RUNNING ON TITLE FUMES

MANAGING THE RUN ONE GAME AT A TIME

Well, hello dearest friends of the internet. Here we go again - another week of competitive football in the Premier League of England & Wales. Let's get into some of the mad stuff that happened yesterday.

Nottingham Forest skewered the VAR in their match against Everton for being a Luton fan. Using a club's social media channels to make a really emotional point about referees is, of course, very Barclays Premier League, but I'm not sure it helps their cause. It was amateur. The club channels should be above that sort of thing. The game decisions were poor, but I'm not sure it's because the VAR was rooting for Luton. I think it's more likely they're just not great at what they do.

That said, the FA and PGMOL do next to nothing to avoid conflicts of interest. There are 28,000 registered refs in England, 4000 offer up their souls to get into the game each year… yet Arsenal manages to get an Australian Liverpool fan in the VAR box for six Arsenal games and as referee twice this season. There are more Australian refs than refs from London – a capital of 9 million, a huge pool of refs, and not one ref can make it to the elite in *this* era? They only have one ref of color in a diverse league. The majority of refs are from the North, mostly from the Northwest. Refs from Manchester ref the Manchester Derby.

Football obsession is inherited. I hate Spurs because my dad told me to. I tried to support Nottingham Forest and my Dad disowned me until I came to my senses. Growing up, having Tottenham fan friends was tough because my dad would not be pleasant to them - even today, when I flag it as a childhood trauma, he doesn't regret it at all. In fact, one of my Spurs-supporting friends growing up responded to a Spurs forum post asking if I was a genuine Arsenal fan or an attention seeker - and he recounted what it was like being around my family growing up.

Are you telling me someone who grew up a United supporter can neutralize similar upbringings for their profession? All 23 of the refs? All of the VARs?

While we're on conflicts of interest, what about Darren England, Dan Cook, and Simon Hooper being flown to the UAE to ref games? Two of them were suspended for two games. Nation-states that own clubs giving refs side-hustle money? Are you kidding me?

The FA and PGMOL should be going out of their way to control the perception of bias or unfairness, but they don't.

So was Nottingham Forest wrong for their tweet? Probably. But was the substance of the statement baseless? No.

Onto something more fun: UNITED.

Coventry nearly created one of the greatest cupsets of the decade, taking United to penalties in a disaster-class performance for the ages – even for EtH, who has been a dead man walking since December. It was criminal that VAR had to ruin that moment for Coventry.

It has been another nightmare run for a club that lacks direction and any sort of smarts. Whoever they get in this summer is going to be at least 5 years away from getting United back to the top. They have given everyone ridiculous contracts no one else would - and now they are going to pay the price with a slow and painful rebuild.

Just praying they choose Gareth Southgate. It's a bit of a shame Thomas Tuchel is being mooted. Though it does have to be said, Mr. Tuchel hasn't performed well in tough dressing rooms of late. I’m not sure why he’d be the perfect choice for a United reboot, but here we are.

Arsenal, fresh off a very top-tier win against Wolves, will be working their hardest to defeat Chelsea at home on Tuesday. The big question is this: How will they take defeat to City? They were by far the better team. They ran harder, had better chances, and looked far more likely to get to the FA Cup final, and yet they were sucker-punched. A team that had a massive dust-up over a penalty at 5-0 up probably isn’t as emotionally resilient as you think

This season is well and truly over for them - but they do have a point to prove to the world. Will they raise their game against Chelsea and channel some of that yesteryear Jose Mourinho vindictiveness to kill our season? I think so. So we have to be at our absolute best again.

The changes for me are pretty simple: Kiwior has to be exited from the starting 11. Even after a good second half, he has ‘gives penalty away to Cole Palmer’ written all over him. This could be a good one for Tomiyasu to step into, or it could also be primed for Zinchenko.

I think we'll see Gabriel Jesus benched after his drab performance, with Kai back at #9 and Jorginho or Partey stepping into midfield.

The rest is the same. It's do or die at this stage. Every game has to be a win if we're to stand a chance. 5 games to make life tough for Manchester City.

Ok, that’s me done. x