Just watched MOTD. Not a mention about the assault on Wanyama. What a surprise especially after they showed Williams accidentally lightly stepping on a Liverpool player several times.
Missed it all today...ffs...thanks for the match thread lads...my contribution would have been somewhere along the lines of : Me and Eric Dier love each other Get well soon Winks Get in Supersub Sonny ma boii **** off Chelsea COYS
The Standard report of the game quotes "Victor Wanyama was withdrawn due to a knee problem" Technically they are right I suppose.... it's just the problem was the result of Barnes' knee planted deliberately in his lower back. Right in front of an official who again chose to ignore a virtual assault.
I hope our club officials make a formal complaint to the FA about this. If this carries on, we won't have enough players to finish the season!
I am very confused as to what is a foul and what isn't because interpretation varies so much. The match commentator, not the main commentator so much as the so called expert with him,. was extremely biased. He described the tackle on Wanjama as a genuine attempt to get the ball??? Any Spurs tackles were either badly timed or deliberate. At times I thought Burnley looked like the new Stoke and many of their tackles looked like intent to harm to me.
Probably the best way for an 'anyone but Spurs' PL campaign, as I don't think they can rely on the PL "cup finals" that the Spanners and Leicester have in May to derail Spurs.
There were some really bad fouls in the Mouser derby. If you make them in the first half you won't get sent off. Some refs have little idea what is an attempt to play the ball. Yesterday's assault by Shawcross after a few seconds should have been red but such fouls rarely are. There needs to be video revue during or after games and it will all but stop.
Another thought is that I expected when we signed Wanjama that he was going to be a red card liability but the reality is the opposite. He is a very disciplined and expert tackler ,much to my surprise, and in hindsight I realise my view had probably been coloured by reporting and presentation of his play by the media.
I had similar concerns about signing him, but felt that he'd be useful back-up and competition for Dier. I've been pleasantly proved wrong, as he's been an improvement on the youngster. I don't think that we were actually wrong about the Wanyama that we'd seen pre-Spurs, though. He went to ground pretty easily in a lot of our early games, often picking up cheap cards or being on the verge of a booking. Pochettino's clearly had a word with him and worked on his game and it's done wonders. Easily one of our most consistent performers now. Very steady and a big part of our midfield dominance.
The fears about Wanyama being a card magnet have not come to pass (thankfully) . I do wonder whether this is due to the degree of fire-fighting he has to do in MF. At Soton, if he was the only one really putting in a shift harrassing oppo MF, then you will be the one committing various fouls. At Spurs, the MF press may mean that while Wanyama still puts in a shift, the work/foul load is shared a lot more between players.
Dan Kilpatrick has tweeted that Wanyama walked past him after the game yesterday and told him he'll be fine for Wednesday. I've seen a few tweets from others saying the same thing. Dan is usually on the money so that's excellent news.
When we bought Victor i was a bit on my own [with Spurf and OS] in being very much a fan. I looked up his disciplinary record around the time he was being linked to us and mentioned it in the transfer thread. Before last season he'd not been sent off in his career at all. He received a yellow card every 4 games or so but that was it. Something went wrong for him at St Mary's last year, just as it did for Fonte earlier this season. Those are 2 sensible solid pro's who lost their heads and I would think that the constant flow of players out of the club would prove frustrating to those left behind, apart from those who are promoted into the positions of those who have left. I expect Bertrand, Gabbiadini, Romeu, Ward-Prowse, Van Dijk, Forster and Redmond won't be there for too long if they continue to impress.
Maybe he's taking an alternative truth to the Sports Desk? I imagine his connections to Fox / News International must be quite strong!
It's worth pointing out that Osborne supports Chelsea. Can't see any way the Standard's reporting will get slanted by that nugget of information...
Manchester City midfielder Fernandinho: "We showed we came here to win the game. It was a missed opportunity. We tried to push on and press high but Arsenal started to play long balls which made it difficult for us. The Premier League is still open, we have a tough game at Chelsea away and to be close to them we have to win that game." (Sky Sports) Let me fix part of that for you... "The Premier League is still open, we have a tough game at Chelsea away and to help the Mighty Spurs get close to them we have to win that game." There you go, son. That's better!
