BEEP BEEP … THIS TEAM IS REVERSING

If Michael Oliver had brandished a red card in the fizzog of a Manchester City player who had just blindsided a stationary opponent with a fairly violent shoulder charge and then kicked the ball away in frustration upon being penalised for it just before half-time at the Etihad Stadium yesterday, Football Daily is fairly certain various Arsenal fans of our acquaintance would have had no problem whatsoever with his decision. In fact we know for a fact they would be absolutely delighted with it and rubbing their hands together with glee at the prospect of seeing their side play half the game with a one-goal lead and an extra player in their ranks.

Sadly, because this perceived injustice was visited upon one of their own, assorted Gunners supporters chose instead to bleat pompously about how the referee had “ruined the game as a spectacle”, apparently oblivious to the fact that Leandro’s Trossard’s dismissal had been a major contributory factor to the spectacle in question; one which was rendered no less compelling or entertaining by the Belgian’s absence. In unilaterally deciding on everybody else’s behalf that Oliver had ruined the game, what Arsenal fans in the media, on social media disgraces or in Football Daily’s local drinker actually meant is that the referee had ruined it as a spectacle for them.

After the game Mikel Arteta got in on the action with his quietly seething, passive aggressive rumination on the injustice of it all when he incorrectly stated that Trossard’s dismissal had turned the game into one “nobody wants to see”. While Football Daily can’t speak for everyone, we can’t have been the only viewers without a dog in the fight to be thoroughly entertained by the sight of Arsenal’s depleted side mounting a rearguard action so stout, well organised and heroic that it reduced one of the best sides on the planet to such a state of comical bewilderment that you could see Manchester City’s players openly pining for an absent Belgian of their own.

Reduced to taking a series of long-range surface-to-air potshots before sending on a big defender to play up front in the hope he might scramble home a goal, City finally equalised in time added on to added time, in the process pouring more fuel on the already roaring flames of The Big Conspiracy fire. With the points shared, assorted pundits across various networks were asked which side they thought would be happiest with the outcome and it was disappointing that not one of these assembled experts had the presence of mind to say “Liverpool” by way of reply.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Adults with nostalgia and money brought it back. It has the planning ahead of chess, the geometry of pool and the excitement of football. You need the reactions of a cat” – Stewart Grant, media director of the English Subbuteo Association, on how lockdown helped the game bounce back after it almost went under. He was speaking at this weekend’s Subbuteo World Cup in Tunbridge Wells, where the game was invented by Peter Adolph in 1946. Fifteen nations took part and Italy were crowned world champions again after knocking England out in the quarter-finals.

FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS

Complain all you like about every two-bit team desperately trying to copy Pep Guardiola’s playing out from the back (which is actually Johan Cruyff’s playing out from the back and, in turn, Rinus Michels’s playing out from the back) despite them not having players talented enough to do it but it is giving us a vast array of gloriously incompetent own goals that would have given Danny Baker enough content for a new VHS every week. Pray silence for the great Huddersfield Town” – Noble Francis.

Following Football Daily’s revelation on Friday that Pep Guardiola had enjoyed a meeting with Neil Warnock, at one point during Manchester City’s game against Arsenal he had four centre-backs on the field, a tactic previously employed on a regular basis by Tony Pulis. If Guardiola wins the Premier League while taking inspiration from the regulars on the managerial merry-go-round, then it would be the most spectacular of his title wins. The only way he could top it would be to bring back the W-M” – Ed Taylor.

Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day winner is … Noble Francis. Terms and conditions for our competitions can be viewed here.

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