The top teams have definitely got weaker but it's a fair point that the overall competitiveness has improved with the rise of Southampton and Swansea and you court argue that was reflected in the cup success Wigan and Swansea had last season When there was a 50/50 decision to be made, Dean tended to favour for Spurs. That frustration built up throughout and I thought Ivanovic/Torres/Ramires/Oscar began to lose their discipline a bit. Dean simply guessed and gave in to the crowd. If played at Stamford Bridge, Torres would never have seen a 2nd yellow for that.
Arsenal home fixture and Spurs/West Ham away are always the first I look out for. Torres should have gone off no question but Vertonghen should have gone as well. Torres will be lucky to escape further action so in a way the red card may have helped. Torres has looked a yard sharper, I noticed it towards the end of last season and the Confeds cup. Yesterday was the first time I've seen Torres: - Beat a CB with a quick turn of pace - Stretch the defence - Track back - Leave a CB flat on their backside by running at them - Look Chelsea's best player on the pitch bar none. Yesterday was Torres of 5 years ago. It may well be a one off performance but it shows he is physically and mentally capable of playing at the top level. Needs to back this up with a performance in Bucharest. In a World Cup Year it's incredible how often underperforming players can go up another gear and I've more confidence in Torres than I do with Eto'o or Ba.
agreed! best shift Torres has put in a long while and arguably best performance for us! perhaps Nando is concerned about losing out the world cup place, since Diego costa seems to be primary striker and bunch of bench warmer spanish strikers in place ! this would definitely spur him!
Not quite sure what you mean by "jump at"? Are you so biased and clueless that you think it was a second yellow?
That's assuming Vertonghen still goes in for the same tackle when he's on a booking. Okay, he dived. That's me told. Even your nutty manager didn't accuse Vertonghen of diving for that freekick and he was bringing up everything he could.
Sorry Totsfan, you're way off the mark here. Whatever happened with the 1st Yellow is not the point of discussion, the second yellow was simply a very wrong and very bad decision by Mike Deans. There was no intent by either player, no foul by either player ( remarkably) just a normal challenge that the very poor ref got very wrong. Again.
