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Grimnir
Can't stand Hughes, even more so with what he is doing to Southampton.
Hope Fulham thrash Southampton, especially after the way Hughes left them.
Which is a shame, because Southampton is a team I generally like!
Number 1
Isn't football wonderful.
terriersmad
Comfortable, cruising without playing particularly well at 1-0. Innocuous 50-50 between Mounié and their no.8. Inexplicably, a red is produced. I've seen it again - it's a staggering decision. Mounié is pulling out of the challenge. There's no force behind it. His leg is bent as he tries to get out of the way. There's a still which doesn't look great, but it doesn't tell the whole story. It's a foul, no question, but it's not serious foul play - there's no excessive force, his leg isn't straight, it doesn't endanger the Brighton lad's safety in any way, shape or form. It's just a 50-50 for a bouncing ball that you see dozens of times a season. We'll be successful with the appeal, but that doesn't compensate us for the points it's cost us today.
That's bad enough, but you can get a duff one from any referee. Five minutes later, we get two in a pop. Pritchard, four yards out and about to get a clear shot away, is hauled down. Not sure who by if truth be told. But there's no doubt that it's a penalty and a red card for denial of an obvious goalscoring opportunity without an attempt to play the ball. There's a tremendous photo that just shows how blatant it was - the lad has an arm around Pritchard's throat and another pulling him down with a knee in his back. It's as stonewall as a penalty can get. Not given. To be honest, I'm more irritated about that - 10 v 10 with us 1-0 up (and probably 2-0) is a different game. It's an inexplicable decision.
Of course, he added just enough time for them to score. 4 minutes seemed long at the time to add. There are also questions about whether the ball had gone out of play before they recycled it for their corner - of course, the unfit linesman was 10 yards behind play and in no position to make a decision. We can't complain too much, though, as we switched off.
They then went ahead - can't say it wasn't coming, but at the same time the game was completely changed by earlier decisions. Brighton played against 10 well, and credit to them for that, but it can't be denied by anyone that they were fortunate to be in that position and we were desperately unlucky not to be more up as a result of the officials. Most Brighton fans have said they'd have got nowhere near us with 11, which is a fair enough reflection.
Oliver compounded his awful performance by failing to send off Leon Balogun late on for a dangerous challenge. As a challenge it was an order of magnitude worse than any other in the game (and most certainly a fair degree worse than the challenge which saw Mounié dismissed). It'd have been scant consolation, but it most certainly underlined just how awful and one-eyed Oliver's entire performance was.
We've not had a slice of luck at all this campaign. Generally officials have dropped a bollock against us once a game and it's been costing us. Oliver has taken us 3 times this season. The end outcome?
2 Town players sent off (one fairly);
No opposition players sent off (should be two);
No penalties awarded (should be two);
One perfectly good equaliser (v Liverpool) ruled out.
Total points he's cost us on his own: 6.
And the more I see the red, the more I just think about what an awful decision it is. He's gone to pass the ball - you can tell from the angle and the way he goes in. He actually gets to the ball, which hits the Brighton lad who is challenging at the same height. The follow-through scrapes the lad, but it's a shocker. It's an absolute shocker of a decision. Nobody could describe it as dangerous without having an agenda. Absolutely nobody.
Interesting stat, though (and one which questions should be asked about): Michael Oliver has refereed us 3 times this season. Chris Kavanagh has refereed us 3 times. Oliver has also been 4th official 3 times. Surely that's worth asking questions over. No referee should have a say over almost half of our fixtures this season unless it's the second game of the campaign.
BR.
Chelsea 1-0 up v Fulham, just after HT.
terriersmad
Still, should have won that. Enough chances to batter them 5 or 6. Bournemouth will feel incredibly lucky.
Carroll.
Eric Portapotty
But what an utter shithouse of a game, @terriersmad surely you cannot have any complaints about the refereeing performance?
terriersmad
Best official of the season. Only complaint is that he missed the foul on Pritchard at 0-0 - penalty, 1-0, different game. But I thought live Pritchard slipped, so can't complain much there! Perhaps a little lucky with the offside by the modern abortion of a law, but at the same time he's a fair way off and pressing when the ball is played from his offside position, so the linesman deserves praise for being prepared to apply common sense - if Lacazette isn't offside in the first place, Zanka doesn't make the error. Rightly booked ours when we were over-zealous with tackles (minor quibble with the Pritchard booking, which did look soft if truth be told). 9 bookings tells its own story about the battle the game became, a proper scrap with a referee who was in charge and taking no shit. Loved that. First time I've felt coming out of a game with the top 6 that the officials weren't a bunch of blinkered idiots who were star-struck by the superstars on show and they were genuinely even-handed. I can deal with mistakes if it's clear they're honest oversights.
Incidentally, three bookings for diving for Arsenal. Never seen anything like it, to be honest. Not least because the ref, having seen them all again, was absolutely spot on each time. Shows how utterly desperate they were, against a side assembled for a fraction of the cost of the two strikers. The FA should be looking into that and severely disciplining Emery - clearly his tactics, clearly his instruction.
Eric Portapotty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUB-wjXUREE
Yeah I'm not even going to bother debating your other points mate
terriersmad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUB-wjXUREE
Yeah I'm not even going to bother debating your other points mate
Number 1
bmg033
Number 1
terriersmad
Eric Portapotty
Who now?
VP.
King Luis
Number 1
terriersmad
Pundits struggled to see Fabian Delph's challenge as a red card. So they probably can't see them slipping up...
Useless stat of the day: we're the first top-flight team to lose 6 games in the month of December since ourselves (1950). Special level of useless, that. Can't say we deserved to lose all of them but even so. We have lost all of them. Saturday v Fulham is a biggie. Winner... probably goes down, let's be honest.
Dawg1
Not from Rafa's point of view.
BR.
3 defeats out of 4, never thought they'd go on a run like that this season. Next Thursday's game will be interesting. Win that and you should start to believe...
Carroll.
terriersmad
The thing is, I can accept going down if we make a real fight of it. Performances and set-up v Newcastle, Southampton and Fulham were just plain wrong. There was nothing there where we got in the opposition's faces, made it a battle, played with any kind of belief. We sat 8 defensive players into a 5-3-1-1 and it was so restrictive. We go to Manchester United, revert to 4-2-3-1 and play well despite the 3-1 defeat. We attacked them and looked dangerous for most of the game - we actually deserved a point from it, just couldn't finish in good positions. Then we go into a must-win and go all defensive. We're adrift. We have to attack, so to just sit and seemingly accept our fate isn't on.
Dean has come out (which will have cost him something - I'm certain that part of our current funk is because he's been in hospital, very ill, for the past 3 months) and fired a rocket up the club's collective arse with his New Year's message. If we perform and go down - then we perform and go down and I couldn't ask for more. If we continue to put in lacksadaisical, defensive, negative displays then I'll be annoyed and I could ask for more from them.
Current situation (it isn't a predicament - there's more to life than league position) is down to a number of factors:
Poor sales in summer;
Poor signings in summer;
Lack of attacking ambition and faith in attacking players;
Lack of variety in attacking play;
Appalling luck with injuries;
Some poor refereeing at key points.
Some in our control, some - such as losing Mooy, Williams, Sabiri, Löwe, Hogg, Smith to injury for extended periods - out of it. The point is that we can only do what is within our control - attack teams, have a go, be brave and keep going even in the face of adversity. If we go down, then we go down. We expected it last season, we expected it this.
There was actually a brilliant article in the Independent the other day about Town, Fulham and the rest of the top flight. Well worth a read.
Number 1
VP.
Eric Portapotty
This Ozil farce... Oh smfh
Why does this have to be the hill that Emery wants to die on, this and Ramsey
Also, FUCK GAZIDIS AND KROENKE, twats
hammer9
King Luis
BR.
King Luis