Premier League Thread

I can't decide if it's a penalty or not, but not in a million years is it a yellow card.

Certain penalty in my mind though a few mins earlier. Oscar gets wiped out. The fact that he has taken his shot should only mean that Ospina avoids a red card (clearly no denying of a goal scoring opportunity). It shouldn't annul the foul completely.

 

Certainly not a yellow card though.

 

Yes it was.

 

I agree with FLT. Where Cesc went wrong was flying through the air with an apparently shattered knee, instead of simply falling down. I think Oliver booked him for bad acting rather than diving.

 

I'd have given a red

 

He was kicked across the knees. How do you know that didn't put him off balance and more importantly, how did Oliver? He was kicked clearly across both knees. That's a penalty whether he went down too easily or not. Decisions like that are why players dive when they are not fouled as they feel that they need to go down to get a decision.

An attacking player showed some skill to beat an opponent. The opponent kicked him in the penalty area. It's a penalty.

 

I think Michael Oliver has got 4 penalty decisions wrong in this game to be honest. 2 were borderline, but 2 blatant.

 

Serious question Tom: have you ever played football at any sort of decent level?

 

I think you sum it up exactly right there.

 

Not the Cahill one, for me. That wasn't deliberate in my book. No penalty. Oliver correct on that one.

 

Özil sets the standard there. You obviously have to be kicked twice to get a foul in this game.

 

This game is like the Saints v Chelsea game, with Chelsea being Saints.

 

That was one of the borderline ones for me. Wouldn't be surprised if a ref gave it, or if they didnt.

 

The key things for me are:

1. There are more Europa games than CL, especially if you have to qualify
2. More Eastern European teams in the Europa, meaning further travelling distances
3. Don't underestimate how much even a day makes in terms of recovery from football/travelling, so playing Wed/Tues and Sun is a lot different to Thurs/Sun
4. Because you are always playing on Sundays you are constantly playing catch up in the league, and I think this adds more pressure always having games in hand rather than points on the board.

Thats just my view on it, I still want us to qualify for it, but am very much of the opinion that our league form will suffer. If we ever are going to qualify for the CL then Europa is almost certainly our best chance of doing it.

 

Think these two are the best teams technically in the league. A really high tempo game, albeit no goals.

 

The Europa League is what it is, but it could be a good experience for the players. It won't affect us for long unless we do very well and it won't be the difference between top 6 and relegation anyway. I definitely want to qualify and see how we do.

 

Certainly lively.

 

So, do you think Chelsea are better at being us than Arsenal are at being Chelsea?

 

No-one's better than being us than us.

 

Take your point, but it is still about making adequate provision. On the playing front [No.3], what I mean is, if CL teams play Wednesday - Saturday then this is the same as Thursday - Sunday for EL teams. No extra or lack of a day's rest.