A football a day

Thanks to some creative use of space and time by the TV schedulers, we basically have Premier League football every day. Along with all the other football that is also taking place. Never has David Mitchell’s ‘football’ sketch rung more true, with every kick of it more climatic than the last. It’s also something to vigorously annoy any non-football supporting members of the household.

Today sees a break in action for the Premier League, which should see attention switch to the League One playoffs. And if the League Two playoffs are anything to go by, with their second leg comebacks and healthy doses of attacking football, we could be in for another treat.

Northampton reminded us that direct ‘hoofball’ can actually be quite fun an exciting. Lumping the ball to an effective aerial target in Vadaine Oliver and having teammates swarm to pick the loose ball is effective when it works, and gets the team up the pitch quickly.

It was a stark reminder that it isn’t direct football that is boring, but boring football that is boring. Ponderous sideways passing for passings sake is just as dull as wayward and inaccurate lumps forward. And exhilarating technical and flowing football on the deck is just as exciting as effectively executed direct football.

And at the other end of the football pyramid to Northampton, Manchester City were making their case for slick passing football as they demolished newly crowned champions Liverpool.

City were a joy to watch, and Liverpool looked like they had been enjoying their title winning parties a little too much. Phil Foden got us all excited for Euro 2020(1), and we were all reminded of what an utterly terrible loser Jurgen Klopp is.

Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing for a manager of an elite sports club. And it provided some entertaining (albeit slightly uncomfortable) viewing in his post match interview.

And in the red half of Manchester, United are good at football again! And the Red Devils were treated to something they had long awaited since January - Paul Pogba assisting Bruno Fernandes.

It was slightly anticlimactic, however, as Pogba played a five yard square pass to Fernandes about 20 yards or so out. Fernandes then saw his shot take a deflection that helped take it past Mat Ryan in goal.

But still, things are looking pretty rosy for United. Especially considering two of their rivals - Chelsea and Tottenham - both dropped points over the week.

Former boss Jose Mourinho was up to his old tricks of blaming literally everybody but himself as Sheffield United hit form once again, and Spurs turned in a miserable display. After years of claiming that players at various clubs are not performing for him, Mourinho may be missing the common denominator in the equation of his decline.

And Chelsea, after a brilliant performance against Manchester City that handed Liverpool the title, managed to go down to a spirited West Ham side spurred on by Michail Antonio.

It was truly stunning to watch a defence that had generally restricted Man City - with the Citizen’s goal that night coming from a stunning Kevin De Bruyne free kick - collapse in the wake of an ageing and injury riddled Andriy Yarmolenko. Even despite VAR harshly ruling out a first half opener for the Hammers.

In the doldrums of the Premier League, Norwich and Bournemouth both raised huge relegation red flags (if they weren’t there already) by managing to make Arsenal and Newcastle respectively look good.

And vying to take their places in the Premier League are Leeds and West Brom. While both sides have had some wobbles since the restart, the dearth of quality (aside from Brentford) in the sides occupying the playoffs looks to basically be guaranteeing them automatic promotion spots.

The Whites and the Baggies dropping points has become a rallying call for Preston, Nottingham Forest and Fulham to turn in dire performances.

But nobody has dropped as much of a clanger this week as EFL chairman Rick Parry. With the reputation of the EFL already tatters, Parry has managed to get himself filmed while talking about a rumour about Wigan’s financial plight being linked to a betting scam in the Philippines. It’s something that has plunged the reputation of the EFL to new depths.