When has been it Arsenal and City until “the very end” before?

It doesn’t currently look like every lost point could derail a title push in the spring, which will be a relief to City and Liverpool fans especially as those seasons where even an away draw against a tricky side might cost you were frankly brutal.

And the “big six” + Newcastle + Villa and Brighton all look like they’ll take points off each other and I truly think the top ten teams are as good as they’ve ever been in England thanks mostly to the PL money.

That said, it’s really, really rare for three teams to go right to the wire. One or two normally drop off come the run-in.

Yeah, probably 50% of players are carrying a knock that would keep them out of a friendly or dead rubber but not keep them out of a meaningful game.

If we are keeping the slightly mad interpretation of handball then shifting it to an indirect freekick in the penalty area unless there is a clear denial of a goal or goalscoring opportunity.

Banter timeline is that every club in the league is found guilty of something except City.

Abu Dhabi won’t even have to pay this one.

Can’t wait to have a long debate about VAR in a game where VAR wasn’t used.

City were always facing major sanctions if proved guilty of the breaches they’re accused of because they will essentially amount to potentially criminal levels of fraud from multiple stakeholders. Everton are neither here nor there on that point.

Leicester got a FFP fine in 13/14, the year they got promoted to the PL. Surely by this logic there are 23 other teams in the Championship they owe money to.

I’ve honestly never seen a 70/30 goal decision generate fucking weeks of this level of debate and discussion, fuck me.

Fans AND pundits sometimes.

It’s nothing to do with referees or their competencies for the most part, one or two shocking decisions notwithstanding.

The sport’s laws aren’t designed for this level of scrutiny. Handballs, offsides, penalties all operate on a “spirit of the game” interpretation rather than a scientifically measurable interpretation.

We’ve tried to add the latter, make slightly weird law changes to account for them, and now wonder why there is no consistency.

Add in an increasingly conspiracy-minded fanbase that resembles QAnon, a 24 hour media ecosystem that requires controversy to work, and a growth in access to every single game for both sets of groups, and this is now the mess we find ourselves.

They don’t. They have the smallest squad and smallest number of players used. They have a core squad of 16 exceptionally gifted and tactically smart players who can play in multiple positions.