How does the old saying go?

Nothing is certain but death and taxes…and Liverpool getting a VAR decision in their favour

I watched the second half of the Community Shield game in my garden as I was prepping some food for the grill and I don’t know what Arne Slot was seeing, but when he said afterwards that Liverpool ‘controlled’ the game at 2-1, clearly he watched a different second half to me, because from what I saw it was pretty much all Palace, with a Liverpool side tucking in and defending compactly, looking to spring on the counter. Which they of course didn’t manage to do and Palace got a really well-worked goal. They then went on to win the Community Shield which I think was good because that additional trophy will have meant more to them than it would to Liverpool. So good on Palace.

But how about that handball that wasn’t given by the on-field referee OR VAR when the score was at 2-2, eh? I mean far be it for me to cry conspiracy or anything, but when you have the same guy on VAR who gave a penalty against us a couple of season’s ago at Stamford Bridge (so I’m told) for the ball hitting Saliba at point blank range, you have to wonder how they didn’t see that incident as the same outcome. It appears most of the watching world saw it other than the people that could influence the game. I had assumed (I spared myself the ignominy of listening to any commentary and instead was listening to Hed Kandi Beach House in the garden whilst taking it all in) that VAR wasn’t being used in the Community Shield but when I checked my timeline and saw that the VAR saw nothing wrong with it I had to give it a bit of a chuckle.

It’s all very well it being laughable in a game like this, but from next week it won’t be funny any more, with more of the same nonsense clearly being dished out by Howard Webb and his Old Boys Network of favoured North West stooges. The eight-second keeper rule will be a fun one to watch when David Raya gets penalised on week one for it, but then watching Leeds’ new number one Lucas Perri be given the freedom to get a deck chair out, sit in it and smoke a cigar before taking a goal kick at The Emirates a week later…

What the game yesterday did show me is that Liverpool may be an amazing team, favourites for the title and will start out as front runners with their start compared to ours and Man City’s, but they still have questions to answer at the back and we have to hope that remains the case for the season ahead. If they get Isak then they will be a formidable attack, but there were creaks at the back, that’s for sure. The game yesterday also has to be seen in the context of being a semi-competitive game. Sure, Liverpool will have wanted to win it and sure, they’ll be a little narked at the performances I suspect, but I think none of us are under the illusion that they will be as bad as they were in the second half when it all kicks off next weekend. And neither will we have it easy either like we did against Bilbao. It was good to see more cohesion, more ‘clicking’ by what should be the close to the first XI for next Sunday, but I think Man United will be a sterner opposition and we might not look as free-flowing as we did. I have hopes that we can get close to it, for sure, but everything all still feels a little opaque right now because you have the ‘friendly’ caveat. Every team – even Bilbao and Villareal – play a little bit within themselves because they don’t want to get injured in pre season, so you never really know the true face of your team until there is competitive football at stake and so even though we signed off the weekend with some positive vibes with that emphatic win against Bilbao, there’s still a question in my mind as to how close we’ll get to that performance at Old Trafford.

I think we’ll be closer to that than in the previous two games, because we played against two low blocks and I cannot see United doing that on their own turf. Even if they went ahead, the demands from the home crowd would be to keep venturing forward, so we may find more space and that may allow Arsenal to express themselves. But the unknown factor right now because of all of the above has my stomach going a little jangly. Could’ve done with an easier start to the season than OT away, but we are where we are, so we have to deal with it.

And we might have to deal with Sesko too, which will be an annoying narrative and something that will have the social media meme trolls out in force no doubt. But will we have Eze in? I doubt it, but the noises that are coming from some corners are that Stuttgart are about to cough up some cash for Fabio Vieira having just sold one of their players out to the Saudi Pro League, which will enable us to then go for Eze with some cash coming in. There’s also talk that Zinchenko is wanted by Mourinho in Turkey and if they stump up a bit of cash then you’re looking at a chunk of a possible Eze fee being done. He looked lively yesterday when I was watching and there was a cheeky laugh by him when somebody asked if he was going to Arsenal as he was collecting his Community Shield medal. I know you can’t read too much in to it, but with the bulk of our business done and our squad in place, having that prospect of an extra cherry on top of the cake is a nice one to think about going in to the new season.

Catch you all tomorrow.