i didn't come here to argue so don't throw a lot of abuse at me Of course we were lucky with that goal, but even if it was disallowed who's to say you would've scored yours? It's all relative and nobody can predict that. It's clear to see we need goal line technology but the best team won on the day, you scored almost instantly to bring yourselves back into it and preceded to let in 3 goals. If we had won marginally I'd understand but you lot 5-1 after getting back into it, even I wouldn't be complaining about that decision. Last thing I'll do is gloat, I'm very happy we beat you but that's as far as I take it on here.
I'm sorry Drogs, but that's just wrong. The goal totally changed the rest of the game, which you weren't the better team in until that point, despite leading. It allowed you to play to keep the ball and forced us to open up and chase the game and the ball, plus it forced Redknapp's hand tactically.
It's your opinion PNP and I understand why you're angry but put yourself in my shoes - you win 5-1 against us and you wouldn't be playing it down because of one dubious decision. I don't think it did change the game because you scored almost straight away therefore you had the momentum. I don't say that in a provocative way btw. I honestly believe we were equally matched in the first half, you had your clear cut chances with Adebayor etc and we had ours with drogba and Mata! You kept hold of the ball better than we did in the first half slightly but that was expected. Like I said, I'm not here to gloat or argue but 5-1 isn't lucky by any means
Looked like definite upper arm on the replays to me. He had his arms by his side and tried to play the ball with his chest so I don't think it should be a handball though. It's another good example of Atkinson's inconsistency, however, that he disallowed Ade's goal against United because it accidently hit his arm after ricocheting off his body yet Cahill accidently handled the ball and it wasn't given. You could argue that he didn't know whether it hit his arm and therefore couldn't make the call but that just brings us straight back to why he gave a goal when he didn't know whether it crossed the line or not.
Sorry Drogs, I know that you're trying to be diplomatic, but the way we had to play totally changed based on that one decision. It was a fairly tight game up until that point and clearly wasn't afterwards. Any momentum we might have gained by scoring was killed by the Luiz injury and some rather blatant timewasting by Bosingwa following Cahill's introduction, too. It gave you time to collect yourselves and just keep the ball, stretching our play and forcing us to chase the game. It wasn't a dubious decision, either. It was a ludicrous one.
Fair enough, I accept your point PNP but I have to disagree. It's a matter of opinion on this and nobody is going to agree from either side. Like I've said (twice ) I don't want to argue
Mikel went in chest-high on Parker halfway through the first half (a couple of seconds after clattering Modric to boot) yet didn't even pick up a booking for it. Atkinson completely lost control of the game (and his sanity) in that game. The worst part is that we decided to join him for the last twenty minutes, hoping he'd think we were like him and he'd be our friend. Didn't work out...
Who's supposed to be blocking the ref's view, by the way? please log in to view this image Looks like he's got a clear view of the ball, to me.
The picture is irrelevant, you know he's got a clear view of the ball because he's given the goal. He couldn't give the goal if he hadn't seen the ball pass the line, which begs the question, why is a referee being allowed to take charge of a game when he's on hallucinatory drugs?
It was, in fact, a great bit of defending by Benny!!! Ironic, seeing as he is taking a load of unserved flack across this board just now....
i though the game was a good one and you cant argue with the score whether its 4-1 or 5-1....chelsea wanted it more and deserved their victory....
I have to admit I switched off after Drogba's goal, just couldn't take the injustice of it all after we'd come close to scoring. Then it seems it worse and worse with the officials joining in. I've said time and again that we should have followed UEFA's call and brought in goal line assistants, sounds like another case for them today. I won't comment in detail on the game as I missed most of it, but once again we lost with Lennon starting, that may well have been coincidental. But people keep telling me 4-4-1-1 is the best way to play with Lennon and Bale wide, well we just lost 5-1 having started with that 'sure fire best formation', mmmm. From what I saw King was doing ok, so fair play to Harry on that one, though I suspect 5-1 indicates he probably didn't do so well overall, I'll leave others to comment. Probably we would have lost with Nelsen and Livermore. But I'm not going around saying I know our best formation, because I'm honestly not sure. I think though having got four consecutive decent results with two DMs, (including a 0-0 AT Chelsea), ditching them has been a mistake. 1-2 v Norwich, (who then lost 1-6 to City) and now 1-5 to Chelsea on a neutral ground. (Though it seems the officials turned it into a 'home game'). I just hope Livermore is back for QPR, as for CBs, definitely Nelsen, the other, mmmm.
Looking at the picture, you can also see... In the goalmouth: King, Assou-Ekotto, Van Der Vaart On the line: Modric, Walker In the middle of nowhere: Gallas
I thought Lennon was one of our better players to be fair. Some useful runs going forward - and seemed to cover Walker decently. All our problems were with the defence and Harry...
Fair comment Moorpheus, as I said I didn't see the whole game and am not condemning Lennon's contribution. What I am challenging and continue to challenge is the mantra that clearly our best formation is 4-4-1-1 with Lennon and Bale wide. Because to me it's not clear at all, in fact I think it unbalances the team a lot of the time by making us too open. I readily admit though that 2 DMs bring their own problems, but we had a decent run going 0-0 away to Chelsea and Sunderland 3-1 at home to Bolton and Swansea, then Harry goes all gung ho and season collapse I'm afraid.
Yeah - I agree about the 2 DMs. When we brought Defoe on for VdV the 4 in MF were Lennon/Parker/Modric/Bale. Too open for the likes of Mata who then proceeded to instantly assist in making the 3rd goal.
I don't think that either Mods or VDV influenced the game enough and Bale failed to take advantage of the beating of Bosingwa by again coming inside for the last 20 mins. The defence was shaky throughout and I cannot understand the decision to start with Leds after the last couple of games. Ade was isolated at times but worked hard - as did Parker as usual. Lennon came into the game at times and did his best, but had one of his 'wrong ball' games. Cudicini was at fault for the Lampard free kick, but by then the it was pretty much lost anyway and I would not have dropped him for this game anyway as he had played throughout the run. Playing 2 DM's would in my opinion have been a better way of starting the match but heh ho...........
I entirely disagree. It changed the game completely. We were left chasing a game that we had been gradually getting the upper hand in. We were one goal down to a strike that nobody could do anything about, we were pushing for the equaliser - and then that happens. That ludicrous decision, plus Chelsea not being reduced to 10, had Bale not followed up and scored, left us up **** creek. I don't know why these things happen to us against them. It's hardly the first time, either!!
You didn't watch, yet pass judgment based on what you believe is correct, without having any evidence to back it up? Two things (that aren't named Martin Atkinson) cost us today: 1.) Gallas never got into the game - he was caught napping for the opener, he was out of position for the "goal", and was culpable in Ramires' and Malouda's goals 2.) Bringing on Defoe did more damage - firstly because we were napping when he came on which Ramires took advantage of, but mainly because we had VDV on the pitch he was helping out in midfield, which Deofe did not/does not do Your constant claims of playing two DMs has improved our results is an outright lie: 0-0 against Stevenage, 0-0 against Sunderland, 0-1 against Everton, the second half collapse against Arsenal. All happened with two defensive midfielders on the pitch, which stifles our creativity. Also, we lost to Norwich with a central midfield pairing of Modric and Livermore, so can you please explain to the rest of the board how we would've beaten Chelsea with that pairing? That is nonsensical. Nelsen would've been better than Gallas for this game, as he's solid when Gallas was anything but today, or indeed in any of his recent performances. That isn't damning Nelsen with faint praise, but at the same time it is saying how badly Gallas has deteriorated this season compared to last season.
Surely a ref as experienced as Atkinson must know that he has to be sure that the whole of the ball was over the whole of the line to award a goal. This one wasn't even ****ing close! I hope he gets held to account for his abysmal performance in that aspect.
