Eboue's booking was wrong IMO. Evra's lifted his leg as though he's going to trip him. Eboue has gone down to evade the impact, but Evra has pulled back from completing the foul as he's already on a yellow. IMO that's still a foul because Evra has caused Eboue to go over because of his "simulation" of a foul.

From Evra's instant action I think he thought he was off. He was walking as though he knew the red card was coming. The ref then booked Eboue for diving though and Evra just walked round as though he was just on a stroll rather than walking for an early bath.

This shows the problems that refs and the authorities have to deal with with diving. Evra went in to commit the foul, but pulled out at the last second. Eboue looked as though he went over because he was bracing for impact, but he could have been buying the foul in the same way as Rooney did.

Rooney's taken Nani and Berbatov to his granny brothel tonight. They couldn't finish there either.

Stonewall penalty.


Spot on.

Shame about Torres' and especially Lucas' actions.

No reason for him to do anything different in future. He's influenced the ref and it changed the game. I sure he thinks it was a good days work.

In the knowledge that the player had already been booked and a sending off would result from another booking, I believe it had to be a certain foul for Mr Wiley to make that decision.

I don't believe anyone could honestly see it as anything more than accidental and I do believe that the players reaction has influenced the ref when he should have been stronger.

Thems the breaks though.

Your right there but just look at what happened at old trafford when Wenger was sent of in the 6th minute of extra time what was the point the officials are clueless at times it delayed the game for about a minute and a half just for the sake of 30 seconds

Errrrrm do you actually believe any of that tripe you have just written?

That's right, Evra was wrong for not getting a yellow card. Evra was wrong to pull out of a challenge and Eboue was right to play for the imaginary contact and go down. Players from now on cannot pull out of challenges, they must accept their consequences because it's not fair on the player anticipating contact

Yeah, but that's where Eboue gets booked for diving. He anticipates contact and he's already decided what he was going to do before there was any contact, much like Boruc, Evra pulled out and Eboue was made to look silly as he played for a challenge that never came. If somebody goes down due to no contact, anticipating a foul, then surely that's a booking for simulation?

I just don't believe a player can play for intent, for a simple trip like Evra's, the contact has to come before going down. If it's a wild lunge at speed, then yeah, fair play, get out of the way and go to ground, but I think Eboue looked a total t*t after anticipating something that never came.

No.

A booking for simulation should only be given when a player dives to try and win a pen/free kick/get a player booked when there was no foul.

IMO that's what Eduardo did against Celtic. He deserved to be booked.

I don't think Eboue did that. He knocked the ball past Evra, Evra made the decision to trip him, but stopped inches before impact because he knew he'd be off if he committed the foul. Eboue didn't deliberately take a dive to get Evra booked, he simply went over because Evra was in the process of tripping him and instinctively you protect yourself when you're going to hit something.



Evra only backed out from tripping Eboue up at the last moment. There was inches between Evra and Eboue.

If that's how referees are going to rule on these incidents then defenders will start throwing their legs in like that and pulling out from the foul at the last moment.

I still think the correct decision in this case would have been a free kick to Arsenal with no bookings.

IMO Eboue genuinely went to ground because he braced himself for impact. I think Rooney went in looking for a penalty and Almunia obliged him by making contact. Eduardo went in looking for a pen and dived perfectly to win the pen.

Eboue = Not guilty, Rooney = looking for a pen, given it by Almunia, Eduardo = Dived to win a pen.