Now look, I know we got trashed and that should be our main concern, but we already have enough threads to talk about that. I just want to discuss the ref and his decision to send off the wrong ****ing player. I have never seen anything like that before. The ref did not even give the pen straight away and the linesman also did not raise his flag. So, for a start, I am not even sure how they came to decision to award the pen. But what happened afterwards, was shocking. The fact that he sent off OXO just tells you that he did not see what happened properly, so why did he award the pen? Then to make matters worse after he sends off the wrong man, OXO actually tells him that he sent off the wrong man and tells him that he handled the ball, and the ref does **** all. I would say he should be demoted to the lower leagues, but that won't be fair on those teams. A truly shocking display from the ref, but sadly our pathetic team were worse.
I believe i put it as "Ref in all black players look the same" howler, and proceeded to call him a racist. Now i know that Ox actually told him that it was him who handled the ball, i can deduce that Moroner is in Roman's pocket.
Also read this gem on twitter. Ref: "That's it Gibbs you're off" Ox: "But ref, it was me" Ref: "Shut up Walcott and get on with the game"
Just a **** ref decision which really made no impact on the game. More an embarrassment for the ref and it only highlights why we need some sort of TV 3rd umpire to overrule decisions.
Just a question, seeing as Hazard's shot was going wide anyways, does anyone else think it should only have been a yellow card?
Thinking about it, we might get away with this. Gibbs' red is obviously going to be overturned, as he did nothing at all, and the FA can't retrospectively punish Ox because the ref saw the incident and acted on it.
He did you a good turn in our last game last year. He also stole points for Chelsea at Stamford Bridge earlier this year. I can't decide if he has corruption as an excuse for being so wretched or not. Also, while I'm not a great authority, I think it should never have been a red against anyone, as the ball was going wide, so it was not preventing a clear goal scoring opportunity. So Marriner screwed up twice, you'll have the red overturned, and they can't possibly give Oxe a red, both because the ref witnessed the incident and because he didn't deserve a red to begin with.
That is the meagre silver lining from today, Gibbs card will be rescinded and the FA can do **** all about Ox as the ref made a mistake.
Gibbs will have his rescinded, Ox will serve the 1 match ban and the FA will do **** all else, that's what happened last time a ref sent off the wrong player,
Personally I am more critical of the system than the referee. It's a bizarre mistake to make, but stranger decisions have happened. How long did it take to award the penalty until taking it? In that amount of time there is no reason we cannot have another referee in a room somewhere watching replays of the incident and speaking to the referee via the mic to inform him of what exactly occurred and what the correct decision to take would be. On first sight to me it looked as though it was going in and Chamberlain headed it out. Now after having watched enough replays, the ball was most likely going wide and Chamberlain saved it with his hand. That's a penalty and a yellow card to Chamberlain. If we had video replays, the right decision would have been reached.
Completely agree. But we already have dozens of TV cameras at each ground and a 4th official, formalising some kind of communication between them isn't hard or time consuming so when mistakes are made they can be easily reversed. 2-0 down and about to go 3-0 down means game over against a side as organised as Chelsea, but it shouldn't have been a red as others have said and losing your left back has far more impact than losing an attacking midfielder, if the correct decisions had been made we could have only lost 3-0/3-1 and it would seem far less of a crisis, but that shouldn't detract another shocking and niaive start to the game.....
Also with Chelsea scoring 6 goals, this could help them win the league on Goal Difference as well now.
