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My old mum was a great one for her sayings. She had one for almost every occasion and every eventuality.

One of her favourites as I recall was “better to be born lucky than rich”. I don’t profess to know the extent of Julen Lopetegui’s wealth (although having been ‘invited to walk’ a few times in his managerial career he’s definitely not short of a bob or two) but I do know in the run-up to Christmas he certainly rode his luck to good effect!




The game against Wolves, the club he had previously managed, was billed at the time as a ‘must win’ encounter. His job was resting on it – or so we were led to believe. We did win, just, and Lopetegui breathed again - but only with the help of a highly disputed penalty.

A trip to Bournemouth followed, and but for the heroics of our veteran goalkeeper Lucas Fabianski the Cherries would have been well out of sight before another hotly disputed penalty gave us the opportunity to take an unlikely lead - before Bournemouth got the equaliser their endeavours deserved having amassed 29 shots during the game – nine of which were on target and repelled by the overworked Fabianski.

Nemesis club Brighton were next up at the London Stadium and true to form they played us off the park in every department except goals. Kaoru Mitoma’s miss, when he contrived to graze the post from two feet out with the goal gaping in front of him had to be seen to be believed.

Like our trip to Bournemouth, that game finished 1-1 – but no-one knew how that could be. Even bottom club Southampton, with just a single Premier League win all season, gave us a torrid time. 54% possession, 18 shots in total, five on target, 475 passes, four clear cut chances – all match stats where we were second best to the Saints. But a Jarrod Bowen goal stole us a victory and three points we hardly deserved.

But Lopetegui’s on field luck finally ran out when we came up against Liverpool. A 5-0 thumping could so easily have been a whole lot worse without the heroics of Fabianski’s replacement for the game, Alphonse Areola. So I suppose in a way JL still got lucky there, too!




Next up of course are Manchester City. Now Pep Guardiola and his side haven’t enjoyed much luck themselves lately – their 2-0 defeat of Leicester last time out was only their second win in 14 games across all competitions. But would anyone who has had to endure what we have this season bet against another defeat heading our way at the Etihad?

One way Lopetegui’s luck still appears to be holding firm though – against all odds some might say – is in keeping his job. The word, from a ‘top source’ at the club (guess who) is no decision will be made on the basis of Saturday’s encounter, should it not end favourably.

In other words, our esteemed board and leader are ready for yet another defeat. Which suggests the uncertainly will roll on another week until we face Aston Villa in the FA Cup. Go out of that competition at the first hurdle and the pressure on the head coach from the fanbase, at boiling point already, will ramp up even higher.

But as we all know our Chairman hates making decisions which cost him money. Particularly when that decision underlines just how badly wrong he was to appoint Lopetegui in the first place. So defeat at Villa Park may not be the end of the road for J-Lo even then. He may remain ‘clinging on by his fingertips’ a while longer. Sheer luck keeping him afloat.

Flying by the seat of his pants - lucky pants for sure!

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