The numbers are ridiculous. Following Tottenham’s remarkable 2-0 win over Manchester City on Sunday, here’s the statistical summary of the Premier League encounters between Spurs and City this campaign.
The VAR era has produced some stunning moments, but here are two of the strangest minutes we’ve seen yet. The scene is Estadio Fernando Torres in Madrid — yes, the stadium’s named after the former Liverpool striker — where Fuenlabrada is hosting Girona in Spanish Segunda División play.
After all the acclaim and praise that Real Madrid’s Federico Valverde received for his tactical red card in the Spanish Super Cup final, it’s only right that we highlight this draw-preserving bit of the dark arts from Garforth Town’s Alex Low.
Bournemouth’s Steve Cook made one of the top saves of the day, springing up from his arse to his bat away an effort from Norwich, turning the shot onto the crossbar and saving a goal.
Unfortunately for the Cherries, Cook is no goalkeeper.
Cook, a center back, was sent off for denying a goal from Ondrej Duda in the 31st minute on Saturday, taking a page out of Luis Suarez’s playbook. But unlike Suarez for Uruguay in 2010, things didn’t work out so well for Cook and Bournemouth.
A foul in any sport is almost always detrimental to the team that committed the infraction. In soccer, a single foul can decide the outcome of a match. Mexico can tell you all about it after the infamous Arjen Robben flop at the 2014 World Cup.
Everyone’s got at least one — one memory from playing soccer they just can’t get out of their head, one moment in time they regularly ruminate over years after the fact.
There are bad calls in every match and then there are the incidents that do not fade from memory. Everyone who has played the game for any length of time has at least one moment of madness from a ref they’ll never forget.
So we at The18 have compiled a list of the worst officiating decisions we’ve ever seen, to let you know you are not alone in your constant chewing over that one call so many years ago.
Even for the best of teams, playing down a man for 80 minutes is a most difficult task. Thanks to an idiotic Ederson red card, Manchester City suffered to a 3-2 defeat to Wolverhampton on Friday.
Despite two first-half goals from Raheem Sterling after City went down to 10 men, Wolves rallied with three in the second half to beat City, further denting Pep Guardiola’s title defense.
“When I left you I was but the learner, now I am the master,” is what Frank Lampard presumably said to José Mourinho following Chelsea’s 2-0 victory over Tottenham on Sunday. After suffering four defeats in their last five Premier League games, Lampard elected to switch to a back three and relied on excellent performances from Willian, Mason Mount and Marcos Alonso to drive Mourinho’s side inside its shell at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Last week, Manuel Neuer provided another example of his unique ability to excel outside of the box. While others attempt to emulate his brazen style of play, few can replicate his skill as a sweeper keeper. Schalke’s goalie, for one, provided an example of how not to play sweeper keeper, resulting in a deserved Alexander Nübel red card for one of the most violent tackles you’ll ever see on the pitch.
Former Red Jonjo Shelvey gave Liverpool a gift earlier in the day, scoring a late equalizer to hold Manchester City to a draw. Then the goalkeeper nearly threw it all away with a remarkably stupid Alisson red card against Brighton & Hove Albion.
Ultimately, Liverpool held on to win 2-1, going 11 points clear of Manchester City after the Citizens drew 2-2 with Newcastle United earlier on Saturday. But it was unnecessarily nervy at Anfield because of some boneheaded goalkeeping.