Villa had eight players booked for looking at theirs, Chelsea should've finished with nine or ten on the field,  but only had two of theirs booked.
Absolute shite - but we're not a "glamour" club and we're used to having our players stymied by refs for daring to compete with our "betters" 

Twice. Malouda didn't dive he just made a meal of it (which I hate btw). Kalou dived because in his defence, well, he's just quite stupid. I hate all diving and it is my belief that if a ref and his assistant is absolutely convinced a player has dived thus intending to cheat the ref and the opposition team out of a goal they shouldn't get a yellow, straight red.

Deman sorry but lol. Your players tried to kick us off the pitch and actually started scoring when they decided to play football instead. I'm still amazed you finished with 11 players on the pitch. Regardless, you got a draw and I can't say you didn't deserve it. As usual we didn't play at all till we went behind.

Terry and Drogba were having a right go at each other after the game yesterday... I suppose you could look at in a positive way in that they are showing that do care that they failed to finish with 3 points?

Drogba scored, so did Terry but  Terry went to sleep for their third. Fair cop really but yes I agree it's good they at least appear to care even if their performance suggested otherwise.

Deman sorry but lol. Your players tried to kick us off the pitch and actually started scoring when they decided to play football instead. I'm still amazed you finished with 11 players on the pitch. Regardless, you got a draw and I can't say you didn't deserve it. As usual we didn't play at all till we went behind.

Arrived at ground! Bring on Norwich!

Keep an eye on Henry Lansbury if he's playing Joe - one of our youngsters and looking better the older he gets.

Will do! It is as freezing cold as you would expect. Hope we get a decent crowd today, big queues for tickets!

Half time and just got me 3G signal back 1-1 haven't noticed Lansbury (good old fashioned labour name) but there no 9 Is doing his best to wind everyone up. Good old fashioned centre forward! Two scrappy goals!

Their!!

Hats off to Norwich for making a game of it! They came for three points and made it entertaining.

Other than watching the game on Sky myself i have now read 4 independent match reports and the BBC live updates from the match and could not see any references towards Chelsea players diving.

I'm not saying these didn't happen just because i never saw them; but it does strike me that Chelsea are singled out and labelled as cheats whereas others are not. For instance, the perception seems to be that a Chelsea player dives - but an Emile Heskey merely goes to ground a little too easily. Hence only a dive count (3) for Chelsea and seemingly none to Villa.

You really are taking this too seriously coldsweat! The point I was making involved the fact that I won money through someone cheating! Ironic Nicht wahr? I've been going to football matches for the best part of fifty years and obviously cheating isn't the sole preserve of Chelsea. There's Hartlepool as well.

I think we all have players who dive/go down to easily/make a meal of it etc - we at Arsenal are no different - but with regard to Chelsea I have to say that I first noticed the bad sportsmanship stuff when Mourinho was in charge and lay it all firmly at his door. Since he hasn't been there Chelsea are nowhere near as bad at it. Even Drogba doesn't seem to pretend someone is removing his leg with a rusty hacksaw and no anasthetic only to get up and sprint quicker than Usain Bolt with the same regularity as he used to.

Interesting that Gerrard is frequently quoted as a diver. One thing I notice a lot as a Gooner is how much the big name England players - Rooney, Gerrard, Terry etc get away with from English refs. In particular the mouthing off and acting like they are reffing the game shenanigans.

Joe - I think Lansbury may have finished his loan period at Norwich as he wasn't on their teamsheet today, will check on Twitter later

Thats the last time I bother posting on the digital spy football forums.... thick as pig sh*t

Lol what have they done Meaty? I've never been there.


I sometimes post on the Goonersworld forum, they have quite a few posters who support other clubs - we do have a Man City fan on there

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/fo...thread.php?t=1416191

Just a United fan who repeats the same crap over and over again... I know their not all like that, glad its not like that on here.

I've just read that whole thread Meaty - that guy sure is a twunt. I'd lose my rag if I was on there

Which is never advisable on DS.

He's done it again.... just keeps repeating himself

It sounds like the BTC may be coming to our league. I do hope we can return to the Premiership so that we may abuse him like that Ronaldo one.

Ah! According to R5 he's not coming. Bugger!

Not looking forward to tonight My Dad and my brothers got the train yesterday and booked into a hotel... they asked if I wanted to go and I said yes. Showed up at my Dads house yesterday and I just assumed he was paying for us all He then told me to piss off and go be an armchair fan.

Oh well... think I might stick in a bet on a 2-0 win for Arsenal, at least then its a win-win situation

That's a bit off Mr Pie.

Jo starts







We're gonna win the league!

We're not!

A goal down at Wolves already... it gets worse!

How the f*ck was Zabaleta sent off? Im glad I didnt go, we didnt even try and score a goal.

I don't feel so bad losing to the mighty Wolves. We even nearly played football at one point. Kalou one on one with the keeper. A huge gaping hole enticing him, go on, sink the ball in here you know you want to. You could have bet everything you own on him missing and you'd be quids in.

Carlo's probably on his way out now. I hope the players are proud of themselves.

Well I think I would have taken a point beforehand as long as we can win against Leeds on Saturday - at least that was the deal I made with myself!! As you do sometimes lol


City didn't have one shot on target according to the Beeb stats - how the feck we didn't score I just don't know.
Honours even Meaty


So who thinks Hodgson will still be at Anfield come the weekend?

Just listening to the phone in on 5live. They reckon it's a four way sack race with Carlo, Grant, Hodgson and Houllier
Mark Bright is doing his usual slagging off of Arsenal - banker!

I'm not sure Carlo will be sacked Veggie but you never know. We haven't been spending so if Carlo doesn't get the sack I think it will be proof Roman has lost interest.

Hodgson  has got to be gone after tonight, surely. Grant should have been shot before he ever got anywhere near a football team so he's leading a charmed life. He'll get the sack when West Ham technically can't survive i.e. when it's too late and he'll have sent two teams down to the Championship in consecutive seasons. Houllier is another joke manager but their board never supported O Neill who had them punching way above their weight so as long as they stay in the PL they'll probably take whoever they can get.

Yeah Prom, I think you're right about Roman - I think he is more interested in the Russian World Cup stuff now than Chelsea but we will see. You know, the last player that came through your youth system to any kind of regularity in your first team was John Terry - that is really shocking and the reason I think you are having problems now. If Roman doesn't buy to bulk up your bench then it'll be a long season.
Mind you, we can't bliddy score so I can't crow after tonight

You had a bad day at the office Veggie, plenty of goals in your team. We're suffering a major crisis. It might root out all the gloryhunting idiots who latched on to us when Roman first came along which is no bad thing. I'd settle for a CL place the way things are going.

It will be amazing if Man U win this title playing so badly though I'd rather see Man U or your lot get it. I'd hate to see City win it (sorry Meaty) they have so many players who I just find to be truly loathsome individuals.

The difference I think lies in the managers. There shouldn't be a lot of difference between those squads but United and Arsenal have structural bosses. Wenger always produces the entertaining team. SAF pretends to be the thickest and most curmudgeonly one but if you had a choice you might want to watch Man Utd v Arsenal every time. Chelsea and City have good players and City in particular could buy all the best players in the world, but their managers are shite. IMHYCO of course.

Joe that doesn't explain how we won the double last season. Man U and Arsenal had the same managers then, we have the same one now. We have players who aren't playing for a double-winning manager anymore. That's despicable enough but they aren't playing for the fans either. 

"You're not fit, you're not fit, you're not fit to wear the shirt". Story starts and ends there for me.

I think what I mean (and I have been drinking Ouzo while watching MOTD after avoiding the results) is that managing is a complex long term venture.

I see every single pundit out there has had a go at us for not going out and attacking... what are we supposed to do? Go out and just get hammered so it entertains the neutrals?

Well you've built a squad which stars incredibly attacking players. People will expect you to attack. You rarely do except against weaker teams. That I think is the argument and you've said it yourself on this very thread. Did you attack tonight? I'd believe you over the press (and Mancini),

The only in form attacking players at the moment who were fit for todays game were Johnson and Tevez... Milner and Jo have always been crap and don't make runs at the oppositions defense, it was only after we took Jo off for AJ that we actually made it out of our own half. Our only creative midfielder (David Silva) is injured and so is "Super Mario" (Super my arse). I have no idea what we could of done with what we had available to us...