Sport

Premier League issues better being decided on the pitches

Kenny Archer

Kenny Archer

Kenny is the deputy sports editor and a Liverpool FC fan.

Boys play football besides Villa Park, Birmingham, before the Premier League restart which starts with Aston Villa v Sheffield United this evening.
Boys play football besides Villa Park, Birmingham, before the Premier League restart which starts with Aston Villa v Sheffield United this evening. Boys play football besides Villa Park, Birmingham, before the Premier League restart which starts with Aston Villa v Sheffield United this evening.

SO English soccer returns today – but ‘the buzz’ isn’t really back, is it?

100 days since the last Premier League game on Monday March 9, there are two fairly meaningful fixtures, involving clubs with plenty to play for – first Aston Villa v Sheffield United, then Manchester City v Arsenal.

Sport has to return sometime, but it’s hard to muster much enthusiasm under the shadow of the needlessly massive excess number of deaths that the UK has suffered, largely due to government incompetence and putting politics and profits before public health.

TV money is undoubtedly a factor in soccer’s return, but so are the influence/ demands of sponsors to have their moving billboards back on screens. Those sneering at sporting greed should also remember that clubs are businesses too, with many employees other than players and managers.

Even on purely sporting terms the circumstances are strange, with empty stadia and rusty players.

We’re used to summer football every other year - a dozen Euro 2020 matches should have been played by today – but it’s still peculiar to have this expanded ‘tournament’ of 92 games involving 20 clubs (if it gets played to a conclusion).

‘Unprecedented’ is arguably the word of this year, and it certainly applies to what leaders Liverpool have achieved domestically this season.

Only fools would have questioned Liverpool’s legitimacy as champions if they had been awarded the title. Indeed the Reds could probably declare now and they still wouldn’t be over-taken.

Sure, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that Manchester City will collect 26 or more points from their remaining 10 matches, especially as playing matches behind closed doors should suit their cerebral style of play. Yet given that they have lost a quarter of their matches so far, to think that they wouldn’t lose more than one out of 10, or even that they’ll win eight and draw two, is being generous in the extreme.

Besides, City’s sights will more sensibly be set on the Champions League, although their participation in the next iteration of that competition will depend on far more complicated calculations than ‘points per game’ (PPG). Next month’s verdict from the Court of Arbitration for Sport on City’s appeal against their two-season ban by Uefa could have a major impact on the club’s short-term hopes.

So beyond breaking records, Liverpool have little or nothing to play for. No, after last year’s tight tussle at the top, there is no title race.

At least a dozen sides have more to gain, or more to lose, than Jurgen Klopp’s team.

The drama will be about the top four, or five – and the bottom six.

Even with more than half an eye on Europe, reigning champions City will still finish in the top four.

Leicester City are still well-placed in third, but will be wary that Chelsea and Manchester United might overtake them, perhaps even Spurs.

Friday night’s reunion of Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho and his former charges United will be a massive match. The hosts could close to within a point of the Red Devils – who could also move above Chelsea on goal difference.

In one sense ‘the form book’ probably will ‘go out the window’ after the longest ever break between games in peacetime.

At the other end of the table Norwich City are almost certainly gone, so it’s likely to be about two from five to see which other clubs are also relegated.

Bizarrely, many Villa fans have been absolutely adamant that they would win their game in hand, arguing that using PPG to decide final positions would have been unfair on them.

However, even if you were kind to them and doubled their average PPG for that one match they still wouldn’t move up even a single place.

Today’s matches were delayed due to Villa reaching the League Cup Final against Manchester City.

Villa folk seem to conveniently forget that a factor in them getting there was because Liverpool were forced to field a kids’ team in the quarter-final due to the Reds’ senior squad’s involvement in the Club World Cup.

There was little complaint from Villa then about sporting integrity, nor any suggestion that the authorities were doing the Anfield club any favours.

The cynical attempts by many supporters to exploit a deadly crisis to save their club from relegation was one of the most depressing aspects of even these troubling times.

Having the season decided on the pitch is welcome for that reason alone.

/////////////////////////////////////////////

Amazing and yet embarrassing.

Hugely admirable and also shameful.

Marcus Rashford’s efforts to pay for and provide free meals to children who would otherwise have gone hungry have been a shining example of a sportsperson being a fantastic role model.

The Manchester United player, still only 22, has shown far more maturity than most government politicians, people who should never dare utter the phrase ‘Great Britain’ while so many youngsters wonder where their next meal is coming from - in an affluent society.

There should never be any shame for a child in being poor; those are circumstances beyond their control.

The shame lies with heartless politicians, the people who really have the power to make sure that children don’t go hungry.

Yes, there are benefits payments – but these are often delayed, causing heartache and hunger for many who have no savings and/or no income.

The free meal vouchers are also limited to two children per family, in order to keep poverty figures down. PM Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg are fortunate enough to be able to afford many more children. Decent people think of those who are less fortunate, rather than condemning them.

School dinners are often the only hot, nutritious meal that many children get each day. Depriving them of that while schools are closed and over the summer is an absolute disgrace.

Good people like Marcus Rashford will continue to do good, football fans will keep on donating to food banks.

The government find money to bail out banks and airlines, to protect their shares and the profits of their cronies.

Providing the money for children to be able to eat is the responsibility of politicians, not footballers. Rather than giving tax breaks to the immensely wealthy, and allowing them to ‘avoid’ tax, give children some food.

It’s a pity it took a footballer to shame the British government into doing the right thing. Now Stormont should follow suit as summer food vouchers have not been available in Northern Ireland.