likewise the decisions in your favour in games such as blackpool away and west ham at the weekend and neville/vidic staying on the pitch on a few occassions when they shouldn't, could win you the title. Over the course of a whole season they arguably even themselves out. In a cup comp, good and bad decisions can be (and often is) the difference between progression or not. Take the scholes incident when porto beat you in 2004 for example. You may have won the C/L that year but one bad decision contributed heavilly to your exit. Likewise our tie with Barca 2 years ago.
Paranoid?? Drogba regularly gets slaughtered for diving when the reality is (unlike pires, ronaldo, eduardo etc) he doesn't actually dive, just makes a meal of contact, stays down too long etc. I've never once seen drogba go down without contact particularly in the area.
That is true, but in the match last night Essien and Ramires should both have been sent off for two bookable offences. And even Torres had the ref taken a dim view of his first tumble in the box with no contact. That could be equally crucial to the tie, particularly if one of them scores a decisive goal at OT. Imo the bad decisions evened themselves out in that match.
I think that is nit picking. It normally takes more than 2 bookable offences to be sent off (yes..i know how that sounds!!) as most refs show some leniency (crouch aside!!). Also if he had booked them first time, the second incidents would unlikely to have occured as the players in question would have been a damn sight more careful afterwards. I certainly dont think a couple of possible yellow cards makes up for a decisive penalty shout. Also i dont think both torres falls were dives. One seemed to be a tumble, he hardly claimed for it did he??? Lets just asume had the roles been reversed fergie would have been pulling out the old we've been getting horrendous decisions tripe!! To say Ramieres made a meal of it as well....
Depends on whether you'd scored the penalty or not. And had the ref enforced the rules in the first few minutes, Essien and Ramires would have been on yellows for most of the match and wouldn't have been able to clatter Rooney like they did for most of the game, thus giving us more chances to score. And as for "possible yellow cards" well this is the first tackle Essien got away with... please log in to view this image And let's not forget what Torres did whilst he was in the process of being booked... please log in to view this image He didn't claim for it after he'd looked round and seen the ref was having none of it. His protests of innocence seemed to be more of an attempt to avoid a booking... And yet you've been arguing the old "we never get decisions in the Champions league" tripe. You've had three games with dodgy decisions against you in the CL, but we've had dodgy decisions in our last three games at SB. One of those records was bound to give.
Essien should have been booked for that but it wasn't as bad as it looks there. It was early in the game and a little late. Not the first time a bit on leniency has been shown. To be fair, I dont think the ref saw all the incidents to which you refer and as i said, had the bookings been shown earlier, the players in question would have been more careful...that doesn't automatically result in more chances to score. The torres thing is a case of handbags at dawn. About the same as rio trying to force torres up after the one earlier on. Nothing worth talking about. The difference with me and fergie is that I accept that on a weekly basis some go for you some dont. He is so quick to bemoan any decisions that costs you lot points on a weekly basis but wont have the grace to accept a bit of fortune when it is presented (case in point last night). Our (chelsea fans) frustrations last night is that it seems every year our champions leagues hopes are being hampered by big decisions going against us. When are these going to be evened out?? Its frankly getting old. Not united's fault of course but very very hard to take.
All true, but then he didn't see the penalty clearly either, else he would have given it! Most fans tend to accept that you get some you miss others. And most managers don't - SAF is hardly the only manager to do that, but he is probably the most vocal. Even Ancelotti who claimed he never wanted to talk about referees has started complaining about the decisions and confronting the refs now that Chelsea aren't flying so high and the pressure is on. It's just a natural part of being so competitive and having the decisions be so vital. I do feel for you guys after the **** you got against Barca in 09. Didn't really follow the one last year, but that sounded pretty harsh as well. P.S. Lots of time today - finished all my work early so I get to give myself the afternoon off! Ah, the joy of being self employed
Was quite suprised with Ancelotti's reaction yesterday. Not really like him but i think he realises how important these ties are for his job and us as a club. His comment about the courage of the ref was verging on a fergie comment!! One season our luck has to change, maybe tuesday?!?!
Verging on the Fergie? Ancelotti: Generic comment about referee's (plural) Ferguson; Questioning the honesty & integrity of Atkinson (we didn't get that "singular") No there poles apart
Really?!?1 Football is a bloody fast game and something can look awful when slowed down or a still like the above is shown. Refs make decisions based on seeing the incident live and in real time. When I first saw the challenge it looked a little late but nothing more than you see every week in the prem. Take a photo of some studs showing and it look horrific. Same could be said with the Rooney 'elbow' the other week. I'm not saying the photo is a fake and i agree it was a foul but the photo makes what was a rather routine foul look worse than it was.
Not read every post but Ramires shouldnt of been on the pitch to be fouled in the first place so if you look at it like that.....things in the game evened themselves out in the end. We deserved to win at the end of the day. BTW isn't torres a joke.
No, you deserved a draw but got a win thanks to a Platini friendly referee Torres may well ram that quote down your throat yet!
United deserved to win as they were over the course of the game the better team. There's no saying you'd have scored the penalty had it been given.
