For me, Willian is far superior to Schuerrle in the defensive part of that role, which is obviously very important to Mourinho. He is consistently disruptive to the opposing midfielders, one great example being his work against Toure in the Monday night game at City. Schurrle hasn't shown the same tenacity in defending. Both great options though, of course and I agree Schuerrle does look a bit better in attack. It's really funny how those two players look on the squad now compared to what I envisioned last August. Football .... bloody hell ....
Someone pointed this out on the refs forum... http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26699009 Former top-level British and World Cup referee Clive Thomas, who said in 2012 he had lost faith in modern officials, believes the four in charge of Saturday's game should be banned for the rest of the season. Marriner was handling the Stamford Bridge clash alongside assistant referees Scott Ledger and Marc Perry, with Anthony Taylor as fourth official. "It's the most disgusting, shocking decision I've seen. In my opinion these four wouldn't officiate another Premier League game this season," the 77-year-old Welshman told BBC Radio 5 live. Thomas officiated at the 1974 World Cup in West Germany and the tournament in Argentina four years later, where he is remembered for disallowing a Zico headed goal for Brazil in a group game against Sweden by blowing for full-time while a corner ball was still in mid-air. As I pointed out, they're talking about this guy... As I also mentioned, on the other hand he's never been late for a bus or train so... y'know, swings and roundabouts, isn't it
love the media focus on Marriner technically keeping Arsenal better by sending off the wrong player that way they do not have to address the thrashing Arsenal took or why Arsene decided to not speak with the press afterwards
Well, that's strange because, earlier today, someone suggested the reason Gibbs might not have whinged too much is because he realised that, with Arsenal chasing the game, he was less important, (as a defender), than the Ox was. It was on MOTD extra, (name?), on BBC this afternoon but I can't remember who said it.
The referee's performance and the result are two separate issues imho. At that point, the game was already played. Not even Marriner's critics claim it wasn't a penalty. And at 3-0, the game was over as a contest. However, it still was a pretty shocking mistake to make and it should have some consequences in terms of his continued involvement this season.
I totally agree that Marriner and Co. gaffed with the sending off and had a few bad calls against us as well (funny how those are getting little mention) but as you say it was a sending off a 2-0 and soon to be game over. Great way to hide from the actual result and Wenger skulking away by focusing purely on one incident.
Unfortunate that some nonsense has to detract from us crushing them. Oh well, 3 points is 3 points at the end of the day.
I think it was over at 0-0... If you had to paint a picture of a team that sides like Arsenal would have problems with,(and Barca and a few others, tbh), you'd have a picture of Chelsea, particularly under Mourinho. All the football is played in front of the defense whilst, at the same time, players are running BEYOND the ball so if they're pressed and lose it, the other side is running right at the back 4. Of course, we're lacking a reliable goalscorer atm but, even so, we'll probably cause them more trouble than a lot of other teams. He'll be punished more because it's against Arsenal. If it was us, (even more so if it was Stoke, Norwich or similar), I'd expect him to get 'rested' for a few games but nothing else. Of course, it could have been worse... it could have been yanited or Liverpool in which case he'd be lucky not to be hung, drawn and quartered
This was the discussion after MOTD last night... For some reason my sound thingie keeps going squiffy. Sorry guys.
Thanks for sharing Andy. Just to give Shearer some credit, he did call the match after goal 2. Nice that someone is giving the credit where it's due instead of saying Mariner ran the show and it was that decision that ended the match. As it's been said, if this were reversed, the talk wouldn't be on Mariner. It'd be on Arse thrashing us.
Shearer's actually not too bad and, tbh, most of the BBC ex-players are pretty knowledgeable and even-handed. Ian Wright's still a bit of a twit but, thankfully, he's not on very often and even HE is usually fair about most stuff. Alan Hansen's about to retire as a pundit and he was good on the defensive analysis, (as you'd expect). The only one who genuinely doesn't seem to have a clue is Robbie Savage but then he's not particularly anti-cfc... he's just an equal-opportunity idiot Overall, though, they're pretty good and don't let their club allegiances run riot so chels usually get a fair hearing which is, IMO, all we can ask.
Listening to Saturday's 6-0-6 on my commute this morning and whilst there was A LOT of discussion over the red card mistaken idenity, all of the Arsenal fans accepted that the match was lost. They were mostly upset at the lack of guts shown by the team and the capitulation to their bigger title rivals. So to be fair to those AFC fans who actually go to matches, they were very balanced.
Should not have been a red imo because Hazard's shot was not on goal. That said, it is somewhat rare I think for a pure judgement call like that to be reversed. Likely would not have happened if he hadn't sent off the wrong man.
methinks it has more to do with the FA being concerned with a racism scandal so just sweep it all under the rug and look elsewhere seems to be the strategy being deployed
Why is there a racist angle here? Maybe because I have faced a similar problem. I am an Indian and I have heard comments from people saying we all look the same. I don't think they are racist when they say that. I personally have a hard time sometimes differentiating some of my Asian colleagues. It does not mean I hate them. Racism for me is having an air of superiority because of your race. That was not the case this Sunday. It was a genuine mistake. Unless I am not accurately defining racism.
I am getting sick and tired of the FA reversing cards from our matches. I think there is a larger statement being made, and there are much worse calls that have gone against us over the years that weren't reversed. Don't like it, not one bit.
I agree with you but there were several comments about "picking the wrong black guy"(not my words) going about and frankly I think the FA wanted to move on as quickly as possible from this. also worth noting that as critical as I am of the FA that I do support their decision not to relegate to Marriner
selective enforcement still have yet to see a reasonable explanation as to why video evidence was used in one weekend to correctly ban Craig Bellamy and not ban Ya Ya Toure for an off the ball incident not to mention that similar (Charlie Adam and George Boyd) and a few others have been banned using video evidence. and lets not get started on the stink raised by Marinner not properly applying the rules in sending off Gibbs while a week earlier Foy had a complete shocker and nothing was said/done
http://hereisthecity.com/en-gb/2014/03/23/ian-wright-chelsea-fans-showed-a-lot-of-class/ Ian Wright saying something nice about us surely not
It was a simple mistake and I think the red was properly withdrawn. The main embarrassment for the FA here was not the ref's mistake, but the fact that in this day and age there is no ability to confirm via instant replay when the identity of the offendor is in question. Ox and Gibbs both indicated the mistake to the ref, but he apparently had no means to confirm the proper call on the field at the time. A sending-off for a handball is only warranted in circumstances where the player "denies the opposing team a goal or an obvious goalscoring opportunity by deliberately handling the ball." If the shot is off target, as was the case, it cannot be said that Chamberlain denied Chelsea a goal. Its an obvious penalty, not a red.