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Sometimes the Premier League delivers and Sundays really are super
THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT
English pride is a complicated thing. We are, at the heart of it, a deeply embarrassing nation – colonialism, Brexit, the Royal Family, Richard Keys, your neighbour’s Christmas cheer – but are normally self-deprecating enough to get through the day without screaming into a pillow. Thankfully, there are also a few things that the English are still world leaders in. We’ve got the best plugs on the planet, seamlessly combining functionality, safety and design into three perfect prongs. There is no snack more elite than pickled onion Monster Munch. David Attenborough still smokes any other TV presenter going. Oh, and there’s the Premier League.
Football Daily has long been fighting against the endless, self-indulgent marketing drivel from a certain broadcaster that preaches that football’s inception was 1992 and that England has the Best League in the World™. But sometimes, the Premier League delivers. Sometimes Sundays really are Super. And when that happens, the best thing to do is just sit back, strap in and enjoy the ride.
Sunday’s five Premier League matches produced 24 goals. While Sky had chosen to show the snoozefest which was West Ham 1-1 Crystal Palace, there were four other blockbuster offerings with more late drama than the bedtime routine of Football Daily’s toddler. For everyone beyond the blue side of Manchester, there was some delicious schadenfreude at watching City being pegged back by a depleted Tottenham, who somehow conspired to score three goals at the home of the Big Cup champions despite having an xG of just 0.49, with Ben Davies and Emerson Royal in central defence. At Anfield, Liverpool scored two worldies and still needed two more in the closing minutes to edge a seven-goal thriller against Fulham, while 10-man Chelsea somehow held on to beat Brighton 3-2 at Stamford Bridge. Even Bournemouth v Aston Villa was a cracker, finishing 2-2 after a last-minute Ollie Watkins equaliser.
Quite the afternoon, and yet another reason to bring back Premier League Years to our screens. Some advice to the future Sky Sports commissioners of 2030: you could do a lot worse than re-hire Georgie Ainslie (née Thompson), write her some lines that go something like “In December, there was more disruption for rail passengers but it was Trent Alexander-Arnold’s strike that made Fulham pay” and beam some vintage 2023-24 highlights into our future living rooms. Sunday was just a great day of Barclays, however you chop it up. Roll on the midweek action.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“He’s now sleeping before games in a separate room … we talked about that, and he had a really good performance” – Rangers boss Philippe Clement won’t be very popular with Abdallah Sima’s partner after crediting himself with getting a two-goal, match-winning display out of the striker by encouraging him to be a less dutiful dad.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
Sheffield United to sack their manager after a heavy defeat? Hecky thumped!” – Darren Leathley.
I do hope the footballing authorities go easy on Erling Haaland for his ‘WTF’ outburst on a social media disgrace – he was only expressing what millions of people were thinking about his inability to hit a barn door in the first half. So give the guy a break” – Christian Goldsmith.
Thirty-eight goals in 10 Premier League matches this weekend may spell fan excitement, but to me it presents a view on the poor quality of the goalkeepers we have. With Van der Sar, Cech, De Gea, Reyna, Lloris, Given, Hart, Lehmann et al, such a total would not have been the norm – 3.8 goals per match befits an inter-school trophy. Give me those hard-fought 1-0 wins or the exciting 0-0 any day over these goalfests!” – Krishna Moorthy.
Finally some stuff for us, the pedants: Hamburger SV weren’t the European champions 30 years ago (Friday’s Football Daily) but in an even more remote 1983. In 1993 they were already in a long lasting mediocrity before things got even worse and they were relegated to the 2. German tier in 2018 for the first time in their history. By the way, since you mentioned that year, in 1993 they still had some fine players like the legendary Yordan Letchkov and 6ft 6in striker Karsten ‘Air’ Bäron” – Bogdan Kotarlic (and others).
Can I be one of the 1,057 of your readers to enquire whether Christopher Waltz is in any way related to the Oscar-winning Vienna-born actor Christoph Waltz (Friday’s Football Daily)? Oh, and on the off chance there are any astronomy aficionados amongst you: To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge” – David Bebb (and no others).
Send any letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s letter o’ the day winner is … Christian Goldsmith, who gets a copy of Pretty Polly: The History of the Football Shirt, published by Pitch Publishing. Visit their brilliant football book store here.
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