When is a penalty not a penalty? When the ref doesn’t give it, that’s when. Similar to ‘when is a handball not a handball’? Unless its perpetrated by ‘our side’ rather than yours. Here’s the rule. Andy’s rule. Ready? At the end of the game you add up all the goals, allocate them numerically to the teams that respectively scored them and you get, after some basic calculus and three new algorithms, what we’ll call ‘the result’. If you can count to 3, maybe sometimes 4 or 5, then your pathetic maths skills are still sufficient to the task.
What you don’t count (unless you’re a total nob or an Arsenal fan… just thinking that one… can you be an Arsenal fan if you’re not a total nob? Hmmm…) is the missed opportunities, the refereeing decisions, the travesties of justice, the tragic unfairness, the fact that the ref has issues at home, none of that. Its what we call IRRELEVANT. Just so’s you know.
Therefore, with no further delay, I’d like to compliment Spurs on yesterday’s quite frankly amazing result at Manchester City. Amazing. 2-0 down and playing about 10% as effectively as they were last weekend, they didn’t give up. Which may seem logical and obvious but it isn’t to Spurs fans. Our memories don’t have to be that good to remember the heads down, shoulders slumped ends of matches in a state of complete surrender.
But no more. Not under Pochettino (who never talks about ref’s decisions, either way, unless specifically asked and then he just shrugs it off). We scored a fab goal, we pushed Raheem Sterling over a few times, we scored another great goal, pushed Sterling again, for luck, then saw the game out even after losing our Toby, the best centre half the league has ever seen. AND we started without his mate Jan Vertongen, the other best centre half the league has ever seen.
The only way you can actually question the comeback is to think: ‘yeah, but its only Man City’. Something we wouldn’t have thought under the previous 19 managers (over one year, seven months). But for some reason, the ‘best manager in the world’, given an unlimited budged and the most expensive team ever assembled outside China, has ended up with a very fragile bunch of superstars who can neither score sufficiently nor defend properly. Not enough to justify their pay-cheques anyway.
So we didn’t win but by Donald it felt like it.
Happy Sunday. Jack Frost has certainly fucked up my tennis schedule. Bastard.
A xxxx
I didn’t for one minute deny it should have been a penalty. But if the ref doesn’t give it, then it isn’t one. No Wenger-tinted, selective-blindness glasses on me matey. My moist multifocals give me… well, I can see enough, just. In fact that was the point: there’s no point moaning about decisions not given. History. Irrelevant. Move on.
No team has not won the league when so many points clear as your Chelsea. But records are never broken until they are. Though can’t see it happening this year.
A xxxx
Sorry I can’t sit still for this Jackanory any longer Andy baby.
Spurs got lucky, very lucky. So lucky it was like Mother Luck had spilled her last bowl of lucky luck juice over the Spurs dressing room and all the players rolled it before winning the lottery.
City were awesome and fully deserved the win, they outplayed Spurs (who only had the two chances all game) and were denied a blatant penalty which even Walker had the common decency to admit to and for which the referee should be suspended for not awarding. You Spurs fans seem to borrow the gunners dodgy specs every so often. Haha!
Nevertheless, you guys are certainly having a great season and if you keep it up you may finish within 12 points of Chelsea.
Keep up the good work!