Situations like these have been deemed to be fouls so many times in recent years, that no one should be surprised. We can all argue that it shouldn't be, but like Sports alluded to, that's just how things are in the modern game.

The Franchise wrote:I obviously dont feel it was a legit foul.

But once the ref saw Mctom's hand in the face of Son, it was going to be ruled out. I wasnt at all surprised by the decision.

Again, I dont agree with it but I think based on how these decisions are being made it wasnt that surprising.

The bad thing about VAR is that it strips away the spirit of the game. That's a "foul" that a good half the time or more, is waved on because it was the slightest of touches and doesn't really affect play.

But what is the referee going to do once he sees the foul on VAR? It's a textbook foul. You can't hit someone in the face. So of course it's ruled out, the ref has no opportunity to do anything else.

But it's fairly obvious to me that you play on in situations like this

Robespierre wrote:

Thanks @Robespierre , much appreciated.

Norwich promoted to the PL

again

Aarons, Cantwell, Buendia and Pukki are too good for that level.

Looks like Watford will take the other automatic spot, which is meh.

Play-offs look good, though. Swansea, Brentford, Bournemouth and Barnsley. Hopefully Brentford finally come up.

it's always the same teams.

PL money makes a closed shop unfortunately. New teams just can't invest enough to breakthrough unless they're super smart about it like Brentford are.

No quadruple for City.

City made eight changes and played Rodri and Fernandinho in mid. Never see them play well when they do that.

Tuchel has made Chelsea into strong defensive unit with good counter-attacks. Very different from his usual attacking tactics.

Honestly think Chelsea might be one suitable striker and one great centre back away from being title contenders.

8 changes aside I had a feeling they'd lose. Rodri and Fernandinho double pivot never works. Ferran Torres is useless. He shows no personality and he plays like a ghost. If he hadn't scored a few tap ins the media would be on his ass so much more.

This season every time they've played the fullbacks wide they get undone on the counter. Pep needs to settle on them playing inside.

And oh my Sterling's form has dropped so much he looks like garbage out there. No confidence in him whatsoever these days. KDB got pulled out injured too, so I wonder if he'll miss the match against PSG.

Foden the only bright spot today.

That being said Tuchel has set up a good system. 3-2-4-1 gives them great positional play. Everyone's in position so the players always have passing options.

They looked great defensively. Thiago Silva is a champion. Tuchel has made an amazing impact on the team. What a coach.

Jay29 wrote:No quadruple for City.

City made eight changes and played Rodri and Fernandinho in mid. Never see them play well when they do that.

Tuchel has made Chelsea into strong defensive unit with good counter-attacks. Very different from his usual attacking tactics.

Honestly think Chelsea might be one suitable striker and one great centre back away from being title contenders.

That description doesn't do it quite justice, when really they bossed possession against Pep's City and won the ball up high many times.

Was amazed to hear the BBC pundit crew call the game 'rubbish' and 'boring' at HT, when I thought it was a suspenseful high quality contest.
I don't think in terms of quality games, it gets much better than Pep against Tuchel.

I'm just going to clarify my position. Fuck VAR. Fuck the premier league and fuck football.

VAR desperately searching for offside on Nketiah's goal.

Fulham player embellishes contact to win a pen. No way Gabriel's contact makes them go over like that, but because the ref gave the pen, it's not a "clear and obvious" error.

Football is broken at the moment.

Casciavit wrote:8 changes aside I had a feeling they'd lose. Rodri and Fernandinho double pivot never works. Ferran Torres is useless. He shows no personality and he plays like a ghost. If he hadn't scored a few tap ins the media would be on his ass so much more.

This season every time they've played the fullbacks wide they get undone on the counter. Pep needs to settle on them playing inside.

And oh my Sterling's form has dropped so much he looks like garbage out there. No confidence in him whatsoever these days. KDB got pulled out injured too, so I wonder if he'll miss the match against PSG.

Foden the only bright spot today.

Hapless_Hans wrote:

Jay29 wrote:No quadruple for City.

City made eight changes and played Rodri and Fernandinho in mid. Never see them play well when they do that.

Tuchel has made Chelsea into strong defensive unit with good counter-attacks. Very different from his usual attacking tactics.

Honestly think Chelsea might be one suitable striker and one great centre back away from being title contenders.

That description doesn't do it quite justice, when really they bossed possession against Pep's City and won the ball up high many times.

Was amazed to hear the BBC pundit crew call the game 'rubbish' and 'boring' at HT, when I thought it was a suspenseful high quality contest.
I don't think in terms of quality games, it gets much better than Pep against Tuchel.

Pep just doing too much rotation, as a result Sterling and Torres out of form. Midfield was lost after De Bruyne went out, they had nothing. Lost out to Kante and just in many areas of the pitch, the defense continues to be so poor.

Credit to Tuchel getting Chelsea this good this quickly. Still remember T.Silva was so bad under Lampard though, so not sure whats happened, I guess Lampard was just so clueless he got a lot of players to under perform? British pundits are often just bad right? Thats been the case forever

Just looking at West Ham's fixtures. They play Chelsea next which is probably the biggest game of their lives. But after that they play Burnley, Everton, Brighton, WBA and Southampton

They genuinely have a good chance of making into the CL next season. Would be quite something. I really hope they do it along with Leicester.

RealGunner wrote:Just looking at West Ham's fixtures. They play Chelsea next which is probably the biggest game of their lives. But after that they play Burnley, Everton, Brighton, WBA and Southampton

They genuinely have a good chance of making into the CL next season. Would be quite something. I really hope they do it along with Leicester.

I understand from some fans POV that sometimes one of the smaller clubs making it into the CL is good. But just for me, unless the team plays attractive football or has some stars, or at the very least u feel confident they wont be eliminated in the first round or so, I would really prefer one of the bigger teams make it instead Just so its more entertaining... although I confess just not being familiar hardly watch Westham much

I mean Westham instead of Liverpool or Chelsea in the CL would be really weird...

BarcaLearning wrote:I mean Westham instead of Liverpool or Chelsea in the CL would be really weird...

Not really. If they play better football then why not?

I loved Ajax's run in the CL and enjoyed their games the most. Same with Porto etc and other mid-tier teams. These stories is what makes football special.

If Arsenal was to be guaranteed a spot in the ESL with no prospect of relegation then no thanks, I rather watch Everton or West ham any day.

FFS ploy to dismantle LFC's season with that announcement, became all okay before the Chelsea game

Myesyats wrote:

BarcaLearning wrote:I mean Westham instead of Liverpool or Chelsea in the CL would be really weird...

Not really. If they play better football then why not?

I loved Ajax's run in the CL and enjoyed their games the most. Same with Porto etc and other mid-tier teams. These stories is what makes football special.

If Arsenal was to be guaranteed a spot in the ESL with no prospect of relegation then no thanks, I rather watch Everton or West ham any day.

If they play entertaining or better football, sure I wouldnt mind, as well as just being familiar with the team or it having a star or two thats regonisable if that makes sense. I guess fans like him that dont watch the PL that closely compared to say local fans just dont have the same familiarity or connection to have as much interest in a smaller team naturally. Otherwise its all good.

Leicester for example iirc, failed quite badly in the CL that year and essentially dont play attractive football or have star quality, and I would have preferred to have the usual more 'attractive' big team

BarcaLearning wrote:

Myesyats wrote:

BarcaLearning wrote:I mean Westham instead of Liverpool or Chelsea in the CL would be really weird...

Not really. If they play better football then why not?

I loved Ajax's run in the CL and enjoyed their games the most. Same with Porto etc and other mid-tier teams. These stories is what makes football special.

If Arsenal was to be guaranteed a spot in the ESL with no prospect of relegation then no thanks, I rather watch Everton or West ham any day.

If they play entertaining or better football, sure I wouldnt mind, as well as just being familiar with the team or it having a star or two thats regonisable if that makes sense. I guess fans like him that dont watch the PL that closely compared to say local fans just dont have the same familiarity or connection to have as much interest in a smaller team naturally. Otherwise its all good.

Leicester for example iirc, failed quite badly in the CL that year and essentially dont play attractive football or have star quality, and I would have preferred to have the usual more 'attractive' big team

WTF are you saying? Leicester won their group in the CL, and then beat Seville in 3-2 on aggregate in the last 16, and lost o Atletico in the quarter-finals.

Atalanta in the last two years was the only Italian side in the CL to play any kind of good football.

BarcaLearning wrote:

Casciavit wrote:8 changes aside I had a feeling they'd lose. Rodri and Fernandinho double pivot never works. Ferran Torres is useless. He shows no personality and he plays like a ghost. If he hadn't scored a few tap ins the media would be on his ass so much more.

This season every time they've played the fullbacks wide they get undone on the counter. Pep needs to settle on them playing inside.

And oh my Sterling's form has dropped so much he looks like garbage out there. No confidence in him whatsoever these days. KDB got pulled out injured too, so I wonder if he'll miss the match against PSG.

Foden the only bright spot today.

Hapless_Hans wrote:

Jay29 wrote:No quadruple for City.

City made eight changes and played Rodri and Fernandinho in mid. Never see them play well when they do that.

Tuchel has made Chelsea into strong defensive unit with good counter-attacks. Very different from his usual attacking tactics.

Honestly think Chelsea might be one suitable striker and one great centre back away from being title contenders.

That description doesn't do it quite justice, when really they bossed possession against Pep's City and won the ball up high many times.

Was amazed to hear the BBC pundit crew call the game 'rubbish' and 'boring' at HT, when I thought it was a suspenseful high quality contest.
I don't think in terms of quality games, it gets much better than Pep against Tuchel.

Pep just doing too much rotation, as a result Sterling and Torres out of form. Midfield was lost after De Bruyne went out, they had nothing. Lost out to Kante and just in many areas of the pitch, the defense continues to be so poor.

Credit to Tuchel getting Chelsea this good this quickly. Still remember T.Silva was so bad under Lampard though, so not sure whats happened, I guess Lampard was just so clueless he got a lot of players to under perform? British pundits are often just bad right? Thats been the case forever

T. Silva was Chelsea's most consistent performer (After Mount) under Lampard. Once he started playing regularly they became much tighter in defense, but had no idea how to build consistent cohesive attacks.

Tottenham win and that wouldn't have happened under Mou. Spurs haven't been able to come back from deficits all season (this is the first one) and Mou would have put on Sissoko for Tanguy and killed any potential comeback. Mou also wouldn't have played Bale who was probably Spurs best player and hit the equalizer.

The team still has massive problems and beating Soton means absolutely nothing, but the way they managed to fight back and win is a positive change.