Our highest ever Premier League finish

[Pam]

This, Arsenal, is what happens when you start trash talking about hauling back a ten point deficits with five games remaining.

 

[manimanc]

and yes szczesny,you are going to win the league next year....

 

[ell]

Lets all laugh at Na$ri leaving Arsenal who are in third to sign for Man City who can only finish in second or first... oh wait

 

[Pam]

Lets all laugh at Na$ri leaving Arsenal who are in third to sign for Man City who can only finish in second or first... oh wait

Piers the twat Morgan, take note.

 

[Chris in London]

But... But... They're supposed to even themselves out over the course of a season aren't they?

I mean, Newcastle shouldn't have had that penalty, and jonny Evans was sent off...

;-)

Hehe.

There's a point in here somewhere though as drawing equality between any two incidents is pretty much bullshit. For example, Balotelli on Parker is probably equivalent to Young diving as they were pivitol moments which changed the game.

However, these even itself out brigade never take the context into it. Not getting a penalty whilst been 3-0 up is not evened out by getting a dodgy pen at 0-0.

The running total is only incidents that potentially changed the game. Youngs dive for example forced Villa to try and get something from the game, instead of sat back and hitting on the break. Murphys pen would have given them the lead, same with Defoes goal. Those types of incidents, these are the ones that United get more than every other team.

There's a dodgy website out there called Debatable Decisions which idiots are using that totally misses this point.

Yes I looked at Debatable Decisions once, the main object of which seemed to be to show that the rags are actually hard done by in terms of refereeing decisions. YCNMIU.

I agree totally that a dodgy penalty when you are 3-0 up and coasting is completely different to a dodgy penalty when it is 0-0 and you are stuttering - especially if the dodgy penalty is accompanied by a red card.

But quite apart from that, things simply cannot even themselves out because there is not a fair or even distribution of referees between fixtures. Some teams just get reffed by some referees a lot more times than others. For instance, out of 34 games in the league so far this season I can think of offhand we have been reffed by Clattenberg four times (sick swan, Fulham (a), Cherlsea (a) and Bolton (h)). In those games there were at least four game-changing or potentially game-changing decisions he incorrectly gave against us in those four games - the refusal of a penalty in the 6-1 (Anderson on Micah when the score was I think still 0-1), denying us the stonewall Silva penalty at Chelsea when it was 1-0 to us after 15 minutes, failing even to Yellow card Meireiles in the same game for similar fouls to the ones he later sent off Clichy for, and playing on when Dempsey went through the back of Dzeko just before Fulham equalised. I do not think we have benefited from a single game-changing decision made incorrectly in our favour by Clattenberg all season.

By contrast, Everton have not been reffed by Clattenberg at all this season. I know that they are hardly competing with us, but the point is still valid that inconsistencies from referee to referee about decisions might well even themselves out if each team gets the same exposure to a particular referee, but it can't possibly do if a team gets one of the same four or five referees week in week out and another team gets completely different referees.

Take red and yellow cards. We have picked up (in the league) four red cards issued after two yellows - Balotelli twice (arsenal (a) and Liverpool (a)), Clichy (Chelsea (a)) and Barry (Liverpool (h)). There is just no way that Barry's fouls in the Liverpool game were worse (either in themselves or in terms of the match situation) for instance than Jonny Evans foul at Wigan last week for which he ought, but did not, get a second yellow.

Speaking of Evans, he was given a straight red against us for denying Balotelli a goal scoring opportunity - just like Kompany was against Wolves at home. So the rags have not had a single red card based on two yellows all season that I am aware of in the league - not one. You'd think the law of averages would determine that they get at least one somewhere along the way - especailly when the team with a similar amount of points, goals scored and goals conceded has picked up four.

I can understand that ref A thinks 'that tackle was dangerous, yellow card' but ref B thinks 'it's a man's game' - neither is right, neither is wrong. I can also understand that if you persistently commit minor fouls, ref A will give you a yellow after three but ref B will give you a warning and only issue a caution if you foul again. But it is simply not possible for things to 'even themselves out' when one team gets a lot more exposure to ref A than the other team does.

 

[chesterbells]

Finishing second and empty handed after the season we've had doesn't sound too great at the mo, tbh.
Anyway, yep, hats off to our immense owners & playing squad. Manager is maybe starting to learn from his mistakes too; let's see what happens next.
Bring on the Wolves!

Would you rather be second and watch honest football, or watch a **** dive every chance he gets, not to mention playing with 12 players?

Can't argue with that pal.
It has been an unbelievable season already. Problem is, now I'm greedy for more!

 

[kevodevo]

Finishing second and empty handed after the season we've had doesn't sound too great at the mo, tbh.
Anyway, yep, hats off to our immense owners & playing squad. Manager is maybe starting to learn from his mistakes too; let's see what happens next.
Bring on the Wolves!

Would you rather be second and watch honest football, or watch a **** dive every chance he gets, not to mention playing with 12 players?

Can't argue with that pal.
It has been an unbelievable season already. Problem is, now I'm greedy for more!

Stick around - plenty more to come yet!

 

[dobobobo]

Finishing second and empty handed after the season we've had doesn't sound too great at the mo, tbh.
Anyway, yep, hats off to our immense owners & playing squad. Manager is maybe starting to learn from his mistakes too; let's see what happens next.
Bring on the Wolves!

Would you rather be second and watch honest football, or watch a **** dive every chance he gets, not to mention playing with 12 players?

Can't argue with that pal.
It has been an unbelievable season already. Problem is, now I'm greedy for more!

Same here, i'm still not happy about the Sunderland performance both home and away, but I'd rather see those sorts of games than pure cheating on the same weekend Tevez gets booked for it!

We're nearly there and we're doing it the honest way.

 

[Tellison87MCFC]

Top effort from the boys, guaranteed second is real progress, now let's win these next 4 games and who knows?