Post match Villa 2 Burnley 1

[LeonW]

That arm to buendias face was awful. Was there a card?

Not even a whistle.

I thought it was a red. Fleming knew exactly what he was doing there. Probably the only thing the ref got wrong.

[ChicagoLion]

That arm to buendias face was awful. Was there a card?

Not even a whistle.

I thought it was a red. Fleming knew exactly what he was doing there. Probably the only thing the ref got wrong.

The ref was letting lots of foul play go, it just encouraged them to play dirty.

[RamboandBruno]

First 70 mins were the quietest and flattest I have seen and felt the ground for many years.
It was like the whole ground was hung over.

3 points were very welcome and although Burnley are unbelievably bad, their goal gave them some belief and they made the last 10 mins a bit more uncomfortable that they needed to be.

Mentions for Konsa who was magnificent and for Bogarde who is developing very, very nicely into a very valuable squad member.

4 in a row…..we are getting there, slowly but surely.

Disagree to be honest, I thought first half it was really good and best this season in the league, later period in second half went quieter when we were conceding possession a bit but then picked up again

[Meanwood Villa]

My take on the Buendia incident was that little Emi was attempting to foul their player, in fact I was cursing him for doing so. I haven't seen it on TV so I assume a trailing arm/elbow caught him. I can sort of understand the ref's hesitation in stopping play given the circumstances of the match and where the ball was but clearly he should have stopped it immediately if player safety is the priority, as I understand it is meant to be.

[Mister E]

That arm to buendias face was awful. Was there a card?

No card

No freekick and no card.
Flemming clearly moved his elbow towards Emi II and the ref should have had VAR adjudicate on it. Dangerous play is supposedly what VAR is there to check for.

[Somniloquism]

But they only call on what the ref "misses" so if he stated that he saw the arm hit the face, but didn't see it as a foul, then VAR will struggle to show a clear and obvious error.

What really pissed me off was he looks at Emi down holding his head and doesn't instantly blow.

[cdbearsfan]

But they only call on what the ref "misses" so if he stated that he saw the arm hit the face, but didn't see it as a foul, then VAR will struggle to show a clear and obvious error.

That isn't the rule, and never has been. Before VAR came along they used to refuse to increase suspensions for incidents which were seen by the referee, so maybe that's what you're thinking of?

[Goldenballs]

I can see why refs have been a bit more reluctant to instantly stop the game as soon as a player holds their face, because unsurprisingly players are doing it when they haven't been touched to stop the game(give a 1 game retrospective ban, or a retrospective yellow or something) But from the replay he was clearly looking at this one.

[SoccerHQ]

I actually enjoyed today which probably shows how low a bar this season generally has been.

Of course Burnley are limited and I'd be amazed if they stayed up but we started at a good tempo, two lovely Malen finishes and we should've scored far more.

Unnecessary nervy finish, think Unai messed up the subs a bit to end up with out of form and unconfident Rogers having to play CF. Missed McGinn's intensity when he was subbed.

Just happy with the three points but this feels like one of those games against bottom half last season when we should've scored three or four and came off the pitch having just won by a one goal margin so given we missed out on the main objective last season on GD that might be worth thinking about.

[Somniloquism]

But they only call on what the ref "misses" so if he stated that he saw the arm hit the face, but didn't see it as a foul, then VAR will struggle to show a clear and obvious error.

That isn't the rule, and never has been. Before VAR came along they used to refuse to increase suspensions for incidents which were seen by the referee, so maybe that's what you're thinking of?

Clear and obvious errors is what I'm referring to. With anything from VAR (in the prem), they go on what the ref tells them they saw, then see if there was something clear and obvious he missed which might affect the decision. So if he told VAR he never saw any arm swing, they might have flagged it up for him. But if he tells them he saw the arm swing and felt it wasn't anything more then a coming together because he didn't see the player deliberately look first, then they wouldn't see anything to override the ref.

[Pat McMahon]

Very annoyed at the challenge on Emi at the end. Presumably VAR looked at it and decided it was accidental?

I suspect the ref told them the arm was high but he didn't see any foul. VAR couldn't then over-rule what he told them. The fact that the ref didn't see any foul at all after booking Emi for arms high when there was nothing like that one is what is pissing most people off.

Cheers S.

As you say, probably 5 minutes earlier Buendia got a yellow for what seemed an innocuous challenge in the air. A challenge with more serious outcome on Buendia is then ignored and he allowed play to go on. The fact he had treatment for what must have been 5 minutes makes me think it was a bad one. For the ref to ignore it seems shit. Be inept by all means, but please be consistently inept.

I heard it was the ref’s first PL game which may explain some of this.

[London Villan]

We would have drawn that game last season…

[Proposition Joe]

Get back from Oktoberfest, see Villa have won. Life is good sometimes.

[PaulTheVillan]

We had to be patient at times today and I thought we did ok. One lapse of concentration made the game look closer than it was.

McGinn in the middle is so much better.

[eamonn]

"Quietest and flattest atmosphere in years"...really? Sounds like recency bias. There's been plenty of half-empty Villa Park nil-nils or defeats when we were shite with a mediocre manager and it's felt like a morgue.