There's far too many red cards in the PL, many of them very harsh. I haven't checked stats but based on our games in the championship there seemed to be a lot less than there is in the PL. Konchesky's today is just ridiculous, especially compared to what Hutton did in the same incident. In the PL it seems like refs are giving reds wherever there is doubt, they do tye opposite in the championship. Is it silly of me to wonder whether refs in the PL are told to give more red cards so there's more drama and 'excitement'?
I feel there is a lot of unnecessary pressure on refs to follow each rule to the letter. The ref should take into account the situation and use a little common sense. As for today, if it was a red card, it should have been two red cards. In reality, it was only handbags and should have been two yellows.
I found that decision completely baffling. Hutton was the only one who did anything remotely violent, and Konchesky seemed to get a red for someone else's reaction. Bizarre.
The Swansea red card was a mistake but the officials most likely couldn't have seen the hand ball. I think there should be more penalties though for holding in the box.
I think Pawson was trying to even the game up and make Leicester more competitive by sending Konchesky off. Where the flipping eck was he for that second goal?
Konchesky did the foul and then acted nasty standing over Hutton and insulting him (I assume). There was then the getting in the others face by both of them. I thought Hutton pushing him away was reasonable as the stand off was stupid. I think the ref was right with the cards.
From what I can tell Red Cards are slightly down the last handful of years. Lets just use the years I have stats for. Our average total red cards is 57.7 so lets just call it 58. This season from what I can find there have been 26 red cards. At that pace that would put us at 66 red cards or an increase of about 14%. The net said that the average throughout the premier leagues history has been 60 which means that since the 2008-09 Season the total per year has been driving the average down. It would be concerning that this season is looking to be up significantly and be the highest since at least the 2006-07 season. 2007-2008 60 2008-2009 64 2009-2010 57 2010-2011 56 2011-2012 58 2012-2013 52 2013-2014 57 Of course someone could check my math or my totals as I am a little drunk and who knows if I made a mistake in there. Uh, the total so far is clearly not high enough that the total for the end of the season couldn't be at or below average as even at 26 cards the total for the year at this point if it was an average year would only be 23.68.
I agree. Seems like they're in most games, and of course a harsh red in a tight game completely ruins everything as a fair contest.
The Swansea one shouldn't have been a red for several reasons. The handball was one thing but on top of that the attacker actually ran into the Fabianski who tried to out of any collision, and as Monk pointed out it wasn't a clear goalscoring opportunity cos he still had the chance and missed. You see too many goalies being sent off now for that kind of thing. It's become something for a striker to aim for when he's running clear but not central enough to score.
I don't think Fabianski can really complain, he took the player out without getting anywhere near the ball. The Konchesky one was just bizarre.
That's the 2nd time West Ham have benefited from this kind of incident, remember McGregor last season? His red card was later rescinded but he still ended up injured and we lost from the resultant penalty after the officials missed the handball.
The ref can only make a decision on what he sees, sometimes influenced by his linesman, maybe the 4th official should review incidents on the tv, would take less than a minute with todays technology.
