With two bookings late in the 2nd half and nothing else happening, Referee [Lee] Mason appears to have come out unscathed. Was the 2-footed from the air challenge-and-win ball of Red's Johnson in added time worthy of discussion?
Haven't seen the tackle but noticed there is uproar on Twitter from all fans complaining that Johnson's tackle was worst than Kompany's and the usual inconsistency arguments etc Respected journalist And from the Official Man City twitter
I agree that the defender's body position in this one is worse than Kompany's. However, in defense of the defender, his angle is more across the attacker than through him. Bottom line, I think this one is worse.
While I just kinda sped through the game on DVR I am surprised that, in addition to Johnson receiving what can only be described as philanthropy by Lee Mason, Gerrard also managed to escape caution (I know, I know, he's THE Stephen-freaking-Gerrard). He had two tackles in the last 10 mins of the 1st half - the second was basically a body check just outside the 18 - that alone IMHO should have merited a caution. The Nasri/Carragher confrontation, IMHO, happened and was over too quickly to do anything other than matching cautions, but I'm not sure Carragher's was deserved (maybe he got an elbow in? can't tell), but Nasri was just being a tool. All that said, since they didn't go to pistols at one pace I'm probably wrong and Lee Mason did a bang-up job. (shrug)