It’s time for Wally of the Week were we look back on the moments from the weekend’s football that the managers/referees/players/supporters will want you to forget.
1. Danny Drinkwater
The last three times on-loan Chelsea midfielder Danny Drinkwater has taken to the field to start a Premier League match has been against Manchester City but if his new Aston Villa teammates were hoping he would be able to offer some sort of insight into overcoming Pep Guardiola’s side that couldn’t have been more wrong.
Drinkwater was at fault for the first two City goals on Sunday as he firstly forgot that Riyad Mahrez was no longer his teammate when he let him pass with ease to open the scoring and then minutes later committed the cardinal sin of being caught in possession to allow David Silva to claim the ball and set Mahrez up again.
Dean Smith will probably have been Googling ‘available midfielders’ and questioning whether his new signing really does have a Premier League winners’ medal after this showing.
2. Media
In an age where supporters, members of the media and even former players preach about modern footballers being too detached from supporters, Sheffield United striker Oliver McBurnie has been chastised after a video appeared on social media of him enjoying watching his former team Swansea take on Cardiff on Sunday.
In the video and photos that appeared online McBurnie appears to do little wrong, though there is an allegation that he may or may not have directed a gesture at the Cardiff fans though in truth it’s difficult to see exactly what, if any, gesture the Blades frontman is making.
The fact that a professional footballer can’t enjoy a rare weekend without a match to focus on without elements of the media and public scrutinising their every move says more about them than the player and it’s not a surprise players stay as far away from engaging with fans as possible.
3. Giovani Lo Celso
When you come up against Liverpool you need to take any and all chances that come your way if you want to come out of the game with anything and in a week were Spurs fans have had to adapt to the news that Harry Kane will not be available until at least April, they got a little taste of what life could be like without the star striker.
Arriving at the back post to meet a glorious Serge Aurier cross with Alisson beaten Lo Celso had everything going for him but he could only watch in horror as he somehow managed to send his shot across the face of goal and wide of the target with half the stadium, including Jose Mourinho simply assuming he had scored.
One man who will have been relieved by Lo Celso’s miss will have been Brandon Williams, the Manchester United youngster somehow managed to put the ball over the bar from a couple of yards out with the goal at his mercy, on second thought it’s hard to know which chance was worse!
