Manchester City

[baitman]

Pep is hitting the bottle, his arse has gone, has aged about 10 years in 3 months.

drunken serrano face

[Exiled_red]

Just realised they have lost the same number of PL games as Man Utd

[labourRed]

In slow mo, the defender stood on Mahrez's foot at full pelt. I think it was a penalty.

It's a black and white issue FWIW. If you stand on a player's foot in the box it's a pen. Dermot Gallagher boringly pointed out that the PGMOL clarified the stance on this earlier in the season.

[fidget]

Unless it’s Sadio?

[jw54]

A little bedtime reading from Blue Moon.
Enjoy...
This match was where the game began to die for me, not particularly because of the way it was referee'd (which was exactly the standard I've come to expect against Liverpool over the last 10 years or so) but because of the statements after the game stating all the above incidents were reviewed by VAR and deemed to be correct! There's no way a professional referee could look at those decisions and say honestly that they were correct, it could maybe be justified when seen in real time but not when watched on replay on a big screen monitor. Was this statement due to corruption or were PGMOL just trying to cover their referees backs? I have no idea but making statements like this was incredibly unhelpful, I think that's been the biggest issue with the farce that this season has been. PGMOL have been constantly revising laws, misinterpreting laws, lying and generally talking cobblers when trying to justify some of the joke decisions that have been given (to most teams, not just City) this season.
The Wolves game was the one that absolutely removed all interest in the Premier League for me. I realised at the end of it that results no longer depend on the skill of the teams playing but on which team is better at falling over and feigning fouls. Ignoring the rights or wrongs of the decisions if Mahrez doesn't throw himself over dramatically then instead of a penalty it's a goal kick to Wolves. If Mendy throws himself to the ground when Traore goes through the back of him then it's a free kick to City instead of a goal to Wolves. This surely can't be right? We've seen it before this season too, Skrtel throws himself to the ground and a Palace goal is instantly wiped out, Mane feels a slight brush of contact in the Leicester box, throws himself over and it's an instant penalty, two points gifted to Liverpool.
Does this count as bent or does the way VAR is implemented in this country mean that it disproportionately rewards cheating?
For me, over the last 6 or 7 years I haven't seen a team cheat as consistently and successfully as Liverpool, not just the diving but the sly shirt pulls, raking studs down oppositions heels, time wasting, feigning injury, instigating contact for fouls, sly elbows, kicks, etc, etc. In fact I think they've taken the title as the biggest cheats the Premier League has ever seen from Arsenal back when they had players like Pires and Van Persie. It may be that's why they seem to get so much 'luck' with VAR and referees, especially after the press (mainly staffed by Liverpool cheerleaders) tried to justify their cheating (going back to the Suarez era) by coming up with the new law of the game that states 'if there's contact then he's entitled to go down'.
When players are wrestled to the ground by their neck and then the head of refereeing says it was a dive and not a penalty then it certainly makes the bent theory seem more plausible! Although they have been lying to justify their referees terrible decisions this season so who knows?
I don't watch Champions League games for this reason, there's too much 'gamesmanship' for me but this seems to be the way that the game is in this country now, its all about who the best cheat is.
I can't speak about the influence of gambling money and cartels on the Premier League as I know absolutely nothing about it but I do think that the media has a huge say in who does well in the league. Just like the way Rupert Murdoch decides who the prime minister will be the press decide who the heroes and villains will be and they have definitely cast Liverpool as the heroes over the last few years so all their 'indicrestions' on and off the pitch are ignored or glossed over, such as their stealing data, attacking coaches and fans, their players general cheating and especially their all round cowardly behaviour in their game against Everton. Does this lack of reporting influence referees? Probably in my opinion. A referee (or VAR operator, I count them as the same thing) who doesn't give a penalty for Liverpool gets slated by the press but if they give a penalty for a dive then it gets ignored or justified as there was 'contact' so the referee gets an easy life. I felt it was the same when Leicester won the league, I said to my partner at Christmas that year that now that the season was halfway through then Leicester would have to be referee'd to the same standards as the teams around them but that never happened, they continued to get 'soft' penalties and were allowed to wrestle and hold the opposition when attacking or defending set plays. No referee wanted to be accused of being the one who destroyed the fairytale when it was easier (and safer) to give a penalty for a Vardy dive.
It's the same way that the press ensure which incidents are reviewed after the fact by choosing which 'incidents' to replay constantly after a game, this of course affects which players get banned for upcoming games which helps to manipulate the league, obviously the 'heroes' can't have a player banned as they're the good guys!
Teams and certain players have been referee'd differently for some time (Ferdinand admitted this when he said that Utd players knew they could get away with more at OT than when they were away as referees were less likely to give decisions against them) and the press have played a big part in this which is why a 'classic Scholesy tackle' would be a red card for anyone else. Much like teams with less 'technically gifted' players like Burnley or Stoke are generally allowed to be more 'physical' than other teams. Does this variety in the way the laws of the game are administered mean its bent? It does for me, if you're going to have a sporting competition then the laws should be administered equally and fairly to all competitors and if they're not then by definition it's bent.
This season has felt so much worse because at the start we all hoped that VAR would redress this imbalance in the ways the laws are administered (I hoped it would at least) but it hasn't. At the start of the season we had some ridiculous decisions go against us (penalties not given, goals disallowed, players kicked all over the pitch) and watched as our only rival team was given equally ludicrous decisions in their favour ('soft' penalties, goals disallowed, violent conduct ignored). I know people have said that we haven't been playing well enough to win the league and we definitely haven't recently but how much has the implementation of VAR and the referees decisions affected our performances? We're looking at two teams that last season were separated by a point, if from the first few games one team can't buy a penalty, has a player fouled causing a game winning goal to be chalked off all while watching the rival team be gifted penalties, become impervious to being carded, have goals against them be disallowed, be allowed to handle the ball and push players over in their own box and generally get away with all round cheating which of the two teams would you expect to be playing with high morale and confidence and which team would you expect to be playing within themselves and have a visible lack of confidence?
This season has been an absolute joke in term's of consistency and fairness of refereeing and this has been made worse by the fact that the technology is there to grant ALL teams an equal playing field but it isn't being used that way. If any half decent team in the league were given the advantages and refereeing 'luck' that Liverpool have been given this season then they would be top of the league too.
Is it bent, bias, luck, paranoia? Does it need a group of people in a smoky room making plans, groups of anonymous gambling syndicates moving money to certain accounts for the game to be classed as bent? Or does it just need a lot of small things to come together in a perfect storm of internalised bias, imperfect technology, media disinformation and incompetence from the adjudicators and the ruling body? I have no idea but I've given up, I haven't enjoyed a single game of football this season since the Spurs game. The joy of a goal being scored has gone as its a case of once bitten twice shy, I have no patience watching athletes trying to get fellow professionals sent off or gain an advantage by falling over and I can no longer deal with the lies and cover ups from what is supposed to be an impartial body of professional referees. Was it worth losing the emotion felt from a goal being scored in exchange for working out if a player was (possibly) a millimetre offside or if it means Salah hasn't dived quite as much this year as last? Not for me it's not. I can no longer watch men that I hugely admire be cheated the way they have been this year.
David Silva is the best player I have ever seen, I worshipped him when he was at Valencia and when he signed for us it was one of the best days of my football life and to see his last season with us destroyed because of bias/corruption/incompetence/media influence/injuries/poor finishing is heart breaking. I'm not going to the game today, I may watch it online if I don't have anything else to do but I've given my season card away now for this year and won't be back next season. The only game I'm going to is the last home game of the year, I'm going to applaud David and thank him for giving us the best years of his career and then I'm walking away with him.

Sent from my NX591J using Tapatalk

[Yozza]

**** reading that block of text

[Buzzo]

How they can moan about ****ing anything today with their first goal.

[ChesterDave]

It's brilliant how sour they are. Of course, if officiating was so biased for us and against them the Gerrard slip doesn't matter because we went 2 nil up against them at Anfield and that's a 6 point swing. Of course, we know in reality they got an horrendous offside in their favour and it remained 1-0 which they managed to turn around.

I also love how they forget they attacked a team coach before us.

[Fivex]

**** reading that block of text

Tried and failed. Made it to the 2nd para tho!

[Norbs]

It's brilliant how sour they are. Of course, if officiating was so biased for us and against them the Gerrard slip doesn't matter because we went 2 nil up against them at Anfield and that's a 6 point swing. Of course, we know in reality they got an horrendous offside in their favour and it remained 1-0 which they managed to turn around.

I also love how they forget they attacked a team coach before us.

[Leyton388]

Bilemoon is glorious at the moment as is Redcafe and GOT.

The consistent conspiracy on all three is that our team are on PEDs and how we will go down as the team that cheated it's way to the title using PEDs and having the authority's using VAR to ensure we win the league. In the grand scheme of things our potential title win will be forgotten.

The media also know we are using PEDs and are covering it up.

[Fivex]

Would be interesting to see the points totals for positions 2-4 at this point over the last few seasons. Be surprised if the points totals were that low. It’s not like we’re beating the same few teams 5 times in 20 matches.

[ChesterDave]

Would be interesting to see the points totals for positions 2-4 at this point over the last few seasons. Be surprised if the points totals were that low. It’s not like we’re beating the same few teams 5 times in 20 matches.

https://www.kicker.de/barclays-premier-league/spieltag

Any season any match day. A wonderful resource

[Norbs]

https://www.premierleague.com/matchweek/3278/table

[Saveloy]

A little bedtime reading from Blue Moon.
Enjoy...

This match was where the game began to die for me, not particularly because of the way it was referee'd (which was exactly the standard I've come to expect against Liverpool over the last 10 years or so) but because of the statements after the game stating all the above incidents were reviewed by VAR and deemed to be correct!

There's no way a professional referee could look at those decisions and say honestly that they were correct, it could maybe be justified when seen in real time but not when watched on replay on a big screen monitor. Was this statement due to corruption or were PGMOL just trying to cover their referees backs?

I have no idea but making statements like this was incredibly unhelpful, I think that's been the biggest issue with the farce that this season has been. PGMOL have been constantly revising laws, misinterpreting laws, lying and generally talking cobblers when trying to justify some of the joke decisions that have been given (to most teams, not just City) this season.

The Wolves game was the one that absolutely removed all interest in the Premier League for me. I realised at the end of it that results no longer depend on the skill of the teams playing but on which team is better at falling over and feigning fouls.

Ignoring the rights or wrongs of the decisions if Mahrez doesn't throw himself over dramatically then instead of a penalty it's a goal kick to Wolves. If Mendy throws himself to the ground when Traore goes through the back of him then it's a free kick to City instead of a goal to Wolves. This surely can't be right?

We've seen it before this season too, Skrtel throws himself to the ground and a Palace goal is instantly wiped out, Mane feels a slight brush of contact in the Leicester box, throws himself over and it's an instant penalty, two points gifted to Liverpool.
Does this count as bent or does the way VAR is implemented in this country mean that it disproportionately rewards cheating?

For me, over the last 6 or 7 years I haven't seen a team cheat as consistently and successfully as Liverpool, not just the diving but the sly shirt pulls, raking studs down oppositions heels, time wasting, feigning injury, instigating contact for fouls, sly elbows, kicks, etc, etc.

In fact I think they've taken the title as the biggest cheats the Premier League has ever seen from Arsenal back when they had players like Pires and Van Persie. It may be that's why they seem to get so much 'luck' with VAR and referees, especially after the press (mainly staffed by Liverpool cheerleaders) tried to justify their cheating (going back to the Suarez era) by coming up with the new law of the game that states 'if there's contact then he's entitled to go down'.

When players are wrestled to the ground by their neck and then the head of refereeing says it was a dive and not a penalty then it certainly makes the bent theory seem more plausible! Although they have been lying to justify their referees terrible decisions this season so who knows?

I don't watch Champions League games for this reason, there's too much 'gamesmanship' for me but this seems to be the way that the game is in this country now, its all about who the best cheat is.

I can't speak about the influence of gambling money and cartels on the Premier League as I know absolutely nothing about it but I do think that the media has a huge say in who does well in the league.

Just like the way Rupert Murdoch decides who the prime minister will be the press decide who the heroes and villains will be and they have definitely cast Liverpool as the heroes over the last few years so all their 'indicrestions' on and off the pitch are ignored or glossed over, such as their stealing data, attacking coaches and fans, their players general cheating and especially their all round cowardly behaviour in their game against Everton.

Does this lack of reporting influence referees? Probably in my opinion. A referee (or VAR operator, I count them as the same thing) who doesn't give a penalty for Liverpool gets slated by the press but if they give a penalty for a dive then it gets ignored or justified as there was 'contact' so the referee gets an easy life.

I felt it was the same when Leicester won the league, I said to my partner at Christmas that year that now that the season was halfway through then Leicester would have to be referee'd to the same standards as the teams around them but that never happened, they continued to get 'soft' penalties and were allowed to wrestle and hold the opposition when attacking or defending set plays.

No referee wanted to be accused of being the one who destroyed the fairytale when it was easier (and safer) to give a penalty for a Vardy dive.

It's the same way that the press ensure which incidents are reviewed after the fact by choosing which 'incidents' to replay constantly after a game, this of course affects which players get banned for upcoming games which helps to manipulate the league, obviously the 'heroes' can't have a player banned as they're the good guys!

Teams and certain players have been referee'd differently for some time (Ferdinand admitted this when he said that Utd players knew they could get away with more at OT than when they were away as referees were less likely to give decisions against them) and the press have played a big part in this which is why a 'classic Scholesy tackle' would be a red card for anyone else.

Much like teams with less 'technically gifted' players like Burnley or Stoke are generally allowed to be more 'physical' than other teams. Does this variety in the way the laws of the game are administered mean its bent? It does for me, if you're going to have a sporting competition then the laws should be administered equally and fairly to all competitors and if they're not then by definition it's bent.

This season has felt so much worse because at the start we all hoped that VAR would redress this imbalance in the ways the laws are administered (I hoped it would at least) but it hasn't. At the start of the season we had some ridiculous decisions go against us (penalties not given, goals disallowed, players kicked all over the pitch) and watched as our only rival team was given equally ludicrous decisions in their favour ('soft' penalties, goals disallowed, violent conduct ignored).

I know people have said that we haven't been playing well enough to win the league and we definitely haven't recently but how much has the implementation of VAR and the referees decisions affected our performances?

We're looking at two teams that last season were separated by a point, if from the first few games one team can't buy a penalty, has a player fouled causing a game winning goal to be chalked off all while watching the rival team be gifted penalties, become impervious to being carded, have goals against them be disallowed, be allowed to handle the ball and push players over in their own box and generally get away with all round cheating which of the two teams would you expect to be playing with high morale and confidence and which team would you expect to be playing within themselves and have a visible lack of confidence?

This season has been an absolute joke in term's of consistency and fairness of refereeing and this has been made worse by the fact that the technology is there to grant ALL teams an equal playing field but it isn't being used that way. If any half decent team in the league were given the advantages and refereeing 'luck' that Liverpool have been given this season then they would be top of the league too.

Is it bent, bias, luck, paranoia? Does it need a group of people in a smoky room making plans, groups of anonymous gambling syndicates moving money to certain accounts for the game to be classed as bent?

Or does it just need a lot of small things to come together in a perfect storm of internalised bias, imperfect technology, media disinformation and incompetence from the adjudicators and the ruling body? I have no idea but I've given up, I haven't enjoyed a single game of football this season since the Spurs game.

The joy of a goal being scored has gone as its a case of once bitten twice shy, I have no patience watching athletes trying to get fellow professionals sent off or gain an advantage by falling over and I can no longer deal with the lies and cover ups from what is supposed to be an impartial body of professional referees.

Was it worth losing the emotion felt from a goal being scored in exchange for working out if a player was (possibly) a millimetre offside or if it means Salah hasn't dived quite as much this year as last? Not for me it's not. I can no longer watch men that I hugely admire be cheated the way they have been this year.

David Silva is the best player I have ever seen, I worshipped him when he was at Valencia and when he signed for us it was one of the best days of my football life and to see his last season with us destroyed because of bias/corruption/incompetence/media influence/injuries/poor finishing is heart breaking.

I'm not going to the game today, I may watch it online if I don't have anything else to do but I've given my season card away now for this year and won't be back next season. The only game I'm going to is the last home game of the year, I'm going to applaud David and thank him for giving us the best years of his career and then I'm walking away with him.

Sent from my NX591J using Tapatalk

I can't sleep. I had nothing better to do than space out that incontinent stream of ****tery. FML