Arsenal can count themselves lucky to be top of the Premier League table. There, I said it.
Yes, I am a Tottenham supporter and it’s hard to see the Gunners top of the table. Again. After last season.
This year feels a bit different though, with Arsenal smashing all-comers in their path in 2024 so far, albeit getting a bit fortunate to beat Brentford 2-1 on Saturday evening.
I want to get one thing straight though – I don’t think Arsenal have got lucky in terms of their matches – Kai Havertz dive-gate apart. I think they’re lucky that Liverpool are not ahead of them in the standings.
Now, I’ve openly admitted my Spurs bias already, but while watching Arsenal win the league would be galling, seeing Liverpool do the same would be almost as bad. I’ve never been a Reds admirer, I find many of their supporters tiresome and self-entitled, given their profitable history. Man City are the lesser of three evils for me, even with 115 FFP allegations hanging over them.
On to my point though. It is a long time ago now, but Reds supporters will not forget what happened at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on September 30.
The two red cards on that day, in my opinion, were rightly brandished. Liverpool can have no qualms with them at all. However, there was a Luis Diaz goal that was ruled out, incorrectly for offside in probably the worst VAR mistake that will ever be made.
It was a goal. VAR made a mistake. A big one. And Liverpool should have had at least one and could have even won three points from that game had it been correctly allowed, given it was 0-0 at the time, rather than the zero points they achieved on the day after a last-gasp own goal handed Spurs all three points.
Liverpool are currently level on points with Arsenal, only in second place on goal difference. That one point, or even three, would see them top. Then we come to the weekend just gone.
A bit more subjective, given pundits have disagreed, but for me, Liverpool should have had an injury-time penalty against Man City on Sunday. Jeremy Doku’s high boot on Alexis Mac Allister is a foul, no matter where you are on the pitch. I don’t agree with this ‘anywhere else on the pitch’ adage. A foul is a foul and that was a foul.
Get the penalty, score it and have two extra points to your tally, importantly taking one away from City, and Liverpool would be at least three points clear in the title race.
All clubs will have grievances through a season, of course. Every single club will feel things have gone against them. But those two, for me, are particularly clear cut. Just like the Brentford goal that shouldn’t have been given against Arsenal last season, by the way. The Gunners were very hard done by there, but finishing five points behind City in the end, two points would not have made a difference.
VAR was supposed to improve our game. It hasn’t. And if Liverpool are to miss out on the title at the end of this season, by a point, or two, I will feel incredibly sorry for them. For a couple of minutes.
