English football returned to our screens after an enforced three-month hiatus, but what did we learn from the new, COVID-aware Premier League’s first day back? RT Sport looks back at the first post-lockdown matchday.
Passions run high whenever football is involved, and more often than not they pit clubs, fans and players head to head in bitter rivalries, heated clashes and, sadly at times, fan violence.
READ MORE: All 22 players and referee take a knee AFTER kick-off on Premier League return in support of Black Lives Matter
But Wednesday’s games offered a rare moment of unity, as the four teams, plus their respective staffers, and the match officials, all took a knee before kick-off to show their support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
There was also a moment taken to think of those who had lost their lives during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has affected the UK harder than most in recent months.
Once the football kicked off, it was back to the usual on-field skirmishes, but there seemed to be less needle and more patience all round as the teams battled it out without too much cynicism or dirty play.
Of course, this is all likely to change in the coming weeks, but given the circumstances in which the matches were played, the teams’ more sporting, less cynical approaches seemed rather appropriate.
Pep Guardiola has assembled a squad at Manchester City that would be the envy of all but maybe two or three teams in European club football. The strength in depth is ridiculous, and even though they weren’t at their best on Wednesday night, the Sky Blues were easily too good for Arsenal, who barely troubled Ederson in the City goal all evening.
It seemed somewhat appropriate that Raheem Sterling – a strong voice pushing for anti-racism reform in the English game – would score the opener. And by the time Kevin de Bruyne netted City’s second from the penalty spot, the match looked little more than a training exercise for City, who looked a class above former City coach Mikel Arteta’s men.
Arteta knew it, too, and looked disgusted with his side as Guardiola went to commiserate with his friend and former colleague at the final whistle.
City are undeniably good, and better than almost everyone else. Unfortunately for them, Liverpool have been even better, and will be deserving champions when they’re eventually crowned in a week or two’s time.
The big problem for Arsenal was the same problem that has dogged the Gunners ever since the breakup of their Invincibles side of the early-2000’s. They simply cannot defend.
While individually, Arsenal’s team is packed with talent, they lacked defensive shape and organization, and the introduction of football’s answer to Sideshow Bob, David Luiz, had neutral fans shuffling to the edges of their seats.
When Luiz is put under pressure, daft things can happen, and the Brazilian didn’t disappoint (unless you’re a Gunners fan).
First a woeful attempt to block a through ball left Sterling with the freedom of the Etihad Stadium to fire home City’s opener. Then he committed a blatant, stupid foul n Riyad Mahrez as he pulled back the French striker, who needed little invitation to highlight the foul and swan-dive to the turf.
It was a clear foul, an obvious penalty and, with Mahrez setting up to fire a shot at goal, a clear and obvious goalscoring opportunity.
Out came the red card and off went Luiz, whose disastrous appearance from the bench lasted just 26 minutes (41 if you count the halftime break).
“My opinion on David Luiz hasn’t changed,” said Arteta after the match. Unfortunately, it probably didn’t change for many fans watching, either, but for very different reasons.
The Premier League season pre-lockdown was dominated by complaints about VAR intervening and ruining games. So there was a hefty dose of irony after the Aston Villa vs. Sheffield United game, when the complete absence of VAR intervention cost the Blades a deserved win.
When Oliver Norwood’s inswinging free kick sailed above the defenders’ heads, there appeared to be little danger. But Villa keeper Orjan Nyland misjudged the flight of the ball and ended up falling behind the goal line while holding the ball.
It was a clear goal – it looked like a goal in real time, it looked like a goal from the first instant replay, and also from the additional angles that instantly followed. But the Hawk-Eye goal-line technology had failed to spot it.
A press release from the company blamed an unprecedented situation, with the cameras “significantly occluded by the goalkeeper, defender and goalpost,” a situation the manufacturer explained “has never been seen before in over 9,000 matches,” that the technology has been used in.
OK. Hawkeye missed it. But we didn’t. We ALL saw it, which means the VAR official would also have seen it. But there was no message sent to on-field referee Michael Oliver (one of the Premier League’s better officials), leaving him unable to respond positively to the Blades’ legitimate claims of a goal.
But the Professional Game Match Officials Board confirmed after the match that VAR was unable to intervene because the referee had not received a goal signal. It meant the VAR official was unable to correct a situation he could see with his own two eyes, all because of the way the VAR guidelines have been written.
Chris Wilder was both frustrated and, admirably, sympathetic to the officials. But for a club that’s massively punching above its weight this season, those two dropped points could prove crucial as they look to defy the odds and secure a European place.
We’ve watched football from the Bundesliga, which returned a couple of weeks ago with empty stadiums – and proved that live football could work without a crowd. But there was one thing missing from those early games – crowd noise.
Clearly the brass at Aston Villa and Manchester City decided to avoid the spectacle of their teams returning to action on home soil in front of an empty, silent stadium, and had arranged for crowd noises to be piped into the stadium via the arenas’ PA systems.
It gave proceedings a slight soundtrack that partly worked during nondescript passages of play. But whenever something of note happened, the piped crowd noises, even when turned up, sounded all the more out of place.
Football without fans is certainly strange, but it’s the best we can muster in the current climate. Faking an atmosphere actually made it sound worse than having no crowd noise at all.
As it turned out, fake crowd noise, like David Luiz, proved to be a poor substitute.
