{"id":13242,"date":"2026-04-18T15:38:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T14:38:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=13242"},"modified":"2026-04-20T09:15:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T08:15:57","slug":"every-which-way-but-lose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=13242","title":{"rendered":"Every Which Way but Lose \u2026.."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I have, in the past, written match previews that have tried to provide a bit of variety. While not on the scale of Ned\u2019s attention to detail, a bit about our opponents\u2019 history, where and when they were formed, why, and by whom; some detail of the head to head record between the clubs; injury news and likely team selection; and because football is supposed to be fun, always a joke or two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, there is nothing funny about playing Manchester City. It is, unfortunately, a trial that has to be endured at least twice a season, albeit one that has provided some success in recent years. And speaking of trials, if the powers that be ever settle on and announce the results of City\u2019s ongoing \u201clegal\u201d hearing, it may and should be one that we don\u2019t have to suffer for at least the next season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have enclosed the word \u2018legal\u2019 in quote marks because, being the naive person that I am, I still don\u2019t really understand how the matter of a football club breaking the rules of the league to which it is affiliated ends up in court. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any other walk of life you join a club, you obey the rules or you pay the penalty for breaking them. If you break the rules 115 \/ 130 times you generally get chucked out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s not forget that City have already been found guilty of breaking UEFA\u2019s FFP rules a few years ago now. As is their wont, they managed to manipulate the panel of judges at their hearing, and those that they magnanimously agreed to allow to sit came up with some new rules on the timing of investigating financial irregularities and let them off with a relative slap on the wrist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s exactly what will happen this time\u201d, I know some of you will be saying. In my naivety, I choose to believe that a proper \u2018football\u2019 sanction will eventually be handed down to them. If it is not, the credibility of the Premier League will lie in tatters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The accountants and lawyers can juggle and try to justify the various amounts of money that have been sneaked into the club. What they can\u2019t deny is that they have failed to cooperate with the investigation on numerous occasions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is rather like not turning up for a drugs test. A certain Manchester United player will remember the consequences of that some years ago. The punishment for not turning up has to be at least as great as failing the test, otherwise nobody would ever turn up. Similarly, the punishment for non-cooperation with an investigation has to be at least as bad as being found guilty of breaking the rules. Otherwise just scrap the whole investigative process and let everyone do whatever they like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you can believe anything you read, the suggestion is that City\u2019s guilt was established months ago. Since then, the lawyers have been arguing over the punishment to be handed down. That has to be a football sanction, not just a fine which would be utterly meaningless to an oil sheik – more or less a license to carry on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is inconceivable to me that clubs in the Premier League can expect fans to continue to pay such premium prices to watch a corrupt competition. Individual clubs can\u2019t fight this on their own but they are also owned by very rich companies and individuals who collectively have to ensure, through their own legal challenge, that a fitting punishment is meted out. For me, that would be ten years in the National League and a string of asterisks next to their victories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing is for certain, and that is whatever the result on Sunday, the media will continue to spout that City will go on a final winning run and Arsenal will ultimately bottle it. Why, I wonder, do they continue to praise and marvel at City\u2019s illegal achievements? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And why do they never laud Arsenal\u2019s achievements in managing to fight neck and neck with the cheats for four years without having a single charge of impropriety brought against them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 For now, though, we have to take them on, one more time, under the status quo. Just for fun I decided to have a look at the definition of \u2018status quo\u2019 and found it to be completely apt for my intended purpose. Do have a look – even Clock End Rider, who almost has Latin as his first language! – as it will practically take the place of a joke in this otherwise all too serious piece: \u201cStatus quo<\/em> is a Latin phrase meaning the current, existing state of affairs or social, political, and economic conditions. It refers to “the way things are now” and is often used in contexts of wanting to challenge that, such as in policy debates, social structures, or legal matters.\u201d
Nuff said, and now \u2026..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The football.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess we have to start with team news which for us, at the moment, sadly means injury news. Bukayo Saka and Mikel Merino are out, while Timber, Calafiori, \u00d8degaard and Madueke are doubts but Mikel Arteta did say that \u201csome\u201d of them had a chance and would be assessed after the final training session. So, fingers crossed, but gently – we don\u2019t need any broken fingers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 There are endless possibilities regarding team selection given the injury doubts so, assuming none of them is fit to start, I will go for – <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raya<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mosquera, Saliba, Gabriel, Hinkapie<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zubimendi, Rice<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dowman, Eze, Martinelli<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Havertz<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, win, draw or lose, Opta still see us winning the league with their percentage chances of that listed as 98%, 89% and 69% respectively. Either of the first two options would be wonderful. Let\u2019s not think about the third.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apologies to those who are interested in City but I don\u2019t care who or how they play. We all know they are full of expensive players acquired by false pretences who get away with murder on the pitch. Rather than a Holic Pound, we could maybe run a sweepstake on how many fouls Rodri and the odious little diving cheat, Bernardo Silva will get away with. At least the latter is leaving them at the end of the season. Good riddance!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope we will play positively without going gung-ho. But if we bore them to death and grab a scrappy winner from a corner, I\u2019ll be absolutely ecstatic.
Safe journeys to any Holics, and others, who are travelling to the Emptihad. I know C100 and his son are going – any others? I won\u2019t even be able to watch as my younger daughter has her final dance show tomorrow, starting at 5.00pm. I\u2019ll hopefully be able to relax and watch a successful performance later in the evening \ud83e\udd1e\ud83c\udffb<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Match officials<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This shouldn\u2019t even be a topic of discussion but we are playing Manchester City whose owners actually employ some of the referees who operate in this league!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The referee for this one is Anthony Taylor, from Manchester, and the fourth official is Paul Tierney, from Manchester. Despite my horror at this news, I was actually encouraged to discover that Manchester City have been refereed by Anthony Taylor 50 times, winning 27 of those matches, drawing 10, and losing the remaining 13. Those 13 losses were far more than I expected to find so I decided not to look any further into the details. (Please don\u2019t, Ned!). Apparently we have nothing to fear anyway from the appointment as Taylor is a supporter of non-league Altrincham. Here\u2019s hoping!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VAR is John Brooks – he of the Dracula hairstyle – and, no, I didn\u2019t dare look to see where he comes from!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And finally \u2026..<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thoughts are with Alex Manninger\u2019s friends and family after our former goalkeeper was lost in a tragic accident this week at the age of 48. \u2764\ufe0f<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have, in the past, written match previews that have tried to provide a bit of variety. While not on the scale of Ned\u2019s attention to detail, a bit about our opponents\u2019 history, where and when they were formed, why, and by whom; some detail of the head to head record between the clubs; injury […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13242"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13242"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13256,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13242\/revisions\/13256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}