Other Games 2025-26

[Meanwood Villa]

Palace up to 4th

[cdbearsfan]

The Palace bubble doesn't seem to be bursting. Hopefully one of the red franchises comes for their manager before our next meeting (and leave Unai alone).

[Meanwood Villa]

Much rather them in the CL than the usual twats, as long as it's not at our expense

[Dave]

It'll definitely burst. They have a squad of about sixteen proper players, a quarter of whom are going to spend a month at AFCON, and are probably going to be playing four competitions longer than anyone else at the same level.

They were using nearly their full first team to lose to Cypriot team in Europe, that's nasty minutes in the legs which will be remembered in April.

[lovejoy]

No idea what that is. So no. I must admit I have seen players coached to keep arms next to their body through fear that away from the body meant it was handball and yet that one was away from the body and deemed ok. If they’re going to roll dice in decision making just make that clear.

It pretty much is clear.

touches the ball with their hand/arm when it has made their body unnaturally bigger. A player is considered to have made their body unnaturally bigger when the position of their hand/arm is not a consequence of, or justifiable by, the player’s body movement for that specific situation. By having their hand/arm in such a position, the player takes a risk of their hand/arm being hit by the ball and being penalised

In this case, and with his signals to the West Ham players, the ref had aleady seen it and deemed it accidental, so VAR didn't have much they could do at that point. The really stupid part is if Rutter had scored from that first attempt, it would have been disallowed. So Areola making a tremendous save actually cost West Ham 2 points.

That doesn’t sound clear and his arm is away from his body when he handles it so he is making himself bigger. So handball, like Cash away at Fulham in Gerrards last game, the arm was where is should be but it was away from his body.

[Somniloquism]

It is clear that there is always a risk that you could be penalised, as mentioned in the laws of the game. Barely anything in football is black and white, yes or no.

[Skipper_The_Eyechild]

I understand the handball in regards to the law. I don't understand how the overhead kick was allowed, though.

[Somniloquism]

Yep, that was more of a bad call, but again I suspect the ref decided it wasn't for whatever reason so VAR had no reason to disallow.

[lovejoy]

The high kick would have been given if the defender had collapsed in a heap holding his head. He effectively got penalised for not feigning injury. That’s the game these days.

[Somniloquism]

Pretty much has been the same for most of football. How many penalties are given for fouled players who stayed standing compared to how many who threw themselves to the floor?