It was an action-packed weekend in the Premier League but, once again, it was the referees and not the players who stole the headlines for the wrong reasons. Our resident columnist Dan Thomas takes a (slightly cynical) look at the decisions and the results. Take it away Dan…
Sky Sports wheeled out the first lot of snowman related animated fillers as (the best snowman related animated fillers in the world ™) as the Premier League entered December with one of the most controversial weekends of action so far this season.
In the weekend’s big game, Chelsea survived a cast iron red card being ignored for David Luiz inside the first five minutes and Newcastle hitting the post twelve times to secure a much needed 3-0 win. Mike Dean admitted he was wrong to not send Luiz from the field of play and “unable to explain his decision.” Defender Luiz was too busy following Bart Simpson around St James Park and evading a series of strategically placed rakes to give his views on the matter. Wor Toon will no doubt feel very aggrieved at the result as two late Chelsea goals (neither from late £50m bench warmer Fernando Torres) put some extremely undeserved gloss on the scoreline.
On the much coveted “MNF” slot, Kevin Friend stole the show with a series of catastrophic refereeing decisions to aid Fulham to a 1-0 victory over Liverpool in a game the visitors dominated, even with ten men. Clint Dempsey poached the winner (despite the fact he should have been sent off for shoving his face into Craig Bellamy’s) after a rare Reina error. He was mobbed by Phillipe Senderos, who survived a pretty clear cut penalty appeal against him as well as a cacophony of second bookable offences being let off with free kicks and a stern chat.
A 'Friend' to Fulham as LFC endured some harsh decisions at Craven Cottage
Throw in a bizarre red card in the mould of September’s red card picked up by therookiesensationJackRodwell for Jay Spearing and a perfectly onside goal from Luis Suarez being disallowed with the score at 0-0 and Liverpool have every right to feel pretty upset at the manner in which they lost the game. Referee Friend will surely not be on Kenny Dalglish’s Christmas card list, but may well receive a lump of coal.
Suarez however took time out to apparently make a gesture at the Fulham fans. For their information, the middle finger is Uruguayan for “have a safe trip home.”
Returning to Saturday’s action, Aston Villa played for a 1-0 loss as they were comfortably beaten by Manchester United in the evening kick off. Phil Jones (the next Beckenbauer TM the English press) superbly volleyed home the winner. The match was marred by three uses of the stretcher as Javier Hernandez fell to the floor with nobody around him (not for the first time either…) and his fate was matched by on loan Jermaine Jenas. Shay Given was also carried off the pitch, his hamstrings unable to deal with his decision to leave his goal line for the first time in his career. Big problems for Alex McLeish, whose team were booed off after another insipid, dreadful performance.
There was little insipid at Ewood Park as Blackburn beat Swansea 4-2 in a rip roaring contest. Yakubu became the oldest player in Premier League history to score four goals the other side of his 60th birthday as he fired Rovers off the basement. Goals from Leroy Lita and Luke Moore were not enough for the visitors to salvage a point, and they also had Joe Allen sent off for their troubles. Under pressure manager Steve Kean celebrated at full time by simply pointing at the home fans and mouthing “LOL.”
The Yak scores 4 then gets booed for celebrating with his manager
Manchester City continued their march toward being top of the table at Christmas with an emphatic 5-1 win over Norwich City, who proved no match for the impressive hosts despite their dogged resistance. The highlight of the match was arguably Super Mario’s decision to bundle the ball over the line with his shoulder. Let’s be honest, by his very high standards, this was a quiet one. Aguero scored an impressive goal seeing as he has half of Norfolk blocking his route to goal. Score one to the outside of the boot.
At Loftus Road, mid table QPR and WBA fought out a 1-1 draw in the battle of the abbreviations. Shane Long equalised Heidar Helguson’s header, promoting Neil Warnock to complain bitterly (rightly) about the assistant’s decision to flag Shaun Wright-Phillips offside and about the number of orange Skittles in his half time hamper (wrongly). Adel Taarabt, an unused sub, simply shrugged for the first ten minutes of the game, reading a copy of FHM until half time before going on a sightseeing tour of London Town for the second half. West Brom manager Roy Hodgson was dewighted with the wesult and maintained usage of his coat for 90 minutes.
On form Spurs swatted away struggling Bolton Wanderers with a 3-0 win at White Hart Lane. Gareth Bale opened the scoring and dedicated his strike to Gary Speed. Stuart Atwell dedicated his decision to send Gary Cahill off to 2011′s release of Own Goals and Gaffes as he sent the England defender off for… well, I don’t know. The FA didn’t either as Atwell is without a Premier League game the coming weekend and the decision was overturned on appeal. Perhaps a turn of chance for the luckless Trotters?
With 'Speed' embroided on his boot, Bale paid tribute to Gary Speed
At the DW (call it the JJB, everyone still does) Stadium, Arsenal thumped a badly out of sorts Wigan 4-0, and the big shocker here was than RVP only scored one of said goals. Latics stopper Ali Al-Habsi seemed to lose his arms in the seconds before Arteta’s opener only to find them again as he turned around behind him to see the ball in the net. Roberto Martinez questioned his team’s defending and again asked himself why he didn’t take the Aston Villa job. Arsenal resurgent, Wigan struggling.
In the Sunday games, the Wolves and Sunderland game turned on its head in the space of 35 seconds as a Seb Larsson swan dive (but still, for me anyway, a penalty) which lead to a spot kick being awarded. Hennessey saved the subsequent spot kick before Steve Fletcher turned the game on its head with an equaliser followed by a controversial winner. Sunderland, with their new boss Martin O’Goblin sat in the stands watching, impressed in spells, and had taken the lead through Kieran Richardson. Rumours that Jesus is set to sell his biggest asset in January have been dismissed by Sky Sports News.
Last, and by all means least, a dreadful game at Goodison Park was settled by a Robert Huth strike as a dreadful Everton performance saw them slump 1-0 at home to Stoke City. Many Evertonians are now left questioning how much further David Moyes can take them. The frustrated Scotsman cut a disconsolate figure as he tried to think of ways to go from 4-5-1 to another variant of 4-5-1 that still resembled a 4-5-1.
Until the next time then…
This article was produced by Daniel Thomas. For more from Dan, you can follow him on Twitter here
