Match Day Thread Sunderland AFC v Chelsea FC – Sunday 24th May 2026 - KO 16:00

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Your Prediction:


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If it's so obvious to you,me and thousands of others....why can't the decision makers see it? :emoticon-0102-bigsm Or,is it media driven by Sky and others,so they have controversy to talk about in their ad-free moments with their thick as brick pundits.
They don't want to see it, they want the publicity the the controversy brings - its all about clicks these days, i wonder if PGMOL get an income from all the interactions with their tweets when they put the VAR decisions out there.

There's no accountability for the officials, all that happens is they get a championship match to do the following week. Its been awful most of the season but Webb will still be there next season talking ****e.
 
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Just thinking about the access all areas video. Did anyone else get the feeling Cirkin knows he is off? He looked quite subdued.
He's a bit of mystery to me. At times,we saw real quality from him,but these injuries he's had have been ongoing for quite some time. He's been on the bench recently,so,presumably been fit to play. However,he's always had a wrist bandage.....? and now pics of him going for surgery.
As far as I'm aware,he's out of contract next month,so can leave for free. Don't get it.
 
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Just thinking about the access all areas video. Did anyone else get the feeling Cirkin knows he is off? He looked quite subdued.
think it was a mix of all the hard work everyone has done, from L1 to the Europa league.

think he was upset that he couldnt play his part of it and was just taking everything all in, for possibly one last time?
 
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If it's so obvious to you,me and thousands of others....why can't the decision makers see it? :emoticon-0102-bigsm Or,is it media driven by Sky and others,so they have controversy to talk about in their ad-free moments with their thick as brick pundits.

i think to those of us with plenty of years have seen the bias many, many times but we really only had the same view as an official plus one, not very clear repeat quite often from the same angle...but it certainly was there although we were pretty much told that we were only thinking that because it was against our team. (whoever 'you' supported)

then we heard VAR was being introduced to stop all of the dodgy calls, i was and still am against it as it is currently used...they had a massive chance to show a complete lack of any bias AND to 'clean up' the game by using the technology to punish the cheats, yet they have failed completely and utterly.

i got sick of hearing 'VAR is checking for a possible foul (nope, cant find one) VAR is now checking for a possible offside (nope again) VAR is now checking for a possible foul in the build up to the goal (yet another nope) VAR is now checking if the goal kick involved an illegal position from a player (nope) so, the goal against (insert the name of a big six club here) is sadly allowed.

many camera angles with a replay from each one yet it chooses the one that has a better chance of showing that they made the 'right' call but ignore the other 19+ around the ground that proves them wrong.
 
i think to those of us with plenty of years have seen the bias many, many times but we really only had the same view as an official plus one, not very clear repeat quite often from the same angle...but it certainly was there although we were pretty much told that we were only thinking that because it was against our team. (whoever 'you' supported)

then we heard VAR was being introduced to stop all of the dodgy calls, i was and still am against it as it is currently used...they had a massive chance to show a complete lack of any bias AND to 'clean up' the game by using the technology to punish the cheats, yet they have failed completely and utterly.

i got sick of hearing 'VAR is checking for a possible foul (nope, cant find one) VAR is now checking for a possible offside (nope again) VAR is now checking for a possible foul in the build up to the goal (yet another nope) VAR is now checking if the goal kick involved an illegal position from a player (nope) so, the goal against (insert the name of a big six club here) is sadly allowed.

many camera angles with a replay from each one yet it chooses the one that has a better chance of showing that they made the 'right' call but ignore the other 19+ around the ground that proves them wrong.
Totally agree. In my humble opinion Var should only be used when the Ref asks for it......"I'm not sure if he moved his hand to the ball....I'm not sure if he tripped him just outside the area or inside ......can you help me make the correct decision."?
 
Totally agree. In my humble opinion Var should only be used when the Ref asks for it......"I'm not sure if he moved his hand to the ball....I'm not sure if he tripped him just outside the area or inside ......can you help me make the correct decision."?
I’m probably more pro-VAR than many people but they need to dial it back. Reserve it more for the clangers like a yard offside, clear dives and definite red card errors.

If you’ve got to look 100 times to work out if it’s a red card or a handball then it probably isn’t.
 
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i think to those of us with plenty of years have seen the bias many, many times but we really only had the same view as an official plus one, not very clear repeat quite often from the same angle...but it certainly was there although we were pretty much told that we were only thinking that because it was against our team. (whoever 'you' supported)

then we heard VAR was being introduced to stop all of the dodgy calls, i was and still am against it as it is currently used...they had a massive chance to show a complete lack of any bias AND to 'clean up' the game by using the technology to punish the cheats, yet they have failed completely and utterly.

i got sick of hearing 'VAR is checking for a possible foul (nope, cant find one) VAR is now checking for a possible offside (nope again) VAR is now checking for a possible foul in the build up to the goal (yet another nope) VAR is now checking if the goal kick involved an illegal position from a player (nope) so, the goal against (insert the name of a big six club here) is sadly allowed.

many camera angles with a replay from each one yet it chooses the one that has a better chance of showing that they made the 'right' call but ignore the other 19+ around the ground that proves them wrong.

I agree with you completely but I also think that it may be worse than that. Often it looks like subjective bias regardless of what any video evidence shows. For example, what was the reason for the no penalty call on the Chelsea hand ball in the first half on Sunday? I think it was 'jostling for the ball' or something? He moves his arm towards the ball and you could tell he knew he'd screwed up from his reaction. Unless there is another hand ball rule this year that I don't know about (there may be as it changes every year and I might not be up to date), then the only way two refs can look at this and not give a pen is because they just didn't want to give it, and that's not fair refereeing.
 
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Xhaka: It's very difficult to describe in words the joy that was on the faces of the fans. In Sunderland, so many people live for football. The happiness we were able to bring them is incredible.

Ultimately, whether or not we qualified for the Europa League wasn't even the deciding factor. Of course, that was the crowning achievement. But our number one objective was to stay up.

The love I received from the club, the fans, and the city was something I had never experienced before in my career.
 
The offside is the strange one, as i said if it is an obvious offside then just flag, stop the game and take the free kick rather than a (sometimes several minutes) delay checking over the VAR and if it is a 'hmm, not quite sure on that one' then it is not offside.

i think the original offside was to stop 'goal mouching' not to stop a race for a through ball, attackers need to attack and defenders need to defend, stop all this people walking into the box before a free kick is taken or pushing onto the keeper at a corner, at that point they are offside and should give a free kick away.
I believe their instructions are not to flag offside until the move has finished. If they flag early and get it wrong VAR can’t intervene. If they let the move finish and it results in a goal then VAR can make the decision.

Brobbey’s chance on Sunday is a perfect example. I thought he was a good yard off, even on replays, but the linesman let it run. If he had scored and the linesman flagged it would go to VAR. As it happens, having watched the full 90, I was wrong and he was onside and VAR would have given the goal
 
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Xhaka: It's very difficult to describe in words the joy that was on the faces of the fans. In Sunderland, so many people live for football. The happiness we were able to bring them is incredible.

Ultimately, whether or not we qualified for the Europa League wasn't even the deciding factor. Of course, that was the crowning achievement. But our number one objective was to stay up.

The love I received from the club, the fans, and the city was something I had never experienced before in my career.
As someone in the crowd said behind me on Sunday.... Xhaka the next James Bond nailed on <laugh>
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I believe their instructions are not to flag offside until the move has finished. If they flag early and get it wrong VAR can’t intervene. If they let the move finish and it results in a goal then VAR can make the decision.

Brobbey’s chance on Sunday is a perfect example. I thought he was a good yard off, even on replays, but the linesman let it run. If he had scored and the linesman flagged it would go to VAR. As it happens, having watched the full 90, I was wrong and he was onside and VAR would have given the goal

aye that was the instruction they were given, to let the move finish but at least once i saw a nasty collision due to attacker and defender trying to get the ball...but it was a very clear offside, i honestly think there will be a nasty accident because of it, this one i remember did indeed result in a player missing a few games.
 
aye that was the instruction they were given, to let the move finish but at least once i saw a nasty collision due to attacker and defender trying to get the ball...but it was a very clear offside, i honestly think there will be a nasty accident because of it, this one i remember did indeed result in a player missing a few games.
I say that nearly every game, someone is going to get seriously hurt because of that daft rule. The stupid part is, they do the same in the Championship and League 1 and there is no VAR :emoticon-0102-bigsm
 
Matterface hasn't got a clue, at least Alex Crook & Scott Minto said a few good words...

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Really poor punditry all round IMO Minto with his media following head on saying we were fortunate to be in Premier league (do some research you ****wit) Matterface hoping to talk about anything else and the Mag loving Alex Crook (bearing in mind talk sport have a dedicated Newcastle chat show) whose bias screams through his comments have managed to produce a cringeworthy section of their show.