Premier League 2023/24

[stokeriño]

Absolute nonsense game of Chelsea's own making. The indiscipline in our squad is crazy and we seem to give away a dozen stupid yellows (and subsequent red) in every match.

Somehow came out of it with three points, but pffffffft.

[Lineker]

"The Harry Kane team" strikes again.

Nevermind, back to square one boys!

[The Lusophone]

Son really does score when he wants.

[Lineker]

GIOOOOOOO

[DavidMarrio]

I think Simon Hooper may be a Spurs fan

[Baddar]

I would be absolutely livid if that was a ball through to Hojlund at the Etihad with a chance to pull it back to 6-1.

[The Lusophone]

The referee has played that correctly. He's under no obligation to let Grealish run through, especially if he thinks he's offside or if he sees that there are three players around him, which there are. At that point, there is no advantage gained by playing on and he has to bring it back.

It's good refereeing that everyone will call a mistake because they want to see a last gasp winner.

[FLiam]

With all due respect - I think that’s a genuinely shocking decision to blow the whistle so early. He played advantage and then blew the whistle probably no more than a second later, that’s not how you call advantage. 

But, it was City - so, lol.

[Benjamin]

That was absolutely shocking refereeing. 

[Gazz]

14 hours ago, FestiveJack said:

The referee has played that correctly. He's under no obligation to let Grealish run through, especially if he thinks he's offside or if he sees that there are three players around him, which there are. At that point, there is no advantage gained by playing on and he has to bring it back.

It's good refereeing that everyone will call a mistake because they want to see a last gasp winner.

Surely if he's playing advantage though, he should wait to see if there is an advantage? If Grealish gets the first touch on the pass, play on. If a Spurs defender gets the touch, whistle, pull it back and give the free kick. If Grealish gets the first touch, scores, and is then VAR checked offside, free kick to Spurs.

[Colly]

It's an absolute stinker. I could understand if he blew up immediately before Haaland gets back up, bit to wait until he's played the ball is shocking. The potential offside is a complete red herring too, under the current guidance the liner wouldn't even have flagged as it was that tight. Ask any Man City player, coach or fan if they'd rather have a free kick in their own half or Grealish through on goal and you wouldn't find one who picked the former.

[DavidMarrio]

The only thing I can think of is that Hooper for some reason cannot see Grealish and just sees three Spurs players. But then why would Haaland kick the ball to that area after getting back to his feet. 

Its a stinker for me. 

[The Lusophone]

1 hour ago, Gazz said:

Surely if he's playing advantage though, he should wait to see if there is an advantage? If Grealish gets the first touch on the pass, play on. If a Spurs defender gets the touch, whistle, pull it back and give the free kick. If Grealish gets the first touch, scores, and is then VAR checked offside, free kick to Spurs.

If he sees three Spurs players around Grealish he's well within his rights to decide there is no advantage and bring it back. The only 'mistake' he makes is hesitating - he initially goes to blow his whistle, then indicates advantage, then whistles.

That's a relatively small mistake compared to say... Erling Haaland missing an open goal to put Man City 2-1 up, which has ultimately cost them victory. City fans and players won't examine that though, because they can blame the ref for not playing on.

1 hour ago, Colly said:

Ask any Man City player, coach or fan if they'd rather have a free kick in their own half or Grealish through on goal and you wouldn't find one who picked the former.

Right but what they want doesn't really matter. They got what they were allowed under the rules - ref doesn't have to play advantage at all, ever. And rather than deal with that, take the free kick and play on, you get most of Man City's team surrounding the ref that if any other team did it, they'd be charged and fined.

[Lineker]

Quote

Sheffield United are set to sack Paul Heckingbottom and turn to former manager Chris Wilder in a desperate attempt to revive their ailing Premier League campaign.

United sit bottom of the table having won just once this season and slumped to an embarrassing 5-0 defeat at Burnley at the weekend. The Blades have also conceded a league-high 39 goals in 14 league games.

Heckingbottom has done an impressive job in the face of adversity at Bramall Lane. He led United to promotion from the Championship last season despite numerous off-field issues. The 46-year-old also had to absorb the sudden departure of prized assets Iliman Ndiaye, last season’s talisman, to Marseille, and Sander Berge, who joined Burnley on the eve of the new campaign.

After the loss at Burnley, Heckingbottom, whose side went down to 10 men after Oli McBurnie was sent off for two bookable offences, blamed United for “making financial decisions rather than football decisions”. Alluding to last month’s 3-1 defeat to Bournemouth, he said: “You go through the last four windows and we’ve been cutting the wage bill, transfer embargoes, selling the best assets, and they’ve spent £200m.”

Wilder would return to United, his boyhood club, with a point to prove. He earned hero status after leading the Blades into the Premier League in 2019 but left by mutual consent following a decline in performances and results in 2021. He was sacked by Watford at the end of last season after failing to spark a promotion push following a difficult reign at Middlesbrough and pulled out of talks to take over at beleaguered third-tier Reading in the summer.

Heckingbottom’s departure from Bramall Lane would represent the first Premier League managerial sacking of the season. By this point last year, five managers had been removed from their posts: Scott Parker (Bournemouth), Thomas Tuchel (Chelsea), Bruno Lage (Wolves), Steven Gerrard (Aston Villa) and Ralph Hasenhüttl (Southampton).

 

[The Lusophone]

I don't get why you'd turn to Wilder, given his pretty terrible record in the Championship since he left Sheffield United the first time. Reeks of either running out of ideas or hope (or both) to try and survive this season.

[Colly]

13 minutes ago, FestiveJack said:

If he sees three Spurs players around Grealish he's well within his rights to decide there is no advantage and bring it back. The only 'mistake' he makes is hesitating - he initially goes to blow his whistle, then indicates advantage, then whistles.

That's a relatively small mistake compared to say... Erling Haaland missing an open goal to put Man City 2-1 up, which has ultimately cost them victory. City fans and players won't examine that though, because they can blame the ref for not playing on.

Right but what they want doesn't really matter. They got what they were allowed under the rules - ref doesn't have to play advantage at all, ever. And rather than deal with that, take the free kick and play on, you get most of Man City's team surrounding the ref that if any other team did it, they'd be charged and fined.

So let's put aside two bits

1. Yes Haaland should score

2. Yes, Man City shouldn't surround the ref. Haaland was booked, who knows whether they'll be charged further, but it often doesn't happen.

But the bolded bit is a nonsense. The ref is able to play advantage for a reasonable amount of time before calling it back, the whole point of the law is to allow time for play to develop and for the ref to still be able to bring it back. Haaland is back up, so there's no danger of injury or a potential red card, so there's no reason at all for the ref to rush his decision, and especially not to guess that Grealish isn't getting it. The ref doesn't have to play advantage ever, but it's in the laws of the game so it'd be a pretty big statement to just ignore it.

Hell, half the time the argument is the other way, where refs play advantage after a foul on the edge of the box, to rush a free kick decision in that position is just silly. I don't think there's any corruption involved, I just think it's a very poor decision which he apologises for immediately afterwards.

[Cymbols]

Football’s handling of advantages are shit in general. Not calling for it to go to the extreme of rugby, but they 100% should last a little longer in general. 

[Bobfoc]

1 hour ago, FestiveJack said:

I don't get why you'd turn to Wilder, given his pretty terrible record in the Championship since he left Sheffield United the first time. Reeks of either running out of ideas or hope (or both) to try and survive this season.

"He knows the club, knows the fans, knows the ground, knows the kit man!", etc.

[The Lusophone]

5 minutes ago, Bobfoc said:

"He knows the club, knows the fans, knows the ground, knows the kit man!", etc.

According to Sheffield United's (Saudi prince) owner, he's improved as a manager since he left Sheffield United.

I must've missed that when he was fumbling the bag at Middlesbrough and getting relegation form results with Watford.

Edited December 4, 2023 by FestiveJack
spelling smh

[gunnar hendershow]

No shock a man named Heckingbottom had them at the bottom of the league.