{"id":6383,"date":"2018-01-10T15:30:21","date_gmt":"2018-01-10T15:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.talesfromthetopflight.com\/?p=6383"},"modified":"2018-01-09T23:40:56","modified_gmt":"2018-01-09T23:40:56","slug":"wally-week-giant-killing-manager-sackings-drug-taking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.talesfromthetopflight.com\/2018\/01\/10\/wally-week-giant-killing-manager-sackings-drug-taking\/","title":{"rendered":"Wally of the Week: Giant killing, manager sackings and drug taking?"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a packed festive period, the Premier League took a break last weekend and made way for the FA Cup. The third round provided its fair share of controversial moments with one manager paying the price for a surprising but not-so-surprising defeat, one referee completely ignoring something you\u2019d see in WWE and one club that are never far from the headlines.<\/p>\n

3. Mark Hughes<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I promise this is the last time the now former Stoke City manager makes this shortlist for the time being. That\u2019s because he\u2019s been sacked. At long last, the Stoke fans have been put out of their misery and the Stoke board really had no choice after Hughes\u2019s side were knocked out by League Two Coventry in the third round of the FA Cup. Jack Grimmer\u2019s late strike sealed a 2-1 win for the lower league side and Stoke became the first victim of a weekend of shocks. After a large turnover of players in the last couple of years, Stoke have gone from three consecutive 9th place finishes to fighting relegation and the fans had become increasingly impatient with Hughes and the team. The former Manchester United and Chelsea midfielder leaves the club in the relegation zone after a poor run of form. Were we really that shocked that they went down at Coventry? I don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n

2. Bobby Madley<\/strong><\/h3>\n

It\u2019s no coincidence this referee features quite often in this column, he\u2019s that bad. Madley was assigned the Merseyside Derby on Friday night in the FA Cup third round at Anfield and it certainly didn\u2019t disappoint. Firstly. Madley gave a soft penalty after Mason Holgate breathed on Adam Lallana which James Milner converted to put Liverpool 1-0 up. With tempers boiling, Mason Holgate shoved Roberto Firmino into the Liverpool fans on the near touchline \u2013 a definite yellow card and maybe even a red for endangering the Brazilian\u2019s safety.
\nA furious Firmino emerged from the crowd like a WWE wrestler storming back into the ring after being hurled out and came face-to-face with Holgate before Madley came between them. Firmino obviously said something offensive towards Holgate, which Madley has since reported to the FA, and the Everton youngster was incensed. He grabbed the referee in a bid to get his attention, a certain red card. After everything had calmed down, Madley went over to consult the fourth official about something but decided, bizarrely, not to punish anyone.<\/p>\n

1. Arsenal<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Gunners just can\u2019t seem to string two good games together. They fought back to draw against Chelsea last week in a fairly respectable performance but Hector Bellerin\u2019s stoppage-time equaliser was forgotten by Sunday evening as a much-changed Arsenal side were on the wrong side of a 4-2 drubbing by Nottingham Forest of the Championship. Arsene Wenger, who watched the game from the stands after a touchline ban for questioning Mike Dean\u2019s integrity (don\u2019t we all?), picked a mixture of youth and experience for the trip to the City Ground. Except that those \u2018experienced\u2019 players haven\u2019t had many minutes at all this season and it showed in a very poor display.
\nTo make matters worse, pictures emerged of Alex Iwobi, who had started that game for Arsenal, out partying on Friday night \u2013 breaking the club\u2019s curfew for matches. Arsene Wenger was forced to sit in his press conference and deny Iwobi hadn\u2019t touched any drugs during the party and maintain that he\u2019d be punished for breaking club rules. An embarrassing situation on and off the pitch for the Gunners, but then again, they\u2019re used to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a packed festive period, the Premier League took a break last weekend and made way for the FA Cup. The third round provided its fair share of controversial moments with one manager paying the price for a surprising but not-so-surprising defeat, one referee completely ignoring something you\u2019d see in WWE and one club that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":2874,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3113],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nWally of the Week: Giant killing, manager sackings and drug taking?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.talesfromthetopflight.com\/2018\/01\/10\/wally-week-giant-killing-manager-sackings-drug-taking\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wally of the Week: Giant killing, manager sackings and drug taking?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After a packed festive period, the Premier League took a break last weekend and made way for the FA Cup. 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