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Post by joanna on May 3, 2016 7:47:15 GMT
Wow....what a game last night, and what a triumph for underdogs! Gives hope to every club, player and fan.
One of the most exciting games I've seen....real blood and guts! Funnily enough, although Clattenburg as usual missed any number of appalling fouls and major incidents, it actually made for fabulously exciting. old-fashioned thrills. 4 or 5 Spurs players could have been sent off.
Spurs threw their chances away by focussing on foul play and intimidation, especially in the final minutes, when they should have been throwing men forward to try to get the winner. So glad that their intimidatory tactics failed and that The Foxes' refreshing approach to the season brought the result their players and manager deserved.
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Post by riochforthereebok on May 3, 2016 8:15:01 GMT
Makes me cringe when I think what Rioch & Todd could have done at the Wanderers had Rioch not joined the Gooners? Lot of similarities to the players we had back then to those on display at Leicester,
Congratulations to Leicester City.
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Post by megsontilidie on May 3, 2016 13:33:58 GMT
sorry to shoot the romantic notion down, but i don't think it gives fans of smaller clubs any hope of winning the PL. this is a total one -off. www.goal.com/en/news/1862/premier-league/2016/04/19/22573302/ranieri-only-targeting-top-10-finish-next-seasonwell done Leics and well done Ranieri, but glad to see even during the heat of the emotion, he's not getting caught up one bit. he is only targetting top 10 next season and IMO is totally right to do so. all the usual suspects, Citeh, Chelsea, man utd, Liverpool, Spurs, Arsenal..even Everton should be above them. no wonder many Arsenal fans having doubts about Wenger..managerial turmoil at the root of many club problems...Pellegrini known for a long time he'd not be around next year. Rodgers at Liverpool starting under a cloud and got the tin tack. Mourinho having massive problems. for a title winning side not to make the top 6 the following season is unreal . Van Gaal under pressure for his job almost every month. the stability and longer term planning that Wenger should have as an advantage over his other rivals just fails to materialise yet again. it's as much about this total failure of the big clubs to do their bit. even if Leics had faltered, quite staggering that Spurs would have won it and even that would be the first time for them since 1961..the days of black and white tv coverage !! hard to think of any modern day comparisons to this. Greece winning the Euro's in 2004 was similar although the bookies odds were nowhere near as long apparently. surprised comparisons to George Burleys Ipswich not been put about more. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipswich_Town_F.C.#Relegation_and_revival_under_George_Burleywww.statto.com/football/stats/england/premier-league/2000-2001back in 2000/01 Ipswich had just got promoted. they finished 5th ,qualifying for the UEFA CUP, and only being pipped for Champions Lge on the final day of the season. Burley won Manager of the year. the VERY NEXT SEASON.... relegated with 36 points ! www.statto.com/football/stats/england/premier-league/2001-2002one aspect perhaps we can draw hope from is the rise of Leicester from Admin in 2002 ( an off- field low point ) news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2349397.stm <leics in admin news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/leicester_city/2359863.stm < ex-player Heskey chips in a 6 figure sum in Oct 2002 www.ibtimes.co.uk/leicester-city-out-administration-fergusons-favourites-foxes-fans-are-dreaming-title-1552678and the on-field low point of getting relegated to the 3rd tier at the end of 2007/08. |
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Post by Trotter on May 3, 2016 14:12:23 GMT
I too enjoyed the game last night reminded me of a match between Celtic and an Italian team years ago there were studs fists and play acting all through the match, Spurs young team and young manager all lost their cool were the likes of Terry Fabregas Cahill and Co kept theirs which indeed resulted Leicester winning the Premiership and well deserved may I add by far the best team this season, well done because it will not happen again in my or your life time it is the greatest sporting achievement I have ever known.
Will this mean we will see kids wearing Leicester football shirts around Bolton instead of the red of United? (NO)
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Post by megsontilidie on May 3, 2016 14:37:51 GMT
not sure about Leics being "by far the best team ".... would agree they have deserved it. Spurs have scored more than them, and conceded fewer. they lost one crucial head to head battle. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35239695mid Jan they lost 1-0 at White hart lane to Leics, a game they were expected to win. Leics had had a poor'ish Xmas. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35289343only 1 week later Spurs went to Leics in the fa cup and comfortably won 2-0. if Spurs had won the lge game instead, its cuts Leics down from 7 pt lead to just 1 pt. and makes Leics defeats 4, compared to Spurs 3. just shows how fine the margins are. Ranieri made 9 changes. ironic that the previously called "Tinkerman" has kept such a settled side. very very lucky with injuries. as have Spurs, without Kane, i doubt Spurs would have made the top 6. |
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Post by Trotter on May 3, 2016 19:40:35 GMT
Haha megsontilidie - WHAT DO POINTS MAKE?
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Post by andyl on May 3, 2016 19:56:52 GMT
Well done Leicester and Ranieri. Re the Chelsea Spurs match I thought it was a terrific match reminsicent of games forty to fifty years ago. Unlike Joanna above I thought Mark Clattenberg had an excellent game, never for a moment conned by play- acting, letting it flow and booking at all the right moments with the possible exception of not booking and dismissing Dier right at the end before Mason got booked. Thirty years ago very few of those Spurs challenges would have led to cautions much less dismissals which were very rare. And in some ways the game then was the better for it. I noted that Pochettino gracious in defeat took a similar view
I also think the game was made all the more memorable by what for me was the standout team goal of the season, Chelsea's second. I could watch that over and over. Brilliant!
That Pocchetino, Hiddink and at one remove Ranieri were involved in that evoked an era of managerial sportsmanship which certain other celebrated managers of the past decade took perverse pleasure in obliterating. And to the list I would add Pellegrini and Klopp and maybe Bilic.It has been a memorable season at EPL level.
And well done to Burnley too. Sean Dyche has done really well
Such a shame that amidst all this our season has been such a mess. But who knows maybe we'll bounce?
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Post by joanna on May 3, 2016 21:36:48 GMT
I agree that Hazard's goal was wonderful and the match very exciting. Clattenburg, though, as we have said before, gets the important decisions wrong. I thought Rose, Walker, Lamela and Dier were very lucky to get away with blatant and repeated violent challenges. Surely there can be no excuses for Demebele's eye-gouging (of Costa!) nor for the incident where Lamela deliberately and slyly trod on Fabregas' hand. Either Clattenburg has gone blind or he was has decided to change the habits of a lifetime and chosen not to produce red cards, defying the instructions/guidelines on standards issued to all referees. 9 players booked but some deserved a straight red or a second booking. Admittedly, his sudden change of heart about following the referee's guidelines made for a thrilling game!
He is far too "hands-on" friendly with Terry for my liking.
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Post by megsontilidie on May 4, 2016 9:00:13 GMT
Haha megsontilidie - WHAT DO POINTS MAKE? sounding very defensive there Trotter. i'd already agreed they deserved it. so i wasn't arguing about that. just a nuanced point that they've not been that dominant. dominant is winning it by 15 to 20 pt's, scoring more goals, conceding fewest, more clean sheets etc etc. teams who go on to win several titles in a row or go on to win the Champions Lge very often show this kind of dominance. never quite understood anyone saying Citeh had dominated their rivals with their 2 tital wins. they've not done back to back titles and it's hardly surprising. both times they won it, they chucked it away only to be let back in by others..famously an under-strength Chelsea beating Liv'pool at Anfield with the Gerrard slip. and the first one was embarassing..almost failing to beat QPR at home who would have been relegated if we'd have beaten Stoke. yes it was "exciting"..they were seconds away from humiliating embarassment. of course the Sky hype machine tries to spin this as quality stuff. i never ever here it referred to as above. how gutting would it have been if we'd have beat Stoke only to go down 'cos Citeh couldn't beat QPR. just shows you how difficult it is to be truly great. Mourinho first 2 titles at Chelsea were very dominant. League virtually sealed up by November. only let in about 15 goals. but even they lacked the flair that Abramovich was looking for. more efficient than exciting. Pellegrini's first title at Citeh had some great football in the first half...but then they lacked the efficiency that Mourinho had..sometimes flaky away from home. so difficult even when you're spending billions to tick all the boxes. |
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Post by andyl on May 4, 2016 12:26:33 GMT
Re Monday the eye gouging and hand treading were for the linesman to see. Or the 4th official. Referee had to be focused on what he was and not to be in the melee. Re Dier I agree and Walker could have had two yellows.
It should be noted though that neither major incident was confirmed as deliberate. I'm not sure that the FA should act further? And oddly Costa didn't seem to react as strongly to eye gouging as to an earlier shirt pull..maybe that was not quite as it looked. TV pictures don't prove all..
Re Leicester of course they aren't that good but they were better at winning games and more focused -they wanted to win it. Similar to Atletico Madrid? The season has produced an antidote to tiki taka .. which can also at times be dull?
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Post by OohMac on May 4, 2016 12:52:54 GMT
Thought Clattenberg had an odd game. It was difficult no doubt but maybe he made it more difficult by being lenient which was unlike him. Most of the challenges were rough and ready and a throwback to a different era. Got no issue with them, they're not always bookings but there was so much childish, petulant behaviour which was never really nipped out and so flowed on and on.
Whats more annoying is that Clattenberg will go into the first game of next season and give someone two yellows for nothing challenges.
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Post by andyl on May 4, 2016 14:02:52 GMT
Clattenburg has a mid - low average of yellow cards issued amongst refs who have taken 20 0r more games. Mike Dean is lower and it's worth noting that they tend to get some of the hardest games.
Mike Dean is noticeably better than he once was and has spotted some really difficult handball and foul decisions. Mondays game was a bit like Howard Webb ' s World Cup Final. Both refs could have sent off two or three players and games would have been devalued. In my opinion all three are excellent referees and if at our modest level we contrast Clattenburg v Eastleigh and many championship referees there is a huge gulf in terms of clarity of communication, athleticism, accuracy of decision making. At Euro semi final level all three refs seen to date have been excellent. Commentators criticised the Torres penalty but if the first contact was outside the penalty area the right foot trip was inside- a good decision .
All referees make mistakes. In the Premier League I think that Clattenburg, Dean and Oliver make fewer than most and in terms of keeping games flowing and playing advantages they excel. Monday's game was thrilling and it kept flowing end to end . Some referees could have easily disrupted and ruined it.
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