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- 🤩 This Weekend Was All About The Underdog... 🦁
🤩 This Weekend Was All About The Underdog... 🦁
Route One
October 02, 2023
Gm football fans. Route One here.
A warm welcome to all our new subscribers and a big thank you to everyone who has been busy referring friends and colleagues. We won’t let you down!
Today’s briefing is a ~5 min read:
👀 Weekend recap… Wolves beat City to add some spice to the title race, Villa score 6 past Brighton in an oddly tight affair, Luton get their first win in the Premier League!
🗞️ Morning Brief… Arsenal to sign Neto, Klopp replacing Salah?, DAZN to show PL games from 2025… and more
🌟 The Biggun’… analysis of GW7’s crown
jewel - Spurs vs Liverpool + VAR gate…
RESULTS
Sunday 30 Sept
Saturday 29 Sept
AS IT STANDS…
Man City shock lose to Wolves (2-1) means they drop points for the first time this season, and end their unbeaten run.
North London is on the rise… Spurs beat Liverpool 2-1 to get to reach second place, with shoddy VAR decisions going against Liverpool. Arsenal are on their tail after beating Bournemouth comfortably 4-0. Only goal difference separates the bitter rivals.
Aston Villa shine after beating Brighton 6-1. Ollie Watkins bagged a hattrick and an assist…
📺 MIDWEEK FIXTURES
Tuesday, 3 October
Fulham vs Chelsea
8pm, Sky Sports news
Wednesday, 4 October
Luton vs Burnley
7.30pm
🗞️ MORNING BRIEF
🔴 Arsenal hope to sign Wolves’ winger Pedro Neto in the January transfer window. Arteta is a strong believer in squad depth and recent injuries are only going to increase his desire for more players.
👀 Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is keen to sign Donyell Malen, 24, currently playing on the wing for Borussia Dortmund. A sign Liverpool could be preparing for life without Salah?
😬 VAR Darren England and assistant Dan Cook incorrectly believed that Liverpool’s Luiz Diaz’s disallowed goal against Spurs had been awarded on-field. The ‘check complete’ was supposed to signal that the goal should have stood. Both referees officiated a match in the UAE just 48 hours before the Premier League fixture. How much of an impact did this have on their capacity?
🤔 Emile Smith-Rowe will consider leaving Arsenal in January due to lack of minutes. His contract runs out in 2026. Separately, the Gunners are in talks to extend Ben White’s contract. White has come a long way since his Prem debut for Arsenal against Brentford.
📺 Premier League games could be shown on DAZN from 2025 and Amazon are expected to extend their football coverage.
🌟 THE BIGGUN’
Tottenham 2 vs 1 Liverpool
Tottenham: ⚽️ 36’ Son (🫡 Richarlison), ⚽️ 90+6’ Matip (OG)
Liverpool: ⚽️ 45+4’ Gakpo (🫡 van Dijk)
—
Look, you might be getting bored of Klopp’s excuses. But, with this game, I think we let him off…
With Curtis Jones sent off early after his studs met Bissouma’s ankle and Jota receiving two yellow cards within a minute, it was never going to be easy for the Reds.
Yet, at 1 - 1, it didn’t look as though Spurs were going to find an opening.
Although Spurs are inform, they showed signs they’re tactically immature.
With two extra men, the impetus should have been on playing the ball wide to patiently opening Liverpool’s line of defence. Spurs did not do this.
Either way, Matip’s own goal meant that Spurs have now won 17 points form their 7 league games this season, a total they have only ever bettered once in 1960-61 when they went on to win the title.
Fun fact: Liverpool’s received 5 red cards in 2005/06, a record for the club in the top flight. This season they’ve already received 4, via Opta Analyst.
The big moment… VAR gate
The real controversy came when Liverpool were denied a goal by VAR after Luiz Diaz put the Reds in the lead.
The VAR Darren England incorrectly thought the onfield decision was “goal,” quickly identified that Diaz was onside and told the onfield team “check complete” to confirm the goal. But the lino had actually flagged for offside.
PGMOL, the referees body, released a statement after the match saying a “significant human error” was made.
👀 Weekend recap
Everton 1 - 2 Luton
Everton: ⚽️ 41’ Dominic Calvert-Lewin
Luton: ⚽️ 24’ Tom Lockyer, ⚽️ 31’ Carlton Morris (🫡 Alfie Doughty)
“I’d like to take this moment to apologise… to absolutely nobody” - Conor McGregor Luton Town
The Hatters first EVER win in the Premier League 👏🏼
—
Wolves 2 - 1 Man City
Wolves: 🏀 13’ Dias (OG), ⚽️ 66’ Hwang Hee-Chan (🫡 Matheus Cunha)
Man City: ⚽️ 66’ Alvarez
Nope, that’s not a typo. It really happened.
—
Aston Villa 6 - 1 Brighton
Aston Villa: ⚽️ 14’, 21’, 65’ Ollie Watkins (🫡 Cash, Diaby, McGinn), 🏀 26’ Pervis Estupinan (OG), ⚽️ 85’ Jacob Ramsey (Ollie Watkins), ⚽️ 90+7’ Douglas Luiz
Brighton: ⚽️ 50’ Ansu Fati (🫡 Joao Pedro)
If anyone has Watkin’s number, I need to know what lottery numbers he’s playing this week…?
—
West Ham 2 - 0 Sheffield Utd
West Ham: ⚽️ 24’ Jarrod Bowen (🫡 Vladimir Coufal), ⚽️ 37’ Tomas Soucek (🫡 Michail Antonio)
An improvement from Sheffield’s 8-0 battering at Newcastle…
—
Newcastle 2 - 0 Burnley
Newcastle: ⚽️ 14’ Miguel Almiron (🫡 Kieran Trippier), ⚽️ 76’ Alexander Isak
It was only a matter of time (and much easier fixtures) that Newcastle were going to start dominating.
—
Man United 0 - 1 Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace: ⚽️ 25’ Joachim Andersen
You hear that?
That’s the sound of Ten Hag looking for his next scapegoat…
—
Bournemouth 0 - 4 Arsenal
Arsenal: ⚽️ 17’ Bukayo Saka, ⚽️ 44’ Martin Odegaard, ⚽️ 53’ Kai Havertz, ⚽️90+3 Ben White (🫡 Martin Odegaard)
Arsenal’s defensive form away from home is something else. With this win, Arsenal have won their first three away games without conceding for the first time ever.
—
Nott’m Forest 1 - 1 Brentford
Nott’m Forest: ⚽️ 65’ Nicolas Dominguez (🫡 Harry Toffolo)
Brentford: ⚽️ 58’ Christian Norgaard (🫡 Mathias Jensen)
Credit where credit’s due… Forest battled hard to earn that point despite being a man down. 👏🏼
That’s Brentford’s 5th Premier League games without a win since a 3-0 success at Fulham in the second match of the season.
💰 BIG-GAME PLAYER
The puzzle section
Who Are Ye?
Use the clues to guess the player. This one’s not easy… 😬
I have played with Leo Messi, Peter Crouch and Francesco Totti
I retired in 2023 after a stint in Japan
Friday’s answer:
Based on the 2022/23 FPL season…
Who had the highest gameweek score? Martinelli
Which midfielder earned the most bonus points? Salah
Which player saw the greatest price decrease? Sterling
😆 MEME
