Reffin' Hell
Home Tables Player Pool Who's Injured
How Things Would Be If The Refs Got It Right.
The Effect
Teams that have profited from ref errors
Teams that have suffered from ref errors
And as far as the Driftaway teams are concerned
Week 38
Nothing of note once more, and I am forced to the conclusion that VAR
has actually improved matters, now that the whistlers have finally
figured out how to use it. All they need to do now is figure out
how to use it quickly.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/: Callum 'Sergeant' Wilson :/: Andros
Townsend :/: Demarai Gray :/: James ShiteHawk Maddison :/: Tomas
Soucek :/: Ryan Fraser :/: Lewis Dobbin :/: Dele Alli :/: Will Hughes
:/: Trezeguet :/: Rashica :/: Sadio Mane :/: Anthony Gordon :/: Conor Gallagher :/: Yerry Mina
Week 37
Spotted nothing this week, although I wasn't looking too closely.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/: Callum 'Sergeant' Wilson :/: Andros
Townsend :/: Demarai Gray :/: James ShiteHawk Maddison :/: Tomas
Soucek :/: Ryan Fraser :/: Lewis Dobbin :/: Dele Alli :/: Will Hughes
:/: Trezeguet :/: Rashica :/: Sadio Mane :/: Anthony Gordon :/: Conor Gallagher :/: Yerry Mina
Week 36
Again, little to complain about, but
Michael Oliver and his VAR
Darren
England should surely have booked Romero for his horrible hack-down of
Scouser Henderson. And there was a result changer, at least if you
believe that a two handed shove in an opponent's back is a foul.
This is what Zaha did to Watford's Kamara, causing his arms to fly up
and contact the ball, which was then adjudged a handball and worthy of a
penalty. I'm assuming both Whistler Graham Scott, and VAR
Kevin
Friend saw the same as everyone else watching the replay, but decided
the shove was innocent. In which case they should explain in what
circumstances a double handed shove in the back is not a foul. I'm
sure we'd all like to know.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/: Callum 'Sergeant' Wilson :/: Andros
Townsend :/: Demarai Gray :/: James ShiteHawk Maddison :/: Tomas
Soucek :/: Ryan Fraser :/: Lewis Dobbin :/: Dele Alli :/: Will Hughes
:/: Trezeguet :/: Rashica :/: Sadio Mane :/: Anthony Gordon :/: Conor Gallagher :/: Yerry Mina
Week 35
No result changers, but Mike Dean's booking of Hammer Bowen for
evading a hurtling Ramsdale was laughable, and since merely attempting
to hack down an opponent in a reckless manner is an offence, Ramsdale
was lucky that Dean's eyesight is so terrible.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/: Callum 'Sergeant' Wilson :/: Andros
Townsend :/: Demarai Gray :/: James ShiteHawk Maddison :/: Tomas
Soucek :/: Ryan Fraser :/: Lewis Dobbin :/: Dele Alli :/: Will Hughes
:/: Trezeguet :/: Rashica :/: Sadio Mane :/: Anthony Gordon :/: Conor Gallagher :/: Yerry Mina
Week 34
Still no real dramas here. The MIB seem to be getting to grips with VAR,
although when matters are complicated by two things happening
simultaneously (Nketiah offside goal while Saka was being fouled) it
still takes ages to reach a decision, in this case four and a half
minutes. During this time, the only people who knew what was
happening were the officials - the fans were, as usual, kept completely
in the dark.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/: Callum 'Sergeant' Wilson :/: Andros
Townsend :/: Demarai Gray :/: James ShiteHawk Maddison :/: Tomas
Soucek :/: Ryan Fraser :/: Lewis Dobbin :/: Dele Alli :/: Will Hughes
:/: Trezeguet :/: Rashica :/: Sadio Mane :/: Anthony Gordon :/:
Week 33
Only six matches, and nothing to get excited about.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/: Callum 'Sergeant' Wilson :/: Andros
Townsend :/: Demarai Gray :/: James ShiteHawk Maddison :/: Tomas
Soucek :/: Ryan Fraser :/: Lewis Dobbin :/: Dele Alli :/: Will Hughes
:/: Trezeguet :/: Rashica :/: Sadio Mane :/:
Week 32
Several controversies from this week's play, but nothing that condemns
any of the MIB. Are they getting better? Will this section become
redundant? I doubt it, but we'll have to wait to find out.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/: Callum 'Sergeant' Wilson :/: Andros
Townsend :/: Demarai Gray :/: James ShiteHawk Maddison :/: Tomas
Soucek :/: Ryan Fraser :/: Lewis Dobbin :/: Dele Alli :/: Will Hughes
:/: Trezeguet :/: Rashica :/: Sadio Mane :/:
Week 31
Minor niggles only, by and large a good week for the MIB, though both
McTominay and Cresswell were lucky to escape red cards.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/: Callum 'Sergeant' Wilson :/: Andros
Townsend :/: Demarai Gray :/: James ShiteHawk Maddison :/: Tomas
Soucek :/: Ryan Fraser :/: Lewis Dobbin :/: Dele Alli :/: Will Hughes
:/: Trezeguet :/: Rashica :/: Sadio Mane :/:
Week 30
Not enough to get the teeth into this week, so the MIB can relax.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/: Callum 'Sergeant' Wilson :/: Andros
Townsend :/: Demarai Gray :/: James ShiteHawk Maddison :/: Tomas
Soucek :/: Ryan Fraser :/: Lewis Dobbin :/: Dele Alli :/: Will Hughes
:/: Trezeguet :/: Rashica :/: Sadio Mane :/:
Week 29
A quite staggering decision by Mike Reid and his VAR
Stuart Atwell this
week, as Brighton's keeper Sanchez launched himself - a la Schumacher on
Battiston - at Liverpool's Dias as he headed the ball goalwards. I kid
you not when I say if you did that in a rugby match you'd be penalised,
red-carded, and probably banned for some weeks. In Premiership
football, however, it appears to be perfectly legal, as there was no
sanction administered, not even a yellow card. This is so utterly
pathetic in terms of professional competence that it strays into the
world of the Rabbit Hole, or the Twilight Zone. Both these
officials should be made to publicly explain their analysis of the
situation, before being stripped of their whistles and watches and
drummed out of the Referees Regiment. And at Stamford Bridge
David
Coote and VAR John Brookes
were apparently unable to see what everyone
else in the world could see clearly - that Chelsea's Chalobah
repeatedly hauled away at the shirt of Murphy, eventually wrestling
him to the ground. Neither official saw anything wrong with this and
declined to award the deserved penalty. Shameful.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/: Callum 'Sergeant' Wilson :/: Andros
Townsend :/: Demarai Gray :/: James ShiteHawk Maddison :/: Tomas
Soucek :/: Ryan Fraser :/: Lewis Dobbin :/: Dele Alli :/: Will Hughes
:/: Trezeguet :/: Rashica :/:
Week 28
I'm sure there were atrocious injustices, referees falling asleep on the
pitch and Linos trousering vast wodges of folding stuff, but I confess I
have no evidence of any of it. Just haven't had time to ferret out
the Black Hats, I'm afraid. But I've polished up my magnifying
glass and next week I'm back on the case, kicking bottom.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/: Callum 'Sergeant' Wilson :/: Andros
Townsend :/: Demarai Gray :/: James ShiteHawk Maddison :/: Tomas
Soucek :/: Ryan Fraser :/: Lewis Dobbin :/: Dele Alli :/: Will Hughes
:/: Trezeguet
Week 27
Paul Tierney and
Chris Kavanagh combined in a delightful knockabout
comedy reminiscent of Abbott and Costello to deny Everton a penalty for
a blatant Rodri handball and hand Man City a win they didn't deserve.
I was beginning to regret my previous characterisation of our Officials
as entirely short-sighted, thick-skinned, blind to reason and
incompetent, because they have, with the assistance of VAR, started to
get most decisions right. The performance of the above named pair
here just makes the vast expense and manpower resources dedicated to
implementing VAR an utter joke. Their attitude seems to be "We've
had a look at it, and we, the guys responsible for making the decision,
are the only two people in the country who don't see what everyone else
does. And we're not explaining it, and we don't give a shit."
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/: Callum 'Sergeant' Wilson :/: Andros
Townsend :/: Demarai Gray :/: James ShiteHawk Maddison :/: Tomas
Soucek :/: Ryan Fraser :/: Lewis Dobbin :/: Dele Alli :/: Will Hughes
:/: Trezeguet
Week 25
Nothing too dastardly this week, just a little bit of muttley here and
there.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/: Callum 'Sergeant' Wilson :/: Andros
Townsend :/: Demarai Gray :/: James ShiteHawk Maddison :/: Tomas
Soucek :/: Ryan Fraser :/: Lewis Dobbin :/: Dele Alli :/: Will Hughes
:/: Trezeguet
Week 24
Not a result changer, but fairly blatant, Spuddy Royal's aerial foul on
Southampton's Broja was completely ignored by referee
Coote and VAR John
Brooks, allowing Spuds to retain possession and score about 15 seconds
later. Shoulda been 1 - 3.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/: Callum 'Sergeant' Wilson :/: Andros
Townsend :/: Demarai Gray :/: James ShiteHawk Maddison :/: Tomas
Soucek :/: Ryan Fraser :/: Lewis Dobbin :/: Dele Alli :/: Will Hughes
:/: Trezeguet
Week 23
OK, it's at least semi-official. Presented with the video of Koch
(Leeds) kicking over Saint-Maximin in the penalty area, yet escaping any
sanction from referee Kavanagh
and VAR Friend, the conclusion of the MOTD pundit was "I've given up trying to
explain these. The video is clear, it should be a penalty." So
(some) refereeing decisions are now inexplicable. This would only
have changed the result from a 1-0 to Newcastle to a 2-0, but their
position is precarious, so every goal may count in the final reckoning.
Worse was the performance of the officials -
Kevin Friend (again) and VAR
Craig
Pawson - at Palace v Liverpool. Oxlade-Chamberlain's goal,
Liverpool's second, was a direct result of Firmino, in an offside
position, challenging for the cross from Robertson, and thereby
affecting the movement of Tyrick Mitchell, who had to mark him. He
didn't play the ball, so was deemed not offside by VAR, despite the very
clear definition of what constitutes offside in the Laws of the game -
i.e "Clearly attempting to play a ball which is close when this action
impacts on an opponent." Pretty shabby reading of the rules there,
but worse was to follow. Jota ran into the Palace area chasing a
ball which was heading out of play. Guaita came out to challenge,
and Jota clearly changed direction to engineer a collision. Despite not
originally giving a penalty (correct) Friend was directed to the monitor
by Pawson where he could see that he had been right. However, for
whatever reason, he then changed his mind and gave the penalty. In
total these decisions gave Liverpool two points they didn't deserve.
Unlikely to be significant, I know, but if they pip City to the title by
one point, they can thank Pawson and Friend.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/: Callum 'Sergeant' Wilson :/: Andros
Townsend :/: Demarai Gray :/: James ShiteHawk Maddison :/: Tomas
Soucek :/: Ryan Fraser :/: Lewis Dobbin :/: Dele Alli :/: Will Hughes
:/: Trezeguet
Week 22
Nothing to report this time, largely due to time constraints and the
fractured fixture list. But you may like to know the result of the
FA charge against Arsenal for failing to control their players in the
match against Man City. I predicted a piffling fine, and so it has
proved, the FA demanding £20K from the Arse coffers, or about one third
of what they pay Gabriel (whose utterly stupid red card precipitated the
fracas) per match. Is this supposed to be a deterrent?
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/: Callum 'Sergeant' Wilson :/: Andros
Townsend :/: Demarai Gray :/: James ShiteHawk Maddison :/: Tomas
Soucek :/: Ryan Fraser :/: Lewis Dobbin :/: Dele Alli :/: Will Hughes
:/: Trezeguet
Week 21
No major problems, but I would pedantically draw your attention to Law
12 of the FA rule book, which states "a player must (my
emphasis) be cautioned for unsporting behaviour if he attempts to
deceive the referee e.g. by feigning injury or pretending to have been
fouled." Now take a look at Villa's Trezeguet, racing into the
Brentford penalty area and dramatically collapsing as if taken out by a
sniper. Now have another look, and see if you can spot where he
received the head wound that caused him to clutch his face like a
Dowager Duchess clutching her handbag. No, I thought not.
Now figure out why this does not constitute a clear and obvious error by
referee Pawson, since the booking is mandatory, and why VAR Oliver
didn't spot it either. Tricky, innit?
To swap sides and align
with the officials for a change, the Arsenal match saw the worst mobbing
of a referee since Keane, Stam, Scholes, Giggs and Beckham pursued
Andy D'Urso half the length of the pitch, out of the stadium and down
the High Street, finally cornering him next to the Pensioners' Portions
in 'Cod Only Knows.' I understand that the club has been charged
with 'failing to control their players,' for which the sanction will be
a piffling fine, but where's the sanction for the people who actually
committed the crime, the mob of snarling, shouting dissenters who should
all have been booked. Participants in such events should be out of the
game for a minimum of four matches, and without pay. They'd soon
stop doing it.
And a new low in gamesmanship in the same
match, as Xhaka yanked hard on Bernardo Silva's shirt with one hand,
while simultaneously making the universal 'no foul' wave with the
other.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/: Callum 'Sergeant' Wilson :/: Andros
Townsend :/: Demarai Gray :/: James ShiteHawk Maddison :/: Tomas
Soucek :/: Ryan Fraser :/: Lewis Dobbin :/: Dele Alli :/: Will Hughes
:/: Trezeguet
Week 20
Nothing major, once again, but I'm getting a bit fed up with ex-refs,
commentators and pundits excusing the VAR his mistakes by saying it
wasn't a "clear and obvious" error. If it needs to be such a clear
and obvious error for the VAR to overrule the onfield ref, maybe we
don't need such an elaborate, manpower and technology intensive system
after all. I thought the whole point of the VAR was to rule on
marginal decisions where the onfield officials had been unsighted or
misled by divers or having to deal with multiple incidents
simultaneously. If VAR refuses to overrule even when it is
apparent that the referee was not in possession of all the pertinent
information, there is no need to have him. And another thing -
linesmen who see an offside but don't flag until the play develops are
forcing defenders to commit themselves to dealing with a threat that is
irrelevant. What do they say to a full back who ruptures a
cruciate making a last ditch tackle on a bloke who was offside 15
seconds earlier and would have been penalised eventually? How about a
centre back who sustains a concussion dealing with a cross from a player
who is subsequently ruled offside? I sense there may soon be such
an incident, in which case, don't rule out the involvement of m'learned
friends.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/: Callum 'Sergeant' Wilson :/: Andros
Townsend :/: Demarai Gray :/: James ShiteHawk Maddison :/: Tomas
Soucek :/: Ryan Fraser :/: Lewis Dobbin :/: Dele Alli :/: Will Hughes
:/:
Week 19
Shortage of time has led me to skip over the usual forensic analysis,
but what I managed to watch didn't reveal any major slips. Good job
by Jon Moss at
Spuds, though, sending off Zaha. This must be classed as one of
the dumbest red cards in PL history, having been booked, the googly
eyed one used a double hand shove to push Davinson Sanchez to the ground.
See the Squirrel for an interesting bit of background info.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/: Callum 'Sergeant' Wilson :/: Andros
Townsend :/: Demarai Gray :/: James ShiteHawk Maddison :/: Tomas
Soucek :/: Ryan Fraser :/: Lewis Dobbin :/: Dele Alli :/:
Week 18
No
Some serious shortcomings from Paul Tierney and his VAR
Chris Kavanagh
at Tottenham. Kane should most certainly have been red-carded for
his ankle-snapper tackle on Robertson, but escaped with a yellow.
With Kavanagh keen to get involved later, when Robertson was the
perpetrator, and instrumental in getting
Tierney to change the card from
yellow to red, Klopp is justified in asking "where was VAR for the Kane
tackle?" Asleep, it seems. As he was when Tierney denied
Liverpool a penalty for a foul by Royal on Jota. This was
apparently justified later by Tierney blaming Jota for slowing his run
as he prepared to shoot, which is, to my knowledge, the first time a
bloke who has been shoved over has been deemed responsible. Sheer
farce.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/: Callum 'Sergeant' Wilson :/: Andros
Townsend :/: Demarai Gray :/: James ShiteHawk Maddison :/: Tomas
Soucek :/: Ryan Fraser :/: Lewis Dobbin :/: Dele Alli :/:
Week 17
No ghastly cock-ups in the seven matches that happened, though there
were shockingly bad dives from Whammer Soucek, Tooner Fraser, and some
geezer called Dobbin who cheats for Everton. I reckon the diving brigade
have figured out that , despite the multitude of cameras, a lot of the
officials are half-wits, so they might as well take a shot and hope.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/: Callum 'Sergeant' Wilson :/: Andros
Townsend :/: Demarai Gray :/: James ShiteHawk Maddison :/: Tomas
Soucek :/: Ryan Fraser :/: Lewis Dobbin :/:
Week 16
Peter Bankes and VAR
Paul Tierney were conned by the diving ShiteHawk
Maddison at Leicester, and I venture to suggest that with all the camera
views available to the officials, Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder would
have done a better officiating job. It's incidents like this that
illustrate why FIFA is so reluctant to pick British referees for their
World Cup games. Obvious cheating, evidenced by copious video
footage of a player flying through the air BEFORE making contact with
the defender, yet the penalty is both awarded and confirmed. Of
course, there may be a simple explanation for this, which is that their
combined brainpower, converted to dynamite, would be insufficient to
blow their hats off.
That one didn't change the result, but one
that did occurred at the Etihad, where both
Jon Moss and VAR
Andre
Marriner concluded that Moutinho had handled the ball, when everyone
else in the country clearly saw the ball hit his armpit. The penalty
settled the match, so don't be expecting that call from the FIFA
referees panel chaps.
Below is Texas Tom's RANT about the Godfrey/Tomiyasu/Mike Dean incident from Week 15.
I didn't spot it then, so here is the full explanation.
I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that in reffin' hell last week,
you failed to call out Mike
'nothing wrong with treading on someone's
face with your studs, despite VAR drawing your attention to your frankly
baffling, clear and obvious error'
Dean. If it was an accident, I'm
pretty certain most people with even a small amount of compassion and
class, would immediately turn and apologise. Not Godfrey, who just
shrugged and ran off.
Godfrey should have already been booked
by then, at least once, for clattering Tomiyasu and then Saka in the
first 25 mins. The Everton fans showing their class, by booing
Saka as he gingerly got to his feet after a couple of minutes of physio
treatment, presumably wishing he would have been more seriously injured.
The smug, idiot (official new Drifty
Nickname) Dean, has of course, refereed two Arsenal games this
season. The other one, you might remember vs Palace, when he thought
McArthur taking a run up and punting Saka's standing leg, like a 60 yard
field goal attempt; square in the back of his calf, sending him
cartwheeling through the air before crumpling in a heap on the floor and
forcing him off injured, was not excessive force???
Honestly, short of murder, I don't know what would have to happen to an
Arsenal player for Dean to pull a red out. Anyway, he is off my
Christmas card list.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/: Callum 'Sergeant' Wilson :/: Andros
Townsend :/: Demarai Gray :/: James ShiteHawk Maddison :/:
Week 15
No shocking cock-ups, but at Watford both Referee
Simon Hooper and VAR
John Brooks(?) missed Rodri kicking over Dennis in the area.
Shoulda been 2 - 3.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/: Callum 'Sergeant' Wilson :/: Andros
Townsend :/: Demarai Gray :/:
Week 14
Again, there are no result changers, but
Mike Dean and VAR
Kevin Friend should have spotted the foul by
Ashley Young on Zinchenko before Villa's goal. Take a leaf outta
Paul Tierney's
book, chaps, he spotted two divers in the Liverpool derby, Townsend
and Gray, and booked them both. Well done!
CHEAT'S CORNER
Everton's Townsend and Gray are both slotted by Paul Tierney for
flinging themselves about unnecessarily, and a good job too.
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/: Callum 'Sergeant' Wilson :/: Andros
Townsend :/: Demarai Gray :/:
Week 13
No result changers, just a failure by Referee
Stuart 'Bamboozled' Atwell
and his VAR Darren England to spot that Lacelles' charge into Martinelli
included a hefty shoulder to the head. I find myself again reaching for
the comparison with rugby, in which Lascelles deliberate 'contact to the
the head' challenge would rate both a penalty kick and a red card. But
such is the 'eyes wide shut' tolerance for deliberate and dangerous foul
play, that it appears the FA & Premier League are waiting for someone to
be permanently disabled, or worse, before they'll do anything to stamp
it out.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Newcastles' Sergeant Wilson
joins the Corner with a very late tumble in the area, following a hard
glance from Arsenal's Tavares.
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/: Callum 'Sergeant' Wilson :/:
Week 12
No result changers
again, but Palace's Andersen surely had to see red for his foul on
Burnley's Wood? No? Well, that's what referee Simon Hooper and VAR
Graham Scott thought too, for some very obscure reason.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/:
Week 11
No result changers, just a few talking points about Reffing consistency
that appear to have been elevated into major problems to compensate for
the lack of real cock-ups. Not worth discussing.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/:
Week 10
Again no result changers, but what was the difference between Evans'
foul on Aubameyang - yellow card from Michael Oliver - and Laporte's
foul on Zaha - red card from Andre Marriner. There would appear to be no
substantive difference between the two, so why the different penalties?
I'm not arguing that Laporte should have stayed on, I reckon Marriner
got it right, but Oliver's decision, presumably in consultation with the
VAR, defies common sense.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/:
Week 09
No result changers, but one curious error. Brighton were awarded a
penalty for Ederson's foul on Mwepu. No problem there, but
Kevin
Friend and his Pals did not spot that Mwepu was a yard offside when the
ball was played through to him. Come to that, neither did the
pundits/commentators. Or have I missed something? Elsewhere,
Wolfie Saiss committed the same foul on Raphinha that the Pog did on
Keita, but escaped with a yellow card from
Robert Jones, and Ronaldo was
a fag paper away from a red card for trying to kick Curtis Jones into
the stand.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/:
Week 08
Nothing to complain about this week, except the amazing indulgence shown
by Mike Dean
to Palace's McArthur for his horrible, and to my eyes, deliberate hack
at Bukayo Saka's leg. It was not mistimed, he did not "slip,"
it was a deliberate assault which, if perpetrated in the street would
lead to criminal charges. The man is a thug.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/:
Week 07
If a player goes into to try and win the ball from an opponent, but gets
there fractionally too late and kicks the player instead of the ball, it
will be treated as a foul and the necessary disciplinary process will be
followed. If a goalkeeper, in this case Tim Krul, leaps to try and win
the ball in the air, but gets there fractionally too late and punches
the opponent's head (Vydra) instead of the ball,
Mr Friend will wave
play on with an insouciant shrug of his shoulders. Wherein lies the
difference, Mr Friend? Explain yourself.
And would
Paul Tierney
like to explain the difference between Milner's tackle on Bernardo Silva,
which did not warrant a booking (Milner was already in the book), and
that of Fabinho, which did attract a card? They looked pretty
bloody similar to me. And will someone explain how far back in the
match the VAR will look to find a reason to disallow a goal? Werner
slotted home against Southampton only for VAR to rule it out for a foul
committed 17 (seventeen) seconds before and not spotted by
Son of Ron or
his Ronettes. Where the f'k they were looking at the time is a mystery
akin to the whereabouts of Shergar and Lord Lucan - we have no clues and
we're never gonna get any.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/:
Week 06
Some questionable incidents, for sure, but by and large the MIB and VAR
got it right. Except for Ben White's clog on The HarryKane, missed
by Craig Pawson and
his Pawlettes, which
should have been a penalty. Wouldn't have changed the result, but
even if it is a foul against Spurs, let's try to play fair, eh?
CHEAT'S CORNER
Double bubble for Cristiano, who has wasted little time getting back
into the swing of Premier League acrobatics. And he is joined by
Newcastle's Almiron, who was actually booked for diving - well done
Mike Dean.
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/:
Week 05
Normal service is resumed, to a certain degree, as controversy once
again stalks the Premier League grounds. At Anfield,
Andy Madley
failed to spot Tsimikas bringing down Benteke, and so did the other
four officials and all the VAR bodies. At the London Stadium,
Son of
Ron watched Wan-Bissaka bring down Soucek in the area, then penalised
the Hammer. As far as I could tell, this decision, although 'clearly
wrong' was not reviewed. You'd think this might alter the result of
the game, wouldn't you, but Son of Ron came good with an equalising
cock-up when Zouma brought down Ronaldo. The Great Man had already
tripped over a defender and crashed to the turf, waving his arms and
shouting "Wolf, wolf!" Shortly after that he pushed the ball past
another defender then ran straight into him and plummeted, shouting
"Wolf WOLF!" So when he was neatly upended by Zouma,
Son of Ron
just looked at him and said "Still no Wolves here, Cristiano." A
cock-up that did change the result of the match was perpetrated at the
Etihad, by Jon Moss. Having spotted Kylie Walker crashing into
Adam Armstrong, he blew the whistle, awarded a penalty and produced
his red card. He was then asked by the VAR to check the monitor, which
he did, swiftly reversing himself, blanking the penalty and putting
the red card away. So having had two goes at getting it right, he'd
still failed to see the correct course of action would have been to
award the penalty and book Walker. The TV pundits and ex-players
all saw it, though.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Double bubble for Cristiano, who has wasted little time getting back
into the swing of Premier League acrobatics. And he is joined by
Newcastle's Almiron, who was actually booked for diving - well done
Mike Dean.
Richarlison :/: Cristiano Ronaldo :/: Cristiano
Ronaldo(2) :/: Miguel Almiron :/:
Week 04
This is getting serious, still no major cock-ups evident from the
footage I've seen. I will admit I haven't been quite as diligent
in tracking down potential reffing bloopers as I would like, due to
shortage of time, but it irks me that they're all suddenly doing their
job properly.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison :/:
Week 03
Another blank week for me, I couldn't find any serious faults with the
penalties, free kicks and bookings and red card decisions, so maybe -
whisper it - VAR is starting to work the way it was supposed to.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison :/:
Week 02
I'm starting to wonder if this section of the report might be edging
toward redundancy. The officials now seem so determined not to
penalise anyone, that I'll have to do a complete about face and start
berating them for not booking players and allowing goals to stand.
That said, Michael Oliver, having
reviewed the VAR footage of Ayoze Perez's "tackle" on Fornals, had to
endure an Andy D'Urso tsunami of whingeing Leicester players, who
apparently thought the high speed ankle-stamping was mild enough for the
git to stay on the pitch. Watch their opinions change when it's
THEIR ankles being ground into powder.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison :/:
Week 01
Such was the calumny and opprobrium heaped upon the MIB last season -
justifiably, most of the time - that they had a meeting. Judging by
their performances in the first set of fixtures, it seems that they've
decided to ignore almost all fouls, unless someone suffers a broken
bone, in the interests of "letting the game flow." This also
allows a hulking centre back to advance into the opponents' penalty area
at a corner, clamp the goalkeepers arms beneath his own and prevent him
from even trying to reach the ball as it flies into the area. Well
done Brentford, for testing the limits so early, but I don't think the
Sergeant Schultz approach ("I see nussing!") is gonna cut the mustard
for very long. On the plus side, no niggly 2 cm toenail offside
decisions, no goals chalked off for a fairy like contact 50 yards
earlier in the play, and no interminable delays while some oik manouvres
piddly little lines around on a monitor. So, altogether, progress.
Keep it up.
CHEAT'S CORNER
Richarlison was booked for a graceless dive, and becomes the first of
the 2021-22 season Arseholes.
Richarlison :/: