Arsenal's Gervinho appeal denied; crap.

I mean if that is 3 games Song’s has to be 5-10

No reasonable person could watch what Barton did and think that he shouldn’t get penalized as well.

The FA is only creating more frustration and anger with their lack of transparency and incomprehensible decision making. This will lead to more players deciding to take action themselves rather than wait for the so called “officials.”

More violence will result, not less.

I can’t believe we’ve started another season with the same old crap from the EPL. Barton should’ve been de facto’d too, and had he been I’d shake my head but at least accept both were punished for going over the line, simple as that.

But the fact Barton gets essentially nothing boggles me then and now. I don’t believe in reputation calls, but um, maybe the guy’s history just might be a hint that Walton should pay more attention? (Oh, I forget. He does pay attention; he just possesses zero judgment.)

And now I’m ticked at myself for naively, year after year, expecting the EPL to get it together.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Arsenal’s style of play. But for five years, I’ve seen Arsenal get pushed around, get their legs broken, get screwed on penalty calls in the box (on both sides of the ball), and get screwed by the EPL’s and Champions League’s rules on yellow and red cards. After 5 years, I don’t feel like playing the victim anymore.

I’d rather see an EPL with 20 teams that played Arsenal’s style, but that isn’t the case. The EPL has established a certain level of physicality that it allows, and certain levels that it won’t allow. These are just the rules that everyone has to play by even if the rules don’t always make sense, and we don’t agree with them. Arsene Wenger, Arsenal, and Arsenal fans hold themselves to a higher standard of football, and there is a large amount of pride we can take away from that. But by doing so, we are putting ourselves at a disadvantage. We either have to accept that, or we have to adapt to the EPL rules, cuz the EPL isn’t going to change for Arsenal.

from Paul Wilson in the Guardian:

“Grabbing an opponent by his shirt front and giving him the benefit of your forthright opinion may be sailing close to the wind in terms of acceptable behaviour, but it stops short of violence.I am still not really sure what Barton did to warrant even his yellow card. It was not his place to decide that Gervinho had dived and take matters into his own hands, but try finding that offence in the rule books. It was easy to understand why he may have felt annoyed.”

Are you fucking serious, Mr. Wilson? Try grabbing someone by the collar in the street one night and see how it’s interpreted.

They did things that deserved punishment, you can’t hit players in the head, even if it’s just a gentle womanly slap, and you can’t step on players, especially with cleats. The only thing I’m infuriated about, is Walton’s decision to only give Barton a yellow. If Diaby got sent off for a shove, and Gervinho got sent off for a slap, clearly pulling somebody up by the collar off the ground and screaming at him is out of line and totally deserves a red also. Give Taylor a yellow just for being plain stupid at suggesting Barton got elbowed (what a numpty).

that we should have had a penalty for this. Or, if you’re Chris Waddle, a pelanty.

I have been helping a buddy learn more about the game and understand some of the oddities that happen. We watched the replay of this game and spent about 15 min discussing how one player would get yellow and another get red. I finally ended it the discussion saying that it would be reviewed and more than likely both players would end up on game suspensions. So glad I had faith in the “right” decision to be made in the end, only to have it thrown back in my face…