The Barclays Premier League thread 2015/2016

[Szumi]

Unlucky for Carzola. Didn't mean it, but it definitely a yellow card and second booking.

[MDK]

Que? 

[Kaney]

Now Cazorla is red carded what the actual fuck is going on

[Szumi]

Costa tussles with a man after the play AGAIN, referee sees it, and does nothing.

[MDK]

Could Costa be the new Suarez?

[Szumi]

In terms of every match antics, Costa is worse than Suarez. He's just smarter than Suarez, recognizing that biting people and racially abusing them is too much. Throughout the course of your average ninety minutes, Costa is definitely a slimier cunt than Suarez.

[Kaney]

I'd say someone who'll spit in his hand to then throw it at an opponent is much more disgusting than someone who bites a player in a a moment of madness.

[FLiam]

Nice picture of three huge scratches down Gabriel's neck. But he was the victim.

[Kyle]

I feel like Suarez at least had some redeeming characteristics whereas Costa is just a slimeball.

Also, who's idea was it to put Browning up against Montero? Total mismatch.

[Gazz]

I think Costa is great. He absolutely never fails to wind up the opposition defenders and what do people who have lost their cool do? They make mistakes, they concede goals, the commit fouls and they get themselves sent off for incidents they had no business being involved in.

Dumb ass footballers should stop falling for it.

[Liam]

I think Costa is great. He absolutely never fails to wind up the opposition defenders and what do people who have lost their cool do? They make mistakes, they concede goals, the commit fouls and they get themselves sent off for incidents they had no business being involved in.

Dumb ass footballers should stop falling for it.

I also like Costa for the precise reasons Gazz does.

[Gazz]

See ya in 2017 lads.

[Moses Julep]

Costa is good at what he does. He's like your classic chicken shit heel. Of course it makes it better that Chelsea have had a bad start to the season because it's also great when the heel gets what's coming to him.

[Gazz]

https://streamable.com/78y5

The shape of the back four makes we want to fucking puke.

[Szumi]

Footballers being idiots and falling for his antics doesn't make Costa any less of a cunt though.

 

And forget the midfield diamond, the diamond back line is the new big thing!

Edited September 19, 2015 by Szumi

[stokeriño]

Just got home from the game. It struck me that Mike Dean clearly went into the match with the intent of taking the classic "Big Derby Match Approach" that I've criticised before and can only presume they teach in whatever the equivalent of Refereeing 101 is. It's an approach that regularly gets praised when said referee gets lucky - but when his hand gets forced then everything ends up looking rather shambolic, and it just so happened that Gabriel was the one who forced his hand today.

The approach I mean is the one focused on what some call "letting the game flow" and "not ruining the big occasion". In practical terms it means that you firstly hold off on awarding any kind of card for as long as physically possible. It tends to be a pretty arbitrary point when yellow cards suddenly make an appearance - and I don't think it's coincidence that the game's first booking came in the 31st minute. "Half an hour...then BAM." This to me has always seemed to be the referee riding his luck, and undermines him when he makes the sudden switch (not to mention infuriating the team who feel they fell the wrong side of this arbitrary switch - which can cause more problems later). 

Once yellows are "in play", if nothing serious happens for the rest of the game then the referee comes away looking like a genius. The problem is, something serious almost always happens. Because of the standards the referee has already set in low application of bookings, anything less than the most ridiculously crunching red looks like an overreaction, at least on his own terms. All the more so when you have two players winding each other up back and forth - the referee is trapped between doing nothing and suddenly ruining all his hard work by drawing multiple reds at once.

Hence what you usually see is what Mike Dean did today - book everyone involved on the firm instruction that THIS SHIT ENDS NOW. Again, normally they behave from then on and the referee looks like a genius, if a touch lenient...but there'll be pundits on hand to wax lyrical about all the "not ruining the spectacle" malarkey so whatever.

The problem is, if he does the THIS SHIT ENDS NOW bit...and then either of the players does ANYTHING immediately thereafter, he's got no choice left. Whoever bit first out of Gabriel and Costa was gone, and Gabriel was the silly sod who bit.

The way to beat Costa is simple: do nothing, and he'll wind himself into a frustrated little ball who makes no impact on the game. The number of teams/defenders who seem to think that they can play the same game he does - then act all Holier Than Thou when it doesn't go their way - astonishes me.

[stokeriño]

West Ham 2-0 up at Man City...  

[Baddar]

Makes the game interesting. 

[Cheeky Hughes]

Of course that went out for a corner. Of course. 

[Liam]

Would have normally avoided this match, but with West Ham's performances at the big teams this season, had to have a look.