Other Matches Thread

[LeftfootlegendGooner]

When Sokrites got booked against Everton a few weeks back it was his 10th of the season so he was suspended for 2 matches but I remember reading at the time that that was the last weekend before the amnesty kicked in so if he avoided a booking in that game he wouldn’t have received a ban if he got booked in any game after that.

That only applies to your second load of yellows not your first five, I know cos I've accuumallated 10 many times.

[northbank123]

The narrative on diving is, again, a complete and utter joke. Phil McNulty (who is absolutely dreadful) wrote a long piece of turd about the match which briefly mentioned that Liverpool were perhaps a touch fortunate as there "appeared to be little or no contact" between Fabinho and Ritchie for the free-kick for the third goal.

What he meant, of course, was that it was 100% a terrible dive which was nothing other than cheating and the only reason why Liverpool still have an outside shot of winning the title. Except that's not how the narrative gets played for the media darling clubs and players like Salah, Mane, Son, Kane, Rose and Alli who routinely dive and get away with it. If it gets any mention at all it will be terms like "a soft penalty", "went down quite easily" or even "entitled to go down if he feels contact" etc. The "any sort of touch at that pace" line is complete nonsense - as anybody who watched Salah stay on his feet to score when somebody literally stood on his Achilles away at Bournemouth can plainly see. It was really nasty and must have hurt, but he knew he had a better chance of scoring the 1-on-1 than a free-kick. The same player then threw himself to the floor twice in the few weeks after that to cheat penalties against us and Newcastle. Likewise players like Bale and Ronaldo will throw themselves to the ground if it's in the area and they reckon they might get a penalty, but if they are counter-attacking then players trying to barge them over simply bounce off them more often than not as they are incredible athletes.

Watching Liverpool at Barcelona, every time they got into Barcelona's box you could just tell that they were looking for a chance to dive and waiting for a half-touch to throw themselves to the ground. They are an excellent team but fucking cheaty little wankers and I genuinely can't remember a club having gotten so many massive decisions going their way throughout the season.

Suarez, Ronaldo and Pires were all superb players in this league but the media gave them absolutely no leeway when it came to their transgressions.

The irony is that these pundits will still all talk in the abstract about stamping out diving and call for longer punishments etc, but will ignore it happening in front of them or frequently even excuse it.

VAR does seem more appealing now, but it won't help really. Referees do not have the bottle to call it a dive if there is any contact whatsoever. There is far too much room for discretion over using VAR to overturn decisions - is the referee simply re-making the decision based on the benefit of TV, or are they actually going to apply a "clear and obvious" threshold where they think on reflection they've probably got the decision wrong but it's not sufficiently clear and obvious? All we will end up with will be copious amounts of time wasted studying handballs, and every single big goal scored somebody will claim to have been fouled or blocked or a handball somewhere and referees will end up studying the entire play to see whether there is any potential reason to disallow goals. The Man City-Spurs game was a complete farce, and anybody who thinks that that is good for football has sadly bought into Sky's bollocks about watching things on TV being the be all and end all.

[northbank123]

And on the topic of Liverpool more generally, the media love-in for them belies the reality that they are fucking despised by other fans.

Take up here for example - most people would assume that fans of a club like Newcastle would want Liverpool to win the league. Traditional club, well-supported, not particularly wealthy cities, perception as long-suffering (albeit to different degrees), begrudging respect etc.

It's bollocks. I know loads of season-ticket holders up here and they all fucking hate Liverpool, and go out of their way to dispel this myth that Geordies and Scousers are some kind of kindred spirits. They see the club and moreover their fans as vile self-righteous wankers. They would have loved nothing more than scuppering their title challenge last night, which they would have done had it not been for Fabinho's awful dive being rewarded. I find as much joy out of mocking Newcastle as anybody else here (in fact a hell of a lot more given that I am surrounded by Geordies), but delusions of grandeur and whining about their own club aside they are actually a very fair set of fans.

The whole country wants Man City to win the league, other than some fans of lower-league clubs (many of whom will see United or Liverpool as a second club) and the media, which is of course packed top to bottom with Liverpool men and has to bill every season as THE BEST SEASON OF ALL TIME.

[Jock Gooner]

Come on Derby we don't want that cu.nt Pulis and boro anywhere near getting back up in the PL ffs kill off the inbreds.

[Midz]

And on the topic of Liverpool more generally, the media love-in for them belies the reality that they are fucking despised by other fans.

Take up here for example - most people would assume that fans of a club like Newcastle would want Liverpool to win the league. Traditional club, well-supported, not particularly wealthy cities, perception as long-suffering (albeit to different degrees), begrudging respect etc.

It's bollocks. I know loads of season-ticket holders up here and they all fucking hate Liverpool, and go out of their way to dispel this myth that Geordies and Scousers are some kind of kindred spirits. They see the club and moreover their fans as vile self-righteous wankers. They would have loved nothing more than scuppering their title challenge last night, which they would have done had it not been for Fabinho's awful dive being rewarded. I find as much joy out of mocking Newcastle as anybody else here (in fact a hell of a lot more given that I am surrounded by Geordies), but delusions of grandeur and whining about their own club aside they are actually a very fair set of fans.

The whole country wants Man City to win the league, other than some fans of lower-league clubs (many of whom will see United or Liverpool as a second club) and the media, which is of course packed top to bottom with Liverpool men and has to bill every season as THE BEST SEASON OF ALL TIME.

Apart from me I don't want them to win anything

[sk-gtfo]

Chavs and Utd both winning..

6th place incoming.

Kroenke's Level.

[xisstential]

Chavs and Utd both winning..

6th place incoming.

Kroenke's Level.

Tbf, we only have ourselves to blame.......3 points out of the last 12...if we had picked up 2 shitty, hard fought draws we would be in the box seat. But we capitulated, just like every Wenger team has done for the last half dozen years.

We could have even lost the away games like we did, losing to Palace was the killer.
And of course that penalty......It was always going to count.......

[rodders999]

Ole’s at the wheel

[augie]

Chavs and Utd both winning..

6th place incoming.

Kroenke's Level.

Please stop - sky done a breakdown of the recent fixtures of the teams battling for 3rd and 4th, and the stats really are shocking - prior to todays games, in the last 9 games involving one of these teams (not 9 games each), they had accumulated a total of ONE WIN and something like 9 goals in total Gooners (including me) complain about how this was ours for the taking and how we keep shooting ourselves in the foot, but the reality is that the other 3 teams will be saying the same thing. As a rule we are not a breed of fans who feel entitled to anything, but the reality is that 8 months ago we would have laughed if anyone suggested that we would be still in the battle for top 4 with 2 games to go, and in europa league semi's cos ON PAPER, we simply do not have a squad good enough to be in this position - now it is vital that we keep our composure and try to take advantage of the chance given to us, instead of blowing a gasket on and off the pitch when the pressure is on.

[Perryashburtongroves]

Ole’s at the wheel

He'll be gone by October. What a silly *word censored* he is.

[begeegs]

Ole’s at the wheel

He'll be gone by October. What a silly *word censored* he is.

I reckon that it will be Christmas. They are going to back him in the transfer window and probably be shot of Pogba, so initially, it will look better not to have that primmadonna running around in their midfield. However, that will fall away and people will begin questioning him again. That will mean we will be able to laugh at them again next season.

[clockender1]

Ajax won 4-0 and the Dutch Cup yesterday. they are in form for Wednesday.

and some other good news - stevie mee won nothing this year.

[northbank123]

Leicester are a good side and difficult to break down but City really poor.

Foden just not up to it on the basis of his showing in that first half. Bringing on Sane and moving Bernardo Silva inside would be a big improvement.

That said, City were underwhelming first half vs United and Burnley away and then completely assured and dominant second half. They came out at 100mph after HT both games, so I think that the first 10-15 of the second half could dictate where the title goes.

[clockender1]

Leicester are a good side and difficult to break down but City really poor.

Rodgers had a good record at Swansea and Liverpool. being fired in favour of Klopp is no sign of failure. I am not surprised he has steadied Leicester after his vacation in Scotland.

City look nervous. they are one eff up away from gifting it to Liverpool.

[xisstential]

Leicester are a good side and difficult to break down but City really poor.

Rodgers had a good record at Swansea and Liverpool. being fired in favour of Klopp is no sign of failure. I am not surprised he has steadied Leicester after his vacation in Scotland.

City look nervous. they are one eff up away from gifting it to Liverpool.

Just got a feeling this isn't going to happen for City....they look panicky and are desperately missing de Bruyne.

Could this weekend get any worse