In these days of infinite possibilities for interaction between football and the watching public, there should really be button everyone can press which forces a game of football to be extended indefinitely. You can only use it once a season, but if enough people press the button, then the teams must keep on playing for our amusement.
That game this weekend would have most certainly been the north London derby between Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, a chaotic mess of a fixture that was nonetheless massively entertaining to watch, two sides with just the right balance of strengths and flaws to produce a spectacle like that. It was 2-2 but it could have been 5-5. More of this please.
Arsenal's problem of the weekend
For the neutral, the element of chaos that David Luiz and Granit Xhaka bring to Arsenal is extremely entertaining. For Arsenal themselves, it's more of a problem.
These are two players who between them have played in six different countries, winning five league titles, who have nearly 900 senior club appearances and 132 international caps. And yet they cost Arsenal goals with challenges that you'd reprimand a giddy teenager for, Luiz storming into a tackle that Son Heung-min merrily skipped past, Xhaka for some reason going to ground and ploughing through the same player to concede a penalty.
They will have to live with Luiz, because Arsenal frankly have nobody much better at centre-back. But in midfield, this should be the last we see of Xhaka in a game of much significance. He's simply a liability.
You could argue either way whether this was a good result or not for Spurs, but more interesting was Mauricio Pochettino's post-match suggestion -- and not for the first time -- that not everyone had been "100% focused" on Tottenham before this week.
The implication was that now the European transfer window is closing, attitudes will change and minds will concentrate on the job in hand. But will that automatically happen? Will Christian Eriksen immediately banish all thoughts of Real Madrid and get on with being brilliant for his current team? Will whoever else Pochettino was archly referring to only care about the badge on their chests?
And that's if you even accept this has been their problem. There's a strong sense that Pochettino is simply using the distractions of the transfer window to mask issues that have been festering for a while: their vulnerabilities at full-back, Hugo Lloris' form (though he made some vital saves at the Emirates), an increasing sense of disorder in midfield. None of those will be solved by the transfer window closing, so it will be interesting to see how Pochettino handles this from here.
Arsenal & Spurs strengths and weaknesses on display in draw
ESPN FC's Paul Mariner gives a quick recap of a back and forth North London Derby that ended in a 2-2 draw.
Scuppered plans of the weekend
Brighton defender Dan Burn said before their defeat to Manchester City on Saturday that they had been working on a plan all week to deal with the defending champions. City scored their first goal after 71 seconds, calling to mind Mike Tyson's famous maxim that "everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth."
It's a decent encapsulation of how nightmarish City are to face: you can spend hours figuring out how to stop them, how to beat them, looking for weaknesses...and then they're too good anyway, score after a minute and all your work is wasted.
Teething problems of the weekend
In the end the bigger surprise from Chelsea's 2-2 draw with Sheffield United was not Frank Lampard's side giving up a two-goal lead, but that it took until the last few minutes for the equaliser to come.
Lampard is learning on the job and will grow from his mistakes, but at the moment he's doing a lot of learning and growing. Bringing on the 18-year-old Billy Gilmour for his senior debut in the last few minutes as United were gaining momentum, for example, didn't look like the shrewdest move: Lampard defended it by pointing out Mateo Kovacic, the man who came off, was tired, but entrusting a rookie rather than someone with 52 Croatia caps -- weary or not -- was a significant gamble.
Maybe we shouldn't be too harsh on Lampard: after all, it's not his fault that Gilmour was the only midfielder on his bench. It also isn't his fault that Cesar Azpilicueta, the formerly rock solid, super-reliable Cesar Azpilicueta, is having a rotten start to the season: both United goals came from his side, one when he was easily turned and nutmegged, the other when he lost track of Theo Robinson's run. This column made the point a few weeks ago, but Lampard has enough problems without having to worry about a player none of his predecessors had to worry about.
Management of the weekend
But maybe pointing out Chelsea's weaknesses is missing the point. "We're not at Chelsea today because it's the third round of the FA Cup," said Blades manager Chris Wilder after the game, "we're here because we're in the Premier League, and we're going toe-to-toe with them, and they're in the Premier League."
Much has been said and written about Sheffield United's innovative tactics and style of play this season, but surely the key to all of that is that their players have the confidence to actually pull those ambitious plans off. This is where Wilder's man management comes in, and him reiterating to his squad that grounds like Stamford Bridge is where they belong is part of that.
By all accounts Wilder's assistant Alan Knill is the tactical brains behind this United team, but it's thanks to Wilder that they put the theory into practice.
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1:32
Steve Nicol questions Kovacic substitution
ESPN FC's Steve Nicol cannot wrap his head around why Frank Lampard substituted Mateo Kovacic in Chelsea's draw vs. Sheffield United.
Possible delusion of the weekend
"The last three games, we know we deserved to win all three. That doesn't give us any comfort in the table. But it does give us comfort that we know we're doing the right things, we're on the right track."
It's possible that the relentlessly optimistic Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is just trying to keep his troops' spirits up, in his comments following their 1-1 draw with Southampton. But to take them at face value is to wonder if we all have indeed been watching the same games as him, rather than some much more favourable computer simulation in which Manchester United have been...well...good.
Spat of the weekend
Liverpool are now so good that Sadio Mane tantrum, upset at some unspecified person for some unspecified reason after being taken off against Burnley, can be spun as a positive for them (fighting spirit, competitiveness, etc., and so on) without it sounding too ridiculous. Fairly ridiculous, sure, but not excessively so.
They're top of the league, have a 100% record and are already seven points clear of Manchester United. Maybe Mane was just trying to make things a bit more interesting.
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Nicol: Mane-Salah incident 'nothing new'
ESPN FC's Steve Nicol thinks Sadio Mane's temper tantrum is "the reason Liverpool are so good."
Luckiest moment of the weekend
All that said, would things have turned out the same for Liverpool at Burnley had Trent Alexander-Arnold's cross not looped wildly off Chris Wood and into the net to give them the lead? Perhaps, but to that point it had been a tough encounter, and that goal punctured Burnley's resolve.
Goal of the weekend
What is it about a perfectly-judged lob that is so satisfying? Is it the skill? Is it that they're relatively unusual? Is it that we can see earlier than most other goals that they're going to be goals, so we have time to savour them? Whatever it is, Jamie Vardy's first in Leicester's win over Bournemouth was an absolute peach, and we could watch it over and over again.
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Man United's 'lack of superstars' a cause for concern
Steve Nicol explains how much blame should be placed on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer after winning only one league game in the last nine.
New VAR issue of the weekend
Another weekend, another round of decisions that VAR could have corrected but didn't. But the weekend has also revealed another side effect of the system, which is referees escaping the blame for poor decisions based on misunderstandings about how it is used.
Kevin Friend's absurd decision to deny Aston Villa a goal because Jack Grealish had 'dived' -- this despite him having been fouled twice in the space of half a second and not even claiming a foul -- was initially deemed a failure of VAR, complaints broadly directed towards the fact that the decision hadn't been reversed. But it apparently could not have been referred, a subsection of the implementation that hasn't been well communicated to the general public, meaning more confusion was created.
You could argue that these are merely teething problems which will be ironed out as the season continues, or you could simply think that a new issue will emerge either week, something we would not encounter had we all just been adults and accepted that referees get things wrong sometimes.
The Pittsburgh Steelers and cornerback Joe Haden have agreed to a 2-year, $22 million extension that includes a $16.8 million signing bonus, a source told ESPN's Adam Schefter.
Haden, 30, was entering the final year of a three-year, $27 million deal that he signed before the 2017 season.
The 33-year-old former World Series MVP was activated off the injured list earlier in the day for a final at-bat under retiring manager Bruce Bochy.
Sandoval will undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery on his right elbow on Wednesday.
The popular "Kung Fu Panda'' drew a loud, lengthy cheer when he went to the on-deck circle in the seventh inning Sunday. The crowd at Oracle Park rose for a standing ovation, and fans held phones to take pictures and video of the moment when Sandoval walked to the plate following Brandon Crawford's single.
After taking a first-pitch strike from reliever Luis Perdomo, Sandoval hit a weak grounder to third baseman Manny Machado.
American doubles player Mike Bryan has been fined $10,000 (£8,222) for using his racquet to make a shooting gesture at a line judge during the US Open.
The 41-year-old turned his racquet upside down and pointed it at the official after successfully challenging an incorrect call.
It came during a second-round win for Bryan and brother Bob against Roberto Carballes Baena and Federico Delbonis.
Bryan has since apologised, saying the gesture "was meant to be playful".
On Saturday, seven people were killed in Texas in the latest of a several mass shootings to take place in the United States in 2019.
"But given the recent news and political climate I understand how my gesture could be viewed as insensitive. I promise that I will never do anything like this again."
Roger Federer cruised into the US Open quarter-finals, thrashing 15th seed David Goffin 6-2 6-2 6-0 in just 78 minutes.
The Swiss five-time champion fell a break down early in the first set but then won six games in a row to establish control in the fourth-round match.
Federer, 38, hit 34 winners while Belgian Goffin could only manage eight.
He will face Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in the last eight.
Dimitrov, a former world number three whose ranking has dropped to 78, beat Australian Alex de Minaur 7-5 6-3 6-4.
Federer said of his win: "It was great. David didn't have his best day either, he was struggling. I was down on the score early so had to come back mentally.
"But then when I was up a break I started to feel like he wasn't playing the same way and I was very happy with my level of play."
The third seed had dropped the first sets in both of his opening two matches, but played with a swagger when he beat British number two Dan Evans in 80 minutes in the last round.
That form continued against Goffin, with the Belgian winning less than half Federer's total of 83 with 39.
Federer booked his place in the quarter-finals for the 13th time in New York with a stunning passing shot down the line and remains on course to face world number one Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals - a rematch of the epic Wimbledon final which the Serb won in a fifth-set tie-break.
And should Federer make it to the last day for the first time since his defeat by Djokovic in 2015, he could come up against Spanish second seed Rafael Nadal for the first time at the US Open in the final.
Serena Williams remains on course for a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam title despite needing medical attention in a win over Petra Martic at the US Open.
The American, 37, reached the quarter-finals in New York with a 6-3 6-4 victory against the 22nd seed.
The six-time champion needed her ankle restrapping in a medical timeout after turning awkwardly during the final set.
Williams was able to return to the court at Arthur Ashe Stadium to see off the Croat in dominant fashion.
Speaking about the injury, Williams said: "I just rolled it, I don't know why. I was volleying and it just went over - that was frustrating but I wanted to get it compressed really fast.
"It affected me a little mentally because I've had a rough year with injuries."
Williams faces China's Wang Qiang next after the 18th seed beat world number two Ashleigh Barty in the last 16.
She will move level with Margaret Court on the most Open era Grand Slam titles if she wins at Flushing Meadows.
Johanna Konta reached the US Open quarter-finals for the first time by edging an unpredictable match against Czech third seed Karolina Pliskova.
Konta, 28, fought back from a set and 3-1 down to win 6-7 (1-7) 6-3 7-5.
She will face Ukrainian fifth seed Elina Svitolina or American 10th seed Madison Keys in the last eight.
"I've been in the fourth round twice before so reaching the quarter-finals is a massive achievement for me," said the British number one.
"The key was to keep going, with Karolina you know there will be massive portions of the match where I don't feel effective.
"It is about staying out there and trusting the fundamental things. It was a great match and I'm so happy."
The 16th seed missed chances in the first set before composing herself to punish an out-of-sorts Pliskova at Flushing Meadows. The Czech won 77% of points on her first serve and served 16 aces but those statistics were undermined by nine double faults and a second serve which earned her just seven points.
Konta has been hitting clean groundstrokes all tournament and continued to trust her ability against the similarly powerful Pliskova, landing 45 winners which outnumbered her unforced errors and proved to be a key differential.
Konta, who is the first British woman to reach the quarter-finals in New York since Jo Durie in 1983, has now made the last eight at all four Grand Slams.
She reached the French Open semi-finals and Wimbledon quarter-finals earlier this year.
On emulating Durie, Konta said: "I'm really pleased with that and, more specifically, this season to make it three quarter-finals in successive Grand Slams is a tremendous achievement.
"I will enjoy this but I have to keep looking forward and try to go one, two or three steps further."
Konta shows mettle to win another decider
Konta, supported again by actor Tom Hiddleston in her player box, started strongly against an opponent who had won six of their seven previous tour-level meetings.
She broke to love in the first game and continued to create more opportunities as the tall Czech struggled to land first serves, enabling Konta to dismantle Pliskova's second serve on her way to setting up nine points for a double break in the opening set.
Pliskova rallied to save all of them and it looked likely to prove costly for Konta when her service game - which she had only dropped twice in her previous three matches - suddenly disintegrated.
Konta failed to land a first serve as she tried to see out the opener at 5-4, paying the price as the Czech rediscovered her biggest weapon to instead take the advantage.
Pliskova looked completely in control as she broke in the first game of the second set and won nine out of 10 points with Konta's game starting to become ragged.
But, after the pair traded two more successive breaks, momentum shifted back to Konta, who won five games in a row to take an engrossing match into a decider.
Konta had won 16 of her 19 three-set matches this year and looked set to improve that tally when a poor service game from Pliskova, which featured three unforced errors and a double fault, left the Briton serving for the match.
However, as when she served for the first set, nerves seemed to take hold and Pliskova threatened to level by bringing up break point. Konta, though, composed herself again with a brave forehand winner down the line.
After missing a first match point, she reset again to win at the second opportunity when 27-year-old Pliskova - still searching for a maiden Grand Slam title herself - hit long to go down in two hours and 20 minutes.
"It was important not to panic or be worried," Konta said about fighting back from a set and a break down.
"I was doing a lot of good things out there and I kept into perspective I was playing the number three player in the world.
"I was pleased with what I was doing in that first set, even though I wasn't able to come through, and I definitely felt there was a lot for me to build on.
"I trust in my ability to create more opportunities and I managed to do that."
'Konta seems to relish mixing it with the elite' - analysis
BBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller at Flushing Meadows
Johanna Konta won that match the hard way. Many would have subsided after losing a first set they had dominated - especially after being broken twice in a row at the start of the second.
But Konta has an extraordinary third-set record this year, and seems to relish mixing it with the elite.
She has won her past four matches against top 10 players in Grand Slams - against Sloane Stephens twice, Petra Kvitova and now Karolina Pliskova.
The serve is the bedrock of her game, but she also hit bravely and freely from the baseline when the match was up for grabs.
To have reached the last eight of all four Grand Slams is a mighty achievement, and she is only the 14th active player to have done so.
Head coach Warren Gatland says props Rob Evans and Samson Lee were left out of Wales' World Cup squad because of concerns about their "durability".
Loose-head Evans was overlooked in favour of Rhys Carre, who made his debut in Saturday's loss to Ireland.
Lee, meanwhile, missed out as Wales opted for only two tight-heads in their 31-man squad for Japan.
"When we decided to go with the five props, one of the big discussions was how durable they were," said Gatland.
"Rob hasn't trained a lot in the lead-up to the World Cup matches. He came in with a shoulder injury, then he picked up a neck injury and a few back issues, so he hadn't played a lot.
"Samson has missed a few campaigns through injury, had a hamstring issue during the campaign.
"Someone like Rhys Carre has made incredible progress. He's dropped 10kgs, I thought he did well [against Ireland] and he's a big man.
"With Cory Hill not being available until the second game [because of a small leg fracture], Aaron Shingler covers us in that second-row position and we decided to go with the six loose-forwards."
Lee and Evans were two of the most notable absentees from Wales' 31-man squad announced on Sunday.
Evans, 27, has won 36 caps and started in four of Wales' five Six Nations matches as they won the 2019 Grand Slam, while 26-year-old Lee has made 41 international appearances.
However, the Scarlets pair were not included in the World Cup squad after struggling with injuries in recent seasons, with Wales opting for three loose-head props - Carre, Nicky Smith and Wyn Jones - and only two specialist tight-heads in Tomas Francis and Dillon Lewis.
"Our original thinking was six props but we've decided to go with five," said Gatland.
"There always has to be a compromise in the squad.
"That's the one position where we're potentially a little bit light, but we've been doing some work with Wyn Jones in terms of covering that tight-head position so that we've got sufficient cover there if we do get an injury."
There were a few other marginal calls for Gatland to make when trimming his squad from 40 to 31 players, such as choosing between centres Owen Watkin and Scott Williams and outside backs Hallam Amos and Owen Lane.
Scarlets fly-half Rhys Patchell was preferred to Jarrod Evans, after each player was given 40 minutes during Saturday's 17-22 defeat by Ireland in Cardiff to earn a squad place as Dan Biggar's understudy at 10.
"I thought Rhys came on and gave a pretty solid performance in the second half," Gatland said.
"It was tough for Jarrod in that first half and that was probably the decision on yesterday's performance.
"Jarrod is an incredibly talented young player and I'm sure his time will come sometime in the future.
"I thought Rhys controlled the game nicely when he came on, scored a good try and kicked his goals. He has had experience.
"For us, with Rhys, the whole time he's been with us it's been about rebuilding his confidence.
"He came in not being picked for the Scarlets, being on the bench and not having a lot of rugby, so we wanted to bring him along slowly, giving him the confidence and belief he can perform at this level."
Wales World Cup squad
Forwards
Props: Nicky Smith (Ospreys), Wyn Jones (Scarlets), Rhys Carre (Saracens), Tomas Francis (Exeter Chiefs), Dillon Lewis (Cardiff Blues).
Hookers: Ken Owens (Scarlets), Elliot Dee (Dragons), Ryan Elias (Scarlets).
Second-rows: Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys, capt), Adam Beard (Ospreys), Cory Hill (Dragons), Jake Ball (Scarlets).
Back-rowers: Aaron Shingler (Scarlets), Josh Navidi (Cardiff Blues), Ross Moriarty (Dragons), Aaron Wainwright (Dragons), Justin Tipuric (Ospreys), James Davies (Scarlets).
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