West Ham look very unlucky from the MOTD highlights. Lots of chances, offside goal. They deserved something from the game. And Jonthan Pearce is his usual rubbish. Adrian making saves for Chelsea apparently.
What did we learn from MOTD highlights (apart from the fact that our game "appeared" to be closer than us watching it thought!) Well we learned all these things, which tend to be quite helpful to the team benefiting from the decisions! > Chelski don't have to worry about the offside rule when scoring (ref strikes again) > ManC don't have to worry about giving away penalties (ref strikes again, and again) - NB how was the decision not to give a pen different from some we have actually conceded, for example in the Liverpool home match? > ManU don't have to worry about giving away penalties, as usual, even incredibly blatant ones (ref strikes again). Spitting doesn't count either. And come tomorrow, all these game changing decisions will be forgotten about, and all you will hear about is how ManU have continued their brilliant run etc. Worst of all, the right decisions were immediately obvious within seconds to the viewing public (and could be to the 4th official if he had access to a monitor), so that they could easily be corrected quickly. Makes a mockery of the game. So please tell me how the ref decisions don't make a huge difference to how the final table will appear? Perhaps they will reel out the old crap "things even themselves out over a season". Right, so when we play Southampton, where they didn't get a penalty against Liverpool, they must also have a good penalty or two not given against us. Anyone holding their breath?
The linesman's looking straight at it and there's no obstruction. There's no way he should be getting that wrong. Why the pundits think that Rooney just running into a defender isn't a foul is beyond me, too. Nowhere near the ball and it's not shoulder to shoulder.
The ref for tonight's game between Newcastle and Man Utd was Anthony Taylor. Where's he from? Manchester. Seriously.
Yeah. Linesman seem to be rquired to do more of the decision making in these kind of incidents than I've seen before. They definitely need better training as I've seen them make a lot of howlers in the last couple of seasons. Would've been good to see some visible communication between the 2 of them also as that's another thing that's lacking, the linesman may well have thought Taylor saw it clearly and deferred to his decision. Not sure whether Taylor should've had to ref again so soon after the League Cup final either. They have to follow the action areas all game, keeping up with a number of players who are all athletes in peak fitness. Players often lose their legs by their early 30s yet we're asking refs that can be 10+ years older to do the same amount of work. At least give them a break when possible. Looks like Evans and Cisse will be getting bans in the morning. Big miss for you guys before Arsenal.
To be honest Evans will be no loss at all, he has been a nightmare the last few games and i have no idea why he is playing.
We've been awarded 4 penalties and our opponents 7. The degree to which we control games and get players into the box indicates those numbers should be reversed, more or less. Tottenham awarded 4: Opponents 7. Arsenal: awarded 7. Opponents: 2. Chelsea: awarded: 2. Opponents: 0 Liverpool: awarded 4 Opponents: 1 Man U: awarded 2. Opponents: 2 Man City awarded 6. Opponents 3 Southampton: awarded 1. Opponents 0. Funny we're the only team in the top seven whose opponents have been awarded more penalties. Funny how the penalties awarded to the opponents of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man U and Man City put together are almost equal to the penalties awarded to our opponents by themselves. I'm sure there's no agenda behind it, just like there wasn't the year when Chelsea were +15 in penalties compared to us and finished two points in front. It's also clear that it's Chelsea who suffers from the a conspiracy against them. Video replay would correct most wrong decisions. No chance it's not being used because it would hurt the chances of Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea finishing in the top four. Clearly, everything is on the up and up!
please log in to view this image Gary LinekerVerified account@GaryLineker If that wasn't a penalty at St James' Park then my ears ain't big.
Apart from the Sugga Daddy FCs, this is now all about who can hold their nerve. The "6 pointer" clashes between the top 7 for the rest of the season occur evenly, so no one club is at a particular disadvantage on this one. For us though, it will be umpteen 90 mins of <standard> cardiac arrest viewing.
We can't complain about most of those 7. The Liverpool one was a tad harsh but half of them were probably that clumsy oaf Fazio mounting people from behind as he tends to do. Edit - oh, i thought another one Dier gave away was harsh too. Can't remember the game but looked like he got the ball. Think it was Dier anyway
That’s right, blame the victim! The way we play this year, you’d expect us to both give up and get a lot of pens. We’ve given them up, alright. But what about all the pens we should have had? Kane alone must have four. We had two clear pens not awarded just against Man U (and how useful would those two extra points have been?). I’ll hazard a rough guess having watched all our games we should be plus one or three rather than minus three. It could be legit, no doubt. But the credibility of legit died for me when, as I mentioned, Chelsea was plus 15 in pens and plus two in points compared to us two seasons ago.
Denied spitting at Cisse, not spitting. He was actually just spitting on the ground and Cisse got in the way
Cisse has owned up and apologised, while the Man Utd denial machine has gone into overdrive. Scholes ignored it in the commentary, while slating the Newcastle man, van Gaal claimed that it couldn't have happened and now this. He should get an extra game for being a twat.
