Inverted

I think theres probably some wording in the guidance that VAR for challenges needs to show them in normal speed if the point is to determine force/dangerousness. Which I don't think was the case on the Jones' footage which was played back. It's debatable if it would have made a difference but again its a question of whether the refs are even sticking to their own procedures or making it up as they go along.

I'm not saying there is bribery in the PL but I do not remotely understand the argument that football is too unpredictable to be corrupted. I mean it might be in a sense true that football is too random to be manipulated with absolute reliability but that has certainly not stopped there from being countless cases of refereeing corruption worldwide since basically forever. And even if the end results are extremely hard to manipulate, you can certainly tip the scales, or at least secure certain outcomes - number of bookings, who gets booked, who scored first, etc.

It has almost gotten to a point where its more tinfoil hat territory to suggest that nothing is wrong. The PL is not only awash with billions of pounds and huge financial incentives for everyone involved, but is increasingly a geopolitical football subject to interference both from the UK and foreign governments. The stakes involved and the forces exerted on the competition are enormous. The idea that a very chummy and insular group of barely competent refs, who spend half their time flying around the globe hawking their services to the highest bidder, who are accountable to noone, and who vigorously resist any kind of transparency which is common in other sports, can be trusted to safeguard it seems increasingly naive.

If its a "significant human error" tell us the human or humans. If I make a mistake in my job I get pulled front of a disciplinary tribunal. A girl I worked with got sacked last week for making mistakes. Why are refs so completely insulated from any consequences of their mistakes? Release their names, let's have their explanations of how the "mistakes" happened and let them suffer the consequences like men.

If it was a legitimate competition where results counted there would be immediate criminal charges for the entirety of the VAR team and the game would be replayed in the summer at some point.

I don't really sincerely believe in football corruption irl but Simon Hooper should probably spend the next 10 years being buggered at Belmarsh for fraud just to be safe

I've written off Ange as a manager. He's just another PR league shill. The Ange I knew wouldn't have celebrated this.

How are Spurs not winning this by like 4 goals.

You guys have French Eddy so it's not a fair comparison. You should be favourites for the title every year.

My opinion of Ange has dipped slightly having seem him go from a proper competition like the Cinch to a much less competitively sound league.

Im sincerely surprised that the officials haven't found a way to keep Spurs in the lead.

It could have been offside I can't really tell, but the speed with which it was whistled as offside and the refusal to even consider looking at the lines on review indicates that they were looking for a particular outcome.

The integrity of the PL as a sporting competition is quite possibly compromised.

A bit odd that they didn't start fiddling around with the lines. It looked quite borderline for them to be so absolutely confident.

When you show the challenge in a still at a particular millisecond it looks like a red tbf. The decision to call the ref back to display that millisecond to them is a very purposeful decision with a clear goal in sight.

I think fundamentally most dog bites/attacks fall into two categories (i) highly aggressive but ultimately not physically powerful enough to be dangerous to a human (ii) physically powerful but can be warded-off with a moderate amount of resistance. Most dog breeds, and most animals generally, do not want to get themselves killed or injured. Even when showing extreme aggression. A sufficient amount of pain or intimidation will get most dogs to give up long before they or someone else is seriously injured. The issue with pitbulls and especially XL Bullys is that they have the strength to kill and absolutely no sense of self preservation. Once they have prey in sight they will keep going until the prey is killed/maimed, they find another target, or they are physically incapable of keeping going. I've seen them get kicked by horses, sprayed with bear spray, or even shot, and they will not give up.

4 minutes is short even in a normal game this season. Giving it when there's been this amount of explicit time wasting is incredibly suspicious.

One of the downsides of him being a short, moaning-faced git with tattoos and pigeon shit hair is that if someone says "he's a woman beater" my instinctive reaction is "of course". I'm conscious that if the authorities took this approach, about 30% of the population of Brazil would be in jail, but it's good enough for me.

Just not much better than an average side. Getting 4th shows how much of a freak season it was last year.

Just finished Middlemarch - a massive read but excellent writing. A very pleasant surprise, had never read any Eliot before. Now onto this:

I thought that was embarrassing to watch for Liverpool initially and Newcastle somehow managed to show their arses even more. When you've got infinite money you've got work out something better than being compact, breaking up play, and having good set pieces and counters, I think.

He's got an elite ball-playing GK, two world cup-winning CBs, and a holding mid whos won god knows how many Champions Leagues.

Feel like Ten Hag has been a bit of a mirage. A full year in and a borderline infinite transfer budget and they're still, stylistically, a nothing team. Outstanding individuals obviously but collectively I don't see what he's done.

Getting both that handball call and the high boot not given is v lucky.

Mané remains the last player in history to get a red card for a high boot.