Arsenal vs Chelsea

[Jacob Walukiewicz]

A few talking points in this game, wondering what people thought of the red card and the penalty shout for chelsea where Koscielny completely wiped out a Chelsea player.
Any thoughts?

 

[Charlie Jones]

it looks as if Mertsaker didn't touch Costa - but really? why would you even give the guy the opportunity?

 

[MatthewC]

Difficult to tell, but it looks to me as though he did make contact. Either way, what on earth is Mertesacker doing sliding in like that?! Easy sell for Clattenberg, it's a red all day. Koscielny incident looked like a nailed on pen to me - it's a clear body check, no effort to play the ball.

 

[Mooseybaby]

Minimal contact and Costa made a 3 course meal of it, but still a foul. Mertesacker made no effort to play the ball and was only interested in stopping Costa at any cost. Tad bizarre that he seemed to look away and check for offside just before he was about to make the challenge.

Koscielny on Fabregas, penalty all day long! Mark Clattenburg appeared to have a good view as well. Matic "challenge" on Sanchez a short while later was almost identical, which he received a yellow card.

 

[Russell Jones]

As we all know, trying to read players' thought processes is tricky at the best of times. But if I was a betting man, I'd reckon Mertesacker was quickly checking if there was a covering defender before he made the risky tackle. If he thought there was one and so went ahead with the tackle ... he was wrong

 

[MatthewC]

As we all know, trying to read players' thought processes is tricky at the best of times. But if I was a betting man, I'd reckon Mertesacker was quickly checking if there was a covering defender before he made the risky tackle. If he thought there was one and so went ahead with the tackle ... he was wrong

It was either that or he'd committed into the challenge, realised he was going to take him out and was hoping for a flag from the assistant. Looked to me like he'd made the (poor) decision to go for the challenge before he looks back

 

[Tealeaf]

the penalty shout for chelsea where Koscielny completely wiped out a Chelsea player.
Any thoughts?

Thanks to the benefit of slo-mo reverse angle replays I was able to offer to the people I watched with an example of 'crossing'. At the moment of the charge by Koscielny, another player (possibly Monreal) enters the eye line, effectively screening the challenge from view. It's a split second thing but can be critical.