I know it may be the TV, but has David Platt's head grown to twice the size it was in his playing career?

Mata oozes class. He is the one (and only) Chavs player I'd love to see in a Spurs shirt.

Mancini now clearly playing for a draw, especially given Clichy has gone.

Indeed, the game has been much more even since AVB put his todger back in his trousers. You can only play high against the likes of Shiteh if you have a midfield destroyer type player.

Yes.

Thats Sky HD for you,that said hes always been a big headed bar steward,ive a feeling who ever gets city next are gooner get hammered

ps Don't tell anyone, but I forgot about the game and didn't turn it on until the start of the 2nd half

Oh, you missed that great decision, from your point of view, by Clattenburg.

Mr Clattenburg, as they say, has a bit of history.

If Dogleash has any sense he won't play Bellamy in any match where Clattenburg has been named as referee.

From Wiki.

''Perhaps Clattenburg's fiercest criticism in top-flight refereeing followed his officiating of the Merseyside derby between Everton and Liverpool on 20 October 2007.[21] The first notable incident involving Clattenburg was the award of a penalty kick for an apparent professional foul by Everton's Tony Hibbert on Liverpool's Steven Gerrard. Clattenburg initially appeared to take out his yellow card to book Hibbert but after an interaction, albeit brief, with Gerrard, Clattenburg changed his mind and issued Hibbert a red card.[22] He later elected not to send off Dirk Kuyt for a waist-high lunge at Phil Neville.[23] One final controversy arose when he declined Everton's appeals for a penalty in the third minute of injury time, with the score at 1–2, when Jamie Carragher appeared to foul Joleon Lescott in the Liverpool penalty area.[24][25] Clattenburg has never since been appointed to referee an Everton match.

In December 2009, Clattenburg took charge of a tie between Bolton Wanderers and Manchester City. City personnel alleged that at half-time, Clattenburg asked members of their bench: "How do you work with Craig Bellamy all week?" In the second half that followed, he booked Bellamy twice, once for dissent and then for diving, although replays suggested he was actually fouled. City manager Mark Hughes later said: "I've seen Mark Clattenburg have a lot better games than he's had [here today]"[26] and described his decision to send off Bellamy as "laughable".[27]

Clattenburg has also encountered contempt when officiating two fixtures between Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United. In 2005 when Tottenham's Pedro Mendes had a long-range shot fumbled over the line by United goalkeeper Roy Carroll, neither Clattenburg or his assistants were in a position to award the goal. Five years later, in October 2010, he allowed to stand a United goal scored under controversial circumstances (although strictly correct under game laws) when Nani tapped the ball into the net while Spurs keeper Heurelho Gomes believed his team had a free-kick.[28]

Still...... Warnock likes him

''Clattenburg has, however, been the recipient of good feedback from some figures in his recent career. After an incident-filled game between Queens Park Rangers and Nottingham Forest in February 2011, QPR manager Neil Warnock described the official's handling of the match as "absolutely fantastic". Clattenburg issued an early red card to Forest's Radosław Majewski for a two-footed lunge on Adel Taarabt, and he also dismissed QPR appeals for a penalty when Wayne Routledge went tumbling in the box late on. Despite that, and a total of 27 fouls during the game, Warnock praised Clattenburg for being "so in control."[29][30]

 id say your secrets pretty safe

i remember putting my fist through my living room door when Mendes scored that goal and the officials decided the ball has to be at least 4ft over the line to be considered a goal

Really???? And may I ask how much you get paid for umpiring????

The top refs love playing up to the camera and being the big I am ..................trust me I have heard it first hand from a former prem ref. They get paid very well, why shouldn't they be accountable??

Ask the England 1986 squad what they think?? I could list a 1000 more incidents as well. as I am sure you could.

There is far too much money involved nowadays, Foy,Choy or Hoy whatever his name is had a mare and so did his assitants. I can understand a marginal decision but the goal that was ruled offside could be seen without a replay.

It is about time the 4th official came into play.

All IMO of course

Well the one good thing is he said last night he would hang around for the remainder of his contract (18 months). Which means self evidently, he isn't going anywhere else

Oh good God, just found out that Foy is the 4th official for the Chavs game at WHL and Webb will be the ref. I cannot think of a worse nightmare.

I sometimes wonder whether ex pro's would make better ref's having played the game

Well it's one of the few post-football career jobs that Gazza hasn't tried yet. Not sure he'd be a natural..

Well, if you think of the cricket parallels, most of the umpires on the first class panel are former county or test players.

It does at least mean that (a) you understand the game better, (b) you understand how the players are thinking and (c) you're more likely to get respect from the players (all things being equal)

Too much money in football is the problem IMO. It's time football was allowed to be a game again instead of a multi-billion pound business. All that big money has done to the game in my view is put match officials under huge pressure to get every decision they make correct, has put managers under incredible pressure to win every game and stay high up the league table or they're out the door, and totally ruin the quality of the game in the process.

At the age of 32, I'm just glad that I can just about remember back to when football was still the people's game, because I think it ceased to be that when big money came into it.

Meanwhile, guess which club has benefitted the most from dodgy refereeing decisions.

Well according to this at least.

http://www.debatabledecisions.com/tables

Look who would have been the highest climbers as a result of better refereeing? I'm happy Martin O'Neil is here but I do have huge sympathy with Bruce

LOL.  Does that mean no more bitching about referees?

As you might expect the analysis is a bit simplistic, given the example they provide.  It ignores the fact that a team will play differently if it is losing or winning.  If a goal is disallowed for offside that team will still be trying for the equaliser or win, if the goal is allowed then they will most likely play different tactics from that point.

Still, it's an interesting piece of analysis.

The table that has the most value clearly is the Decisions one, given as you say, it is impossible to pick outcomes.

Next time Tony Pulis whinges about how hard done by Stoke have been this season he can STFU.

Stoke Town Football United?

So the FA, after two months of nothing, run a three day investigation into the Suarez racism claims and then still postpone a result until next Tuesday.

I presume so his ban coincides with him being out for the Utd game.....ahem...

19,995 goals have been scored since the Premier League started in 1992...........good chance we getting goal 20,000 today