Much of what we already know—that Michael Carrick’s team is far from an elite team and that teams like Liverpool and Chelsea should be ashamed that they trail in their wake—was revealed by Manchester United’s lacklustre performance against Sunderland.
Additionally, it highlights Bruno Fernandes’ exceptional performance this season, as seen by his recent announcement as the Football Writers’ Association player of the year. It is a well-deserved nomination that has sparked a lot of outrage on the section of the internet that is primarily used by those who are not very knowledgeable about football.
After I expressed my support for Fernandes’ victory and disclosed that I had also voted for him the previous season, my social media accounts were bustling on Friday night. This provided evidence that I was anti-Liverpool, anti-Arsenal, anti-Manchester City, and in fact employed by Manchester United, which is why the claims now persist.
It’s odd that so many people seem to think that playing for one of the top teams—a squad that wins something—is a must for being the best player of the season. According to that logic, voting for Fernandes last season would have been acceptable if United had won the Europa League, but not if they had lost. It’s an absurd idea.
I find it astounding that people are blind to the basic flaws in the idea of winning football players receiving major honours. It must be simpler to excel on a winning squad than on a struggling one. When everyone else is playing at lower levels, it must be more difficult to raise your own.
Without Fernandes, United might have been drawn into a relegation battle last season. Similarly, if they had allowed him to depart for Saudi Arabia last summer, they would not be in a Champions League position this time. That was such a time of sliding doors.
It has been perplexing to witness the outrage against Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes winning Football Writers’ Association player of the year.
Fernandes is a consistently good football player who might be included in an Arsenal or Manchester City starting lineup.
Fernandes still experiences difficult days. There are still days when his own annoyances compromise his leadership. For instance, he could have been sent off eight days ago against Liverpool for a careless tackle on Dominik Szobozslai, and he should have behaved better toward referee Anthony Taylor.
However, since joining United in 2020, the captain has generally grown as a person, a captain, and a player. He has eight Premier League goals this season, but he only needs one more assist to tie Thierry Henry and Kevin de Bruyne’s record of 20. That conveys a lot.
It is blatantly false to say that he only began playing after Ruben Amorim was fired. One of the two or three players from Old Trafford who would gain a spot at a team like Arsenal or City is Fernandes, a consistently outstanding football player.
The fact that his achievement has sparked such hate speaks much about how nasty and polarising social media has made so many of us. It contaminates our game. This is definitely not how the yearly writers’ prize was previously given out.
It also describes how many people still fail to grasp the basic principles of our game. By the way, Fernandes is one of the favourites to win the PFA award.
It’s possible that people who play the game professionally are also ignorant.
For the past two years, I have maintained that a large portion of Arsenal’s actions at set pieces and corners have been unlawful.
grappling, blocking, and baulking. Even though Arsenal’s set piece coach Nicolas Jover has been praised by football experts for his work and for reimagining the game, it felt obvious that a lot of what I was witnessing was pushing the bounds of fair play to the point where they were breached.
We were getting closer to our Sunday destination at West Ham the longer all of that continued and the more on-field and VAR officials failed to intervene. The likelihood that Arsenal would gain from a large one in their own penalty area increased the likelihood that everyone in the football world would become enraged and feel unfairly treated.
And that’s all reasonable. Arsenal has successfully called a foul at one end of the pitch after pushing the referees to the brink. It doesn’t feel right.
In actuality, though, it was unlawful for West Ham striker Pablo to challenge Arsenal custodian David Raya. A foul was committed.
It doesn’t follow that the authorities should have overlooked this infraction against Arsenal only because they have missed so many corner violations during the season.
It doesn’t follow that they didn’t get this one right just because they made so many mistakes in the past. A foul was committed.
However, the Premier League and its officials have long overlooked the curse of penalty area wrestling, which is the sole reason we are at this point. It ought to have been resolved months ago. We needed yellow cards and fouls.
But we continued. While the rest of the league attempted to imitate and catch up, Arsenal continued.
On the first day of the league season, Arsenal defeated Manchester United when the home team called a foul on a corner. Nine months later, their own goalie is sprawled down on the ground, marking the pivotal moment.
Football ought to have anticipated this. It watched for far too long.
Because of Pablo’s foul on David Raya, it was the proper choice to disallow West Ham’s goal.
Mikel Arteta’s choice to replace custodian Aaron Ramsdale with David Raya early in the 2023–24 season has proven to be one of the most significant of the numerous courageous, instinctive decisions that have brought Arsenal to the verge of winning the Premier League.
It seems like an obvious decision now that Ramsdale is on the Newcastle bench and Raya has proven to be one of the world’s top goalkeepers, but at the time it was controversial and far from simple.
These kinds of choices have defined Arteta’s tenure at Arsenal and demonstrate a manager with the guts to stand by his beliefs. Ramsdale, Granit Xhaka, Kieran Tierney, Oleksandr Zinchenko, and Gabriel Jesus are just a few of the players who have fulfilled their roles before being replaced by stronger players.
As long as loyalty is not blind, it is acceptable in football.
This season, Arteta has also persisted in making sentiment-free selections.
At the beginning of the season, nobody could have predicted that the manager of Arsenal would have selected a lineup with Martin Odegaard, Martin Zubimendi, and Gabriel Martinelli on the bench for a crucial match against West Ham.
Here, the location on the left flank is quite interesting. At the beginning of the season, Leandro Trossard appeared to be a squad member, but on Sunday against West Ham, he was Arsenal’s finest player.
Arteta has made most, if not all, of his important judgements correctly as the pressure has increased toward the close of the season.
Mikel Arteta gives David Raya a hearty hug following yet another outstanding performance in the Arsenal goal.
As hostilities increased in East London, referee Chris Kavanagh sent off West Ham goalkeeping coach Rui Barbosa, saying, “He told me to f… off three times.”
Just one query. Why do referees feel the need to hold off on issuing a red card until the second or third offence?
A f-word is an f-word. regardless of how often someone says it.
Matz Sels of Nottingham Forest appeared to be a victim of the managerial turnover that has severely damaged the season at the City Ground, even with goalkeepers.
The Belgian was a great player for Nuno Espirito Santo the previous season, but Forest acquired Stefan Ortega from Manchester City in the January transfer window due to a slump in form.
A groin ailment didn’t help either, but Sels returned to the club at the beginning of March, and Forest’s recent strong play has kept them safe.
He is still regarded as one of the Marinakis era’s greatest acquisitions.
Another Belgian, Jeremy Doku, appeared to be in peril when Manchester City signed Antoine Semenyo in January.
Pep Guardiola’s desire to deploy comparable, dribbling wingers on both sides of the pitch looked improbable.
It appeared like Phil Foden would occupy the left half of the field and Semenyo the right.
However, some players see the arrival as a challenge, while others see it as competition and a personal slight. Doku adopted the latter strategy, and in recent months, he has unquestionably played the finest football of his City career.
He is now unstoppable and undroppable.
“I am Jeremy Doku,” Guardiola declared following a game-winning performance against Brentford. He now has the self-assurance to do so.
The Premier League is undoubtedly aware of Belgium’s name now, and by the end of this summer’s World Cup, maybe everyone on the planet will as well.
Jeremy Doku has scored some crucial goals for Manchester City and is in incredible form.
It would be surprising if Liverpool weren’t interested in Anthony Gordon, who seems destined for a summer transfer away from Newcastle.
Pace is urgently needed by Arne Slot’s ponderous club, and Anfield’s interest a few summers ago surely got the former Everton winger interested.
Gordon, though, needs to exercise caution. Just as he wasn’t slow to leave Everton after fewer than 50 Premier League starts, he seems to have made it obvious at Newcastle that he sees his future away from the team.
Gordon is an exceptional football player who is unique in the directness of his performance.
However, he has only played five seasons of consistent Premier League games and is only 25 years old. In a short period of time, his next club would be his third.
That will deter some suitors, which is one of the reasons he might wind up overseas.
Rob Edwards has plenty of time to make changes because Wolves hired him in November.
Regular viewers claim that he has succeeded, but not in terms of league standing or outcomes.
They are still really awful now, notwithstanding how awful they were when he left Middlesbrough to take over.
Edwards’ Wolves have won three of their 25 Premier League games.
He must thus account for the time he needs to look in the mirror between now and the beginning of the next Championship season when he claims that his players haven’t performed well enough and that some must depart this summer.
Over the past nine months, nobody at Wolves—not even the manager—has attained the necessary levels.
The fact that Liverpool’s match against Chelsea was played next to last on Saturday’s Match of the Day speaks something about how both teams are stumbling toward the final line.
And as Chelsea’s equaliser trundled across the penalty area and in at the far post, seven (yes, seven) Liverpool players stood passively. This told us everything about the apparent lack of cohesiveness and purpose in the Anfield dressing room.
Arne Slot, the manager, is still able to withstand criticism that gets louder every week, but he truly has a problem if his team isn’t rooting for him and each other, especially because Champions League qualifying isn’t guaranteed.
There are rumours in Anfield that Slot will make it through the summer. If he does, it will still be an accomplishment if he survives until November of next year.
Despite Liverpool’s dismal season, Arne Slot appears certain to remain manager.
Two of the three managers who were promoted from the Championship the previous season are still employed and have already avoided relegation.
Both Leeds and Sunderland have established standards for hiring (Leeds took a chance on Dominic Calvert-Lewin, while Sunderland signed a new team) and management that has demonstrated that it is possible to close the gap between the second and top tiers.
To survive, one of Tottenham or West Ham might still need to score close to 40 points. 26 points would have been sufficient last year. It was 27 the year prior.
Since Birmingham lost with 39 in 2011, a team hasn’t actually needed 40 to stay in the game.
Maybe it’s time to discard that outdated cliché.
The Football League accepted Rochdale. A deity exists.
