Rival watch

I would suggest that the Spurs board on Not 606 have far greater insight to all thing mouser than the pundits, therefore rather than employ failed ex referees to adjudicate mouser matches when VAR comes in, they should come to us. There are a few ex referees among us anyhow.

 

Don't, please. Football's depressing enough at present without being told this

 

A goal at last for Everton. Well played manager, attacking subs at 0-0

 

2-0 Everton, game over

 

\...and a second. They've been dreadful but Palace have been about the same.

 

Having said well played, manager, it't not difficult to make the decision to take off Theo Walcott.

 

There's only one Walcott worth a damn, and he plays for our U18s

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Nope, no need for VAR...

 

That third goal was special by the Goons.

Goal of the season so far?

 

I know this will sound like my club bias is coming into play, but I don't think this was as clear cut as it looked on first viewing.

Hear me out.

When you watch the footage closely, you will see that Holding's arm bounces off Iheancho's face which then causes Holding's arm to hit the ball. What are you supposed to do in that situation? Had that not happened, the ball wouldn't have touched Holding's arm. As you don't naturally jump up with your hands by your side, he's obviously tried to gain some 'spring' in his jump by using his arms. However, I wouldn't have complained if a penalty was given. When I saw it in real time, it was a stonewall penalty. Especially in this day and age, when your hands are that high, you always run the risk of giving a penalty away.

Think I'm just making excuses? It isn't just me who was saying this.

From FoxesTalk (A Leicester City fan forum):

Captain: "He [the ref] got it right, Ndidi headed The defenders arm on to the ball, if Wilf hadn’t been there he would have headed the ball away cleanly. I thought that on first viewing and the analysis on my stream agreed with me.
I actually thought the ref was alright a little on the lenient side, but he was the same for both teams and didn’t let the Arsenal players whinging get to him."

The Horse's Mouth: "...with the penalty shout, Ndidi does push his arm into it. Can't say it was a penalty tbh. It's a shame, because first half we could have had 3 or 4 but couldn't bury our chances. Tbh, I think for West Ham I'd drop Vardy for Kelechi and have Madders in behind. Playing all three just doesn't work"

Source: https://www.foxestalk.co.uk/topic/117231-arsenal-post-match/?page=12

When you have Leicester fans, by their own admission, saying they don't think it was a penalty, I think it suggests the incident wasn't so cut and dry.

 

So your argument for it not being a penalty is that it only hit his arm because he'd whacked the Leicester forward in the face with it?

His arm's clearly in an unnatural position. Penalty. 2nd yellow. Off.

 

Two reasons there to award a penalty.
The ref was in line with play and gave nothing for neither.

Poor Lesta. Where has their 2015-16 ref goodwill gone ??

 

PNP, come on. Don't be disingenuous. Let me just reiterate - I would have had no qualms if a penalty was given. It would have been perfectly understandable. What I'm saying is the referee may have seen it from the perspective of others, including a few of the Leicester fans. Ndidi (thought it was Iheancho, my bad) attempted to head the ball and ended up connecting with Holding's arm, which he used as leverage to jump, into the ball. If the referee had this view of events, then I do also get why he didn't give it. Holding didn't 'whack' Ndidi in the face. Was Holding's arm in an unnatural position? This is subjective. When you jump, you don't jump with your hands behind your back or by your side. But it was certainly very risky.

The fact that (some) Leicester City fans are also unsure as to whether it was a penalty should be enough proof that it wasn't a straightforward decision as you're making it out to be.

 

His hand's directly over his head, BG. That's blatantly an unnatural position. It's a clear handball.
Holding puts his arm back and up. He's not using it go gain leverage for a jump and he's barely off the floor.

The ref's looking straight at it and he completely bottles it.
It was one of a number of similarly poor decisions over the weekend.
Kompany's yellow card was probably the worst. The **** is that?

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Appreciate your argument, but despite the ‘guide’ from Ndidi, Holdings arm - and hand - was above head height before that and that is not a natural position even when trying to jump.
8 or 9/10 times that would be given and I really don’t think the ref saw it at all, which is a much more worrying assessment of the official.
Having said that, you’re on a bloody good run and scoring some excellent goals

 

Kompany's yellow card was probably the worst. The **** is that?

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[/QUOTE]
That's appalling.
Roy Keane needed a big dose of red mist to tackle like that.
John Lennon must have felt that, never mind Aaron Lennon.

 

Sane's was pretty ****, too:

Nasty.

 

Utd's dismal performances don't even raise a comment on here any more.
Fake news.

 

I watched it and it was just wretched. They seemed to be happy to play for a low score loss, which is completely useless in the CL format. Bewildering.