But it was a foul. He was definitely clipped.
Premier League Gameweek 29
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
Fair enough. I've forgotten what title paranoia feels like these past few years.
Are you in charge of VAR today?
You should know, your team is full of players that dive/fool, but they never get yellow for it. Precious.
Fred was clearly fouled! He should have reacted more angrily towards the ref. That's the only thing that works these days. The way De Gea conceded while being clearly fouled by Calvert-Lewin one match and barely reacted and in the next match, he reacted as if he had been kicked in the head when Van Dijk fairly challenged him shortly before our goal. Only one of those goals was disallowed.... 
It was 100% guaranteed before kickoff.
That was a clear penalty. VAR should show their desire to make up for mistakes by ordering a penalty to Utd as first kick of second half.
One of those win win daysYou guys are preferring us over City?
Not sure why Liverpool fans don't care who wins.
Utd win, more chance of us getting to CL.
City win, Liverpool need 3 wins to win league.
Surely you lot not supporting Utd?
And why would this matter to us?
Hell yeah I want Utd to win. We need the title before they decide all the matches will be played behind closed doors.
Your actual trophy lift will be your last home game no matter what though, so if anything you should hope to get it out of the way early.
Ole's done the treble again!!
Yes get the feck in!!!
Absorbing game to watch. About time Man. United turned up v Man. City at OT considering they do well at Etihad often.
Thought after a strong opening 10 minutes Man City were a touch slow/off in final third (Sterling is having one of those moments currently....). Man. United capitalised and were very good either side of half time up to last twenty when it was backs to the wall.
The usual tight VAR decisions aswell with the offsides although Fred one should've been overturned as he was clearly kicked.
Thought after a strong opening 10 minutes Man City were a touch slow/off in final third (Sterling is having one of those moments currently....). Man. United capitalised and were very good either side of half time up to last twenty when it was backs to the wall.
The usual tight VAR decisions aswell with the offsides although Fred one should've been overturned as he was clearly kicked.
Oles at the wheel
Thanks guys. Is that 6 points taken off City this season? Great stuff.
Better team won today and won quite comfortably. Zero complaints, Ole completely outwitted Pep by changing nothing and letting Pep shoot himself in the foot with his stupid midfield. He'll come out and say "We played well, deserved something" whilst its clear playing his statues in midfield saw us embarrassed by United today. Credit to United and Ole. Wanted it more and were tactically better.
Didn't see the game today but happy to read that. I'm convinced Ole is not the guy to make Utd relevant again so this false sense of security, if you can call it that, is a good thing imo.
I meant "we can't".
I'm not sure he's the right man for United but the way he plays is tailor made for beating Pep teams.
No as Chelsea with their squad should be finishing 4th at least and not relying on United to slip up. United finished 6th last season and weren't favourites to finish 4th this season let's not forget.
We beat Chelsea twice home and away yet still trail them by five points. It’s infuriating
Was that still the case after the first game?
Think Chelsea have been like Leicester, outstanding form up to xmas and then things have levelled off since then and they're as inconsistant as the rest. Will see if all those points they picked up in first half of the season will be enough to get them over the line.
3 points.. 5 behind Leicester though they have a game in hand
Micah Richards struggling to hide his bitterness in MOTD.
Oh yes three points. Let’s claw them back!
They don't have Uniteds inconsistent level though. Beating the top teams in the league. United keeping this current consistent run going would level things off.
If villa win tomorrow, 3rd and 4th look interesting
Chelsea have been very inconsistant at home, lost to West Ham, Bournemouth and Southampton in last three months.
Chelsea lost their best player and were unable to sign anyone due to transfer ban in the summer and signed no-one in January either. We have to heavily rely on a group of youngsters who only last season played in Championship and we are having a horrible luck with injuries.
United spent a fortune in the summer, added two more players in January and their fans are still moaning about the quality and depth of their squad.
My point is a different type of inconsistent as they haven't been able to take points off the top teams in this division as frequent as United have. And I have lost count to the amount of times United have slipped up directly after Chelsea dropped points.
It was still a top 4 squad and Frank opted to go with youth more than experience. United needed all of those signings and still need more before becoming a established top 4 team once more. 9 players let go since Ole arrived and only 5 brought in if you include the loan signing.
Wouldn't argue with your last sentence.
Ultimately it's a perfect storm season where pretty much everyone below the league winners and Leicester are in some sort of flux. 15/16 was like this so you get one of those seasons every 5 years.
One regret must not be not signing Bruno Fernandes in the summer. Obviously couldn't have foreseen losing Pogba for pretty much all the season back in August but look at the spark he's given you and that's what teams who want to challenge for leagues do as we've seen with Liverpool's signings over last two years.
I personally thought 3rd was very flattering season for Chelsea last year. They didn't even finish the league season that strongly.
Lampard's done alright there given they've been top 4 for most of it. Getting soundly beaten by Bayern Munich probably shows the long way they have to go to be serious contenders in CL again though.
Man. United did finish 11 points clear of Chelsea just two years ago.
It was a top four squad because it had Hazard in it. Without him, it's a totally different story.
And Frank didn't opt to go with youth, he was forced to. He was probably more inclined to trust the youth than previous Chelsea managers but it was the difficult circumstances that made him use the youth as much as he did. He'd have been more than happy to upgrade the team in the summer like his rivals did.
Look at their options and then look at the options after the first eleven at Leicester, Spurs, United or Arsenal. Chelsea have the best squad of players in the league bar City. They have a far better bench than Liverpool even.
They are maybe lacking that special player in the final third like Hazard, but they have Pulisic, Pedro, Willian, Hudson Odoi and have played Barkley there too. They have 3 good striking options. They have two good full backs at either side and about 5 good centre back options. Their midfield is full of good passers and technically excellent players and they have the best ball winning midfielder in the league.
It is a disadvantage to not have a transfer window pre season, but it has been completely overblown. It is far and away a top 4 squad and anything less than that would be a failure on his part.
Kepa's been having a shocker of a season. It got to the point that he had to make way for the 38-year old Caballero. We don't have a single world class centreback, they're either too soft (Christensen), too poor on the ball (Zouma, Rudiger) or too young and prone to mistakes (Tomori), and they're all inconsistent. Our fullbacks are either too young and raw (James), ineffective going forward (Azpilicueta), poor defensively(Alonso) or generally crap (Emerson).
Central midfield looks good on paper, but he best ball winning midfielder you;'ve mentioned has missed a large chunk of the season through injuries and is currently out. Kovacic is out injured too, Jorginho's suspended and Loftus-Cheek has been out since last spring and is yet to kick a ball this season. Barkley was a laughinstock here on the Caf when he was signed and to date has been for the most part disappointing for Chelsea.
3 good striking options? Abraham played in the Championship last season and is currently out injured. Giroud was fourth choice at Arsenal when he was sold and that was two years ago, he's on his last legs. Batshuayi is rubbish.
Pulisic and Hudson Odoi have great potential but they have been out injured for quite some time now. Pedro and Willian even in ther prime were never top class, they were role players at top clubs and now they're in their 30s and are long past it. I'm fairly confident Pedro wouldn't be around if it wasn't for the transfer embargo.
Really? Let's imagine United haven't signed anyone between the end of last season and now and see how much of a disanvatage that is. Before the start of the season most here expected Chelsea to finish closer to midtable. Now when they're overachieving, suddenly it's a failure if they miss out on a top four.