BlueChampions The Chelsea FC Blog – views, opinions, discussions, debates, polls, videos . . .
Damn. Damn. Damn. This shouldn’t have ended this way. At 3-0 up, they had their tails behind their back and had no chance of coming back at the Bridge. No matter how much the media wants to call it a comeback, I wouldn’t call it so. It was not a ‘come-back’ by Man Utd, it was a ‘brought-back’ by Howard Webb. There’s no way Man Utd could have got anything in this match without the mercy of Howard Webb. As it always happens, they got lucky to the point of being scandalous. Back in Old Trafford, we dominated the game only to see two offside goals give them a big home lead. Now here, two non-penalties giving them the draw. They always get the loooooong rope from the referees. Actually, like with Barca, I’m tired of how they win with referee’s help. Same old.
Chelsea started with an attacking line-up. It showed that we were going to take the game to Man Utd and would be looking for nothing less than a win. I must say the quality of the game was disappointing. To call this a premier league classic only undermines premier league. Neither teams were able to make any meaningful attacks. Possession was lost very very cheaply. Not many clear cut chances. Horrible refereeing. The best moments of the game were Sturridge’s trickery for the first goal, Torres’ cross and Mata’s finish for the second goal, brilliant tackles by Ivanovic and Cahill and a very smart header from Hernandez.
Yet another game where Torres creates a beautiful goal rather than scoring one. He got one good chance which he fluffed by taking too many touches before losing the ball. His current confidence level is such that he needs to be 100% clear that his shot will make it, like he’s taking a penalty. He’s not in a frame of mind to take risks which one would do while in form. At least, his cross was one of the best we’ve seen from a Chelsea player this season. And Mata’s finish was sweet. Should be up there as one of the best Chelsea goals this season.
I thought Gary Cahill had a very good match. He was very aware of how the game moved and also of the movements of his colleagues. It’s not easy to get drafted in and debut at home against Man Utd and play with such ease. Well done. Malouda was in a very passive mode. He was involved in a few chances but if he’s playing this submissive role it takes all the bite off his contribution. I wanted him to play as aggressively as he plays plus good decision making and team work. He was very passive.
Petr Cech’s reputation for not being a penalty stopper didn’t improve. I don’t know what’s his penalty record. In all these years, I don’t remember seeing him stop a penalty. Yeah, there could have been one or two but you get the point. If I were AVB, I would have Cech practice penalty stopping hundreds of times before a Man Utd game because it’s certain that he’d have to face penalties. Our defending for the third goal was terrible. This small boy Hernandez has the reputation of being a poacher. He’s like Inzaghi. He’s a clever fox. You have all the defenders in the box and not one was marking him closely enough. That was terrible defending. We made light of referee’s work.
The one thing we did achieve clearly is to negate Man Utd’s wing attack. We covered the flanks well enough to stop Man Utd from attacking through the wings. Thanks to Malouda in particular. Later in the second half, Romeu came in to have his worst Chelsea game to date. Just don’t know what happened to him there but I’m sure he wants to forget this game for his contribution or the lack of it.
This is a game Chelsea should have won comfortably. I wasn’t fully sure even at 3-0 as I knew Man Utd would get a life line or two or three or four or five from the referees. If anyone says Howard Webb is the best referee in England, I’m gonna scream. Expect Fergie and the Man Utd fans to hail this as a great comeback. Expect media to talk about this being one of Man Utd’s legendary combacks and a possible hair dryer treatment in the second half which changed everything. Yup, there could have been a hair dryer moment in the second half. Fergie smashing Howard Webb’s head with a hair dryer in the half time. Yes, it seems to have done the trick.
We are now possibly 5 points below Spurs and 2 points above Newcastle. Still a very dangerous zone. A win here could have made things lot better. I haven’t yet come to terms that I need to be following the results and progress of Newcastle United.
AVB has been drawing a lot of flak of late. Thoughts ranging from ‘he’s still the best guy to manage us’ to ‘he’s out of his mind’. He’s under pressure and it shows. You can call certain decisions as a result of naivety. I’d call them as a result of pressure. At 3-0, he wanted to protect the lead. He didn’t want to take anymore risks. Instead of bringing Romeu for Sturridge, if he had brought on pacy Lukaku for less-effective Malouda, we could have made a statement. We might have pegged them back. Instead we allowed them to have the ball and invited pressure. I don’t think this was a naive decision by AVB. May be he thinks he’s not in a position to take risks. Exactly like Torres. Doesn’t quite realise when he can take risks and how much.
Remember, if Webb had not signed for Man Utd, AVB could have registered a big win against Fergie at a crucial point of time. I feel for AVB. His misfortune keeps mounting. But patience won’t. He spent the whole January buying a central defender and buying players that won’t be used by us this season. Now that, is a problem. Ignoring that we have issues in attack is a problem. For all our defensive fragilities, we have not conceded too many goals. It is our own lack of goals that’s hurting us. So to not buy an attacking midfielder or wingers and to send Josh on loan smacks me.
I’m still confident that we would make it to the third spot. I expect Spurs to lose their way and us to find ours. We enter the period where big teams play like big teams. This is the period where Chelsea always puts in amazing run of games and the pretenders lose the plot. Let’s see how the next few weeks go. Before I leave, let me tell you that a sub-standard Liverpool team finished fifth but won the champions league against all odds. Miracles do happen. KTBFFH!
BC you are spot on with saying we needed Lukaku in for Mlouda, that’s what I was saying too. Great observation on Romeu too, he was horrendous. I feel malouda did well against Valencia, he is the only player on the planet who kills Ashley.
i think we started of much better compared to that awful game against swansea… although i cudnt see the second half.. i wud say that despite all our bad luck and MOTM Howard Webb, we have shown intent of starting a good run of games.
I cud hardly identify this as a Chelsea team I am normally used to see. We didnt have Drogba, Lamp, Terry, Mikel, Kalou, Ramires. The initial three having being the spine of our side for so long. I know its a little late in the day to say this, and alos it has been said many times that we haven’t been able to phase out these 3 players in a gradual manner. Our side is goind thru a very very abrupt change in personnel and style of play. This coupled with a top drawer player like Torres being low on confidence compounds the effect of these issues.
@BC.. Nice post as usual, but i expected you to comment on essien who I think had a pretty decent game. I hope he hits his stride in the absence of lampard. He even made Meireles look good.
I dont wanna think about UCL, all I wish is for us to finish on 4th or above in the standings. AVB has already talked publicly about the importance of the second phase of his “project”, i.e. the next season. So lets hope we finish fourth, get some good creative players in the summer, and go all guns blazing for the next season.
KTBFFH
When i realized the referee was Mark webber I said we gonna be fucked is quiet strange why he’s the referee when united plays with big teams I told my mates before the game that he would kill the game for us or he would gets a player sent off or he would award penalties to allow man u to coming back I’m starting getting sick of theses referees like mark webber and chris foy they are definitely a help hand for united everyone knows da apart from the FA
Just confused th
Just confused the names there a meant Howard Webb I hate the guy
The balls floats across to an an unmarked Hernandez who heads it home … the ball floats across to an unmarked Anelka against QPR and he heads it into the goalie’s arms … for me that’s it in a nutshell – our current crop of players are just not good enough. AVB takes off Sturridge and leaves Malouda on? How long do we continue to hope for Torres? Does Bosingwa think he’s Messi or what? The team is good enough to get a 4th to 6th finish …. exactly where depends on luck, suspensions, injuries, decisons etc … but this is less than 2 years after winning the Double??
@Bluechampion
I expected you to be a little more balanced in your review. This is not the mentality of champions. You make it look like we should be sorry for ourselves when rather we should fight the odds. With regards to refereeing don’t you think United have the right to be aggreived when Cahill clumsily brought Welbeck down. If not a red atleast a yellow – even AVB agrees. And so early in the match. The second penalty was dodgy but what was the problem with the first one. Evra always enters the penalty box looking for a penalty. I know this, you know this, the whole world knows this. He is not Ryan giggs, he’s angling for a foul. And you clatter him from behind. Whose fault is that ??
Then David Luiz simply becomes one of us, watching chicharito as he delivers from point blank range. One of the easiest goals he will score.
Penalty practice for Cech ?? Did you see the first one fly in ?? I surely didn’t. It was that hard and that good. There was absolutely no chance. You absolve our players for making stupid mistakes but want Cech to practice penalties.
Then Torres latches on to the ball after the United defence gifts him one and he makes a mess of it. These are the moments where big players prove their mettle. Sorry but had it been Drogba, it was in.
So in a game of 6 goals, they score one from a dodgy decision and give away 3 goals themselves. Then you contrive to lose a 3 goal lead AT HOME while your 50 mill striker scuffs a brilliant chance. And all you can do is photoshop a United jersey on Webb. There is no point, we are not in 4th looking over our shoulders while NEWCASTLE (respect to them) tries to catch us because of Howard Webb. There are serious problems which can only be solved by taking some major steps.
Don’t get me wrong there were plenty of positives like Mata, Sturridge (taken off), Essien (tired but boy do we need him), Ivanovic (immense), Bosingwa (was a actually decent yesterday !!!). But we lose a 3 goal lead at home. Pathetic.
Their Goals
The first penalty to Man U was not a penalty. The way Evra went down in the box was not a natural reaction to the way Sturridge’s foot collided with Evra’s. The latter threw his arms up in the air and slumped to his knees and to me that’s a dead giveaway that a player is playing for a penalty kick. Sturridge was clumsy, without a doubt, but that’s not a penalty, it’s a make-up call for the Cahill-Welbeck incident in the first half.
The second foul was in my mind a penalty….although a very very soft one. There was no malicious intent there but I do think Ivanovic’s foot got in the way of Welbeck’s.
The third goal scored by Man U was a function of poor defending on the part of Cahill and Luiz, mostly born out of a lack of understanding/partnership between them. Cahill was left ball-watching, thinking Luiz had Little Penis covered. Right before Giggs crossed the ball in, Cahill had looked back over his shoulder at Luiz and shouted something, which I surmise to be along the lines of “oi, you have him.” Luiz had Little Penis covered but was then distracted by the surging run of Welbeck into the box, who was also uncovered (where was the cover here from midfield?) Luiz went for Welbeck, and hence Little Penis was free to head into the box. Had Terry been in there, I don’t think it would have happened.
Our Goals
Just some general observations:
1)Every goal originated from the right hand side of the pitch. Sturridge caused Evra nightmares down there. Shame he went off but he just wasn’t tracking back at all. Shows Sturridge’s maddening talent/immaturity.
2) Mata needs to play centrally from now on. I don’t know who we put on the left hand side of the pitch – Malouda looked shite – but we have to do it. The little Spaniard was the best player on the pitch yesterday by a mile.
3) Props to Cahill and Luiz; they blew it on the third goal but they were otherwise immense. With Terry/Ivano as other CB options, we’re set at this position for years.
Final Observation
I agree with Pulis from Stoke: the rampant play-acting in football is a disease that needs to be eradicated. There’s too much of players going down theatrically and also too many players hounding the referee at every moment. Giggs is as bad as Puyol/Busquets in this respect. Somebody’s got to get a hold on this.
Unhappy with the game’s outcome, but enjoyed our goals. They were brilliant.
Juan Mata is class. So glad he is in our team. Perfect timing of the volley and a pin-point free-kick in the end. We need a clone of him in the team.
I am terribly disappointed with the treatment John Terry is given in the UK. For God’s sake, he hasn’t assaulted anyone that there is a charge against him. Racism means indiscrimination and biased treatment against people on basis of color. The same goes with Suarez. I don’t think he should have been given a 8-match ban. This is hampering football.
If Terry is found guilty, then football is in trouble. Every 5th match there will be a case like this.
And to all those anti-Chelsea fans, Capello was right to reinstate Terry, because “there is no-one as good as him in the team to lead”. Carlo Ancelotti rightly put it yesterday “He is the captain of all team captains”.
I too wish Terry did not say those words, it happens in the heat of the moment. But is it only Terry who has done this. This happens in almost all high-tempo matches.
And I seriously hate those anti-Terry/anti-Chelsea players/columnists. Of them Gary Neville is the worst. Ferdinand is an arrogant idiot who thinks he is some big-big player rightly deserves to be booed. I hate him as much as I love Chelsea. And those columnists are always against JT.Pretty obvious, doing their job, and have nothing else to talk than trash.
Anyways, regarding the team, we are poor in attacks. Our form since Newcastle has been like this WWWDDDLWWWDDD. We barely can even put 3 wins together. And there were 2 losses against Liverpool before this. Villas-boas has to take the responsibility. We cant blame the players. This is not some bad patch. This is going on for the entire season.
We need to buck up now.
I have high hopes of the Champions League this time. Our defending isn’t that bad. Against Utd, we had our midfielders tracking back. That was good. Essien in there gives a good physical presence. I think we will reach the semis this time.
As for the league, its over. Europa league is the worst we can get. Fourth is best we can get. We need some 25 more points to secure that place which I think would be enough.
Thats it from my side. Was happy with the goals.
KTBFFH !!
Petr Cech: Once upon a time he used to be a well-known penalty specialist. In the U-21 European Championship finals against France he saved 3 attempts and helped the Czech Republic to win it 3-1. However, the last penalty I remember him to save was Cristiano Ronaldo´s attempt in the 2008 CL finals shot-out.
@vovka:
Would love to see him save more penalties but yesterday he had no chance. Rooney could not have hit either kick better.
I think that’s a bit harsh on Petr Cech. I looked it up he’s saved about 30% of penalties faced at Chelsea which isnt bad at all. Including an important one in an FA Cup final. I think the last one he saved was against Dempsey last year to save a 0 – 0 draw at Fulham.
Joking aside on Webb, I dont think he had too bad a game, just that one decision to give a penalty against Ivanovic (who defended like a champion yet again in my opinion) was particularly bad, furtively won by Welbeck though to be honest.
As you say, Chelsea need to build on this result and not succumb to it, it still has the potential to be a turning point in our season.
Why Lukaku for Malouda? Malouda was doing a great defensive job on Valencia.
I could see why he subbed Sturridge with Romeu, to be more stable defensively etc, but Romeu was hopeless. And Sturridge was probably the most incisive attacking player we had, with some dangerous runs. After the sub, the burden was on Mata once more. And noone else seemed to get the idea that we should keep possession and play the game out! Possession was so much better in the 1st half!
@bluebrother: Mate! In fewer words, I though if the referee was fair, there was no way for Man Utd to draw this game. This is a stadium where Man Utd haven’t won a league game for 10 years. This is their Waterloo. When Chelsea went up 3-0, there’s no way for them to draw without referee’s help. And that’s what happened. Btw, I don’t agree with both the penalties. Allow me that.
Roomey’s first penalty was as good as you’d see. The point is not about how this penalty went in. If I were to be a striker to take a penalty against Cech, I wouldn’t be too worried and that’s a problem. A good penalty is a combination of the striker’s skill and confidence plus how less concerned he is about the goalkeeper. A good penalty stopper will play in the minds of the shot taker an hence would induce a mistake. That’s one reason why Rooney can score a blinder of a penalty. Someone said Cech has saved 30% of he penalties. That’s plain wrong. If you tell me that 30% of the times, Ceh moved on te correct side, I’d be happy.
Plus I did talk about the Torres miss, our horrible defending for the third goal and our poor substitutions. For the record I don’t buy this ‘they gave away two goals’. Own goals are not given away. They are forced on them. Look at those goals. If not for Evans, Malouda or Sturridge would have scored that. Evans did not gift that he was under pressure. Same about the David Luiz goal too.
This is a game Chelsea should have won if Howard Webb was not on form.
@Bluechampion
You are entitled to your opinion. But it would have been better if you explained why you thought none of those two penalties was fair. That is the question I ask in my post.
Secondly, their goals were given away IMHO. Very poor defending by Evra and Rafael. I am not taking any credit away from the lads but it wasn’t as we set the ground on fire with our brilliant play, something we should have because we are chelsea and we are at home.
One thing I donot like and object to taking the higher moral ground, especially when we don’t deserve it. Another point you did not mention in your post was the clumsy Cahill tackle. That warranted atleast a yellow, even AVB says so. Imagine Cahill playing on a yellow for the whole game. So I personally donot endorse this view and I was among the people laughing at Man City for claiming moral victory against United. It is very defeatist attitude and I was glad AVB did not make too much of it. Just because Fergie does it all the time doesn’t mean its right. We have to maintain our dignity and address the right issues. I hope AVB is sorting out our defence. Three goals at home are simply not acceptable.
…..webb is worse than obrevo! nope, both are equally cheap!
…..lucky that the match is played for 90 minutes, otherwise we would have lost 3:10 and i am sure that after sometime webb himself would taken shots at our goal!
…..torres could have made it 4:2 for us!
…..i think cahill could have done better against hernandez!
…..luiz carry the blue blood, he is the only player that seemed passionate about Chelsea…i love him more, i love his goals against manure!
…..kudos to bosingwa…he did well!
…..i hate cheap english fa, they call webb as one of their best, i am starting to hate epl!
@KarmaCW:
Dude, that Webb taking shot at our goal is hilarious…LOL
but I’m certain that frigging bus-3rd official is freaking corrupt..
@Bluechampion,
I wasnt guessing when I said Cech has saved 30% of penalties at Chelsea. He’s saved 4 out of 14 since signing.
It’s fun making fun of Webb like I read somewhere ….. if webb ain’t injured ManUre always have a chance to do the impossible….ha ha ha
i am furtively hoping that Chels will do better in the CL against Napoli etc…..can’t wait for the matches against European teams …. as most teams don’t know what to expect from Chels this year we might have a mighty crack at the silverware….
@bluebrother: In my view, both those incidents weren’t fouls. Those could be booked for diving instead. If those two happened outside the box, those wouldn’t have been called fouls. I’m pretty clear in my mind that you shouldn’t have two sets of rules for inside and outside the box.
I still vehemently disagree that their ‘goals were given away’. We forced them to make those mistakes. Those are no lucky 90-degree deflections. Those are the results of our attacks which could have ended as goals from our boots/heads. By the way, I can also say we gave away the Hernandez goal for ‘poor defending’.
And what high moral ground? And why do I need to agree with AVB? He could even say that Cahill should have been sent off and that doesn’t mean we all need to agree because he is Chelsea manager. Plus, it’s all fine looking at the 90 minutes and talking what’s fair. As a football club, we’ve been dished incredibly bad refereeing decisions that hve cost us massively. So I’m not going to look at a 90-min match and say what’s fair and what’s not. If we get lucky somewhere along the line, I’ll take it with both hands shamelessly as I know it would still take years for undo all the wrongs dumped at us.
This is no defeatist attitude. AVB did talk about the huge influence of referees in the OT and SB matches against Man Utd. AVB even said that we expect top referees for such games and that we don’t get them. This is a referee to officiated the world cup final and did not send off De Jong for his Karate kick. AVB has, within his permissible limits, has made clear the impact of poor refereeing by Webb and its impact on the result. As a blogger, I have more freedom and I just used it.
See, in my mind, we made one big blunder and Hernandez scored off it. On the other side, I though we forced them to make three mistakes that led to our goals and forced a number of saves. In my eyes, Chelsea should have won this game comfortably.
Yes we should address the issues but not the artifically created ones. If the penalties weren’t given, we would not have been under undue pressure and we would not have lost the momentum and would have won the game handsomely. Fergie would be the one to look at the issues and address them (if you were to look only at this game).
@BlueChampion:
BC, your argument is astute, truly speaks for me..
Good points took up there..
Let’s look up for the next game.. I’m still believe in AVB, give him time, he will deliver..
@Bluechampion
Well buddy , sorry to disagree with you but the first one was a NAILED-ON penalty. Of course you can disagree, but IMO Evra was pushed off the ball. Yes Evra was asking for it. But he managed to force an error from Sturridge. Also there was contact for the second one but it wasn’t a penalty.
Regarding the Cahil challenge, you still avoid answering the question as to whether you think Cahil’s offence was a yellow. If it was then Howard Webb favored us too – a free kick in a dangerous area and a yellow card. If not then tell me WHY it wasn’t even a foul. And also how Howard Webb favoring us is different from Howard Webb favoring them.
I hate to keep this going. I have a lot of respect for you and the blog, but I strongly feel that we would be hypocrites if we blame the defeat on Webb. This fosters a paranoia among the fans and ultimately we become laughing stock like Liverpool. constantly blaming others for defeat. You might not realize it now, but it will happen. Look at the comments section, no real match analysis and debate, just crap on how Webb would take shots for United and all that. Thats it, as far as opinions go, you are as entitled to yours as I am to mine, so no issues there.
If Chelsea gave Sturridge the reigns for that central role, with someone else playing wide right, Bosingwa? Ramires? one of the youngsters?
Sturridge is being wasted on the wing. If he had the support that Torres is getting he would absolutely revel in it.
I don’t blame him for being hacked off. just look at the goals he scored for Bolton playing centrally. He is a young and hungry striker full of confidence. Yeah, he’s greedy and has a lot of maturing to do, but he doesnt have the pressure Torres has atm, and will get PLENTY of goals from the centre.
So far, every game where Chelsea started with Torres through the middle and Sturridge wide right, Chelsea have looked frankly quite toothless.
in all honesty, the notorious Salomon Kalou will do a lot more damage through the middle than Torres, but still Chelsea will persist with this guy.
let him start from the bench. When Chelsea are winning bring him on, that way there’s less pressure, and if he gets a few goals, his confidence will pick up.
On another note, its encouraging to hear the news about CFC interest in Hazard, Willian, Goetze, Dzagoev etc. Could be a very different and considerably more interesting lineup next season.
One player i persobally would loce to see in blue, is Cheik Tiote. If Chelsea do sell Mikel (who has turned out to be more a pot of cement than a pot of gold).
A midfielder of Tiote and Ramires will be immense.
@bluebrother:
I feel that the Evra incident did not merit a penalty, and I’m surprised at the easy acceptance of Blues fans (and AVB) that Webb made the right call here.
If you look at the incident again you’ll notice that the reaction Evra made is not natural given the contact between his foot and Sturridge’s. If someone barges into your foot like that, your whole leg would jerk up in pain or you would tumble awkwardly in the opposite direction. Instead, Evra threw his arms straight up in the arm like he was at a Pentecostal revival and then slumped down to the turf on his knees. To me that’s about as clear a dive as there can be.
Was there contact? Yes. Was it clumsy? Of course. But the contact was not so severe as to impede play. Football is a physical game and there’s going to be interaction between various players’ legs and feet. The slightest touch shouldn’t warrant a penalty. And the fact that Evra reacted so dramatically to the contact is a clear indication he was playing for the penalty, and was thus cheating.
@bluebrother: Jokes apart, I don’t really accuse Webb of colluding with Man Utd and defeating us. He had a terrible match. He made several decisions which directly affected the result of the match. Most of them and the most key of them in favour of Man Utd. Statistics suggest that Webb always favoured Man Utd. It could be a subconscious thing. If anyone really suggests that he was colluding with Man Utd you can’t dismiss that because in the calciopoli, referees always made decisions favouring both sides and knew which would tilt the result and hence get the ‘desired result’. I’m not suggesting that though.
We all know Chelsea’s problems. We are in no dreamland. We are not rotting in fourth place because of referees. We are in fourth place because of our own undoing and the improvement of our rivals. But when there’s robbery happening at Stamford Bridge, I would not want mix that with our inabilities and shortcomings. Suppose it’s 0-0 at 90 mins and we have played horribly and the opponent has created a million chances. If at that point the opponent gets an unfair penalty and wins 1-0, it’s still a robbery despite the fact thy deserved more than us. That’s my point.
Anyway, I too don’t intend to take this too far but good discussion though!
@Ronin: Wow! That’s interesting and eye-opening. Probably I’m prejudiced by his performance in the penalty shootouts where he’s simply been poor.
Capello resigned in response to the decision to remove the England captaincy from JT! Now, FA board, eat this!
@Rors21:
You have the luxury of slow motion cameras, something which Howard Webb does not have. If you read my post I have clearly mentioned that Evra ‘was asking for it’. He could have stayed on his feet, but there was enough contact to merit a fall. And the ref had to give it. Whether its morally right or wrong is a different matter. Also rules cannot be so clear cut to ensure justice all the time. A lot of time contact from the defender is enough to put off a player and if stays on his feet he loses an opportunity to score. Therefore players today are instructed to go down on contact enough to simply put them a little off balance. You would be naive to think that Chelsea players don’t do it and had we it happened to us and we woudn’t have been awarded a penalty, I am sure many would have been furious and rightly so. Again the merits and demerits are debatable and it sucks when it happens to you but thats just the way it goes.
The second one on the other hand was NOT a penalty. You could see Ivanovic trying to move out of the way. Maybe in high speed it may have looked like Ivanovic clipped Welbeck but it was Welbeck who clattered into Ivanovic. Here I feel the ref should have done the right thing by not awarding the penalty.
And my point is that these decisions even out over the season. If you feel that one dodgy decision could have changed the game , you may be right. If you say they could change the season, you are completely wrong. United, City and Chelsea have all had key decisions going against them in key matches. But can you argue that their current league positions are not deserved ?? I know you are not saying anything like that but I am just making a point I feel is simple but necessary for a lot of our support.
@bluebrother:
Fair enough points you make. I think its completely reasonable to state that the decisions even out over time, and that we’ve benefited from some dodgy ones this season, like all seasons.
Just hurts when it’s against Man U. And it hurts more when the player receiving the penalty cheated to get it.
But that’s football and it makes for fun discussions and debates.
Same bullshit plays and tactics by AVB. Time to say goodbye.
We need to bring Lukaku on for Meireles.