As a ref it can be easy to miss a push if players are in line to your position, however surely Marriner's assistant should have seen it.
Anyone else pick up on the commentary team's lack of knowledge of the updated laws during the 1st half? Offside given for player running back into his own half and free kick duely taken in own half cue surprise from Ian Darke, McManaman and Glenn Hoodle insisting offside shouldn't have been given...
Ha you should have heard the fans ranting around me, I was laughing at them! Clueless...
In terms of the decision, stone wall pen and RC. Once again proves that being honest gets you nowhere. So, so frustrating that Spurs score the equaliser seconds later.
As a Tottenham fan, what can I say? "It's a contact sport" .
Obviously, on a more serious note, shocking decision and Spurs got extremely lucky to get what might prove to be a critical point. That said, very surprised that the 'stamp' on Walker's ankle in the first half wasn't at least a Yellow and overall feels like payback for the recent game won for City by Ballotelli when he should have been off the pitch. What goes around, comes around .....
As a ref it can be easy to miss a push if players are in line to your position, however surely Marriner's assistant should have seen it.
Anyone else pick up on the commentary team's lack of knowledge of the updated laws during the 1st half? Offside given for player running back into his own half and free kick duely taken in own half cue surprise from Ian Darke, McManaman and Glenn Hoodle insisting offside shouldn't have been given...
As a Tottenham fan, what can I say? "It's a contact sport" .
Obviously, on a more serious note, shocking decision and Spurs got extremely lucky to get what might prove to be a critical point. That said, very surprised that the 'stamp' on Walker's ankle in the first half wasn't at least a Yellow and overall feels like payback for the recent game won for City by Ballotelli when he should have been off the pitch. What goes around, comes around .....
Professional footballer. If you can't score from 6/7 yards how can you score from 12? Clear foul, clear advantage.
The push is only just inside the 18 yard box and his shot, which is from more than 12 yards, is clearly affected by the fact he's off balance due to the push.
As an Arsenal fan I was very happy with the result of that game, and I think Marriner is one of the better premiership referees but he got that one wrong.
Why would the whistle go? If you play the advantage, you're allowed to hold off on the whistle for "a few seconds" (way longer than the time elapsed between the push and the shot, which was less than a second) to see if the advantage accrues or not. If he scores fine, if not you award the penalty.Let's flip this, whistle goes, Sterling scores, penalty is flubbed. Cue derision at not playing the advantage.
Why would the whistle go? If you play the advantage, you're allowed to hold off on the whistle for "a few seconds" (way longer than the time elapsed between the push and the shot, which was less than a second) to see if the advantage accrues or not. If he scores fine, if not you award the penalty.
I don't agree with the main thrust of your argument but I think that the idea that the opportunity was still there is interesting. There is no doubt that Sterling was fouled but a goal scoring opportunity was clearly not denied as he got a shot off, it was just made more difficult - something which Walker admitted he was trying to do.I think you misunderstand me here. I am suggesting that this was potentially a no win situation for Marriner. The situation I describe is hypothetical, but plausible. Split second decision here, penalty or advantage. Taking into account skill level (leaving out my facetiousness over salary! ) this is an elite player, the odds on him scoring there are greater IMO than him missing purely based on this level of ability. Fouled or not, the opportunity was still there.
He'd probably be booked for the dive. That was two consecutive matches where he was denied a penalty. Anyone like to venture why Otamendi got a yellow for being pushed over (and only a yellow for Deli for the push)?Unfortunately, the best thing for Sterling to do would be to take a dive without taking a shot- that way he gets an opponent sent off and a penalty - and until this is addressed then players will continue to make the most of any contact in the penalty area.
In this instance Sterling hadn't regained his balance, his shot was arguably weaker and less well directed than if he hadn't been pushed. My argument is that it is perfectly acceptable in this instance to play the advantage, see that no advantage had accrued and give the penalty (but not give a red because although it was a push rather than an attempt to play the ball it did not deny a GSO). I know a lot of referees would say that the shot was the advantage so bad luck to Sterling.Advantage is probably the greyest part of the laws and open to the greatest subjective interpretation.
On my football pitch if I play advantage and the player , who has regained balance etc, shanks it into the crowd then tough. If I have improved his a tracking potential and he doesn't take it then I am not going to pull play back to give him another go- it's not advantage in the rugby sense of the word. Would help us enormously if it was, but it isn't.