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All Things Football #10

Posted by Frankie Lally on November 9, 2009 | 5 Comments

JTMy only hopes before Sunday’s game were that both teams would go out and go for it, both would do themselves justice and the officials didn’t have a big effect on the game.

Well United certainly did themselves justice. They were by far the better team and deserved to win but yet again the officials had a nightmare.

Rooney was wrongly given offside when one-on-one with Chelsea keeper Petr Cech. John Terry brought down Antonio Valencia in the box and I’m sure a penalty would’ve been given if the incident had happened at the other end.  I know this is a minor thing but when Terry was on the floor with a very slight leg injury after clashing with a team mate, the referee, Martin Atkinson, let Chelsea have two attacks but as soon as United got the ball and were looking to break, he stopped play so Terry could get treatment but he didn’t need.

As for the goal, well it was never a free kick. Fletcher won the ball and DidiersDrogba may well have been offside. He also clearly pulled Wes Brown to the ground so that the United defender couldn’t head it clear.

There were also a few incidents where the ref didn’t give United clear free kicks and his decision to blow for full time about a minute before he should have done, just took the biscuit.

I don’t think this is the end of the title race by any stretch of the imagination and I think Man United lost to the best team in the league in their own backyard but I am very disappointed at the standard of refereeing yesterday. It was one of the worst refereeing displays I’ve seen in my life.

If Atkinson isn’t demoted to League One for a few games after that disgrace, then something is seriously wrong with football.

United played well and Fletcher, as I feared he would, caused all sorts of problems. It was telling that he was right on Essien whenever the Ghanaian got the ball. Sadly, Chelsea players seemed unwilling to pay Fletcher the same compliment. Though Joe Cole, who should have started, remedied that rather too enthusiastically.

The penalty appeal, I thought was a penalty, though the referee had absolutely no way of seeing the shirt-tug. I remember not where the linesman was.

Chelsea were poor, but United’s efforts exacerbated this. Anelka was their only real high point. Drogba’s drought against United continued and was like a giddy school girl encountering whoever it is makes schoolgirls giddy these days. United clearly have some sort of hold on him.

As hard as United worked, though, I was very unimpressed by the lack of movement from Chelsea, Anelka excluded. None of them seemed to work off the ball and look for space.

Five points is breathing space for Chelsea, but only that. The title was not decided yesterday but Chelsea are certainly looking like the team to beat.

Category: Football Corner

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5 Responses to “All Things Football #10”

  1. All Things Football #10 | Football Corner | All Topics Blog
    November 10th, 2009 @ 2:11 am

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    November 10th, 2009 @ 4:54 am

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