Kepa and Sarri are actors in the soap opera of football social media | Marina Hyde

It might have been a headache for the manager, but for the big studio moneymen Sunday’s bust-up was a fine day at the office

Even by the standards of non-apology apologies, Kepa Arrizabalaga’s first effort to address The Unpleasantness during Sunday’s League Cup final refined an art form. Politicians everywhere should draw inspiration from the Chelsea keeper, whose decision to decline to be substituted by Maurizio Sarri is regarded by some as the harbinger of Britain’s complete social breakdown (more on that possibility later).

First, though, to events at Wembley Stadium. As Kepa put it in a statement issued in the immediate wake of the action: “I regret how the end of the match has been portrayed.” As always with these passive formulations, one is left to surmise who or what is the subject of the verb. In this case, given the verb in question is “portrayed” and the events in question were taking place on the medium of live television, delivered in real time via multiple camera angles, the subject of the verb is basically “your own eyes”. Kepa is accusing your own eyes of stitching him up.

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from Football | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2tG8fGX