Robertson was also a huge loss, as was Chilwell for us. Because Chalobah got injured he didn't have much choice or else we would have had to reshuffle the defence. We might have had the upper hand but LFC had far more propensity to land a KO blow with Salah and Mane who were quite frankly superb. I said at H/T I'd take a draw because to lose having pulled it back to 2-2 would have killed us. Both teams deserved to leave with something.
Watching MOTD, they spent a lot of time saying the Mane challenge was a red card the similar challenge from Havertz or, even worse, the snide kick from Mount at the prone Tsimikas's head which was clearly deliberate.
Was nothing in any of them tbh. Can see why Mane got a yellow, was a bit reckless, but let’s be honest it was a wrist to the face. Like carra said, had it bene an elbow then sure, but you can’t send someone off in a contact sport when their wrist makes contact with someone’s face. Same as Havertz was nothing more than a free kick and Mounts was barely even a kick. Was more a push with his foot which tsimikas was laying on.
Difficult game today Fab doesn't look fit, but you could say that about a few of them to be fair. We've been moaning about the midfield for years now, the loss of gini has proven more costly than I thought it would be. Not on only was he an ever present reliable presence but he covered the ground and allowed Henderson to run aboit and get caught upfield. He was a safety net we no longer have. Jota, what to say, can't pass, can't hold the ball, can't run with the ball but knows where the goal is. God I missed Bobby today. I'm starting to feel that maybe the rigid formation and tactics are not quite working, but we don't look like changing anything soon.
Should at least have been looked at and got a yellow. It's after the whistle was blown and is totally snide. You get a red card for head butts that barely touch.
it was looked at and a yellow cannot be given by VAR . Personally thought there was nothing in it at all and couldn't understand why the VAR guy took so long to come to that conclusion .
Mount led with the elbow. He went in deliberately. Clear yellow. People need to realise head impacts are to serious to be excusing so we need consistency here. Most of all however the absolutely disgrace commentary where konate got smashed was disgusting. It was only when the blood was visible did the **** shut his fat mouth and start the fake solemn bullshit. He was laughing with neville like just deserts got dished out as they laughed that mane was much worse and insinuated konate was soft or faking
I've only seen the incident once but got the impression he actually pulled is leg/foot out from under your lads body/arm. Never looked like a kick of any kind.
I think it was more than that, but nothing serious. Yes he pulled his leg out but he could have just stood there and waited or just pulled it away gently but was a bit of force. Overall was nothing in it though, why it even got reviewed it beyond me
I would have liked to seen a side on angle of the first goal. I though Rudiger looked offside from the first delivery from Alonso when he challenged the keeper. In assuming he wasn’t given it got no mention at all but he was in there all on his own so was either awful defending or he was somewhat close to offside?
the first part is true but it is the normal reaction to put your arm up when a collision looks inevitable just the same as Mane did . Mane made the mistake of assuming that Azpi would try and play the ball when instead he played for the foul and got a different one to the one he expected .
Mane was moronic as the ball was 3 yards over their heads or something. Mount was pure malicious and got no card. I saw two other similar arms to face on our players and no card including drawing blood The fact it was 6 seconds and no actual movement of the arm to swing it was all that saved mane but the ref never gave a thing after that bar to Chelsea. Even the lino started flagging early. But most of.my ire is for the commentary. Theres not call to start comparing to mane and calling the player down soft when they never do so for any flops ever and the closest thing to pulling back from it was the ****head going all quiet at the sight of blood.
Two draws is a fair enough result for both of us - the fact that we're letting City run off into the sunset with the prize just means neither of us are satisfied.
I gave up on commentators a long time ago - I don't enjoy listening to any of them. Many of them are just ignorant fools who can spout statistics but seemingly don't understand the game and are far too busy having conversations with the co-commentators than actually giving an account of the play. As for the co-commentators -sometimes it's hard to believe they were players themselves, given the stuff they come out with. They're a waste of money, imo - nobody needs them. You don't have them at a live game so why on the telly? They don't improve the experience as far as I'm concerned, and I'd rather they just named the player in possession and kept their opinions to themselves. I'd watch with the sound off if it weren't for the loss of atmosphere.
well you need someone on but I agree adding the second voice has morphed form a brief and sometimes insightful input to being a banter session and whinger. once one is at it like neville its i suppose inevitable the commentator falls into it. the difference between an old school commentator that used to exist is night and day. I think they add something personally if only to improve on the flacid atmospheres at some grounds. Shouting goal and getting a bit excited is ok but i would in general agree on calling the game and getting rid of all the pundits. Like why the **** was haaselbaink brought along. He is the most biased guy going in terms of chelsea (not that the club give two ****s about him) why do we need souness, carragher, hasselbaink and neville all there to call one ****ing game.
Strangely enough, I find GNev one of the least annoying, most of the time. I'll now disinfect my keyboard...