'Mildly cretinous'

We look a decent PL team now. The recruitment in the summer looks outstanding. The centre halves are an immense pairing who kept us in this game (Milenkovic is an absolute steal) despite Brighton dominating for large parts of it. The options on the bench mean the manager can make game changing substitutions. It's all looking rather good.

As for the refereeing, I thought the second yellow was completely fair, MGW went over the ball into the player and that has been a straight red for some. I didn't think it was a penalty for us or a free kick for their second, but the speed of the game makes those tricky for referees.

Also my feeling in the moment, i.e. that's a dicey challenge on a yellow card. I think if it had been a Brighton player against us, we wouldn't be debating now how unjust the red card was.

I feel seen.
And also disappointed. Great that we got a point but I wanted us to play better.
But also watching the team at the top of the table defend with everyone in their 18 yard box.

conflicted

It’s a clear yellow. ‘Got the ball’ hasn’t been a mitigation for years. But it was a dreadful piece of refereeing to stride over making clear that he didn’t think it was a foul, and then taking the fourth official’s view. He’s a poor ref and the fact he somehow bumbled his way to the right decision there doesn’t change that.

5 live said he picked up a knock

It was a yellow but he wasn't going to give it untill he bowed to pressure from the opposition bench. And that's shit refereeing

Makes sense as he’d been extremely solid to that point.

I think what we want in a keeper is someone as good as Henderson or Keylor Navas. A rare case of that being an area our recruit was superior in in that first season. They weren't perfect either but they didn't noticeably make a lot of errors, and they certainly commanded their space well and with confidence. We need a keeper who has the charisma and kickers of Brice, do the beast mop-ups of Sels, has the gamesmanship of Keylor Navas, the sell on mark-up of Vlachodimos and the err (not to leave him out) good egg sense of humour of Turner.

Or he thought from his angle he got the ball but then the fourth official said no he didn't, he went over it.

So can the 4th official overrule the ref? Or at least tell him he's wrong and advise him to reconsider? I assume so but don't know - FWIW, I thought it was a daft tackle on a yellow but the ref was adamant he got the ball

I don't honestly know, but if he sees a clear error should he? As ever it depends whether it affects our team or the opposition, which is part of the problem.

A 4th official cannot influence on field decisions. That is not his job but it’s Anthony Taylor so why would we be surprised. Cheating baldy cunt.

Chicago: showing extreme hair prejudice.

Straightforwardly untrue. This from the athletic:

According to the FA’s guidance, a fourth official’s job during the game is to “assist the referee at all times”. That guidance further states that the fourth official should assist with the “match control”, though the primary responsibility for this remains with the referee. Referees are expected to, however, seek assistance from the fourth official on “match-changing incidents which have been missed by the other three match officials and which are clearly visible to the fourth official, which includes red and yellow card offences”.

I seem to remember the 4th official got involved when we played at Brum years ago, resulting in a late Brum penalty winner for an Assombalonga hand ball, which he got sent off for,