after Chelsea game i really think more than ever that epl referees are from year to year worse?
few things which can really change the whole game.
from 2 matches i've seen so far,
Arsenal unlucky 2nd penalty/no penalty,
Koscielny red card,
Terry's handball,
Ivanovic red/goal which was maybe offside from that angle i seen.
maybe i'm wrong but referees really changing the whole game from 3 easy points it may be 0.
I'm sure you know how I sometimes feel when referee blow total bullshit against your team.
Maybe you will just say "crying arsenal fans" but karma is probably bitch, which Aston Villa maybe today felt.

Well Villa didn't do anything wrong to feel the karma in the first place, but I can see where you're coming from. RM were really hard done in the 2010-11 CL semis against Barcelona and Bayern where referee decisions cost us the final match. I won't really blame the ref for the call against Pepe (because Alves' acting was so damn good, even I was convinced at first that Pepe really DID touch him), but the one against Gomez was really obvious that it was a dive.

Now I admit Villa were unlucky in some decisions against us, but people are making it seem every decision was in our favor.

The Terry handball call shouldn't be a penalty. First of all, the Aston Villa player pushed Terry down. That should cause too things, a free kick for Chelsea and Terry uncontrollably moving his hands because he is being pushed down.

The Ivanovic "elbow". The fact is, it should be a straight red when it is intentional. But Ivanovic doesn't do it on purpose and doesn't even elbow him. He was merely trying to use his back and his muscle to get space for the ball. Plus, Benteke completely dived it, he knew there was no pain or intention. He just took the chance to get him sent off.

Plus when Aston Villa and Chelsea faced last season, Benteke INTENTIONALLY elbowed Azpilicueta and only got a yellow for it. The referee made the right calls, its the linesman that fucked up.

Looks pretty intentional to me. believe they call that a 'death chop' in Tae-kwon-do....

And.. no pain? Dude, he just got clocked in the jaw.

That's a red, mate. And I don't even have a horse in this race.

'Death chop'? Heh, I understand Ivanovic is a Serb and all but all he was doing was trying to push Benteke further away from the ball. It didn't even hit his jaw, and yet still he grabbed his face and fell as if he just got sucker punched. It was obviously unintentional (that's why it was a yellow) and Benteke made it worse by faking it.

Btw, here is Benteke intentionally elbowing Azpi last season but he only got a yellow:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xzs4mq_codazo-benteke_sport

Didn't hit his jaw? What footage are you watching, bro..? O.o

He got CLOCKED IN THE FACE BY AN ELBOW. He has every right to go down.

I could care less about what Benteke may or may not have done to Azpi last season; this was still a blatant red.

Tell me, if Benteke got hit in the jaw by Ivanovic's elbow, why the hell did he grab his whole face? I don't buy this whole thing because you could clearly see Benteke was faking any sort of pain. All Iva was doing was backing up and accidentally hit Benteke's neck which didn't do much as Benteke only got up 5 seconds later. Benteke dived it and that's all to it really. The same goes for when Iva tried a bicycle kick clearance and it "supposedly" hit Benteke's ear when infact, Benteke once again fakes it and grabs his shoulder. Benteke was just trying to get Iva off the pitch any way possible.

Yeap, anyone can see Benteke was the only one at fault here, should have been red carded for not getting out of Ivanovic's face and for holding his whole face.

In fact I say Benteke deserves an year long ban for this transgression.

^A YEAR?! THAT'S LIKE 365 DAYS!!!

Hm at least we got goal line technology

", why the hell did he grab his whole face?"

....because that's what you do when you get clocked in the face? This isn't rocket science, man... O.o

"you could clearly see Benteke was faking any sort of pain"

...which is why his whole body stops and seems to shut down, as though he's been, y'know, clocked in the jaw by an elbow? O.o

"accidentally hit Benteke's neck "

...which is apparently disguised as his jaw, because the footage clearly shows his jaw. O.o

"Benteke dived it and that's all to it really"

Ivan elbowed Benteke in the face, which should have been a red, and that's all there is to it, really.

Seriously dude, I don't know what footage you're watching, but I can't be bothered to argue about it anymore. I think, though, that you're wearing distinctly blue glasses while watching this. ;)

Peace.

I'd love to see a .gif of that...

Honestly, it seems as you are the one who is seeing a different video. The only place Ivanovic seems to hit Benteke is the neck, and that's because Benteke was right under Ivanovic. I find it very hard to believe that was intentional and this is definitely without bias. Let's look at the facts:

1) Ivanovic wasn't even focusing on Benteke, the whole time the gif plays it shows Ivanovic was looking and only up. Not knowing where Benteke would be. And you can see right before they collide, Benteke was going to ram hs shoulder on Ivanovic but by doing that he goes down a bit causing Ivanovic to accidentally aim for his head instead of pushing him aside.

2) You keep talking about his jaw being clocked when I said why is he covering his face, but obviously when you're jaw gets clocked like that you shouldn't be grabbing your whole freaking face. In fact, with the force Ivanovic is going at, Benteke's jaw should have been hurt much worse. Which leads to #3.

3) Benteke got up only seconds later. I brought this up already but you ignored it ;). Clearly when someone gets freaking elbowed in the jaw, he needs medical attention as it may as well be broken. This guy though, falls on the ground and 5 seconds later to talk with the ref. Clearly no one who gets clocked in the jaw would do such a thing?

4) It seems Benteke was just about to put his hands on his head and a second later changes his mind then falls o the ground. And of course, gets back up 5 seconds later like nothing happened (because nothing really happened and Ivanovic didn't hurt him intentionally or badly).

You can talk about how I'm wearing my 'Blue glasses' but the evidence is all there in that one gif. I understand you're done with this conversation but the way you replied to my quotes doesn't really give the full answer to why you think it's a red.

"Benteke got up only seconds later. I brought this up already but you ignored it ;)."

I ignored it because it's utterly irrelevant. Just because someone is able to get back up doesn't change the fact of what happened. It is 100% CLEAR from the gif that his elbow smashes into Benteke's jaw, and Benteke goes down.

If I were to, say, slap you around the face, and you weren't hurt, would that change the fact that I had just slapped you around the face?

Of course it wouldn't.

It's a blatant red, for a blatant dangerous foul.

I highly doubt anyone outside of the Chelsea fan club sees it differently, including the commentators.

Night.

For me there's a foul and he deserves at least the yellow, but Benteke is a good actor because Ivanovic hits his neck and not his face. Now, yes, it's a dangerous move, if Ivanovic hit his face it would clearly be a red, here, i'm not really sure it was really in the intention to hit Benteke or he just wanted to try to block him with his arm.
So, it's hard to say, I've no clear opinion about that one...

@Lodatz: But that's the point, you say Ivanovic smashed his jaw. No human would withstand an elbow to the jaw and with the force Ivanovic was using, it should be even more dangerous. Do you catch my drift now? If Ivanovic were to have really elbowed him in the jaw like you say, he would have needed serious medical. If I were to elbow you in the jaw with the force Ivanovic was using you could be seriously hurt. Benteke shows I'll say it once again, look at the force Ivanovic was going at. It would have been deadly, if intentional, but it isn't. Because first of all, I'm 100% sure that did not hit his jaw (or else it would have broke). And second, Ivanovic's elbow isn't really contracted well enough. It's a bit stretched out.

Does anyone have a gif/video of this?

@man_utd:

Here you go: http://balls.ie/football/ivanovic-elbow/

There is no way in English football that this is a Red Card. It's definitely a foul though. Some Refs may or may not even give a yellow card. It depends on what they saw at that moment.

Anyways, if you guys are arguing that this in favor of Chelsea or not and it should have been a red card. all i can say is that you guys are wasting your time and energy and you must be new to the EPL.

This things happens every season and most of the times not in Chelsea's favor and I know how frustrating that could be as a Chelsea supported. but we get over it most of the times. This or Suarez's incident last season? Where he bit Ivanovic and then scored after the end of the match and still the goal counted? Exactly.

Peace. :)

@Alex: personally, I don't much care about it. It doesn't affect me in any way.

It was, however, as blatant a red card as we're likely to see this season, anf Ivan was lucky to have been on the pitch to score that winner. That's just a fact, really.

Chelsea fans can deny it all they want, can bitch about Benteke all they want, but the fact remains that Ivanovic elbowed Benteke in the face, seemingly on purpose since it didn't help him challenge for the ball in any way, and Benteke, whether he was 'badly hurt' or not, had EVERY RIGHT to go down for it.

Why? Oh, yeah, because he was elbowed in the face. :p

Chelsea got away with one. So what? I don't much care. That's what happened, though. :)

I guess it doesn't really matter if the elbow hit his face or neck, that is a brutal and intentional foul. Straight red for me.