I think you’ll find a lot of instructors who feel the same way. From a practical perspective, professional referees are more likely to ask “what’s the point?” Goal scored, everyone happy with your advantage call, attention has just shifted totally away from you and... instead of kicking off you go show a defender a yellow—after his team just conceded a goal— for something that did not risk the safety of an opponent? No one wants this except the people who wrote the Laws.
Marriner is really far away. As @MassRef surmised, he may have missed it. I just read Benitez was upset with the foul that led to the winning goal. Can’t find that anywhere.
Oh of course not. But it’s one of the rarest call you’ll ever see. There was the Cakir example a few years ago. I think there was one other high profile one that I can’t quite recall. That’s it.
I've always been taught that the best advantage a team can have is a goal, so the goal should stand as opposed to the penalty kick and red card. Now I know that in American football, we've seen instances where coaches have declined penalties on field goals to take points off the board because they either value possession more (i.e. late in the game when they are trying to run the clock out) or they are trying to score a touchdown. In this case, I can't imagine why we'd take a goal off the board in any situation - even if it results in a send-off for the other team.
Yes, it was an easy red, but in hindsight, Bournemouth #8 on three other occasions upon a whistle was quick to step in and delay a restart by either blocking or kicking the ball away. I was surprised he did not go unpunished. But then again, Spurs played into it each time, especially once they went down one.
According to notes announcer Arlo White posted on instagram, Andre Marriner has had the Newcastle-United match 5 of the last 7 years. (At St. James Park).
I know. I was being a smart-aleck. Fully agree that both red cards were deserved and resulted from terrible decision making.
So now that only two games really have any significant meaning - Liverpool-Wolves and Man City-Brighton - is it fair to assume that Oliver gets one game (likely LIV-WOL, because that on paper is the more competitive match) and Taylor gets MNC-BHA? I know that the Arsenal and Tottenham games have a sliver of meaning because ARS theoretically could get to 4th (but would need to pick up +8 in goal differential while they face Burnley, so they'd probably have to hope for a +5 or +6 Everton win), but no other games mean anything. This weekend's results really took a lot of the starch out of the importance of the schedule except for the title race.
A couple weeks ago it looked like an insane final match day. Now it's pretty meh. But anytime the title is on the line during the final day then it's hard to complain.
Wait, I just re-thought this. Taylor had Brighton yesterday. I can't see him having them on back-to-back weeks. Atkinson makes more sense to me now. Atkinson hasn't seen Brighton in league competition since December. And it's been a few weeks since he's seen City (April 14th against Palace. Perhaps more importantly, Taylor had the City-Brighton FA Cup semifinal, which did have some controversy to it. EDIT... I suppose an alternative is to put Oliver on City and Taylor on Liverpool
You’re right. I forgot Taylor had BHA. I should have remembered that given I commented on how the top officials were on relegation battles last weekend. Atkinson probably makes more sense now on Brighton-City, but I can’t imagine that would make Taylor happy to be one of the UEFA Elite referees and not be on one of the title deciders. I’m guessing that Taylor gets Liverpool and Oliver gets City. I’m sure the FA will feel some pressure to have their Elite list referees on the championship matches.
Irrespective of whether or not it makes Taylor happy, I wouldn't get too caught up with UEFA and FIFA status when trying to figure out internal domestic rankings. Dean, Atkinson and maybe even Marriner are right there with Taylor in the FA's eyes. Just like in MLS, where guys not on the FIFA list have regularly been seen as higher ranked than officials who were active on it. Taylor and Oliver are in the upper echelon in England, but it's not a clear top two domestically just because they are the clear top two in Europe.
Regardless of what you think of his other dealings on the pitch, what can’t be disputed is that Mike Dean can move for an older guy. He had a few long runs in the first half of City-Leicester where he was right up with play. Very impressive.
Given the stakes, the point in the game, and the fact that Kompany is a central defender, that’s right up there with the most clutch goals I’ve ever seen. Ronaldo’s goal for Portugal against Spain is up there as well. I was hoping for a draw because I thought that would be the result to generate the most drama for Sunday, but I let out a yell on that goal. That was amazing.
It’s Oliver in Brighton. Atkinson in Liverpool. Atkinson feels like Liverpool’s house referee. He gets them quite often. Taylor is in Leicester for the Chelsea match. Also, these are noteworthy retirements—particularly Child. http://www.premierleague.com/news/1206165