Imo I think Shawcross was the one treated harshly. In both cases the attacking player was shoving the defender and the defender was largely trying to maintain their balance. The defender is essentially powerless, as either they allow the attacker to push them off balance and score, or they try and fight back and it gets picked up by the ref and / or pundits. If Smalling had just fallen over when Ivanovic gave him the first shove then we would have conceded a goal and everyone would now be saying he should have been stronger. No chance we'd have gotten a free kick for that, so I can certainly see why Chelsea wouldn't get a penalty.
It was yellow card offences. Rafael is thr only player who can claim he was harshly booked in tye game.
There seems to be some inequity in reward and punishment in the penalty area. It is a 50-50 situation in many cases of shoving and holding. For the defender, if he gets away with it, the ball is cleared. If the action is deemed a foul, he concedes a penalty and a likely goal. For the attacker, he gets away with it, he scores. If he gets punished it is only a freekick in the opponents pen area. I am surprised that more attackers do not push and shove and try to get an unfair advantage.
I don't understand how that contradicts UIR's comment that we were unlucky not to be a goal up? UIR is right in that we created clear cut chances. Where the unlucky part comes in is that normally RVP would have put his chance away, and the big one for me - Di Maria would have smashed that one in from the 6 yard box, when he was played in by Mata instead of the rush of blood to the head and skying it. Bearing in mind both those chances came in the first 10-15 mins, we could easily have been up in that first half. And that's regardless of whatever happened with Chelsea after.
What I was getting at was the keeper didn't have much to do, yet for some reason Utd fans seem to think he kept Chelsea in the game. It was poor finishing by Utd and the keeper just did what he is expected to do. The 2 chances you mention are not worth talking about, RVP didn't even look up and Di Maria went for the spectacular that was never going to come off. Everything else was just Utd huffing and puffing, with no real purpose. Chelsea seemed so much more controlled imo. Once Chelsea scored they had complete control of the game, and should have pushed on for more, which I believe they could have got. However - Mourinho's tactics back fired on 65-70 minutes when he got his bus out, which was nice to see to be fair as I can't stand the way he plays once taking the lead.
Most of them do tbh. That's why the sudden surge of "we must do something about shirt pulling in the box" - strikers have worked out what a massive advantage they have and are now exploiting it like mad.
He won man of the match. Rvp had 2-3 one on ones. He earned chelsea a point in the game. Had headwear guy been playing then who knows what the score would have been.
Ironically the minute Neville gave him MOTM RVP scored Neville was just pissed off. For me Hazard (or even Fellaini ) was MOTM, Hazard skipped round your players for fun most of the game - just got greedy when a few times could have played someone in on goal, which often is his downfall tbh.
De Gea played just as well as Curtoius (sp?) imo. Had Lindegaard been in goal who knows what the score would have been!! It's all if's and but's
Hazard was near invisible. Contained very well. Januzaj was causing Ivanovic more trouble than hazard did to rafa or shaw. We kept their best players quiet. Matic was the better of them all but cesc was dire, oscar dire, hazard for tye most part ran alot but that was it. Still maintain we should have won.
Cortious only dreams of pulling of saves de gea does. And glad you say that. De gea dominated our penalty area just as well but had limited praise. Think hes pissed a few pundits off for being brilliant when they couldn't slag him off any more.
Best two keepers in the league imo. I honestly think Cortious just edges it though - from what I've seen so far anyway. I'm talking at Atletico not just at Chelsea. 2 very, very good young keepers to be fair.
I haven't seen anyone saying Courtois kept Chelsea in the game??? Not at all. All anyone is saying is that we were unlucky not to take the lead in that first half. However you want to explain why RVP and Di Maria didn't finish, the point is they were clear cut chances - not half chances or maybe's. By their standards, both world-class players, they could easily have scored at least one of those. The Di Maria one he had the full goal to aim at with just the keeper to beat. It's no different from me saying Chelsea were unlucky not to take the lead when Hazard missed. Just bcos De Gea did his job doesn't change the fact Hazard would be expected to score that 9 times out of 10. RVP and Di Maria had that in the first 10-15 mins. I agree with what you're saying from the 52nd minute when Chelsea scored they should have seen the game out. What happened up to that point we disagree about.
Their keeper was voted man of the match. Unusual for a player with nothing to do to be picked out as the best performance.
You're talking out of your hole. You were expecting United to get tonked, that didn't happen and the performance has got you worried. That's clear.
Had De Gea palmed that ball out in the 93rd minute for a Chelsea player to equalise he would have been slated in the post-match punditry and the papers would have followed that agenda
They looked really poor again tonight, nothing at all to feel optimistic about for them. If that ref thinks that was a foul he needs retraining, if he thinks it is a card of any colour he needs sacking
'Super' Mario is going to turn his season round and win the golden boot after last night Get over it lads.
