Right, so let’s start with the FA and their brand of unconventional wisdom (otherwise known as cuntstrousness). We’ll go through it player by player.
Kolo Toure – Immediate three match ban.
Emmanuel Adebayor – His appeal against his red card was dismissed and he will serve a three match ban. He is, however, allowed to appeal the charge of reacting aggressively and failing to leave the field of play immediately after being sent off. While I completely understand his frustration, there’s really no way he can appeal this. He didn’t leave the field immediately and he did react aggressively.
Obviously the FA have seen something in the video which they feel warranted a straight red for Adebayor. It seems likely that he’ll get at least another game on top of the three match ban. He has until 6pm this evening to appeal if he chooses to do so.
Emmanuel Eboue – He has been charged with violent conduct and has until 6pm this evening to appeal, again if he and the club choose to do so. No matter how pathetic Bridge’s histrionics – which really should have been punished as well in my opinion – Eboue did raise his hands and looks set to miss three games.
Also, both Arsenal and Chelse have been charged with misconduct for failing to ensure good conduct from their players.
Now, again we’re seeing the FA blow something way out of proportion. Were any punches thrown? No – I’m not counting Eboue’s incident with Bridge as a punch and both players should be absolutely mortified at their behaviour. Were there any karate kicks? No. Strangling? No. Knees in the bollocks? No.
What happened with Toure and Mikel could easily have been dealt with by issuing a yellow card each. Lampard might look back and consider that he rather overreacted to the whole thing and that sparked the further pushing and shoving but overall there was nothing particularly violent about the whole thing. Nevertheless we have three players facing bans of 10 games between them with Eboue’s three matches to be added when he gets banned.
That’s 13 games over a bit of handbags. It’s an absolute nonsense. As well as that the FA have been presented with two glorious opportunities this past weekend to deal with theatrics and show that they have no place in the game. Firstly Wayne Bridge – why can’t some retrospective punishment be handed out to him for his acting? Yes, Eboue touched him, but it certainly wasn’t enough to make a grown man fall down and Bridge looking around to see where the officials were before he fell tells you everything you need to know about it. Cheating. Punish him.
The other incident was Steven Gerrard’s calculated and deliberate dive to win a penalty against Sheffield United. Steve Bennet was looking straight at him but Steve Bennet is rubbish and didn’t take the chance to book Gerrard. The FA could have shown then that diving and simulation is wrong but they didn’t.
They prefer the very public posturing and chest-thumping that follows an incident which has been blown out of all proportion by the media. The same way they dolled out massive fines for Arsenal after the Old Trafford incident in which very little happened in reality. There was a bit of snarling, a bit of pushing and quick strangle of Phil Neville (and how amongst us hasn’t wanted to choke Phil Neville?) but no punches or slaps. That doesn’t stop the Times saying ” In a stern statement that violent conduct will not be tolerated…”. Rubbish.
All the while, week after week, serious violent play is punished in exactly the same way. There has to be a change. There has to be a sliding scale for so-called violent conduct because you can’t tell me that what Adebayor did merits the same ban as someone who deliberately elbows an opponent or goes over the top of the ball two-footed to hurt another player. Now, I don’t like Chelsea as much as the rest of you, but tell me why Mikel should serve a four match ban for what happened on Sunday. The whole thing is fucking ludicrous.
I also had to laugh at referee’s chief, Keith Hackett, who must be the most deluded man in the world. He said about Howard Webb and his assistants:
Howard and his assistants had a good game. They dealt calmly and firmly with it and after consultation Howard took appropriate action.
Howard and his assistants, to my mind, lost control of the game early on. When he booked Denilson for a nothing challenge and failed to book Diarra for a blatant foul on the edge of the box he lost it. When he decided that Essien’s studs-up lunge on Baptista was worth the same punishment as Denilson he lost it – although here he’s a victim of the shit system. By any standards those two incidents deserve different punishment. Maybe three yellows should equal red in these days of bookings for nothing. Anyway, Chelsea, experienced and well drilled team that they are, cynically and effectively fouled and blocked and obstructed their way through the second half.
This is not necessarily a criticism of Chelsea, it worked for Mourinho at Porto, it’s working at Stamford Bridge, but the constant poor decisions by the ref certainly contributed to Arsenal’s frustration which contributed to them reacting, badly, when the incident took place. While the FA are quick to come down hard on the clubs, which is the easy thing to do, they never look at any of the underlying factors like poor officials and bad decisions which are generally factors in incidents like this.
How the game and standard of officiating is ever supposed to improve when you have witless apologists like Hackett defending officials I just don’t know. Anyway, this seems to be a point that comes up time and time again with no sign that anything is ever going to change. Thankfully we have another game tonight so we can just forget about this and the bullshit decisions that come from the FA. A bit of siege mentality never hurt us and the players feeling like they’ve been dealt a raw deal won’t really do us any harm. As Arsene Wenger points out we’ve been near the top of the fair play table, we are the most fouled team but one little incident has people sharpening their pointing sticks to poke us with. Fuck ’em.
It looks like we’re going to be down to bare bones for the FA Cup replay against Blackburn. As well as being with the suspended Toure and Adebayor we’ll be missing Henry (foot injury), Rosicky, Diaby and Cesc who will be rested. There are also doubts over Djourou, Flamini and Clichy.
With van Persie also injured it looks like Baptista and Aliadiere will start up front and it’s time for both of them to show they have goals in them. Baptista in particular is running out of time to show he’s worthy of a permanent deal but I have to say I’d be surprised if he stayed once his loan deal was over.
Thierry Henry says he’s never seen a player adapt to the English game as quickly as Denilson. The young Brazilian looks completely at home in this Arsenal team and he’ll more than likely start tonight against Blackburn. He also backs the manager when he says he has no fear playing young players after their Carling Cup exploits. They’ve shown they can be relied on whether it’s a Carling Cup game or a league game or a Champions League game, they have the quality. Let’s hope they can do it tonight. I do love the FA Cup and it’s always a nice trophy to win.
Finally, don’t forget if you have anything to say about anything that’s gone on in the last week you can get in touch with the Arsecast sponsored by Savile Rogue. There are two of their great scarves to be won for the best email or audio message so get to it.
Finally, those Cesc to Madrid stories you keep hearing about. Besides the denial from the player himself you just know it’s more bullshit from Real Madrid as they look to deflect attention away from the fact they’re a complete and utter shambles. Also, there’s a very nice piece in the Times about him. I wonder what his favourite websites are?
And that’s it. Here’s to a good win tonight.
