Today's results have put Man U even more in the driving seat now. It's been said in recent weeks it's for them to lose the title, well it certainly is now with 4 home and 3 away games left and points in the bank.

Very true John !! Altho Man U in many games havent played the free flowing attacking football in previous seasons, they have become more compact and have been resilient. The strength and mentality of the squad is incredible with all the players having the will and aggression to win games.

Sneijder is again being closely linked to a move to Man U, he would certainly be a welcome and much needed addition.

Very tight at the bottom Matty !! Any team in the bottom 6 - 8 teams could go down. Villa are definitley in the mix for relegation but Bent may just score the goals to keep them up. My 3 for relegation are Wigan Wolves and Blackpool

Whilst it was a truly awful performance by Sunderland yesterday and one that should bring shame to some of those involved, some of the stuff on the message boards this morning is disgraceful. It makes me wonder who my fellow supporters are??

One guy seriously believes that Bruce is in the employment of Mike Ashley as a spy and that his job is to take Sunderland down.......

I noticed that. It was a truly awful performance though - and certainly even worse than ours against Wigan.  

So they've given Rooney a 2 game ban, stupid decision.

But children need role models and parents who don't finking swear. Oh hang on, are there any out there?

Crap decision...how many footballers will be given bans for swearing ? PC at the FA

Blackpool seem to be spiralling toward relegation. All that crap at the start of the season about how they were approaching it the right way, and fair play etc, was obviously just that - crap. They are not good enough. Mind you, punching at least two leagues above their weight they can't complain

Fair enough if they are actually going to adhere to it and implement it completely this time, not just drop it after a few games like the last effort.

You need to focus on the role model aspect and the impact on impressionable people of someone indulging in unnecessary yobbish behaviour.

Personally I would have banned him for longer.  Perhaps he will sit in the stand next to his manager and discuss expletives, poor behaviour and lack of respect for match officials?

Don't get me wrong I'm not condoning Rooney's behaviour.........it was unquestionably inappropriate, but at least be consistent   

Meanwhile, sublime skills on show. Not sure they were intended though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl-v2237nF4&NR=1

Made the unfortunate mistake of putting the TV on yesterday afternoon just as Rooney completed his hat-trick, only to be greated by a foul mouthed "in your face" rant from a clearly deluded and disfunctional reprobate that is paid the princely sum of £200,000 a week to treat us to his clearly limited and pathetic four letter word vocabulary!  What is wrong with the boy??

Compare this to Gareth Bale (I can't use a Spurs striker as I can't remember the last one I saw score a goal) who clearly enjoys his game and smiles broadly at the crowd when he scores whilst making a heart gesture with his hands to his adoring fans.  That's the difference between a true professional and a street brawler (albeit a talented one)!!

Enough is enough what with the accidental elbow in the face the other week, sitting out the rest of SAF's ban with him in the stands should do the trick.     

Okay, so I could have put it more succinctly!! Well said that man.

This has the same logic as the "If we cannot solve all the world's problems solve none" approach of some in the Libya debate in UIA.  I would book every player that swore or openly challenged a decision. Very quickly the behaviour of the players would be transformed - or we would be watching a lot of 5-a-side games.....  

Personally I would like to see referees have similar powers to those in rugby.  Question a decision and the free kick moves forward 10 yards.   Players not retreating 10 yards ditto.  As for all the unnecessary tugging and holding in the penalty area at corners and free-kicks, I would send any players involved off the pitch for 10 minutes.

FIFA is a real obstacle to sorting out some of these irritating aspects.

I understand people complaining about children hearing it but it's as if they think youngsters never hear foul language and that somehow Wayne Rooney has single handedly damaged a generation of kids. People take their children to football matches all the time and fully expect them to hear disgusting language, it's part of the game.

If the FA banned all players for this type of behaviour it would be less of a problem for me to accept it.

I do a lot of cricket umpiring.  My stance is that swear words that cannot be heard beyond the boundary (i.e. by spectators etc) are OK provided they are not directed at a player or umpire.  Swearing at anyone is not acceptable.

"Industrial language" as it is called rather quaintly is more accepted within society now but it should not be acceptable if directed at an official as that indicates dissent or lack of respect, neither of which is acceptable.

A lot of jumping on the bandwagon type discussion on here regarding the Rooney incident borne out of a hatred of Man Utd. I stand by what I said earlier in the thread that while I disapprove of Rooney's behaviour there needs to be some consistensy regarding the sanction......it appears that a number of managers and the PFA agree

For the sake of the game there needs to be rules that all participants in the game understand and that needs to be applied to every team and every player everywhere on the pitch.