But Altidore is in possession of the ball. He can stand anywhere he wants. The onus is on the defender not to put himself in a position that can influence whether or not Altidore can continue with the ball, UNLESS HE GETS THE BALL. If Azpilicueta got the ball, the call would be ridiculous. As it stands, he doesn't make contact with the ball AND his leg being in the position that it's in causes Altidore to slip. Think of it from Altidore's perspective. He has the ball. The defender hasn't touched it. He starts making a turn, only for his leg to land on the defender, who then slides his leg out from under him. All the while the ball rolls past, not touching the defender. That being said, it's harsh and it's likely that it was given for the wrong reasons (linesman thought it was a straight tackle). But under the strictest possible technicalities, it was a foul by Azpilicueta.
When you're sliding into a tackle as a defender. You're not the one with the liberty to stick your feet wherever you feel like. If you obstruct the run of the player in possession of the ball you are committing a foul. Otherwise I would simply throw myself underneath a player on the break and claim "he stood on me, just because I didn't get the ball doesn't mean it's a foul". You can't put yourself into a position where the attacker CAN stand on you. It's not like Altidore deliberately stood on Azpilicueta either.
Blatant penalty in my opinion - was unsure earlier, but looking at the different angles it's 100% a penalty. But the Chavs will no doubt keep
soft pen, but Chelsea seem quite average without hazard, they never really got going today, no cfc fan would say they done enough to win the game, I was hoping cfc would win today, sadly not to be
I love that other fans hate us so much. shows how successful we've been over the past 15 years. Oh well, the leagues gone, lets make our way to lisbon KTBFFH!!!
You say that...but even though I agree somewhat, did you see the stats? 31 shots. 14 saves. 62% possession. It was a shock result, not one where we were outplayed.
At the end of the day ,yet again Chelsea showed we simply cannot play against lower teams. There is a fundamental flaw in our approach to these kind of games, it happens too often . Jose needs to get to the bottom of this because its more than strikers behind the problem. Personally I don't believe the way Jose makes us play is ever going to succeeded against teams determined to frustrate us. More guile, less muscle. Rambo is exactly what we don't want in our line up against such teams.
That's a poor angle but even so, you can see Azpilicueta's trailing left leg (underneath him but slightly sticking out to his right) catch Altidore's left standing leg (that he was just putting his weight on) which takes him off his feet. Azpilicueta didn't mean it and tried to pull out but its still a foul and penalty. PS...loving that we're getting decisions in matches that we're not even part of
31 wild shots through lack of penetration, 14 run of the mill saves, pointless possession and endless cheating by Chelsea ........ not much to be proud of tbh.
I think because of the contact then it probably should've been a penalty. I still can't decide 100% and i've seen it a few times. Has to be a level of consistency though, if Matic fouls Colback in the lead up to Terry's goal then how on earth does Larsson not foul Ramires when he's about to head the ball in?! Unbelievable. Ramires should've been sent off after that, although it was Larsson he whacked, i think. Hopefully the FA will take some action and ban him for the remainder of the season. He's been terrible recently. Still, plenty of possession and chances but we didn't get any luck. I'm fairly confident we could win the league with just a clinical striker added next season however i feel we'll get a bit more than that so we'll have an outstanding chance.
I hope that you're not serious about that being a penalty, Gerrez. If there's any contact, and it's certainly not clear that there is, then Altidore is the one that initiates contact with Azpilicueta. Stepping on someone and then falling over shouldn't result in the perpetrator being awarded a penalty, despite what your team's antics may have lead you to believe.
Hopefully a more creative type such as Van Ginkel (or Kroos!!!) alongside Matic will help. Also a quality striker will free up space for our creatives such as Oscar. And Salah and Schurrle will be even better next season playing with a decent CF, which will make the whole team more pacey and clinical. Ezpecting more goals from Salah and Shirley next season. We had no problems in 04-06 blowing away the 'weaker sides' in the first half then sitting on a lead.
Was never a penalty. Dean had a horrendous game but I can see why he gave it, it does look like Azpi takes him with his following leg. .....come on Norwich With who? You lot? Gutted
