Wojciech Szczesny should have been sent off against Tottenham - Graham Poll

[MYU]

What a great game of football and thank goodness it wasn't spoilt by an unsporting act by Gareth Bale. Referee Mike Dean ignored players throwing themselves to ground when there was minimal contact.

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[acricketer]

Didn't touch him.

[Stedders]

Very good point at the end of the article where he says Mark Hughes should have substituted Diakate or however it is spelt. It was blindingly obvious he was going to get sent off.

Also, Factomondo's comment about black players perhaps was over the line, but maybe there is an argument that African players might have a more temperamental attitude in general than English ones? That isn't racist nor about colour as such, more about the environment they have to live in as youngsters and maybe they need to fight more for success than people in more prosperous countries. Also, all nations have different temperaments, in general. You only have to look at the difference in cricket between the very emotional Pakistani nation in comparison to Sri Lankans who are much more affable (and both are Asian and of similar 'colour'). I wish these things could be debated without the issue of racism being thrown at people genuinely wanting an intelligent debate.

[silvercue]

Bad week for...

Mark Hughes

Again saw his Queens Park Rangers team reduced to 10 men and accepted that he needs to address this issue if Rangers are to survive in the Premier League.

The only thing I didn't understand was why he didn't substitute debutant Samba Diakite. In the 32 minutes he played he was warned, cautioned, warned again and then dismissed

[Bluehoop]

You only have to watch the way the ACON was refereed to see the difference with the PL. Players like Diakite either need to learn very quickly or just accept they will not last beyond half time.

The thing about that game yesterday was the ref let things go and it made for a great game - and with 11 aside for the majority of it. The problem though, as so many of us say so often, is the total lack of consistency in games.

Had Dowd or Swarbrick been in charge of that game it would have been a different story and may have ended up as a 9 aside game.

I don't think Dowd did much wrong on Saturday by the way but I'm pretty sure he would have done things differently to how Dean did them at Emirates!!

[QPR_NW10]

Very good point at the end of the article where he says Mark Hughes should have substituted Diakate or however it is spelt. It was blindingly obvious he was going to get sent off.

Also, Factomondo's comment about black players perhaps was over the line, but maybe there is an argument that African players might have a more temperamental attitude in general than English ones? That isn't racist nor about colour as such, more about the environment they have to live in as youngsters and maybe they need to fight more for success than people in more prosperous countries. Also, all nations have different temperaments, in general. You only have to look at the difference in cricket between the very emotional Pakistani nation in comparison to Sri Lankans who are much more affable (and both are Asian and of similar 'colour'). I wish these things could be debated without the issue of racism being thrown at people genuinely wanting an intelligent debate.

that's the crucial part - nothing to do with colour as you say...but nationality or origin.
well phrased sir.

as for Bale, yes, dive. glad they got thumped - too many people forgetting how good arsenal actually are. thinking wengers lost it...come on, they're one of the best sides in europe the past 15 years.

and we only lost 1-0 to them!