By dixon9
March 5 2007

Some Arsenal players absolutely disgraced themselves and marred the Carling Cup Final. They were nothing short of graceless losers and I hope the FA throw the book at them (although I won´t hold my breath).

Mikel´s red, in my opinion,  was unjustified and I hope our appeal is successful although the FA will probably sacrifice him to appease the Arsenal suits.

 

Did referee Webb and his linesman get it right?  Were the three reds and two yellows justified?

 

 

ANGLE 1

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8QUXoafyuE

 

(1)   Mikel Obi tugs at the shirt of Toure – sometimes a yellow, sometimes not.

(2)   Toure (Arsenal captain) charges over very aggressively to Mikel and grabsand pushes him.

(3)   Mikel pushes him away in self-defence.

(4)   Lampard (Chelsea captain at this point) rushes over to keep Toure and Mikel apart.

(5)   Fabregas rushes in and grabbing Lampard around the neck, swings him out of the way and maintains his grip around his neck.

(6)   Whilst Fabregas has Lampard around the neck still, Abedayor comes in from behind Lampard and rabbit punches him twice in the back of the head.

(7)   Managers come onto the pitch and the worst appears to be over.

(8)   Lampard and Fabregas remonstrate at each other whilst Hleb maintains the gap between them.

(9)   Wayne Bridge is down in the background and then receives treatment.

(10)Referee Webb takes Mikel and Toure aside.

(11) Fabregas, Essien and Drogba appear to “make up”.  Managers appear to have left the field.

(12) Mikel receives red (presumably for pushing Toure away)

(13) Toure receives red (presumably for charging up to Mikel and grabbing hold of him)

(14) Abedayor receives red and remonstrates with the linesman (presumably, the player believed his rabbit punches to Lampard weren´t spotted).

(15) Abedayor continues to argue with the officials and refuses to leave the field of play despite the referee having indicated at least 5 times that he should go off.

(16) Fabregas finally leads Abedayor away.

(17) Lewin takes over from Fabregas in taking Abedayor off the field but then Abedayor trys to pull away from the Arsenal physio.

(18) Drogba goes over to calm him but Abedayor doesn´t want to know.

(19) Finally, Henry leads Abedayor off the pitch.

(20) Referee gives a yellow to Lampard (What for?)

(21) Referee gives a yellow to Fabregas (presumably for grabbing Lampard around the neck).

(22) Play resumes.

 

 

ANGEL 2

 

    http://www.dailymotion.com/FootballHeaven/video/2195331

 

(1)     Eboue , with the ball in his hands, goes towards Bridge at the edge of the melee.

(2)     Bridge tries to get the ball but the ball falls a few metres away as Bridge appeared to have wanted to retrieve the ball and not knock it away.

(3)     Eboue rabbit punches Bridge on the back of the neck.

(4)     Bridge shouts out.

(5)     Eboue hits Bridge again from behind whilst falling/pushing him downwards.

(6)     Bridge hits the ground and Ebuoe theatrically falls down after him!

(7)     As Ebuoe lies on the ground he has a quick look round to see who´s looking.