A couple of interesting (at least to me) statistics I have dug out on Mr Riley. Games refereed by Mr Riley (including today's match) Arsenal 8W 9D 3L (20 games) (1.65 pt/gm) Man U 12W 3D 4L (19 games) (2.05 pt/gm) Penalty Kicks Given For/Against Arsenal 1 For 2 Against Man U 10 For 1 Against Let's look at it when Man U is home: Man U (at OT) 9W 0D 3L (2.25 pt/gm) Man U PKs (at OT) 8 For O Against I guess it's true that ManU never fouls anyone when they are at home.
Just saw the highlights (or more accurately, lowlights) on FSW. What a bunch of thugs ManU are. They could easily have picked up 2-3 times as many cards. RvN is a flat out dirty player. He should have been sent off on the spot for his cynical cleating of Ashley Cole's knee. And taking him out and shooting him is too kind for Riley. What a clueless idiot. But in the end, just another day in the EPL. And ManU fans wonder why everybody hates their team.
Along with that ref who changed his call when the Gunners argued it...how pathetic was that? Sorry Gunners you can't control ALL the refs some of them have to be controlled by ManU.
Its all well and good to blame the ref his mom the pitch or the weather!! But the bottom line is YOU LOST WE WON thats what it says in the books and thats all that matters and all the bitching and moaning in this thread and board aint gonna change the fact that THE STREAK IS OVER and MAN U ENDED IT!!!!!
Um. In case you missed it, Arsenal won the Fair Play award for the Premiership last season. Cough, cough . . . . .
Actually all that really matters at the end of the day is Arsenal lead ManU by 8 points and have only lost one EPL match, while ManU have only won 4 of ten in league so far this season. Come talk to me next time ManU goes 49 without losing.
How can you be so uninformed? Do the words "Fair Play Award" mean anything to you. Oh, that's right, it wouldn't since you're a snivelling dog ManU supporter. So now go back under your bridge, troll.
Do the words GOLF-FOXTROT-YANKEE mean anything to you? Probably not. Why don't we talk in May, you dirtball, 8 points down loser.
Shhh shut up yank. We beat you last year, we beat you this year, you've beaten us before. You aren't better than us on paper, lots of football left this year and who knows what happens come May. Stop crying.
What's that Shhhh there, you stammering from being the drunk fool that your post verifies? I'm not crying, I think an official that consistently shows bias should be OUT. Not only that, my team have a record 49 games without loss, how're your lot doing? I looked at the table and we are still at the top. Where are you? And I won't have a hangover in the morning.
You don't have shhing in Septic land? It's the reaction you make to noisy kids over here. How's my team doing? well not too bad. Won the FA cup last season (beat you lot doing it in fact ) and then the league the season before that. Had a bit of a rough start to this season picking up too many draws but we just beat your team yet again so our league position looks more healthy. Thanks for asking. You have a current record of 49 games without a loss? really? I thought you lost just recently too! Must have been quite a feat of stamina to play 49 games since this afternoon. Must have been a few dodgy penalties decisions along the way I bet Say hi to Pompey, Villa, Fulham, Saints and the rest you've mugged with your diving French clown brigade for me.
Moot points since Ljungberg's first touch was too strong and sent the ball straight to the keeper. Rio could've pulled his jersey over Freddie's head and it wouldn't have mattered - the ball was 15 yards down the field in Carroll's arms before Freddie hit the ground. If Freddie gets a good first touch, however, then I think it's a red card for denying a clear goal-scoring opportunity since he would've been 1v1 w/ the keeper from 24 yds out. So, yes the ref sucked today but he got that call right. Freddie made probably one mistake today and that was not having a good first touch. Otherwise he was exciting to watch...
FWIW - the opinion of a neutral referee observer: Bias: Anyone who claims Mike Riley is either biased or on the take is, frankly, kidding themselves. That is simply not a factor here. The Penalty: Whether or not you believe he had a good or bad game is open to interpretation. However, it is unreasonable to fault him on the Rooney penalty - without the benefit of multiple angles and slow-motion, realistically, there is no way that it was going to be caught regardless of the referee. I watched the game with around 20 Arsenal supporters (including 2 other referees) and not one was surprised at the penalty on first viewing. It's a crying shame, but that's football. Foul Detection: Leaving aside the penalty, pretty good. Unfortunately he and his assistants missed two very nasty fouls by RvN that he should have caught (the missed legbreaker on Cole and treading on Lehmann's achilles) - these would be my only two real complaints on that front. Match Control: it is a matter of preference. There is no denying that he approached the game with a 'hands off' attitude, however he broke no laws in doing so. How much control a match needs is very much a matter of opinion. I freely admit that in his place I would have been more hardline, and I would have issued several earlier cautions. He didn't do this, but that's also fine - I disagree, but that's his personal style, and there was no compulsion for him to do so. He's a Premiership referee and so his opinion on refereeing style is probably more valuble than mine anyway. All in all, I think he had a pretty reasonable game. Not great, but definitely not as awful as people are making out. Certainly he did not lose the game for Arsenal. Unfortunately, this was a game where nothing other than perfection from the referee would be accepted.
of course we're making it out to sound worse that it was but it was awful reffing to begin with. we're bound to be pissed and that's why we're posting on our own forum but the stats about riley and manure in the past speak for themselves. the FA definitely could've picked someone better than him for such a huge game but, go figure... these are, after all, the ppl who let rio off with 8-months, becks scot frickin free and now mutu with just 6 months... good lord, what is the world coming to...
Did they? Was it irony day in England? If they are so good sportsmanlike then why did Wenger have to have a special meeting with his players and the media to try to change the perception of the team who historically has lots of red cards?
Statistics are worthless in situations like this. Dig out some tapes of Riley's ManU matches and watch them - objectively, there's not much to criticise about them. The oft-mentioned 8 penalties awarded to United are almost uniformly pretty straightforward and innocuous decisions (or at least, as innocuous as penalties ever get).
What I say is worthless so i thought I'd delete it and go back to sucking milk through rubber teat's.... UMMMMMmm lovely warm milk. Now where's that parental control button...........
What I say is worthless so i thought I'd delete it and go back to sucking milk through rubber teat's.... UMMMMMmm lovely warm milk. Now where's that parental control button...........