Luck-o-Meter 26-27 - Gameweek 6

 

I'm continuing with this series of weekly reviews for a while (although they are rather irksomely time-consuming), using the simpler format I developed in the second half of last season: 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).

This week, as I'd expected, after the super-long international break, we're suffering quite a few injury absences, a lot of players looking a bit fatigued or out-of-sorts, almost nobody really quite at their best. Moreover, some teams are looking as if they've lost their way a little after a lack of regular full-team training over the past few weeks, and with very limited specific tactical preparation for this week's fixtures. Hence, a few fairly unpredictable performances and unexpected results were likely - but, ultimately, although we saw a lot of sub-par performances, the match outcomes still went as generally anticipated.

Red cards awarded: Pascal Struijk plainly impeded Wilson Isidor and barged him to the ground when he was about to break on goal, only 25 yards out, with Struijk the last defender. It took a long time for VAR to call the play back - but eventually the correct decision was reached, after a pitch-side review (but that shouldn't have been necessary). There is an argument that the ball was running away from Isidor too fast for him to easily claim possession of it, and that the keeper might have rushed out to reach it first; but that's highly speculative (Verbruggen was on his heels, not yet looking to charge out) - and with such blatant 'professional fouls', I have no complaints about a red card being awarded.

Betancur's 'headbutt' on Luke Shaw may have been fairly token, but.... you just can't do that. And he probably should have been sent off for the preceding flying challenge anyway (he got the ball, but he was wildly out of control and could have cut his opponent in half).

There can't be any dispute either about Ryan Gravenberch's two yellow cards at Anfield.

Red cards not awarded: 

Penalties awarded: 

Penalties not awarded: Daizen Maeda may have looked like he tripped over his own feet, but that stumble just inside the box was clearly initiated by a clip on the side of his left foot from Ryan Sessegnon. If referee Lewis Smith missed that, VAR should have told him to take a second look - but they didn't.

Tight/dubious offsides:  

Goals wrongly allowed/disallowed: Kamada's equaliser for Palace was the culmination of a slick passing sequence around the edge of the box, but at least twice in this passage of play, teammates of his looked as if they had strayed half a yard offside - and this didn't even seem to get reviewed (at least, not as far as we were told on the BBC highlights...)??  Lerma's second, to give the home side an unexpected lead on the stroke of half-time, was even more controversial: the ball apparently deflected in off Khalaili's elbow, but in a messy scrum of players it was almost impossible to get a clear view of this on the TV pictures and VAR missed it.

Dewsbury-Hall's equaliser for Everton also looked clearly offside to the naked eye - but no SAOT pictures this week??

Surprise omissions/early substitutions/injuries: It was perhaps a slight surprise that Ben White got the start at right-back rather than Jurrien Timber; maybe White is now back in Arteta's 'good books', after a long spell in the wilderness. Poor David Brooks, getting a first start in ages thanks to the injujry to Alex Scott, was pulled off just before half-time (presumably that must have been down to a fitness issue, although there was nothing obviously wrong with him). Carrick started Leny Yoro over Diogo Dalot and just-back-from-injury Amad Diallo over Marcus Rashford. De Zerbi rested Van de Ven and gave a first start to Senesi instead. On Sunday, Dominik Szoboszlai was a late dropout from the Liverpool lineup, while Nico O'Reilly, recovered from his England knock, started at left-back instead of Josko Gvardiol (a bit of a blow to the nearly 28% of FPL managers who own him). Ndiaye was replaced by Doku only 10 minutes into the second-half - and the Belgian looked so lively that you fear Ndiaye might now be spending most of the rest of the season on the bench.

Near misses: Emersonn signalled the start of Ipswich's comeback by thundering a header against the post, from a sublime Enciso cross.

Tyrick Mitchell's dipping 30-yard volley would have been a 'Goal of the Season' contender if it had gone in, but it wasn't too difficult for Sels to tip over the bar.

Big misses/big saves: Leeds had all the best chances in the first-half, with Raya making a good point-blank block from Bogle, and later only just avoiding carrying the ball over his own goal-line as he raced backwards to catch Ampadu's looping header, and having to parry a fierce near-post drive from Gudmundsson just before half-time. In the dying minutes, Odegaard somehow miskicked an effort straight into Trafford's hands - from about a yard-and-a-half in front of an open goal! And moments later, Saka failed to convert a one-on-one break against Trafford.

Johan Manzambi had two good efforts denied within seconds, first from a last-ditch block by Kayode, and then from a smart save by Kelleher. In the second-half, Kelleher again came to Brentford's rescue with a double-save denying first Jackson's long-range shot and then McGinn's point-blank follow-up.

Pedro Neto had a fierce drive well parried by Petrovic barely a minute after Henderson's opener, but it availed Bournemouth little, as Morgan Rogers tucked home one of his trademark curlers just a few seconds later.

Cristian Walton made a terrific save with his foot from Kevin's fierce drive in the closing minutes, to hang on to Ipswich's hard-earned win.

Right on the stroke of half-time, Sunderland somehow left three Brighton players unmarked at the far side of the six-yard box, but Struijk failed to get any power on to his header and it looped tamely against the outside of the far post.

Dominic Solanke was gifted a chance early on when a lazy pass from Lammens was intercepted and broke to him just inside the area; but he couldn't convert his one-one-one opportunity. And in the second-half, he scooped an effort over the bar from six yards out. Amad Diallo also fluffed an excellent chance when played in by Mbeumo after a quick breakaway, failing to test Kinsky with his scuffed cross-shot from the edge of the box. Mbeumo also tamely failed to beat the keeper when he had a late chance to wrap the game up.

Sels made possibly the save of the weekend, denying Strand Larsen with a point-blank stop after a good break down the right from Khalaili; although his opposite number, Walter Benitez, also pulled off a couple of defiant last-gasp stops, while Gibbs-White saw a deflected long-range shot cannon back off the underside of the bar. And Daniel Munoz had the 'miss of the day', ghosting in unmarked to the edge of the six-yard-box to get on the end of Neco Williams's cross, but spooning his effort wide of an open goal. Chris Wood, on as a sub for the last 20 minutes, got a free header in the middle but sent the effort straight at Benitez.

Thierno Barry again claimed a vital goal for Everton; but again, his finishing was profligate - he missed two absolute sitters earlier in the game.

Liverpool's best chance of a fairly drab game at Anfield fell to Isak's 21-yeard-old stand-in Lewis Koumas, who broke in behind midway through the second-half, but let fly his fierce shot straight down Donnarumma's throat. Shortly afterwards, Macallister had a decent effort from extreme range, but it was fairly easy for Gigi to parry away. A bit later, some trickery from Semenyo on the left side of the six-yard-box produced a square ball across the face of goal which Ndiaye somehow failed to get a touch on, despite being faced with an open goal from not much more than a yard out. Then Semenyo played in Haaland on the right, but his first-time effort from just inside the box was slotted wide of the post.

Outstanding goals:  Yehor Yarmoliuk's crisp half-volley from 17 yards to give Brentford the lead at Villa Park was an early contender for Saturday's best strike.

But Chelsea were having their own private 'Goal of the Month', or at least 'Goal of the Day' competition, with Joao Pedro's powerful strike being outshone by two even better scorchers from Jordan Henderson (although Cole Palmer owners will be wondering why he let Jordan take that free-kick!). Interestingly, Chelsea's xG was assessed at only 1.08 - much less than Bournemouth's! A positive delta of 4 goals is probably the biggest over-performance the Premier League's ever seen! 

However, Sessegnon's firm low drive from nearly 25 yards out to give Fulham the lead at Porman Road might have been even better. And Abdoul Ouattara's thunderous drive to level the score was better yet.

The best goal of a fairly flat Sunday was Doku's impish curler from the edge of the box to wrap up the points at Anfield, although Cherki's was also a delight, and the culmination of a superb sequence of intricate passes around the edge of the box.

Outstanding performances: 

Big mistakes: 

Bad luck/good luck: John McGinn's goal took a massive deflection off Kristoffer Ajer's attempted block.

Morgan Rogers was a little fortunate to be credited with his goal, as the defender clearly made a deliberate attempt to head it clear, and it was that touch which took the effort away from Petrovic; these days, the attacker always gets the goal awarded to him so long as his original effort appeared to be on target - but it was not always so (and occasionally, the new rule seems a little over-generous). Evanilson's consolation goal for Bournemouth was even more fortuitous, as he instinctively flicked out a leg to block Caicedo's powerful goalmouth clearance.

Solanke's last-gasp equaliser was also a fortuitous attribution: he was falling over and got barely any contact on the ball; Tonali's inswinging cross was going in anyway.

Barry's goal for Everton was gifted to him by a fortuitous deflection off Ajayi that ran perfectly into his path. It looked as though Dewsbury-Hall's scuffed through-ball attempt wouldn't have reached him otherwise.

FPL weirdness: It is utterly, utterly bizarre that Bruno Guimaraes, who was only on the pitch for 27 minutes, and didn't do much apart from nicking the late winner, claimed the maximum 3 bonus points (to the detriment of Rice, Calafiori, White and Madueke, ranked behind him on the BPS). The amount of credit given in the BPS system for a 'decisive goal' is just ridiculous.

Unexpected results:  This weekend's games have all gone much as expected, at least in terms of the final result; although Leeds gave Arsenal a damn good scare, Brighton might not have been expected to win quite so comfortably away at Sunderland (especially after going a man down quite early in the second-half), Villa are kicking themselves that slack defending cost them what should have been a fairly comfortable home win against a lacklustre Brentford, and Bournemouth were a little unlucky to take such a heavy spanking from Chelsea. Nottingham Forest were left ruing their wayward finishing and sloppy defending; they dominated the possession stats away at Palace, and recorded an xG of 3.34, but came away well-beaten.

The 'Team of the Week', for once, doesn't look too weird - although few people own McGinn or Jackson, few will probably have risked unlikely-to-start Guimaraes, and just about nobody owns Jordan Henderson or any Ipswich defenders! Cherki and Doku, unsurprisingly, muscled their way into the lineup on Sunday. It's been a pretty unremarkable gameweek, with Brighton and City the only sides managing to keep a clean sheet, and Stamford Bridge providing the only goalfest. The global average eventually climbed to a respectable 54 points; nothing to get very excited about. Not many bizarre incidents this week - although there were a lot of really, really bad misses! Apart from the missed penalty award at Ipswich and the mildly contentious sending-off for Brighton, and a couple of very dodgy goal awards for Palace on Sunday, there were not really any egregious refereeing cock-ups either; so, it's only a 3 out of 10 on the 'Luck-o-Meter'.