"I want only after tomorrow that he (Dean) looks at the TV and the referee and the linesman see they are wrong and they say sorry. That is all I want, no more, because they were not good and made a mistake."
...sounds familiar...
"We need a referee that comes to Stamford Bridge who referees for both sides, not just for one"
HA... really – well, that is refreshing to hear from a Chelsea manager!
"Have you ever heard me speak about referees any time in the games I have been here? Never, in 15 in the Premier League, four in the Champions League, the Carling Cup, I have not said anything but today is different."
Welcome to the Premiership Luiz Felipe!
"I do not want three points, all I want is them to say sorry it was a mistake because in the first half the same linesman made a mistake against us with Salomon Kalou."
Careful – pointing out consistent 'mistakes' (see bias) and asking for an apology is dangerous talk around here...
"He is human and he can make a mistake but the offside has killed my team. I just want them to say they are wrong because I am wrong when I put some players in or the players are wrong when they make a mistake in front of goal or are not covering."
Human... really, let's check it out:
"human • adjective 1 of, relating to, or characteristic of humankind. 2 showing the better qualities of humankind, such as sensitivity."
You know I'm not so sure Mike Dean (the same Mike Dean that refereed Birmingham V Arsenal last season) is all that 'human'.
"These are all wrong but the referee is never wrong. I do not think they came here to deliberately make a mistake against us."
Tut, tut, tut - wrong again...
"It is difficult for my team to play after this because they lost their concentration. The offside killed my team."
Are you Arsenal, are you Arsenal, are you Arsenal in disguise?
ARE YOU ARSENAL IN DISGUISE?!
ARE YOU ARSENAL IN DISGUISE?!
"We lost because one goal was not a goal and it was a goal that changed the result. If we won, Arsenal would have been 13 points behind us and their championship would have been finished."
Hmm... so, let me guess this right – £1,000,000,000 is sloshing around in the Asian black markets on this match, SkyBet are pushing the Blues (and numerous multiples) and a chap officially earning circa £60,000 p/a (£33,000 plus match fees) tilts the match in favour of the bookies – not to mention the insiders who may or may not have foreseen this 'result'? Scolari is right in a sense – if you know the right people and have the right information - it doesn't take much effort to make a killing in this game.
Happily for me – I did make a killing and had a great w/e of predictions. I have (finally) gone for the Asian Handicap betting strategy this weekend (long overdue) as it seems to make sense in terms of consistency... I think I may stick to it from now on and see how much larger I can get my stack – you have to be very good to make a living off this but I reckon it's doable... you need a lump to invest though and the most important thing seems to be to make some hard rules and stick to them... if I can figure them out I will let you know - hopefully by the time I've scraped together a lump in this 'training phase' of my gambling experiment; I will be in a position to invest it wisely.
Back to the game...
...well – apart from being bent we got 3 points – but what does that mean? Arsenal once again has done the bookies a favour. I'm very confused about my team and its role in this season's spectacular – there are still things that don't add up – we had to play well to get the 3 points - RvP's second goal was amazing - but there were certain elements in the Chelsea squad that really didn't try very hard at all. I think they had one shot on target the entire game! I felt that Lampard in particular was doing us a favour by playing his 'd game' and without him they could have won.
Can Scolari not see this?
I'm absolutely sure that Wenger knows the 'state of play' from certain post match comments last season and the fact that he analytically monitors players' sabermetricly for signs of standards slipping... of which, in terms of effort, they most definitely have this season – is that down to confidence, morale or something else?
When I watch Martin O'Neil in post match interviews I can see that he really believes that his team utterly deserve the results they have been getting... it's clear to me (with the Arsenal Vs Villa game as an example) that they don't... I think that Villa are fast approaching the 'fatted calf' stage of their season and O'Neil needs to wise the fuck up and recognise this. There are other managers in the EPL who know exactly what the score is and they either let frustration get the better of them and boil over into career inadvisable Keanesque outbursts or petulance, try to beat the system with prescient management of key games or kneel down and 'do business'... I'm currently lost as to where Arsenal stands here?
I'm also beginning to wonder how people as deep in this game as they are i.e. 'Premiership Manager' level cannot see with their own eyes what is becoming more and more obvious to me? FFS - I can tell if a bent match from the radio commentary! So... it begs the question - do the commentators know or has denial become so ingrained in the industry culture that it has taken over from the truth?
Football has broken... bring on Wigan; I need some clarification!
