Stoke look a good side now...haven't paid any attention to them until this season. If we stay up, our target should be to do as well as them next season.
This could mess up our Fair Play record, we are top by quite a way now, Stoke are rock bottom, it seems they like to get stuck in and pay for it with plenty of cards.
Looking at highlights Berbatov was lucky to stay on after the foul on Punch...think he would have got yellow if he hadn't already been booked. Refs always say they take each decision on its merits, but that's tosh...ref obviously decided the foul didn't warrant what would have been effectively a red. Card happy ref would be nice if a Stoke player sent off...knowing our luck it would be Schneiderlin (we all know how vicious he can be).
Didn't spot that Fran will have to watch again. Volatile atmosphere at Victoria let's hope we don't get dragged into their gameplay.
Berbatov should certainly have been gone by the letter of the law. If he wasn't already on a yellow he would have been booked 99/100, but it's the classic case of a second yellow needing to be more severe than a normal yellow. Just like you'll always see fouls in the box that would almost always be given anywhere else on the pitch, and by the letter of the law should be a penalty, but it wont be given due to the seriousness of the consequences. Considering how much the FA etc. bleat on about letter of the law in circumstances like raising feet off the ground in slide tackles, resulting in numerous soft red cards given under the 'letter of the law' excuse, they aren't very consistent in other situations.
Was that the one on the left touchline? It was only a careless trip, no need for a card there. He did give away two or three free kicks so I am sure the ref had him in the back of his mind, but there was nothing too malicious there. PS. Did you know that if he only lifted his shirt to reveal the slogan and didn't remove it altogether, he wouldn't have been booked. Don't understand why anyone would get themselves on a yellow like that in the first 10 minutes!
Berbatov did take his shirt off completely Qwerty, I've just watched it again. And his sliding tackle on Puncheon which completely took his ankles and not the ball was a yellow card any day! He is a very lucky boy.
Careless trip? It was a late and poorly executed slide tackle fella! The whole shirt rule is a daft and confusing one, it's also hurt our fair play rating due to a few 'unsportsmanlike' bookings for our lovely boys removing their shirts and mean refs booking them, thankfully we're so saintly we're still top.
They should get rid of that rule. Fair enough if you are inciting oppos fans but not just celebrating. I'm sure Fran and Jenny will support that!
Then we'll end up with this all over again ... [video=youtube;9s_oJaFXVrE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s_oJaFXVrE[/video]
