ooooh, well done Arsene

[Burney]

Just be grateful we got the penalty.

Riley's refusal to even acknowledge Rio's flattening of Freddie in that Old TRafford game is the most obvious example of a bent ref. It is so blatant that the force Rio uses to bundle him over even knocks himself over- nothing given, play on.

Perfect, unobstructed view as well. Quite incredible.

van Nistelrooy's out-and-out assault on Cole was pretty heinous as well iirc.

[Peter]

van Nistelrooy's out-and-out assault on Cole was pretty heinous as well iirc.

Indeed, although you can hardly blame Riley for the fact that the linesman, standing less than a yard away and looking directly at it, chose to ignore it. Although worth noting that Riley doesnt approach him or consult him in any way.

I am a little disappointed with the reaction of the Arsenal players. Sol is yards away, sees the whole thing and has a fairly relaxed moan. He should be screaming at people.

[World's End Stella]

Indeed, although you can hardly blame Riley for the fact that the linesman, standing less than a yard away and looking directly at it, chose to ignore it. Although worth noting that Riley doesnt approach him or consult him in any way.

I am a little disappointed with the reaction of the Arsenal players. Sol is yards away, sees the whole thing and has a fairly relaxed moan. He should be screaming at people.

My recollection of that was that there was an angle from behind the lino which showed the lino start to move his arms to raise his flag and then stop.

Almost as though he realized that it was a red card against ManU in a 0-0 game they were desperate to win.

[Burney]

Indeed, although you can hardly blame Riley for the fact that the linesman, standing less than a yard away and looking directly at it, chose to ignore it. Although worth noting that Riley doesnt approach him or consult him in any way.

I am a little disappointed with the reaction of the Arsenal players. Sol is yards away, sees the whole thing and has a fairly relaxed moan. He should be screaming at people.

True, actually. He should have caught van Nistelrooy by the throat. In fact, that game should have had to be abandoned due to most of our team getting sent off for kicking off about the refereeing.

[Peter]

True, actually. He should have caught van Nistelrooy by the throat. In fact, that game should have had to be abandoned due to most of our team getting sent off for kicking off about the refereeing.

There are two fouls on Reyes where Vieira is far too nice about it. Both challenges should have resulted in outright brawls.

Ok, any arsenal player talking out of turn would have been booked and any scuffle would have resulted in red cards but that would have been preferable to what actually happened. It would have made it Even clearer that Riley was not refereeing the game at all.

[Burney]

There are two fouls on Reyes where Vieira is far too nice about it. Both challenges should have resulted in outright brawls.

Ok, any arsenal player talking out of turn would have been booked and any scuffle would have resulted in red cards but that would have been preferable to what actually happened. It would have made it Even clearer that Riley was not refereeing the game at all.

I'd have preferred that. It would at least have focused attention on the fouls and the non-refereeing in the aftermath. As it was, everyone just glossed over it in favour of the 'Arsenal unbeaten run ended by United' story.

[Sir C]

There are two fouls on Reyes where Vieira is far too nice about it. Both challenges should have resulted in outright brawls.

Ok, any arsenal player talking out of turn would have been booked and any scuffle would have resulted in red cards but that would have been preferable to what actually happened. It would have made it Even clearer that Riley was not refereeing the game at all.

I still don't understand why Vieira didn't hospitalise Gary Neville with a waist-high challenge during that game. We did rather roll over and take it, I'm afraid, despite the fact that that doesn't fit the accepted narrative of early Wenger teams were warriors / later Wenger teams all gaylords.

[Burney]

I still don't understand why Vieira didn't hospitalise Gary Neville with a waist-high challenge during that game. We did rather roll over and take it, I'm afraid, despite the fact that that doesn't fit the accepted narrative of early Wenger teams were warriors / later Wenger teams all gaylords.

That's the thing about Vieira, though. For a man with a simply woeful disciplinary record, he never properly fücked anyone up. He was usually booked for soft fouls and reacting to blatant provocation rather than outright violence.

[Sir C]

That's the thing about Vieira, though. For a man with a simply woeful disciplinary record, he never properly fücked anyone up. He was usually booked for soft fouls and reacting to blatant provocation rather than outright violence.

There were things about the chap which are still hard to acknowledge. Like the Roy Keane tunnel incident when Vieira shít himself and wanted nothing moe to do with the Cork tinker.

[Peter]

I still don't understand why Vieira didn't hospitalise Gary Neville with a waist-high challenge during that game. We did rather roll over and take it, I'm afraid, despite the fact that that doesn't fit the accepted narrative of early Wenger teams were warriors / later Wenger teams all gaylords.

I assume its a reaction to what happened there the previous season. We got all the blame for the battle of old trafford and the club must have told the players to watch their behaviour. The Football reaction is to stick in plenty of fouls of your own but given Riley this wasnt possible. Every foul would have been a booking, anything resembling the challenges Neville was putting in would have been straight reds.

The same with any reaction or animated complaint to the ref.