Even at its most infuriating, the video assistant review system doesn’t take as long to deliver a verdict as the independent commission tasked with sifting through the three months of legal argument conducted at London’s International Dispute Resolution Centre and deciding whether Manchester City are guilty of any or all ofthe famous 100-plus chargesof financial chicanery levelled at them by the Premier League. The club was further charged with failing to cooperate with the investigation into their conduct, which began over six years ago. More than two years have passed since the Premier League charged City and the club’s hearing concluded in December, but the season has now ended without the announcement of a verdict, despite speculation it would come in early spring. While no deadline has been set, it is now expected to come in the summer and whatever the outcome, even those connected with City must be eager to see a line drawn under this saga, despite the potentially seismic repercussions for a club that has always protested its innocence of any wrongdoing.
While Liverpool certainly can’t be held responsible for the ease with which they were allowed towrap up their Premier League triumphwith four matches to spare, the absence of a single realistic challenger for the crown they claimed was bitterly disappointing. While few outside – and possibly inside – Anfield expected Arne Slot’s side to challenge for the league in his maiden season as Liverpool manager, the Dutchman must have been delighted, if a little bewildered, by how easy his new team had it in the face of negligible resistance from either Arsenal or Manchester City. For various reasons, the two teams the vast majority of pre-season soothsayers expected to duke it out both came up woefully short in their efforts to make life difficult for Liverpool. It is to be hoped they and perhaps a couple of other teams can get their fingers out and ensure next season’s run-in is more of a race than a serene procession.
While the lack of a title race means thePremier Leagueand its broadcasters were understandably forced to turn their attention to the race for the Champions League places in an attempt to maintain public interest, their attempts to make out that the race for eighth was in some way fascinating seemed far more confected . While the likes of Brentford, Brighton, Fulham and Bournemouth might have relished the prospect of rare or unprecedented forays into European football’s tertiary competition, the almost total indifference that has greeted Chelsea’s journey to the final this season suggests the Premier League’s description of the bunfight for eighth as “thrilling” somewhat over-egged the pudding, not least because Brighton eventually finished in that position and won’t be in Europe anyway.
While the physios, technical analysts and other backroom staff of Premier League clubs are able to go about their business unencumbered by celebrity status or acclaim, their set-piece coaching brethren increasingly find themselves thrust into the limelight at the behest of TV producers eager to showcase their hipster credentials. With approximately one in four goals scored in the top flight coming from set pieces, the importance of those recruited to maximise the chances of scoring (or not conceding) from them should not be underestimated, but camera cutaways to Nicolas Jover or Austin MacPhee whenever Arsenal or Aston Villa win a corner have become so frequent that it’s something of a surprise neither of them was cast in Celebrity Traitors UK. Quite what the duo in question make of their newfound celebrity status remains unclear but they are long enough in the tooth to be painfully aware that for all the plaudits that come their way on the rare occasions things go according to plan, they are also tacitly being held responsible on the far more regular occasions things don’t.
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For the second season in a row, all three sides who came up from the Championship have gone straight back down, a worrying trend that may yet prove anomalous but is an obvious cause for short-term concern. While Southampton, Leicester and Ipswich were always likely to struggle, the manner in which all three clubs were relegated without anything resembling a fight denied football fans nationwide the rare treat of seeing traditional powerhouses such as Manchester United and Tottenham suffer the embarrassment of being sucked into a genuine relegation battle. The trio’s collective meek surrender has also prompted further concerns about the gulf in quality and financial resources between the top tiers of the English football pyramid, so much so that the Leeds hierarchy’s first order of businessupon winning promotion as championswas to charitably decide not to reward the manager who masterminded their hard-fought victory with instant dismissal.
While there are any number of examples to suggest that Professional Game Match Officials Limited’s claims that VAR is not used to re-referee on-field decisions are extremely spurious, this season Bournemouth found themselves in the ludicrous situation where an on-field referee’s decision that had already been re-refereed by VAR had to be refereed for a third time by an independent regulatory commission before it correctly went in their favour. Originally booked for a completely accidental tackle on Manchester United’s Noussair Mazraoui prompted by an unavoidable slip, Evanilson had his punishment increased and upgraded to a red card after study of the video footage by the curtain-twitchers in Stockley Park. Bournemouth’s decision to appealagainst the striker’s dismissal was vindicatedwhen an independent panel studied the same footage and finally arrived at the conclusion that the on-field referee had been correct in the first instance, and they rescinded the red. While the fact they got there in the end and justice finally prevailed is to be applauded, this fiasco,with United equalisingagainst the 10 men, certainly flew headlong into the face of VAR’s laughable “minimal interference, maximum benefit” philosophy.