At Stoke in October, Swansea boss Garry Monk said Stoke's Victor Moses should be ashamed of himself after what he believed was diving to win a penalty. "Moses should be done for diving, for cheating," said an angrily Monk after the game.
That drew a response from Stoke boss. "I actually heard him say that my player was a cheat which is unacceptable in my view," whilst Monk added: "It was an absolutely disgusting decision from the referee (Michael Oliver). He is supposed to be a professional referee a the highest level.
"He's the only guy who thought it was a penalty. Everyone in the stadium was amazed. How he can't see it is a blatant dive is beyond me."
I have to say I was surprised that Monk didn't get into trouble with the FA over his remarks, no matter how true they were, and I wonder what he would have had to say had he been at the Britannia on Saturday as Moses went down again in the box.
This time, thankfully, referee Martin Atkinson saw it for what it was and waved it away, but I'm still mystified as to how that wasn't a yellow card. Was Moses cheating? Yes, in my view he was.
Then I came home and watched Match of the Day, and in particular the Everton v West Ham game where we had even more diving. This time it was Ross Barkley and it was so farcical you wanted to laugh. Incredibly Mark Clattenburg gave Everton a free kick.
He also did nothing when West Ham's James Tomkins went down clutching his face after he'd been pushed in the chest by Kevin Mirallas. The so called pundits on Match of the Day called it embarrassing; it was worse than that. Trying to get another player sent off in that way is as low as it gets.
So well done Marouane Fellaini for his lack of reaction when Jack Wilshire sort of head butted his chest. WIlshire, who I have precious little time for, should have gone but it was good to see a player not overreacting, particularly after Tomkins at Goodison.
Anyway, to the football and it was good to get off the bottom of the league on Saturday. We did drop back to 19th when Palace beat Liverpool on Sunday but we are now very much in that group at the bottom of the league rather than looking up at it.
Chelsea have now opened up a six point lead at the top. Somehow I don't see them losing it. I saw yesterday that Southampton boss Ronald Koeman was getting his moans in at the Christmas programme. He reckons it favours the big clubs because they can cope with the demand.
I wonder how he'd have coped with our squad last season in the Championship, playing so many games and with so few players.
The league table shows the three promoted clubs are all back in the bottom three again but things could change this weekend with Leicester and QPR facing each other whilst we play host to Aston Villa who are in 16th place, just above Hull who currently occupy the last safe position.
The results and stats from the weekend are below along with the goalscorers, each club's red and yellow card count and the next fixtures.
The Results | |
Saturday 22nd November | |
ARSENAL 1 MANCHESTER UNITED 2 | MANCHESTER CITY 2 SWANSEA 1 |
CHELSEA 2 WEST BROM 0 | NEWCASTLE 1 QPR 0 |
EVERTON 2 WEST HAM 1 | STOKE 1 BURNLEY 2 |
LEICESTER 0 SUNDERLAND 0 | |
Sunday 23rd November | |
CRYSTAL PALACE 3 LIVERPOOL 1 | HULL 1 TOTTENHAM 2 |
Monday 24th November | |
ASTON VILLA 1 SOUTHAMPTON 1 |
The Stats | |
Biggest Win | CHELSEA 2-0 v WEST BROM (home) CRYSTAL PALACE 3-1 v LIVERPOOL (home) |
Total Goals Scored | 24 (14 home - 10 away) |
Player Scoring Most Goals | 2 - DANNY INGS, BURNLEY (v STOKE) |
Highest Attendance | 60,074 - ARSENAL v MANCHESTER UNITED |
Lowest Attendance | 23,561 - HULL v TOTTENHAM |
Total Yellow Cards | 36 |
Total Red Cards | 2 |
Most Cards in a Game | EVERTON v WEST HAM (5Y) Ref: MARK CLATTENBURG HULL v TOTTENHAM (4Y 1R) Ref: CRAIG PAWSON LEICESTER v SUNDERLAND (5Y) Ref: BOBBY MADLEY NEWCASTLE v QPR (5Y) Ref: CHRIS FOY |
Leading Goalscorers (League Only) | |
12 | SERGIO AGUERO (MANCHESTER CITY) - includes 2 penalties |
11 | DIEGO COSTA (CHELSEA) |
8 | ALEXIS SANCHEZ (ARSENAL) |
7 | SAIDO BERAHINO (WEST BROM) - includes 3 penalties |
6 | CHARLIE AUSTIN (QPR) NACAR CHADLI (TOTTENHAM) GRAZIANO PELLE (SOUTHAMPTON) |
5 | WILFRIED BONY (SWANSEA) - includes 1 penalty ROMELU LUKAKU (EVERTON) DIAFRA SAKHO (WEST HAM) LEONARDO ULLOA (LEICESTER) - includes 1 penalty |
4 | PAPISS CISSE (NEWCASTLE) MOHAMED DIAME (HULL) CHRISTIAN ERIKSON (TOTTENHAM) STEVEN FLETCHER (SUNDERLAND) EDEN HAZARD (CHELSEA) - includes 2 penalties MILE JEDINAK (CRYSTAL PALACE) - includes 2 penalties NIKICA JELAVIC (HULL) STEVEN NAISMITH (EVERTON) WAYNE ROONEY (MANCHESTER UNITED) |
Hat Tricks | |
Date | Player & Game |
13/09/14 | 3: DIEGO COSTA - CHELSEA v SWANSEA (home) |
18/10/14 | 4: SERGIO AGUERO - MANCHESTER CITY v TOTTENHAM (home) |
Disciplinary Record (League and Cup) | |||||||||
Club | Y | R | Y | R | Club | Y | R | Y | R |
League | Total | League | Total | ||||||
ARSENAL | 31 | 0 | 33 | 0 | MANCHESTER UNITED | 21 | 3 | 23 | 3 |
ASTON VILLA | 23 | 1 | 23 | 1 | NEWCASTLE | 23 | 1 | 26 | 2 |
BURNLEY | 25 | 0 | 25 | 0 | QPR | 17 | 0 | 19 | 0 |
CHELSEA | 27 | 2 | 27 | 2 | SOUTHAMPTON | 16 | 0 | 22 | 0 |
CRYSTAL PALACE | 21 | 3 | 21 | 3 | STOKE | 27 | 0 | 31 | 0 |
EVERTON | 22 | 0 | 23 | 0 | SUNDERLAND | 28 | 0 | 32 | 0 |
HULL | 25 | 2 | 26 | 2 | SWANSEA | 25 | 3 | 28 | 3 |
LEICESTER | 17 | 0 | 18 | 0 | TOTTENHAM | 22 | 3 | 22 | 3 |
LIVERPOOL | 26 | 0 | 27 | 0 | WEST BROM | 19 | 1 | 20 | 1 |
MANCHESTER CITY | 28 | 1 | 29 | 1 | WEST HAM | 24 | 1 | 24 | 1 |
The Next Fixtures | |
Saturday 29th November | |
BURNLEY v ASTON VILLA | SUNDERLAND v CHELSEA (17:30) |
LIVERPOOL v STOKE | SWANSEA v CRYSTAL PALACE |
MANCHESTER UNITED v HULL | WEST BROM v ARSENAL (12:45) |
QPR v LEICESTER | WEST HAM v NEWCASTLE |
Sunday 30th November | |
SOUTHAMPTON v MANCHESTER CITY (13:30) | TOTTENHAM V EVERTON (16:00) |