⚫️ Brutal midfield battle at Newcastle

IN-THE-INBOX: A 2-MIN READ

Last weekend wasn’t great for the tips. 🫣

If only Arsenal had started the game with 10 men, it might have just been the one goal!

We go again with five tips for the Big Six Club and two freebies – aiming to bounce back.

Here’s the updated Profit/Loss.

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🗓️ 27th September 2024

1. The most unbalanced Premier League? ⚖️

2. What does injury time mean? ⌛️

3. Roy Keane hypocrisy ⚽️→🙆🏻

THE BIG FACTS

Pub Ammo

❌ Six teams are winless after five matches for the first time in Premier League history (Leicester, Crystal Palace, Ipswich, Southampton, Everton and Wolves).

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Raheem Sterling has started a game alongside players born 30 years apart (Jamie Carragher & Jack Porter) before he has turned 30 himself.

🇸🇳 Nicolas Jackson has more goals (18) in his first 40 PL games than RVP (8), Suarez (12) and Drogba (16).

⏰ For 35 mins, the ball was in play during the 2nd half of the Man City vs Arsenal game – the most of any match in the League so far this season.

🤕 Reece James made 27% of his total senior career starts on loan to Wigan six years ago.

THE BIG TIPS

Kobblications

THE BIG DEAL

Donations are flooding in

The wholesome news of the week goes to AFC Wimbledon!

After torrential rain, The Cherry Red Records Stadium was left in a swirly swamp, meaning their lucrative game against Newcastle United was postponed.

A crowdfunding page set up by fan Graham Stacey, with the aim of raising £10,000, has now hit £120,000.

Newcastle United and Barcelona FC are among the donors, as well as a host of other clubs and fans.

But before you donate, there are noises that the Club already have insurance on the pitch.

No idea what the excess is but after all the Wimbledon fans have been through over the years, this is a decent enough cause.

THE BIG OPINION

How is injury time calculated?

Football is being driven to more and more data-led, letter-of-the-law decisions.

The referees are clamping down on offsides, tackles, handballs, time-wasting, arguing etc. in a way we’ve never seen before.

Every single moment is under extreme scrutiny. So let’s turn the tables.

What is the one thing that appears to have absolutely zero science behind it?

Injury time.

The average time the ball was in play in the 22/23 season was 54 mins, the lowest in recorded history.

So they went turbo on injury time last season to correct that – following on from FIFA’s initiative at the Qatar World Cup. The average then increased to… 55 mins last season.

But there is zero scrutiny or transparency on this.

We are left to guess how much time will be added on at the end of the game. And sometimes the refs will just add on more time, or in the case of the EURO 2024 Final actually blow before allocated time was up!

And there can be no more obvious example of how random it is than last weekend.

Seven minutes were added at the end of the City vs Arsenal game, despite the ball being in play for 35 mins in the 2nd half – the most of any game played this season.

Makes sense? 🤷‍♂️

BIG SIX ENERGY

Tonali… def starts?

Some big decisions ahead of the Newcastle vs Man City game this Saturday.

With Rodri out for the season and De Bruyne still injured, Man City will head into this game without their best two midfielders.

It’s looking increasingly likely Kovačić will partner Gündoğan in the middle of the park – a midfield pairing City have never started before.

With that in mind, Eddie Howe will look to dominate the midfield with the brutal trio of Guimarães and Joelinton… and potentially Sandro Tonali. Back from his ban!

Expect cards.

THE BIG QUOTE

Roy Sauce

THE SOFA SCHEDULE

Toon In Early

S A T
12:30 Newcastle vs Man City TNT Sports
17:30 Wolves vs Liverpool Sky Sports

S U N
14:00 Ipswich vs Aston Villa Sky Sports
16:30 Man United vs Spurs Sky Sports

M O N
20:00 Bournemouth vs Southampton Sky Sports

If you want to receive all the tips AND regular Champions League editions, you can upgrade to The Big Six Club for just £3.99 a month.

That’s an afternoon latte you don’t need. 😉

All the best,
The Big Six