Tony's Fiver
1: Refereeing perfection
We give a lot of stick to officials, but Howard Webb was superb in the Manchester United-Arsenal game at Old Trafford yesterday. He called everything perfectly - refereeing display of the season.
2: Get your head on it
Pretty football will not help if you cannot get set-pieces right. Arsenal's wall did not jump for Owen Hargreaves's winning goal. That is basic - not many people take a free kick that goes under the wall, do they?
3: NHS is a wealth risk
Andriy Voronin complaining about the NHS - how tight must he be? Surely someone who is earning tens of thousands of pounds a week, for effectively warming the bench, can afford health insurance.
4: Bentley to Liverpool?
It would not surprise me if David Bentley moves to a bigger club in the summer. It is what good players do. He is a team player, which would suit Liverpool, and Rafael Benitez seems to love buying right wingers.
5 Big Jack's Big Mac
I met Jack Charlton in Rome for lunch last week because he was filming a documentary about Ireland at Italia 90 and where did he want to go? McDonald's. Great to see Big Jack, shame about the Big Mac.
Perfectly referred - 6 yellows to Arsenal compared to 2 to Utd. Van Persie booked for a foul. Brown commits the same type and gets away without a yellow. Rooney kicks out at a player on the ground then mouths back to the ref and no caution. Guess from Man Us perspective it was perfectly referreed.
Posted by: Peter Hillick | April 15, 2008 at 03:39 AM
It was a poor refereeing performance. To be fair the handball was quite hard to spot but there was many easier mistakes. Booking Van Persie for absolutely nothing comes to mind.
Even worse, Evra wasn't touched by Gilberto for Man U's free kick.
So yes apart from allowing/causing two goals that shouldn't have stood and handing out completely unjustified yellow cads he was fantastic.
Posted by: John Kimble | April 15, 2008 at 01:50 AM
"Van Persie jumped and it went over his head."
I've seen crickets jump higher than that. The bloke must've jumped about 2 inches off the ground. Too afraid of getting a ball in the face to win the Premiership.
Posted by: Sean | April 14, 2008 at 05:47 PM
Surely every game in which ManU win is 'perfectly' refereed?
Posted by: JP | April 14, 2008 at 04:50 PM
Hang on, refereeing perfection at the Man Utd - Arsenal game? Of course, all except the goal that Arsenal scored. With their hand.
Posted by: Will Teasdal | April 14, 2008 at 02:57 PM
I hope Liverpool don't buy Bentley. He's got a a similar attitude to Bellamy but less talent. We do need to get shut of the hopeless Pennant - he couldn't beat a carpet.
Posted by: Marc Melander | April 14, 2008 at 02:33 PM
1. Except for Adebayor's handballed goal, Webb was very good. But that's quite a glaring mistake.
2. Van Persie jumped and it went over his head. And Ronaldo hit one under the wall earlier this season.
Other than that, you're right.
Posted by: michael | April 14, 2008 at 02:21 PM
Eh, Adebayor's handball into the net? Called everything perfectly? Are you serious?
Posted by: Ian | April 14, 2008 at 02:16 PM