Super-Sunday Excuses

Super-Sunday Excuses

          This Sunday just gone saw two of the England's biggest Derbies. The Manchester Derby, and the Merseyside Derby. Two of the teams will be disappointed but have no real reason to feel sorry for themselves. Two angry managers and a 'Tunnel Fracas' make up the content of this post.

          Kicking-off (dya see what I did there? ay?) with the Manchester Derby. Neither of the teams were that great in truth. City were constantly attacking but their end product was less than impressive. They had the vast majority of the ball but the final pass was often lacking. The main talking point of this game was Jose Mourinho. The Portuguese has some kind of issue where nothing is ever his fault. Having spent a cool £90-odd-Million on Romelu Lukaku he seems to hesitate whenever it comes to blame. The Belgian International was at fault for both of City's goals, one of which he cleared onto his own player, enabling Otamendi to finish unchallenged. It's almost as if Mourinho won't bring off Lukaku just because of the fee spent on him. Zlatan Ibrahimovic was sat on the bench but no change of personnel was made until late on, where Lukaku was not even replaced.

City players celebrate David Silva's opener at Old Trafford.

         Continuing on the trend that nothing is ever the fault of Jose Mourinho, he blamed the defeat on Michael Oliver's decision to not give a penalty for a 'foul' on Ander Herrera. Any Manchester United fan looking back at the replay who thinks that was actually a penalty is deluded. End off. But then again, the majority of Man United fans are...  While we're on the subject of penalties not given, City were unlucky to not win one of their own. Nicolas Otamendi was hauled down in the box by a combination of Herrera and Nemanja Matic but the referee gave nothing. Another penalty was rightly turned down when Gabriel Jesus took a tumble in the box under minimal, if any, contact.

Ander Herrera, set to receive his caution for diving.

          Credit where credit is due, Manchester City looked quality at times and showed the class that has seen them go to 11 points clear of second place United. For them, the title is more or less sewn up. United though, looked poor again against one of the top teams in the League never really looking like scoring apart from a few defensive mistakes and in the closing stages. Guardiola has surely now reached his target at walking pace, City look like a real force in Europe at the minute and could go deep into the Champions League.

          Following the game, Mourinho went in on the Officials, slamming them for not awarding his side a penalty, in what was his way of avoiding the blame (as already mentioned), but afterwards there was a 'fracas' in the tunnel, which left Mourinho covered in milk(?) and Manchester City Assistant Manager, Mikel Arteta, with blood on his face. This has gone straight into the press which plays exactly into Mourinho's hands. Another distraction from the fact that Manchester City are the best team in the country.

          Now, onto the Merseyside Derby. I'll start with a quick disclaimer, I like Jurgen Kopp and Liverpool, but Klopp dropped a clanger before the game by naming the team he did and the result can be put down to him and individual mistakes from those on the pitch. Mo Salah continued to show his class and scored a fantastic goal to keep up his good form. But Coutinho and Firminho both found themselves on the bench. Sam Allardyce set his Everton side up to avoid defeat and that is exactly what they did. I have no complaints about the way Everton played, unlike Klopp. The German bemoaned the referee's decision to award a penalty to Everton after Dejan Lovren pushed Dominic Calvert-Lewin over in the box. It was a blatant penalty, but Klopp thought they didn't deserve it due to the fact Everton didn't even try and score in this game.

Liverpool players celebrate Salah's goal.

          Liverpool had numerous chances to score, including a chance for Sadio Mane who shot wide on his weaker foot despite having four teammates in better positions. It was inexcusable on Liverpool's behalf to blame anyone but themselves and Klopp again made a strange decision, bringing off Salah with half an hour or so still to go. Why?

          In other news my accumulator on Wednesday night was ruined by Liverpool and Arsenal both failing to win against some of the worst teams in the league this season. Very, very annoying.

Until next time though,

Craig