January Football: it's just the way we play, mate

[phonics]

If it's so clear why is literally every pundit including Mike Dean who comments on it saying it's not a red.

Just FYI,

this was deemed a yellow in literally the same game:



I know it won't come across this way but I don't think it's a concious Arsenal thing. I think the refs absolutely stink, are bad at their job and have a massive ego issue. That's problem 1 and 2. Problem 3 is that seemingly anyone that's not from the North West cannot get a job in the Premier League. Maybe they truly are the best this country has to offer but I somehow doubt that Lancashire has the refereeing equivalent of 'the cages' in South London that produces all these referees. Indicating that it's clearly an old boys club and the only way to the top is sucking each other off. I don't think it's malicious. I think it's a mixture of being bad and protected from punishment and inate biases.

[Giggles]

Jaysus I just looked at the results. Arsenal won, I could have swore they were 6-0 down when I looked at this earlier.

[phonics]

Then you clearly struggle to read seeing as nothing was mentioned about the game outside of the red card.

[Giggles]

Probably says more than anything.

[Shindig]

Giggles is result orientated, which I can applaud.

[Boydy]

Do you remember the film Network? The film about a news anchor facing the sack due to declining ratings keeps his job after going on an unhinged rant. Consequently to keep the ratings going the supposed 'News' show gets ever increasingly absurd?

Could it be possible that Howard Webb tuned into BT Sport one day and saw Peter Walton sitting in a cupboard on his own while Rio Ferdinand berated him and simply said, 'Never Again.'


If so, I applaud Mr. Webb for a bang up job. Mike Deans got a seat on Soccer Saturday, Dermot Gallagher gets to turn up on Sky for the Monday shift of agreeing with every decision made on the weekend. The letters PGMOL have worn off various tabloid writers keyboards. They're the talk of the town. It's all going according to plan, all he had to do was come up with increasingly absurd ways to send off Arsenal players.


In Network, they cut a deal with a terrorist group for a new docudrama series called The Mao Tse-Tung Hour who eventually assinate the news anchor. My only hope is that Michael Owen can do the same.

[phonics]

Heaven forbid someone try make a joke. For one, the only murder Michael Owen is capable of would be on the concept of entertaining and/or insightful televesion.

[randomlegend]

Yeah that post is unhinged

Excellent stuff.

[Danny]

Just FYI,

this was deemed a yellow in literally the same game

I think the ref gives him a straight red if he wasn’t on a yellow. As stupid as that sounds. He gets to say “well obviously it was a yellow” and no one is arguing that.

[Manc]

No issue with the Arsenal red. Zero intent to play for the ball, studs up. Get him walking.

[phonics]

Sorry have I fundamentally misunderstood the meaning of studs up or are we just making things up now?

[Jimmy Floyd]

The thing is that for you Arsenal is the centre of the (footballing) world and therefore whatever happens to it is emotionally multiplied by a thousand. Arsenal twitter is disproportionately populated by metropolitan numpties with too much time on their hands so the stills come out in force.

For Michael Oliver it's just another set of pricks wearing another coloured shirt, he doesn't give a shit, during the game he'll just be thinking gold v red and won't care who they are.

I still think it's a defensible red. Henry Winter did a teary tweet saying otherwise though so I will have to change my mind.

[phonics]

I think the ref gives him a straight red if he wasn’t on a yellow. As stupid as that sounds. He gets to say “well obviously it was a yellow” and no one is arguing that.

So the guy two footing a player vertically gets suspended for two less games because he'd already committed an offense. Makes sense.

edit: Rewatching that Gomes one, it is definitely a yellow and not a red. Guys just reaching the ball and misses by half a second.

For Michael Oliver it's just another set of pricks wearing another coloured shirt, he doesn't give a shit, during the game he'll just be thinking gold v red and won't care who they are.

This just isn't true of literally any human being that has ever existed on earth.

[Waffdon]

It wasn’t even the worst decision of the day. Ndiaye got booked for doing a Seagull celebration against Brighton earlier

[Danny]

So the guy two footing a player vertically gets suspended for two less games because he'd already committed an offense. Makes sense.

Absolutely doesn’t make sense but its the spineless nonsense you would get from a Prem ref (in general not just this decision)

[randomlegend]

.For Michael Oliver it's just another set of pricks wearing another coloured shirt, he doesn't give a shit, during the game he'll just be thinking gold v red and won't care who they are.
mind.

This is completely moronic even by your football opinion standards.

[niko_cee]

I really disagree with the freeze frame studs up analysis of that red card, it just wasn't and that belies the whole problem with making a judgment off a single image from a moving picture.

That said, I agree with Jimmy that, in the moment, it was a defensible red card - ie maybe Oliver thought he had raked down his Achilles. In those circumstances there appears to be a bit of pundit divergence on how VAR should be applied in different scenarios. The high bar for intervention that you see with penalties and goals suggests that, given there was 'some contact' and from certain angles you can make it look worse than it was, then the ruling on the field should stand. There is absolutely no chance it gets upgraded if he gives a yellow. Can the referee make a mental totting up and compile enough yellows in one incident to issue a red?

The old orange card.

[Jimmy Floyd]

This is completely moronic even by your football opinion standards.

He literally won't have been able to get to the top of refereeing if he thinks in any other way.

The only exception is for players/teams who are a particular discipline issue and need to be handled in a certain way.

[Shindig]

I really disagree with the freeze frame studs up analysis of that red card, it just wasn't and that belies the whole problem with making a judgment off a single image from a moving picture.

Yep. Studs are up but it's ground level. I still think it's a yellow due to the position on the field. Yeah, it's a cynical foul but we see those every week.

[randomlegend]

He literally won't have been able to get to the top of refereeing if he thinks in any other way.

The only exception is for players/teams who are a particular discipline issue and need to be handled in a certain way.

Complete devoid of any basis in the reality of human behaviour. Everyone has biases, whether consciously or unconsciously. Top judges have biases, nonetheless fucking football referees who are guaranteed to be football fans and support a particular team.

Not to mention we had "top referee" David Coote out there calling Jürgen Klopp a cunt on video.

[Jimmy Floyd]

David Coote thinking Jurgen Klopp is a cunt has nothing to do with how he referees games. It just means that fans (morons) feel upset.

[randomlegend]

I'm afraid the moron here is unequivocally you.

[-james-]

I feel like bias is more likely to exist on a player level rather than a team level. Man Utd/Arsenal/Farsley Celtic are all the same to most people but I can imagine being more inclined to punish someone like Bruno Fernandes for rodent like behaviour.

[-james-]

Just had a quick look and Michael Oliver gives red cards at a rate of 0.14 per Premier League game, but he gives Arsenal red cards at a rate of 0.15 per game. Someone call the cops.

[niko_cee]

It wasn’t even the worst decision of the day. Ndiaye got booked for doing a Seagull celebration against Brighton earlier

Celebrating goals is far too regulated.

I see the old Ravnelli/Rivaldo is explicitly a bookable offence now. Is there any actual reason that removing the shirt is so frowned upon?

[Kikó]

Slowing the game down or something. Or woke.

[Pepe]

Is there any actual reason that removing the shirt is so frowned upon?

I recall back in the nineties in the Mexican league, Pepsi started paying players to wear a branded undershirt and show it every time they scored a goal. That shit got regulated into oblivion within the week. Not sure if that is still (or ever was outside Mexico) the reason for it being a bookable offense, but sounds plausible.

[Shindig]

I always figured it was for commercial reasons (i.e. kit supplies getting miffed) but then there's always the potential for messages to be written underneath.

[Pepe]

I'm afraid the moron here is unequivocally you.

You really need to chill a bit.

[Foe]

Was it not the forlan man United goal incident that caused it where he couldn’t get his shirt back on and was running about shirtless carrying it for a bit?

[-james-]

Just seen that the top scorer in Scotland is "Sam Dalby", on loan from Wrexham.

[Kikó]

He's been great. Good old school target man.

[Luke Emia]

I didn't think it was a red card yesterday. It was cynical but you see far worse all the time, as for Arsenal in general have they had genuinely terrible decisions go against them this season? They've perhaps had 50/50's go against them but nothing horrendous more just a case of falling against them than for them. Don't worry though they even out over the season.

Without wanting to invoke Phonics rage again though could this be a case of how they play as well? Constantly slowing the game down and I think you could say playing around the margins of some of the rules at times, perhaps those things are in the referee's mind when these 50/50 decisions do come up?

[Waffdon]

Just seen that the top scorer in Scotland is "Sam Dalby", on loan from Wrexham.

I don’t really understand why they’re not recalling him because Steven Fletcher gets enough game time for them and he was shite for Dundee United in the Championship.

And also about 40

[Magic]

Ange.

[Ben]

I’ve got it on because other than Wissa I find Brentford terrible to watch, and it’s a right laugh watching Spurs have absolutely no idea what to do against one of history’s most porous defences.

[Magic]

Pedro Porous.

[niko_cee]

Another top performance from the great entertainers.

[Spikey M]

They're actually going to go down if they don't get rid and bring someone with a clue in. Injury list or not, he refuses to accept that suicide ball doesn't work.

[Shindig]

Looking forward to a supercut of his hang-dog press conferences.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

The Butcher

[niko_cee]

Man United skanking Fulham in one of the worst games of the season feels like a bit of a ritual.

[Raoul Duke]

Adama absolutely rattled. Fucking weightlifter

[randomlegend]

The Butcher

WHY did he do that completely insane two footed jump on the ball tackle again though. It's the stupidest thing I've ever seen. Absolutely ripe for getting sent off even if he's obviously trying to do it to the ball rather than the player. Incredibly dangerous in that he could easily slip over the ball and break the opposing players leg. Also dangerous to himself. I've never seen any other player do it. Once was a moment of madness, twice needs someone to sit him down and tell him he's never going on the pitch again if he does it any more.

[randomlegend]

Amorim saying he'd play the goalkeeping coach before a player who doesn't put the effort in when asked about Rashford

[Magic]

Christ this is the most boring game of football I've ever seen. Fuck Scott Parker.

[Danny]

Neymar has left Al Hilal. Absolutely robbed them. Breaks down like this apparently

£75m fee + £83m yearly wage for 2 years, that's £241m to play 219 minutes of football.. every minute on the pitch cost them £1.1m....

[Danny]

Oh and Coote has come out (officially)

[John Arne]

I can't be the only one who found the whole interview a bit off. Basically blamed getting drunk and having a pop at Uncle Jurgen on the fact that he was gay. Just own it, mate.

[niko_cee]

Villa after Disasi and Felix? Yeah, nothing to see here. Ah to be a deckchair.