Officials’ Gift Tracker, 2015-2016

A couple of obvious ones this week, in my opinion.
Southampton's first goal was offside, so their draw should go to Leicester.
West Brom's goal against Sunderland was at least two fouls, if not also a handball, so the 1-0 should become a 0-0.

Would Milner's blatant 2nd yellow against us have made a difference? Debatable.

 

Thanks, PNP. I will take your word for it and update accordingly. The rule has been that we don't assume a goal would have been scored if a player should have been sent off but wasn't. It's only goals scored after a player that should have been sent off but wasn't that are considered gifts. Liverpool also had a shout for a pen against us, but I'm not sure I've ever seen it given. Someone ducked his shoulder trying to get by Alli. Alli put his hand on him, exerted a certain amount of pressure, and he went down. On a scale where 10 is given every time and 0 is never given I think it's a one or two. Mignolet also had a moment where the ball hit his shoulder outside the box, but it wasn't intentional, nor was it even clear the point of contact would have made it a hand ball. On first look it appeared the ball brushed

 

I thought that the ball clearly hit Mignolet on the arm.
I don't think that it was a handball though, as it wasn't deliberate.
His defender kicked it at him from a very short distance.

 

Palace had a number of penalty calls at the end of their game against Leicester.
Not sure about any of them, to be honest. Zaha's was the closest, in my opinion, but his dive made it hard to give.

Chelsea had a debatable one against West Ham, too.
The opening goal of the game came from a corner, which came from a free-kick which Payet won with a blatant dive.
Can you go back that far to chalk it off? Not sure.

 

Hmm. I didn't see any of them. I saw one replay of a shout United had for a pen against City, but not well enough to be sure whether there was anything to it.

I think if the West Ham goal came as you say, it was a gift. It's only too late if there has been a change of possession, I think, to be consistent. Dier's goal was a gift, it seemed to me, even though time had passed and de Bruyne had the chance to make a clearance. I was watching the game, but for whatever reason didn't note Payet's dive.

 

This is going to sound a bit silly, given the eventual scoreline, but I genuinely think that Swansea have a case against Arsenal.
They had two big penalty calls before they conceded (Mertesacker handball, Cech on Gomis) and the Goon's second goal should've been a foul.
That turns a 3-0 stroll into a 2-2 draw. Quite a turnaround and I can understand why Garry Monk was fuming.

Leicester v West Brom had a ton of debatable ones, including a series of penalty calls and a possible offside goal.
All quite controversial, but I think that a draw might've been fair in the end, given the calls.
That sort of thing seems to go in a club's favour when they're on a good run though, for some reason.
The opposite is true when you're struggling.

Not the exact place for it, but I'd just like to applaud one piece of officialdom from the weekend.
Mitrovic and Wollschied were involved, with the former trying to provoke the latter, then feigning injury when he got a reaction.
Roger East did the right thing and booked both of them, which was spot on.

 

Totally agree on the Arsenal one couldn't understand why no commentator thought the Cech trip on Gomis wasn't a penalty and a red card.

 

Red card was debatable, as he was going wide and there were covering defenders. Obvious penalty and at least a yellow, though.

 

I agree about Gomis, but not about the Cech handball.The Leicester game seems like a very tough call for someone who didn’t see it.

 

Sorry to support Chavski but I thought they should have a pen when Remy had to vault the Stoke keeper to avoid getting brought down. There was no noticeable contact but that is irrelevant. If we want to stop diving and cheating in the game, then surely people who try to stay on their feet should be rewarded. The only message that decision sends out is that you should always fall over the keeper or you won't get a pen. Remy should however be applauded for not going down when instead he is probably getting castigated by fans and his manager for not going down.

Having said that Costa should (again, yawn) have been sent off the game before for kicking out (can't remember who he kicked unfortunately). Having not been sent off during the game he should have been retrospectively banned. The fact he wasn't shows that Chelski do indeed have preferential treatment and the for all his whinging, Maureen's campaign is working. Sure Costa was crap in the next game he shouldn't have played, but what happens if he scores a winner in the next two (or three?) games he should have missed - doesn't one of them happen against us...

 

Skrtel I think. Agree on Costa and Remy. Costa being banned would probably result in more points for them though.

 

Remy one was a pen for me too. I felt dirty saying it at the time