Arsenal face ‘title race twist’ and ‘manager decision’ bombshell after ‘RIGGED’ FA Cup draw
Arsenal have been hit with a ‘title race twist’ and ‘manager decision’ bombshell after landing another plum, Quadruple-tempting FA Cup draw.
Said FA Cup needs to be ‘REDONE’ really, because Joe Hart looked down.
And there is a ground-breaking Spurs ‘admission’ from the entirely beleaguered Igor Tudor.
Hot Rod
‘Rodri discovers his punishment for his comments on ‘bias’ referees in Premier League title race twist’ – MailOnline.
The ‘title race twist’ appears to be that Rodri will be free to continue playing for Manchester City while being £80,000 worse off.
Kasper the friendly ghost
Once they have recovered from that shocking turn of events, Arsenal will have to come to terms with this news too:
‘Bayer Leverkusen manager decision revealed on eve of Arsenal Champions League clash’ – Daily Mirror website.
‘Bayer Leverkusen make manager decision ahead of Arsenal Champions League tie’ – Daily Star website.
‘Doubts emerge over Bayer Leverkusen manager just days out from Arsenal Champions League clash’ – Football.London.
Long non-story short: Bayer Leverkusen will hold an end-of-season manager review with Kasper Hjulmand, much like most if not all football clubs.
So their ‘manager decision’ is that they have obviously not yet made a decision because that would be mental.
Admission impossible
And there is a really quite stunning development to report on from the other side of north London, brought to us by the Daily Mirror website:
‘Igor Tudor finally makes Tottenham relegation admission as priority clear’
This should be good. Has he admitted Tim Sherwood would have been a better choice? Or that he simply cannot override the history of the Tottenham? Or that they might actually finish below Wolves?
‘Igor Tudor has admitted that avoiding relegation is the top priority for Tottenham this season as he prepares to face Atletico Madrid in the Champions League.’
Oh for fu…
Paul the other one
It is a quiet old news day but no, Daily Mirror website, Paul Scholes continuing to be a bit daft on social media and messaging Michael Carrick to clarify something does not even nearly constitute any Manchester United badge-cracking action.
Howe about that?
Oliver Holt takes his turn going to bat for Eddie Howe on Tuesday morning, on the eve of “the biggest game” in Newcastle’s history.
‘Maybe Newcastle United will beat Barcelona at St James’s Park on Tuesday evening,’ he writes in the Daily Mail. ‘Barcelona are a better team with better players but the atmosphere at Newcastle’s magnificent old stadium is the best in England now. It can create magic, particularly on a big night under the lights.’
There is not enough time in the day to go into his faux surprise at there being an ‘Eddie Howe out’ element of the Newcastle support while they sit 12th in the Premier League table not far off five years after appointing him.
The owners should face plenty of criticism for that too, sure. And they do. But it does feel as though the manager who spent £55m on Anthony Elanga ought to come in for the most flak there.
But yeah, ‘the atmosphere at Newcastle’s magnificent old stadium is the best in England now’ and ‘can create magic, particularly on a big night under the lights’.
It is just a weird thing to say about a team which has lost five of its last eight games at home, being knocked out of two cup competitions in the process and losing further ground in the Premier League, while barely beating Qarabag.
Good to see St James’ Park being bestowed Big Night Under The Lights status, mind.
Bore draw
Mediawatch is painfully aware that banging the ‘supposedly credible media outlets probably shouldn’t be even vaguely indulging in the idea that professional football competition draws are rigged’ drum makes far less noise than, well, vaguely indulging in the idea that professional football competition draws are rigged.
But we have covered the click-laundering nonsense of hiding those claims behind a thinly-veiled wall of sh*te and no-mark social-media posts before, and will continue to scream into that void.
The Sun website really have stumbled upon a lucrative headline trend here, as evidenced by this:
‘Fans claim FA Cup quarter-final draw is ‘RIGGED’ with final already decided as Arsenal, Man City and Chelsea learn fate’
It just doesn’t feel like ‘certain sets of fans were not overly pleased with the draw and speculated the process might have been rigged’ should be the basis for a news story really.
Fair play for a URL of ‘fa-cup-draw-rigged-arsenal-man-city-chelsea-liverpool’, though. That has presumably worked a treat.
And it should definitely take until the tenth paragraph to get this nonsensical reveal:
‘Of course, none of the fans could offer any proof for their claims and it is not known whether or not they were being serious or not.’
Would it matter or not if they were or not?
Elsewhere on the same website:
‘Fuming Liverpool fans claim FA Cup quarter-final draw needs to be REDONE after what Joe Hart did with their ball’
Sit down for this one, dear reader, for Hart ‘appeared to briefly glance down into the bucket before picking out his selection’ and ‘targeting Liverpool’.
Quite why a former Manchester City player would deliberately draw them to face Liverpool is unknown. But this is what happens when The Sun closes the blinds, sticks tin foil on its head and refuses to answer any phone calls for fear of the Illuminati listening in.
Carney slang
With apologies to those who still harbour ambitions of England winning the World Cup this summer…
‘England lose highly-rated former Chelsea star, 22, to rival nation three months before World Cup’
Break it to us a little more gently next time, The Sun website. This can’t be how we find out that England have ‘lost’ a ‘Chelsea star’ – 32 appearances, of which five were starts – in Carney Chukwuemeka.
Can you ‘lose’ something that was never yours in the first place? It’s almost as if England had numerous opportunities to do something to ‘keep’ Chukwuemeka over the last few years but specifically chose otherwise because they have slightly better options.
