DARK ARTS GAME IN THE MUD?
This international break has gone from feeling like a breath of minty fresh air, to smelling like sitting next to a hangover on the London Underground.
We thought that Saka, Big Gabi, and Martinelli were all engaged in some dark arts preservation for this weekend. It turns out that might not be the case, and there seems to be a concern—it’s touch and go.
Now, what you have to remember here is this: Mikel uses uncertainty as a weapon. He doesn’t want Pep to know who is available and who is not. Pep will be doing the same. Is Kyle Walker fit? Did John Stones walk off the pitch inside 20 minutes because he got the call from his manager?
No one knows. This is what mind games look like at the very highest level. It’s actually terrifying and a little bit annoying. I don’t want to go into the game feeling like we’re once again below full strength; I need certainty in my life, even if this is an Art of War stategem. But that is my cross to bear… yours too. We are basically martyrs for the game.
My guess is Martinelli is genuinely touch-and-go. His foot injury looked like a stab wound apparently. The healing could be 10 days, but that’s in a perfect world we don’t live in. You can’t run if your foot is split open. Aggravating a wound like a second time is never good.
Saka has apparently been carrying an injury for a while (Twitter, not anything verified), so who knows there.
What I can tell you for free… if there’s a game to roll the dice on, I think Arteta will do it for this one. It’s do or die. If City scalps us, our best hope is Liverpool falter. If we win, the fumes of glory could carry us all the way.
The problem for Arteta is that if you do roll the dice, and someone breaks down inside 20, you’ve screwed the game plan, you’ve dented morale, and City will smell the chum in the water.
Still, at least the league sorted us out nicely with an impartial crew of referees. They served us up Jarred Gillet, who is a Liverpool fan, and has presided over some absolutely shocking Arsenal decisions, the latest was disallowing the Kai goal at Villa and denying us a stonewall penalty. He was also shocking in the Chelsea game.
But more to the point here – if you give a shit about impartiality, why would you put a Liverpool fan in the VAR room for the City vs Arsenal game? It’s absurd.
Not as absurd as giving the game to a referee from Manchester in Anthony Taylor. If you grew up in that area and don’t have an opinion on either side, you probably don’t like football at all. I’m not calling him a bad ref (we win a lot with him), I’m just saying that it is crazy to me that PGMOL doesn’t consider the optics in games this huge.
Is it too much to ask to have a non-Liverpool supporting ref in the VAR room – and a ref on the pitch with no affiliation with the city of one of the teams?
It shouldn’t be.
This is the first post of the daily run in for the BIG game. I’ll be back tomorrow with more words. I also have a bunch of good pods for you.
We’re going podcast crazy this week – Johnny is back with Matt and they’re having a lovely old reunion. Check that podcast out when it drops at 6am UK time.
big love xxx