Rival watch

Adios Barca

 

Ndombele for Frenkie de Jong?

 

Didn't watch it, of course, but I thought this was really nice:



Savage may be a utter twat, but he seems like a decent and proud father.

 

Oh well, Leicester get to experience the existential ennui that comes from the ECL

 

They should appeal

 

Or send out their U18s for the playoff to get into it

 

Farcical hand ball penalty. Moutinho raises his arm to get it out of the way of the ball, which hits his side and probably grazes his arm. The point is, if he'd left his arm where it was, pinned against his side, it wasn't a hand ball, because his arm couldn't be in a more natural position. So raising it to get it out of the way of the ball can't make it a hand ball, by any reasonable application of the rules.

 

Shame about the Spurs covid attack. Here in the USA it's going up again as people refuse to be vaccinated because it attacks their "freedom of choice!"Some Republican States,i.e. Georgia,Florida and Texas have openly come out against the vacc. VACCINATION OR DEATH, YOUR CHOICE! In the meantime,this state,Kentucky endured a bad Tornado attack in the Western part.60 dead so far and expect it to pass the 100! by the time everything has been checked.A couple of mobile homes went flying........I've called my inlaws to check their families are safe.They are. Oh! That tornado,they say,was on the ground for 200 minutes. Lucky it didn't hit a "big"city."

 

Jonathan Woodgate

Former England defender on BBC Radio 5 Live

How that was a penalty I will never know, that is an incredible decision.

...I find it outrageous how that is a penalty.

SMS Message: A city fan here and that's never a pen!

Reza

 

Only 3-4 teams in the league would get given that penalty. The other 16 wouldn’t get it.

Joke

 

Aubameyang dropped for a disciplinary breach, he’s wanted out for a while but Ozil’d himself when he signed that massive contract. Lol idiot.

 

I think these players look at the zeros first and their brains last!

 

Rightly or wrongly, today's City's game really made it look like the fix is in for the Sheikh. City looked like they were getting nothing, so they send off Jimenez on a ticky tacky double yellow. Still nothing, so they award a farcical pen.

I'd want to have a look at the stats, but the stats don't always grasp how important a single match can be, and how helpful a win is when it's gifted.

 

I thought it was a penalty, Moutinho`s arm his up and it stops the cross. The red card was stupidity by Jimenez and he had to go.

 

The two yellows were correct for me. But it wasn’t a penalty and I maintain it wouldn’t be given for anyone except City, Pool, Chelsea or Utd.

 

My post above was written before I knew Chelsea had been given a penalty today and before Liverpool had been given one.

Both penalties have given each team the lead in a tight game.

No further comment by me needed

 

It is up, and it probably does graze it. But what happened is that Moutinho sees the ball heading towards his side and raises his arm to keep the ball from hitting the arm. The principal contact is at the armpit. It looks like it may have grazed the raised arm on the rebound. You can't call a pen for a ball that hits an arm that's pinned to ribs. So moving the arm out of the way shouldn't result in a penalty. It is a case where a holistic view of what happened is required, which is an interesting point in trying to write rules.

 

Leeds also had a penalty in the Chelsea game and from what Merson said it sounded like a stonewall penalty for Pool against Villa, apparently Mings never complained.

I don’t really think there’s any bias in penalty decisions though to be honest, it’s just that when a bigger club gets a decision there’s more talk surrounding it. At best I’d say a team could benefit from 50-50s more than another but it’ll generally be subjective anyway depending on who you support and who you hate/ dislike.

One thing I will say though is that referees in England are poor across the board which doesn’t help matters. Further doesn’t help that a couple look out of shape, they’re meant to pass fitness tests each season but I have a feeling these fitness tests are the same ones Ndombele partakes in.

 

And Villa robbed of a clear penalty at Klanfield also.