Premier League 2016/17

[Nerf]

24 minutes ago, Gorka said:

We're going down.

That's what you [eventually] get for sacking Laudrup :@

[MDK]

Forster was lucky there. Could easily have been called as a penalty.

[Baddar]

He got a bit of the ball, no?

[Just Joe]

1 hour ago, Gorka said:

We're going down.

Hiya!

[Colly]

29 minutes ago, Baddar said:

He got a bit of the ball, no?

Yep. The "referee as pundit" thing is laughable when they get it wrong after several replays.

[MDK]

1 hour ago, Baddar said:

He got a bit of the ball, no?

He did, but it could still have been called as a penalty. It took me four replays to see that he got the slightest of touches on the ball.

[lanky316]

16 hours ago, Colly said:

Yep. The "referee as pundit" thing is laughable when they get it wrong after several replays.

Doesn't help when the refereeing expert is the man who had to give someone three yellow cards before sending them off. Just a nice little addition to make BT coverage even shitter.

[Jimmy]

So pleased for Janssen  

[Baddar]

There's a good chance Begovic will play instead of Courtois today as he's picked up an ankle injury, apparently. 

[Lineker]

For the modern football manager, it is the circling of a small plane above the stadium on match day, rather than the traditional vote of confidence once offered by the club’s board following a string of defeats, which now signals that their job hangs by a thread.

Rather than besieging the chairman’s Jag in the club car park, today’s disgruntled fans hire a plane trailing a banner demanding the hapless manager quit.

In recent weeks, Arsenal fans both supportive of and opposed to Arsène Wenger have made their views clear in this high-profile manner.

But now the body that represents pilots of the small planes that trail the aerial adverts has warned that new EU rules coming into force later this month could put them out of business.

The new regulations apply to all commercial operators conducting “high-risk specialised operations”. These include aircraft used for activities such as agriculture, construction, photography, surveying, observation, patrolling and aerial advertisement.

The pilots of single-engined aircraft had believed they were excluded from the new regulations, but have learned that only twin-engined planes, classed as less risky, are explicitly exempted.

As a result, the pilots say they will have to seek authorisation from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) each time they take to the skies, unless it gives them legal confirmation that the new regulations do not apply to them. If not, the pilots say that before each takeoff they face having to complete a lengthy form detailing information on everything from oxygen to crew rest times, something they claim will prove too burdensome for them to continue operating.

Simon Moores, president of the Association of Aerial Work Operators (AAWO), who runs Airads, an aerial advertising company, called on the CAA to clarify its position urgently.

“The immediate problem is that the CAA, on 21 April, will introduce a series of European regulations on general aviation,” Moores said. “These will immediately impact small and specialised one-man operators and threatens to put them out of business.”

Some European countries, such as the Czech Republic and Denmark, have opted not to introduce the regulations in full.

“Towing banners and even aerial photography have been arbitrarily defined by CAA as ‘high-risk’ operations, and, with some 20,000 hours and 20 years of accident-free service among my pilots, I wonder why the CAA has chosen to implement this description,” Moores said. “EASA (The European Aviation Safety Agency) has said the definition is left to the local regulator. Other EU countries clearly don’t perceive these ‘high risks’ in the way the CAA does.”

Moores said his organisation was working with the CAA to achieve a compromise. “Without this small compromise to the new rules we are requesting, no banners are likely to ever fly again over Britain’s big football grounds,” he added.

It is not just football managers who may have little sympathy for the imminent threat facing the pilots. The planes are becoming a popular way of getting political messages across. Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage was injured in 2010 when a plane he was in trailing a party banner crashed in Northamptonshire.

One campaign is looking to charter a plane above Wembley next weekend, when Arsenal meet Manchester City, to trail a banner calling for Ken Livingstone to be expelled from the Labour party and for Jeremy Corbyn to quit as leader.

One of those involved in the campaign, who asked not to be named, said hiring the plane, which costs around £6,000, was a novel way of getting a message across. “A lot of things have been tried already, but when Ken Livingstone wasn’t expelled from the party, well, that’s an absurdity. Sometimes an absurd situation requires an absurd response.”

A spokesman for the CAA disputed the AAWO’s claims and said pilots of small planes had the maximum three years to adjust to the “minor change”. “We are working with the small number of stakeholders to help them move to European regulations,” he said.

Thank god for Brexit, ey?

[Colly]

That's the most compelling reason for reversing it I've seen so far.

[DavidMarrio]

In what has been a bit of a dull half, we managed to out West Brom, West Brom by scoring a header from a freekick. 

Milner cross, Lucas flick on and Bobby Firmino right before half time

[Just Joe]

That goal stopped me from turning over to the snooker.

[DavidMarrio]

4 minutes ago, Just Ghost said:

That goal stopped me from turning over to the snooker.

It has been an abysmal game of football. 

[MDK]

8 minutes ago, Just Ghost said:

That goal stopped me from turning over to the snooker.

Is that how bad its been that you are considering watching snooker?

[Just Joe]

3 minutes ago, MDK said:

Is that how bad its been that you are considering watching snooker?

To quote Monty Burns, "Yes".

[Nerf]

3 minutes ago, MDK said:

Is that how bad its been that you are considering watching snooker?

It's a Pulis side at home against a big club. That's all you need to know

[Just Joe]

Football needs gimmick matches. 

[Colly]

9 minutes ago, Nerf said:

It's a Pulis side at home against a big club. That's all you need to know

Is it?

[DavidMarrio]

Milner should have made it 2-0. Great ball to Firmino and a great cross to the back post. 

Still a crap game.