Just to be clear - I'm not defending the rules, just pointing out what they are. I think they were changed a few years back from the old version which said a tackle was a foul if you played the man before the ball. In some ways it makes sense that you get sent off for using excessive force, whatever the actual outcome and I think that Vimhawk is about right with his reasonableness test. But I think the idea is to prevent out of control tackles which injure the opponent if they are slightly mistimed. So I think the test of reasonableness is on the player not the ref. So would Rodwell have had a good chance of injuring Suarez if he had mistimed the tackle? Since he caught him a little when he timed it perfectly, it is reasonable to assume that he would have injured him badly if he had got it a bit wrong, so it was at least reckless in my view.
I think that Hibbert's challenge was also a yellow, to be honest, but it was pretty late in the game and after the damage had been done. Everton can feel pretty hard done by, again.
Only one Arsenal player thought it was handball, replays were pretty inconclusive and you can't send VDV off for celebrating like that. He stood in front of the crowd for all of about 2 seconds and it was the fans trying to reach over to him, not the otherway around.
I actually think Bale saved him from being sent off. He quickly pulled him away from the crowd and left just enough doubt in the ref's mind.
