Quite right, Freddie scored double digit league goals twice. 2001/2002 and 2004/2005Originally Posted by SWv2
Robert, on the other hand achieved this three times. And a season with 9.
Still, Freddie was a fine player. And subject to one of Riley's most ridicules piece of refereeing ever.
“Other clubs never came into my thoughts once I knew Arsenal wanted to sign me.”
Ferdinand?
exactly...
“Other clubs never came into my thoughts once I knew Arsenal wanted to sign me.”
To be fair, its up against some pretty stiff competition in that one game alone.
I still cant quite believe he gave that penalty...not just because it was a very, very obvious dive but also because even if there had been contact there is no way on earth he could have seen it as it was on the blind side of him. His linesman would have had a perfect view of it and said nothing- then again, this is the same linesman that was two yards away from Van Nistlerooy stamping his studs down Cole's shin and remarkably managed to completely miss that even though it was inches from where he was looking.
The Ljungberg and Cole incidents were the clearest of the reddest, red cards. Both not even resulting in a booking, of course. Ridicules. Riley? ****.
“Other clubs never came into my thoughts once I knew Arsenal wanted to sign me.”
The clearest proof that the whole thing was bent was that united's entire game plan was based on Riley doing exactly what he did.
People will happily tell you these days that united were simply muscling us out of the game because we don't like it up them. This completely ignores the fact that that Arsenal side were a handful and were not the sort to be intimidated.
The truth is unted's game plan was based on kicking us as hard and as often as possible to disrupt the game, injure players and hopefully to get us to retaliate, knowing full well that their players would not get punished whatever they did (see Neville, Rio, van nistelrooy) whereas if a single Arsenal player had reacted badly they would have been sent off.
United constructed their entire game plan on the ref giving them everything they wanted. That is a hell of a risk unless you KNOW you can rely on it.
Dunno. If players see a referee isn't going to punish them to commit fouls, it will embolden them to commit more and worse fouls. I think United got that sense after a couple of the early 'reducers' on JAR went unpunished and it got worse from there. Equally, linesmen will take their lead from the ref.
In short, I don't believe the game was bent because 'cui bono?' I do, however, believe that Riley was biased (consciously or unconsciously) against Arsenal and refereed accordingly. Still disgraceful, but not 'bent' in the sense of there being a conspiracy.
What I did find extraordinary, though, was the determination of the media to largely ignore the appalling refereeing of such a big game. I can only conclude that this was because they realised most of their audience (and football more widely) wanted Arsenal to lose and so they didn't want to question the legitimacy of that result by pointing out that it was probably the most dreadfully biased and incompetent refereeing display in the history of the Premier League.
different linesman imo
Northern Monkey ... who can't upload a bleeding Avatar
ah yes, you are c React. So they were both bent then
That is 3 out of 3- full house.
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