Looked a handball for me too. A red for me has to be reckless or malicious I don't think this was either. I just put it down as mistimed. I don't really see how this could hurt anyone.
Well that's the thing. I don't think that challenge was every really going to hurt Fletcher whether he had his leg planted or bent behind his head. But challenges of that kind applied with more force can break legs and do serious damage, so for that reason the FA has clearly emphasised to the referees the fact that these tackles need to be clamped down on, so more and more often you see tackles with players studs raised or off the ground which had no real foce behind them which are unlikely to do any actual damage but are red cards merely because they want all tackles of that nature to be taken out of the game. I think this is just the beginning progress of a movement to get those tackles out of the game, and there are always going to be a few innocent players caught up early on, but hopefully it will be sorted out to the point where it is no longer an issue.
I agree but there needs to be consistency applying this. More often than not I reckon that wouldn't have been given a red
Would have been nice if Arsenal and Everton had these kind of performances against us rather than saving them for our relegation rivals! Pienaar very unlucky to be sent off, though.
Yup, that was a terrible decision. Qpr look better this game than they have recently... Hitting form just in time to play us? Typical...
Big difference is that we played Arsenal and Everton away. Home advantage is a big difference to teams like us, QPR, Norwich etc.
Of course, but either way, both teams have been very poor considering the performances they have had this season. Everton has this in them though, every season they have windows where they look like top-four contenders, and then they fall to pieces a touch and end up not living up to the quality they have, we just played them at a very very bad time.
To be fair, Everton can't perform every game. There are games where they will be crap. Just be grateful that QPR aren't winning!
Annoying that Norwich beat Arsenal but there are going to be surprise results throughout the season. As frustrating and disappointing as our results have been we are far from cut adrift (yet) and apart from a couple of games we haven't been outplayed. I'm still hopeful that we can stay in touch with several other teams until January and if we are, then I would back us to survive.....well someones got to!
