MUD STICKS

EVERTON 1 STOKE CITY FC 0

Wenger and Co knew what they were doing with their constant criticism of The Potters style.Some of the mud they were throwing would stick,and so it has, as I have said before.Referees have bought into this stereotypical view,and are officiating in the light of it.Certainly they are giving us absolutely nothing at the moment,or so it seems.

Yesterday Ref Probert ruled out a perfectly good goal by Tuncay,before Everton had scored.He judged that fullback Baines had been pushed,virtually on the line by the Turk prior to the ball trickling into the net.

To these tired eyes of mine it was clear that Baines was already on his way down in an attempt to clear the ball.Tuncay brushed past him to score.

Clearly Probert and others see these as 'after you Claude....no after you Cecil! ' situations.No physical contact (if Stoke are involved) .....its not football,players politely avoiding even minimal contact by running around each other,and to hell with scoring rough and tumble goals (which this most definitely was not).

So having been denied a legitimate goal you sort of knew that something would happen at the other end of the pitch.A ball into our box by  Pienaar was shinned by Abdy Faye as he attempted to exert some form of control, fell to Yakubu,who hit the post with his shot,fortunately got a direct rebound back,and drove the ball over Begovic into the Stoke net for the winner.

So three league defeats in a row again.We deserved more than we got against Bolton and Man Utd,and you could argue that the same could be said about this match.

Not the time to panic yet......with a rub of the green.....things will turn around again.