It looked to me like Benteke had clearly 'lost' the ball BEFORE Delaney's challenge. Only fractionally but he'd deffo lost the ball and whereas there was a slight knee connection with Benteke's foot it was hardly enough to cause the fall as I felt he was already almost down. On the brighter side I had forecast the correct result thanks to the last second penalty so I can't grumble.
Decision given to referee immediately by his assistant as this is what he saw and flagged for. I saw the same. Understandable reaction by Pardew or most other manager for that matter. Pulis / Wenger and even Bruce would have had blown boilers in similar circumstances. The Benteke penalty itself was a beauty. Reminded me of the similarity to the technique used by Willie Buchan who took penalties for all the clubs he played for, including City in the late 40's, and he never missed one. I adopted his technique aged 12 and had similar success taking penalties for all the teams I played for in my near 30 years in football.
Benteke was entitled to go down with contact, so pen! Enjoyed all the more afterwards with Pardew's reaction. Yet another manager looking for excuses to cover up their inability to hold onto the lead against 10 men
'entitled to go down' ? He dived in an attempt to con the ref and win a penalty. He was entitled to stay on his feet the cheating bastard.
Get 'real'! He did what every footballer does, no more, no less. Delaney doesn't slide in, the ref doesn't have a decision to make! Pen all day, every day!
Delaney's knee definitely hits Benteke's foot, it's more of a penalty than many that Palace have had given in their favour... http://www.skysports.com/football/n...christian-benteke-dive-against-crystal-palace
I am real. This diving and cheating is an epidemic sweeping through the game. Also not every player does it at all. Never saw Ian Ashbee take a dive. Whilst SKY and it's highly paid pundits make excuses for it and referees and the FA do nothing to discourage it we will soon have a no contact game and the best eleven actors will come out on top. We 'entertain' the current Premier League Diving Champions at the KC tomorrow, they have turned cheating into an art form ( along with Chelsea) Let's see how many posters agree with you if Arsenal win tomorrow from a penalty awarded in the last second when one of their 'star' players takes a dive when there is no or very little contact yet managed to put on a face of absolute agony as though they have been shot in the head by a sniper in the stands. Its cheating, end of.
isis But Benteke had already lost the ball and it is the slightest of contact. He played for the penalty. Still doesn't make it right.
I can't see how it's not a penalty, he clearly starts going down after Delaneys knee contacts Bentekes boot.
At the other end of the scale, what about all the 'grappling' that goes on between defenders and forwards in the penalty box at corners and free kicks nowadays. If you want to argue about game rules not being applied, that's the prime example in football today of the 'rules being ignored' and not being applied consistently.
irrespective of that (not that I'm saying you are wrong) if the assistant is saying he had a clear view and it's a pen, the ref is going to give it if his own view was not clear. The assistant clearly yesterday at Palace stated it was a penalty as he had seen contact. The officials got it right!