Veltman's sloppy clearance thudded straight against the chest of his partner Lewis Dunk and rebounded towards the goal, demanding a sharp stop from Bart Verbruggen. Adam Armstrong had a great chance to snatch a late win for Wolves, but his effort came back off the near-post.

Outstanding goals: Morgan Rogers and John McGinn were having a little private competition on Friday night to see who could hit the sweetest curler; it will be tough to decide which one should get into the frame for 'Goal of the Month' (although it's a pity that some careless defending improbably let Van Dijk steal in for a couple of headed consolation goals, in what should really have been an absolute drubbing for an increasingly rickety-looking Liverpool...). Luke Shaw produced a very neat finish to give United an early lead - only his 5th goal in 12 seasons at the club! Castellanos gave West Ham fans some scant consolation in a terrible game with his 'Goal of the Season' contender in the 70th minute - lashing home Hermansen's long kick with a first-time half-volley that dipped viciously over Pope from just outside the area. (An assist for a keeper is a rare turn-up in itself!)  Mateus Mané - having already stung Leno's palms with a long-range effort early on - banged in a cracker from the edge of the box to give Wolves a rare lead; though, sadly, they couldn't hang on for all 3 points in their last home game of the season.

Outstanding performances: 

Big mistakes: Sunderland were gifted a third goal in added-on time when Keane and Coleman both unaccountably opted not to pul the ball behind, and thus let it run through the six-yard box to an unmarked Isidor. Leeds were gifted a last-gasp winner when the usually immaculate Jan Paul van Hecke played a lazy, no-look back-pass straight to Dominic Calvert-Lewin (who then cost his FPL owners a point by taking his shirt off to celebrate!), though Verbruggen was also at fault for rushing out, and Dunk for not dropping back to cover for the error. Many managers with Brighton players were left ruing the sudden evaporation of what had looked like in-the-bag clean-sheet points.

Bad luck/good luck: Ouattara's goal was one of the strangest we've seen this season: Canvot's attempt at a headed clearance struck him in the face at close-range as he ran in behind the defender - and deflected straight into the goal, without him knowing much about it!

FPL weirdness:  Bruno Fernandes was rather generously given a second assist: one of those only-in-FPL ones, not part of his official league tally for the season! Even under the much more generous interpretation of 'assists' being used for the points awards this season, it was rather bizarre to see the Forest defender's attempted clearance interpreted merely as a non-consequential 'deflection'. Antonee Robinson was a surprise penalty-taker for Fulham. (This isn't strictly a weirdness in how FPL is recognising game actions or assigning points - but I couldn't think where else to put it.)

Unexpected results:  

Of course, there are still three matches still to play in this gameweek, with some of the top teams involved, but at the moment the global average is an unbelievably dismal 24 points, and the FPL 'Team of the Week' includes only four players - Rogers, Anderson, Watkins, and the incredibly lucky Van Dijk - with any kind of ownership. With a lot of goals from defenders, an extraordinary amount of woodwork-battering, 2 clearcut penalties bizarrely not given (and a very dubious one awarded against Kelleher), and Michael Salisbury's unfathomable decision to ignore the Mbeumo handball that should have invalidated United's second goal, this week is looking set to be at least an 8 out of 10 on the 'Luck-o-Meter'.