The Mailbox offers five reasons why Tottenham can not only win the title but go unbeaten while doing it. Also: Arsenal need Aaron Ramsdale’s chaos; and send our refs to Europe…
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Invincible Spurs?
First of all congratulations to Big Ange on achieving the best start to a premier league career in history.
It’s difficult not to feel optimistic following our stunning start to the season. When you start with nine games unbeaten it’s time to start thinking about going the season unbeaten. Here are five reasons why we can do it:
1. Our defence. Romero and Van De Ven are surely the best centre back partnership in the league currently, if not the world. I thought we’d struggle to ever find a better centre back partnership than Vertonghen and Alderweireld, it would appear I was wrong. Destiny Udogie has been a revelation at left back and Pedro is making a mockery of this website’s assertion that he would struggle at right back in a four man defence. Not to mention our new goalkeeper, who unlike our neighbours’ new keeper has slotted in seamlessly.
2. No Europe or League Cup. The maximum number of games we can play this season is 45. Unlike our title rivals, keeping our squad fresh will not be a problem. Barring a poor run of luck with injuries we will be able to approach every game at full throttle.
3. Angeball contains the element of surprise. The rest of the league hasn’t found a way to counter Angeball yet, and this season is the best time to strike while other teams figure it out. The combination of relentless pressing, sharp confident passing out from the back and quick passing patterns in the final third is a very difficult style of play to stop.
4. James Maddison. Currently the best footballer in Britain, bar none. Maddison is a player who makes everybody around him better, he has brought an X Factor to the club that hasn’t been seen since Paul Gascoigne
5. We’re just getting started. As Big Ange has alluded to, this side is only going to get better from here. We’ve gone unbeaten during the bedding in period, just picture us when Ange’s patterns of play become embedded in the players’ brains. Those electric combinations you saw against Fulham? Expect to see those with increasing regularity.
Barry Fox
Why they won’t win the title
1) They are Tottenham Hotspur
2) They haven’t played anyone decent yet (apart from the glorious gunners)
3) Run of games to November 10 (including that one)
4) They are Tottenham Hotspur
5) You can not keep fine silverware in a toilet bowl
Micky – AFC (VAR is not the problem – it’s the users – but still why all the abuse – they are still people and to err is HUMAN!)
…In a nutshell, this has been Tottenham’s season so far.
We have taken advantage of our opponents’ mistakes and our opponents haven’t taken advantage of our mistakes. Last night’s game vs Fulham showed that perfectly.
Ange always said that it would take a few months for Spurs’ players to get up to speed, and that there would be a few bumps in the road early on. Had those bumps been exploited, there’s no way we would be top of the League.
But thanks to our opponents, we are.
And it begs the question…what will happen if/when Spurs actually get good at playing Angeball?
Lloyd Stiles, THFC, Vienna
Maddison observation
James Maddison somehow looks like a gestalt entity of early 2000s Hollyoaks scallywags Max and OB. I’ve absolutely no thoughts on James Maddison other than this, apart from he’s quite good, isn’t he?
Jae, Tunbridge Wells
Read more: Premier League most chances created: Maddison usurps Trippier again in battle for the ages
Tallest dwarves
Before the international break there were some Arsenal fans who were apparently peeved that Spurs were top of the table and insisting that they were joint top. Happily that situation has resolved itself and they can now move on to arguing whether or not they are joint second.
Dave, London
Rambo’s chaos
While I initially praised Raya for the serenity he brought with his goalkeeping, I actually don’t think Arteta’s two keeper plan is such a bad idea.
Ramsdale does bring the chaos but in derbies that’s no bad thing. None of the London teams were relegated last season – meaning more than a third of the league’s clubs continue to come from the capital.
Last season, we were brilliant in the derbies – this season less so – so perhaps embrace the chaos and throw Ramsdale in? He winds up the opposition no end and sometimes you need a bit of that needle to get over the line and liven up the fans.
Graham Simons, Gooner, Norf London
Sir Bobby
Rest in peace sir.
Up with the other ‘Babes now, some who have been waiting a very long time to embrace you again.
Duncan is waiting to have a laugh and a joke or two about who is actually the better CM, and since my notion of all this means he retains his youth perpetually, it will need to be settled with a debate and not out on the cloudy fields I’m afraid, our dear Mr. Manchester.
I feel very lucky to have been able to follow United at a period when they truly spoilt me a kid with bragging rights, and even though times are lean now that is part of the journey, you can’t appreciate the mountains fully if you haven’t had to walk through he valleys to get there, nothing epitomized that more for me than the Busby Babes and what we achieved a decade later.
Seeing Sir Bobby in the stands so often over the years became it’s own little event on an Old Trafford match day, albeit that I was viewing from some 8,000 miles away.
Manc from SA (I often think of the day I received my memorabilia from Old Trafford when my step-mum got back to SA, and the Busby Babes fold-out was something that cemented my blooming love for this club and our story.)
Things that can get in the bin
Last year I started a week’s stay in Liverpool the day Frank Lampard’s Everton beat Crystal Palace 3-0, this year I’ll be in Newcastle a week after United beat Palace 4-0. Not sure how it’s going to come about but it would be great if the Eagles could have an away game against Nashville SC two weeks before October half term next year. Even if they would also have to lose 5-0.
*I was actually involved in something on Saturday afternoon so I had no idea what had happened until I got home. It’s worth pointing out that the only thing more reliable than the unreliability of Crystal Palace is their supporters taking every opportunity to protest against the Premier League. Unlike in 2021 I don’t think anyone will have reported this banner to the Old Bill, but their public admonishment of the Premier League’s hypocrisy over club ownership is an important stance to take, not least because they have volunteered to make themselves football’s biggest lightning rods for whataboutery. You see us complain about football club owners yet we support a football club that has an owner. Yes, you are very smart.
*One of the many players it’s just absolutely brilliant that United have used their owner’s immense wealth to bring to the Premier League, Sandro Tonali, came off the bench for the final 20 minutes. The result was beyond question at that point, but his involvement fits the theme of “dubious in light of accusations against them”. What happens to players in these situations is always a tricky one to sort out. To suspend him pending investigation, knowing how long these investigations can take, seems unjust; however, should he be found guilty and subsequently punished, his team have effectively received an unfair advantage through using a player who was only actually available to them because of the slowness of the disciplinary process.
United fans at St James’s Park displayed a banner in support of him, which is understandable on a human level, but also a bit awkward to see.
*I suspect it was mainly very online United fans, but it did annoy me to see the latest in a long line of tweets from lots of teams about away fans failing to fill their allocation. South London to Newcastle is a 600 mile round trip or 8 hours on trains at a cost of £174. That’s a testament to the dedication of those who did make the trip, but it’s entirely understandable if that’s too much time or money for someone.
*Just one fixture on Sunday was grist to the “why do I pay £100 each month to not get to see every game” mill. Here’s a radical suggestion: if you’re prepared to pay that much to that many different companies knowing full well you’ll only be getting a fraction of what you want, you’re a part of the problem, not the solution, and it’s only going to get worse the more fragmented the television packages become.
*During that Sunday game’s highlights on Match of the Day 2, Conor McNamara described Lucas Paqueta missing a chance by trying a spectacular volley due to his “Brazilian instinct”. For some reason that phrase seems more appropriate for one straight down the middle.
Ed Quoththeraven
Hold refs to account
Other, more erudite mailboxers, will discuss the various failings of VAR, but I want to suggest that it isn’t the technology but the way it is implemented and the lack of ANY accountability.
I think every referee, and his team on the pitch, and those on VAR, should be made, post match, to answer for any controversial decisions. Not a representative, the people who made the decision. I don’t want a witch hunt, I just want transparency. Referees should feel confident in making a decision, and if not, they should hold their hands up. When they make mistake, there should be a formal process, and with 3 strikes and then they lose the right to referee Premier League games. There are no consequences for them to mess up. Hold them to account. Maybe if there was some risk attached to them making the wrong call, they would be less inclined to rush or make the wrong call.
John (I’d love to know the amount of points we’ve lost to VAR) Matrix AFC
Only in England
As a Liverpool fan my opinion will obviously be disregarded by most, which I suppose is just a side effect of being a fan of a successful club.
On previous referee issues I’d said the standard of referees is the issue and not VAR. I still stick by that. We have bad referred using technology so we still get bad decisions from both primary and secondary referees.
I watch a lot of German and Italian football and refereeing is way less controversial there and people argue about it far less. Same goes for VAR. I’d recommend pgmol just send our refs over to those countries (instead of middle east) so they can learn how to referee.
That being said I don’t think everton were ‘done over’ by bad refereeing. Konate was not the last man, matip was still back there and the counter was on the halfway line. Assuming everton made it past matip they still then had to do a one on one with (in my opinion) the best one on one goalkeeper on the planet – hardly denying a goal scoring chance.
Free kick? Yes. Yellow? Not for me.
In addition the ref DIDNT yellow card young for kicking the ball away earlier in the game so he should have been sent off earlier anyway.
Finally I think we can all agree, nobody complains about referees as much as liverpool. From the manager right down to fans we bitch about it more than anyone else in the league. Klopp has been fined more than anyone for complaining about it.
So why would any referee want to ‘help us out?’
Fergie proved if you want preferential treatment you take them to dinner and send them expensive bottles of wine. You don’t go on TV and say how shit they are. And I think klopps whingeing about it is probably why every season apart from last season we have been top2 (top in 3 seasons) of the VAR decisions against table.
So if anyone is engaging in wild conspiracy it’s all the people thinking the refs help us out all the time. Makes zero sense, ask Salah who is statistically the forward who is awarded the least decisions in European football.
Closing – VAR will be perfectly fine and helpful when used by competent people. A land where VAR is helpful is not a myth..I’ve seen it, in Germany and Italy.
Lee
Next step for VAR
For me, the controversy over Onana’s challenge vs Wolves, which resulted in a PGMOL apology, followed by Sanchez’s challenge vs Arsenal less than three months later, which should also result in an apology, highlights the major problem with PGMOL’s VAR.
Reading entries to F365’s mailbox over the last decade or two, it’s clear that player management is the key skill for a successful lower league referee. So many Sunday League referees refer to issues with irate players/coaches/fans/parents as key to their controlling of a match. Any referee who manages to get to Premier League level has to be able to ensure that contentious decisions (which happen in every game) don’t result in a total loss of control.
I think that this skill is irrelevant to the ability of a Video Assistant Referee. I would like to see rules’ nerds in charge of VAR, much like what happens in Cricket/NFL, where adjudicators take pride in their intricate knowledge of the laws of the game. It’s shockingly rare to hear a referee quote an exact line from the rules book, let alone with reference to proper precedent.
In reference to the Sánchez challenge on Jesus in the Chelsea Arsenal game, I’d like to hear, “According to ‘The Laws of the Game’, Law 12 (Fouls and Misconduct), Clause 4 (committed against an opponent), the goalkeeper has committed ‘forceful contact’, and considering the precedent of Onana vs Wolverhampton Wanderers, that is a foul in the box, and consequently a penalty.”
I’m not a rules nerd, and so my citations above may be inaccurate (I tried to get it right), but that’s kind of my point, I think someone with better knowledge than this 6-hours-of-televised-football-per-weekend guy should be in charge.
VAR seems shockingly amateur considering the otherwise professionally detailed intricacies of teams’ preparation for the game. I want to argue that PGMOL are choosing entirely the wrong people for the job, prioritizing an irrelevant skill by choosing retired referees. With this in mind, I also argue against choosing ex-professional footballers, unless they go through the same vetting process as new Video Assistant Referee applicants.
In most businesses, repeating a simple mistake that was worthy of a public apology less than 3 months earlier would be a sackable offense. Within the PGMOL, it’s normal. Why haven’t they re-considered their hiring process? Where are the best-practice criteria for hiring? Is there any recognition that the skills required for on-pitch refereeing are different from Video Assisted Refereeing ?
Let’s recognize that the skills needed for a top class Video Assistant Referee are different, let’s recognize that the VAR position needs skills and detailed knowledge that Premier League referees apparently can’t prioritize, and let’s allow Video Assistant Referees strive to be the best in their area. Fix the recruitment, the current crop are clearly unfit for the job (and in some ways I don’t blame them).
Rory Dowling (Sao Paulo via Dublin)
One hand in my pocket
Watching the Everton handball at the weekend and it was like ok, an actual non-contentious handball. I just hate these VAR handballs and these imperceptible offsides. If only a slow mo or semi automated system know that a player has broken a rule, then how can it be an effective rule?
So how to stop the handballs? Had a silly thought that ticks all the boxes. Can be VARd, can be trained in, can be done at grassroots…
Pockets in the shorts.
If a defender has their hands in their pockets and it hits them, then it’s is fine as the pockets force the narrow silhouette.
Too silly or British ingenuity at its finest?
Alex, South London
Tears to tell
Howard (it’s not Karma, it’s incompetence) Jones seems like the kind of fella who is Always Asking Questions, but I think he’s playing Hide and Seek with the truth. Changing the league’s rules mid-season to settle one club’s righteous indignation would just not be a good idea. And I feel like he of all people shouldn’t need to be reminded that Things Can Only Get Better.
I’ll get me coat.
Chris C, Toon Army DC (a real Pearl in the Shell)
…Some of the best football fans I’ve ever met are Liverpool fans. It’s an amazing stadium to visit, one of the best I’ve ever been to. But stone me, why do they have so many one eyed conspiracy theorists in every mailbox or comment section on the web? Just this morning (several weeks after the spurs game) we had Howard Jones describing the Diaz goal as ‘the worst f up ever’ (planet football did a brilliant article on 10 offside calls that put it to shame) and saying perhaps if other clubs had backed Liverpool we could move forward. Backed them with what exactly? I’m pretty sure everyone agreed that VAR communication needed improving and this has been done. No one was going to back insane demands for a replay.
But Howard was then put to shame by Barry,
LFC complaining about a ‘counter narrative’ based on his belief that the refereeing in the derby favoured Everton (find me a single person who isn’t a card carrying Liverpool conspiracy theorist who agrees) after a spurs game when one Liverpool player was ‘red carded for a yellow card offence’ and a second was ‘yellow carded for an obvious dive then sent off later’. Just stop with this embarrassing nonsense. I think Jones was a definite red, but a travesty it was not. As for jota, Udogie didn’t dive (even on MOTD they clearly showed the contact) so can Klopp, Barry and everyone else stop repeating this lie that led to Udogie getting racially abused by morons? And by the way, Jota should have been booked already anyway, and even then getting a harsh first booking doesn’t excuse diving in like a prat. Ultimately, Liverpool suffered a poor decision that cost them a goal. It happens every week to someone. This week, they had a ref fail to send one of their players off when he should have done. We don’t know in either case how many points this was worth, but it should really be the end of the moaning.
Phil, London
…Just a thought for all those Liverpool fans still crying out in anger and frustration in the mailbox against the greatest injustice in football ever (TM). Referees are people. Actual human beings. They make mistakes. They always will in a game played at breakneck speed where a call can be argued either way by half the population (even with the benefit of 20 different replays and 12 different angles). No amount of moaning is ever going to change this fact and if you can’t accept it go and find a sport where there is less contention like chess or darts.
Rather than claim that others should have got behind Liverpool’s insane statement, think about the consequences if they had. If the Liverpool game had been overturned in any way then Real Madrid would never lose another game ever again as they’d always find a way to disagree with the result.
It’s gone way beyond boring, past pathetic and into the wearing of tin foil hats and ridiculous conspiracy theories. You’re really just embarrassing yourself (more than usual).