I think Sterling deserved his yellow for the blatant block so no arguments with that. Ramires clearly threw his elbow at Sterling so I'd say it was deliberate and a straight red card offence.
Does it really matter if Sterling did impede Ramirez? It is quite clear that Ramires performs a physical assault upon Sterling. Hence any retrospective action should relate to both Ramires and the referee.
Like I said, Sterling impeding Ramires in the middle of a dangerous attacking move justifies the yellow card he received. Ramires obviously deserved a red, which is what I posted. Therefore yes there is a need for retrospective action against Ramires. Not sure about the ref tbh - plenty of refs make mistakes and if that was his only one of the game I doubt he'll be punished for it.
Ramires should have had 8 yellows against us last season at Stamford Bridge, 4 crazy fouls in the first half but nothing. One of them could have been a straight red. Saints were 1-0 up at half time. Ramires was key in getting Chelsea's result in that second half. finally got a yellow in the second half. Too late by then. He does niggles, blocks all sorts of stuff every game. You can see its typical of the current brazilian crop from the World cup. On Saturday yes it was an obstruction by Sterling but not the worst I've seen. Wasn't as if he stepped out to block Ramires as you often see, he just stood where he was. Yellow seems to be normal for blocking / obstruction these days so happy with that. Was amazed that the ref shook his head at what Ramires did. Since when does anyone give a sly elbow follow through punch when they think they are going to be obstructed? That is something they've even managed to wipe out in boxing. Should've been a straight red.
I'm quite happy Sky's been kicked out, it means I'm still the joint leader in the Mafia game winning charts as only Sky and I had won twice PS...if town win, we'll both have three too
If you're town and die and town go on to win it doesn't count as a win. Ps I won first game and last game so am on 2 wins as well thank you...
Classic case of an incident looking worse when slowed down. Nothing in it and probably why the ref did nothing but book Sterling for blatant obstruction. Don't expect this to go anywhere.
He get a retrospective four match ban for the arm on Larsson and the Sterling one was just as bad so it could go the same way.
There's definitely intent, the automatic response when running into someone isn't raise an arm and follow through with the elbow. The fact he has previous says it all.
I actually think Ramires was being his usual dirty self. I think I must be the only Chelsea fan who can't stand him.
One of at least four, but he still won't be punished as he's under the favoured wing of the 'made men' of Webb and Riley.
