Rorschach - 2

Honestly didn't think he had that in him. I was surprised at how easily he first glided past and then held off Koulibaly. And then he managed to get it past Kepa too. Very unexpected, but very satisfying!

Regarding Bellingham .. is he someone who could replace a Partey / Jorginho at Arsenal? Mind, this is just me wondering, since Jorginho isn't young and promising, and Partey could be missing for .... a long time, should the justice system so decide.

Do not start talking like that *before* we play them, please.

Who's available right now? I'm thinking new managers, and I can't think of anyone survival artists waiting in the wings.

That was a nice goal. ETA: Unrelated to the goal, but I find Fabio Viera to be a player I don't see the point of. Lots of nice, little touches, but generally very ineffective, and not really useful defensively. How wrong am I on a scale here?

Checking the live scores, and it seems Liverpool are 1-0 down with 10 minutes to go. What they need now is Haaland.

Agree that Nepo having done a WC match might help him, if he manages to stay calm. Should he start to lose, he's erratic enough that Ding will pick him apart. It will be interesting to see. For me, should I have to flee Russia, the warmth in Spain is kinda a good selling point. I'd consider that over up here.

Proof if we ever needed more that being good at chess and being smart isn't the same thing. ETA: about the upcoming WC match .. who would you consider most likely to win? I feel this one's more open and reliant on form.

Having seen it on the tweet above, I'd say it's a stupid way for Casemiro to go into the tackle. Don't go studs first, it doesn't give an advantage, but it leaves you open to cards against. Had it been Everton, I'd argue for a yellow, had it been against us I'd argue for a red, but he has time there. He doesn't need to give the ref the option. ETA: having seen the Leicester challenge above, I'm appalled that VAR hasn't done anything there. That's a sending off 12 times out of 5. Did I mention I hate the implementation of VAR?

Could of course be true. Could be corruption. But given their nature, it's hard to accept a narrative of "honest mistakes" now, I agree.

Anyway, we were struggling the entire second half, but we still managed to hold on. So even though VAR proved useless once again (I sorta thought it was introduced to reduce mistakes, not make entirely stupid new ones), we got the three points. Thank goodness.

So you're saying keep VAR, since those using it are destroying it on purpose?

I don't quite understand that VAR-review of the handball incident. There's no way you can tell from the angles that it hits, what you need to see if it changes direction. But you can't do that by freezing the frame. You actually need to watch the ball's movement. If they conclude on the frame-by-frame, they've screwed up. There's no conclusive evidence from those pictures. But then again, this is VAR, where people with no skill for their job do it because the management feels the need to justify their complete and utter bungling buying and implementing the shitshow.

This is starting to look like Bournemouth 2.0.

So United are shit again. Well, that went fast.

The Everton board might take note that decent strikers can make goals. Fuck those incompetents.

Why couldn't Arsenal forget about defending when we faced them?

I'd like to survive first. What happens after, I have no idea. First, get rid of the owner and board, I figure.

It has been a problem after his return that Gana has these brain farts in possession. Bad passes with no pressure, being caught napping on the ball .. He should be better.

I know Keane played for Dyche at Burnley, but surely we could use the speed of Godfrey in this match? Tarkowski / Keane would lose a sprint to a toddler.

I'm rooting for them too, these days. Hard not to with the documentary and all. My phone picked that up fast, so it gives me notice whenever they play. Big brother and all...

In different news, I'm impressed by Notts County, who manage to keep pace with Wrexham in the very low leagues. One point difference, Wrexham has a game in hand. So could be four. The two of them are so far ahead that third place is closer to 15th than second. In 15th, incidentially, we find Oldham Athletic, who was one of the founding members of the PL.

Yeah, like Dahl made changes to his Oompa-Loompas. And those kind of changes, those that do not change a story, but removes outdated language and concepts so that the story might actually live on instead of being forgotten, I have no problem with.

Always been around, though, and we tend not to notice or care too much, as what is changed doesn't change the text or tone. As such, changes keep the book alive, rather than leaving it behind. Example: Agatha Christie. Who would these days buy the book Ten Little Negros? As for the Roald Dahl changes now, that's commercial and more liable to make the text worse. And, as I've seen pointed out, it is very ironinc in Mathilda, where a big part of the text is this little girl reading *texts considered unsuitable for her*.

Ah, but the first three delivers on the football as well. Antony is mainly shithousery.