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Read on for an update to VAR, buoyant Brighton, bouncing Burnley, Tore in Altach! and a new generation of Madrid stars take an early dent.
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Matty Cash pays the price for VAR reform
In the Premier League’s Saturday teatime game, West Ham United equalised from the penalty spot after Aston Villa’s Matty Cash had a foul given against him by referee Tony Harrington. In the VAR age, one might have expected the decision to be changed. But it wasn’t overturned by John Brooks. Crucially, it quickly wasn’t overturned.
The threshold for reversing the on-field decision is supposedly higher this season. It wasn’t the decision I wanted to see as an Aston Villa supporter and it wasn’t the “right” decision as the Sky Sports analysts somehow concluded after spending half time saying it was wrong, but if that precedent is indeed followed through this season then I’m fine with it.
Villa were on top at the time and had to weather a good response from the Hammers, who controlled much of the second half at the London Stadium only for the football narrative gods to get involved. Jhon Duran – seemingly bound for West Ham for much of the summer – smashed in Villa’s winner.
Falmer Fabian off to a flyer
Brighton & Hove Albion enjoyed a winning start in the Premier League under new manager Fabian Hürzeler. It was a breeze on Merseyside eventually but Brighton’s lapses in possession in their own half presented Everton with dangerous positions more than once at Goodison Park.
Danny Welbeck and Simon Adingra took their goals nicely in a 3-0 victory and it was fantastic to see Kaoru Mitoma back among the goals and causing trouble for defenders. His 2023/24 season was decimated by injury but he was sharp on Saturday, scoring from close range in the 25th minute to give the Seagulls an advantage and puncture the positivity in Everton’s press.
For Everton, it was one of those afternoons when everything goes wrong. Mitoma’s energy effectively ended the contest at 2-0 when he chased a long kick forward by his goalkeeper, nicked the ball off Ashley Young and drew the inevitable denial of an obvious goal-scoring opportunity – red card for Young, three juicy points for Hürzeler.
Burnley lay down a marker
Scott Parker and Burnley have exploded out of the blocks in the EFL Championship, scoring nine goals and conceding only one in reply in their first two fixtures. After winning 4-1 at Luton Town on opening day, they thumped Cardiff City 5-0 at Turf Moor on Saturday and looked good value for it.
If you’re a maths whizz, you’ll have calculated that the Clarets are scoring a goal every twenty minutes, stoppage time notwithstanding, which is one way to serve notice on the rest of the Championship’s promotion hopefuls. Cardiff goalkeeper Ethan Horvath scored a calamitous own goal to get them started, but Parker’s players are finding goals easy to come by regardless.
Josh Brownhill already has two of them, one in each game. I’ve long been a fan of Burnley’s captain. He’s an excellent finisher from midfield (he’s outscored his xG in each of the last three seasons and across these two matches) but is arguably just as effective without the ball. Parker might have found a kindred spirit in Lancashire.
Real Madrid get a bop on the nose
In their Sunday night fixture against Mallorca, Real Madrid appeared imperious fleetingly rather than reliably. But when you’ve got the weapons Real have, this new breed of Galacticos and a manager who knows how to wield them, a moment of match-winning brilliance is always just around the corner. Well, almost always.
Some of the football Real played around the edge of the Mallorca penalty area in their 1-1 draw was outright obscene. Their stunning goal showed it has an end product too. Rodrygo finished it beautifully after Jude Bellingham, Kylian Mbappé and Vinícius Júnior combined like few other trios can.
Even Real Madrid are not impenetrable. Mallorca equalised from a set piece and gave the European champions plenty to think about in a rousing second half. Therein lies the choice for the opposition: risk going for a jugular that has the same vulnerabilities as any other, or try to stop the unstoppable? Mallorca were rewarded for their daring and it could, should, have been even better.
Altach’s Brazilian is banging in the goals
The early frontrunner in the Austrian Bundesliga scoring charts is Gustavo Santos of Altach, whose double against Wolfsberg on Sunday – the first in biblical rain in the far west of Austria – took his tally to five goals in three league games. Altach have won two of them, a record bettered only by Red Bull Salzburg and Rapid Wien, and nobody else has scored for them yet.
The second showed a little more of what Altach’s fans might expect from Gustavo’s second season. He produced another smart finish at the end of a move that began with his own awareness out of possession. He intercepted a loose throw-in, Altach hit Wolfsberg at speed, and the Brazilian put the game out of sight.
Gustavo’s career path up to this point has been unusual to say the least. At 28, his choices indicate an adventurer as much as a journeyman. Before Austria, he went back and forth between various clubs in Brazil and Vietnam as well as playing for a couple of teams in Japan and in the Greek second division.
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